Book Review Friday: Death in Salem

Death in Salem: The Private Lives Behind the 1692 Witch Hunt
By Diane E. Foulds

I'm a history buff and a descendant of Rebecca Nurse, one of the unfortunate victims hung for witchcraft in Salem in 1692, so I've read a lot of books about the trials.  Death in Salem: The Private Lives Behind the 1692 Witch Hunt by Diane E. Foulds is an interesting addition to the canon.  Instead of focusing on the various theories on the whys and wherefores of the trials, Ms. Foulds' book offers short biographical sketches of everyone involved covering the stresses, personalities, and politics of life in a harsh and sometimes hostile environment.  Complete with an index and bibliography, this is a good resource for students, historians, and genealogists.

Historical Archives online ... WooHoo

Check out this amazing database available from the National Archives.  Founders Online is still in beta, just launched last week on 13 June 2013.  It comprises over 100,000 searchable documents.  The correspondence and other writings of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams (and family), Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.

There are no stupid questions

Patron: May I ask you a question?
Librarian: Of course, what may I do for you?
Patron: Can you tell me who wrote Bram Stoker's Dracula?
       pause
Librarian:  Bram Stoker.  Would you like me to check to see if we have a copy available?

It was very awkward.

What do you do?  How do you help someone save face?  It happens almost everyday.  Someone can't find a book on the shelf and when they follow you back to the stacks you find it instantly ... right where it belongs.  Or they can't find the start button on the copier.  Or ...

I have several stock responses.  "Oh, it happens to everyone."  "Sometimes it just takes a second pair of eyes."  I want people to be comfortable coming to the desk.  But if they're embarrassed once, will they come back?  And how do we prevent it? 

The end of Reference?

I visited a local library yesterday that has done away with its Reference collection.   The books are gone, the space has been repurposed.  There is a small ready reference collection behind the Information desk.  I noticed several copies of the most popular college guides in the circulating non-fiction collection.  I hope some of their other reference works have also been moved to circulating non-fiction.  There is a print encyclopedia in a corner of the YA department.  The head of Adult Reference explained that she felt the collection was unused and therefore unnecessary.

I wonder.

The Reference collection is the most underused collection in the library.  But does that mean it is unnecessary?  I don't think so.  I think it is time to re-think the Reference collection.

To that end I did a little (very little) research and found this blog post from Brian Herzog, the Swiss Army Librarian (cool library blog), about the overhaul he gave the reference collection in his library in Massachusetts. In brief, they weeded the heck out of the collection, moved many of the single volume books into circulating non-fiction, and converted the remaining reference collection into small, free-standing, easily accessible subject collections.  The circulating reference is 7-day, non-renewable, and non-requestable (by other libraries). They converted the space into three 8x8 quiet study rooms.

I like it.

I like that there's still a Reference collection.  If we dump the entire collection aren't we throwing up our hands and saying 'Google wins'?  I like the fact that Herzog recognized that patrons want more access to the books not less.  Is it scary to let a big, expensive reference book walk out under the arm of a teenager?  Absolutely.  But isn't it scarier to let that kid go home thinking the library is a pain in the butt and it's easier to find his answers on Google?

I think it's time to reintroduce our patrons to the Reference collection.  Tell them what we've got.  Show them how it can help.  It's time for a little good old fashioned marketing.  Maybe some subject heading signs next to the Dewey numbers.  Maybe a display of some eye-catching Reference.  Could we make the first 5 photocopies free if its a Reference Book?  And maybe, just maybe it's time to let them check a few of our babies out.