• Suggestion Box – Ask them to buy a book that you would like to read but they don’t have.
• Nearby Schools – For each branch library the web site lists the nearby schools.
• Events & Programs – What a vast improvement to the events page. On the old site it seemed near impossible to figure out what was going on. Now it’s easy to browse all the events going on at the different branches.
• Random Great Stuff – Recommendations, popular searches, recent arrivals, NYT bestsellers

It just keeps getting better and better.

P.S. I’m blind. Right on the front page there is a box highlighting the CPL blog Beyond Words, and right next to that is a big fat RSS icon. I wasn’t wearing my glasses when I first took a look at the site (I don’t wear glasses) so that’s how I missed it. I’m going to subscribe right now.

I hope CPL is listening.

She really had the kids attention right from the beginning and they all seemed to be enjoying it. Katie would read a picture book and intersperse it with finger plays, action activities and sing alongs. It was a good mix of activities because it kept the kids from zoning out and then would draw them back in when it was time for more focused attention. It was really nicely done.

The one critique that I would make is that it was too long. The entire program was 40 minutes and at about the 35 minute mark the kids really started to get restless. It wasn’t too crazy but you could tell that the program was running too long.

All in all it was a great activity and I would recommend it to anybody with young children. It would make a great morning activity, you could take the train down, go to the program, eat lunch and then take the train home (that is if it doesn’t interfere with nap time). The programs are at 11:00am and are supposed to run about 40 minutes. At some point I’m going to bring my own children down but I’ll wait until I can get the Mommy to come with me so I don’t have to wrestle the kids on my own.

For more information you can look at the Thomas Hughes Children’s Library Calendar of Events.

1. Photo by Paytonc

The Chicago Public Library will launch a completely redesigned website in conjunction with the 2006 introduction of our new Integrated Library System. We envision that chicagopubliclibrary.org will be our “virtual branch library” for accessing the rich and varied resources available online through CPL….
The redesigned website will offer an improved online catalog of the Library’s collections (including a children’s catalog), enhanced patron services, general information about the Library, programs and events, increased digital journals and collections, reference assistance and links to additional Internet resources.

I can’t wait. The current CPL site drives me crazy. The site feels like 1995. I emailed CPL asking about the new ILS and this is the response that I received.

The vendor working on our new ILS is TLC (The Library Corporation).

Both the ILS and our newly designed website will debut this spring.

The current ILS was designed by CARL and was implemented in 1995. (I knew it)

Our new ILS will offer library users more convenience and will include online patron-placed holds, online renewal and telephone renewal.

Additionally, patrons will have more options when searching the CPL catalog. The Chicago Public Library has spent a great deal of time researching patron’s needs and the features that will be provided are in response to what our users tell us they want. The result will be a robust, dynamic system.

Thank you for your interest.

Greta Bever
Assistant Commissioner

I received the email in mid February of this year. Spring has come and gone. I hope we see the new site soon.

Next time I go to my local branch I think I’m going to suggest that.

The library has passes to all the major museums:
• The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
• The Art Institute of Chicago
• The Brookfield Zoo
• The Chicago Children’s Museum
• The Chicago History Museum
• The Dusable Museum of African American History
• The Field Museum
• The McCormic Tribune Freedom Museum
• The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum
• The Museum of Contemporary Art
• The Museum of Science and Industry
• The Notebaert Nature Museum
• The John G. Shedd Aquarium

The passes are good for 5 people (adults or children) and can be checked out for 1 week. Late fees are $1 per day (with a $10 max). I’ve been told by librarians that each library has 5 passes for each museum. Be warned, if you lose the pass it is a $30 fine on your card and it takes the library 1 month to get a replacement.

The Great Kids site is a little confusing. They list Museums in the Park which includes most of the museums in the list above. They also include The Chicago Public Library. I spoke to a librarian on the phone about this and I was told that there are no passes for CPL (because it’s free anyway) and that there are no additional passes for Museums in the Park, just the passes they have for the individual museums. The librarian I spoke to was a little confused about that also.

Maybe I shouldn’t be blogging about this. Now it will be harder than ever for my wife to get the passes she wants.

Library Elf can then send you an email or RSS feed or an email AND rss feed letting you know that your books are due in 2 or 3 days or if you have any books on hold.

There was a discussion going on over at the library law blog about the privacy issues raised by using this service. It seems that the RSS feeds are not password protected and people using bloglines (and other rss services?) ran the risk of their library record feed showing up in a public search. The problem seems to have been sort-of fixed but it’s still something to keep in mind when using a service like this.

It should be noted that Library ELF is not affiliated with CPL. They just figured out how to get the data on your library card (I’m guessing) through the same mechanism that gives you your information when you obtain your records through the CPL provided page. It’s great to see 3rd party services expanding and improving our library service for free! Honestly, I’d be willing to pay for an expanded service like this.

On the privacy issue… If somebody wants to see my records that’s just fine. I use librarything to keep track of all the books that I’ve read and anybody can look at that. I really don’t care all that much. If somebody else is concerned about their privacy then they don’t have to participate in a service like this. More power to them. I’m a pretty big believer that the idea of privacy as we know it is over.

I’m a Mac user.

Okay. I’m going to state the obvious. Macs are a very small portion of the home computer ecology. I can’t expect everybody to create applications that support Macs when there really is very little market for it. I absolutely support that idea. I was disappointed that I can’t download audio books to listen to on my computer, but I can live with that.

Here’s what really bothers me. iPods dominate the audio market. (source, source, source) Chicago Public Library has bought into a service that basically locks out iPod users which happen to be a majority of the audio playback market. Now even if somebody has an iPod they could still be a Windows user and therefore listen to the audio book on their Windows machine but I really doubt that. I don’t have any data to back me up but I’m willing to bet that most people that listen to audio books are listening to them while they are doing something else like driving, exercising, commuting to work, etc. They are probably not just sitting in front of their computer. CPL has bought into an audio book download service that probably locks out a majority of the people that would download an audio book and listen to it. It would be nice if CPL and other libraries that use this service demanded compatibility with all audio playback devices (mp3 players and the like) so that ALL their patrons could use this fantastic service. (By the way, I am not an iPod owner.)

There is a rumor that Apple might be opening up their Fairplay DRM a bit for licensed vendors, so maybe Overdrive will be able to support iPods at some point in the future.

One thing that I should clear up is that I do not support checking out materials from the library and ripping them to your computer. I was taken to task for that at another blog and the other writer is absolutely right. My purpose for using the audiobook was for an author presentation I was giving in a class I was taking. Please correct me if I’m wrong but as far as I understand it, it is within my fair use right to incorporate 30 seconds or 10% of an audio clip (whichever is less) in any multimedia presentation that I create. So if I checked out an audio book on CD (with no DRM) and ripped a portion (according to fair use guidelines) to my computer to place in a powerpoint, that’s okay. With Overdrive DRM, (I can’t use this because I own a mac) I can’t do this because according to the DMCA circumventing DRM is illegal (and windows users that I have talked to about this know of several different ways to possibly circumvent this DRM). I understand that CPL wants to expand service to their patrons, but it shouldn’t necessarily be at the cost of fair use.

Then again, you could always just check out the CD and rip it to your computer, then you can use it anywhere and anyhow you want.

P.S.
I didn’t realize it, but some audio books from Overdrive can be burned to CD but others cannot. It depends on the wishes of the publisher.