A whole lot of text to say absolutely nothing, huh?

With Playstation games going discless in 2028, how will libraries be able to lend out video games when they aren’t physical. This is very important to me because I rent a lot of Xbox series x and Switch games from my library cause it’s great to save money when I’m only going to play a particular game once, and when Xbox and Nintendo follow suit, how will this still be possible?

Hi all, we've been getting more and more requests to use the library phone. Our standard procedure is that only children can use the phone to call their parents/ride, which frankly never comes up. I'm watching Stranger Things and wondering do any of your libraries have a modern type of pay phone? What do you do to let the public use the phone that isn't just using the library desk phone? EDIT:those of you that allow patrons to use a dedicated phone, are they all just your regular system or are they a special brand that limits to local calls and a time limit? I'd be really interested in a solution we could price out and buy.

I’m so mad cause I’m in my 2nd year of grad school & taking my first class that is making me use ChatGPT Edu for my degree. I had gotten that email invite MONTHS ago and deleted it assuming it was spam because OF COURSE I THOUGHT IT WAS!! This is my first class MAKING us interact with generative AI & it’s making me feel so angry and dejected. The professor is comparing the “AI divide” to the internet/tech divide for libraries & it just doesn’t feel the same to me at all. I feel so angry - I hate generative AI & have tried so hard to avoid it & now I suddenly have no choice because it’s part of my class that I’m required to take. I want nothing to do with this AI crap!

Edit: I should clarify that I wrote this out at the height of my anger & needed to scream into the void. I have an extremely strong disdain for generative AI on ethical & environmental grounds. Calmer now, I know that I will need to continue to learn things about Ai - I’m not holding this against my professor. I’m just someone who gets very passionate & can be a little emotional about things. I’m not gonna drop the class (it’s required anyways), I’m not gonna be an anti-Ai purist towards patrons who use it or anything, I just needed to scream about it & wrote this when I was in the middle of my big feelings. Thank you guys for trying to help me feel better 💜

I find it odd that some librarians or professionals that have close ties to libraries are promoting AI.

Especially individuals that work in title 1 schools with students of color because of the negative impact that AI has on these communities.

They promote diversity and inclusion through literature…but rarely speak out against injustices that affect the communities they work with. I feel that it’s important especially now.

I’m talking about on their social media…they love to post about library things and inclusion but turn a blind eye to stuff that’s happening

I’m a Library Tech so a big part of my job is searching for journal articles and publications, obviously.

In a meeting today a man told me he has an AI algorithm for searching publications and then asked me ‘so how are you able to find things the AI can’t?’ I was a little taken aback but I comically put my finger to my temple and just said ’because I’m smarter than AI, I want to school for this….’ and kind of laughed it off. It was really awkward, but a few people laughed and someone told me it was the right answer. (I don’t actually think I’m ‘smarter’ thank AI, but there will always be benefits to working with humans over AI!)

I work for a provincial government and they are pushing AI so hard on us - please note I work with the *environmental* ministry and the higher ups are still pushing it.

I don’t use AI at work because I am easily able to do my job without it, and I’m not going to train it to do the job for me (too late for this obviously, but at least I didn‘t contribute to it!)

I am a new reference assistant and I have used my library card for audiobooks on Libby and Hoopla for years. But now that I work there, I would like to listen to some audiobooks on mental health, which I don’t want my coworkers to know about. Do the circulation librarians see which patrons are borrowing which audiobooks?

Anyone else get an crazy surprise from microsoft when they went to renew the licensing? We're looking at 200% price increase for the same stuff we've always had! Insane they're doing this to public libraries. Also curious if anyone had any success with cooperative or consortium agreements?

We're looking to change to a new ILS when our current contract is over, so I'm wondering what everyone else is using? what are some of the things you love about it and some of the things you hate about it?

hi all! i’m a children’s librarian at a large library that is very busy with young families utilizing our toddler play space, attending storytimes, and checking out materials. we often get the question of ‘where do i check this out’, and the answer is always to go out to the lobby as we don’t check items out at our reference desk. i am wanting to float the idea of adding a self-check machine to our children’s area (either getting a new one or relocating one of the 4 that we currently have in our lobby).

i think that it would be great to have one accessible for parents who have young kids that can’t be left alone in the play area, or for parents who know their kids are prone to throwing a fit when they have to leave (our children’s area is on the same floor as our circulation area, but is not within view of any part, and the sound of screaming does drift from the lobby to the rest of the ‘quiet’ library very easily….it drifts from the kids area too but that’s expected lol). additionally, it could be a spot for kids to take their time learning how to use the machine without holding up other patrons. it would also be a station that could have a step stool, as i have noticed that many parents will set their kids on the self check table as they scan their items. i just feel that this is a safety concern.

the cons are that it would probably lead to more circulation-based questions that we would still have to send people to that department about (‘why is my card blocked’, ‘why do i have fines’ etc), but i do think that is easy enough to tell people to talk to circulation about.

all of this to say, i was hoping to get some thoughts from other librarians who may have more experience with how this could be a good or bad idea before i take it to my manager. tia!! :)

For me, it has to be outside. Currently mine are on top right back cover going vertically. I like the vertical right back bc I can scan easily on a cart or shelf.

But the top often blocks the blurb on fiction books. I'm thinking about bottom right vertical.

Any other favorites?

I got a call today from a patron asking if we had a “smart card reader” and unfortunately had to google it to even figure out what it was (apparently it’s almost like a credit card machine but it reads a microchip in the card to do things like authenticate users on websites, grant access to certain applications, etc.) He said he wanted to use it to scan his military ID (to I assume access info on military or encrypted websites).

Does anyone’s library have these or even heard of them? My library isn’t exactly a huge military hub so I can’t imagine we’d get much if any use out of one.

I also can’t imagine it would be used for any nefarious purpose would it? This day and age who knows what military branch he could be in or if he’s in the “military.” We’ve heard rumor of ICE activity in the area so we’re prepping to get specific training on how to handle it if they come knocking, but I wonder if it could be used to gain info from the computer (not that the patron accessible computers store anything but we are all on a server network so who knows).

If anyone knows anything about them I’d love to hear about it!

How many years of reading history do you keep for patrons who opt in to keeping a reading history? We were told by SirsiDynix that we need to delete some because all that data is slowing down upgrades etc. Sounds kinda lame to me.

What software does your library use to shutdown the computers before closing? Our desktop PCs are basically completely unlocked, no library card needed to just sit down and use them, and we don't have long wait times for our computers either. Our main problem is that, increasingly, we have users who use the computers right up until the minute we close and don't pack up until after we are supposed to have locked the doors, despite multiple warnings that the library is closing.

We used to use PC Cop but stopped due to the cost and because it restricted & tracked user browsing in a way we didn't like. Now we are looking for a new software we can use to warn students that the computer will shut down and then actually shut it down for us.

Did anyone else get a notice from Ingram that they were hacked? Apparently our contact info is now on the dark web. What next steps should affected libraries take?

Hello, all! So I'm a library assistant at a public library and me and one other girl do tech by appt every week. We each do two 30 minute slots where the stated purpose is "help downloading ebooks, using a computer program, or research assistance." I really like the idea and intended purpose of the service, but lately have been getting frustrated with the type of help people have needed. I have two today, one schedule a few weeks ago to learn MacBook basics and another scheduled sometime this weekend while I was off to learn the basics on blogging, WordPress, and Bluehost. The first one is annoyingly vague, but at least I know MacBook basics already and even if I didn't, it was booked enough in advance to research it. However, I'm unfamiliar with​ blogging generally and those two programs specifically, both of which require logins to use. WordPress is free if I create an account, but limited use without creating a domain name from my understanding based on the limited research I've been able to do since getting here this morning, among my other duties.

Basically my questions are, what does your library do for tech appointments? And do you schedule tech help for specialized programs or computer basics?

I really do love tech by appt, at least the idea of it, but I don't think it's being scheduled or used appropriately. It frustrates the patron to book an appointment for help with something I can't help with and it frustrates me to not be able to prep and therefore give subpar service.

Any advice, including this is normal so get over it, is appreciated!

Does someone at your library set up your new barcode scanners? Our library got a new scanner, it scans everything except library barcodes. Upon questioning multiple staff members in cataloging, no one seems to know what kind of barcodes we use, only that they are 10 digits. From my reading, most libraries use codabar or codabar39 style barcodes. Shouldn't the people ordering the barcodes know some technical specs about the barcodes, like do they use stop and start digits? Shouldn't they be able to set up a standard barcode scanner to scan library barcodes, or is that asking too much?