Libraries haven’t always put “a passion for reading” at the top of their requirements for new employees. Determining a candi- date’s ability to inspire readers to find their next great read is as important as knowing whether or not they can effectively conduct the reference interview. “What’s your favourite book and why would I enjoy it?” allows candidates to identify their reading interests and share their selling skills with you. “Name five bestselling authors you would recommend to customers” should be easily handled by someone applying to work in a fic- tion department. “Talk about a recent book that might appeal to our business community” should be handled easily by some- one looking to work with a specialized collection.    In addition to aiding customers in readers’ advisory, an avid reader can also inspire the team to discover their passion for books.

As a tech-savvy modern librarian, I am always looking for better ways to understand, organize, and present information to a broad audience. Collaboration is key to my current job in the marketing department of Toronto Public Library, and I love finding new tools to help complete the task at hand. I am unabashedly a lover of technology. I was thrilled for an opportunity to test out Google Wave when it first came out last fall and can now say that I am a lover of that, as well!

Libraries can stay relevant to their users by strategically riding the wave of societal trends. As a library director I spend a great deal of time searching out ways to keep my library relevant in today’s fast-changing environment. I’ve found that one method to do this is to keep myself current about societal trends and to strategise regularly about how my library might ride the wave of those trends to better serve the needs of the library’s users. This article explains the process that I go through to do this. It doesn’t take long, it is invariably interesting, and I’ve consistently found that it produces results. As you work, keep in mind that your primary goal is to identify trends and evaluate them for implications they might have for your library. That will help keep you focused among the myriad of fascinating ideas that you will discover.

Special libraries by their very nature tend to be small and financially challenged. As material and subscription costs continue to outpace budgets, special libraries have realized that they must work together if they are to continue delivering superior service to their patrons. An excellent and time-proven example of a successful partnership is that of the medical libraries in the Greater Toronto Area, who 20 years ago had the foresight to establish the Health Science Information Consortium of Toronto (HSICT). Among the many benefits of this association is the opportunity to share resources, which in this case goes beyond materials sharing and taps into the wealth of knowledge and experience of all members’ combined staff.

A key component of a proactive readers’ advisory service is the promotion of reading suggestions. Sounds simple enough. Just tell readers about good books and let the reading begin. However, increasingly readers spend their browsing time online, and much of their library “visit” time is now virtual. Sure, they stop by to check out materials for their reading, listening, or viewing pleasure, but they aren’t browsing like they did even just a few years ago.

If you’ve been paying attention to the sizeable slate of library-related events across North America over the past few years, you’ve probably seen various iterations of library “unconferences” (also variously referred to as camps, barCamps, and podCamps). To gain insight into what these events are, how they work, and why we should care, I interviewed Canadian unconference pioneer, Amy Buckland. Buckland has been involved in no fewer than five unconferences over the past two years and she graciously volunteered to be interviewed for this column to demystify the world of camps and unconferences.

Evolution is a slow and passive process, but eventually the quickest and most effective survive. My own technological expertise has gradually evolved. I am definitely not an early adopter; I still don’t text, Facebook, or upload to web 2.0. When or if I need to, I will adopt those technologies. Meantime, like many of our students, I am a passive consumer, waiting until the most user-friendly products have emerged from the primordial sludge.

As we age and as the population of those without access to a primary care physician grows, the public library, in conjunction with the internet, is increasingly a place where the public seeks medical information. Are we up to date in what we have to offer these patrons?
Critically assessing any part of a library collection can be daunting.

In an article in American Libraries, Walt Crawford argued that libraries need to pay more attention to the 80 percent of our collections that are less used. He argued that libraries not only need to give users what they want, but should also focus on giving users what they need. The challenge for readers’ advisors is that readers don’t always know what it is they want or need.

Children regularly consult the web for information to support both educational and leisure activities, and despite problems in strategy construction and in orthography, their favourite search engine (Google) typically finds something of interest. Nevertheless, a Google search is not without problems for young users. The information may be unsuitable in content and/or language, or it may be irrelevant, especially when the search term is a homonym. Furthermore, children typically are reluctant to explore results beyond the first screen, and the brief summaries of pages provided by Google often are unhelpful in facilitating relevance decisions. This raises questions about the best way to design a search engine (or portal, as we prefer to call it) for children.