What once was the “staff picks” section of new books shelf is no more. Somewhere along the way, either a patron or a staff member noticed how staff picks were done in other libraries and in some bookstores (or what are left of bookstores) and we found something we like better. Staff members were asked what colour they wanted and then given several sheets of stickers of the identified colour with their name added. I have sheets of beautiful yellow stickers and there are green stickers and blue stickers — any other bright colour we could find. We then went around the library putting our stickers on items we enjoyed and think others may, too.
Some items have crossed boundaries and have more than one staff sticker. I think Terry Pratchett would be one of these authors, along with the Doc Martin series of DVDs and Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series in the young adult section of the library. A notice of the change has been put up where the staff picks were formerly located.
I have to admit, I didn’t see it coming, at least not this quickly, but DVDs are on their way out. It was only a week or two ago we heard the only video store left in Kelowna was Leo’s, a small independent and wonderful little outlet far away from the strip malls of the highway. The implications to libraries didn’t really occur to me until today when I heard a news report on NPR’s Morning Edition discussing the changes to YouTube and the rapid growth of new networks using YouTube and other digital platforms. You can now watch movies or, to be more precise, pay to watch movies on YouTube. I have been watching television online for some time now — Rick Mercer Report, The Daily Show and Big Bang Theory, among others — and understand the shift to digital but what I didn’t foresee, and of course it had to happen, was the inevitability that DVDs will go the way of videos, tapes and, soon, CDs.
Everything we have in our DVD collection will be available for view online. What will keep DVDs in our library at least for the next little while is that everything will be available online but for a price. There is also a border that exists not only a few miles south, but on our Internet. It is not only unbelievable, it is almost impenetrable. Unless a program or movie is broadcast through a Canadian company and you are on this side of the border, just about everything else is unavailable to us. This is far more an obstacle to us than a price on movies online. In the meantime we will keep purchasing those British series as they become available in Canada and most of the series requests that come in from patrons.
On that same note and to end, the Kindle and the newest model, the Kindle Fire are still not Canadian library friendly. Due to licensing, you cannot use the Kindle or the newest Kindle Fire to download an ebook in any library in Canada.
Ann Day is the chief librarian at the Creston and District Public Library.