The Community Library is Open! It’s just the sidewalk that is temporarily closed.

Please excuse the repairs being made to the sidewalk on Spruce Avenue–the ramp to the main entrance is still open, as is the main library for all regular hours.  Also, please be careful while navigating the construction area.  We hope to have the steps open very soon.  The Children’s Library entrance is also open until 6:00 pm.

This last Tuesday the library hosted a visit from the Magic Valley Library Association, a meeting of professional librarians from towns around the region (also known to us as ‘the Pros!’)  The MVLA meetings are an excellent opportunity to share ideas about the challenges and changing landscapes in LibraryLand around the state and across the country.  The topics this meeting included favorite librarian websites.  Aside from the usual suspect websites (databases, news feeds and the Library Journal) librarians venture widely around the web.  LibraryThing gives readers a virtual library home for their own collection, where they can organize their favorites, rate and review books, and share their interests with other readers.  FantasticFiction is a site in the United Kingdom that charts new authors, new releases and literary awards.  It’s a good place to find out what is on the horizon in popular fiction.

A new startup company in Boise is pioneering a new way to cross-reference books you like with books that you may enjoy by other authors.  BookLamp just went online recently with it’s new search algorithm, matching titles and authors by linking their literary DNA.  The shiny new interface is intriguing, if still in it’s very early stages of development.  Some of the results can be surprising.  It is a platform in progress–as more books are added, more DNA strands will develop.