Wisconsin Library Stories

"Librarians? Aren’t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons — the ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.” "

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"With more than 25,000 librarians pouring into town for the convention of the American Library Association (June 2007), now is the time to ask a not-so-random Random Friday Question: In a world in which every home computer provides access to more information than used to exist in your friendly neighborhood library, exactly what is the function of a library now?"

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In most communities, the decision to build a new library revolves around questions of design, access and its effect on taxpayers. But in the city of Fitchburg and village of Cottage Grove, organizers are concerned with an even more basic element: The books. Unlike communities looking to expand or build new branches, the two Dane County communities have no libraries at all.

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No matter how they've evolved, whether as buildings or online, the core mission of every library is everlasting — to provide timely information in a customer-friendly format.

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A Madison bibliophile has left a large share of his estate, nearly $1 million, to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries to benefit its Friends organization.

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