Downtown Pensacola Library staff ready for grand-opening of expanded facility

hallmarkgrad wrote:http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-LIBRARY-CARD-CATALOG-STYLE-TV-ENTERTAINMENT-CABINET-MEDIA-CENTER-STAND-/281032010423?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D230869679473%26ps%3D54

I like it!

Yella wrote:

Nekochan wrote:Rock Garden? There is a rock garden in the library?

Yep,Neko, its about 8'x8' area filled with smooth oval stones that have been in a lapidary of some sort. It is like a Zen garden. It is impressive. I have no complaint about it.

Sounds very nice.

There was nothing...nothing better than a trip to the library when my children were little. It was a trip of discovery...and nothing beat the experience of holding one of them in my lap, poring over a bright cover, turning glossy pages, reading crisp consonants, unraveling a tale in thick accents punctuated with gasps and ahas! Running fingers along tall spines with little taped numbers, spinning a globe only to discover the marvels of place or heaving a giant encyclopedia onto a wide flat table where we would all lean over and learn about lemurs or the marvels of whirling pulsars. While one would listen to a story on CD and follow along with the words with a chubby finger, the other would be in stout chair digging through kits on rocks and minerals...books, rocks, photos, magnifying glasses.

To this day I can enrapt even the wildest of young readers...give me a book an area rug and windowed corner and I will take listeners places only limited by their young and soaring imaginations. I can make words sing and I can make illustrations dance off a page.

Give me a library and I will give you the keys to the universe.

hallmarkgrad wrote:We should have quit building libraries and post offices ten years ago.


Does that also include libraries in institutes of higher learning? Or just public Libraries? Just wondering.

Have you been in a large law firms offices lately? Do any of the attorney use those books or their on line services.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE books and I have many of them. Some are leather bound classics some of which I'm sure I've read more than a dozen times. Moby Dick has probably been most read. It is like an old friend I can go to when times may be difficult. No Kindle or computer screen will ever take the place of the feel and fragrance of an old classic.

Tell that to anyone under 25 or 30 and they'll laugh at you.

Forty years from now, where are the photographs you took a year ago going to be? Are you going to be moving and you find those old albums. You see your dad as a young man holding you as an infant. They'll be long gone on some forgotten format and a long junked computer.

BirdyBack wrote:

Markle wrote:We should have quit building libraries and post offices ten years ago.

Benjamin Franklin is rolling in his grave.

Most likely about a lot of things.

Benjamin Franklin
November 27-29 1766

“I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, I observed in different countries that the more public provision were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And on the contrary, the less was done for them the more they did for themselves and became richer.”

2seaoat wrote:My position is one of experience. Beautiful and functional libraries can be designed with the emphasis on digital without losing some of the illustrations found in certain books. However, Steinbeck's or Hemingway's books work quite well on digital formats. I dare anybody to got to a public library a peruse through the stacks......90 percent of the books are taking space and have not been checked out in five years. We design the space of a new library for those books.....that is bone chilling stupid. To suggest that my proposal and criticism somehow would diminish a library is wrong....I simply have been vocally against large library buildings......My experience is that the overhead costs eventually cut back hours and staffing. No we need a new paradigm for both the post office and libraries, and anybody who thinks otherwise, or wants to romanticize the stacks of unused books and the 7 million dollar warehouse for 50k feet......well they simply do not realize where the cuts are going to happen.......we are racing to fall over the cliff, and the scale of new libraries, and the functionality of the same would make Carnegy happy......but this is not 1900.

Mark your calendar, we agree on something.

We had several decades of economic growth with huge growth, and tax revenues the first decade of 2010. Our city fathers saw a magnificent opportunity to assure their re-election and immortalize themselves with a beautiful bronze plaque inside a magnificent new building.

Soleil wrote:There was nothing...nothing better than a trip to the library when my children were little. It was a trip of discovery...and nothing beat the experience of holding one of them in my lap, poring over a bright cover, turning glossy pages, reading crisp consonants, unraveling a tale in thick accents punctuated with gasps and ahas! Running fingers along tall spines with little taped numbers, spinning a globe only to discover the marvels of place or heaving a giant encyclopedia onto a wide flat table where we would all lean over and learn about lemurs or the marvels of whirling pulsars. While one would listen to a story on CD and follow along with the words with a chubby finger, the other would be in stout chair digging through kits on rocks and minerals...books, rocks, photos, magnifying glasses.

To this day I can enrapt even the wildest of young readers...give me a book an area rug and windowed corner and I will take listeners places only limited by their young and soaring imaginations. I can make words sing and I can make illustrations dance off a page.

Give me a library and I will give you the keys to the universe.

And those under 30 are chuckling under their breath and carrying the library on their I-Pad or whatever.

My grandfather drove a milk wagon when he first came to this country. It was in Chicago and it was a horse drawn milk wagon. We don't have those any more either but we do have milk.

UWF should close their 4 story library and refund the students moneys for providing such a antiquated service.


From UWF
How can I get my tuition money's worth from the library?
In academic year 2010-2011 (August 2010 to May 2011), a full time student paid about $517 of their tuition to support the UWF Libraries. We have assigned values (see the calculations used in a .pdf document below table) for ten of our most-used services to help you "take advantage" of the University Libraries this academic year:

Soleil wrote:There was nothing...nothing better than a trip to the library when my children were little. It was a trip of discovery...and nothing beat the experience of holding one of them in my lap, poring over a bright cover, turning glossy pages, reading crisp consonants, unraveling a tale in thick accents punctuated with gasps and ahas! Running fingers along tall spines with little taped numbers, spinning a globe only to discover the marvels of place or heaving a giant encyclopedia onto a wide flat table where we would all lean over and learn about lemurs or the marvels of whirling pulsars. While one would listen to a story on CD and follow along with the words with a chubby finger, the other would be in stout chair digging through kits on rocks and minerals...books, rocks, photos, magnifying glasses.

To this day I can enrapt even the wildest of young readers...give me a book an area rug and windowed corner and I will take listeners places only limited by their young and soaring imaginations. I can make words sing and I can make illustrations dance off a page.

Give me a library and I will give you the keys to the universe.

Beautiful post, Soleil!

For me, it is question of what are our plans for the future of the city. Yesterday I experienced power and excitement as many different factions came together to try to move the city/county forward. It was a awesome experience. It made even people like me, a bitter cynic of the path that our leaders have chosen, to mellow out and want to be part of a progressive endeavor..
for the first time in many years, I am very proud to be a Pensacolian. This is the part of Pensacola that I used to know. Good people doing things for other good people
This forum is a good place. MR Oats and Mr Markle comments have caused me to a take a pro active role in the future of my city.

I know what you mean, Georgie Boy. I may ridicule SeaOat and Markle, but I agree with them to a point. We don't need a gold-plated edifice that immortalizes largesse.

But a library with books will never go out of style... I hope!

---

Markle mentioned pictures. I have all my pictures (and my data) on 5 backup hard drives... almost 10,000 of them. I don't trust CDs or DVDs for archive purposes. Lasers burn pits in dye on the burnable disks and they are notoriously unreliable. Curiously, the ones we buy are pressed like an old phonograph record and, properly archived, will last hundreds of years.

---

Useless trivia... In the early 1970's, when I attended the University of West Florida, I rode my bike everywhere. The John C. Pace Library was located on a hill near the center of the campus (as it was then, anyway). I could coast on my bike to almost every building on campus from the library.

Nekochan wrote:

Yella wrote:

Nekochan wrote:Rock Garden? There is a rock garden in the library?

Yep,Neko, its about 8'x8' area filled with smooth oval stones that have been in a lapidary of some sort. It is like a Zen garden. It is impressive. I have no complaint about it.

Sounds very nice.

I was hoping they might set a large stone with a kanji symbol, meaning knowledge but alas, there is a different mind set there in charge. They put a plastic pelican in it instead.

hallmarkgrad wrote:UWF should close their 4 story library and refund the students moneys for providing such a antiquated service.


From UWF
How can I get my tuition money's worth from the library?
In academic year 2010-2011 (August 2010 to May 2011), a full time student paid about $517 of their tuition to support the UWF Libraries. We have assigned values (see the calculations used in a .pdf document below table) for ten of our most-used services to help you "take advantage" of the University Libraries this academic year:

I can't tell you how many times I used the UWF library when I was a student there...numerous times, if only to get a quiet spot to work. And the UWF library is accessible online, as are those of most universities.

Yella wrote:

Nekochan wrote:

Yella wrote:

Nekochan wrote:Rock Garden? There is a rock garden in the library?

Yep,Neko, its about 8'x8' area filled with smooth oval stones that have been in a lapidary of some sort. It is like a Zen garden. It is impressive. I have no complaint about it.

Sounds very nice.

I was hoping they might set a large stone with a kanji symbol, meaning knowledge but alas, there is a different mind set there in charge. They put a plastic pelican in it instead.

I think someone forgot to tell them that Pelican is out and Wahoo is in.

Taxpayer
Return on Investment
in Florida Public Libraries:
Summary Report
September 2004
José-Marie Griffiths
University of Pittsburgh & University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Donald W. King
Christinger Tomer
University of Pittsburgh
Thomas Lynch
Julie Harrington
Florida State University
Prepared for
State Library and Archives of FloridaACK






[ For every tax dollar received, Florida public libraries provide $8.32 in value.
1http://dlis.dos.state.fl.us/bld/roi/pdfs/ROISummaryReport.pdf
Download the brochure.
3.16MB PDF

(Text-only PDF)

Taxpayer Return on Investment in Florida Public Libraries (2010)

The statewide return on investment increased from $6.54 in 2004 to $8.32 in 2008. The current study also examines the social value of public libraries and provides a return on investment calculation for each county.

KEY FINDINGS

Florida Libraries Support a Strong Economy

The measurement of return-on-investment (ROI) has been applied to many different types of
organizations and community resources. While common in the for-profit sector, the application of
benefit/cost, cost-effectiveness, impact and return-on-investment measures to libraries, museums,
schools and colleges, parks, etc., has lagged behind considerably. Part of the difficulty has been in
quantifying benefits from non-priced goods and services that can differ from use to use, user to
user, as well as from library to library (as their mix of service offerings vary). In today’s climate
of strained budgets and pressures for increased accountability and transparency, the need for clear
and accurate statements of how public monies are allocated and used, and the resulting benefits or
outcomes, is paramount in ensuring continued investment.
This Summary Report describes a comprehensive study to assess taxpayer return-on-investment
in Florida’s public libraries. The study used a variety of data collection and analysis methods
including the public library annual data reports to the State Library and Archives of Florida, a
statewide household telephone survey of adults, in-library surveys of adults, a follow-up survey
of the libraries, surveys of organizations (e.g., businesses, schools, etc.) and an input-output
econometric model (REMI). Public libraries allow users to share knowledge and services at a cost
to them as taxpayers and in the time they spend using the libraries; however, all taxpayers in
Florida benefit from the public libraries through their considerable contribution to education, the
economy, tourism, retirement, quality of life, and so on. There are many ways to determine how
public libraries contribute to the State’s economy and how taxpayers achieve a return on their
investment. This study examined several approaches to considering returns on public library
availability and use and found they all show substantial returns exceeding taxpayer investment.
Key Findings
Overall, Florida’s public libraries return $6.54 for every $1.00 invested from all
sources.
The total revenue investment in Florida’s public libraries is $449 million.
The total economic return attributable to the existence of the public libraries is
$2.9 billion — based on an analysis of what would happen if the public libraries
ceased to exist: includes the net benefits (added costs to use alternatives), the
benefits that would be lost because users would not bother to use alternatives, and
revenues that would be lost by vendors, contractors, etc.
Using State Library and Archives of Florida data and data from the surveys described
above, the REMI (Regional Economic Modeling Inc.) model looked at the initial public
investment in public libraries ($443 million
2
) and considered the implications of not
funding the public libraries, but of redistributing the money to alternative government
spending activities. Projecting forward over 32 years (2004-2035), the REMI model
indicated that if funding for public libraries was reallocated across Florida’s government
sectors, the state economy would result in a net decline of $5.6 billion in wages and
68,700 in jobs.
For every $6,448 spent on public libraries from public funding sources (federal,
state and local) in Florida, one job is created.
For every dollar of public support spent on public libraries in Florida, GRP
increases by $9.08
For every dollar of public support spent on public libraries in Florida, income
(wages) increases by $12.66
Figure 2: Florida GRP Increases from Public
Support of Libraries
Figure 3: Income Increases from Public Support
of Florida Public Libraries

2
Note that this figure does not include $6 million in state funds to the Multitype Library Cooperatives.III
Benefit (B) to Cost (C) ratios are estimated from th

FLORIDA’S PUBLIC LIBRARIES CONTRIBUTE $2.1 BILLION
TO THE WORKPLACE
There are 6.2 million uses of Florida’s public libraries by individuals for work-related
purposes. Additional uses are made by government, businesses and other for-profit and
not-for-profit organization librarians accessing 8,700 documents and a wide range of
services on behalf of their organizations. In all, 67 percent of business libraries and 71
percent of government and non-profit libraries in Florida take advantage of public library
resources and services.
The use of Florida’s public libraries for work-related purposes yields substantial use
benefits to the workplace, both in terms of quantifiable economic benefits (time and
monetary savings) and other benefits.
Figure 8: Direct Use Benefits of Public Libraries to the Workplace
Public libraries contribute to the economic condition of the workplace both directly and
indirectly. Direct economic benefits include time and monetary savings from not having
to use alternatives (net benefit of $835 million), from use of the resources and services
provided by the library (use benefit of $514 million in time and money saved), and from
financial flows to Florida businesses (direct community benefit of $784 million). These
economic contributions to the workplace total $2.1 billion per year.
25
Lots more info if you down load the PDF..Hass Center did a study very similar in scope and found close to the same results.

Here is a link to the Hass Center study
http://haas.uwf.edu/library/library_study/draftfinal_noapp.pdf

hallmarkgrad wrote:I will have to check, maybe Gunz knows but it looks like they joined the Old Library with Fire Station #1 with the large atrium. The new address is the old address of Fire house #1. So there maybe a good reason for the large open space atrium. Did I say I liked it?

The new wing is indeed the old footprint of 239 N. Spring. Home of Engines 6 and 8, snorkel 7 (Busters truck) hazmat 29 and Bat 22. They named it after Maurice who died while searching for a trapped occupant. They toned me in on a second alarm that early morning when he went unaccounted for. We found him just before daylight and got him back home. Buried him at Holy Cross. He was one hell of a nice guy and firefighter.

I thought about Mr. Markles discussion of lawyers so I called my daughter. She does all her research at her offices at the courthouse. I asked her if she ever used the law library at the courthouse......she said she knew of nobody on the SA staff who uses the law library, and that they use a service called Lexis, and West law.

I told her what we were talking about and she brought this to my attention, a simple law library with books used to cost 10k in the typical defense attorney who is on the other side of a case with her.....but the book companies would sell paper supplements and updates which would cost up to 5k a year, those defense attorneys had a huge disadvantage to the SA office because early on it was very expensive to do online research, but now they have all abandoned their books and supplements, and can get access to a law search company as part of their State Bar dues...........Paper books are an expensive and simply 80% of the same in libraries are extraneous and unnecessary. You still will have law libraries.....you still will have public libraries, but they will be much smaller and will focus on access to the online research.

Smaller is better in regard to libraries......and the bigger the search engines....the better. The world awaits children, and the school library must be an important part of this process. In 7th grade we were all required to take a half hour semester course on library science. They taught us how to use the tools of a library. I think this course is even more important today as the windows to knowledge are in cyberspace, and instruction is a must......when each of us can become knowledgeable in junior high.....the world awaits us from our home, school, and yes.....a smaller and more efficient library.