Brian Herzog has been removing signs in his library.  He says, "When it comes to signs, I think the fewer the better".  I'm not so sure I agree, and I think we may be thinking of different types of signs.

 

Librarians seem to think that signs are information, but I think you should view signs as helping with tasks.

 

One of my pet peeves is that when I get to the end of a row in the non-fiction stacks, I don't know whether the next shelf is to the left, to the right, behind me, or on the other side of the shelves I'm looking at.  Why does this have to be this hard?

 

How do you feel when you're in a new supermarket and you're trying to find salsa?  How long would it take a newcomer to your library to find 359.97?  How easy do you want to want it to be?  That's not a rhetorical question.  You might conclude that your core constituency is people who come to the library often and know how to find their way around the building without signs.  But if you want a newcomer to be able to get from the front door to 359.97 without help, you're going to need effective signs.

 

Our local library is pretty good.  There's a directory sign that you can see from the front door when you walk in, and paper maps of the library on a small table near the entrance.  But improvement is always possible:  there's no sign indicating the paper maps, and the room where the periodicals and new books are kept is inexplicably labelled the Browsing Room, so the directory is a necessity rather than a help.

Seth Godin would like you to read his book, The Dip.

 

My library network has some available, so it is hereby added to the reading list.

 

Today I'm relaunching this blog as a place to post my thoughts on public libraries, as well as books, mostly Science Fiction,.

 

Public libraries are at an interesting place, because more and more libraries and librarians are starting to post on the Internet.  I'm going to try to use this blog as a place to add my thoughts to the stream.

 

I already have a tag for books, and I'll add one for libraries, so you can follow whatever topic(s) interest you.  There's a browser for tags on the left hand side.