Happy Thanksgiving

For those in the US, have a safe, happy, and tummy-filling holiday.

Publication credits

A productive day for my first full day of vacation. I finished the really rough draft of my contribution to the forthcoming book "A Day in the Life" edited by Priscilla Shontz of LISCareer.com. After I do some minor edits tomorrow, it will be winging its way to her inbox.

I also heard back from Nann Blaine Hilyard, one of the editors for the Perspectives column in Public Libraries, regarding a submission I had turned in on the topic of Recruitment. My little essay was accepted, and if interested, you can read it in the Jan/Feb 2006 issue.

And on a closing note, there's a great discussion happening over on NMRT-L about professional development. Come join in on the fun!

Collection Development: Music

I'm responsible for suggesting titles for the popular music section of my library's collection. I'm more of a reader than a music listener, so I need some help with knowing who's hot outside of my preferred music category. Some of my favorite resources:

VH1 Fresh - for new music
Entertainment Weekly - I use the library's subscription to check out reviews and bestsellers
VH1 Top 20 - most likely to be most requested
Rolling Stone - reviews from leading industry magazine
Patrons - find out who they're listening to, and who they see as new and upcoming

For a lot of the popular songs, it may be just as easy, and budget friendly, to buy song collections such as the Now series as you'll get a selection of the popular songs without having to purchase 20 CDs where the rest of the album doesn't live up to the promoted single. Figure out who are the top artists in the genres you purchase for and pay attention to when their albums come out as if they've been around for a while, and have a number of albums out, they're more likely to have a full album that's worth adding to the collection. Be sure to keep an eye on those new and emerging artists though.