For our second competency I used the GoogleBlog search engine: http://blogsearch.google.com/ to look for a good blog about public libraries. I found the PLA Blog, which is the official blog of the Public Library Association. It is a well maintained and interesting web site. It is very easy to find interesting and pertinent information for someone who works in a public library. You can find it here: http://plablog.org/
For example, here is part of an article titled “Skateboarding is Not a Crime at the Mesa Library” by Nate Hill:
Today I visited Antoine Predock’s Mesa Library in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Before I ever entered the building I decided it has one of my favorite young adult spaces I’ve seen yet. Why? Because there is a skatepark attached to the front of the building. Rather than defending the public space against recreational use by putting up signs or jagged rails, Predock embraced the space-creating tendencies of teens and gave them something previously unconsidered: a municipal building that encourages rail slides and coping grinds!
I think that having a skatepark at a public library is a wonderful idea. I have actually had to deal with the problem of having teens try to skateboard around a library where I worked. The city tried all kinds of ways to keep them off the rails and curbs. It would have been much better if they could have followed Mesa’s example and developed an area that was specifically for skating.
