Guess who’s bright and chipper after the Phillies clinched the World Series?

Surprisingly, there are many folks who fit that description visiting WDFPL this morning.  Kids dressed for story hour, regular library users printing recipes for the weekend, an older couple searching the stacks for a favorite author’s paperback, a well-dressed man printing a resume and several gentlemen critiquing sports newspaper coverage fill my visual field.

My favorite morning visitor is an avid Phillies fan who shall remain nameless.

He has been up all night celebrating the World Series Championship and is proud to share the fact that he was in line at the local mall early this morning to purchase his World Series hat.

His wife’s boss holds season tickets and his wife, who is at the office, asked him to secure printable tickets sent to their email account confirming Lincoln Park Stadium seats for the in stadium celebration to be held on  Friday, October 31st.  He excitedly explains his wife cannot print the tickets from work and Verizon is working across the street from his house leaving him with no Internet service. 

He shares there is a time constraint for email access to the printable passes for the couple.  “That’s why I am in this library,� he exclaimed. “I never come here.�  He may have noticed a faint hint of disapproval on my face.  “Well, not in a very long time,� he continues.  Luckily, there is an unoccupied public computer workstation available. 

We chat a bit about his plan to purchase partial season tickets for the first time this year and how he won approval for the transaction from his wife. 

“I cried in 1965, cheered in 1980 and continue to celebrate in 2008,” he says as the tickets print.

I thank him for stopping in the library and suggest he stop back with his wife after the celebration.  “She might like to check out a book or something� is my reactive closing to this patron transaction.  

BTW-The tickets have a richly detailed photo of the World Series trophy on them. 

At this moment, a second regular library user is paying for paper because he is printing his tickets in the library.  A somewhat reliable source confirms printable tickets may be available to the general public after 3:00 pm EST today.

On Saturday, October 25, 2008 Jean Wipf, Woodbury Public Library Director, and library staff hosted an opening reception for Key Ingredients, America by Food, a traveling Smithsonian exhibition made possible by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. Exhibit showing is limited to 150 sites across the nation with six sites located in New Jersey.  Woodbury Public Library is the only library listed on the New Jersey menu.

The display begins on the first floor of the library and is complemented by display cases filled with cooking implements of by gone days.  A free standing section of the exhibit includes books and promotional materials from the past.  A children’s book promoting the new McDonald’s drive-in restaurant chain is my favorite display item, though the Pillsbury doughboy is a close second.  The Plexiglas enclosed children’s book, Let’s Eat Out, was cleverly designed to highlight  the positive aspects of switching from home cooked meals to take out.

The majority of the exhibit located on the second floor, easily accessible by stairs or elevator, is composed of high-quality colorful hinged panels.  Visit www.njch.org/keyingredients for more details on the exhibit before stopping by the Woodbury Public Library.  Ample free parking is available behind the Woodbury Public Library adjacent to Delaware Street.

Staff shared exhibit set up experiences over refreshments.  I was surprised to learn how much staff, family member and community teamwork was involved on the local level.  Laurie Cranston, Woodbury Public Library’s technology coordinator, discussed transportation details.  The exhibit was shipped in 19 steamer trunks, one of which I caught a glimpse of in a nearby office.  “They are tucked all around the library,� Laurie confided.  The team did a stellar job of streamlining the clutter.  Not always an easy feat in a small library!

The SJRLC Trading Spaces project demonstrated influence as the exhibit visitors browsed the face out cookbooks and food related library materials positioned to complement the traveling exhibit.  Staff forethought on how to best to merchandise the collection is apparent in the exhibit layout.

Community exhibit support includes refreshments donated by the local gourmet club, a beautifully detailed Key Ingredients cake, provided by a town bakery for the opening reception and ongoing programming complementing the exhibit through early December.  I’ve marked my calendar and plan to attend at least one upcoming program.

Key Ingredients is designed with the whole family in mind.  Child-friendly flip up doors hide fun facts creating interactive components.  

During my visit to Woodbury Public Library, I noticed a small boy who donned a cheese head hat while he milled through the exhibit.  I don’t think he was actually part of the Key Ingredients exhibit.  I could be wrong, but he might have been related to Woodbury’s mayor.

I couldn’t resist posting this kid-friendly seasonal fun. 

I spy with my eyes…a library catalog search in progress.

Wikis offer pliable space for users to generate content.  Wikis can be archival and/or collaborative.

This video is one in a series entitled “In Plain English.”  Lee and Sachi LeFever do a fine job explaining complex concepts in plain language through the paperwork format.  

BTW- Check out the CommonCraft Store for access to fee-based high resolution downloads.

 It was great to see Tyler, former WDFPL page, as he ran into the library to pick up his voter registration form.

As I recall, he ran track at WD High.  The man still has mad skills easily beating tomorrow’s registration deadline.  

 This post continues a response post to The M Word on voting information. 

2008 Election ideas implemented at WDFPL:

WDFPL presented Uncle Sam Want You – Become a Citizen, it’s not as difficult as you think in 2007.  The 1 hour program detailing the citizenship process was videotaped and can be found on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration link of Celebrating Our Cultural Heritage at http://www.westdeptford.lib.nj.us/.  WDFPL and Valentine Brown, local immigration lawyer, timed the program so that attendees who began the citizenship process in 2007 should be eligible to vote in the 2008 Presidential Election.

The WDFPL staff displayed Political Memorabilia in the Art Gallery during January/February 2008 prior to the Presidential Primaries.  Primary candidates were highlighted on a bulletin board/book display in WDFPL.  Changes in the display mirrored current events as the field of potential candidates thinned. 

In June 2008, WDFPL staff developed a display near the main information desk of the library using Rock the Vote celebrity materials, civics flash card giveaways, and voter registration forms.  Photos of the library’s in house display were posted to this NovelIdeas blog. 

WDFPL staff added Rock the Vote voter registration link to desktops of computer training workstations and public workstations with Internet access.

Let’s hope everybody gets the message.  It’s time to vote.

BTW – The Rock the Vote 2008 debate parties held at Hard Rock Cafés across the nation sound like a lot of fun.  I won’t be at the Phila. Party as  Brian Betz / Denis DiBlasio will be performing a jazz concert at WDFPL tonight at 7:00 pm.   Did I mention a basket of voter registration forms will be sitting beside the giveaway at tonight’s WDFPL concert? 

Library workstation security is a moving target.  ComputerWorld describes efforts to shield users from some creative scareware.  On Monday, September 29, Microsoft and the state of Washington plan to file lawsuits against individuals and organizations for blasting users’ computers with spurious warnings about vulnerabilities detected on their machines and attempting to sell them software to ”fix” those flaws. 

Help is on the way.  The Washington AG’s office is bringing charges under the state’s Computer Spyware Act against Branch Software and Alpha Red and their owner, James Reed McCreary IV. Microsoft is filing several John Doe lawsuits to learn the identities of individuals suspected of marketing other scareware products.

Yesterday, a WDFPL staffer was scared by a scareware encounter at the Information Desk.  The offending splash screen graphics including XP/VISTA logo were slick.  Luckily a quick workstation reboot solved the problem.