About

Photos from a "Snapshot"

You may recall that last Wednesday, February 17th, was Snapshot Day at Darien Library. Snapshot Day was a state-wide event to gather data to capture the impact that Connecticut libraries have on their communities on a typical day. Thank you to our cheerful and agreeable visitors for their assistance, their smiles, and their comments.

You can see many of the photos from Snapshot Day at Darien Library by clicking here. To view the Snapshot Day photo sets from all over the state of Connecticut, click here.

We received many comments in response to the question posed on the brief survey: "Why is the library important to you?" First we'll show you...and then we'll tell you what the responses were. Please enjoy the video-compilation of the day's photos, then continue reading, below, for the "Snapshot" comments.

"...[that you can] take home books, films, music, magazines, etc. That you can take classes, attend lectures, get help with research and projects or find somewhere quiet to work. Libraries are our most wonderful, omnipresent, and inclusive community institutions."

"A calm, quiet respite."

"Getting help in gathering information!"

"Meet Us on Main Street is a great place to hear about books."

"Because I use the library for internet access, borrow DVDs, books, and CDs, attend lectures and current film showings. The Darien Library is my primary source for all of the above."

"It's a nice place to get away and lose yourself from the real world."

"Meet Us on Main Street and the librarians' enthusiasm keep my reading list going!"

"Love the Meet Us on Main Street program - books, DVDS recommended by helpful and knowledgeable staff."

"The library was always important to me since childhood - I don't watch TV!"

"Because of its programs for children that help our kids socialize and learn in a very friendly environment."

"It has many resources that I could not otherwise access. An invaluable service to the community."

"When I need to research something or write a report and when I'd like to read a book or watch a movie for free."

Please feel free to leave your comments by clicking below.

Why is the library important to YOU?

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Town Budget Proposal for Fiscal Year 2009-2010

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Five Stars Again! Round Two! Number Two!

The results have been announced! Round Two of America's Star Libraries. Five (more) Stars!

Once again, Darien Library was named a Five Star library by Library Journal (LJ), which used four objective measures (visits, circulation, program attendance and internet computer use per capita) to compare the level of services libraries provide to their communities. Darien Library was ranked second in the nation(!) among public libraries with budgets between $1 million and $5 million.

The LJ 2/15/09 issue reported the first star library ratings based on the LJ Index. Less than a year later, they are back with the second round, thanks to a dramatic improvement in data timeliness achieved by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in its annual census of U.S. public libraries. Data for 2006 were released in November 2008, while data for 2007 were released in May 2009—a six-month turnaround. Planned as an annual event, the LJ Index will continue to be published as soon as possible after each year's data become available

For the complete story, click here to read the article in the brand new issue of Library Journal.

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Darien Library Sustainable Features

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Extreme Customer Service

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Volunteers

The Darien Library is fortunate to have a loyal corps of dedicated volunteers. One of our most popular programs is Adopt-A-Shelf. Volunteers in this program agree to "read" and straighten shelves in an area of their choice at least once a month. We are happy to work with you to create a volunteer position that will match your interests and talents with our volunteer opportunities.

Call Sally Ijams at the Information Desk at 669-5236 to learn more.

Technical Details

What's the platform?

This is a Drupal site on a Linux server with Apache, MySQL and PHP.

Where did all the great social features come from?

This is SOPAC 2.0, the social OPAC. The original SOPAC was released at the Ann Arbor District Library by John Blyberg when he worked there. John has built upon his work for AADL to create SOPAC 2.0 for the Darien Library.

What's different about SOPAC 2.0?

For users, the tagging, reviews, ratings and comments have an improved interface and the advanced search options have a more intuitive layout. Anyone can join the site and add tags, reviews or comments, with or without a library card.
Technically, SOPAC 2.0 is very different from its predecessor. It's a Drupal module that is distributable and can work with any library system.

Where does the social data live?

This is another feature of SOPAC 2.0 - the social repository. Libraries that allow users to add social information (tags, reviews, ratings) to their catalog have found that while some members love to add data, others do not and the end result is a small set of tags and ratings that isn't as useful for searching and sorting. SOPAC 2.0 introduces a repository for all of the social information contributed by any library that uses SOPAC 2.0. Libraries can display their own tags, reviews and ratings and those from other libraries. They can choose which library's information they'll use and allow their own member's contributions to be displayed first.
Participating libraries maintain their own tags, reviews and ratings. Every night, each library will upload its own social data and download nightly digests that reflect the changes within the group.

You mean my library can have this too?

Yes, SOPAC 2.0 is a distributable software package. Darien Library is using Drupal for our website and Innovative Interfaces, Inc. for our ILS. John has built the connectors between SOPAC and III and Drupal, but with the right connectors, any ILS will work. For a more detailed explanation, see John's pre-release blog post.