Maggie Tarelli-Falcon, librarian of Omaha Public Library accommodated us for a short interview. She tells us that her library has an interesting activity for singles. Find out how they try to support local authors. You can access their site through www.omahalibrary.org for more interesting information.
Where is your library and how can I access your website?
215 S. 15th St.
Omaha, Nebraska 68102
www.omahalibrary.org
What sets your library apart from others?
Well, we have excellent programs for all ages, a wonderful genealogy center (including a digital collection) and helpful, resourceful staff.
I know you’ve seen hundreds of books this year, Maggie. What are the most noteworthy books you have read recently?
My favorite fiction author is Alexander McCall Smith, so I have read all of his Precious Ramotswe, and Isabel Dalhousie series. He never fails to entertain. I also would recommend “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford and “The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” by Alan Bradley, “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” by Helen Simonsen, as well as the Steig Larssen series. For Non-Fiction I liked, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot and “Evidence of the Afterlife” by Jeffery Long. My focus this year was on books explaining reincarnation and the afterlife. (Not sure why—but there sure is lots written about this!)
With so many things you can do at your library, which ones seem to be the most popular?
Getting on the computer for social networking and job seeking must be #1. However, our traditional storytelling and crafts programs are still popular as well as our newer board games and speed dating programs. Computer programs and book clubs are also very popular.
Do you book speakers via Skype? If so, how would someone interested in speaking, reach out to you?
We do not currently book speakers via Skype but that is an interesting idea!
We have an adult program coordinator that a speaker could contact to arrange a program.
There are organizations that are promoting independent authors’ books, are you open to displaying these in your library Maggie?
Yes, we are open to displaying independent authors’ books. We do have displays on all types of genres and subjects. We do purchase local author’s works even if they are self-published without critical reviews, in order to support local authorship. However, we do not purchase self published books without professional reviews.
How many books would you say you purchase in your library every year?
We added 71,355 books in 2010 (this would include donations as well as purchases)
Where do you buy your books? Ingram? Amazon? Overdrive?
The majority of our books come from Baker & Taylor, though we do purchase from Ingram, Overdrive and Amazon too. Our audiovisual is from MidWest Tape.
What type of books are you searching for?
All kinds. Obviously, we spend our budget on best sellers, and popular non-fiction, but we are also looking for niche collection areas too. We are staring to build a large culinary collection to go along with our culinary conference (held last year, and possibly will be an annual event.)
What kind of books do you wish publishers would make more available?
We have just had trouble finding enough Hi-Lo books for adults. There are plenty for young adults and children, but not so many for adults. We have recent immigrants to this area from Africa as well as disabled adults who need these materials, and we want to provide books at a lower reading level at all of our 12 branches.
Maggie, do you think there is a need for more works in both English and Español to serve the Latin market? If so, in which genre?
Actually, we can usually find enough materials in Spanish to satisfy our patrons. We purchase books in all genres with romance being the most popular, We also purchase heavily on family, dreams, pregnancy, horoscopes, spirituality etc. in Spanish.
What are you doing personally to entice the younger generation to read more?
We have purchased AWE stations for early literacy and have some great online resources such as Tumblebooks.
Do you offer eBooks at your library? Who supplies you with them?
Overdrive supplies our eBooks. However, we are also looking at the newer vendors for eBooks such as Recorded Books, 3M, etc.
The book industry was shaken by the economy. How was your library affected?
Actually we were pretty lucky overall in Omaha. Our unemployment rate is still about 4% so the recession did not hit as hard here as in other parts of the country. Our library budget has stayed about the same for the past few years so no dramatic shifts in library hours, staffing or collections has taken place.
With so much distracting people today, and with the affects of the recession, Maggie, how do you get more and more people to come into the library instead of staying home playing video games?
We try to attract people into the library by advertising our various programs and events. We co-sponsor a literary festival (LitFest) and as mentioned above do a cooking event. We still have patrons coming in to the library to browse our collections. We still seem to have requests for “something good to read” so our readers’ advisory services are still required!
Our eBooks and downloadable audio books are a major attraction. Our circulation figures are sky high for these materials. Although patrons can access our website to download them rather than having to come into the library, they are visiting our virtual library.
The recession has meant that more patrons come into the library to not only use our computers (if they can’t afford internet access themselves) but also to borrow materials that they do not wish to or can’t afford to purchase themselves. Libraries are always busiest during a recession. Movie prices are high and if it is free to check out a DVD at the local branch, patrons will choose to do that. Our circulation figures are pretty steady and our gate counts are actually moving upwards, so yes people are still visiting us.