"libraries" news and stories

A Facebook group wants library-themed ice cream. Photo by ~Jetta Girl~/Flickr

Ben & Jerry's seems to be tops among many ice-cream eaters, but the feeling is particularly strong among the library-going set.

How else to explain the thousands strong Facebook lobby "People for a library-themed Ben & Jerry's flavor!"?

Do you go to the library to read and do research or to eat and drink?

That's the question that students and other visitors to the W.E.B. DuBois at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst will have to ask themselves. Seems that so many people are shunning the library in favor of doing research at home on their computers. So the library has thought of ways to get people in the door again, and some of these ideas prove that it's not your father's library. Besides having cellphone isolation booths (which I would think are as much for other patrons than the cellphone user), they're also putting in a hip cafe where the circulation used to be, and a lounge. You can get coffee, soft drinks, pastries. You can even get food delivered to the library if you want! Add to that new bistro tables and cool lime green arm chairs (and the fact that it's open 24 hours a day during the week) and you have some place you might actually hang out in.

This could be a new trend? I mean, how long before a Starbucks opens at your local library?