WHOOSH!

Hello friends! Happy Friday the 13th! I heard Michael Myers and Jason were trying to be crossing guards this morning in Sunnydale and caused some accidents – someone told me traffic was especially a nightmare on elm street.

C’mon, admit you chuckled a little.

Getting back on track, we’re going for a quick jaunt into the past, courtesy of the Miami-Dade Public Library System.

Many Floridians and librarians have heard about the crisis befalling the Miami-Dade Public Library System; to nutshell it for our fans, budget woes threatened to close 49 public libraries and lay off 169 employees. However, I’m happy to announce that County Commissioners have voted to dig into reserve funds to keep staff and libraries going, according to the Miami Herald this week. This means Miami friends get to keep their libraries! (I’m looking at you, Ricci.)

BOOKS FOR ALL!

Meanwhile, local artist Barron Sherer has digitized over 200 Kodachrome slides from the system’s archives; some of them can be seen in this Huffington Post article. According the article, the photos were taken for posterity from 1959 to 1962. Miami-Dade Public Library Director Raymond Santiago stated, “The library is not just an assembly of books and a collection of special objects preserving local culture…It has always been a civic place and will increasingly become a meeting place for creativity where meaningful collaborations emerge, great ideas are formulated and where important things happen.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Unless I’m going for the caveman approach.

BOOKS GOOD, LIBRARIES BETTER. HULK BE CREATIVE AND IMPORTANT!

My favorite slide? Technical Processing from 1961.

Wow, tech services has come a long way.

Quite different, eh? No computers, barcodes, scanners, all paper and punch cards. It’s a shame we can’t go back there and see what is was like…

…OR CAN WE?!?

But he was on time for work in Palatka!

Can I just say that I really enjoy putting my face into famous things? I think my next one may be a TARDIS for the all the Dr. Who fans out there.

Have a safe and fun weekend, everyone!

Justin Brasher, Brash Librarian