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Every place and has its own rules and regulations that protect its privacy, and prevent any outside violations. In libraries, people find their tranquility, where they can spend much of their time, whether a full or a part-time worker, a full or a part-time student, academics, field study researchers, and others; all those people visit libraries for one purpose: to get instructed and entertained.

Such a huge place like public library has at least no less than 500 people at a time, including the staff workers or the visitors. Therefore, with the various interests and purposes for their existence at this place, Libraries put a law for protecting the library, its belonging, its resources, its facilities, and most importantly protecting the people’s safety and comfort. There are many valuable ways and modern techniques to do so, and one of these trustworthy methods is security cameras and surveillance systems.

Having a Security and Surveillance System at any public Library would lessen, if not, prevent committing any act of violation, However, how can we use such technology? And how can we invest it in such a place?

Public libraries will take all reasonable measures to protect its collections and assets from theft and deliberate or reckless damage; and to protect all its buildings from unauthorized intrusion and vandalism.

How Security Cameras can benefit Public Libraries

Security: Patrons of all ages and types use libraries every day. Security cameras placed around the library can help keep them safe while reading, researching and browsing.
Prevent theft: It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Gutenberg bible or a Judy Blume book – every part of a library’s collection is valuable. A video surveillance system working in conjunction with a barcode and magnetic book control system could help prevent book theft.
Flexibility – IP video systems allow users to place cameras where they are needed, and reconfigure them on a whim. Libraries, especially those that host community events, author readings, or children’s book clubs, could benefit from the flexibile security that IP video provides.
Remote monitoring – Video surveillance systems that use IP cameras and a Network Video Recorder (NVR) allow libraries to broadcast their surveillance footage over the internet. This allows management and security to check in on libraries at any time should security concerns arise. The broadcast function could also be used to archive speakers or special events at the library.

Potential Risks of Library Security Cameras

Privacy – Library surveillance cameras should only record public areas like stacks, reading areas, conference rooms, and circulation desks. Keep cameras out of restrooms and break rooms to protect the privacy of employees and patrons.

Considerations for Library Security Camera Systems

Libraries can vary widely – personal collections, public libraries, law libraries, science libraries, presidential libraries, even the Library of Congress all have different security needs. Consider the following when setting up a library surveillance system:

What do you consider to be your most pressing security issue?
Do you have any rare or valuable items in your collection?
What type of security system do you currently have in place?
Have you had any security threats in the past year?

Setup advice for Municipal Library Video Surveillance Systems

Place cameras near entrances and exits to get clear photos of patrons as they enter and exit
Cameras placed over stacks can help give a quick survey of an area, place other cameras closer in to give a more detailed look.
Place cameras around valuable items like rare books and displays

Security cameras will be used where needed to discourage violations of the Library’s

code of conduct to assist Library staff in preventing the recurrence of any violations, and to provide law enforcement assistance in prosecuting criminal activity. The purpose of this policy is to establish guidelines for the placement and use of digital video cameras, as well as the access and retrieval of recorded digital video images at the Farmington Community Library. Cameras may be installed in locations where staff and patrons would not have an expectation of privacy. Examples include common areas of the Library such as entrances, near book and media collections, public seating, delivering areas and parking lots. Cameras will not be installed in areas where staff and public have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as restrooms. Thus, follow these procedures to guarantee a full protection:

-          Digital video security cameras are installed in selected indoor and outdoor locations at both Library buildings.

-          A sign will be posted at Library entrance informing the public that security cameras are in use.

-          Selected staff will have access to the real time monitors, although activity is only randomly monitored.

-          Only the Director, or his/her designee(s) will have access to the archived material in pursuit of incidents of criminal activity or violation of the Expected Library Behavior Policy.

-          Images will typically be stored for a period of up to 21 calendar days. As new images are recorded, the oldest images will be automatically deleted.

-          Selected digital video may be saved for as long as required (hereinafter referred to as “Stored Digital Video Records”).

-          A Stored Digital Video Record is considered a Library record under the Library’s Privacy Act (“Privacy Act”) and only released consistent with said Act.

-          Stored Digital Video Records may be used to provide tangible evidence as a means of identification, and may be turned over to the police by the Director or his/her designee, consistent with the provisions of the Privacy Act.

Staff and patron safety is the first priority in any threatening situation. The protection of Library property is of secondary importance. Cameras will not be installed for the express purpose of monitoring staff performance. Requests from the public for access to camera images will be considered in light of the provisions of the Privacy Act. Questions from the public may be directed to the Director.

One of the largest libraries in the United States built in 1886. The New York Public Library has over 2,000,000 registered members. It has four research libraries. The library supervises eighty other libraries in the neighborhood. The Main Research Library is one of the prominent features of the Public Library. It has a large reading room. It was originally opened to public in 1911.

History

Public Library is a combination of the Astor Library and Lenox Library. John Jacob Astor finances the Astor Library. Lenox Library is located in the Frick Museum. A grant of .4 million was offered by Samuel J. Tilden to fund the construction of the Public Library. To fund the building of the neighborhood libraries, Andrew Carnegie donated .2 million. These neighborhood libraries are located in Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island.

In Public Library, you will find the Schomburg Center for Black Research and Culture, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and the Science and Business Library.

The Main Research Library

The Main Research Library was built in 1911 and is located at 5th avenue in 40th Street. Carrere and Hastings, an architectural firm designed the Main Research Library. More than seventy five miles of open shelves are offered by the Research Library. The leading reading room 315 is seventy eight feet in length and two hundred and seventy nice feet in width. The ceiling of the library is fifty two feet high.

The two lion statues made of pink Tennessee marble are located in front of the entrance of the library. Edward Clark Potter is the architect of the statues. The two lion are symbolic and represent the Astor and Lenox (founders of library) respectively. Nowadays, the two lions represent uptown and downtown.

The New York Library in Popular Culture

The library has featured in several books, movies and television programs. This library is featured in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the Wiz, Spiderman, and Duplicate keys by Jane Smiley. Some television program also featured this library such as Seinfeld.

Ask a Question

A telephone reference system was built in 1968. You can get answers to your questions using this system. The service remains available from 9am to 6pm. The system is being managed by ten researchers holding various degrees.

Today, you can also ask questions through email. You will have to wait for about 35 minutes before getting a response.

Visiting the New York Library

Everyone can visit the main reading room. The local residents can apply for a library card for free but tourists will have to pay 0 fee for applying. Children can also apply for a library card but at the library. People can also apply online for library card. More than 15,000,000 people visit this library every year but out of these 15,000,000 people, only 1,860,000 have library card.

The Public Library is equipped with wireless internet access. Of you bring your laptop with you; you can access the internet for free. Make sure that your system has an 801.11 wireless card installed.

New York City has the best of everything from music to art; from sports to fashion; from food to clubs! There are thousands of educational institutes working in harmony and healthy competition to provide best and updated education to its citizens. New York City has numerous prestigious and recognized universities and colleges and excellent libraries to help create awareness and interest amongst the public.
Libraries are valuable to the student and readers to help them in thorough understanding and enhancing their knowledge. Therefore, NYC has numerous public and local libraries to help its citizens and promote culture and history. Public libraries in New York City include the following:
Brooklyn Public Library System, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Chautauqua – Cattaraugus Library System, Clinton Essex Franklin Library System, Finger Lakes Library System, Four Long Island Library Resources Council, Mid-Hudson Library System, Mid-York Library System, Mohawk Valley Library Association, Monroe County Library System, Nassau Library System, New York Public Library, Onondaga County Public Library, Pioneer Library System, Queens Borough Public Library, Ramapo Catskill Library System, Southern Adirondack Library System, Steele Memorial Library, Suffolk County Public Libraries, Upper Hudson Library System and Westchester Library System .
The New York Public Library is one of the important research libraries in the world and the best in USA. Brooklyn Public Library System is the fifth largest public library system in the USA serving Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Pioneer Library System (PLS) is cooperative public New York City library system serving 42 public libraries in Ontario, Wayne and Wyoming and Livingston. It offers varies incentives to its embers such as System-wide OWWL Delivery, System-wide Computer and Networking Support , Advisory Services for Collection Development, Administration and Governance and many more.
Upper Hudson Library System (UHLS) is a conglomerate of twenty-nine autonomous public libraries working together to serve the citizens of New York City in the best and most effective manner! Ramapo Catskill Library System (RCLS), established in 1959 is working to provide coordinated services, training, guidance and leadership to member library trustees and staff .The aim of this New York City library is to enable them to meet the changing needs of the readers in Orange, Rockland, Sullivan and southern Ulster counties.
All the public New York City libraries are working to bring up new and improved ways to promote reading, sharing knowledge and enhancing the standards of cultural and educational trends of their citizens!

How public libraries can overcome budget cuts through cultural, educational, and business partnerships

By Thomas Badgett

            In the current difficult economic times, libraries of all sizes and types face budget cuts, often quite severe. At the same time the need and demand for library services surges. In order to minimize cutbacks libraries need to play to their strengths and promote how much value they offer to anyone who chooses to use them. They need to inform the public that they are available and promote what they offer in the way of services and alternatives to paid entertainment. As the public becomes more aware of libraries and what they offer, they may come to their support and demand more funding from politicians and bureaucrats.

            During economic downturns, people cut back on unnecessary spending and seek value on what they do spend funds for. There is no better value than free. Public libraries provide services and materials to users that no competitor can beat because they are usually free. Families seek activities and places they can go to interact, be entertained, and spend quality time together. Libraries provide all this plus educational value, whether it be for self-help, school homework help, free choice learning for lifelong learners, or reference help. Also, libraries can preserve a community’s identity by recording oral histories, housing artifacts, and staging programs informing users of the history and culture of their community as it has evolved. Libraries should play to their strengths as educational and cultural institutions while also promoting their value as free and family friendly social centers.

            Ways in which libraries might promote themselves as family-friendly centers include advertising at other family gathering venues such as bowling alleys, movie theaters, ice ream shops, and dining establishments. Libraries could establish booths for self-promotion at special events such as sporting events (soccer and baseball games), festivals (wine, music, crafts), concerts (classical, country, jazz, rock), and baseball card and toy shows. Perhaps the IMLS or ALA would sponsor a NASCAR team? To get the attention of young readers a library could sponsor comic book shows at one of their meeting rooms or have a kiosk/booth at a comic book convention. Cooperation with local booksellers and comic book stores or newsstands would be another way to publicize library services. The library could advertise certain businesses in its lobby and perhaps have signage donated by other businesses (in a manner like sports stadiums are doing). Even bookstores and libraries could refer users to each other in a sense of cooperation since both have a vested interest in the printed word. Libraries could also build relationships with hobby and craft stores and sponsor craft fairs or model kit shows in their community. In addition, the library could build a dialogue with local community members who are craftspeople or model collectors or any other collector. Card games could be sponsored at the library – a cribbage tournament, for example – or a poker tournament (with no gambling). There are innumerable ways for libraries to build relationships and get their message out to the public in addition to the Internet.

Scheduling and management skills on the part of librarians are now more important than ever since less money for staff translates into fewer man-hours for service. Library hours of operation should be based on peak demand times in the library’s community and not traditional banking hours. This is especially critical if the library intends to promote itself as a family or social center. Libraries need to be open when families can use them, not necessarily when it is most convenient for staff to be there. There may be no faster way to render libraries defunct than to cling to traditional banker-style hours Monday through Friday as in the past – unless a library tax is created. Weekends may become a peak demand time in some communities and library staff will have to adapt or face career extinction. In the short-term, at least, certain non-traditional skills (like scheduling in order to meet demand) should gain importance. As libraries continue to evolve additional new skills and a blurring of departments may occur in public libraries. For instance, reference may play a smaller role and customer service skills will be much more in demand. Every library, now more than ever, must focus on what services and materials are needed to provide service to its users.

The IMLS, whose mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas, is dedicated to serving a nation of learners. In addition to the NLG program, an International Strategic Partnership Initiative is in place to connect educational and cultural institutions from all over the world. The NLG program fosters collaboration between educational and cultural institutions on various projects, especially digitalization projects, in order for them to reach a broader range of users and make access easier for these users. Collaborations are both short-term and long-term in length, ranging from rotating exhibits between institutions to the multi-state Colorado Digitalization Program. Cultural heritage and educational institutions like libraries, museums, archives, and historical societies are good fits for partnerships through IMLS grants. However, schools and private sector businesses are also potential partners as the cultural/educational network expands.

One major goal of the IMLS is to preserve culture, whether it is local, regional, national, or international in nature. Through digitalization and the spreading of information this goal may be realized. Partnerships between cultural and educational institutions may help to ensure their survival through this severe recession, the longest in post-war history. Not only should partnerships result in more users, they may eliminate duplication of positions and result in streamlining of staff in these institutions, thereby placing them in an advantageous position for growth when the economy recovers. Collaboration projects enable libraries and museums to explore common issues and challenges, build networks for collaboration, share information and best practices, and further develop their institutions.

Museums today are active partners with libraries, archives, historical societies, and others in building digital libraries in order to emphasize their role as educational institutions. Museums have had a long and productive relationship with academic and special libraries and are now collaborating more often with public libraries. Two important considerations for producing digital resources are good cataloging (library strength) and accurate, knowledgeable description according to appropriate standards (museum strength). A broader, more diverse audience may be reached through collaboration and digitalization because the institutions complement each other. Also, the wear and tear on parts of the museum collection may be reduced once digital reproductions are created for Web consumption. Library web-sites should be interactive and participatory, much like many museum web-sites are. This interactive/participatory model lends itself well to free choice learning, which represents half of all learning (after formal schooling and work). In free choice learning the individual is the entry point in the framework of learning. The individual user decides what participation method, learning style, learning venue, and content they wish to engage in.

Library-museum partnerships may also collaborate with educators. In Illinois, the Illinois Library Association (ILA) noticed that school visits to museums and libraries were on the rise once collaboration projects began. Home school educators use museum and library resources also. Ways educators and museum staff can work together is through professional development workshops and training sessions at museums. Also, students can create their own museums in schools. Museums and museum web-sites can be excellent resources for teachers to use for the curriculum. NC ECHO is creating online curriculum resources for K-12 educators in North Carolina.

In addition to educators, government can play a role in library-museum partnerships. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an agency within the Executive Branch charged with the mission of funding collaboration between cultural institutions like libraries and museums. Libraries were moved out of the Department of Education in the FY 1998 federal budget and placed under the umbrella of the IMLS. According to Diane Frankel, IMLS Director in 1997, museums are starting to understand that they need to serve a more diverse audience – while librarians have always realized that. Frankel describes libraries and museums as being “community anchors” and social places to spend time together, as well as educational institutions. These functions make these entities natural partners and the IMLS intends to facilitate more collaborations and partnerships through grant funding with the National Leadership Grant (NLG) program.

Dilevko criticizes some library-museum collaboration efforts, describing exhibits as “edutainment” since many museum exhibits shown at libraries have nothing to do with the library collection or community. Instead he recommends a library-museum hybrid that can be based on one of two models. The first model is the cabinet of curiosities – where books and objects are co-located to enhance investigation and learning. This model is often found in academic libraries. The second model is the popular collections model in