In response to several recent posts

OK, first I have to admit that my husband is a professional musician--a choir director, no less--and I know of no population on earth more intensely interested in the question of when and whether it's legal to distribute (i.e., photocopy) other people's work.

I would think that the main "obstacle" to Sarah's idea--wonderful as it is!--would be whether one had the right to distribute performances of songs and/or stories written by other people. I've never seen Miss Maureen's video, but I guess I figured she used her own stories and a mix of the sort of folksongs that don't have "owners"; perhaps I'm wrong.

It is for this reason, however, that the whole podcasting thing intrigues me: is it legal to distribute copies of (even portions of) copyrighted work? Seems to me this would be like copying pages of a picture book to give away; maybe you'd fly beneath radar for a long time, but you sure wouldn't want to get zapped...

This does prompt me to ask/suggest a couple of other things, however: I know we list a few new titles on our web page, but I (yes, me, the old person, the Luddite at heart!) find myself wondering about why we couldn't find a way to let kids post reviews there. (Because they'd need to be moderated and none of us needs the extra work?) Just a thought...

Here's another one. At a recent reference staff meeting, someone pointed out that when a patron approaches us with a question, they've already overcome several obstacles: they came to the library, AND they got up the nerve to approach us to ask. (Not that I can ever understand why it would be such a big deal to ask a question of someone you're paying tax money to sit there and answer!)

Similarly, anyone who actually pauses to READ the "Parents' Shelf" bulletin board has a) found him/herself in the darkest corner of the Children's Room, for b) long enough to have his/her pupils dilate enough to NOTICE the presence of said b.b., and c) remained in the dark, so to speak, for long enough to actually register that there are words on the board AND to read them. Wow. I think anybody who's gone through all that deserves something worthwhile--but which wouldn't require tons of maintenance, either. What if...we labeled the board "Staff Picks" (like at Blockbuster!), and divided it into several sections; each of us could feature a single item--book, game, parents' item, or recording--or we could each list, say, ONE picture book, ONE chapter book, and ONE non-fiction work. I keep thinking there's got to be a way to get our cumulative reading experiences out to the public in a useful form, and this seems less labor-intensive than web reviews by us, or a paper newsletter.

Looking forward to your comments...