At a Philadelphia Conference, The Research Topic is Libraries

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Shhhhh!   Philadelphia is hosting the 2014 Library Management Institute Summer Conference.

This sixth conference is the first to meet in a center city hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn, at 11th and Arch), with topics ranging from library money management to hiring, and even how to run a military library.

Institute executive director Rayleen Rivera-Harbach says the meeting attracts dozens of library leaders.

"It's both public and academic.  We have about 50-50 coming from everywhere in the United States," she said today.

The first keynote speaker was Susan Fink, PhD, of Rowan University's library, who says with so much information online nowadays, a library must be people friendly.

"It's nothing to walk through and see a group of kids studying together, but not together," she says.  "They're sitting physically together, but they're not studying the same topic.  They just want to be close in proximity."

So, one session is on new architecture for libraries.

In:
• KYW Newsradio 1060
• Rowan University
• Community
• Education
• Philadelphia