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How to compile ideas for a municipal reading room.



Dorie Clark, Boston Phoenix news  dclark@phx.com
Public attraction
So few people attend Boston City Council meetings that
public participation is almost nonexistent.
Here are nine ways to boost attendance.
By Dorie Clark
http://bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/01636589.htm

Rosaria Salerno, City Clerk
rosaria.salerno@ci.boston.ma.us

Ann Hess, City Council  ann.hess@ci.boston.ma.us
Gail Fithian, BPL  Curator  govdocs@bpl.org
Bernie Margolis, BPL President  bmargolis@bpl.org

Reply To:
dsaklad@gnu.org


Thank you for the information Rosaria Salerno!

On the whole people do find city hall problematical to
 navigate. The City hall manner of relating to people
 stopping by the plaza level information desk is an
 experience that alienates brutally.

A building directory needs to be available via
http://cityofboston.gov


One idea which BPL President Bernie Margolis
bmargolis@bpl.org has discussed is a municipal reading
 room in city hall where we could find at hand, primary
 documentation ready for reading
http://www.bpl.org/www/generalinfo/planapp.html


This concept is used in medical centers like Beth
 Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Massachusetts
 General Hospital where people can get information from
 interested volunteers at a resource center.
http://www.bidmc.harvard.edu/learningcenter/index.ASP
http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/depts/pflc/home1.htm


A learning center approach to learning how folks in
 city hall do what they do and what happens back stage
 behind the scenes so to speak. A resource center
 municipal reading room could even introduce public
 service careers to the most talented high schoolers
 and college students as first choice careers because
 more available information sparks greater interest and
 greater public participation in our government.

A self help center is a similar concept
http://www.gis.net/~richardi/dept2.htm
http://www.superiorcourt.maricopa.gov/ssc/sschome.html
http://www.gis.net/~richardi/


Boston Public Library Government Documents Department
 Curator Gail Fithian's collections lack current
 documents and documents updates
http://www.bpl.org/WWW/govdocs/govdocs.html
govdocs@bpl.org


An ordinance might be one vehicle for better more
 thorough transmittal of city documents. Is it true
 that Toronto has such an ordinance for the transmittal
 of city documents to the city public library?...

 Then people have additional hours for reading
 materials after 5pm and weekends.




Cheers! and kind regards,
oo__ dWs

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