everyoneslibrary

Please feel free to browse a few of the common questions people have about everyoneslibrary.  If you do not find the answer to a question you have, please contact us through the contact links listed throughout this site. 

So, who are the people responsible for everyoneslibrary?

 Jim DiDonato:  Jim is the owner, creator, and lead site developer at everyoneslibrary. Jim started work many years ago providing technical support in private industry.  After receiving his MLS he started work as a reference librarian and served as a network systems administrator managing a medium sized network and technology needs at the Round Lake Area Library in northern Illinois.  Jim is currently the executive director of the Round Lake Area Library and hopes to provide IT and management experience to everyoneslibrary.

Kelly DiDonato:  Kelly is a reference librarian at the Lake Villa District Library in northern Illinois.  Kelly started her professional life as a reporter, when after a few years she decided to follow her passion in libraries.  Upon completion of her MLS, Kelly accepted a position as a reference librarian and is spectacularly skilled in readers advisory services.  Kelly is responsible for overseeing content quality and site workflow on everyoneslibrary.  She is also the long-suffering wife of Jim DiDonato, and is the one who will make sure he gets things done on this site!

Irene Scherer:  Irene has a background working in special education in elementary and middle schools in Nevada and Illinois.  After receiving her M.L.I.S. from Dominican University, she worked as a librarian in youth, teen, reference and technology services.   Irene is the site administrator and is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the forums, blogs, ads, and user support.

Why should we use everyoneslibrary when there are established social networking sites, such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, WebJunction, ILA, and ALA available to us?

Those are all terrific sites, but they are not all customized to the exchange of information between library staff.  Everyoneslibrary was created by library staff who each have over ten years experience in their respective fields.  Also, we personally know a lot of people in the field, have probably taken many classes together, attended the same meetings and conferences, worked together, and you can track us down on the street if you need to ask us something or make a suggestion about the site.

 Who can use this site?

 Anyone.  Everyone.

Do I need to register to use everyoneslibrary?

Though everyoneslibrary provides a lot of publicly accessible content, we do also produce quite a bit of controlled information, so users will have to register with us if they would like to post any content or access more proprietary information.

How much does it cost to join everyoneslibrary?

This is a free service.

There is no cost to join this site?  Why and how can you provide this service for free?

We do receive very minimal revenue from embedded advertisements on everyoneslibrary.  This helps us pay for the hosting service, some of the paid modules used on everyoneslibrary, and domain registration.  We also use as much open source software--Joomla--as we can to run everyoneslibrary.

What guarantee do I have that everyoneslibrary won’t fold or go away if another library system or ALA picks up this service?

Though we firmly believe there are many skilled library staff and extraordinarily well run library organizations that could offer the services everyoneslibrary is providing, we are doing so independently of any local, state, or federal funding, hence, we don’t anticipate any loss of infrastructure in the foreseeable future.  We would also like to express the need to have continued, lively, and widespread participation to maintain the vitality of everyoneslibrary.  Without your input, leadership, and participation, this user-driven community will not succeed.