I just spent a frustrating 1/2 hour at Chase. Why? A few months ago I registered LISjobs.com as a DBA and opened up a business account, mainly to deposit some very small checks from things like Google ads. I chose Chase because we have a personal checking account there, and I saw an ad on their site that they would waive business account fees for accounts linked to personal accounts.

The banker I signed up with (who of course wasn’t in today) assured me that this was the case, that I wouldn’t be charged any service fees, no worries.

This month, a $10 monthly service fee showed up on my business account. This is pretty significant, given that I have under $500 in there and they of course don’t pay any interest.

So, into the bank I go. No, they’re so sorry, they don’t have any such deal, and I obviously didn’t read the fine print. There was only an introductory 90-day fee free period. They’ll waive it just this once but it will keep being charged each month. Fees are only waived if I use my business credit card with them every month, or if I link to a “premiere” personal checking account in which we need to maintain a $15,000+ balance or be charged a $20 monthly service fee, and this of course has to be what the guy told me.

Now. I didn’t have a $15,000 balance in my checking account in March. I don’t generally maintain a $15,000 balance. I do not nor have I ever had a “premiere” checking account. And, this is not what the guy told me, or I wouldn’t have signed up for the account.

OK, fine, say I. Close the account and move the money to my personal checking account. Oh, sorry, they can’t do that today. Why? Since they waived the $10.00 fee “just this once,” it’s showing up as a pending credit to the account so I can’t close it until that clears, I have to come back another day.

Lesson learned: Get it in writing. I went home and checked my original paperwork, of course, nothing about the fee being waived. Too bad for me! And, way to be unfriendly to home businesses, Chase — Thanks!

Tasha Squires, author of Library Partnerships: Making Connections Between School and Public Libraries

Pop culture mavens Sophie Brookover and Elizabeth Burns, authors of Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community

They. All. Rock! Come on by :).

(Blog it, Baby!)

Dear Rachel,

In 2005 on the occasion of GSLIS 75th Anniversary, you were selected as one of 75 Notable Alumnae/i by Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science….

It goes on to ask me to consider a gift of at least $100 to help establish an endowment to fund scholarships, faculty and professional development, and “other endeavors.” And ends with:

PS: If you consider earning your MLIS degree a life-changing achievement that put you on course for your notable career, we hope you’ll join us in making a gift so others can earn this degree and embark on their own notable careers.

What’s notable here is this is the first I’ve heard about being selected back in 2005. You’d think someone would have mentioned it at some point over the last four years before using the topic to solicit donations. Just saying.

(But I feel so notable now! Someone buy me a drink at ALA )

Tag cloud in my trib

Originally uploaded by lib_rachel

I’m always taken aback by efforts to translate things that work well online into print. This showed up in yesterday’s Chicago Tribune — although they call theirs a “word cloud.”

It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with a number of ITI authors, but I was never so intimidated as when editing Kathy Dempsey’s The Accidental Library Marketer — given that she edited some of my own earliest work over at Computers in Libraries magazine. Be that as it may, her due-out-any-day-now book, quite simply, rocks. Get it. Now. In tough economic times her succinct and down-to-earth advice is more important than ever.

Also, if you’re headed to ALA next weekend, be sure to stop by Kathy’s book signing at the annual Swap & Shop on Sunday July 12. Swap & Shop runs from 11-1:30 in the special events area in the exhibit hall — so you can go even if, like me, you’re only springing for the exhibits pass! And check out her new site at LibrariesAreEssential.com — the URL sums it up right there.

Dear ALA: Here’s a shamelessly self-promoting suggestion — why not link up to LISjobs.com? Just a thought.

Anyway. What do you all think of it?

When I travel, even if it’s back home to visit family, I like to check out different libraries. Yesterday, I visited the Post Falls, ID library for the first time — and what a nifty little library it is. They have their used book sale set up in a separate room as a permanent store, and I bet they sell a lot more that way due to the openness and nice arrangement.

What I liked even more, though, was the way they fit local and Native design into the building.

This greets you in the lobby, and looks into the children’s department. When you walk into the Post Falls Library, you know you’re not in just Any Old Library, Any State.

They’ve also nicely blended in technology here and in a separate computer lab, preserving the open feel of the building while incorporating the new.

I’d love to have study groups or small meetings in this little conference room off the lobby! I’d also really like to sit here and read during the winter.

We complain about what libraries do wrong a lot, so I also like to comment on what they do right. At least on the surface of things, this library seems to do a lot of things right — I felt welcomed as soon as I walked in, and the design and architecture were intriguing without being intrusive. If you’re ever out this way, pop by!

Elsevier officials said Monday that it was a mistake for the publishing giant’s marketing division to offer $25 Amazon gift cards to anyone who would give a new textbook five stars in a review posted on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. While those popular Web sites’ customer reviews have long been known to be something less than scientific, and prone to manipulation if an author has friends write on behalf of a new work, the idea that a major academic publisher would attempt to pay for good reviews angered some professors who received the e-mail pitch.Here’s what the e-mail — sent to contributors to the textbook — said:

“Congratulations and thank you for your contribution to Clinical Psychology. Now that the book is published, we need your help to get some 5 star reviews posted to both Amazon and Barnes & Noble to help support and promote it. As you know, these online reviews are extremely persuasive when customers are considering a purchase. For your time, we would like to compensate you with a copy of the book under review as well as a $25 Amazon gift card. If you have colleagues or students who would be willing to post positive reviews, please feel free to forward this e-mail to them to participate. We share the common goal of wanting Clinical Psychology to sell and succeed. The tactics defined above have proven to dramatically increase exposure and boost sales. I hope we can work together to make a strong and profitable impact through our online bookselling channels.”

Hmm. I wonder how much they’d pay me to not post a negative review? As if the Merck fake journal thing weren’t bad enough. Ooh, wait! I wonder how much the going rate in Amazon gift certificates is for five-star reviews of fake peer reviewed journals?

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the “anything to make a buck” mentality, but I must be naive. Idonotgeekelseviertoday.