Friday updates for this week include Napster, Digital Bach, LOC stuff, great circulation stats, automated checkout, library book sales, university research money, Goodbye to books?, Filtering news, Finding Buried Treasure, Porn, No more quiet librarians, terrible landscaping, and much much more…plus, the Quote of the Week
Friday updates for this week include Napster, Digital Bach, LOC stuff, great circulation stats, automated checkout, library book sales, university research money, Goodbye to books?, Filtering news, Finding Buried Treasure, Porn, No more quiet librarians, terrible landscaping, and much much more…plus, the Quote of the Week
From ZDnet
\”I heard a rumor that Microsoft was buying the RIAA. It all
makes sense now. The U.S. government would force the new Microsoft Music
Division to stop \”bundling\” songs together in the form of
CDs. They\’d require that users be able to uninstall unwanted
songs (such as \”The Call of Ktulu\” off Metallica\’s S&M disc)
and replace them with competing tracks of their choice. But the
Justice Department also would make Microsoft Music charge
for each song, because giving them away would obviously
drive other musicians out of business. Microsoft Music might
even develop a \”music explorer,\” which would let people surf
collections of songs on the Internet — like I said, it\’s just a rumor.
To watch this week\’s demolition derby between the federal
government and digital technology, surf over to ZDNet\’s
complete coverage of the Napster blackout.\”
Digital Bach
Here is a Story on a cool new Bach Digital Library \”will make available a Web version (www.bachdigital.org) and a version with a resolution so fine that it can be used for study by specialists. To access the high-resolution version, musicologists would still need to file a request with the institutions.
The Shelf Evident Truth
Washington Post Story on the LOC in DC. \”The United States\’ greatest treasure house is the Library of Congress, now marking its bicentennial with an exhibit of Thomas Jefferson\’s papers and books and, among other items, his rough draft of the Declaration of Independence.
The anniversary is also being marked, appropriately, by the publication of three books.\”
County library system a formidable magnet
Kind words for the Orange County library in CA from OC Register.com.\” County library officials announced Thursday that a record 6 million books, compact discs, tapes and other items were checked out in the fiscal year that just ended.
County Librarian John Adams attributed the gain, up from 5.9 million last year, to several factors: an effort to get in-demand books, compact discs and DVDs, longer hours, even a push to install 400 computers throughout the 28-branch system.
\”When people come in, what they want is there,\’\’ he said.
Bangor library offers automated checkout
Forward thinking librarians in ME are allowing self checkout. This Story says it\’s slow to catch on.\”McDade said people of all ages have used the self-checkout system, but young people seem to be most comfortable with it. The library director said she hopes a second machine will be installed in the Children’s Room, so both of the library’s ‘‘checkout points’’ will offer a self-service option. The RapidCirc II retails for $20,000, according to McDade. The library, however, paid considerably less for the machine because Bangor is a test site for the equipment. \”
From Inside Denver
Book-lovers find \’steals\’ galore at library sale
\”Trish Ullery got a deal of epic proportions Thursday at the silver
anniversary of the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation\’s Used Book
Sale. \”I expected to pay $150 for the whole set,\” she said of a set
of historical epics by author Will Durant. Instead, they cost $38.
From the New York Times
Columbia Sets Pace in Profiting Off Research
\”When Fredric D. Price, the president of a nutritional-supplements
company, sought a partner to create an online information company,
NutritionU.com, he approached a Columbia University professor,
Dr. Richard J. Deckelbaum.
From Philstar.com
Goodbye to books?
\”Read in order to live,\” wrote the famous French novelist
Gustave Flaubert to Mlle. de Chantepie — presumably a loved one —
way back in June 1857. Obviously the author of the classic
Madame Bovary was referring to the written word clasped between the
covers of a book.
Another one from the New York Times
Federal Meddling or Local Empowerment? Congress and Educators Disagree
\”National education groups and library advocates are claiming a
federal proposal that would require the installation of filtering
software on school and library computers connected to the Internet
would only complicate an issue that is already being addressed at
the local level.
Yet another from the New York Times
Finding Buried Treasure, Random House Plans Archive for Literary Legacies
\”When the nation\’s largest publisher, Random House, took up new
temporary quarters in Manhattan this summer, it suddenly became clear
how random is its system for preserving a rich literary legacy that
embraces authors from William Faulkner to Toni Morrison.\”
From the Houston Chronicle
Documents requested in porn-blocking fight
\”A debate over filtering Internet pornography at Montgomery County
libraries heated up as attorneys opposing the policy formally
requested county documents they would need to prepare a lawsuit.\”
From the Arizona Daily Star
Library builders
\”Librarians must leave the quiet confines of their book stacks and
take their message of reading into the community, Tucson librarians
say. They\’ll share their methods of getting the public interested
in books at the Tucson convention of Reforma, a professional group
dedicated to improving library services in Hispanic and Spanish-speaking
communities\”
From JS Online
Finley proposes county takeover of library system
\”County Executive Dan Finley said Wednesday that the only way to
end years of bickering about funding of municipal libraries is for
the county to take over the entire Federated Library System. \”This is
the solution,\” Finley said. \”It\’s probably the only solution.\”
From the Deseret News
Landscaper leaves library floras \’dry\’
\”Unlike the usual public spaces covered with lush Kentucky
bluegrass and shade trees, the grounds of Salt Lake\’s Day-Riverside
Library are filled with things like buffalo grass, Russian sage,
milkweed and squaw bush. Peter Lassig leads tour of drought-resistant
landscaping, which he designed and maintains, around Day-Riverside
Library.\”
From the Washington Post
Library of Congress Questions Management of Gershwin Trust
\”The Gershwin Trust is renowned in the music business for its
assiduous protection of the copyrights of George Gershwin and his
lyricist brother Ira, still a multimillion-dollar business more
than 60 years after the composer\’s death. But now the inspector
general of the Library of Congress is questioning whether the
trust that looks after the works of the men who wrote \”Someone
to Watch Over Me\” needs a little watching over itself.
Quote of the Week
A strikers view on why the library in Ohio did not need to hire security guards
\”We\’re not the Teamsters, We\’re professional Librarians!\”
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