LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News

Gods, Prophets and Outcasts...Another Harry Potter Tale

birdie — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:16:09 -0500

Insight and analysis into the fan feud between J. K. Rowling and HP Lexicon author, Steven Vander Ark from The New Yorker.

Add into the mix, Melissa Anelli, webmistress of "The Leaky Cauldron" who has won the approval of author Rowling. Says Vander Ark: “Melissa has done more to hurt me than Rowling. I can’t blame her for liking her status.” After all, he said, Rowling “is God and Melissa is her prophet.” He went on, “I am an outcast now. But I still consider myself a ‘Harry Potter’ fan.”

Still waiting for the judgment from the trial...

It's Children's Book Week!

birdie — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:27:31 -0500

It's Children's Book Week, and happily, the library in Salinas (CA) and many others are open to celebrate the event and encourage kids to read.

One way of celebrating Children's Book Week (today through Sunday) with your child is by adding an extra book or two to the family library. Here are a few suggestions you might wish to consider: "Eco Babies Wear Green", "Doctor Ted", "The House That Max Built", "Human Body" and "MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES A Classical Bestiary".

And from another part of the great state of California, suggestions from Mercury News, which include: ""Little Night/Nochecita", "In a Blue Room" and "The Day We Danced in Underpants."

Is your library doing special to celebrate? Clue us in...

Library Store Enters Third Year

birdie — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:23:41 -0500

Columbus GA library store, always there for all kinds of shoppers. "Interior designers choose the books because of the way they look," explained volunteer Alice Budge. "They get them to fill shelves in homes and businesses."

The store has raised more than $80,000 for library programs and services for children and adults. Some of those services are volunteer recruitment and training as well as sponsoring visits by authors. The store, run by volunteers, was made possible by a gift to the Muscogee County Library Foundation by Budge and her husband, former Ledger-Enquirer publisher John Greenman.

Why a store in a place where books are free?

"Some people just love to own a book. Children especially love to have a few of their own," Budge said. "At these prices they have a few."

Comparing Sales of Books, Movies, Games and Music

Blake — Mon, 12 May 2008 07:23:12 -0500

Everyone follows along with the biggest box office draws, top selling games, Billboard Top 100, and best seller lists, but how can you compare them? How Iron Man was trounced by a scruffy car thief tries to quantify the GTA lucrative launch against other mediums. The book "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" sold more than 10 million copies at launch. That's actually four million more than Bellic, but the Hogwarts student's final adventure cost about half as much as the game. *NSYNC beats them both, the pop quintet's "No Strings Attached" holds the record for biggest first-week CD sales with 2.4 million copies when it was released in 2000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That's far meeker than the first-week success of "Iron Man," "Deathly Hallows" and "GTA IV."

LISTen: The LISNews.org Podcast -- Episode #21

StephenK — Sun, 11 May 2008 23:02:04 -0500

This week's episode has a bit of a Rod Serling inspired feel to it. As the podcast is not a video one, we can control neither the horizontal nor the vertical. We can present a different look at things, though.

The podcast opens with a zeitgeist check by the podcast audio production engineer. An interview with Blake Carver follows with the fifth installment of Tech for Techies soon thereafter. The podcast audio production engineer wrapped up the episode.

As to the nature of any potential Ghoulardi-inspired podcast, the production team has no known plans.

To contact Stephen via Skype, the button below may be useful:

To contact the production audio engineer, the Skype button below might be helpful:

Related links:
When to Say When
Your Big Wig

Craig (of the List) Looks Beyond the Web

Bibliofuture — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:48:44 -0500

Article in the New York Times:

Imagine what it might have been like to be Dr. Kleenex. You invent a modern miracle, the cheap paper handkerchief, and suddenly you become the person blamed for America’s disposable culture, praised for a more convenient life, or both.

There never was a Dr. Kleenex, though — the product was created by a team of researchers at Kimberly-Clark laboratories in the 1920s. But there is a real Craig in Craigslist, and lately he is looking at life beyond his little list that happens to be the seventh-most-popular Web site in the United States.

It is also a site that is deeply tied up with the fate of newspapers — indeed, many in the newspaper industry blame the site’s founder, Craig Newmark, for the downturn in their classified-advertising business.

Full article here.

Buying your own books

Bibliofuture — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:46:48 -0500

On April 30th EarlyWord the site that bills itself as "The Publisher | Librarian connection" posted about the book Multi-Family Millions: How Anyone Can Reposition Apartments for Big Profits hitting #1 on Amazon. EarlyWord commented that "Lindahl does seminars on real estate investing. Wonder what his advice is on getting loans to buy those apartment buildings? The book has not been reveiwed pre-pub and is not owned in libraries."

Seemingly the book jumped to #1 with no reviews which raises the question of who was buying all the copies? To hit #1 on Amazon a significant number of copies need to move.

In comments to a negative review on Amazon it was suggested that the author is purchasing his own books to raise the sales rank. As of the time this is being written the sales rank is 959. Falling from 1st to 959th in eleven days seems unusual. You can see a chart of the sales ranking over time here.

Does a book hitting the Amazon top ten factor into purchasing decisions for any libraries out there? Does the fact that the sales rank can be gamed effect this? The WSJ has an article about the Amazon sales rank being gamed.

Lexicographical Longing

Bibliofuture — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:47:30 -0500

A commentary in the New York Times about the OED no longer being distributed in paper.

Follow Up On Schenectady Library Closure

Great Western Dragon — Sun, 11 May 2008 09:17:08 -0500

The Schenectady Daily Gazette has a follow up story to the one posted here about the Schenectady Public Library closing for a year while they remodel and retrofit the library with new HVAC and electrical equipment.

From the article:

Officials announced Saturday that the county will solicit additional bid requests for revised construction plans, with the hope that the alternatives will cost less than the current $7.7 million plan, tackle many of the same overdue updating priorities and close the library for considerably less than the 10 to 12 months forecast, which drew a firestorm of protest.

A Sad Anniversary...History Up in Smoke

birdie — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:57:11 -0500

A report from The Galesburg Register Mail, recalling the big fire of 1958 started by an exhaust fan in the attic of the Galesburg Public Library. Family documents and letters from Abraham Lincoln were among items lost in the classic Carnegie library fire 50 years ago.

“The whole history of the city has gone up in smoke,” lamented C. Russell Carlson, a library director, in the May 10, 1958, edition of The Register-Mail.

While early estimates were that the library had lost everything, about 40,000 books were salvaged, although many were water damaged. Some of the rarest books in the library’s collection were spared because they had been kept in a vault.

But what did go up in smoke, according to Galesburg Public Library archivist Patty Mosher, was around 200,000 books worth about $500,000 at the time, the only existing copies of Galesburg newspapers dating to the mid-1800s, 60 oak chairs and 28 oak tables, 600 stereo optic view cards and 30 to 40 percent of the library’s archival material, including several letters signed by Abraham Lincoln.

It’s not known how many photographs, papers, letters, local family histories and artifacts were lost — but to Mosher, those were the most valuable items destroyed by the fire because those documents told the story of Galesburg’s founding.

Norfolk (Canada) Deputy Librarian Walks Out On Her Job

birdie — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:13:37 -0500

The deputy CEO of Norfolk’s (Ontario) library system has resigned. Terri Pope, a branch librarian in Simcoe before she was promoted in 2006, left her post last week. Officials close to the situation suggest her departure was abrupt. "All I know is she cleaned out her desk, dropped off her keys and left a voicemail saying she would no longer be part of this organization," Bill Hett, acting CEO of the county library system and Norfolk’s general manager of community services, said yesterday. "I don’t know her future plans."

Library board chair Tom Morrison, of Port Dover, also suggested yesterday that Pope’s departure was abrupt. Morrison said Pope provided no notice. "I would have expected more professional courtesy," he said. "But we’re fortunate that, with the administrative team we have in place, we’ll be able to get through this with a minimum of turbulence." Canoe News.

Small Michigan Publisher Waits for the Word on J.K. Rowling's Lawsuit

birdie — Fri, 09 May 2008 10:01:00 -0500

They're just wild about Harry...the Harry Potter Lexicon that is.

Publisher Roger Rapoport, of RDR Books, is waiting to set the presses a-printing on the book by author and former Grand Rapids school librarian Steven VanderArk. The decision -- possibly to be made today -- is whether RDR Books can publish a 400-page lexicon/reference book about Harry Potter; J. K. Rowling is suing to stop the work from being published.

"It's very rare to stop the press. I honestly don't know what's going to happen," Rapoport says. "My goal is to publish the (lexicon) the best way possible."

But "no matter what else happens," Rapoport has reached beyond the boundaries of his own case to help other writers, publishers, documentary producers, Internet users "and so on" who might be faced with the same kind of litigation. Rapoport says he still has accumulated a "six-figure" legal bill despite receiving aid from Stanford University Law School's Fair Use Project. Report from Michigan Live.

When To Say When: Is it ever appropriate for us to shut down a thread on LISNews?

Blake — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:24:42 -0500

Though it's rare for any post at LISNews to get more than a few comments, on rare occasions a thread will take off and degenerate into the worst of what the internet has to offer; name calling, profanity, anger, stupidity and raw emotions. There have been a few occasions when people suggested I shut the comments down on specific discussions because of what they're seeing.

So I put the question to you, the raving lunatics that cause it to be raised in the first place: Is it ever appropriate for us to shut down a thread on LISNews because of what's being written?

CA Political Candidate: recognize this [fired] librarian for her noble resolve

Blake — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:52:18 -0500

Conway should back library assistant:

"It is reckless and irresponsible in a predominantly Christian community such as our own, to allow a good person to to be targeted and punished for a selfless act of protecting our children and our families from sexual predators. Thank God for people such as this librarian, I only wish those who act supposedly on our behalf were as selfless and beneficial to our community.
I firmly believe that the death penalty would make a fine deterrent to those that act in such egregious capacity against our children."

Here's the backstory in a March LISNews report on the firing of Brenda Biesterfield.

Singaporean Bicycle User Mad At His Library

birdie — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:10:27 -0500

It may have taken a while, but it appears that a ruckus kicked up by a library user over bicycle parking has had some effect.

Ten new bicycle racks now sit near the entrance of the Singapore National Library Board's community library at Victoria Street. Unlike 24 older racks facing Bain Street, these new racks are located near the library's glass-door entrance, for its users' convenience.

That might make cyclist and regular library visitor Bin Hee Heng happy, and then again, it might not. The Electric New Paper News has his story; a long and complex tale of bike parking, bike moving, bike locking, bike disabling, and more...

Trustees Vs Director: Who Has The Power?

Great Western Dragon — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:38:08 -0500

So who's in charge here?

That's the question the trustees are passing around the table at the Yakima Valley Regional Library (WA) where some members of the library board feel that the director is taking her authority too far. While the trustees aren't in agreement over the issue, newer members of the board claim that powers wielded by the director should be exclusively in the board's domain.

In an e-mail to the director, one of the board members stated "...you appear, act and perform as if your (sic) totally in charge. Board trustees for the most part seem to simply follow your directions rarely questioning your actions or spending."

Librarians Fashion Statement

birdie — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:53:11 -0500

Not every librarian is a fashion enthusiast...but those who are might be interested in...

... "Dirty Librarian Chains". Want one for yourself or a friend? Here's their website.

A Neat Email Tool

anderskb — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:34:49 -0500

I recently discovered Xobni ("inbox" backwards), a tool that seems like it might have a particular appeal for librarians. Xobni is a sidebar that works with Outlook and offers analytics, searching, email organization, a social networking method of organization and more.

Response to a Disgruntled Library Patron; Yes, we Sometimes Make Noise

birdie — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:45:18 -0500

From Hartfordshire, UK, a response to a Letter to the Editor from a librarian/educator (John Harris, Director of Children, Schools and Families, Herts County Council) about how yes, all age groups occasionally make noise at the library, but that's what modern libraries are all about. Get with the program cross and grumpy Mr. Hart!

Knife-wielding man at Ohio library

Blake — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:38:01 -0500

Sometimes I say to myself, "Blake, why not work in a public library?" Sometimes the answer is clear... Knife-wielding man at library: man held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill himself this morning at the Batavia Branch of the Clermont County Public Library. Police subdued him without injury to anyone, a library official said.

Four employees and three other patrons – including a woman with a small child – were in the library at 180 S. Third St. at the time, said Dave Mezack, interim director of the 10-library system.