LISNews: Librarian News

Bexar County, Texas, is set to launch a huge project they're calling "BiblioTech".

... the BiblioTech library will have 100 e-readers for loan, and an initial selection of 10,000 digital titles. The library itself will have a host of computer stations where patrons can study, use the Internet, and learn computer skills.

Meanwhile, readers at home can check out e-books without leaving the couch. It's estimated that the library's services will reach about 1.7 million people in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio. The BiblioTech project is designed to supplement the existing city library system.

We've heard of "virtual" libraries before, but what I find interesting about this is the emphasis on e-readers for loan, not just computer terminals or digital holdings. However, I have to wonder how 100 e-readers are meant to serve a population of 1.7 million. I assume that's just a starting point, but I'm fascinated to see how this model develops and what it will mean for other public libraries and managing digital readership.

Edited to add - "Anonymous" in the comments below is absolutely right to call me out on using "without books" when I meant "paperless." --Amy

Current darling of the literary world, Keith Richards, is in trouble with his childhood library.

It's hardly the most rock and roll rap he’s ever faced. But after a lifetime of hell-raising Keith Richards has finally been brought to book – for unpaid library fines dating back 50 YEARS.

The Rolling Stones legend, 69, admits he still owes for books he borrowed and failed to return to his local public library in Dartford, Kent, when he was a teenager.

And at 15p a day – plus interest and admin fees – the star could be slapped with a bill for around £3,000.
Keith confessed: “I’ve still got overdue fines from about 50 years ago. They must be astronomical by now.”

But with an estimated personal fortune of £175million the veteran guitarist shouldn’t have too much trouble stumping up. Keith, who was once jailed on drug charges and admits he has drunk so much over the years he can’t remember all the Stones’ songs, reveals he was a bit of a bookworm in his early days.

The “Alternet” is one of three side-by-side installations that make up “Artists in the Archives: A Collection of Card Catalogs,” an exhibition that revitalizes library tools rendered obsolete by digital technology in the mid-1990s. Each installation includes a card catalog filled with art: the “Alternet” consists of works by 75 artists, “Book Marks” is the creation of a single artist, and “The Call to Everyone” contains contributions by several hundred members of the public.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/nyregion/artists-in-the-archives-at-greenburgh-public-libr...

A first edition copy of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" that contains author J.K. Rowling's notes and original illustrations is going on sale at a charity auction.

The personal annotations from the bestselling author included comments on the process of writing and a section from an early draft of the novel. They also included a note on how the bestselling author came to create the game of Quidditch.

Read more: http://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/harry-potter-book-with-author-s-notes-up-for-auction-...

A national atheist group said Monday that it will donate its literature for use in cabins and lodges in Georgia’s state parks after the governor’s recent decision to allow Bibles there.

David Silverman, president of the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists organization, said his group is just waiting for an answer from the state on what the best procedure is to donate several books, including one titled ‘‘Why I Am An Atheist.’’

The four-month-old Shelby White and Leon Levy Information Commons replaced the branch’s media section, providing a wood-paneled center with space for 70 laptop users, a 36-seat classroom and 7 meeting rooms, including a digital studio with green screen, microphone and video equipment.

It quickly became popular with freelance writers and other creative minds, but its uses have been quite varied, like as a safe space for immigrants to learn about the naturalization process and for parents to hold meetings about charter schools. And yes, even as a warm environment for a wedding.

“This is a sanctuary. It’s beautiful,”

More than ten years after becoming one of the first novelists to embrace the e-book format, Stephen King has become one of the first novelists to reject it.

King’s book, Riding the Bullet, was published as a one of the first e-books by Simon & Schuster in 2000 and sold for $2.95. Just recently King told the Wall Street Journal that he would withhold digital rights to his upcoming novella, Joyland, to be released in early June. The book will be sold by Hard Case Crime, an independent publisher of crime fiction paperbacks with pulp-style cover artwork. Hard Case Crime also published King’s The Colorado Kid in 2005.

Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/its-about-time/2013/may/21/stephen-king-...

From Melville House Books:

Beall’s list, created by University of Colorado metadata librarian Jeffrey Beall, collates the academic journals which he regards as questionable. His hard work on outing journals whose business and academic practices are less than reputable has caught the eye of one of the publishers he named and shamed, and now he’s being sued.

Bogus academic journals are a growing problem. Earlier this year, Gina Kolata in the New York Times called them a “parallel world of pseudo-academia”. Most of these journals are based on an online subscription model and call themselves “open access”. The ease with which people can be published in some of these journals, with only a semblance of legitimate oversight, has been met with concern by academics, who fear that junk research is being given the appearance of a properly accredited paper.

Jeffrey Beall is being sued by India’s The OMICS Group, which, according to Jake New in The Chronicle of Higher Education, has been the subject of scrutiny for bad practices, such as spamming and steep fees for authors after publication, not only by Beall, but also by The Chronicle.

A national atheist group said Monday that it will donate its literature for use in cabins and lodges in Georgia's state parks after the governor's recent decision to allow Bibles there.

David Silverman, president of the Cranford, N.J.-based American Atheists organization, said his group is just waiting for an answer from the state on what the best procedure is to donate several books, including one titled "Why I Am An Atheist."

"We expect fair treatment, we anticipate fair treatment and we look forward to fair treatment," Silverman said. "If the state is going to put Bibles in the cabins, they must allow alternate points of view — all alternative points of view without taking sides."

Story from ABC News.

Good Question!
As new legislation makes its way through the halls of Congress to try and fix the mess highlighted by the Librarian of Congress's refusal to extend a DMCA exemption on cell-phone unlocking an important question has arisen: to whom, exactly, does the Librarian answer?

And we're back. The first episode after the production suspension has a series of brief essays followed by a news miscellany.

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• Identica: glynmoody -- #Yahoo Board Approves #Tumblr Acquisition - http //ur1.ca/dxl32 this will end in tears
• The Annoyed Librarian: How the Internet Replaces Libraries
• The Travelin' Librarian: What’s a Library? -- Written by a man rich enough to live on W. 53rd St. who’s never been to the library and Googles everything
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• Ars Technica: Blogger writes about predatory publishing, is threatened with $1B suit
• Popehat: OMICS Publishing Group Makes A Billion Dollar Threat
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Publisher Threatens to Sue Blogger for $1-Billion
• The Guardian: Chinese internet -- 'a new censorship campaign has commenced'

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An interesting letter to the editor from Sonia Collins about replacing a public library.

See: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/opinion/replacing-donnell-library.html?src=rechp

Don’t sell and shrink our libraries. They are the stuff of democracy.

Good News Everyone... The Digital Divide has now been bridged by smartphones - the most advanced personal computing devices ever. While personal computers were disproportionally used by the rich, the white and the male, smartphones are more likely to be used by Blacks and Hispanics than Whites, and by girls as equally as boys.

Offutt AFB, headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), is consolidating the Thomas S. Power Library and the Offutt Air Force Base Education Center this summer due to sequestration.

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Libraries Changed My Life
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Real life accounts from library patrons whose lives have been changed for the better by libraries.

But they found out the hard way that they were wrong. The prestigious, academically sanctioned conference they had in mind has a slightly different name: Entomology 2013 (without the hyphen). The one they had signed up for featured speakers who were recruited by e-mail, not vetted by leading academics. Those who agreed to appear were later charged a hefty fee for the privilege, and pretty much anyone who paid got a spot on the podium that could be used to pad a résumé.

“I think we were duped,” one of the scientists wrote in an e-mail to the Entomological Society.

School Librarians As Facilitators of Learning from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

In a blog post, Economics professor and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman rediscovers the Public Library.

"Well, there are coffee shops...But you can only drink so much coffee. And the answer is, libraries!"

In her new book, "The Roberts Court," Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal and regular NewsHour contributor takes a look at the landmark decisions that have reached the Supreme Court during the tenure of Chief Justice John Roberts. She talks to Jeffrey Brown about her observations and interviews with the justices.

Poor eyesight can no longer be an excuse for not playing Scrabble at the Highland Public Library.

Vincent Alcorn, a Lakeland High School senior, made sure of that, creating a giant Scrabble set for the library for his Eagle Scout project.

“I worked along with librarian Dawn Dittmar to come up with the idea,” Alcorn said.

Full article