Time flies; we're due for yet another look back at the year's top library-related stories.
Honorary Mention: LISNews Update
In November, Blake Carver converted this site from Slashcode to Drupal. Have a look around if you haven't been here in a while.
10. Get Over Yourself
Those "Librarians are people too" stories continue to get attention. This year saw the release of a navel-gazing documentary [1] about librarians in popular culture and a New York Times style section exposé [2] on librarian socialites.
9. The Boy Who Lived
Pottermania reached full tilt in July with the release of the last Harry Potter book. Despite many [3] precautions [4], images of the book were posted [5] online [6] before the official release date. And lest you think that's the end of the matter, more [7] Potter [8] stories [9] keep coming.
8. The Chinese Boo-boo
A journalist named Shi Tao [10] is currently a political prisoner in China, thanks in no small part to Yahoo! disclosing -- in compliance with Chinese law -- his identity to the Chinese government. The company has since apologized [11] (and settled [12] out of court), so we may safely resume entrusting our personal data to corporations.
7. No Such Thing as Bad Publicity
Two of this year's more eyebrow-raising marketing ideas were the BET "Read a Book [13]" video and the Wyoming Libraries mudflap [14] icon. Here's to more libraries escaping the "Zone of Mediocrity [15]."
6. That's DVD-Arrr, Matey
A key to crack [16] HD-DVD encryption made the rounds in May, thanks in no small part to efforts at suppressing posting the key gone awry.
In other format news, Google signed [17] on another slew of scanning partners, and a new wave of e-book readers debuted this year, including Amazon's Kindle [18]. RIP paper?
Bonus: Wild about Wireless
In one of the stranger stories this year, a college library director quit her job [19] over fears of health risks from Wireless Internet signals. Tin foil hat, anyone?
5. Get Your Game On (2.0)
Talk of libraries using social software [20] and gaming [21] to reach patrons abounds these days, enough to warrant a realistic [22] look at the ways our products and services are going virtual [23].
4. We Shall Overcome
Labor disputes in Canada this year led to a librarians' strike at both the Vancouver Public Library [24] and the Greater Victoria Library System [25]. Meanwhile, a strike in Hollywood [26] over Internet royalties showed how it's not just libraries that are slow to evolve a modern business model.
3. Freedom Watch
Some highlights from this year's perennial entry: prisons removing [27] religious texts; the "scrotum [28]" affair; and a curious [29] tactic [30] in grass-roots weeding.
2. That Giant Sucking Sound
OPACs. Twenty-year-old systems designed on what was, at the time, a twenty-year-old standard format itself. Yet library catalogs got a new lease on life this year, with gains by the Open Source ILS [31] movement and increased use of "next [32]-generation [33]" software. Throw in the fledgling federated searching [34] market and questions about the future of bibliographic control [35] and you've got interesting times ahead.
1. Dewey Who?
Though not earth-shattering news in itself, a librarian's reaction to the Dewey-less [36] library [37] story [38] is a pretty good litmus test of whether or not they still belong in the profession.
What was your favorite library story of 2007?