LISNews: Librarian News

Chris Sherman describes the whirlwind proceedings at the Fifth Annual Search Engine Conference at this Information Today article. He assures us that the sessions generated more heat than light. -- Read More

Ron Force writes:The Washington Post has a very interesting Article entitled \"The Last Book: The Future of WordsThe future of reading, writing, storytelling, the words we use and the very way we think just might be a crotchety old guy named Harvey Ross, the inventor of the Bookbuilder, a machine that produces bound books on demand from electronic files. Imagine a PAPER copy of ANY book EVER written in your library! -- Read More

The Chicago Sun Times has this article on the circulation of e-books in libraries.
Patrons who are checking out e-books from their local library are finding them easy to use, but not as easy to read from as traditional printed books. However, they are still flocking to their local library to use them.
\"At the Algonquin Area Public Library, which began offering the gadgets last summer, patrons typically wait several weeks to check out one of six e-books. The library is adding a seventh.\" -- Read More

CNET has a
funny (In a sad way) Story on AOL\'s
\"youth filters\" that are filtering out sites like Ralph
Nader\'s Green Party or Ross Perot\'s Reform Party, and
The Democratic National Committee is blocked.

Sites promoting gun use are available, including
Colt, Browning and the National Rifle Association. But
prominent gun safety organizations are blocked,
including the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Safer
Guns Now and the Million Mom March. -- Read More

This article appeared in the Montreal Gazette.

\"When it comes to excuses for not returning a library book on time, Vesna Dell\'Olio has heard them all.

The librarian has seen adults shuffle up to her counter with their heads down and their faces flushed, mumbling something about ex-husbands and ex-wives having made off with the book. Or people admitting that they didn\'t want to return their late books because they thought the fine would be too hefty.\" -- Read More

The Union Tribune has a follow up Story on the Story from last week that a judge ruled 2 library books were pornography, not art.

\"\"It raises concerns, obviously,\" said Beverley Becker, associate director of the association\'s Office for Intellectual Freedom. \"Material shouldn\'t be found illegal because one person finds it offensive.\" -- Read More

Another interesting site sent in by Bob Cox

A Page from Erica Olsen (The Librarian with the Cool T-Shirt).

A collection of short funny library stories

\"This happened about 10 years ago, in the last days of the card catalog. A student came to the reference desk, having been referred there by the security person near the front entrance. She said, \"The catalog said to see main entry for further information, so I went to the door but they couldn\'t help me.\" Keeping a straight face was very difficult.\" -- Read More

A Story from NC that has several people calling library materials \"pornographic\"

\"Six of eight speakers asked for some materials to be stored in areas off-limits to children, and for filters on computers to limit access to obscene information. The other two speakers asked the committee to look into extending children’s summer programs and to consider building a library somewhere on or near Murchison Road.\"\"“On Holy Thursday, let’s consider wisely what we are doing,” Barton said\" -- Read More

Jon Carroll, a columnist for the San Fransisco Chronicle has this article about Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown\'s idea to hire Maya Angelou to become city librarian.
\"The library system in Oakland is in a state of semi-controlled chaos. One reason for that is that Jerry Brown has delayed appointing a new city librarian, the boss of said system. Indeed, libraries have seemed to rank just behind street shrubs among municipal priorities.\"
A well written \"librarian-friendly\" piece that adds to the debate as to who should be running libraries. -- Read More

The
Washington Post Has a fanatasticArticle on the Library
of Congress. Everything you wanted to know, and more.

\" Another truth America\'s Founding Fathers
held to be self-evident was that ignorance is the enemy
of democracy. In December 1800, before our young
government had finished moving to its new capital at
Washington, the good ship American left London
bearing 740 books bound for what was to become our
national library. -- Read More

Shar
on Giles writes:My colleague Jon Crossno
and I have recently published an article on our Library\'s
email alert service (University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center at Dallas.) It\'s a weekly service that
alerts our users to new Library resouces and
biomedical sites and news on the Web. It\'s not just a
rehash of our printed newsletter.
\"Promoting the Library by E-Mail Alert Service\" was
published in the April/May 2000 issue of MLS: Marketing
Library Services, pgs.4-6. It\'s also online at Infotoday.com -- Read More

Most
libraries have a policy regarding the inclusion of
self-published or vanity
press works. But what of vanity
e-books?M.J. Rose has a relevant piece
in Wired magazine titled E-Books for Writers, Not
Readers.It is at: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,35
722,00.html
He
notes that “while 5 percent of the survey
respondents said they BOUGHT Stephen
King\'s e-book, Riding the Bullet, less than 1 percent
claim to actually have READ
it.” So was the shooter firing blanks, one
wonders?The survey was by the Book Report
Network at: http:/
/www.bookreporter.com/brc/index.asp<
Rose
goes on to note that there are over 24 million writers in
the United States but
less than 5 percent have been published. Companies
such as Xlibris, iUniverse,
and Mightywords are wooing the other 95 percent, often
as not to what used to
be called vanity publishing. And the
public library issues are thought provoking,
indeed. -- Read More

Ron Force sent in this Story From The Seattle
Times, Friday, April 21 edition.

\"Architect Rem Koolhaas not only has designed a
striking exterior for the Seattle Public Library, but he\'s
apparently set on revolutionizing the library\'s interior, as
well.

Rumor is he wants the entire library collection (a k a
books) placed in a continuous sequence, arranged on
shelves ascending seamlessly from lower level to
upper levels. -- Read More

Ellen Freilich, a writer for Reuters
has written this
article for National Poetry Month.

\"April is National Poetry Month, a perfect excuse, if one is needed, to put aside prose and visit
some verse. To help young people observe the occasion, publishers offer an intriguing variety of new
and classic poetry books.\". -- Read More

Associated Press writer Carl Hartman
has written this
article about a celebration at the Library of Congress for the classic movie.

\"The small ``Oz\'\' show opening today is part of an elaborate celebration of the library\'s own
200th birthday on Monday. Just twice as old as Dorothy, it\'s now the world\'s largest collection
of books - more than 27 million.\" -- Read More

Frank Ryan writes:

The quote below is part of the introduction to a recently published book
entitled \"Mastering Information Management\" from the Financial Times. It is
a great opening to a \"milestone\" book ...
Putting the I in IT by Thomas H. Davenport

\"Imagine a world obsessed with plumbing. In this bizarre place, hundreds of
magazines and books, and even a few television channels, cover the plumbing
industry, celebrating the latest advances in valves, fixtures and pipes.
Cocktail party conversation is dominated by the issue of whether one brand
of sink drains faster than another. Plumbing equipment magnates are on the
cover of business and even general interest publications, and become the
world\'s richest citizens. Companies pay millions, billions, trillions to
connect all their plumbing devices and to ensure that pipes reach every
desktop, every home office, even every car.

\" -- Read More

News-Record.com in sunny NC has a nice Article on how libraries are appealing to children.

\"What\'s a sure way to get children and young adults into the single biggest vault of knowledge to be found in their town?
Simple: Appeal to their basic sense of greed.\" -- Read More

I just finished reading this comprehensive and insightful article written by Stephanie Ardito for Searcher Magazine.

A full overview of e-books is presented, from its history dating back to the late 1960\'s to its current and future trends.
Links to e-books products and directories are included in the link to the article. -- Read More

Ron Force suggested
The Seattle Times has a neat Story on the use of library green space as a sculpture garden.

\"New experiences are possible on a walk through the Kirkland Library, where the latest art exhibition, \"Sculptural Discoveries,\" took three years to assemble.

The works, all of which are from Sun Valley, are in Kirkland because of the community\'s desire to make something more significant out of a patch of grass on the roof of the library parking garage. -- Read More

The Denver Post has a Report on a new measure in the State House.

\"A measure that would censor the Internet on library computers and keep kids from being exposed to pornography won unanimous approval Wednesday from the House Education Committee.

But the committee rejected an amendment by Rep. Don Lee, R-Littleton, to require parents\' signatures when issuing library cards to minors. The amendment would have allowed parents access to library records so they could monitor what their children read.\" -- Read More