LISNews: Librarian News

Read this story Here. From the Register-Guard.

In a crowd of public officials and business leaders, Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey picked out the one person who could exemplify the purpose of the city\'s first branch library. -- Read More

Read this story Here. From Newsday.

ZONDORA WILSON is a graduate student in sociology at the State University at Stony Brook. But several times a month
she takes the train from Port Jefferson, where she lives, to
Manhattan, where she does her research for her PhD. -- Read More

An article on the findings of filtering advocate David Burt. Read this story Here. From the Washington Times.

An Oregon librarian who conducted a nationwide survey found more than 2,000 complaints about pornography in public libraries. -- Read More

The Freedom Forum has a nice article on the latest states (FL and PA) to attempt filtering in libraries Here.

In Florida, House Bill 1081, introduced on March 7, would require public libraries to install blocking software on half of their computers to prevent patrons from accessing \"materials that contain obscene descriptions, photographs, or depictions.\" Pennsylvania lawmakers are considering House Bill 2324, which would require both public schools and libraries to adopt acceptable-use policies. The Child Internet Protection Act would also require the use of blocking software.

They also have links to stories on four more states making filtering movesNJ AL UT and IN. -- Read More

MSNBC and about 1,000 other places, have the story on how well Stephen King\'s new book is doing. It seems the demand for the E-Book was 10 times what they expected it to be, bringing down the servers set to download the book. Even Amazon.com couldn\'t keep up. This could certainly help the epublications industry.

The Washington Post has an article on how epublications, like Stephen King\'s new book, are going to effect publishers. Could the web bring an end to the role of publishing as we know it?

\"
All of a sudden, the roles of publishers, printers, distributors and sellers of books are called into question.\" -- Read More

The Times UK has this story from Russia

The Russian electoral authorities yesterday banned the sale of a new book about Vladimir Putin that casts the acting President in a tough, uncompromising light.
The book, called From the First Person: Interviews with Vladimir Putin, was written by two journalists who conducted 24 hours of interviews with the former KGB officer, who is set for victory in presidential elections on March 26.

The Andover News Network has a scary story on a new law under consideration in VA that would give manufacturers of software access to your hard drive. The law would allow software makers to place a self-destruct feature in the software, AND even go in your computer to shut it off if they have reason to believe you violated your user agreement.
Read the entire article Here

Check out 4cite.org for more info. -- Read More

Excite News has A Story on the British Libraries plans to use an sound archive, which contains more than one million discs and 175,000 tapes covering music, speech and wildlife, had tended to only file audio recordings of major live and recorded events broadcast by the BBC. A full catalog of the 1990\'s radio.

Andy Lineham, pop music curator of the sound archive, said: \"The collection gives a great representation of 1990s independent radio programming.\" -- Read More

This story on a banned book in OH. It seems 2 parents complained, so the Principal pulled the book \"Hoops\" from a classroom.

\"As principal of the school, I do not wish for the students to work with books that use that type and amount of vulgarity,\" -- Read More

Microsoft is slowing turning into a mutual fund, buying large stakes in companies that are in the internet industry. The newest buy is RealNames, a company that allows people to use keywords, instead of URLs to navigate the web. CNet has the story Here.

Nico Popp said the company wants \"to eliminate the URL from the user experience.\"

Does this sound like too much control? -- Read More

Read this story Here. From Yahoo UK.

Roald Dahl, one of the world\'s most popular children\'s novelists and author of \"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\", has been voted Britain\'s favourite author in a poll.

\'The Catcher in the Rye\' is challenged yet again. Read this story Here From the The Huntsville Times.

In a 4-3 decision, the Limestone County Board of Education voted Monday night to allow the controversial novel \'\'The Catcher in the Rye\'\' to remain in libraries at the county\'s five high schools.

But the seven-member school board, meeting at East Limestone High School, was told a West Limestone High School parent has asked to have banned the book \'Tell Me Everything,\' also optional reading for high school students. -- Read More

Read the latest on this story Here. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

A book challenged by a parent for its sexual and violent content will not be removed from all junior high school
libraries because it describes issues faced by Arlington students,school officials announced yesterday.

The book, `We All Fall Down\' by Robert Cormier, was challenged by a parent of a 12-year- old Boles Junior High student. The school removed the book in January. Yesterday, all junior high librarians reviewed it. -- Read More

Read this story on the Van Hollen bill Here. From the Baltimore Sun.

William D. Ivins III was in the quiet room at the Wheaton Regional Library when he saw something disquieting in a nearby computer area.

Three young boys, between 10 and 12, were viewing sexually
explicit material over the Internet. One was participating in a sex chatroom. Two others were viewing pornographic pictures. -- Read More

InfoToday has a very interesting piece on an agreement between Innovative Interfaces and NetLibrary that will develop enhancements to its Innopac and Millennium library automation systems to help manage the acquisition of netLibrary’s e-books into library collections.
They say this will alloe tighter integration of e-books into the online catalogs of Innopac and Millennium.Very cool stuff, if they pull it off. -- Read More

Wired has cool story on Stephen King and his new E-Book. They call it \"a move suggesting that e-books are penetrating the mainstream market\". Read the full Here.

\"I\'m curious to see what sort of response there is and whether or not this is the future,\" King said in a statement. -- Read More

The book, `We All Fall Down,\' was written by Robert Cormier, a respected and award-winning author of literature for young adults is under fire in Arlington, Texas, where all the librarians in the school district are meeting to decide the books fate. Read about it from The Star-Telegram

The Boles Junior High School library removed the book after the parent of a 12- year-old complained. The student had taken the book home to read for extra credit in a seventh-grade English class. -- Read More

A Monmouth County New Jersey lawmaker wants public libraries and school districts to restrict Internet access for minors or risk losing state library aid. Read about it at The Asbury Park Press

\"In a news conference at the Statehouse yesterday, Corodemus compared allowing children to surf the Web freely with letting them play on a busy highway. Many parents are vigilant about policing what their children can see on computers at home, he said, so libraries should be no different. \"
A parent complained to the library trustees and the town\'s governing body about an incident, in which she said her son\'s \"mind was molested\", her son came across a graphic sexual image. -- Read More

Have you ever seen an entire story devoted to an OPAC? Well Here\'s one from McCalls.com on the troubles with a new OPAC in Bucks County, PA. It seems the new system has more than a few bugs, enough to render it almost useless. $695,000 down the drain?

\"Taos went online in late December. It hardly has performed as expected -- instead of speeding up the search process, Taos has caused logjams at each of the system\'s seven branches. It has not been unusual for Taos to crash, Moody said, freezing the searches of everyone using a computer terminal to track down a book.\" -- Read More