LISNews: Librarian News

If you have $800us (US$550 at home) to burn you can now subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary Online.

They do have The Word of the Day for free. Today is RELIC. They promise to add an incredible number of new words to the online version.

Rebecca Hunt sent in this link to a Story from sunspot.net MD is the latest state to make a move on filtering.

Maryland State Senate Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr.\'s bill to require local library systems to develop policies to prevent children from being exposed to Internet pornography.
\"I hope his bill gives the librarian the power to go over and pull the plug or say, `You cannot view that material here,\' \" Ivins said. -- Read More

Be sure to read this editorial on collection development and selction practices from Steve Decker. Libraries need to address every patron\'s needs, whether they shop at WalMart or Lord and Taylor

Public Libraries: Where Designer Store meets Department Store

When we decide the library has the resources and space to develop a collection of music there will be those that will tell us that we need the classics–we need to honor and expand the minds of the public by presenting to them \"good\" music.
The Library\'s job is to \"offer.\" We have Shakespeare and Steinbeck but we also have Steel and Sheldon.
Oh, there are always matters of selection to be addressed. Let us address them together for the betterment of our public libraries.

Be sure to read on....

-- Read More

Businessweek.com has a suprising story on the growth of magazine readers thanks to the web. It seems the web is helping the magazine business, not hurting it.

\"The Internet, rather than stealing readers from the printed page, may turn out to be the best thing to happen to magazines since the printing press\" -- Read More

Read this story Here. From the South Bend Tribune.

Want the \"Mona Lisa\" in your kitchen or an Ansel Adams
photo in your den? Framed art is again available for
borrowing at the St. Joseph County Public Library in
downtown South Bend. -- Read More

Long live the bookmobile! Read this story Here. From the Kalamazoo Gazette.

The Kalamazoo Public Library bookmobile may be back on the road as early as next week.

\"We are loading up the new bookmobile right now,\" said
Terry Lason, head of loan-and-outreach services at the
Kalamazoo Public Library. -- Read More

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