LISNews: Librarian News

Why Twilight Sucks:
1) It’s incredibly sexist … toward men
2) Edward is a creepy stalker
3) Bella is the worst kind of “Mary Sue”
4) It led to 50 Shades of Grey
5) People have been tricked into thinking it’s good writing

For the 16 models of the Tattooed Youth Librarians of Massachusetts calendar, ink doesn't just belong on the pages of a book.

"They're really associated with your character, but it's a piece of art on your skin," says Noelle Boc, head of children's services at the Tewksbury Public Library.

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Google's latest transparency report is out and the notable bit of info is that governments continue to increase how often they're seeking info about users. The increase there is a steady growth which is immensely worrisome. There's also an equally troubling increase in the attempts to censor content via Google, though in that case, it was relatively flat until the first half of this year when it shot way, way up.

Via TechDirt...

There is a certain irony in this case and all others like it. Now every teenager in Guilford County knows there is a prurient title out there they might actually want to read. We predict circulation of “The Handmaiden’s Tale’ will rise dramatically. It is not an easy read, but it might lead some to explore other titles by a well-respected author who has things to say to young people, and indeed others.

Finally, it is presumed that the complainants have read the book – not the odd passage, but actually read it. And thus be willing to publicly respond in the affirmative to the question, “Have you read this book,” if asked.

The future of e-books in libraries is not entirely rosy, however. Library associations throughout the country are responding forcefully to a troubling change in the relationship between libraries and publishers with regard to the latter's digital content. Certain publishers, such as Macmillan and Simon & Schuster, refuse to sell their e-books to libraries. Others, such as Penguin, have lately restricted the titles, authors and digital formats they make available to libraries.

Ten libraries and museums across the country are being honored at the White House for contributions they have made to their communities.

They will receive the 2012 National Medal for Museum and Library Service on Wednesday. The 10 honorees range from school libraries and children's museums to a park conservancy.

This year's honorees include the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, Fla., and the Long Island Children's Museum in Garden City, N.Y.

With the recent stories about disasters, legal wrangling, and futurism, let's look at a hands down, slam dunk, win-win idea for libraries: dogs! Many school and public libraries use therapy dogs in their reading programs, calming children to widespread acclaim. Academic libraries also make use of therapy dogs, calming homesick students during finals week. These projects involve minimal costs and have a profound impact. Don't let a lawyer or administrator use absurd logic to deny you this wonderful opportunity to have patrons perceive the library as a comfortable and welcoming atmosphere. And remember: refusing to allow a service animal in to a building is also a violation of federal law. What are your dogs in libraries stories?

This week's program has a bit of an essay on economic concerns that talks about shooting for "doing less, better" instead of "doing more with less" while also presenting a news miscellany. Reference is also made to a disturbing attack on members of the news media in Oakland, California.

Related links:

• SF Chronicle: Oakland robbers attack TV cameraman
• The Volokh Conspiracy: Stock Market Has Worst Day This Year
• Zero Hedge: Foodstamps Surge By Most In One Year To New All Time Record, In Delayed Release
• Ars Technica: How an Indonesian ISP took down the mighty Google for 30 minutes -- Internet's web of trust let a company you never heard of block your Gmail.
• The Register: Files aren’t property, says US government -- New twist in Megaupload case a threat to all clouds, claims EFF
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Megaupload and the Government's Attack on Cloud Computing
• Library of Congress Public Affairs Office: Library of Congress to Host First International Summit of the Book
• The Verge: Egyptian prosecutor tells government to block online porn
• The Register: Egypt takes hard line on internet pr0n, calls for total ban -- EFF warns of more censorship to come
• The Register: China blocks all Google services as new leader anointed -- Great Firewall locks down Middle Kingdom
• BBC: Library closures may be unlawful, MPs warn
• The Mirror: Not by the book: Library closures 'against the law', say MPs -- Such a move could break a legal requirement for ­councils to provide a “comprehensive and efficient” library service
• The Guardian: Library closures may be unlawful, says Commons select committee -- Report claims councils may be failing in statutory duty to provide 'comprehensive and efficient' service as campaigners' fears grow
• Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals: CILIP response to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee Report on Library Closures
• Bilal Akhtar: Using the Raspberry Pi as a web server

Download here (MP3) (Ogg Vorbis), or subscribe to the podcast (MP3) to have episodes delivered to your media player. We suggest subscribing by way of a service like gpodder.net. Support and subsistence items for the production team can be purchased and sent from here via Amazon, as always.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

This morning Wisconsin Public Radio devoted an hour to discuss the role libraries play in our lives and communities. Guests: --Wayne Wiegand (WEE-ghend), library historian and author of books including Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland. He's a former professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison --John Cole, Founding Director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress

This post provides information on how librarians can donate money to help rebuild libraries impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Ms. Skinner's goal is to get as much of the library community involved as possible, and she has created a Twitter hashtag (#sandylibraries) and space in the blog comments for people to share their donations so she can track them. She is also asking for suggestions, so she can build as comprehensive a list as possible.

http://juliacskinner.com/2012/11/06/rebuilding-libraries-after-hurricane-sandy/

From NBC News.

From November 11-29 Librarians Without Borders' hosts their Guatemalan partner, Jorge Chojolán, on a speaking tour in five North American cities: Toronto, London (Ontario), Ottawa, Montreal, and Los Angeles.

Jorge is the founder and director of the Asturias Academy, a progressive K-12 school that offers education for students from low-income and indigenous families. The speaking events will focus on education reform, leadership, libraries, literacy, and indigenous issues and culture in Guatemala.

Since 2009, Librarians Without Borders has worked with Jorge and the Asturias Academy to promote literacy and libraries in Guatemala. Through many hours of fundraising, planning and hard work, Asturias was able to open a community library to students and their families in January 2011.

For detailed information on the events, time, and places, read more here. All these events are free and open to the public.

The developers behind the Book Genome Project and Booklamp.org have launched a Kickstarter campaign for “The Game of Books,” a new digital card and role-playing game designed to reward young adults for reading. Funding raised by the campaign would be used to design, produce, and distribute 4,000 Game of Books starter kits to U.S. libraries.

Full piece at Library Journal

Author Leigh Bardugo says that when she was 12, Dune wasn't just an escape — it changed her world.

Full piece

Beyond temporary power outages and minor wind and water damage, libraries along the Atlantic coast weathered Superstorm Sandy fairly well, considering all the flooding and destruction inflicted on homes and businesses. Although some areas of central New Jersey were still without power six days after the storm, many public libraries in affected states were powered up and serving as community support centers for residents without electricity, internet access, or heat.

Full article here

The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States

The Machinery of Democracy: Protecting Elections in an Electronic World

Bush V. Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy: Abridged and Updated (Landmark Law Cases and American Society)

Mike Shatzkin --- On Thursday of this week, I’ll be at the Charleston Conference appearing in a conversation organized by Anthony Watkinson that includes me and Peter Brantley. Brantley and Watkinson both have extensive backgrounds in the library and academic worlds, which are the milieux of most attendees at this conference. I don’t. I am being brought in as a representative of the trade publishing community. Watkinson believes that “the changes in the consumer area will break through into academic publishing and librarianship.” I am not so sure of that.

Full blog post at The Shatzkin Files

This week's program refers to internal refugees, has a reading from a work by Robert Heinlein, and brings a news miscellany.

Related links:

• Zero Hedge: Chart Of The Day: America's Geriatric Work F(a)rce
• IETF Journal: Moving Toward a Censorship-free Internet
• The Register: Where are all the open-source mobile projects? -- Beauty of Apple and Android not found on a server
• TeleRead: The Disappearing Market Share of the E-Reader: Is it now a transitioning technology?
• The Verge: Read the full run of 'Omni' magazine at the Internet Archive
• Public Libraries News: Inquiry into Library Closures to be published on Tuesday
• The Verge: Disney buys Lucasfilm, plans to release 'Star Wars: Episode 7' in 2015 (update)
• National Review Online's Deroy Murdock: A Tale of Two Cities
• Reuters: Housing crisis looms as storm victims battle cold
• Worldcat.org: For us, the living : a comedy of customs

Download here (MP3) (Ogg Vorbis), or subscribe to the podcast (MP3) to have episodes delivered to your media player. We suggest subscribing by way of a service like gpodder.net. Support and subsistence items for the production team can be purchased and sent from here via Amazon, as always.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/.

Some libraries in NYC were lucky. Remarkably, NYPL’s system, incorporating libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, suffered virtually no structural damage, says Angela Montefinise of the NYPL. Queens and Brooklyn have separate systems.

Some stories from:

The literature and reading scholar tells us about the profound effect that the rise of electronic literature has had on authors, the publishing industry and the nature of the book.

Five Books Interview at The Browser