LISNews: Librarian News

In 2012, Martin Richard, the 8-year-old Dorchester boy who was killed in the marathon explosions, marched at Boston’s City Hall to call for peace.

Richard’s second-grade class was there to “express themselves in a positive manner and become more engaged in the politics of the city,” according to a Boston.com story about the march.

The school says it is grieving for Martin and his family. It released his statement and identified Martin’s mother, another victim of the bombing, as a school librarian:

The Neighborhood House Charter School is mourning today the loss of our beloved student Martin Richard, during the tragic events at the Boston Marathon yesterday. He was a bright, energetic young boy who had big dreams and high hopes for his future. We are heartbroken by this loss.

We are also praying for his mother, Denise, our school librarian and sister Jane, another Neighborhood House Charter student, who were seriously injured yesterday. Our thoughts are with his father, Bill Richard, and older brother, Henry. They are a wonderful family and represent the very best this city has to offer.

Book censorship is being contrasted to gun regulation.

Picture and additional post at Teleread

Explosion at the Boston Marathon
Story here

There was also an expolsion at JFK Library

A third event just after 3 this afternoon at John F. Kennedy library is now being called either a fire or “an incendiary” device and it is too soon to say if it is tied to the explosions at the finish of the Marathon.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said earlier today “a third incident — explosion — was at the JFK Library” on Columbia Point. But he said that information could be “premature.”

Full article

UPDATE: Fire at JFK library likely unrelated

In light of the Air Staff being shorthanded with someone in hospital ICU, this week's episode brings only a news miscellany.

Related links:

• CBC News: Libraries without librarians don't make sense, forum told
• PC World: Serious LibreOffice update fixes 54 bugs
• The Verge: Ebooks made up 22.55 percent of all US publishing revenue in 2012
• Michael Geist: Canada's Digital Divide Likely to Widen Due to Access and Adoption Failures
• Michael Geist: The Canadian Digital Divide -- The Experience Just North of Toronto
• AEIdeas: Obama White House -- US likely faces ‘permanently slower’ economic growth
• The Register: Library ebooks must SELF-DESTRUCT if scribes want dosh - review -- Shovel UK taxpayer cash this way please, say publishers
• The Hill: News bites -- Broadcast lobby chief unalarmed by Fox threat
• PCMag.com: CBS Also Threatens to Yank Broadcast Stations Over Aereo
• Ars Technica: News Corp. COO -- If we lose Aereo lawsuit, Fox may stop broadcasting - Fox probably won't go cable-only, but they'll fight for their retrans fees.
• PCMag.com: News Corp. Threatens to Yank Fox Broadcast Networks Over Aereo
• AllThingsD: News Corp. Threatens to Pull Fox off the Airwaves if Aereo Wins

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In book news, a recent report shows that book publishers received nearly 23% of their revenues from sales of ebooks (versus paper books) during 2012. That’s up from 17% the year before. That comes from full-year data by the Association of American Publishers (AAP). The AAP includes 350 publishers, including large ones such as Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Harper Collins, as well as independents like Sourcebooks.
http://smallbiztrends.com/2013/04/ebooks-growth-up.html

Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways today's print dictionary is poised for transformation.

Interesting line in talk: Paper is the enemy of words

Uuuh, nope!:
In conclusion, there is a massive market failure going on right now. Magazines have outlived newspapers, based in-part on their affiliation with women. Not only that, but women have brought novels back into the popular consciousness, with young women leading the way.

With some small exceptions, the major new media ventures of the last decade have bypassed women altogether, and it is a regrettable mistake. It’s a big reason why — for all the success of Bleacher Report, Vox Media, Gawker, and HuffingtonPost — nobody seriously talked about IPOs.

“Shhh!”

Books are just about the Librarian’s most favorite thing in the entire world. Reading them can take you on exciting adventures in far-off lands, introduce you to new friends and cultures, and let you discover poetry, classic literature, science fiction and much more. If only everybody loved to read as much as she does, the world would be a better place…and quieter, too!

The Librarian feels that it’s extremely important to treat a book with the proper respect. You should always use a bookmark instead of folding down the corner of the page. Take good care of the dust jacket, and don’t scribble in the margins. And above all else, never – ever – return it to the library late!

Technology companies will occasionally acknowledge they were wrong — just last week Apple had to apologize to its Chinese customers — but you hardly ever hear them express doubt about the glorious future they are building for us all.

So it is refreshing to see Jason Merkoski, a leader of the team that built Amazon’s first Kindle, dispense with the usual techo-utopianism and say, “I think we’ve made a proverbial pact with the devil in digitizing our words.” And this: “If you’re willing to overlook the fact that Big Brother won’t be a politician but an ad man and that he’ll have the face of Google.” Mr. Merkoski even has mixed feelings about Amazon, which he left two years ago. “It’s hard to love Amazon,” he notes. “Not the way we love Apple or a bookstore.”

Full article

Mr. Merkoski just wrote a book - Burning the Page: The eBook revolution and the future of reading (Looks like the book is only coming out in ebook form)

The indication that an ordinary string of rare book thefts has evolved into a terrifying string of rare book thefts often comes down to this: the presence of a man whose sole job it is to get rid of library ownership marks. No other single trait indicates as certainly that a theft ring has moved from the amateur to the professional ranks. So while it seems encouraging that five people involved in the Girolamini Library thefts have been sentenced for their crimes, it had better only be the beginning of people being prosecuted. One of the men charged two months ago with playing a part in the scheme was a Bologna bookbinder whose job was to scrub books of their marks — and his presence, like that of a single cockroach, signals a much larger problem.

How to attract library patrons, build the community and show people that librarians are cool? One of the ways to do this is organising Bicycool Library in your town.

Bicycool Library is a bike ride for book and bike lovers usually organised by librarians. The idea of the event was born in Poland and first edition was organised in May 2010. In 2012 it was organised in almost 100 places in Poland. This year it will be organised between May 1st and June 9th in many places all over the world.

One of main goals of organising the Bicycool Library is to promote reading and riding a bike as a way of spending time. Promoting libraries and fighting against stereotypes about librarians is also very important to organisers. They would like to show people that library is the place where they can find not only books, but many unusual interesting events as well.

The Bicycool Library is also helpful in library advocacy. This action helps libraries to collect community and show that library connects people and give them oportunity to do something together and simply to have fun.

There are many ways library can organise it and make local event attractive. Variety of ideas and inspirations for organisers are avaliable on the project website: bicycoollibrary.org. Local organisers can also register there their local edition. This is the way to let organisers and librarians all over the world know how many local events will be organised. Also everybody will be able to see that a town is taking part in it, because every city, town and village will be marked on a special map showing “bicycool” places.

Soon more useful materials will be released on a Bicycool Library’s website, so make sure to visit the website regularly or simply like the project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bicycool.Library.

If you are interested in organising Bicycool Library in your town, let people know and register your local edition on the website. -- Read More

Highly recommend this story in New Haven (CT)'s Daily Nutmeg about an innovative approach to arts publicity

http://dailynutmeg.com/2013/04/10/stage-page-engage-off-script-by-the-book/

Several Texas A&M professors know something that generations of teachers could only hope to guess: whether students are reading their textbooks.

They know when students are skipping pages, failing to highlight significant passages, not bothering to take notes — or simply not opening the book at all.

“It’s Big Brother, sort of, but with a good intent,” said Tracy Hurley, the dean of the school of business. (If the intent is good anything goes)

Article from the NY Times.

While many libraries are, of course, still run by municipalities or schools, it has become more common for people to create their own, many of them, like Mellow Pages, seeking to include material that is unusual or that is curated with a particular audience in mind. For instance, ABC No Rio, a community and cultural center on the Lower East Side, maintains a zine library. And a group of librarians who joined the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York created a library at Zuccotti Park.

Read more about it at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/nyregion/at-a-do-it-yourself-salon-in-brooklyn-books-obscu...

TORONTO, Apr. 9, 2013 — Elementary school students in Guatemala will be able to borrow books from the library for the first time, thanks in large part to the work of librarians and library students.

Librarians Without Borders members from across North America will be traveling to the Miguel Angel Asturias Academy in Quetzeltenango (Xela), Guatemala from April 13-28, 2013 to collaborate on the development and operation of a school library.

LWB has partnered with the Asturias Academy since 2009 to support the Academy’s vision to build a sustainable community library in the school. This year’s on-site work marks a major transition for their library: we are implementing cataloging, searching and borrowing technologies (and training the staff on these tools) to enable students to locate and check out books for the very first time.

Many Guatemalans are restricted from getting a quality education, in part due to a severe lack of access to books and literacy materials. In a country where books are taxed beyond the reach of the 75% of the population who live in poverty, it’s almost impossible to get children excited about reading because many cannot get actual books in their hands.

This year, we plan to change that.

Over the course of 2012, with the help of a full-time on-site librarian funded by Librarians Without Borders, students far surpassed the reading goal of 4 books per year, reading on average some 14 books per year. Given this enthusiasm, imagine the impact on (the less than 60%) literacy levels of Asturias’ predominantly indigenous students and their families — once they can check books out of the library and bring them into their homes. This is an unprecedented opportunity in Guatemala.

About Librarians Without Borders -- Read More

The scientists who were recruited to appear at a conference called Entomology-2013 thought they had been selected to make a presentation to the leading professional association of scientists who study insects.

But they found out the hard way that they were wrong. The prestigious, academically sanctioned conference they had in mind has a slightly different name: Entomology 2013 (without the hyphen). The one they had signed up for featured speakers who were recruited by e-mail, not vetted by leading academics. Those who agreed to appear were later charged a hefty fee for the privilege, and pretty much anyone who paid got a spot on the podium that could be used to pad a résumé.

Full article

Review of Josh Hanagarne's book in today's issue of Shelf Awareness.

Josh Hanagarne, blogger at The World's Strongest Librarian, "might be the only person whose first three-hundred-pound bench press was accompanied by the Recorded Books production of Don Quixote." This is just one of his remarkable singularities. A gentle giant who tears phone books for fun, at 6'7" he tends to catch the eye at the Salt Lake City Public Library, even when his Tourette Syndrome is not acting up. His memoir explores these contradictions and oddities, and his remarkable journey from idyllic childhood to painfully jerky young adulthood to a contented family and work life.

The authors own site explains why he isn't reading reviews of his book.

Celebrate National Library Week - April 14-20, 2013

More info at ALA.org