LISNews: Librarian News

Running out of room at your library? Government won't pony up for the expansion you so desperately need?

Well, take a look around, are you really using your area to its greatest efficiency? For instance, do you have stairs?

So, why not use those?

Warning: I don't know about anyone else, but the first picture on this page gave me a little pang of vertigo. It's almost like staring at a real life Escher creation.

Yes, library folks, people will complain about anything.

The West Hempstead Public Library received complaints that the study desks are arranged in a way that resembles a swastika.

The library's interior designer counters that the shape is not a swastika because the layout runs counterclockwise, the opposite direction of the Nazi emblem. Siting that this layout resembles a Native American symbol that means good luck, the library offers that the pinwheel design also makes efficient use of space.

More on this over at Newsday.

As the website LivresHebdo.fr has it, "Une bibliothèque incendiée à Villiers-le-Bel" (http://www.livreshebdo.fr/actualites/DetailsActuRub.aspx?id=1168&rubrique=3) Roughly translated by Google (see http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.livreshebdo.fr%2Factualites%2FDetai...) we read the following:

The library Louis Jouvet, who was standing near 30000 loan documents a year, was one of three facilities near the town. "It was actually the most popular library in the old Villiers-le-Bel," says Isabelle responsible Walet. "She welcomed children and adults every day." The building of 280 m2 is completely destroyed. "With my team, we are bewildered and sad," said Isabelle Walet, "we invest a lot in the relationship with the people and, in one night, this public service has entirely disappeared."

See additional coverage at http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Villiers+library+fire&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wn.

This is one of those stories where I just don't know what to say.

First, a mop falls across a faucet at the Bentonville Public Library and apparently that, in itself, is enough to cause hundreds of gallons of water to flood the janitor's closet, the coffee shop, and the Wal-Mart Meeting Room. I'm no expert on plumbing, but I can do my own and if a dust mop manages to break a faucet like this, something must have been horribly awry.

And speaking of awry, look at that next to the last sentence: "...the janitor's closet, the coffee shop, and the Wal-Mart Meeting Room." Uh, what?

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