LISNews: Librarian News

A Navajo Nation librarian was given top honors recently for his contributions to literacy on the 27,000-square-mile reservation.

Irving Nelson, who serves as library program supervisor of the Navajo Nation, was selected from a pool of more than 500 librarians worldwide for the title of Librarian of the Year for 2010.

Reader to Reader, a nonprofit organization based at Amherst College in Amherst, MA honored Nelson for his more than three decades of advocating for literacy on the reservation.

"Irving Nelson is an extraordinary individual," said David Mazor, executive director of Reader to Reader. "His dedication to his library and the citizens that use it is unsurpassed."

Nelson began his career driving a bookmobile on the reservation's rural roads. He also is credited with building an American Indian collection that includes 11,000 books, oral history tapes and land-claim records dating to 1675. Farmington NM Daily News reports.

From Book Patrol: It started innocently enough. Over dinner a friend mentioned that he saw a used bookmobile for sale on Craigslist and wished he could by it. That was all the impetus Tom Corwin needed.

He was soon off to suburban Chicago to buy the decommissioned bookmobile. He paid $7500 for it.

Corwin has already garnered the support of the National Book Foundation, the Association of American Publishers and the American Library Association for the project and has signed a deal with Whitewater Films in Los Angeles for the documentary which will be titled "Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile." The film will also include information on the history of bookmobiles.

Authors that have already signed up in support include Michael Chabon, Dave Eggers, Junot Diaz, Tom Robbins and Scott Turow, with many of them to take a turn at the wheel...here they are.

Follow the tour on the website and on Twitter.

The Beverly MA bookmobile is out of commission, but its librarian is not.

The deteriorating vehicle failed inspection two weeks ago, and Linda Caravaggio has been making the rounds in her silver Nissan Sentra, delivering books from her back seat.

"She's hauling bags around and doing her best," Library Director Pat Cirone said. "She's a tremendous librarian who goes above and beyond."

The bookmobile, a 20-year-old bus that delivers books, tapes and CDs to people who can't get out to the library, needs tires, brakes and rust repairs. "It wasn't just one minor thing," Cirone said. "There's a list."

Rough estimates for repairs are $3,000, which will come out of the city's library budget — not the $70,000 raised so far for a new vehicle, which is expected to cost about $150,000.

The Beverly Public Library has been raising money for a new bookmobile for the past two years. To send a monetary donation, please make checks payable to the Friends of the Beverly Public Library. They can be mailed to the Library at 32 Essex Street, Beverly, MA 01915 or check out the website for more information.

2009 is almost here and we could use some help finishing up out 10 Blogs To Read in 2009 list. This year we'll have 2 lists, one for librarian/library blogs, and one for everything else. We started voting Last Month, but the list is not even close to being finished.

What blogs do you read every day?
What blogs help you learn?
What blogs keep you informed?
What blogs make you laugh?
Who's the best writer out there?

It might help to think of it this way: 'I read many others, but these are the blogs that read even when time is short'

I'm looking for input from as many people as possible so the final list doesn't miss anyone new.

Before your nominate, take a look at past winners, they aren't eligible for 2009:

10 Blogs To Read in 2006
http://www.lisnews.org/node/17775

10 Blogs To Read In 2007
http://www.lisnews.org/node/20341

The LISNews 10 Blogs To Read In 2008
http://lisnews.org/node/28830

10 Non-Librarian Blogs To Read in 2008
http://lisnews.org/node/29120

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