LISNews: Librarian News

GregS* writes "In-depth analysis on the fall of CrossGen via Captain Comics' website. Captain Comics is run by Andrew Sullivan, a newspaper editor who has a syndicated column dealing with comics and other fandom topics, though this article isn't by him. I don't know how many of you buy graphic novels for your libraries or even read them yourselves. I encouraged our YA librarian to buy the collected volumes of CrossGen's 4 major titles. They were very high quality books, and it was a very innovative company. At the very least their innovations have pushed other companies to keep up by experimenting with new print formats and digital too."

nbruce writes ""Content analysis suggests a significant amount of violence, injury, and death in T-rated video games. Given the large amount of violence involving guns and knives, the relative lack of blood suggests that many T-rated video games do not realistically portray the consequences of violence. Physicians and parents should appreciate that T-rated video games may be a source of exposure to violence and some unexpected content for children and adolescents, and that the majority of T-rated video games provide incentives to the players to commit simulated acts of violence."

Statistics and Full story

All 3 authors are at Center on Media and Child Health, Children's Hospital Boston and Kids Risk Project, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts"

With fewer and fewer students reading literary works, calling them "dull and boring", a scholar of literature blamed the teachers for not making reading interesting.

Nasti M. Reksodipuro, a retired lecturer of the School of Literature at the University of Indonesia, pointed out that teachers should give a brief introduction about a certain book.

"Teachers only assign the students to read a book without giving an indication as to what makes the book interesting to read," she told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview.

The Jakarta Post has the full story.

Robin "In My Book" Blum spotted some Some Letters To The LATimes on "Exposing Kids to Gay Themes in Library Books."

"With all respect to the librarians of the world, theirs is not a job that demands much by way of physical courage. If they cannot find the intellectual strength to recognize narrow-minded bigots when they meet them, perhaps they should look for another line of work."