LISNews: Librarian News

Miep Gies, the last survivor among Anne Frank’s protectors and the woman who preserved the diary that endures as a testament to the human spirit in the face of unfathomable evil, died Monday night, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam said. She was 100.

The Miep Gies Web site said Mrs. Gies died after a short illness but provided no other details.

“I am not a hero,” Mrs. Gies wrote in her memoir, “Anne Frank Remembered,” published in 1987. “I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more — much more — during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.”

Full story in the NYT

It's time to take another look back at the notable headlines of the past year. -- Read More

PW’s provocative cover image and title for its annual African American feature stirred up plenty of controversy on Twitter and blogs yesterday – and now the book blogs at the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune are asking their readers to weigh in.

African American novelists Carleen Brice and Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant were among the first to criticize the cover for presenting the work of black authors in the context of a negative stereotype. PW editor Calvin Reid explained that he’d chosen the cover image from the book Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present, edited by Deborah Willis. “While it never occurred to me that anyone would be offended by these images, I was very wrong and I have to acknowledge that,” he wrote.

Full piece at EarlyWord.com

Over at Ars Technica is this story on the E-rate and the issues facing libraries in providing access.

"The foundation tied to the Microsoft fortune has told the Federal Communications Commission that the government should spend more money on high-speed Internet upgrades for public libraries and schools. The FCC should make it easier to apply, too.

"A growing number of schools and public libraries cannot afford connectivity upgrades because of the inability to pay for one-time only installation, equipment and transport costs," the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation warned the Commission on Wednesday. No big surprise that Gates is active in this area. Microsoft's general focus when it comes to broadband stimulus questions is that resources should go to "anchor institutions"—libraries, schools, and hospitals."