LISNews: Librarian News

AUSTIN, TEXAS --- April 15, 2011 --- At the Texas Library Association’s (TLA) Annual Conference held in Austin, Texas, April 12–15, Eduardo Zepeda from Weslaco Public Library was the lucky recipient of the $20,000 prize in the Great Graphic Novel Library Giveaway, sponsored by Brodart Company, Diamond Book Distributors, and GraphicNovelReporter.com.

The Great Graphic Novel Library Giveaway included more than 700 hand-selected graphic novels from Diamond Book Distributors as well as fixtures and furniture provided by Brodart. The collection also featured the entire list of graphic novel titles selected for TLA’s Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.

Zepeda, the very enthusiastic winner selected from a group of 20 finalists, said, “This is tremendous, as the books will be a great addition to our graphic novel collection. We look forward to sharing this prize with our patrons and seeing readers sitting on the couch reading and enjoying the books.” Martin Mata, also from the Weslaco Public Library, shared, “The couch will be placed in the new learning commons, where we have a plasma TV and no seating area for people to be able to enjoy it.” -- Read More

Shifting Sands: Science Researchers on Google Scholar, Web of Science, and PubMed, with Implications for Library Collections Budgets , Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, Fall 2010
Authors: Christy Hightower, Christy Caldwell

A study done by two librarians named Christy at UC Santa Cruz in Issues in Science & Technology Librarianship. Interesting implications for content budgets and publishers...

Abstract:
Science researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz were surveyed about their article database use and preferences in order to inform collection budget choices. Web of Science was the single most used database, selected by 41.6%. Statistically there was no difference between PubMed (21.5%) and Google Scholar (18.7%) as the second most popular database. 83% of those surveyed had used Google Scholar and an additional 13% had not used it but would like to try it. Very few databases account for the most use, and subject-specific databases are used less than big multidisciplinary databases (PubMed is the exception). While Google Scholar is favored for its ease of use and speed, those who prefer Web of Science feel more confident about the quality of their results than do those who prefer Google Scholar. When asked to choose between paying for article database access or paying for journal subscriptions, 66% of researchers chose to keep journal subscriptions, while 34% chose to keep article databases.

READ IT HERE

The New Yorker débuts a new photo feature on it's blog today... you submit a photograph of your bookshelf, and we (The New Yorker) tell you what it says about you.

Less than 50 minutes and no charge, if you're picked.

In the years since the city of Atlanta acquired more than 10,000 of Dr. Martin Luther King's personal papers, the collection has been pored over by researchers and used in groundbreaking history courses at Morehouse College. Come February, the writings of Dr. King will be fully available to the public at the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center. Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.

"My hope is that more and more people understand the genius and the creativity and the scholarship of Dr. King," said Loretta Parham, Library Director. "So many recognize him as the author of the "I Have a Dream" speech and not much more. He was a whole person and there's another story to tell."

The papers came to Atlanta in 2006 after Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin led an effort to purchase them from the King family before the collection was to be auctioned at Sotheby's. Morehouse, King's alma mater, owns the $32 million collection, which was secured by a loan from SunTrust Banks. Several private donors helped repay the bank loan, a feat completed last fall. Here is the link to the collection.