LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

About 200 dead bats at Pearsall library
KENS-TV reports more than 200 dead bats, some just skeletons, were found inside the columns of the library during the examination.

Libraries help fill city nutrition gaps
Virtual Supermarket serves residents of areas without grocery stores
Residents of two Baltimore neighborhoods that lack supermarkets will soon be able to order their groceries through a free delivery system that operates with the click of a mouse from the library.

NYPL's Newest Library Branch is LEED Gold Certified
The Battery Park Library finally opens today and it just so happens to be the greenest library branch of the New York Public Library system! Certified LEED Gold and built at the base of a LEED certified condominium high rise, the new community addition will certainly be a source of pride for area residents. The new library boasts the use of recycled materials, lots of high tech computer gadgetry to keep up with the times, and books, of course.

Charlotte/Mecklenburg (NC) County’s library board will vote Thursday on a proposal which would close half the county’s branches and lay off 140 employees within a matter of weeks.

The proposal, announced to employees Wednesday morning, is the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s way of coping with a 6.3 percent funding reduction in the current fiscal year.

Luciano Canfora’s The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World...the book contrasts the fate of the ancient Library of Alexandria with besieged public libraries today.
http://uflstaffpicks.blogspot.com/2010/03/outbreaks-attacks-sackings-and-fires.html

The death of the library book
Cambridge (MA) has a gleaming new main building, but something's missing -- and closing local branches won't help.

What's the purpose of libraries -- really? To be a community gathering place? To promote lifelong learning? To help users navigate the information flow? To store print documents for the historical record, as Nicholson Baker argues they should (and aren't) in "Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper"?

The number of visitors to the Enoch Pratt Free Library increased by 20 percent in a six-month period, prompting library officials to suggest that the Internet is helping boost usage at an institution known for its printed word and paper collections.

"It's been a steady increase, across the boards," said Carla D. Hayden, the library's chief executive. "People are using our Web site to find the treasures we have in here. New digital technologies have opened up the collections to so many more people."

On March 10, 2010 appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program.

We are now looking for Volunteers to protest at the Florida State Capitol Building, 400 South Monroe Street in Tallahassee on Tuesday March 16, 2010. If you are interested in holding a sign in protest of the State Aid to Libraries being reduced to zero dollars please contact me at systemslibrarian@gmail.com.

On Tuesday the Committee (see below) that is in charge of determining library funding will meet. Meet them prepared with your picket signs!

Transportation & Economic Development Appropriations Committee
March 16, 2010 at the Morris Hall (17 HOB) 2:15 PM - 6:00 PM

Here's a Sample Picket Sign (Word 2007 Format)to download - Feel free to modify. Free Word 2007 Viewer

On March 10, appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program. This devastating action will result in some Florida library branches closing and will seriously cripple libraries’ ability to serve Floridians. Libraries have already taken their share of local and state budget cuts. This will be especially damaging to libraries in Florida’s rural communities, as these libraries rely heavily on provisions in the program that help communities with lower tax bases.

ps - to commentators: would some of you jokers please add some jokes to our Librarian Joke Contest? thanks~

What Two Challenges are Most Critical to Public Libraries?

The ALA election season is upon us (electronic polls open and paper ballot mailing begins) on March 16 and polls close on April 23, 2010. We wanted to find out a bit more about the two ALA presidential candidates, so we asked them to provide us with an answer, for the PLA blog, to the following question: “What two challenges are most critical to public libraries today and how can ALA and PLA help public librarians meet those challenges?”

Both said budgets, one vot for technology and one for "Managing in a rapidly changing environment"