LISNews: Power Influencer, Passion Catalyst

Four Brooklyn libraries will remain closed during the current heat wave due to busted air-conditioners.

The city typically urges residents to go to libraries to flee Mother Nature’s fiery wrath, but the Brooklyn Heights, Brownsville, Clinton Hill and Flatlands branches won’t be able to serve the steaming public.

"The library is one of the only options we have," said Brooklyn Heights resident Lori Burch, 54. "It's a problem for parents, teachers and even the seniors if there are no indoor activities for them in this weather."

The four branches are part of an expanding list of 60 libraries in the system — including the central branch — that need $300 million in fixes for rundown roofs, broken boilers and aging computers and furniture.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/bklyn-library-branches-hot-customers-article-1....

A post on an IREX “global libraries” blog from 2011 sums up the many of the problems with Egypt’s public libraries of recent years — a few giant, pretty institutions with decent funding — such as Biblioteca Alexandrina, the al-Ma3di library — that are largely cold and inaccessible (and in affluent areas), rather than a larger number of community libraries.

In Egypt, occasionally non-governmental organizations have stepped forward to create neighborhood libraries. Last year, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) launched an initiative to establish five public libraries in under-served neighborhoods. While they don’t look as pretty as the Biblioteca Alexandrina, they get inside neighborhoods and bring books to people.

Read more about it at: http://arablit.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/design-for-baghdads-new-mega-library/

From the Daily Herald:

Author Ray Bradbury moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and spent the rest of his life on the West Coast, but his fondness for Waukegan IL never dissipated.

After his death, in June of last year, library officials learned Bradbury had bequeathed his personal book collection to the County Street facility. It's no small gift.

"Every room had a bookshelf overflowing," said Rena Morrow, the library's marketing, programming, and exhibits manager. The collection contains some books that could be valuable, such as first editions of noted works or autographed books, Morrow said.

The library also stands to receive copies of books Bradbury wrote, including some in foreign languages. The collection's value is being appraised.

The library may receive some of Bradbury's personal belongings, too.
"We'd like to get one of his typewriters," library Executive Director Richard Lee said. "He had four."

In the interviews that [Library Director Deb] Lissak gave Friday afternoon, the words “misunderstanding,” “miscommunication,” and “communication errors” were used repeatedly. Whose misunderstanding? Whose miscommunication? Whose communication errors?

http://smilepolitely.com/culture/miscommunication_or_mismanagement/