LISNews: Librarian News

San Diego\'s First National Bank Building, the city\'s first high-rise office building built in 1909, will be sold to a private developer and all the proceeds will go to the branch libraries. The Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation, the philanthropic organization which last owned the building, donated it to the city with the proviso that any money made from its sale had to go to improving San Diego\'s libraries reports this little story from Sign On San Diego.

The trustees of Epsom Town Library (NH) are holding a public form tomorrow to try to figure what to do about the cramped, inaccessible, century-old building in which the library is currently located. They have found it very difficult to get support for a plan to build a new library and office complex, despite the fact that volunteers have been raising money for a new building since the 1980s, reports this sad story from the Concord Monitor.

\"In the meantime, when a reader wants The Grapes of Wrath or The Great Gatsby, librarian Nancy Claris heads out to a trailer beside the library where adult fiction written before 1980 is stored. She carries a flashlight because the trailer does not have electricity [...]\"

Mary Musgrave passed along This Dallasnews.com Story on the decision that will hand over operations of its new Lancaster Veterans Memorial Library to a company based near Washington, D.C. [LSSI].

They say the facility still belongs to the city and the council still makes all policy decisions and library employees would keep their jobs.

\"They wanted to make the hours the library was opened more in line with what the community wanted – maybe Sunday afternoons,\" Mrs. Filgo said. \"We haven\'t had a library director since February, and I feel like we\'re to a point where we need some professional help. We\'ve had good professionals, but [LSSI] brings expertise from a national standpoint.\"

janet clark writes \"In case you missed this (as I did) when the book was first published: Public libraries, ladybugs, pad Thai, and the clothesline are among \'Seven Wonders\' written about by John C. Ryan in _Seven wonders: everyday things for a healthier planet_, Sierra Club, c1999, 1-57805-038-3. \"Nobody ever built a library to save an endangered species, but that\'s one of things libraries do best,\" says Ryan in his essay in praise of public libraries. The essay includes several useful (citable) statistics and provides another angle on the value of libraries.

You can find out about the book at northwestwatch.org, though the public library essay doesn\'t seem to be there.
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