LISNews: Librarian News

Boston.com has this story on the decision by the West Hartford Libraries to ban the use of cell phones.
\"West Hartford librarians will reach out and shush someone under a new ban implemented in the reading areas of the public libraries in town.

The ban is in response to some complaints over the past few months about annoying ringing and chatting phone users.
\" -- Read More

The Star Tribune has a follow up article about the porn issue in the City library in Minneapolis.

\"Upset about reports of Internet pornography in public view and a perceived lack of action to prevent it, the Minneapolis City Council may nudge the city\'s Public Library system to take action sooner rather than later.

While the council doesn\'t have authority over the library system, Council Member Kathy Thurber planned to seek approval today of a resolution encouraging a policy like that of the St. Paul Public Library, which bars the use of Internet facilities to \"display graphics that are obscene or harmful to minors.\" -- Read More

Bowesnet.com has a nice Little Story on how a library changed the lives of 2 kids from Kosova.

\"When Tahir Veliqi and Adnon Berisha left with their families from war-torn Kosova and arrived in Grande Prairie almost 10 months ago, they didn\'t know if they would see or even hear from their friends and relatives again.
But thanks to technology and a little help from the Grande Prairie Public Library staff, the teenagers have kept in touch with home. Days after their arrival last summer, Veliqi and Berisha came to the library to access its free Internet service.\" -- Read More

Most
libraries have a policy regarding the inclusion of
self-published or vanity
press works. But what of vanity
e-books?M.J. Rose has a relevant piece
in Wired magazine titled E-Books for Writers, Not
Readers.It is at: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,35
722,00.html
He
notes that “while 5 percent of the survey
respondents said they BOUGHT Stephen
King\'s e-book, Riding the Bullet, less than 1 percent
claim to actually have READ
it.” So was the shooter firing blanks, one
wonders?The survey was by the Book Report
Network at: http:/
/www.bookreporter.com/brc/index.asp<
Rose
goes on to note that there are over 24 million writers in
the United States but
less than 5 percent have been published. Companies
such as Xlibris, iUniverse,
and Mightywords are wooing the other 95 percent, often
as not to what used to
be called vanity publishing. And the
public library issues are thought provoking,
indeed. -- Read More