LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Only Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia spend less on their local libraries than Tennessee.

According to Nashville newspaper The Tennessean, communities in this state spend an average of about $16 per resident on their local libraries. The national average is about $32. Attendance is about 32% below average. More sorry stats from WREC Memphis.

From LISWire:
School of Information Awarded $1.2 Million from IMLS for The Study of Digital Librarianship, Video Game Industry

"The School of Information at The University of Texas at Austin has received $1.2 million from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS) to prepare students for librarianship in a digital world..."

Aren't library schools supposed to prepare students for librarianship in whatever world exists at the time? So up to the point of awarding this grant, library schools have only been preparing students for librarianship in the Bronze age world? the Stone world? the strange World of Sid and Marty Krofft?

"The project will focus on providing doctoral students with a deep understanding of digital librarianship..." Oh, they have money for the new nerds. Nerd 2.0.

"Assistant Professor Megan Winget was awarded $255,040 to advance her research in the video game industry's methods, behaviors and attitudes for the purpose of building more meaningful models of collection and preservation of complex, community-built digital creations."

Preservation of video games? Yeah, they're called Ziploc bags. I think the one-gallon size will hold a Sony PlayStation. Buy some kitchen garbage bags for a PS3. For $250,000, you should be able to stock up.

Hardware upgrade grants (matching, however) to be given to libraries in eleven states, this is the second round of foundation's library hardware "opportunity online" grants. More than 800 library branches in Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington state are eligible in this round.

Story here and Gates Foundation press release here.

A man accused of checking out hundreds of books and DVDs from libraries around the Denver area and then trying to sell them will be doing all his library borrowing from now on behind bars.

Denver prosecutors say 34-year-old Thomas Pilaar was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered Tuesday to pay $53,549 in restitution. He pleaded guilty in May.

Sad News from Oregon: Numerous unsuccessful pleas for money to reopen county libraries marked a 50-minute public hearing on the Josephine County 2008-09 fiscal year budget.

“It’s a tough decision,” said Commissioner Jim Raffenburg, “but you can’t call the library for help in the middle of the night.”

Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, noted in his Twitter post earlier that it appears that Starbucks is closing 600 stores. For libraries pondering whether or not it is best to have a coffee shop in the mix, this brings up a point of business economics we rarely have to encounter. Coverage by Mahalo's team of the stories relative to the event can be found online at Mahalo.

the Institute of Museum and Library Services Announced On June 10, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) awarded Native American tribes across the United States $1.22 million dollars to improve and sustain their library services. The grant monies will be distributed among 209 tribes, and will bolster library services offered by Native American tribal communities and Alaskan Native villages. Click here to see a list of recipients.

I've been seeing This Message more and more lately: "When the economy drops, people use libraries more," said State Librarian Annie Norman. She then offered this quote from Anne Herbert, in "The Whole Earth Catalog": "Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries."

Mesa Public School librarians and their supporters demonstrated again Tuesday over job cuts and what they called the "dumbing down" of services for students.

The district, facing $13 million in cuts to the budget, plans to move librarians back to the classroom and replace them with aides. The district also plans to replace some nurses and speech experts with aides and assistants over the next three years, saving an estimated $3 million.

Protest organizer Ann Ewbank said she and others met with board president Rich Crandall and Superintendent Debra Duvall on Monday to voice concerns about the new plan.

Ewbank said the new advocacy group, Fund Our Future Arizona, would propose alternative librarian models before the next Mesa school board meeting, May 27 . AZ Central story.

Cuts may add layer of dust to library shelves : Just four years ago, Clearwater demonstrated one more time its long-standing devotion to libraries by opening a new $20.2-million Main Library overlooking Clearwater Harbor. It offers everything a library user could want, and in a beautiful setting.

But if a proposed deep cut to the library system's budget is approved, no one will be able to enter that great building on weekends. It will be closed. And it will be open only one evening a week, and then only until 8 p.m.