Libraries

Via NPR’s Story Corps a reminiscence of a youth spent in the library when his father was employed there as a custodian. The boy’s name was Ronald Clark, and he became the first in his family to attend college, and later became a college professor.

That’s where most people left Robert Morin. A second, smaller wave of coverage focused on UNH’s troubling decision to funnel only $100,000 of his money to the library, even as it committed $1 million of it to a video scoreboard for its football stadium. But the full story is more troubling still. Through a series of interviews and public records requests, Deadspin has uncovered the 17-month backstory to Morin’s bequest. Like so many schools, big and small, UNH spent wildly on its athletic department. The university went a step further in trying to engineer a public relations victory, deceptively connecting a fragment of Morin’s life to its football splurge. The media eagerly repackaged the story as an inspirational fable.

The Dr. Suess books were rejected by a librarian at the Cambridgeport Elementray School Library in response to President Trump's selection of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education among other factors. What's your opinion on the rejection of the gift?

UPDATE: FLOTUS office fires back a reply to the rejection of the Dr. Suess books: via FoxNews (what else?)

'To turn the gesture of sending young students some books into something divisive is unfortunate.' - FLOTUS

Frederick Wiseman cracks open institutions: the military, the insane asylum, the high school, the police, the welfare system, the Paris Opera Ballet, the National Gallery of London, and now – in his 43rd film in 50 years - the New York Public Library, an institution eminently worthy of his immersive style. If you thought libraries are just repositories for books, you’re in for a big, wonderful surprise. The NYPL owns (and makes accessible) millions of images; sponsors lectures by people like Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and Ta-Nehisi Coates; circulates a growing collection of e-books; maintains a vast archive of materials not available online; and gives classes in digital technology. The magnificent Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (and 5th Avenue at 42nd Street) is the spine of the film, but equally vital is the role of branch libraries that act as community centers for civic life.