LISNews: Hoping To Be Automated Since 1999

From The East Bay Express (Alameda Cty, CA):

Library administrators are discarding older books in bulk, prompting a backlash from longtime staff members.

Library administrators have ordered staff to discard books in bulk. With increased funding for materials this fiscal year, managers are making room for newer books and as a result have been trashing older ones in mass quantities, staff members said. The practice, they said, has been rushed and haphazard — and not in line with the standard guidelines for "weeding," the term librarians use to describe the process of moving books out of collections. In Albany, thousands of good books that could be donated or given away are instead ending up in the trash, the employees said. They noted that while this policy is especially widespread at their branch, it appears that this careless discarding is happening across the Alameda County Library system.

"Everyone is amazed by the amount of stuff going to the garbage bins," said Dan Hess, a children's librarian in Albany. He has worked at that branch for four years and has been an employee of Alameda County Library for fourteen years. "It's like forty years and forty different brains thinking what should be in the library [are being] swept away in two months," he said. "We're having this infusion of new money and materials that are coming very fast into the library. It's pushing us to change the criteria for what we are discarding." Hess said that managers have directed staffers to effectively remove most books bought before 2001, with little regard to the content, condition, or other factors librarians would typically take into consideration. "All you have left is the new. To me, that is not a library."

There is an announcement in the March 11, Federal Register for - Notice of public hearing; request
for comments.

The U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services is holding a public hearing, ‘‘Libraries and Broadband: Urgency and Impact,’’ to examine the need for high speed broadband in America’s libraries. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is charged with advising the President and Congress about the library, museum and
information service needs of the American public.

DATES: Public Hearing: April 17, 2014,
9:00 a.m.—12:00 p.m. Requests to
Participate: Submit requests to
participate at the meeting by March 24,
2014. Written Comments: Written
comments received by May 1, 2014 will
be part of the record.

See full notice here.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140310/jsp/nation/story_18064282.jsp

"You have come across them in your city, town or village — cramped, dusty and poorly lit buildings with racks of tattered, hard-bound books no one seems interested in. Short of staff and new publications, these public libraries can count themselves lucky if they can attract a handful of readers looking for the day’s newspapers. The Union culture ministry now plans to upgrade at least the top 10 per cent among the country’s 54,000-odd public libraries, most of which seem to be on their deathbed. First, it wants to start a nationwide survey of about 5,000 of these libraries — the bigger and better ones."

http://www.ohio.com/news/library-s-shelfies-put-witty-twist-on-social-media-photos-1.471428

What do you get when bookshelves pose for a picture?

A group shelfie, of course.

Go ahead and groan, but give the Akron-Summit County Public Library credit for a pretty good visual pun.