LISNews: Librarian News

County Tax Hike: Build a Bonfire, Not a New Library

"But residents should not be paying a library tax to build community centers. The library district needs instead to tear down the buildings it has, and start planning to sell off the buildings, and land, and go out of business when there are no longer ink-on-paper books. A Library Science degree will shortly go the way of English and Journalism degrees, as worthless pieces of paper. Soon, the Internet—and technology in general—will do what author Ray Bradbury predicted in his novel Fahrenheit 451 about futuristic America, where all books are banned and those found are burned. We are now slowly getting rid of books without any fires."

Positive Vision and Questions in Libraries
How can we shift our professional discourse away from all the problems facing libraries and instead think about questions like “what what do libraries look like when they are at their best” and “what would an ideal library look like?”

The Chicago Tribune has a really short piece on The Gerber/Hart Libraryhome to the Midwest's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender library, featuring more than 14,000 volumes, 800 periodical titles and 100 archival collections.
They are in the middle of a big move... Finding space that would accommodate the library's current needs was not easy. Location, public transportation and parking space were critical to the decision. The library's new home features 20 parking spaces and is across the street from a CTA bus turnaround for the #36 Broadway and #151 Sheridan buses.

Women's Library campaign gathers steam with 5,000-strong petition
The library, part of London Metropolitan University, is threatened with drastically reduced opening hours unless a new home, owner or sponsor can be found by December. The university is trying to save £1m a year across its two special collections, the Women's Library and the Trades Union Congress Library. Its board of governors has said that, if a new home or owner cannot be found, the Women's Library's opening hours will be reduced from five days a week to a skeleton service of just one day a week from the end of 2012.