LISNews: Librarian News

The Nando Times has a nice look at the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C.

\"On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved an appropriation of $5,000 to purchase \"such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.\"

Books - mostly on history, economics and law - were ordered from London. They arrived in 1801 and were shelved in the new U.S. Capitol. The collection consisted of just 740 volumes and three maps.

Next week, on April 24, millions of books and much history later, the Library of Congress celebrates its 200th anniversary as an institution that grew, in the words of one of its biographers, into \"a symbol of American democracy and faith in the power of learning.\" -- Read More

Thomas J. Hennen Jr. writes:

Only those of a certain age argue about whether it was Pogo or the Alligator that said: Younger demographic groups just look it up on the web. :-)

What a difference a few months can make in the looking glass world of e-texts! Five months ago, I lamenated that NetLibrary (tm) was marketing to gen-exers not boomers like myself. But now NetLibrary has cut off both exers as individuals and me at the virtual knees! And, it appears, librarians like myself must share the blame. -- Read More

The AP Wire is carrying this story;

A 1,000-year-old book of riddles, a 15th-century love letter and a 20th-century bear named Pooh: All are strands in the rich history of English literature being celebrated this summer by the British Library.

This body of literature is ``the thing, above anything else, that Britain has given to the world in the course of the last millennium,\'\' government arts secretary Chris Smith says about the national library\'s major exhibit for the year 2000. -- Read More

The Las Vegas Review-Journal has a report on troubling mold in the library at UNLV.

\"UNLV\'s troubled Lied Library has suffered another setback with the discovery of dangerous molds growing in the unfinished building.
Workers this week are trying to get rid of moldy materials that otherwise would pose a threat to the students, librarians and books that this summer are expected to fill the $53 million facility. \" -- Read More