LISNews: Librarian News

Ana Peso’s upcoming appearance on “Jeopardy,” a popular TV show quiz show, is something she seems to have been preparing for all of her life.

Peso, a Glenbrook North High School librarian, has always been a reader and has loved trivia since she was a child. She also participated in the Scholastic Bowl in high school.

“It actually was a dream of mine to be on ‘Jeopardy’ since I was a kid. I heard about the online test in 2009, took it, and was actually selected to interview for the show, but didn’t hear anything afterward, maybe because I was super nervous,” Peso said.

I love Posts Like This ReadWriteWeb picked up on The University of Washington's Living Voters Guide, a site dedicated educating voters on issues and referendums in Washington state.

"However, it might not be entirely accurate to call the librarians on the site "fact-checkers." They are more like on-call information finders. The system set in place at the Living Voters Guide is guided by the people that use it. They ask for topics brought up by others to be fact-checked and the librarians respond with direct research from a reliable source. Fact-checkers do this, too, but can sometimes be guided by entities that have a vested interest in their fact-finding results. "

The Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library is a Houston-area bookmobile created by two recent library school graduates, hitting the streets in 2013. It will be a traveling library built from personal libraries and donations, based on a rent/barter/trade system AND a physical resource maintained by professionals that is open to partnerships and collaborations with organizations like schools, libraries, museums, nonprofits, and local artists.

For more information and ways to get involved, check out the Boing Boing Library Lab write-up, the BTPL IndieGoGo campaign, the BPTL's blog, and the BPTL's social channels (@thebptl on Twitter and fb.me/theBPTL on Facebook).

The Living Voters Guide, recent winner of the Evergreen Apps Challenge, has released its 2012 update that allows Washington state voters to learn about different ballot measures, compare the pros and cons of each and sound off with fellow contributors.

And if there’s a particular fact in question, they can call on the expertise of a librarian.