LISNews: Librarian News

Charles Davis writes \"Hundreds of manuscripts and notes penned by
the novelist James Joyce have been bought by
the National Library in Dublin for £8m.

The rare collection, believed to be the largest
of its kind - includes unseen drafts of the
classic book Ulysses.

The collection - totalling more than 500 pieces
- was brought to Dublin from Paris by Ireland\'s
Arts Minister Sile de Valera.

Prime Minister Bertie Aherne was at Dublin
Airport to welcome the manuscripts to the
country.

The documents were purchased from Alexis
Leon, the son of Joyce\'s former aide, the late
Paul Leon.

Full story at
The BBC

\"

The Great And Powerful Joe pointed us to The Toldeo Blade that says Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson, a newspaper reporter for more than eight decades and author of the first 23 Nancy Drew mysteries that inspired generations of readers, died last night in Toledo Hospital. She was 96.

Charles Davis points to
This IHT Story on a project converting old tapes to digital recordings, since the tape on which it was originally recorded was starting to disintegrate that is being done at poetry centers around the United States.

\"Some of them already have to be cut and spliced because they are very fragile or even have breaks in them,\" Veskrna said. \"Age isn\'t the only problem. A lot of the tape stock was less than ideal to start with. Companies were experimenting with chemical formulas used to make magnetic tape, and some of those experiments were less than successful in terms of longevity. If these recordings aren\'t transferred to other formats soon, we could lose quite a lot of them forever.\"

Here\'s One from AccessAtlanta that says Maya Angelou has softened a controversial quote proposed as the inscription for Savannah\'s first monument to African-Americans.

\"We were stolen, sold and brought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each others\' excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together,\" Angelou has said in lectures.

The inscription, if approved, would include this addition:

\"Today, we are standing up together, with faith and even some joy . . . \"

Thanks to Bob Cox for yet another story.