LISNews: Librarian News

Charles Davis contributes this Guardian story:

\"A scholarly row has blighted the reopening of
Alexandria\'s great library.
It has taken 1,700 years to replace. But now the great library of Alexandria, whose precious manuscripts were torched in AD271, is about to reopen - to a reception blighted by controversy.\"

Read the full story.

Charles Davis writes \"From story at
Jordantimes.com. A total of 16,477 books are expected to arrive in Iraq
today as a show of solidarity in an initiative that has received
global support.

A 25-member Jordanian delegation from a number of
organisations will deliver the books to the ministry of higher
education in Baghdad, where they will be distributed to facilities for
higher education. \"

The Friends of Cuban Libraries write: \"The Friends of Cuban Libraries are making available information on a recently
transcribed BBC broadcast focusing on Cuba\'s independent librarians, which
was aired on May 1, 2002.

Since the BBC broadcast was aired, two of the volunteer librarians
interviewed on the program have received international awards for their
pioneering work in defense of intellectual freedom. Gisela Delgado was
awarded the Swedish Liberal Party\'s Democracy Prize, and Human Rights Watch
named Victor Rolando Arroyo as a winner of the Hellman-Hammett Prize, an
annual award given to persecuted writers and other defenders of intellectual
freedom.

Here is the text of the broadcast: -- Read More

A recent article from The Guardian titled How To Fix Our Libraries presents a grim picture of libraries in England.

As a country we pay £900m a year for our public libraries: a Millennium Dome each year. Is the money wasted? One thing is clear. Unless the management make significant changes to the way they work, in 20 years\' time, nobody will be using libraries at all.

This article was written because an audit of public libraries was recently released. Written by the governmental Audit Commission, it was titled Building Better Library Services [1.86 MB PDF]. See the easily digestible summary.