LISNews: Librarian News

The LibVid Awards
Recognising the Best Library Videos on the Web
These days, it seems like all we librarians do is create videos videos videos. Night after night, we leave our offices with foggy, blurred vision from staring at Camtasia editing software for hours.

The LibVidAward Blog highlights some of the best, most inspirational library instructional videos out there.

Please nominate your favorite libvids for the LibVid awards! Send your nominations to: nominations [aT] libvid-awards [dot] com

There were the stories over the last couple weeks about the book price wars between Amazon, Walmart and Target. Now there are reports that the price war has carried over to DVDs. Wal-Mart, Amazon, Target In DVD Price War

Some of the titles being battled over:

Star Trek(at Amazon for $10)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Widescreen Edition) (at Amazon for $10)

For those who like renting movies, Hollywood may soon have a message: Prepare to wait.

In an effort to push consumers toward buying more movies, some major film studios are considering a new policy that would block DVDs from being offered for rental until several weeks after going on sale.

Under the plan, new DVD releases would be available on a purchase-only basis for a few weeks, after which time companies such as Blockbuster Inc. and Netflix Inc. would be allowed to rent the DVDs to their customers. The move comes as the studios are grappling with sharply declining DVD revenue, which has long propped up the movie business.

Full story here.

Vilma Santos is arguably the Filipino equivalent of Meryl Streep, except Santos has been a box office draw for a longer period. Shirley, the character played by Santos in In My Life, apparently has two distinct facets – the traditional and old-fashioned librarian and the modern and transformed one in New York City. According to Santos, "The old Shirley doesn’t like computers. She doesn’t even like her library computerized." Her eventual transformation, courtesy of her gay son and his partner, seems to imply a correlation between her acceptance of her son's lifestyle and the new technology she learns to embrace. More...