LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Behavior Changes Linked to March Madness
Charles Clotfelter, Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, used data from 78 research libraries in the U.S. to determine the number of articles viewed from February through April in 2006, 2007 and 2008. The number of articles viewed on Monday through Wednesday of those weeks averaged more than 1,000 a day per library.

Clotfelter found that the number of articles viewed through the JSTOR digital repository of academic journals increased an average rate of 5 percent a week in the weeks leading up to “Selection Sunday,” but fell 6 percent in the week right after the NCAA field was announced. The following week, library usage resumed its increase, at a rate of 3 percent a week.

Community College librarian charged in mail threats
A well-respected librarian at Community College of Aurora for years made death threats and deranged insults to politicians, diplomats and former acquaintances, school and federal officials said.

Academic libraries are different than public libraries when it comes to the patrons they serve, but one thing that is the same--disasters and crime. On any given day librarians and staff must be prepared to deal with episodes of theft, inappropriate behavior from patrons in the library, natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes on the east coast and even earthquakes, all of which can do untold damage to collections and the lives of those who work in libraries. Additionally, on college and secondary campuses it seems that we are reminded frequently that there are unstable individuals that care nothing about taking someone's life. Should this cause panic in how we handle the daily activities, the answer is no; however it should cause concern and action. Develop a strong disaster preparedness plan and familiarize yourself and your staff with the necessary steps to take if a disaster strikes. While it is sometimes easy to be amused by the stupid things that people do, we should never forget the seriousness of the actions that a few can take or the consequences of mother nature having a bad day. http://cool.conservation-us.org/bytopic/disasters/

Locked in the Library: It started out like any other trip to the library’s Langdell Hall. Kim’s research on the expansion of judicial power led him to visit the ILS building to obtain some Chinese language material. ILS is connected to the main library by a bridge and—unbeknownst to Kim—has different hours of operation than certain floors of the main building.

Learned about the February 22 opening of the new "EPFL" Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne here in Book Patrol, and researched further to find the website, here.

Light is brought in through the Swiss-cheese holes in the roof, and the pristine whiteness of the concrete surfaces creates a snowy plane, airy, bright, and infinite. The result is a communal space without fixed function. A softly curvy, feminine expanse without hierarchies or straight lines. A series of calm and silent connected spaces created to nurture collaboration, communication, and cooperation over competition. Library, offices, restaurants, and auditoriums are harmoniously linked between a cloud-like canopy above, and a floor that gently rises and falls like a living organism as it inhales and exhales. "Human movements are not linear like in a train, but curve in a more organic way," said architect Ryue Nishizawa, one-half of the Japanese architectural team SANAA, explaining his vision. "With straight lines we only create crossroads, but with curves we can create more diverse interactions."

San Diego students storm offices after noose found
SAN DIEGO – Anger boiled over on the University of California San Diego campus Friday, where students took over the chancellor's office for several hours to protest the hanging of a noose in a campus library.

Colleges test Amazon's Kindle e-book reader as study tool
Now, as several major universities finish analyzing data from pilot programs involving the latest version of the Amazon Kindle, officials are learning more about what students want out of their e-reader tablets. Generally, the colleges found that students missed some of the old-fashioned note-taking tools they enjoyed before. But they also noted that the shift had some key environmental benefits. Further, a minority of students embraced the Kindle fairly quickly as highly desirable for curricular use.

Has This Library Solved "The Mystery Of The Mummy Paper?"

Reality or urban legend: were the wrappings of ancient Egyptian corpses recycled and pulped to create so-called "mummy paper?" Archaeologists and other scholars have long debated the veracity of claims that mummies were imported into the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century, stripped of their burial shrouds, and their bindings (largely composed of linen and other fibers such as papyrus and something akin to canvas) repurposed into printing paper. But, did this really happen? Are we being fleeced? Is this a fabricated tale? Can this yarn be unwound to get to the meat of the matter?

BBC reports: Sculptor Martin Jennings has been chosen to produce a bronze statue of the poet Philip Larkin for the Paragon Interchange in Hull.

Jennings was one of three sculptors invited by the Philip Larkin Society to submit designs for the artwork. Larkin, who lived in Hull for 30 years before his death in 1985, combined a celebrated writing career with his role as librarian at Hull University.

Designs by sculptors Graham Ibbeson and Jemma Pearson were also considered.

Jennings' work includes the statue of poet St John Betjeman at St Pancras station in London. He said: "I'm absolutely delighted to have been commissioned to make this sculpture of one of Britain's greatest poets.

AMHERST, N.Y. — A search of a library at the University at Buffalo's suburban Amherst campus came up empty Tuesday after school police received a call of a suspicious person entering the building, possibly with a gun.

"We have no reason to believe we have any threat to campus," said university spokesman Joe Brennan, who added that classes will resume Wednesday. The person in question was never found.