LISNews: Librarian News

Thanks to search-engines-web.com for an azcentral.com Article on The reinvented library at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. The reinvented library, part of the hospital's recent $91 million expansion, is open to the public, encouraging patients or family members or anyone else not only to check e-mail, but to scour an array of books and online sites for information about anything from chemotherapy to colitis.

Jeanie Straub writes "A fashion cover story quotes a source as describing the lastest look as being 'kind of like the nasty-librarian look, with the bow blouses tied at the neck and pencil skirts that hit right below the knee, but it's all done in a feminine, sexy way.' As if librarians are nasty-nasty and not nasty in the positive sense. If the fashion editor had scoured the Denver metro area she would have found librarians displaying greater style and taste than any journalist. (But at least we're not forever tied to donut shops.) More from Rocky Mountain News. "

search-engines-web.com writes Adults Earn Prizes to Encourage Reading

For years children have had summer programs encouraging them to read. This summer the Dakota County Libraries asked why should children get all the fun?“We’ve always had the children’s reading program so we thought it would be fun to pick up this program and do something to recognize our adult readers,� said Jane George a librarian at Eagan’s Wescott Library. “The main idea is to encourage more people to read.�The libraries began their Gold Card adult reading club in late July. Adult library patrons, age 18 and older, can pick up a reading log at any Dakota County library information desk and then read 50 books of 50 or more pages in length or listen to 50 audio books 50 minutes or longer.Every successful patron will receive a gold library card to mark their achievement, as well as several other prizes.The program is a version of one run by the King County Library System in Washington, George said. Dakota County library officials heard about the program at a conference and decided to give it a try here, she said.

Daniel adds: I guess anything is worth a try to boost reading, but what has happened to reading being its own reward? Reading as a window out into the world, or in to our own imaginations?

kctipton writes "I found 'A Librarian at Every Table' today while doing a little editing at dmoz.org. It's an interesting concept (meaning, I've never seen it done): librarians as local community builders and activists. It's a site by Kathleen de la Peña McCook who got her Ph.D. from UW-Madison. She's apparently given ALA (and other) presentations, so some of you may have heard her speak.

I'd love to hear from those of you who have done this sort of thing or have seen it done. Sure librarians can occasionally organize and get the attention of the national press... but what else?"