LISNews: Librarian News

From the Village Voice...
"Life or death; which one has the nastier sense of humor? A couple of the characters in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in the Universe may be starting to wonder. A shy Japanese librarian in Bangkok, Kenji (Tadanobu Asano of Zatoichi) has a chronically interrupted suicide wish. He's unsuccessfully acquainted with the noose, the smothering pillow, even the gun secreted inside a teddy bear. The film unfolds as a serene experiment in dissonance: long snatches of boy-girl quiescence occasionally broken by snarling bursts of gangster mayhem." Read More.

An Anonymous Patron writes "I hate to point to a LATimes Story, but this one on Willie McPherson is pretty interesting. He died 40 years ago when he was 79 and left behind more than 2,000 photos he took throughout CA and the Southwest during the first half of the 20th century. The photo collection, after passing through the hands of two parties, landed at the Orange library this year and has become a featured piece of its burgeoning regional history center.
The library's growing history collection is helping propel expansion of the main library that will result in a tripling of space, including a history room and reading tower. The new facility will be renamed the Orange Library and History Center. Groundbreaking on the expansion is set for January, with completion projected for September 2006.

Site requires registration, and enduring not just one, but at least 2 huge popup ads, sorry."

Volunteers may work book sales, bake cakes, sell bookbags, collect donations and serve on boards, but there are other ways of volunteering @ your library.

Xiao Shi, visiting from Singapore as the wife of Los Alamos scientist Wen Quing Cao, has been teaching children the Chinese language and the classic art of Chinese brush painting at the Mesa NM library. Daughter of well-known Chinese calligrapher Can Fa Shi, Xiao Shi continues in the tradition, but is also expanding her classes to include more Western-style media, such as crayon and watercolor.

Here's a look at the fantastic library in Mesa architects photos and here's the story from the Los Alamos Monitor ).

Anonymous Patron sent over This One From the Wednesday, June 30, 2004 Palm Beach Post on a sexual predator being held without bond on one charge of disorderly conduct and one charge of violating parole, after a patron called the police.

Kathy Boyes, community relations manager for the Palm Beach County Library System, said the librarians handled the incident properly. "They did not observe anything to lead them to believe there was improper behavior," Boyes said.

As for observing Carroll's computer use from a distance, Boyes said, "It is absolutely an issue of privacy. Our librarians do not observe what patrons are doing."

Libraries have long dealt with such problems. "There have always been dirty books," said the spokeswoman. In the past, though, there was a simpler solution: "We didn't buy the books," she said.
Update: 07/01 06:52 EST by B:Fixed URL, thanks bentley