LISNews: Librarian News

CNN is running This Reuters Article.
They say the typical Internet user -- far from being a geek -- shuns television and actively socializes with friends, a study on surfing habits said on Wednesday.

The findings of the first World Internet Project report present an image of the average Netizen that contrasts with the stereotype of the loner "geek" who spends hours of his free time on the Internet and rarely engages with the real world.

Bob Cox spotted a PI Piece On a nascent program at the Washington Corrections Center for Women that's helping people toward college degrees and perhaps preventing some of these women from making return visits to this prison near Purdy. The women in the prison are paid $1 an hour, with 50-cent increases each time they complete 100 90-minute audiotapes. That's much more than the 42 cents inmates get for most jobs, such as cooking and laundry.
Then they place the audiotapes into FedEx envelopes and send them to community college students who couldn't learn without them.

Norma writes "The Columbus Dispatch ran a follow-up Dec. 28 on stories printed earlier in the year. I noticed that Samantha Crewson is working on establishing a library for Catawba, Ohio, 35 miles west of Columbus in Clark County. With donations and no government money she has collected 50-60,000 books. This is therapy for Crewson who had a brain aneurysm in 1994 and this project is helping her regain lost skills, according to the CD. Sorry, but I can't link to the article."

robin rose yuran wants to tell us about her experiences at the circ desk. Follow the link below for the full story, but here's a teaser:

My sister once went to a tag sale, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The lawn was peppered with dog poop and plastic kid’s toys. One of those huge satellite receivers yawned its black maw towards the sky. There was a cardboard box in the driveway with black magic marker letters that spelled out “STUFF BARB DON’T WANT.� Later that day, after a couple of glasses of wine, she told me the story and we got laughing hysterically. But STUFF BARB DON’T WANT didn’t want to leave; it’s become somewhat of a catchall phrase, sort of an inside joke, to signify anything unpleasant or unuseful from moldy fruit to Mormons at the door. Barb has become a member of the family, one that shows up every once in a while when you least expect it.STUFF BARB DON’T WANT pops in sometimes at the small library where I work.... -- Read More