November 2001

From The Toronto Star…

\”With the help of a $2.5 million donation from the Toronto Star, North America\’s busiest library system unveiled its revamped newspaper centre yesterday. It brings together two natural allies, both committed to the most basic tool of any civilization — the written word; both wedded to the simple yet profound principle of equality of access for all citizens.\” More

Pulitzer prize-winner Roger Reynold\’s new opera will premiere at the Library of Congress as part of their bicentennial celebration. The Library\’s famous Bibles, the Gutenberg and the Bible of Mainz are going to be stored in a vault during performance- not because they might go missing, but because the noise of the air conditioners keeping the Bibles in good condition would interfere with the sound of the opera. Story from The Guardian.

An update on Dmitri Sklyarov\’s case from Politech:

This is an update from the status conference for Dmitry and Elcomsoft today. As expected, the only issue discussed was the setting of dates for pre-trial motions. The issues were divided into two categories:

Thanks to Library Juice.

If this new program of the Singapore National Library Board(NLB) works out, there could be a big demand for \”Born To Read\” tattoos. The new program provides reading materials for newborns: \”Up to 50,000 newborns at 9 hospitals will each receive a starter kit, containing booklets on nursery rhymes, parenting tips and more.\” The NLB also plans to start offering library cards to three year-olds. Story from Channel News Asia.

Just in case anyone isn\’t sick of hearing about Harry, here comes anutha… School libraries all over the country are struggling with the issue of what to do about Harry. While Harry haters are trying to force the removal of the books, Harry advocates are encouraging school boards to leave Harry alone. With Harry\’s creator planning three more books in the series, it looks like Harry will be in the limelight for quite awhile longer. More

For The New York Times, David Kirkpatrick writes…

\”Even though Barnes & Noble is the biggest bookstore chain in the country, company chairman, Leonard Riggio has recently complained that publishers offer better wholesale deals to other kinds of retailers, like warehouse or specialty stores. In a recent conference call with Wall Street analysts, Mr. Riggio made what sounded like a threat: that Barnes & Noble might take unspecified \’decisive actions\’ to \’persuade our suppliers to be fair to us,\’ possibly as soon as early next year.\” More Free subscription required. Get yours Here.

Anjlee writes \”Online Information 2001
4-6 December 2001
The Grand Hall, Olypmia, London, UK


Yet again Online promises to be the biggest and best event in the Information Industry calendar, with more than 200 international speakers, 340 exhibitors and 15,600 visitors expected.


Well worth a look if you are in London, next week. Tickets to the exhibition are FREE if you pre-register online.
\”

Today\’s Chicago Tribune has a nice profile of the Center for Research Libraries. A CRL officer says, "I don\’t want to say it\’s a hodge-podge, but it\’s an amalgamation of materials."

Appended to the Web version of the article is a top-ten list of the center\’s most interesting collections.

Virtual reference guru Bernie Sloan writes:

There will be a live webcast panel discussion on virtual reference services tomorrow, Wednesday, 11/28, at 1:00PM, EST. It\’s the first webcast in \”LearningWeek Libraries\”, a series of weekly programs that\’s supposed to
\”focus on current issues facing libraries and the successful use of technology for library services.\” (Requires free registration).

Anne Lipow (Library Solutions Institute and Press),
Steve Coffman (Library Systems and Services LLC),
Brian Mikesell (St. John\’s University),
Stephen Cohen (Rivkin Radler LLP).

Click here for details.

\”As a tool for archiving information, the Internet is a wonder, especially in its ability to make a variety of materials, from magazine articles to video clips, accessible to people around the world. But the Internet hasn\’t always been up to the job of archiving itself. That\’s changing, with the launch of the Wayback Machine, a repository of Web pages from the Internet Archive (www.archive.org), a nonprofit based in San Francisco. With the Wayback Machine, you can surf the Web as it was. Which means, in practical terms, the chance for researchers, historians and others to gaze back in time at snapshots of Web sites such as ESPN.com, Lycos or even out-of-business companies like Webvan.com. \’Wayback,\’ it should be noted, means way back to 1996.\” More