June 2002

Illiteracy Campaign

Christy M. writes \”Just saw this in the June issue of Harper\’s Magazine and thought I would share. Not sure whether I should laugh or cry…
(sorry, no URL available)


Illiteracy Campaign


The following half-page advertisement ran in the February 20 Winters Express in Winters, California, and was paid for by the Save Winters Committee.

A new library will end up costing the people of Winters over $30 million in new taxes…And for what? A library that is only used by less than seventy people a month. It would be far cheaper for Winters to hire taxicabs and send people to the University of Davis Library than for us to pay millions of dollars to entertain a few people.


The fact of the matter is that very few people use ours or any other library. Oh sure, supporters will bring out children to cry, \”We need a new library.\” But where are these children any other time? Watching television, visiting friends, or doing something else besides reading. A new library opens up the door for a bigger and bigger Winters. A big new library is a great sales tool for developers. A new library will help Winters become just like other drug cities like Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Jose. They have new big libraries…Do you want to live there?

The world is changing. People like to watch things on television and video. We must understand that libraries are going the way of the local milkman, cheap gas, and small towns.
If the friends of the library want a new library, fine. Let them spend their own money and build it themselves. Don\’t make the rest of us pay what few dollars we have left to make them feel good.\”

Can anyone help us get a copy of this?

June 10, 2002 by Libraries

F.B.I. Database Information Retrieval Issues

Richard Feldman writes \”NY TIMES has a story entitled \”Computer System That Makes Data Secure, but Hard to Find\”.
Does someone want to attempt to keep track of the media coverage of this story? \”

\”This notion of not having information shouldn\’t be an excuse going forward,\” said Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google Inc., the Internet search firm that enables millions of Internet users to sift through billions of Web pages daily. \”As big as the government is,\” Mr. Schmidt said, \”the Web is bigger.\”

June 10, 2002 by Google Internet

Collector has 4 rare Bibles under his belt

Lee Hadden passed along This One on a bibliographic convergence that has not occurred in more than 150 years, copies of the first four printed editions of the Bible have come under the ownership of a single person — a little-known, cantankerous and very wealthy 88-year-old collector named William Hurd Scheide, who keeps them in his private jewel-box of a library at Princeton University.

June 10, 2002 by Libraries

‘We’re going to make it more like a bookstore.’

An interesting profile of Herb Elish, the new director of The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh:

Sounding more like a for-profit CEO than a nonprofit executive, Herb Elish, director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, said, \”You have to start with who is the customer and what does the customer want and need . . .\”

\”Until 10 years ago, libraries had a monopoly. If you wanted information, the library had it, and you had to come here to get it,\” Elish noted. Having a monopolistic, iron grip on the market caused libraries to lose focus on their users\’ needs . . .

To restore their usefulness to the community, the Carnegie Library hired Elish, a seasoned veteran of transition management. Before to joining the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, he served as chief executive officer at Weirton Steel.

Full Article (from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.)

June 9, 2002 by Books Libraries

Private libraries draw threats in Cuba

From Newsday:

The phone calls start in the middle of the night and continue on the hour until dawn. \”Your time is up,\” a male voice threatens. Then the line goes dead.

Gisela Delgado Sablón has been receiving these calls since December, when she became director of the Association of Independent Cuban Libraries. She says she is being targeted for helping Cubans read what they want to read . . .

Full Article.

June 9, 2002 by Libraries

?-) Beijing Paper Takes TheOnion.com Spoof Seriously.

Apparently
the Beijing Evening News reported as fact an article from the never
credible, but still oddly \’true,\’
TheOnion.com. 
Slashdot\’s
crew kindly pointed out the
original Onion article, along with some interesting observations
on how occasionally the TheOnion\’s articles trump the general news
media in providing factual background information (mixed, of course, with
their selective, blatant falsehoods for a devastating \’I\’m embarrassed
to be laughing at that\’ effectiveness;-).

Reuter\’s
reports the editor of the Beijing Evening News as explaining, \”the
story was written by one of our freelance writers\” [HI BLAKE, thinks the
freelance Hermit, ;-], \”his
stuff has been pretty much reliable before.\”

The extra
punch line is that after the editor heard from Reuters and was \”told the
story came from the Onion and was not true, the editor said, \”We would
first have to check that out.  If it\’s indeed fake, I\’m sure there
will be some form of correction.\”\”

LISNews Keywords: China
-|- Chinese
-|-

Apparently
the Beijing Evening News reported as fact an article from the never
credible, but still oddly \’true,\’
TheOnion.com. 
Slashdot\’s
crew kindly pointed out the
original Onion article, along with some interesting observations
on how occasionally the TheOnion\’s articles trump the general news
media in providing factual background information (mixed, of course, with
their selective, blatant falsehoods for a devastating \’I\’m embarrassed
to be laughing at that\’ effectiveness;-).

Reuter\’s
reports the editor of the Beijing Evening News as explaining, \”the
story was written by one of our freelance writers\” [HI BLAKE, thinks the
freelance Hermit, ;-], \”his
stuff has been pretty much reliable before.\”

The extra
punch line is that after the editor heard from Reuters and was \”told the
story came from the Onion and was not true, the editor said, \”We would
first have to check that out.  If it\’s indeed fake, I\’m sure there
will be some form of correction.\”\”

LISNews Keywords: China
-|- Chinese
-|-


From the AP via WashingtonPost: \”Beijing
Evening News (requires Chinese-character software): www.bjd.com.cn\”

20020608

\”China
Paper Runs U.S. Satire as News.\” … \”The article
was a deadpan spoof of the way sports teams threaten to leave cities in
order to get new stadiums. The report in the Evening News, which didn\’t
credit The Onion, included a graphic from the [TheOnion.com] Web site showing
a proposed new U.S. Capitol equipped with a retractable dome.\”
-By Joe McDonald –AP
via –WashingtonPost 

20020607

\”Paper
Falls for Gag in Humor Tabloid.\” –Reuters.com

20020529

SATIRE ALERT 😉

\”Congress
Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built.\”
… \”Calling the current U.S. Capitol \”inadequate and obsolete,\” Congress
will relocate to Charlotte or Memphis if its demands for a new, state-of-the-art
facility are not met, leaders announced Monday.\” … \”\”Don\’t get us wrong:
We love the drafty old building,\” Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
said. \”But the hard reality is, it\’s no longer suitable for a world-class
legislative branch. The sight lines are bad, there aren\’t enough concession
stands or bathrooms, and the parking is miserable. It hurts to say, but
the capitol\’s time has come and gone.\”\” –TheOnion.com

One
of my favorites Onion articles:

\”Area
Man Consults Internet Whenever Possible.\” –TheOnion.com


HavenWorks.com/world/china
– humor

June 8, 2002 by Internet

Hackers find way into Norway’s past

Good News, The first e-mail received by Ivar Aasen Center for Language and Culture on Thursday not only had the correct password, but also included the unencrypted files of the database. Submissions included \”ladepujd\”–the late professor\’s last name spelled backwards–\”maiendaiog\” and \”vmaarett.\”

June 8, 2002 by Yahoo

500 Science Questions Answered

Lee Hadden writes: \” New Scientist has a Q&A section where over 500 common questions about
science are answered. You can see their site at
newscientist.com, under the section \”The Last Word.\” Great for
public and school reference librarians.

General questions include the top 20, some of which are:

What\’s the best way of getting ketchup out of a bottle?

If your eyes were popped out and put back in the wrong way, would you see
upside down?

Is it true that men think about sex every 8 seconds? \”

June 7, 2002 by Libraries School Libraries

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