November 2003

Sad News out of CA where The UC library system is negotiating its contracts with publishers in an effort to maintain access to research materials for students, faculty and staff.

Escalating commercial journal prices, compounded by the state’s budget crisis, threaten to undermine the UC’s ability to maintain its extensive, up-to-date collection of scientific journals.

“The state and university budget crunch has directly hit the libraries, as it has almost every other entity in the university,” said John Ober, director of education and strategic innovation at the California Digital Library. “But the real problem is the unsustainable nature of the commercial journal prices,” Ober said.

LJWorld Reports On the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library vs. The Lawrence Public Library.

The differences are numerous.

In Lawrence, the 45,000-square-foot library has 270,000 materials and two meeting rooms, which sometimes double as gallery space. It was built in 1971.

In Topeka, a $23 million bond issue approved in August 1996 was used to renovate the old 68,000-square-foot library and build an additional 100,000 square feet of space. The spruced-up building opened in 2001; first lady Laura Bush visited in early 2002.

Gary Price Notes some good News Out Of San Jose, CA where the library, a joint project between the city and San Jose State University, only opened in August is expecting the One millionth Visitor this week.

Fang-Face writes “For some of the latest buzz on the Act We Love To Hate, see this article by Jim Lobe,
OneWorld US, and which is reprinted at Truthout.org.

“This PATRIOT Act expansion was the only controversial part of this legislation, and it prompted more than a third of the House, including 15 conservative Republicans, to change what is normally a cakewalk vote into something truly contested,” said Timothy Edgar, ACLU Legislative Counsel.

”

Pro-Act Editorial, and an article at Fox News

Anonymous Patron writes “It seems Concrete, Washington was just whipped into too much of a frenzy by dominatrix-librarian Valerie Shahan (AKA “Lady Jane”), who was given the leather sack by townsfolk.
Original Story, Bad News Story“

Shahan has been the only librarian working at the library. The district is searching for an assistant librarian.

Public opinion was split on the issue at a September meeting of the library board. Some residents said they were uncomfortable having their children around her. Others said her private life was her business, and she should be judged solely on her work as a librarian.

bentley writes “On Nov. 21, in response to the LISNews thread “Shhh! People are trying to compute,” David Rothman posted this on his TeleRead blog: “LISNews lives up to its name–as a newsy Slashdot-style site. That aside, this virtual salon for librarians is a chilling example of the resistance and even hatred that e-bookers will encounter in the library world from its many Luddites. LISNews also shows the weaknesses of the Slashdot-modelled bulletin-board system, under which bigoted, ornery moderators can act more as if they’re in a saloon than a salon.” [More]”

Information Today has This Article by Gary Price who says the library world hasn’t done enough to keep up with the Google juggernaut in defining our role in the Web age. We must do better and we must start now.

Gary suggests we should “energizes” our word-of-mouth marketing by getting to information gatekeepers like journalists, teachers, key members of a company, etc. and demonstrating what out service offers.

He suggests Eight Great Starting Points:

1. Reach out to people who haven’t been in a library in many years. Point out that library services go way beyond the four walls of the library building.

2. Develop personal relationships with users. In the same way bankers used to know their customers’ needs, let people know you are “their” information go-to person.

Rob Lopresti writes “In James Randi’s latest commentary he includes a letter from Annette Paulsen who was upset by a book offered for sale at the fund raiser for her kid’s school library:
“Imagine my surprise when I saw this book on the shelf: “The Kids Guide to Fortune Telling” by Louise Dickson. I picked the book up and was shocked to see that it was presented as a nonfiction teaching tool. Now, understand that if this book was called “The Kids Guide to Fortune Telling for Fun,” I would not have had a problem with it. I’m all for fun and games. I asked the Librarian if she thought that this was an appropriate book for children, thinking that perhaps she had not really looked at the book. Of course, she looked at me as if I had two heads. She stated that she hadn’t really looked at it and asked if I also had a problem with Harry Potter? I told her, “Of course not. Harry Potter is a novel and clearly identified as such, and everyone knows that it is fiction. But when a book is categorized as nonfiction, and we all know that fortune telling is not real, I think we have an obligation to the children of our school to remove it from the shelves, until it is categorized appropriately, as fiction…””

An Oakwood, GA man has been ordered to stand trial on felony charges of accessing child pornography at the Hall County Library in Gainesville, GA according to a story at the Gainesville Times. A woman, who was working on a nearby terminal with her 10-year old niece complained to librarians about what she glimpsed. Librarians confronted the man immediately, removed him from the library and revoked his library privileges. The library has filters on its internet computers and recessed workstations with three-sided hoods for privacy.

You can complain all you want about Microsoft (and I know you will), but MS Chairman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have given away over half their net worth–nearly $23 billion–to various charities making them the most generous charitable donors in America according to this CNNMoney article.