January 2004

The Chronicle of Higher Education writes “Computers haven’t changed us much — only our self-images, our privacy, our reasoning, our assumptions, and our views of mastery, good, and evil, writes Sherry Turkle, a professor of the social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This article is from the Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/30/04, vol. 50, Issue 21, Page B26.
Here’s A Link (subscription required)”

teaperson writes “From today’s Christian Science Monitor, three travel articles on London of interest to book-lovers.
The Children’s Tour – including Harry’s Platform 9 3/4, and sites related to Mary Poppins and Peter Pan
Dickensian London: A character in itself
London as Shakespeare liked it“

Nice story from Pleasanton CA that reports on “booklegging.”
It’s the library outreach program that sends volunteers into classrooms to introduce kids to the wonder of books. Children have their interest piqued by hearing only a portion of a story…and have to get to the library to find out “what happens next.”

Bill Drew shares This Interview with Brewster Kahle, the founder and digital librarian for the Internet Archive.Brewster started the IA in 1996 with his own money, which he earned from the sale of two separate Internet search programs: WAIS, which was bought by AOL, and Alexa Internet, which was bought by Amazon. He has been spending his own money to keep the institution going for the last six years. Recently, in the summer of 2003, he was fortunate enough to receive some grants and corporate sponsorship.

Channel News Asia Reports the National Library at Stamford Road will move out of its 44-year-old home. But the new $200 million building at Victoria Street won’t be ready until late 2005.

From 1st April, the National Library at Stamford Road will shut its doors to the public for good.

And everything in it, will go.

About 200,000 reference books will be moved to the Jurong Regional Library.

The rest will go to a warehouse in Changi or other community and regional libraries.

Bibliofuture writes “Philips Electronics has announced that they will have a foldable screen on the market by 2005.
http://www.nypost.com/business/16653.htm
The project name for the fold up screen is “Polymer Vision”. Philips has a Polymer Vision site at http://polymervision.nl/“

Norma writes: “”Buddy can you spare some time” by Martin Peers is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal (Jan. 25, 2004) about how Americans are using their discretionary time. There’s some good news and some bad news for librarians, but all of it is news librarians need to analyze to be prepared when considering staffing and collections.Broadcast TV hours going down; cable TV hours going up.Radio going up.Video/Internet useage going up (although not as much as I’d thought)Daily newspaper reading flat.Reading books flat.Reading magazines flat.Books, magazines and newspaper reading accounted for about 7 hours a week of discretionary time. Sure, that’s not a lot, but they haven’t lost ground since 1996. Appears that the time to surf the net is taken from TV time, not from books.Disposable time is a battle for the dollar.Then there is a second article on differences in gender and age in using TV, internet, renting movies, listening to music, etc. 39% of people over 45 read (what I’m not sure) compared to 11% under 25 and 24% read between 25-34.“

NC Times Reports Jury selection is slated to begin today in a $1.5 million lawsuit a man with disabilities filed against the city of Escondido after a cat living in a city library attacked his assistance dog in 2000.

Richard Ramon “Rik” Espinosa, acting as his own attorney, is suing the city for damages over the Nov. 16, 2000, incident. Espinosa alleges in the lawsuit that he has several disabilities, including major depressive and panic disorders.

The issue to go before the jury is whether Espinosa had the same right to enter and use the library as anyone else, whether the city denied his right to have his assistance dog with him, and whether the city interfered with his admittance to and enjoyment of the library.

Still undecided? 3 of the Democratic nominees for president have, at some point, named a few of their favorite books:
Wesley Clark’s, Howard Dean’s (Look for Chapter 10), and John Edwards’. You can also find George W. Bush’s Here. Now I don’t know how official any of these lists really are, so you might want to base your voting decisions on other factors as well.

Eilir Rowan writes “I read about this in the Press and Sun-Bulletin’s PressConnects.com.

Flat Stanley is a boy from the 1964 book by the same name who learns to embrace his difference–being flat–by making the most of it. Taking the book as inspiration, librarians and students are helping him travel the world by mailing him all over. Templates of the character can be downloaded from the Flat Stanley Project and given or sent to others, who then continue his journey by mail, keep a log, send pictures, etc. It’s a variation on the ‘garden gnome’ theme that really captures kids’ imaginations as they track where their Stanleys have gone.”