October 2004

mdoneil writes ”
Well another top-level domain is being established and two are in the works. Professionals (currently doctors, lawyers, engineers and architects but sadly not librarians) will be the users allowed by .pro.

Two new domains were given provisional approval by ICANN. A travel domain .travel and a postal domain .post have passed scrutiny and are well on their way to being active TLDs.

Off the top of your head can you name the 10 global TLDs? Or is .com the only one you can think of just now? Do you know the one for airlines and related organizations, how about the one for credit unions and the like, or the one for museums?

For a complete list thank the fine folks in Norway at Norid. You will find all of the TLDs there including the more than 200 country specific ones.”

Terrific interview with children’s author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg from Mlive.com. For those of you unfamiliar with children’s lit, Van Allsburg is the author of several beautfully and lavishly illustrated, quirky books, including the Polar Express, which has been turned into an upcoming holiday movie.

He’s fascinated by weird things happening in ordinary places. He always reads those newspaper stories about cars crashing into peoples’ living rooms. If the front end of an Oldsmobile looks that good in somebody’s living room, he muses, think how cool a herd of rhinos would be.

Here’s another haunted library story. While I think we may have posted about this particular library in Clark County, Kentucky, built atop a burial ground, here’s a story told by an anonymous patron about his unsettling encounter.

The Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago is closing its doors permanently on Halloween due to poor attendance.

Marshall Field V, chairman and president of the Terra Foundation for the Arts, acknowledged that public indifference had made the trustees’ decision last year an easier one. The sprawling, encyclopedic Art Institute attracts more than 1.3 million visitors each year. By comparison, the Terra Museum, located within a mile of the Art Institute, draws only about 85,000.

More from the NY Times.

A librarian who came out of retirement to replace a sick librarian in Lumpkin, GA, said that she can no longer continue in the position after being threatened by young men with brass knuckles and knives. As a result, the library, a member of the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library System, has decided to keep its doors closed until a permanent, full-time replacement can be hired.

“I understand the action that she says she had to take,” (police chief Jay) Stripling said, “but that library is as safe as anywhere else in town. So I really wish they didn’t close it. There are a lot of kids in this town that want to do right, but it’s the other 2 percent who are causing all the problems.”

More here from this AP story.

An Anonymous Patron writes ” Wal-Mart has decided that their customers are unlikely to buy a George Carlin book that is currently fifth on the NYT Best Seller List. Does the company think their shoppers are a breed apart?”.

Daniel adds: Does this add to the controversy over whether library shelves should mirror bestseller lists? Should we stock ourselves according to what sells at Wal-Mart?

Anonymous Patron writes “Seems Homeland Security has extended it’s long arm to include enforcement of patent and trademark infringement laws.

But according to this AP story on Yahoo, there was no infringement.

Seems that Homeland Security is leaping in with both feet without thinking or even looking.

What’s next? Perhaps library dragnets to catch anyone who takes notes or uses copiers?”

Daniel Adds: Since DHS is such a vast agency, it would be helpful to know which subunit visited the store. Too bad that AP via Yahoo doesn’t seem concerned with this.

Philadelphi may be the first major city to be equipped with Wi-Fi access throughout its 135 sq. mi. according this this AP story. If the proposal presented to the Mayor on December 10 is successful, the plan is for the city to be wireless by Summer 2006.

Here’s another story from Wi-Fi Planet about other cities that have expressed interest in Wi-Fi and about Airmesh, the company that specializes in large scale wireless access.

twistedlibrarian writes “The circulation of books at the Glasgow libraries has dropped. However, they are busier than ever… guess what has taken up the slack. That’s right, CDs, Internet and DVDs. Sound familiar?

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5031855.html “

Anonymous Patron writes “SPB PRESS #110 – Thousands of documents stolen from city archives More than 7,000 irreplaceable documents — including historic decrees signed by Peter the Great — have been stolen from St Petersburg’s state archives.

Thieves helped themselves to handfuls of ancient manuscripts from binders in bundles of up to 50 before making their escape from Russia’s biggest historical archive, on Millionaya Ulitsa.”