March 2005

Decency in the New Millenium

From today’s New York Times, a profile of the new chairman of the FCC, Kevin J. Martin, and what he and the members of the commission are expected to do in terms of tightening rules of decency on the airwaves. Also under consideration, the question of decency rules as they apply to privately broadcast cable programs.

Mr. Martin’s predecessor, Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell) held a hard line on broadcasters; Mr. Martin is expected to be even tougher in the administration of the agency. Is this trend toward national conservatism paralleling what we see in the publishing industry?

March 29, 2005 by Uncategorized

Will the Internet kill the printed book? (Part I)

The advent of the Internet has overwhelmed millions of individuals – so much that the relevance of books and libraries are being questioned in this Information Age. In the context of the forthcoming celebration of the World Book and Copyright Day as proclaimed by Unesco in 1995, let This Article contribute to that debate.

“The benefits of reading need not be over-emphasised. Suffice it to say that research indicates that although printed materials are not the only avenue to learning, they stimulate thinking and writing specially among students. Irrespective of whether one reads for satisfying intellectual or spiritual needs, to meet practical demands of daily living, to remain abreast with the latest developments in one’s field, for self-development and for extending one’s cultural and intellectual horizons, or simply to understand current happenings, build one’s vocabulary, strengthen one’s use of language in addition to instilling a love of literature, books, periodicals and newspapers remain the vehicle par excellence. Indeed, the absence of reading ‘impoverishes one’s capacity for interpreting what one reads.“

Link stolen from Jessamyn

March 29, 2005 by Books Internet Libraries

Brace yourself for the battery-hen age of the book

Books are as mixed a blessing as free school dinners. Whoever thinks otherwise has no idea just how influential or dangerous they can be. Anyone so deluded must know nothing about them. Or so Rosemary Goring thought before reading the Bookseller’s recent survey on the habits of British readers.

According to the Bookseller, the book trade’s magazine, their latest concern is that while they have proved very good at selling books to people who like books, they still haven’t managed to attract non-readers.

March 28, 2005 by Books School Libraries

Unusual Library Visitor–Super Dooper Reading Yooper

In Escanaba (MI), children (and adults) around town are seeing a curious person, draped in a cape, heralded by Superman-theme music, stopping by the library, the meeting of the library board and a few other places around town.

Looks like a super-hero (of the reading variety), but the children of the Lemmer School in town have vowed to keep his identity a secret. But we want to know…
just who can that man be…

March 28, 2005 by Librarians Libraries Music School Libraries

Libraries to highlight stories of Californians

Anonymous Patron writes “Inside Bay Area Reports on a neat project from the California Council for the Humanities, a nonprofit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Librarians across the state, armed with a brand-new anthology of regional literature, are seeking to make April a month to get readers talking about what it means to be Californian.
A monthlong literary campaign launches locally this week with book discussions, author readings and other events at libraries in San Lorenzo, Castro Valley and throughout the Bay Area.”

March 28, 2005 by Libraries

Expert roundtable on digital preservation

A discussion held by the UK’s Joint Information Systems Committee:

We take paper for granted as a storage medium for knowledge. Libraries, where many of us seek out this knowledge, have evolved over many centuries, enabling us to store and retrieve paper mediums – such as books or journals – reasonably quickly and effectively. Along comes modern technology and information can be stored on a hard disk somewhere, accessible, as with paper based objects, for generations to come. It means we can now visit our libraries from almost anywhere at anytime. And the material we can access from these ‘virtual’ knowledge centres keeps growing, which is fantastic. We can rest assured that our knowledge heritage is preserved for us in these new technologically enabled electronic formats for future generations. Or is it?

At a recent meeting of Project Managers for JISC’s CSR2 programme, we met up and discussed digital preservation with some leading experts. It seems that there is still little appreciation or understanding of how knowledge, which is now being stored digitally, can or should be effectively preserved for us to use and enjoy in the future.

Complete article.

March 28, 2005 by Libraries

Library Targeted by Vandals Shuts

Blake writes ‘vandalism and a fire, believed to have been set deliberately, have contributed to shutting down a library (Shelfield Branch, Walsall Libraries) in the British West Midlands’. Story from the BBC.

Garry Perry, a member of the town council stated “There is a minority of people in that community who do not care about valuable facilities, such as the library, and who have no sense of feeling for those who will be upset by this decision”.

March 28, 2005 by Librarians Libraries

Looking back on a year of progress

A nice profile of Gary Mason, who recently completed his first year as director of the Rye [NH] Public Library:

The soft-spoken Mason sat and talked about the past year’s accomplishments and about the future in a section of the library that looks more like a comfy living room, one of the ideas he brought to the library. Patrons are encouraged to sit there and read. A few comfy chairs scattered through the library and coffee add to the welcoming atmosphere.

“This was our biography room,” Mason said. “We moved that to the regular stacks and made the space.”

There are still books in the space, but along the walls. Mason is working on collections of American classics and one on world literature. The library is open an additional eight hours, and materials can be checked out for a longer period of time, changes made under Mason’s watch.

Complete article from the Portsmouth Herald.

March 28, 2005 by Internet Libraries

Librarians testify in support of student privacy

Maine librarians have testified against a bill that would require them to reveal students’ borrowing records to their parents:

[Gardiner Public Library Director Anne] Davis called the bill unnecessary, a liability for libraries and a breech of ethics for librarians.

“By the time a minor reaches the age of 12 or 13, they are learning to make choices,” she said. “What better way to teach them to make good choices than to allow them unimpeded access to the information found in the library?”

Complete article from the Kennebec Journal.

March 28, 2005 by Librarians Libraries Privacy

Supporting writers, a signature at a time

Anonymous Patron writes “Neat little Story On David Lacasse who has indulged his passion of collecting signed books by local authors. To date he’s amassed about 2,500. So many, in fact, that when the eldest of his three children left home, he turned his bedroom into a library.

Lacasse said he’s not sure why he chose this as a hobby, but he knows exactly when it happened.

The book lover said he’s had authors sign his books under the strangest of circumstances in some unusual venues including post offices and bowling alleys. Once, he said, he was the only person to show up at a reading at a local bookstore.”

March 28, 2005 by Libraries

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