March 2006

Proving that her boy wizard hasn’t lost his magic, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” won the WHSmith Book of the Year prize at the 17th annual British Book Awards.

Alan Bennett, 71, the actor, author and playwright renowned for his deadpan wit, was named Reader’s Digest Author of the Year.

Rowling and Bennett were among a dozen authors to be honored at a swanky, televised dinner for 1,200 guests at London’s serene Grosvenor House hotel. Lauren Bacall, Richard E. Grant, and other book-loving celebrities presented the gold trophies, shaped like the nib of a fountain pen and giving the awards their nickname, the “Nibbies.”

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A Sad Story from Longmont,CO, where out of 13,692 books in the library, the average publication date is 1979. Then and now, even though the number of students has climbed from around 800 to nearly 1,400, the Skyline High library is staffed by two people and has a $16,000 book budget, Meester said.

Now, in her first year at Longmont High School, Meester and a library clerk operate with a $15,500 budget for 2005-06.

Many of you may be familiar with the generosity of Thomson Gale in the form of the free reference materials (biographies, activities, timelines, etc.) they make available on their site for a number of topics. However, several other Gale reference books appear to be available now on the web for free, in an interesting new format that appears to be supported by Google AdWords advertising, but which also invites users to add comments or additions to the reference articles. The works Luke Rosenberger Has Spotted so far include an impressive list or sources.

It’s possible I’ve pointed to John Kupersmith’s Library Terms That Users Understand before, but if you missed it the first time, be sure to have a look. This site is intended to help library web developers decide how to label key resources and services in such a way that most users can understand them well enough to make productive choices. It serves as a clearinghouse of usability test data evaluating terminology on library websites, and suggests test methods and best practices for reducing cognitive barriers caused by terminology.

Brian E. Surratt posted this New Collections and Services (The 5th and last part of his whitepaper) on the Future of Academic Libraries. The Entire Paper is a great read that is a must read for all those interested in Academia.

“To adapt to the information age, the library must expand its functions to encompass the entire life cycle of information. The library must go beyond acquiring information from our traditional sources, such as publishers, vendors, and the government. Our imperative is to develop and cultivate digital collections owned and hosted by the library, tailored to the information age.”

Derik Badman did a lot of sketching while at Computers in Libraries 2006 in Washington DC in March 2006. He posted them all On Flickr, and they’re quite good. I especially liked “Michael’s catchphrase” and Roy Tennant on ditching the word OPAC.

The Dallas Morning News: As the competition for the George W. Bush presidential library heats up, interest in White House history could be cooling off.

Attendance at most presidential libraries and museums is down – way down, in some cases. The number of visitors is declining at eight of the 11 libraries. And the National Archives and Records Administration is trying to figure out why. The federal agency that operates the Presidential Library System has launched a multiyear market research project aimed at raising the libraries’ profiles and at uncovering what draws people to presidential history.

Cstout writes: “In my efforts to find instances of direct cooperation between the American Library Association (ALA) and the American Civil Liberties Association (ACLU) I discovered Libraryprivacy.org. A joint project of the California Library Association and the ACLU of Southern California, the website is an excellent resource for libraries nationwide to take action against the USA PATRIOT Act.

“The groups, ‘believe that these new powers violate the basic tenets of intellectual freedom, that library users should have the right to read free of surveillance, and that a high wall of privacy should be re-established around an individual’s private library records.’

“Included on the site are links to articles about the impact of the PATRIOT Act on library privacy, resolutions against the act and a ‘Take Action’ section that calls for support of amending the Act to protect library use privacy. This is an excellent resource for us in the librarian profession concerned about the privacy and protection of our patrons.

“No one has ever proven that terrorists used library materials or equipment in support of their activities. What has been proven though, is that the Bush administration has no problem secretly spying on American Citizens. The PATRIOT Act just makes it easier. Let’s help the ACLU in their efforts to protect our freedom.”

Louisville Courier-Journal (Louisville,KY) Looks Inside the Louisville Free Public Library, and likes what they see.
Small businesses and entrepreneurs should view the library as “an economic tool,” said its director, Craig Buthod. It offers services that range from downloadable legal forms to online databases and business-skills workshops. There is “something specific to whatever your line of business is,” he said.

“The value of the librarian in sorting it out has increased,” Buthod said. “It used to be that the librarian was a gatekeeper — you had to go through the librarian to get to any of this. Now, there’s so much out there that what you need is not a gatekeeper; you need someone to help you sift and sort and evaluate.”