August 2006

Kelly writes “Here, from News Hound , (a site that monitors Fox News…”We watch FOX so you don’t have to”)…Dick Morris, Fox newsman and former President Clinton advisor/now detractor reports ‘Democrats Have To Understand That Snooping Through Library Records Is Popular.’

Everyone’s favorite librarian and book-luster, Nancy Pearl, will be starting a new on-line feature, “Pearls Picks” on the first of next month. Pearl’s Picks will be available through nine library systems around the country via the King County (Seattle) Library System website; here’s the press release.

GAC writes “Check This Out:

Two New Orleans, Louisiana drinkers offer a unique way to raise money for their local public library branch. Your donation allows you to vote to on two choices: 1) they can drink booze throughout 2007, or 2) they go on the wagon all year (excepting five holidays).”

Kelly writes “This article focuses on the outsourcing of writing work, but it does mention research: ‘At the moment, we are just seeing the start of this market area. However, as the outsourcing model matures in the media segment, there will be more of this. This approach has already been proven in the financial services sector, where a significant amount of research and report generation is being done in India,’ says Kevin R. English Senior Vice-President Media & Entertainment. Satyam Computer Services. ‘I would expect over the next two to three years that media companies will begin to adopt a similar approach for some of its content creation and aggregation,” English said in an e-mail from the US.” For much more, see: hindu.com“

Anonymous Patron writes “From PW Comics Week:…Graphic Novel Suggestions for Librarians, a informational booklet…provides guidelines for building a graphic novel collection and shelving strategies. However, the most important guidelines deal with challenges to graphic novels because of certain kinds of pictorial depictions.

Theoretically, dealing with graphic novels in the library should be no different than any other print material. However, Don Wood, a representative of the ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom, explains, “Many people consider an image to be far more powerful in its impact than any written description of that image. So there are different considerations when dealing with challenges to images.”

Anonymous Patron writes “AP Wire: The number of books threatened with removal from library shelves dropped last year to its lowest total on record, with 405 challenges reported to the American Library Association.

The ALA has been tracking efforts to pull texts since the early 1980s, when it helped found Banned Books Week as a celebration of free expression. The 25th annual “Banned Books” program takes place Sept. 23-30, as libraries and bookstores highlight works that have been removed or faced removal.”

Anonymous Patron writes “BBC NEWS: For some time the people behind Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia assembled from reader contributions and edited and maintained by those who care to get involved, have been coping with the fallout from a widely-publicised failure of their quality control mechanism.”

Anonymous Patron writes “Google, UC disclose book-scan terms: The University of California has released a copy of its contract with Google Inc. to have the search engine giant digitize millions of books from the university’s libraries.

The document shines a light on the type of agreement Google is reaching with some of the world’s largest academic libraries as part of its controversial project to scan portions of their collections.”

sarahmae writes “Via BoingBoing: A summer intern with the Federation of American Scientists created the Really Ready website in an attempt to improve upon the Department of Homeland Security’s Ready.gov. Now Homeland Security is trying to shut down the site claiming intellectual property infringement.

Read more and see the letter from DHS here. The original BoingBoing post about the launch of the site is here.”

Anonymous Patron writes “TheStar.com Once in a while a book appears that seems to offer a new truth about the world. Everybody’s got to read that book to stay informed and know what other people are talking about at parties. A look at the No.1 non-fiction bestsellers on the New York Times bestseller list over the last 60 years reveals a good deal about how we as a culture have changed and how we have not.”