December 2006

Worcester Homeless Policy Revised

Homeless patrons of the Worcester MA library were previously only able to borrow two books at a time, but that restriction has been overturned by a suit brought by homeless advocates proving that the limitation was unconstitutional.

Last week, the city settled with the Legal Assistance Corp. of Central Massachusetts and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which filed the suit on behalf of three co-plaintiffs who live in shelters and felt they were discriminated against.

Under the settlement, the library has scrapped its policy restricting borrowing privileges of residents of shelters, transitional housing programs and adolescent programs. More from the Worcester Telegram.

Internet Tutorials – Screen casts

Meredith Farkas reported two interesting tutorials in her blog entry on Random and cold medicine-induced thoughts on screencasting. These are: Calgary Public Library’s basic Internet tutorials and Tutorials at the Orange County Public Library. Calgary’s site include tutorials on Introduction to Computers and the Internet, Yahoo, Google, Internet Explorer, Hotmail, and several others. There are several virtual tutorials on searching EBSCOHost databases as well.

Yes, Virginia

After reading Mdoneil’s journal entry I did a little additional reading and found some interesting things. In the Wikipedia entry for the editorial “Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus” it mentions this fact Interestingly enough, when the editorial is reproduced today, it often omits more than half of Church’s original response. One paragraph that is not often repeated begins, “Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies.”

This got the librarian in me thinking that I would like to see the original 1897 newspaper that had the editorial. At the Newseum website there is a scan or the original editorial.

I also came across this interesting link. On December 24th 1963, CBC radio interviewed the real Virginia. It is well worth the listen to hear the thoughts of the real Virginia.
She died in 1971.

Ken Jennings: Show a librarian some love this Christmas

Ken Jennings writes:

[L]ibraries are chronically under-funded these days, so if you’ve enjoyed the free books, media items, Internet, etc. at a local library during this year, let them know with a little holiday donation.

Scandalous suggestions after the cut…

Ken Jennings writes:

[L]ibraries are chronically under-funded these days, so if you’ve enjoyed the free books, media items, Internet, etc. at a local library during this year, let them know with a little holiday donation.

Scandalous suggestions after the cut…A library user felt bad that Ken Jennings made no money when she borrowed Brainiac, so she made a donation to the library instead. Ken enthusiastically approved:

I approve whole-heartedly—libraries are chronically under-funded these days, so if you’ve enjoyed the free books, media items, Internet, etc. at a local library during this year, let them know with a little holiday donation. Or if the reason you use the library is you because you don’t have any cash to throw around, offer to volunteer at your library instead. If both time and money are in short supply this winter, use your body. Romance a lonely librarian. As the movies have taught us, when librarians take off their dowdy glasses and let their hair down, some are real lookers. (emphasis added)

Shucks, Ken, we thought the dowdy-librarian-turned-sexpot was one of those images that was much more prevalent in the media than in real life—just like Mormon polygamy. Not that all librarians value monogamy (hint, hint). But we’ll drop our stereotypes if you’ll drop yours.

Montgomery AL Public Library Gets a Solid “D”

The Montgomery Advertiser reports that according to both the Hennen Index and a private assessment firm hired by the Board of Directors, the Montgomery City-County Public Library is on shaky ground. Juanita Owes, director of the library system, disputed Hennen’s results. “The report is good. It helps you find where you ought to be,” Owes said. “But it does not look at the fact that Alabama is an economically poor state.”

How the “Twelve Days of Christmas” Carol arrived in America

The AP has the story on how the popular carol came to the U.S. from England…the sheet music was brought across the pond by Emily Francis Brown, an English professor at Milwaukee-Downer College, who discovered it while browsing in a bookstore in Oxford, England in 1910. The song was later included in Christmas celebrations on the campus of the U. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (evolved from Milwaukee-Downer College).

Ron Wiecki, a music librarian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the list of odd gifts gives the song “a certain antique feel” that may explain its popularity.

“It’s sort of like ’99 Bottles of Beer,”’ Wiecki said.

The song also gets attention each year when media estimate the cost of the gifts; now about $18,900.