June 2007

The FBI has recovered the long-lost manuscript of Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Good Earth,” which had been missing for more than 40 years.

The original typed manuscript had gone missing from Buck’s family farm in the Philadelphia suburb of Perkasie around 1966. It turned up earlier this month when it was consigned to a Philadelphia auction house, which notified authorities, FBI spokeswoman Jerri Williams said.

Library Web writes “Philip Pullmans Northern Lights, the epic story of shape-shifting creatures and otherworldly characters in parallel universes, emerged yesterday as the decisive winner of one of the world’s most prestigious children’s literary awards — full story here.”

I feel like I owe a plug to those nice guys over at HALE for all the free beer @ALA. Hale Manufacturing prides itself on being artisians in quality wood craft and although they are best known for bookcases, they can also custom build any variation of bookcases or office furniture that you can dream up.

Check out some of their custom built library pieces, Recent Installs, or The Catalog.

Anonymous Patron writes “Faculty at the 14 state-owned Pennsylvania universities, including Clarion University which has an ALA accredited MLS program, are set to strike on July 1st. There is no information as to how this may affect library science education only that summer classes will most likey be canceled and graduations delayed.

Check This Out for more info.”

Anonymous Patron writes “Andover, OH Public Library board fiscal officer Sonja Orahood was indicted Friday by a county grand jury for theft charges involving the embezzlement of more than $89,000 mid-2000 to Dec. 31, 2005. She also embezzled as treasurer of her child’s PTA and last but not least, her church. Triple embezzler!!! Gory details in the Star Beacon.”

“When politics gets mean and dumb, you can cheer yourself up by walking into a public library, one of the nobler expressions of democracy.”

C’mon now, how can any library lover not read an article containing a quote like that? Library advocate extraordinaire, Garrison Keillor, waxes lyrical about the public library, librarians, and a whole lot of other things we love.

I realize that, in this case, he’s preaching to the choir, but it’s nice to see something positive every so often. Check it out over at Salon.

madcow writes “”[T]here’s no doubt that libraries have embraced technology. But speakers said that there was a larger split between students – who are “digital natives,” in one popular way of classifying people based on their experience with technology – and librarians, who are more likely to be “digital immigrants.” They may have learned the language, but it’s a second language.” So says the article at Inside Higher Ed.

James Paul Gee, a linguist who is the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the author of Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul, argued that librarians need to adapt their techniques to digital natives. A digital native would never read an instruction manual with a new game before simply trying the game out, Gee said. Similarly, students shouldn’t be expected to read long explanations of tools they may use before they start experimenting with them.””

Blogger Phil Bradley, he of all things internet, Web 2.0, etc, and libraries, has posted a video of Stephen Fry discussing Web 2.0. It’s always interesting to see those that we think of as “non techies” talking about the future of the web.

Porter Anderson writes of the all new NEA, their avoidance of giving grants that cause controversy, and instead are promoting programs such as “Big Read,” the town that reads together. There up to 117 cities so far with an expected 400 next year, as well as four international programs that will start up in the next year. Exciting to see the government promote reading, and its the NEA to boot.

Steve Fesenmaier writes “A local reporter, Carolyn Harmon, e-mailed me about stories linked to Lincoln County, West Virginia, the birthplace of Chuck Yeager. I suggested several possible stories including the fact that his own mother watched the WVLC copy of “The Right Stuff” and WVLC has the official Air Force biography of Yeager. She decided to do a story about me instead….and for the first time, writing about both jobs that I do — as
Research Librarian and Media Consultant Librarian .

Also check out
my own Charleston Gazette WV film blog“