September 2007

Everytime I think I’ve seen it all, something new comes up. This Time it’s part of a story out of the UK on a murder. They mention a “chilling underworld figure known only as The Librarian.”

The Librarian was thought to be a mythical figure, someone who was a figment of the imagination until police discovered he, and his gun-lending business, were real.

He is thought to have loaned guns, in return for a sizeable fee, to high-profile criminals who cannot afford to keep a weapon on them at all times and teen gangs such as the Strand Gang and the Croxteth Crew.
The long-term investigation was launched after the discovery that weapons were being lent, library-style, by criminals.

Once there were cabbages and cucumbers there, but for the next few months, there will be books and computer stations. The Loutit District Library is temporarily moving into the former home of Sav-A-Lot, a now defunct grocery store.

After the lease is signed, work will begin in the temporary space to prepare it for library services. LDL Director Sandie Knes said they will need to clean, paint, add computer lines and put in some walls to mimic the spaces in the existing library.

“We’ll be open the same hours, and we’ll be offering the same services, same materials and same programs,” said Knes. “It’s going to be the same library; just in a different location during construction.” Grand Haven Tribune has the story.

Baltimore Sun reports: Southern Methodist University says it has all the permission it needs from the United Methodist Church to proceed with negotiations for the placement of President Bush’s planned presidential library and public policy institute at the university campus in Dallas.

“We’re not concerned because we fundamentally disagree with what the possibilities are of their actions,” Brad Cheves, SMU’s vice president of development and external affairs, told the campus newspaper (Any LISNewsters understand that sentence?).

“SMU and Bush are ‘dead certain,’ but they are dead wrong,” said Andrew Weaver, a Methodist minister in New York who is among the protesters of the Bush library plans. The 290 members of the Methodist southern regional council are “mostly progressives and moderates,” Weaver says, suggesting that their vote of approval for the library is “up for grabs.”

About 16,000 words have succumbed to pressures of the Internet age and lost their hyphens in a new edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.

Bumble-bee is now bumblebee, ice-cream is ice cream and pot-belly is pot belly.

And if you’ve got a problem, don’t be such a crybaby (formerly cry-baby). “People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they’re not really sure what they are for,” said Angus Stevenson, editor of the Shorter OED, the sixth edition of which was published this week.

Steve Fesenmaier writes “Solveig Nilsen, recently retired librarian at the Ridgedale Library, is the recipient of the 2007 Sandy Berman Award for Social Responsibility in Library Services.
Nilsen was honored for her lasting contributions to the workplace at Hennepin County Library, the award committee said.

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_3 303“

Steve Fesenmaier writes “Solveig Nilsen, recently retired librarian at the Ridgedale Library, is the recipient of the 2007 Sandy Berman Award for Social Responsibility in Library Services.
Nilsen was honored for her lasting contributions to the workplace at Hennepin County Library, the award committee said.

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_3 303“

sv651 writes “A guest blogger over at PC Mag has a potential solution for the terrible tech support that consumers often get from technology companies these days: “Public libraries are the natural venue for tech support problems to get fixed. Libraries care about people’s access to information, right? How about if we tack on an extra $1 to the cost of every new computer — and then fund libraries to stay open some extra hours in the evening (or on the weekend) so that people can bring their computers to be attended to?” Have to give the guy some credit for thinking outside the box …”

mdoneil writes “A United States District Court Judge has ruled that parts of the USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional. The parts which amend the FISA were reviewed by the Oregon District Court Judge in the Mayfield et al case.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.”

The controversy over a Guilford High School teacher’s resignation last week had many parents and others in the community wondering: What exactly is a graphic novel?

English teacher Nate Fisher resigned Tuesday after a freshman girl’s parents complained about a graphic novel, Daniel Clowes “Eightball #22,” that Fisher gave the student as a makeup summer reading assignment.

Anonymous Patron writes “From Judith Baalman, Business/Operating Manager, Jackson County Library Services via the Libs-OR mailing list:

Note that some cities in Jackson county have approved additional local funding to extend their opening hours beyond what Jackson county / LSSI will provide. This includes Ashland and Talent.”

Also see article at the Mail Tribune.

QUINCEY HOBBS: EBooks have been the technology that has been on the verge of revolutionizing our society for the better part of a decade.
They are essentially publications that were packaged in a PDF format with a table of contents. A testament to the promise of eBooks is Google’s effort to digitize every book in existence, and that most libraries offer eBooks for loan.
What has hampered the true emergence of eBooks are their readability. The idea of flipping through a PDF file is not as appealing as actually curling up with a good book, but I think that it will be in the not-to-distant future.