December 2007

There’s not a lot of information about this invention from Ramin Sedighi of Iran, except that it’s a device with an electronic pen that scans words of a book and says them aloud. The news clip says that the device will teach languages to children ages 4 to 16, and that it can also “explain” pictures. Here’s the mystery catch though: the reader has 512MB of memory “for storing 15 books.”

The library tries to be a friend to all local residents, including homeless people, said Jean Yeomans, adult services coordinator. Sometimes that means offering resources to people that employees know are homeless. Sometimes it’s allowing children without fixed addresses to use the Internet for school assignments. And sometimes it’s just leaving people alone as they peruse newspapers, magazines or movies. In many cities, libraries attract homeless people because they offer a warm (or, in the summer, cool) public place where they can blend into the general population.

Families in Spokane launch what has grown into a statewide effort to protect schools’ guardians of the shelves. Convinced that children and education suffers when librarians disappear, a loose-knit band of Spokane families launched what has become a statewide campaign to bring school librarians back from the brink.

From the New York Times, here’s the list of each of three book reviewers ten favorites.

Specifically NOT the books they were assigned to review, Janet Maslin tells us that these books are the critics’ personal favorites. “These are the books that are disappointing only because they have to end. They’re the ones we mention to friends. They’re the ones worth taking on vacation, and they are well executed, whatever their genre or subject matter. They are what we’d read even if Michiko Kakutani, William Grimes and I weren’t designated readers.”

Among books reviewed by Michiko Kaktani, a favorite was House of Meetings by Martin Amis, Janet Maslin recommends Christine Falls by Benjamin Black and William Grimes includes the second in “The Liberation Trilogy”; The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 by Rick Atkinson.

Illinois schools Campaign calls for all districts to employ certified information specialists. But as librarians increasingly are swapped for aides or technology instructors, and literature takes a back seat to technology, library professionals are pushing back. They’re calling on state education officials to require all Illinois school districts to employ certified librarians, also known as information specialists, who are trained to develop both print and electronic curriculum.

End of Support for Netscape web browsers:
Q: What will this mean?
A: We’ll continue to release security patches for the current version of the browser, Netscape Navigator until February 1, 2008. After February 1, there will be no more active product support for Navigator 9, or any previous Netscape Navigator browser. This includes Netscape v1-v4.x, Netscape v6, Netscape v7 Suite, Netscape Browser v8, and Netscape Navigator/Messenger 9.

Q: I use Netscape now. Now that Netscape is stopping support, what do I do?
A: The Netscape Team fully stands behind the fine work being done by the Mozilla Foundation. We recommend that you download Mozilla Firefox and give it a try. We know you’ll enjoy it!

The LOC has announced that the past 700 years of Scottish literature will no longer have its own section. The National Library of Scotland has urged it to reconsider the decision and the culture minister has vowed to raise the matter with the US Congress.

Under the new rules, the heading Scottish Literature and more than 40 Scottish subjects are to be grouped under three headings.

Nostalgic piece by by Monty Manley in BlogCritics recalling an unidentified and now-closed bookstore , where he spent “many long hours sitting in those musty old wingback chairs, poring over some book I had bought or meant to buy or couldn’t afford but still wanted to read. It was a special kind of heaven that only other bookworms can probably understand.”

The Filipino youth will be the focus of the world’s largest floating library, MV Doulos, and its 350 Christian volunteers when they return after six years to the Subic Bay Freeport on Dec. 28.

They Say in many ways, a small town library is like any other library. People check out the latest books or movies, send faxes, make photocopies and cruise the Internet.

But it’s also where neighbors catch up on the latest gossip, host community events and console each other when a neighbor dies. In short, it’s the center of town. Some might say the lifeblood of the town, whether it’s Stanford, Towanda, Danvers, Delavan, Forrest or Odell.