April 2008

The following is a round up of the subject headings (24), cross-references (6), and subdivisions (2) suggested to the Library of Congress during our LCSH Blog-a-Thon. Included is anything that was legitimately tagged with rr_lcsh2008 on del.icio.us. Thanks to everyone who helped promote this effort, and huge thanks to everyone who participated.

Members of Radical Reference hope to work with catalogers, particularly those from the RADCAT discussion list to SACOfy suggested headings that haven’t previously been submitted to LC in a formal manner. However, we also think that it would be nice if the form weren’t the barrier that it is for non-cataloging librarians to contribute subject heading ideas.

Sweet sixteen and never been to the Library of Congress? Now you can enter the Main Reading Room as a researcher–L.O.C. has changed its policy to allow 16 and 17 year olds.

From the press release:

“The Library of Congress is always looking for ways to create new lifelong learners, to expand access to knowledge and to spark the creativity of future generations,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

“We want people of all ages to be aware of the almost limitless resources that are available in libraries, including their de facto national library, especially at a time when the amount of information online still represents only a tiny fraction of the sum total of human knowledge.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are more than 8 million 16- and 17-year-olds living in the United States.

Don’t plan on grabbing a beer after visiting the George W. Bush Library at SMU. The campus has gone dry, according to this AP article.

The recommendations, accepted by University President R. Gerald Turner, were intended to give the school more control over social events and cut down on drunken driving; the campus has had three students deaths recently due to drugs or alcohol.

Meet Elizabeth Elder, new director of the beautiful Salt Lake City Library.
Salt Lake Tribune does the honors.

“They just go on and on and on about the library,” said Elder, who started her new job Monday as director of Salt Lake City’s showcase downtown library and its neighborhood branches. “I don’t know how many people have shared with me how much they like the library – which makes me really happy.”

Elder, hired after two rounds of searches, replaces longtime director Nancy Tessman, who retired in June. Tessman left a 12-year legacy that included 2006 Library of the Year honors. That national award spotlighted the Main Library’s design – “It’s just a sparkling jewel,” Elder said. If you didn’t get a chance to see this stunning library, check out our story from last month.

I started a new site, LISWire – The Librarian’s News Wire (http://liswire.com), and I’m doing my best to spread the word. You can probably guess what the site is all about from the name. There’s also 2 mailing lists, and a bunch of RSS feeds. Robin K. Blum (you might know her as Birdie) and I are running the show and are looking for press releases and other news items of interest to librarians to get things going. You can sign up for an account and submit things you’d like to announce to the library world. I’ll be cross posting most announcements to LISNews for a little while until we see how much traffic we get at LISWire.

It’s just out of beta, so there might still be some bugs floating around. Let me know if you spot something that needs fixing! I’d love any and all feedback you can provide.

The Associated Press looks into a dimly lit back room on the second level of the University of Michigan library’s book-shelving department, Courtney Mitchel helped a giant desktop machine digest a rare, centuries-old Bible.
Many libraries began digitizing books a decade ago to preserve them. Funding from Google allows the 28 libraries it’s working with to cut their digitizing costs because they don’t have to pay for scanning the books Google wants to include in Book Search.

College students and their families are rightly outraged about the bankrupting costs of textbooks that have nearly tripled since the 1980s, mainly because of marginally useful CD-ROMs and other supplements. A bill pending in Congress would require publishers to sell “unbundled” versions of the books — minus the pricey add-ons. Even more important, it would require publishers to reveal book prices in marketing material so that professors could choose less-expensive titles.

The Iowa State Senate voted down a proposal to require libraries which get state funds to restrict loaning R-rated movies to kids under 18-years old. Brad Zahn, a Republican from Urbandale, offered the amendment to an education appropriations bill.
Wood says the amendment tries to put librarians in the position of deciding who can view the videos. “Librarians will tell you that this is an infringement of the First Amendment rights, and once you start restrictions, where do you stop.,” Wood says.

Tampa Bay Online reports on what might be the end of an era.

Dressed in regal, navy blue “Battle of The Books” T-shirts, the elementary school students sat onstage on the edge of their seats in proper “game show” style Thursday, poised and ready to pounce on their buzzers with the correct answer.

Adrenaline pumping, they conferred with teammates and answered tough book questions with ease, such as, “In what book was there a note that said, ‘I’m here on a dare, don’t tell?'” and “What author had a character that spoke Albanian?”

Thursday night, students from Spring Hill’s Westside Elementary School and Parrott Middle School won the Hernando County School District’s annual Battle of the Books competition, held in the gymnasium of Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics in Spring Hill. The 13-year-old competition is part of a statewide reading initiative in which students in grades 3-8 read up to 15 books in The Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award Program, selected based on their appeal, literary value, curriculum connections and diversity.

Tampa Bay Online reports on what might be the end of an era.

Dressed in regal, navy blue “Battle of The Books” T-shirts, the elementary school students sat onstage on the edge of their seats in proper “game show” style Thursday, poised and ready to pounce on their buzzers with the correct answer.

Adrenaline pumping, they conferred with teammates and answered tough book questions with ease, such as, “In what book was there a note that said, ‘I’m here on a dare, don’t tell?'” and “What author had a character that spoke Albanian?”

Thursday night, students from Spring Hill’s Westside Elementary School and Parrott Middle School won the Hernando County School District’s annual Battle of the Books competition, held in the gymnasium of Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics in Spring Hill. The 13-year-old competition is part of a statewide reading initiative in which students in grades 3-8 read up to 15 books in The Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award Program, selected based on their appeal, literary value, curriculum connections and diversity.

The transportation, books, lunches and T-shirts for the event costs about $35 per student. The District covers the transportation and the books. The library media specialist covers the lunches and T-shirts herself or uses book fair funds (so often the case). If parents were asked to pick up that cost, many local families would not be able to afford to participate. That would be a shame.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team and an engineer who’s been working on the problem for eight years, offered some tips about combating it during a speech at the Web 2.0 Expo here.
• Use captcha systems to make sure real people, not bots, are commenting on your site.
• Reconfigure software settings after you’ve installed it
• Employ systems that rank people by trust and reputation.
• Don’t be afraid of legitimate purveyors of search-engine optimization services.