November 2008

Program Advisory

As a heads-up to listeners, it should be noted that LISTen #49 will be posted on a slight delay. The podcast rarely has to wait out an embargo. In this case we will do so.

LISTen #49 will have in it a special chat with actress and web entrepreneur Felicia Day. This is as announced verbally at the close of LISTen #48. You did listen to that shorter than usual episode, right?

As such, LISTen #49 will be posted at 0800 UTC on November 24th. You can find what that means in your own local time by visiting this link.

A special feature may post at the normal audio posting time. This remains tentative as some factors remain in play.

November 18, 2008 by Uncategorized

Were You There When Ike Hit? Tell The Library Your Story

GALVESTON, Texas — A Hurricane Ike-damaged library wants to share stories of Galveston residents who rode out the storm on the island and those who fled.

From The Houston Chronicle: The Rosenberg Library is seeking personal accounts of the hurricane, which hit Galveston on Sept. 13, as part of its historical project “Memories of Ike.”

The library, on its Web site, says recording Hurricane Ike from the viewpoint of the everyday citizen offers a chance to understand the disaster from the “ground up.”

The Rosenberg Library also welcomes personal accounts of those who evacuated, with the written information eventually being made available to researchers and authors. The library itself is an Ike survival story, after the storm surge swamped the first floor and destroyed some building internal systems.

November 18, 2008 by Librarians Libraries

Sun and Google Issue Security Alerts

ZDNet has two posts at its Zero Day blog on software vulnerabilities. Sun Microsystems has noted that an overflow issue related to handling WMF and EMF files is impacting StarOffice. Google issued a release that was also picked up at the Zero Day blog about a possible data theft vulnerability in Chrome.

November 17, 2008 by Google

UC Librarians Deserve a Raise

The American Federation of Teachers, on behalf of University of California librarians, began talks Nov. 5 over librarian salaries and the availability of professional development funds. Negotiators aim to raise librarian salaries to a level comparable to those at the California State University and California community college systems.

The negotiations will also address economic concerns that have risen over the past several years, including childcare support and tuition waivers for librarians. The talks follow negotiations held last spring between UC-AFT negotiators and university administrators regarding all noneconomic concerns raised by UC librarians and UC-AFT.

UCSD Guardian reports: UC-AFT has expressed alarm over the UC campuses losing several places in the annual Association of Research rankings. Negotiators attribute this drop to unsatisfactory recruitment and retention rates for UC librarians.

According to UC-AFT, these retention problems are a result of uncompetitive salary rates when compared to those offered by private sector libraries, California public libraries, CSU campuses and community college libraries.

November 17, 2008 by Librarians Libraries

Hot Off the Press

“On the Media” on NPR had this story:

In 1951, Grove Press was a tiny, almost-defunct publisher with just three titles in its catalogue. But then Barney Rosset took over and, with a few choice books, helped push America past its Puritanical roots and into the sexual revolution. Rosset, who will be honored by the National Book Foundation on November 19th, spoke with us at his home in Greenwich Village.

Listen to full story here.

November 17, 2008 by Uncategorized

KS Mission Impossible: Accomplished

After receiving her assignment, Judy Lilly put together her “Mission: Impossible” team.

It was just before Christmas 2007 when Lilly, the Kansas librarian at the Salina Public Library, 301 W. Elm, was called by Arcadia Publishing, a national publisher of regional history books. A company representative proposed a book idea, should Lilly choose to accept it: a pictorial history book of Salina’s first 150 years. “Since it was Salina’s sesquicentennial this year, I thought now was the right time to do it,” she said.

The end result was “Salina: 1858-2008,” being released today by Arcadia Publishing. The 128-page softcover book, which retails for $21.99, will be available at the library, the Smoky Hill Museum store, 211 W. Iron, Waldenbooks at the Central Mall or directly through the publisher.

November 17, 2008 by Libraries

Obamanomics on BookTV

From Borders Books in New York City, John Talbott talks about Barack Obama’s proposed economic policies and assesses whether they will work.

John Talbott is a visiting scholar at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and a former investment banker for Goldman Sachs. He is the author of five books on economics and politics, including “The Coming Crash in the Housing Market,” published in 2003.

On BookTV

November 17, 2008 by Books School Libraries

OCLC Claims Ownership of Data In OPACs

OCLC may be trying to pull something sneaky with its new policy of claiming contractual rights over the subsequent use of data created by OCLC. In other words, the data in library catalogues couldn’t be used to make anything which competes with OCLC in any way.

Needless to say, this would have a hash chilling effect on the creation of open databases of library content.

As you might expect, the library blogosphere is on fire with the news. The podcast presenter at LISNews gave a commentary in the matter during LISTen #47.

Story from Slashdot.

November 16, 2008 by Libraries

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