June 2009

Excerpt:

Like my father and the Jewish doctoral student, a Chasidic master living at the turn of the 20th century looked at the world around him with an eye to Jewish life. One day, a disciple approached him and asked, “Rebbe, every time I turn around, I hear about new, modern devices in the world. Tell me, please, are they good or bad for us?”

“What kind of devices?” asked the Rebbe.

“Let me see. There’s the telegraph, there’s the telephone, and there’s the locomotive.”

The Rebbe replied, “All of them can be good if we learn the right lessons from them. From the telegraph, we learn to measure our words; if used indiscriminately, we will have to pay dearly. From the telephone, we learn that whatever you say here is heard there. From the locomotive, we learn that every second counts, and if we don’t use each one wisely, we may not reach our destination in life.”

So, what can we learn from the Kindle? Like the telegraph, telephone and locomotive, it offers us lessons – as I see it, at least three of them – for living life meaningfully.

Full piece here.

Manil Suri (born July 1959) is an Indian-American mathematician and writer, most notable for his first novel, The Death of Vishnu, which was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002. His latest novel is The Age of Shiva.

Full Wikipedia entry here.

The Death of Vishnu (Google Books)

Author interview (Powells.com)

Washinton Post article about Suri

Marcel Hatch writes: We’ve just launched the website for our second annual Librarians, Writers and Bibliophiles Havana Book Fair Tour from February 13 to 20, 2010.

The tour attracts friends of the written word from North America and beyond and reviews all aspects of Cuban libraries, and literary and cultural production. The Havana book fair is the most important in Latin America.

Read what other librarians say about the tour at http://MyCubaTour.com/librarians.php

This program is limited in size. Consider early registration in order to ensure your participation. The website is http://CubanAdventures.org

Cuba Education Tours has six other island programs for 2009 and 2010.

They are among the few learning and cultural tours to Cuba of interest and licensable for American librarians.

Elaborate itineraries and details are available at http://CubaFriends.com

The tours are open to all, however our August program is nearly full.

EDUCATORS Teachers Introduction to Cuba Tour from August 1 to 8, 2009 is a comprehensive look at the island’s education system and includes many cultural components as well as a look at ecology in Cuba. It is a favorite with educators and their partners.

BOOMERS Elder Cuba Friendship Tour from November 20 to 29, 2009 crosses the island from Havana to Santiago de Cuba. It’s ten days to really get to know Cuba and its people. It’s geared to the boomer generation, but is also an occasion for family travel.

Marcel Hatch writes: We’ve just launched the website for our second annual Librarians, Writers and Bibliophiles Havana Book Fair Tour from February 13 to 20, 2010.

The tour attracts friends of the written word from North America and beyond and reviews all aspects of Cuban libraries, and literary and cultural production. The Havana book fair is the most important in Latin America.

Read what other librarians say about the tour at http://MyCubaTour.com/librarians.php

This program is limited in size. Consider early registration in order to ensure your participation. The website is http://CubanAdventures.org

Cuba Education Tours has six other island programs for 2009 and 2010.

They are among the few learning and cultural tours to Cuba of interest and licensable for American librarians.

Elaborate itineraries and details are available at http://CubaFriends.com

The tours are open to all, however our August program is nearly full.

EDUCATORS Teachers Introduction to Cuba Tour from August 1 to 8, 2009 is a comprehensive look at the island’s education system and includes many cultural components as well as a look at ecology in Cuba. It is a favorite with educators and their partners.

BOOMERS Elder Cuba Friendship Tour from November 20 to 29, 2009 crosses the island from Havana to Santiago de Cuba. It’s ten days to really get to know Cuba and its people. It’s geared to the boomer generation, but is also an occasion for family travel.

ADVENTURERS Cuban Holiday Discovery Tour from December 24, 2009 to January 2, 2010 is our only fully inclusive program. It is ten days of history, culture, nature and the beach. It is popular with families and close friends. It takes place over Christmas and New Years.

FRIENDS OF CUBA 51st Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution Tour from December 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010 is for people who want to celebrate five decades of Cuban social accomplishments with islanders. The program covers 51 years of health, arts, ecology and history.

EDUCATORS Teachers Introduction to Cuba Tour from December 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010 looks at Cuba’s system of universal education and you’ll be in Cuba to celebrate New Years with islanders and enjoy their culture.

JAZZ FANS Havana International Jazz Festival Cuba Tour from February 7 to 16, 2010 is for jazz fiends to learn all about the island and rub shoulders with Latin jazz greats from around the world.

We’re here to help you experience Cuba. Please feel welcome to call or email us.

My best regards,
Marcel Hatch, Education Director
Cuba Education Tours

1-877-687-3817 (without charges)

http://CubaFriends.com

BPCPA Travelers Assurance Registration Number 34338

I’ve already seen questions being posed as to whether or not anything in-depth was being done to cover the cuts case in Ohio. Yesterday I was fairly busy recording back-to-back interviews in the matter. We had opportunities to talk to Ohio Library Council’s Director of Government and Legal Services Lynda Murray as well as Columbus Metropolitan Library Executive Director Patrick Losinski.

Since it is a long time between now and the next episode of LISTen, I went ahead and posted an edited-down version of the two interviews with linking narration to Public Radio Exchange last night. Public Radio Exchange serves as the middleman between producers like the LISNews Netcast Network and NPR affiliates such as Ohio stations WKSU, WCPN, WOSU, WOUB, and others. The piece can be found here: http://www.prx.org/pieces/37502-ohio-libraries-at-risk

While normally such pieces have a cost attached to them for stations to pick them up, this one is being made available to stations for free instead. All that has to be done is that a station needs to log in, “buy” the free piece, and then slot it into their air schedule. For librarians curious about how to kickstart such, the best person to call at your local NPR affiliate is either the program director or the news director. Locating contact details can begin with NPR’s station finder.

Tentatively the next episode of LISTen is going to have expanded coverage of the cuts case in Ohio. There are rallies planned for Wednesday and I am trying to get somebody on the scene to report. I still have an interview request out with a state legislator that I am waiting for a response on. Anybody reading this wanting to check in from a rally can make arrangements tonight with the production team by e-mailing the production team in Las Vegas.

From my friends over at The Hollywood Reporter:

Universal has picked up “Lunch Lady,” a children’s graphic novel series written and illustrated by Jarrett Krosoczka, with Amy Poehler attached to star. Poehler will executive produce along with the Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein set to produce. Sarah Haskins and Emily Halpern are penning the adaptation.

The “Lady” series, the first of which will be unveiled at the end of July by Knopf Books for Young Readers, centers on a mild-mannered school cafeteria server who secretly dishes out helpings of justice as she and her assistant investigate wrongdoings. The books also feature three kids who try to figure out her double life.

The titles include “Lunch Lady and the League of Librarians” and “Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute,” both of which are due this summer. “Lunch Lady and the Author Visit Vendetta” is scheduled to be released in December and “Lunch Lady and the Summer Camp Shakedown” is set for summer 2010.

The article is from May, but the discussion about the ‘demise of books’ is far from over.

From Times Online UK, writer Nicholas Clee [joint editor of the book industry newsletter BookBrunch and the author of Eclipse (Bantam Press)] examines the recent phenomena (e-books, the Espresso Book Machine, the closing of many traditional bookstores, etc). that has lead to what some may consider to be ‘the decline and fall of books’ (or ‘tree books’ as I like to call them).

The state Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether it’s constitutional for public libraries to refuse to disable their Internet filters for adults who want access to sites that have been blocked.

Full story here.

Glutton for punishment (true crime writer? historian)? Now you can listen to as many Nixon tapes as you want!

UPI reports: The Richard Nixon Presidential Library has opened up access to 154 hours of White House tapes and other documents the U.S. government once classified.

In a statement, the library in Yorba Linda, Calif., said some of the materials made available to the public Tuesday include conversations about the Vietnam War, Nixon’s second inauguration, the Supreme Court’s landmark abortion decision, Roe v. Wade, and the first Watergate trial. The recordings from January and February 1973 consist of approximately 994 conversations, the library said.

The new Nixon tapes and documents will be available on the Internet and at the Richard Nixon libraries in California and Maryland.

An appellate court has reversed a lower court decision that had exonerated Simon & Schuster of breaking federal telecommunications law when it sent cellphone text messages to promote the novel “Cell,” written by Stephen King, three years ago.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, ruled on Friday that the United States District Court for the Northern District of California had erred in its ruling in Simon & Schuster’s favor in a class-action suit brought by Laci Satterfield, a woman who objected to receiving an ad for “Cell” as a text message.

More from the New York Times.

The front of the Great Falls (MT) Public Library has a brand new look, and it’s all to honor an important member of the city’s history. Alma Jacobs (1916-1997) was the library’s Director from 1954-973.

She was the first African American in the state to hold that position and her contributions to the library and to the community were endless.
Born in Lewistown in 1916, Jacobs received a master’s degree at Columbia. From there, she returned to Montana, beginning a long career at the Great Falls Public Library.

Today, a ceremony was held to re-open and rededicate the library’s front plaza in her honor.