November 2009
Children’s Thanksgiving Books
From BookPage (they are running a contest–add your comment and maybe you’ll win)…two picture books for the upcoming holiday…
Duck for Turkey Day
By Jacqueline Jules
Albert Whitman & Company, $16.99, 32 pages, ages 4-8
9780807517345
Thanksgiving Rules
By Laurie Friedman
Carolrhoda Books, $16.95, 32 pages, ages 4-8
9780822579830
Comment or Peruse Comments on E-Book Alternatives
Interesting commentary on yesterday’s NYTimes ‘Library in a Pocket’ article on the future of reading vis-a-vis Kindle, Nook, Palm Pilot, Fictionwise, smart phones, etc. What’s your preference?
New Dean of Libraries for Indiana University Named
Brenda Johnson, who currently serves as University Librarian at the U.C., Santa Barbara, has been named Ruth Lilly Dean of the Indiana University Libraries, Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson announced today (Nov. 18).
Says the new Dean: “”I am delighted to have been selected to serve as the next Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries at IU,” Johnson said. “I believe a library is the greatest metaphor for a university. It provides essential resources for academic research, is a repository for scholarly achievement, a source of intellectual inspiration, a stage for public discourse, a center of cultural life, an incubator for new ideas, and is, in and of itself, a ‘community’.”
New Spin On Censorship? These Books Are A Threat To Public Safety
Here’s a follow up on The Jessamine County Library story (that’s the place the firing of two library workers for allegedly taking matters into their own hands to prevent what they regarded as obscene material from getting into the hands of children.)
Director Critchfield can not talk about the firings, but he did say he was surprised Tuesday to receive a petition saying The Black Dossier and 3 other books represent a threat to public safety.
The petition reads in part, “This community is known to have sexual predators, and works such as these encourage those predators to act out their desires or at the very least justify their desires.”
Opposition mounts against CA library outsourcing
Opposition mounts against library outsourcing
Petition signature gatherers have hit the streets in hopes of convincing the Nevada County Board of Supervisors against contracting operation of the public libraries to a private company.
“We really feel as though the county librarian can come up with a belt-tightening answer,” McAdoo said Tuesday. “We feel we could lose the professionalism of our staff.”
[That’s CA not NV]
Laura Bush says presidential library not intended as a monument
Laura Bush says presidential library not intended as a monument
The design of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at SMU, which will be formally unveiled today, is a showcase for exhibits, not a monument to the 43rd president, former first lady Laura Bush said this week.
Social security numbers found in older academic library books
Folks have been warned about not giving out personal information, but they may have never thought an old library book could hold their social security number.
It’s happening at the University of Toledo campus and likely all over the country — as books at UT’s Carlson Library from the 1980s or 90s, may still be in circulation – along with readers’ social security numbers.
Library in a Pocket
With Amazon’s Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers. For some, that’s not small enough.
Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets — bringing a whole new meaning to “phone book.” And they like that they can save the $250 to $350 that they would otherwise spend on yet another gadget.
“These e-readers that cost a lot of money only do one thing,” said Keishon Tutt, a 37-year-old pharmacist in Texas who buys 10 to 12 books a month to read on her iPhone, from Apple. “I like to have a multifunctional device. I watch movies and listen to my songs.”
A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’
Article in the NYT that discusses who owns antiquities. For library relevance there is a portion of the article that has a rip, mix, burn meme in it. There is also interesting discussion of the Rosetta stone.
Excerpt from article: As the director of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dr. Cuno has his own obvious motives for acquiring foreign antiquities, and he makes no apology for wanting to display Middle Eastern statues to Midwesterners.
“It is in the nature of our species to connect and exchange,” Dr. Cuno writes. “And the result is a common culture in which we all have a stake. It is not, and can never be, the property of one modern nation or another.”
Full article here.
Article mentions this book: Who Owns Antiquity?: Museums and the Battle over Our Ancient Heritage
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