July 2010

New Mexico Librarian Enlivens the Research Experience Among Native Students

New Mexico Librarian Enlivens the Research Experience Among Native Students
Aguilar is curator of the University of New Mexico’s Indigenous Nations Library Program (INLP), mandated to increase information literacy and research skills among tribal students, who make up 6 percent of the flagship campus in Albuquerque.

Before college, many of them only knew modest, single-room libraries that sometimes did not employ a staff librarian. Consequently, UNM’s four libraries, which are cavernous enough to house more than 1 million volumes, can seem overwhelming, especially to freshmen.

July 16, 2010 by Librarians Libraries

Using Library Experts Wisely

Using Library Experts Wisely
Today’s librarians bear about as much resemblance to the tight-bunned owlish matrons of 1950s films as laptops do to manual typewriters. They’re more like the wizened sexton of a sprawling church, the guy with the giant ring of keys who unlocks every door, closet, and coffer. Library specialists routinely direct us to data bases, DVDs, digitized archival material, recordings, hidden stacks, and journals we had no idea even existed. I am in awe of their expertise.

July 16, 2010 by Librarians Libraries

Tim O’Reilly: Books That Have Shaped How I Think

Books That Have Shaped How I Think
Building a personal culture out of what you read and see and hear doesn’t just end with books. I find moments in movies, in songs, and in pop culture that have also become part of my personal vocabulary for seeing and responding to the world. So, for example, in the mostly forgotten movie Joe Versus the Volcano, there is a scene in which Joe, played by Tom Hanks, is dying of thirst on a raft after a shipwreck. He sees the moonrise, and says, “Oh my god, I forgot!” and has his faith in life renewed by the sight. So often, I see something special that returns me to myself, and I think of those words.
(Thanks to the great and powerful Don Mekarski for the link!)

July 16, 2010 by Books EBooks

Priorities in Indianapolis: City Finds Millions for NBA Team but Cuts Library Budget

Dozens of readers stretched out with books on blankets and in lawn chairs on the American Legion Mall across the street from the main branch of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, reading quietly to themselves to protest proposed budget cuts that could reduce hours and close library branches.

“I am here supporting the libraries of Indianapolis and hoping they don’t get closed,” said Mindy Grayson as she cracked open a weathered copy of the 1931 classic, The Impatient Virgin.

The city’s library system is facing a $7 million budget deficit by 2014 as acknowledged by Mayor Greg Ballard Monday. “Over the past few months my administration has engaged the library system to prevent branch closings,” Ballard said.

Ballard’s comment came as he announced a $33.5 million deal to loan operating funds to the Indiana Pacers to keep the NBA team at Conseco Fieldhouse for the next three years.

July 15, 2010 by Legal Issues Librarians Libraries

Stanford University’s ‘Bookless’ Library

From the New Yorker’s Book Bench: Amid all the fuss over Stanford University’s announcement that they are unveiling a bookless library (is it the wave of the future? A sign of the literary apocalypse?), everyone seemed to be missing one rather obvious point: when it opens in August it will, in spite of the misleading nomenclature, contain books.

True, the new physics and engineering library will house eighty-five percent fewer books, but it isn’t some sort of thought experiment (if a tree falls in a forest with no one to hear, will it still make a noise? If a library contains no books, is it still a library?) or Borgesian symbol. In fact, it isn’t even a sign of the end of books; it’s a result of schools being so overcrowded with them. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Stanford buys the equivalent of two hundred and seventy-three books a day. As you can imagine, that adds up to an awful lot of shelf space and, as a result, Stanford has been forced to move many of their titles to storage facilities miles away

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2010/07/the-dawn-of-the-bookless-library.html#ixzz0tlF6AyKn …and listen to the NPR story on the ‘bookless library’. The library opens August 2.

July 15, 2010 by Academic Libraries Books EBooks Internet Librarians Libraries School Libraries

Idaho Condiment Vandal Rearrested on a Bench Warrant

BOISE, ID — The 74-year-old woman who is suspected of dumping condiments in a library book return bin on multiple occasions was rearrested Monday.

A bench warrant was issued for Joy L. Cassidy after she failed to show at a court hearing on charges that stemmed from the vandalism at the library.

Cassidy was first arrested on June 13, when police say she poured mayonnaise in the Ada County Library’s book drop box that day and has been a person of interest in at least 10 other condiment-related crimes (ketchup, corn syrup, etc.)

July 14, 2010 by Libraries

He Showed Up at the Brooklyn Library…Without a Card

Blame the raccoon. One found its way to the basement of the Brooklyn Public Library last week, reports WNYC. For safety measures, the library closed the area to workers and the public until an animal control expert visits to assess whether it’s safe to open up the basement area again.

The raccoon was spotted rustling around in the library’s lower decks, where stored books and materials are kept.

The library called the Animal Care and Control organization, which runs the municipal animal shelter system. Another private pest control service placed bait and live traps in hopes of catching the trespasser.

July 14, 2010 by Librarians Libraries

The Demographics of Web Search

The Demographics of Web Search

The Demographics of Web Search
Abstract:How does the web search behavior of “rich” and “poor” people differ? Do men and women tend to click on different results for the same query? What are some queries almost exclusively issued by African Americans? These are some of the questions we address in this study. Our research combines three data sources: the query log of a major US-based web search engine, profile information provided by 28 million of its users (birth year, gender and zip code), and US-census information including detailed demographic information aggregated at the level of ZIP code. Through this combination we can annotate each query with, e.g., the average per-capita income in the ZIP code it originated from. Though conceptually simple, this combination immediately creates a powerful demographic profiling tool. The main contributions of this work are the following. First, we provide a demographic description of a large sample of search engine users in the US and show that it agrees well with the distribution of the US population. Second, we describe how different segments of the population differ in their search behavior, e.g. with respect to the diversity of formulated queries or with respect to the clicked URLs. Third, we explore applications of our methodology to improve web search and, in particular, to help issuing query reformulations. These results enable the creation of a powerful tool for improved user modeling in practice, with many applications including improving web search and advertising. For instance, advertisements for “family vacations” could be adapted to the (expected) income of the person issuing the query, or search suggestions shown to users could be adapted to items that are more interesting given their particular characteristics.

July 14, 2010 by Internet Yahoo

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