October 2010

A Nook for Books, Underground
At 2,100 square feet, it is the second smallest of the 90 branches in the New York system, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island (the Macombs Bridge Library in the Harlem River Houses is 700 square feet). It has little space for desktop computers, so there are 13 laptops. But the Cooke branch has the circulation activity of a much bigger library, officials said.

‘Running The Books’ In A Prison Library
When Avi Steinberg graduated from Harvard, he didn’t know what to do next — so he took a job as a prison librarian.

Library Inc.
From industry-backed research to CEO-style executive salaries and perquisites, the influence of corporate America on universities has been the subject of much popular and scholarly scrutiny. University libraries have largely escaped that attention. Yet libraries, the intellectual heart of universities, have become perhaps the most commercialized academic area within universities, with troubling implications for the future of higher education.

The librarian’s tale
Too much demand for too few terminals

USUALLY by ten in the morning at the Erna Fergusson public library in Albuquerque a dozen people are waiting in line to use the computers. Shortly after the doors opened on a weekday this summer there was someone typing at every screen. Two young girls dressed an online doll together; next to them a man in a Dallas Cowboys cap applied for a job at a hardware chain. He’s living with his parents for a while, he explained, and he doesn’t like to wait to use the internet.

Almost all of America’s public libraries provide free internet access. Over the past two years, hard-hit Americans have been economising by cancelling their broadband contracts at home and looking to public libraries to fill the gap. At the same time, companies and government agencies are saving money by moving job applications and services online; so a rush of new visitors is arriving at libraries just as the local governments that fund them run out of money.

Full story in The Economist

DALLAS — A new exhibit will give the public its first glimpse of some of the artifacts in the archives of former President George W. Bush.

Artifacts on display in Dallas will include the bullhorn Bush used when he visited ground zero days after Sept. 11 and the pistol taken from Saddam Hussein when he was captured.

The free exhibit, “Breaking New Ground: Presenting the George W. Bush Presidential Center,” opens Saturday and runs through Feb. 6 at the Meadows Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University, where the center will be built.

Ground will be broken next month on the center, which will include the presidential library and the George W. Bush Institute. The center is expected to be open by early 2013.

On the subject of the book and public appearances from GWB:

“I have zero desire, just so you know, to be in the limelight,” he said. “I don’t think it’s good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor. You’re not going to see me giving my opinions in the public arena, until I start selling my book. I’m going to emerge then submerge.”

If you’re on facebook and haven’t yet joined, please sign up for our group to try to get Oprah to devote a show (or two) to the needs of public and school libraries in this time of economic crisis. In less than a month, the group has grown to 1400 members.

The group began as a dream that author Marilyn (“This Book is Overdue”) Johnson had, in which she asked Oprah to help libraries, and Oprah, being the savvy and book-loving woman that she is, said that she would. Now we have to make the dream become a reality.

If you can tell a personal story about how your library has served your community or a special individual, please post it on the group’s wall. Nothing like a testimonial to inspire the group’s members and hopefully…Oprah.

In a few weeks we’re planning an active campaign to get Oprah onboard, and YOUR VOICE IS NEEDED to add to the voices of everyone who needs libraries (yeah, and who doesn’t?); librarians, patrons, authors, teachers, kids, teens, parents, scholars, young and old professionals, seniors, and the occasional cat & or groundhog.

Join us!! Spread the news on that old reliable librarian grapevine!! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=132862353428325&ref=ts …and invite your friends and patrons! http://is.gd/fuL2q Please (I’m begging you!!).

The Publishers Association has set out an agreed position on e-book lending in libraries that will see library users blocked from downloading e-books outside of the library premises. Faber c.e.o. Stephen Page announced the new guidelines this morning (21 October) at the CILIP Public Library Authorities conference in Leeds.

Page told conference delegates that “all the major trade publishers have agreed to work with aggregators to make it possible for libraries to offer e-book lending” with the addition of certain “controls”. He said the guidelines had been developed because of concerns over free e-book lending offered by some libraries to lenders “wherever you are” in breach of publisher contracts.
(Thanks, Jenny, Andy, etc…)

Lamar (TX) High School’s library is in the midst of an overhaul that is shifting around more than the books. The project is redefining how the study space will be used and how students will access the information resources it holds.

More specifically, the conversion under way means fewer physical books on the shelves (and fewer shelves), but more equipment on site for tapping into the books, periodicals and research tools available in electronic formats.

As explained by Principal James McSwain, the project includes:

Laptop computers (100 now and hopefully 100 more to follow) that can be checked out for use only in the new center and accessible only by a student ID code that also connects to the new Lamar portal, “Sky Drive.”

Longer hours of operation, (6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.) to increase access to the new computer equipment and online information for students who might not have other study venues or research tools.

Space for peer tutoring and teacher-led tutorials, and

A small coffee bar that also serves healthy snacks for studying. Students in the culinary division of Lamar’s magnet program in business management will run the new amenity.

Does your library have a levy coming to a vote on November 2nd? Let us know in the comments so that we might spread word.

It’s coming up again…here’s an old posting from Librarian Avenger. What are YOU going to be?

Anyone planning to be a (budget) slasher??