September 2011

Ark. Archivist Finds Missing Moon Rock

Last week, an archivist in Arkansas was sifting though boxes of papers from President Bill Clinton’s gubernatorial years when he came across a surprise — a piece of the moon. The moon rock had been missing for about 30 years, and it was just one of about 180 moon rocks that are currently at-large. Melissa Block talks with retired senior special agent for NASA Joseph Gutheinz about the other missing rocks.

Listen to story on NPR

Milwaukee budget proposal for 2012 would roll back library cuts

In a rare bit of good news, Milwaukee appears poised to restore some funding to the public library system,

“Milwaukee Public Libraries would be open longer hours and expand their educational programs for children, under the 2012 city budget that Mayor Tom Barrett will unveil Tuesday.

Barrett said he’s seeking to roll back the library service cuts of previous years, in recognition of the libraries’ importance in helping residents improve their lives.

As recent statistics show increasing poverty in Milwaukee, Barrett said, “I remain convinced that education, and access to education, and access to books, is one of the best things we can do to combat that. We’re trying to foster a positive learning environment.””

DC COMICS OVERHAULS SUPERHEROES

With the proliferation of big-budget superhero movies, it’s easy to forget about the pulpy comic books on which the characters are based. But it seems many people have: sales of comics are way down. As fanboys have become fanmen, publishers are desperate to find new — and younger — readers.

So this month, DC Comics — the home of Superman, Batman, and dozens of others — is overhauling its entire lineup of superheroes. They’re called the “New 52.” All the old classic storylines have been thrown out the window. Clark Kent and Lois Lane? No longer married. And that’s just the tip of the Kryptonite.

“I think they’re just throwing a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks,” says Tom Adams, owner of Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn.

He tells Kurt Andersen that while the reboot has boosted sales considerably, he still worries about the long term trends. “I think [DC] should be writing comics that are a little more geared toward the smart 12 year old,” Adams says, “as opposed to the smart 20-45 year old who’s reading [the same] comics that he’s been reading for years.”

Listen to audio here

This was a piece on Studio 360 on NPR

HARRY POTTER FOR GROWNUPS

Lately it seems like you can’t pick up a new work of fiction without some character crawling out of the grave or casting a spell. Authors we used call “serious” and “literary” — shorthand for writers who wrote realism — are suddenly writing about the magical and supernatural. Colson Whitehead has a zombie novel coming out next month. Tom Perotta, who wrote the suburban story Little Children, has a new novel about life on earth after a Rapture-like miracle. And there are many more on the way.

These writers are bringing literary ambition to genres that were once considered lowbrow. So is old fashioned fiction on the way out?

Lev Grossman is a book critic and literary novelist. But his big breakthrough came two years ago with The Magicians, a novel about a young wizard. The sequel, The Magician King, just came out and is already a bestseller.

But Grossman says making the transition from “serious” to genre fiction wasn’t easy. “I had to come out to myself as a fantasy writer, at the advanced age of 35,” he tells Kurt Andersen. “It was a transformative moment — and not unpainful.”

Listen to full piece here.

The Most Annoying Thing About My Job: Librarians Tell All

From The Atlantic. Four librarians and a few teachers tell readers about their major employment gripes:

Librarian #1

I’m a librarian in a public library that’s part of a larger system. The most annoying thing about my job is the lack of support in the most public aspect of my work from managers and administration. Patron behavior expectations have been reduced, primarily because it is seen as a hassle to enforce rules of behavior. Even the rules of behavior we have, like wearing shirt and shoes in the building, are seen by the administration as too much trouble to enforce if no patron complains. Which means that if I see a situation, even if it’s in direct opposition to posted policy, I can’t be sure I won’t be reprimanded, perhaps in public, by my own boss for enforcing the policy. Yet I’ve also been told I was letting some patrons (that I couldn’t hear at the central desk) get too loud, so it’s a sort of being stuck on a morton’s fork.*

From The Atlantic. Four librarians and a few teachers tell readers about their major employment gripes:

Librarian #1

I’m a librarian in a public library that’s part of a larger system. The most annoying thing about my job is the lack of support in the most public aspect of my work from managers and administration. Patron behavior expectations have been reduced, primarily because it is seen as a hassle to enforce rules of behavior. Even the rules of behavior we have, like wearing shirt and shoes in the building, are seen by the administration as too much trouble to enforce if no patron complains. Which means that if I see a situation, even if it’s in direct opposition to posted policy, I can’t be sure I won’t be reprimanded, perhaps in public, by my own boss for enforcing the policy. Yet I’ve also been told I was letting some patrons (that I couldn’t hear at the central desk) get too loud, so it’s a sort of being stuck on a morton’s fork.*

Librarians are professionals, and enforcing the rules is part of what one takes on when working with public. Without support for enforcing even the most basic rules, there are really no guidelines at all. I suppose any job where you are told to take initiative to ensure a public building is pleasant for everyone (repeatedly, enthusiastically, urgently), yet reprimanded for enforcing the very rules that are supposed to make a public building pleasant for everyone would make anyone feel insane. No wonder one of our break room topics is who is taking which antidepressant.

*”morton’s fork”, via wikipedia: A Morton’s Fork is a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives (in other words, a dilemma), or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion. It is analogous to the expressions “between the devil and the deep blue sea,” “between a rock and a hard place,” or, as those in the Spanish-speaking world say, “between a sword and a wall.”

Amazon Turns Your Local Library Into Retail Book Chain

Amazon threw down the gauntlet against terrestrial competitors today by announcing that Kindle and Kindle app customers can borrow and purchase Kindle books from more than 11,000 local libraries in the United States.

Full piece at the NYT blog ReadWriteWeb.

Note: Kindle books at your library was announced months ago. There are news stories coming out today because libraries are going live with the feature.

Story in PC World – Borrowing Kindle E-Books: A Hands-On Guide

Wicked success

The book Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman went from a sales rank of 335,000 to #1 in one day. Amazon had the book on their “Movers and Shakers” list saying the book was up 33,553,000%. Thirty three million percent!!!! Amazon actually had the 33 million percent number on their website. The book has fallen to 21 in the last two days because whatever miraculous method was being used to get to #1 is not working as well now.

According to Worldcat roughly five libraries show they are getting the book. There are no reviews online for the book not even on Amazon. Would your library buy a book based on Amazon sales rank alone? If a book hits #1 on Amazon do you buy it even if there are no reviews anywhere? Or does it take a patron requesting the book to get the library to purchase?

Freshman Welcome to Elon College Includes Meeting Their Personal Librarian

Belk Library is offering a new Personal Librarian program for students. The service assigns a librarian on staff to every Elon University (NC) 101 class. Intended to aid students with research, writing and all things library-related, the program establishes a relationship with students that the Belk staff hopes will continue to grow for the rest of the students’ careers at Elon.

The program is up and running this year with positive feedback thus far. Lynne Bisko, a nonprint librarian, is leading the program and is one of the 15 personal librarians. Bisko researched and spearheaded the idea after hearing about its success at a few other universities.

“We thought it would be a good fit for Elon and that it would be a great program to start based on the benefits that would come from it and the reaction from the students,” she said. “We just thought it was a really great idea.”

New Student Orientation and Elon 101 classes helped publicize the new endeavor by introducing the service during orientation sessions and inviting the personal librarians to come and speak about the service. All freshmen also received an email from their personal librarians informing them of the program.

Ikea Changes Design Of Popular Bookcase

According to The Economist magazine, Ikea is changing the design of its popular Billy Bookcases to make the shelves deeper. The magazine asserts that’s because Ikea thinks its customers will use the shelves for ornaments and tchotchkees – not books. But an Ikea spokesman insists “Billy is best for books.”

Read transcript or listen to full piece on NPR

School libraries replaced with learning commons

School libraries replaced with ‘learning commons’ (Catholic school system in Ontario)

“We’ve kept reference materials here (in the library),” school principal David Lozinsky said. “That will help the teachers when they come to a certain point in their curriculum. Whether they’re working on research, iPads, let’s face it, it’s a digital world now, Everything in the school, like books will be online, so there might not be a need for books anymore,” he said.