April 2012

Harvard vs. Yale: Open-Access Publishing Edition
Earlier this week, Yale university student, Emmanuel Quartey, posted a video interview with the school’s librarian, Susan Gibbons, in which he asked her about open-access publishing. Her response was far more ambivalent than the Harvard faculty council’s. Though she noted that open-access journals are more accessible, she worried that asking younger faculty to publish in open-access (presumably less prestigious) journals could jeopardize their chances to attain tenure. In essence, prestige would stay put but tenure would move away from younger Yale professors. So, the library would continue to support both open and closed-access journals. You can read her full answer below or check out the video interview.

Librarian Claims Firing Over Seeing Eye Dog
After a decade as a librarian, a Good Samaritan is fired. And she says one of the reasons is because she brought a Seeing Eye dog to work. But imagine the librarian’s surprise when she says her boss told her this future guide dog – who might go to an Iraq or Afghanistan war veteran – cost her her job of nearly 10 years.

When Lauren Conrad’s “L.A. Candy” trilogy hit the shelves a few years ago, the TV personality added published author to her resume. But the release of her latest book, “The Fame Game,” earlier this month, reminds us of just how many celebrities have expanded their empire to include memoirs, self-help books and even the occasional novel.

Click through the gallery to see which stars can call themselves authors

Carrier librarian to sail on ‘Semester at Sea’
This fall, one JMU librarian will step out of the library to set sail toward the places he’s only read about in books.

Jonathan Paulo, the education librarian in Carrier Library, will embark on a “Semester at Sea” from Aug. 23 to Dec. 7. Organized by the University of Virginia, Semester at Sea acts largely like a college campus — but on a ship.

The MV Explorer, a 590-foot passenger ship, is equipped to carry more than 800 passengers. With nine state-of-the-art classrooms that include overhead projectors, close-circuit televisions, wireless Internet access, a multi-media lab, pool and three dining decks, the ship’s a floating campus.

Are Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr Leading the Way in a Content Censorship Wave?

Do image oriented and visual curation sites have unique responsibilities since photos can be used as very specific maps for how to achieve certain negative activities, such as self-mutilation? Does the discussion expand to other social sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where I can link to such a picture? What about the role of general content arbiter aka search engines? Should our ability to look for and connect with potentially objectionable content at all be controlled?

The Chicago Tribune has a really short piece on The Gerber/Hart Libraryhome to the Midwest’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender library, featuring more than 14,000 volumes, 800 periodical titles and 100 archival collections.
They are in the middle of a big move… Finding space that would accommodate the library’s current needs was not easy. Location, public transportation and parking space were critical to the decision. The library’s new home features 20 parking spaces and is across the street from a CTA bus turnaround for the #36 Broadway and #151 Sheridan buses.

Inside Washington’s high risk mission to beat web censors
For more than a year, the intelligence services of various authoritarian regimes have shown an intense desire to know more about what goes on in an office building on L Street in Washington DC, six blocks away from the White House.

The office is the HQ of a US government-funded technology project aimed at undermining internet censorship in countries such as Iran and Syria. And so every week – sometimes every day – email inquiries arrive there that purport to be from pro-democracy activists in those places, but which, the recipients are confident, actually come from spies.

Librarians becoming a rare breed

Brian Rosson, one of the Human Resources directors with ECISD, said during the past two years, the district has really felt the repercussions of what he called a statewide librarian shortage. The Texas Education Agency has specific qualifications that a librarian must have, and according to Rosson, the most challenging qualification to meet is a master’s degree in library science.

“What we’ve seen over the last five years are less and less people going back to school for a degree in that,” Rosson said. “And there are only a few universities in the state that offer that degree.”

A dark day for the future of books
If the Justice Department prevails with its antitrust lawsuit, the decision might have unintended negative consequences for those who write, publish, sell and enjoy e-books. The government’s intention to protect consumers could end up backfiring on consumers by harming retailers, authors and publishers.

Fatal Bus Crash Led To Construction Of Library
The three Williamsport High School students were among 14 people killed when a bus carrying students back from a chemistry show at the University of Maryland was struck by a train at a grade crossing in Rockville on April 11, 1935.

At home in Williamsport, the accident led to the construction of the Williamsport Memorial Library on East Potomac Street in honor of those who died that day.