September 2012

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County has hired a Cleveland consulting firm to study the pay and benefits of library employees compared with those of their peers doing similar work elsewhere.

That firm, The Human Resource Department, will be paid between $12,000 and $13,500 for the compensation study, depending on its scope.

The services and personnel committee of the library’s board of trustees will meet at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Poland library to discuss the library system’s compensation philosophy and the compensation study.

Story from The Youngstown Vindicator (interesting newspaper name!)

Warren County NJ’s rolling hills look more intimidating than scenic from mile 45 of a long training ride. Librarian TaraLynn Romagnoli has been climbing many of these hills via bicycle on her quest to train for a 60-mile fundraising ride to raise money for the Warren County Library according to NJ.com.

“The terrain is a little tough, especially since I’m not an experienced cyclist, but I’m enjoying the challenge and can see myself improving every day,” Romagnoli said. “I am expecting to have a great ride.”

Romagnoli is cycling across the county to each branch of the Warren County Library to raise money for the new main library facility at 189 Route 519 in White Township.

This 60-mile ride, called the Ride to Read, is presented by the Friends of the Warren County Library Headquarters. The Friends hope to raise $5,000 in sponsorships to purchase furnishings, such as comfy armchairs for quiet reading, as well as diner booths and stools, an mp3-player jukebox, and a neon sign for a diner-themed teen section. Romagnoli hopes that these items will help to make this building a true community center for library users.

NEW YORK — Philip Roth vs. Wikipedia? No contest.

The prize-winning author says he’s furious with the online encyclopedia over its entry about his novel “The Human Stain.”

In a letter posted Friday by The New Yorker, Roth says Wikipedia editors had said the book was inspired by the life of author Anatole Broyard.

Not true, Roth responded. The character was based on the late Melvin Turin, of Princeton University.

Roth says he privately reported the error to Wikipedia and was told, to his amazement, that he needed a secondary source. So Roth made his case to the public.

His agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed the letter was written by Roth.

By Friday afternoon, the Wikipedia entry had been updated to include Roth’s comments and to note that some had “incorrectly speculated” about the novel’s origins.

She sees the duality in the work. “These paintings came out of two different things,” said Mazza. “First, I’m a really big reader, and literature has inspired my work over the years-even though it didn’t directly appear until now.” And the second? She counts none other than Monsieur Proust himself for inspiration. “Reading Proust and making it through that,” she said. “He was writing about flowers and I was painting flowers at the time. He uses flowers a lot as a metaphor for sexuality.”

INFORMATION hygiene is a must on a website with a billion titbits about millions of books. In the case of Goodreads it is maintained by an army of volunteer editors, over 40,000 at last count, who fix misspellings in authors’ names, correct page counts or ensure the right cover appears. Unlike many other crowdsourced ventures, though, the book-discussion and recommendation website is operated on a solidly for-profit basis.

Digital and print-on-demand technology has made self-publishing much easier. But for every self-published work that gains traction, the overwhelming majority of books don’t.

“Most self-published books sell fewer than 100 or 150 copies, many authors and self-publishing company executives say.”

As the decades pass, new generations of people who grew up reading and loving comics reach a point where they want to revisit something they enjoyed when they were young, and finally possess the means to acquire it, said Michael Zapcic. A sort of living comic book encyclopedia who appears on AMC show Comic Book Men, Zapcic helps run Kevin Smith’s store Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, where he evaluates prized possessions that customers are trying to unload.

Judy Blume, the author of young adult books “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” and “Tiger Eyes,” was diagnosed with breast cancer this summer and underwent a mastectomy, she said on her blog on Wednesday.

Blume, 74, one of America’s most famous authors of young adult fiction, said that a month after her surgery she is recovering in New York. She also described the shock of learning from her doctor in June that she had breast cancer, given that she had no family history of the disease.

Book lending and community gardening continues in front of an abandoned library in Oakland’s San Antonio district despite a police raid earlier this month. The historic building, a gift from Andrew Carnegie to the city back in 1918, was a branch library until 1976. Two other ventures have come and gone, but the building’s been vacant since 2001. The city says it’s not safe to use.

The blighted property has since attracted drug use, prostitution, and violence. So when activists moved in to reclaim it, local residents enthusiastically joined the effort.

Although Helicopter Parents can be viewed negatively, not every characteristic is undesirable. Some Helicopter Parents return to land after they are sure their precious child is cruising at a safe and comfortable altitude. The latter, more moderate approach is ideal for Helicopter Librarians.

“Helicopter Librarians” can emulate the desirable traits of “Helicopter Parents.” Additionally, the term “Helicopter Librarian” sounds sufficiently lofty.

The main difference between great librarians and Helicopter Librarians is that the former are focused on providing excellent service whereas the Helicopter Librarians are committed to building radically great relationships that students are comfortable with, similar to their relationships with their Helicopter Parents.

Full article (Library Journal)