June 2013

Free with Your Books at the Chappaqua Library

You may want to avoid curling up in bed with any books that you bought at Chappaqua Library’s used book sale.

A single bed bug was found hanging on a stage curtain in the auditorium that hosted the sale. During the event, the room was crawling with buyers and fears persist that a bug may have hitched a ride on one of the $17,000 worth of used books that were sold.

“We don’t want to sweep it under the rug,” assistant library director Martha Alcott told CBS 2?s Dave Carlin on Thursday night. Other areas of the library were given the all-clear, but some families said they weren’t taking any chances. “We put all the books that we got into this big bag,” said 7-year-old Niamh Lee.

Most Chappaqua Library patrons consider themselves bookworms, but they said they aren’t willing to scratch and suffer for their reading habits.

Urbana Free Library Aggressive Weeding Draws Criticism

The Urbana (IL) Free Library is facing scrutiny after the director, Deb Lissak made a “made a unilateral decision to weed books in the print collection by date alone,” ignoring established criteria and without the knowledge of the Adult Services Director, Anne Phillips. Anecdotal reports indicate that the adult non-fiction collection has been weeded 50-75% and that the titles have been shipped to Better World Books

According to Mary Ellen Farrell, Board of Trustees President, a “conscious effort” was made “to find the most efficient way to get [the library] up to par as far as RFID tagging and … for the most usable [and] efficient things that … our library needs to have here as a core collection, and to identify things that are easily accessed, either from other libraries … or online.”

At least three staff members reported to Phillips that they were instructed to “[weed] as quickly as possible, even at the level of going through a range in 30 minutes of 2,000 titles.” That’s less than one second per book.

The details of this story are at Smile Politely.

June 14, 2013 by rochelle Internet Librarians Libraries

Struggling Farmers in India Find Promise in Ancient Seeds

Since a devastating cyclone hit in 2009, farmers in a region of India have struggled with salty soil. With climate change, that problem is likely to worsen. Special correspondent Sam Eaton reports for the NewsHour’s ongoing series “Food for 9 Billion,” about how some farmers have returned to ancient seeds for better results.

June 14, 2013 by Bibliofuture Uncategorized

Reading Erotica in Prison

A San Francisco appeals court ruled that a werewolf erotica novel must be returned to Andres Martinez, an inmate of Pelican Bay State Prison, after prison guards took it away from him on the grounds that it was pornography. Although the court grants that novel in question, The Silver Crown, by Mathilde Madden, is “less than Shakespearean,” it argues that the book nevertheless has literary merit and shouldn’t be banned under prison obscenity laws.

Story from NPR’s The Two-Way.

June 13, 2013 by birdie Legal Issues

Library and Archives Canada private deal would take millions of documents out of public domain

Library and Archives Canada has entered a hush-hush deal with a private high-tech consortium that would hand over exclusive rights to publicly owned books and artifacts for 10 years.

The plan is scheduled to be announced publicly on Friday and according to documents obtained by the Ottawa Citizen, a gag order has been placed on everyone involved in the project until then.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Library+Archives+Canada+private+deal+would+take+millions+documents+public+domain/8511544/story.html

June 13, 2013 by Blake Archives Librarians Libraries

Reading comprehension just as good using a Kindle as with paper

http://gizmodo.com/the-brilliant-insanity-behind-the-new-mac-pros-design-512574427

In 2010, a reassuring study in fact found no difference in recall after reading material electronically versus paper. Now Sara Margolin and her colleagues have looked at reading comprehension and again found no deficits in understanding of material consumed on a Kindle or a computer versus paper.

June 13, 2013 by Blake Uncategorized

How Technology Widens Class Divisions

Paul Solman speaks with Jaron Lanier, widely regarded as the father of virtual reality and the author of “Who Owns the Future?”, about how big computers — and the government and businesses they empower — are creating more economic inequality.

June 13, 2013 by Bibliofuture Technology

What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out

Some experts are concerned that both in-school assignments and the books kids read for pleasure may not be challenging them enough.

Full piece on NPR

June 12, 2013 by Bibliofuture School Libraries

Every Library and Museum in America, Mapped

“There’s always that joke that there’s a Starbucks on every corner,” says Justin Grimes, a statistician with the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington. “But when you really think about it, there’s a public library wherever you go, whether it’s in New York City or some place in rural Montana. Very few communities are not touched by a public library.”

In fact, libraries serve 96.4 percent of the U.S. population, a reach any fast-food franchise can only dream of. On a map, that vast geography looks like this:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/06/every-library-and-museum-america-mapped/5826/

June 12, 2013 by Blake Librarians Libraries Museums

The Card Catalog is Dead; Long Live the Card Catalog

The Boston Herald reports on a project undertaken by Greenfield, MA Community College Librarian Hope Schneider.

On a wall in the corner of Greenfield Community College’s Nahman-Watson Library, 128 artifacts from the library’s card catalog hang preserved in a glass case — signed by the authors who penned the very books to which the cards once led.

The project has been 14 years in the making for librarian Schneider, who wanted to memorialize the cards after the library’s catalog went digital in 1999. In the years that followed, Schneider sent cards to local authors and artists, asking if they would sign their card and make some contribution to the display. A decade later, after GCC’s library was expanded, she resumed her quest — sending letters across the country to novelists, poets and politicians.

Library Director Deborah Chown said Schneider’s project captures a time when people would find new books through serendipity — simply because it was next to another book or classified through a similar subject matter. Chown and Schneider don’t deny the advantages that new library technology offers — the opportunity to search rapidly through online databases and access books, journals and newspaper articles.

But there was also some surprise and sadness when a tour of prospective students came through the library, saw the display and didn’t recognize the cards.

June 11, 2013 by birdie Internet Libraries