April 2014

Freeze! It’s the Library Police

Observations from librarian/writer Roz Warren:

After 15 years of library work, this is what I’ve learned:

Most library patrons are decent, honest, honorable people who wouldn’t dream of stealing from us.

The scum who do want to steal from us will do so and can’t be stopped.

A while back, a woman applied for a library card at my library, received it, then checked out our entire astrology section and carried it off forever.

She ignored all of the polite overdue notices we emailed her. Then she ignored the many fretful mailings the library dunned her with.

Something else I’ve learned, working at the library? Dunning an unrepentant book thief is a complete waste of postage.

And, of course, she never darkened our doors again. Why would she? She had what she’d come in for.

Those astrology books were hers now.

She was an astrology buff, so maybe she was just doing what that day’s Horoscope had told her to do. “You‘re a Virgo and your moon is in Saturn? This is a good month to steal library books.”

My supervisor, who takes this kind of thing seriously, stewed about our astrology book thief for weeks. She longed to phone her up and say “Shame on you! Return our books this minute. Or else.”

But that goes against library policy, so her hands were tied.

Reprinted from Broad Street Review.

My Life in Typefaces

Pick up a book, magazine or screen, and more than likely you’ll come across some typography designed by Matthew Carter. In this charming talk, the man behind typefaces such as Verdana, Georgia and Bell Centennial (designed just for phone books — remember them?), takes us on a spin through a career focused on the very last pixel of each letter of a font.

Amazon Book List Reveals What’s Hot In American Regional Cuisine

From upstate New York’s heirloom veggie craze to the Pacific Northwest’s baking boom, regional fare is taking off.

But with zillions of cookbooks coming out every year, how do you figure out which culinary jewels will be worth your precious time and shelf space?

Amazon, that giant aggregator of all things, breaks down about 500 regional cookbooks into manageable bites by curating what it considers the best of its vast collection.

Full story on NPR

Great American Eats map

149 pass librarian board exams

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced Tuesday that 149 out of 533 passed the Librarian Licensure Examination given by the Board for Librarians in the cities of Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Davao and Legazpi this April 2014.

The members of the Board for Librarians who gave the licensure examination are Yolanda C. Granda, chairperson; Lourdes T. David and Agnes F. Manlangit, members.

Full story

Linked to this to show that there are places where you have to be licensed to be a librarian.

Dorothy Porath – ‘Miss Librarian’ at Milwaukee system’s 75th anniversary

It was the mid-1940s and Dorothy Porath figured she had three career choices.

She’d just graduated from what then was the state teachers college, so she could be a teacher, of course, or a nurse, or a librarian. A part-time job at the downtown library led her to become a librarian and, in 1953, to an unexpected title.

Dorothy Porath was named “Miss Librarian of 1878” as the Milwaukee Public Library system celebrated its 75th anniversary.

Porath, whose husband, Bob, was apparently more impressed with the honor — he’s the one who clipped her photo from the Milwaukee Journal’s Green Sheet and put it in a scrapbook — died April 13 at her Dousman home of natural causes. She was 89.

Porath had been a librarian for about seven years when the library system planned its anniversary bash.

Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/miss-librarian-at-milwaukee-systems-75th-anniversary-loved-to-read-b99256033z1-256747061.html#ixzz30NU01Y1U

“Librarian’s Librarian” to Become State Librarian of Michigan

A 24-year veteran at the Library of Michigan will be the next state librarian.

Randy Riley will succeed Nancy Robertson, who is retiring this week after almost a decade in the role.
Riley is recognized as a leading family history librarian in the United States.

Riley has been the Michigan eLibrary coordinator and also coordinated the Notable Books program and Center for the Book. Riley says he’s looking forward to steering the library toward “new levels of innovative services, programs and technologies.”

Before joining the library in 1989, Riley was a substitute teacher at schools in Ionia and Montcalm counties and taught at the Valley School in Schwartz Creek.

Read more from The Detroit News .

Bad Campaign Memoirs

It used to be that politicians’ lives were recounted after their careers, by professional biographers. Today, writing a memoir has become de rigueur for political aspirants looking to garner votes. Manoush speaks with Politico’s Casey Cep, who says these books amount to little more than press releases that consistently fall flat.

MP3 here