http://qz.com/195915/21st-century-libraries-need-to-go-back-to-their-roots/
In order to survive, it was hammered into our brains again and again, a library has to be more than just a “brick and mortar” receptacle of books. It needs to be a technical hub, a community center, a place you might go instead of Starbuck’s.
However, while these ideas may seem new, they’re long part of a forgotten piece of American history: the settlement house. Namely, Jane Addams’s Hull House of Chicago.
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/12/301781602/check-it-out-a-photographic-tour-of-americas-public-libraries
Robert Dawson has been photographing public libraries across the country for almost 20 years. And now, just in time for National Library Week, he has published his photos in a new book called The Public Library. It includes reflections on libraries from Dr. Seuss, Amy Tan, E.B. White and others, but the stars of the book are the photographs, from the New York Public Library — which is as splendid as any great European cathedral — to libraries that are housed in shacks and shopping malls.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/04/11/1749218/phil-shapiro-says-20000-teachers-should-unite-to-spread-chromebooks-video
Phil Shapiro often loans his Chromebook to patrons of the public library where he works. He says people he loans it to are happily suprised at how fast it is. He wrote an article earlier this month titled Teachers unite to influence computer manufacturing that was a call to action; he says that if 20,000 teachers demand a simple, low-cost Chromebook appliance — something like a Chrome-powered Mac mini with a small SSD instead of a hard drive, and of course without the high Mac mini price — some computer manufacturer will bite on the idea.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/04/11/1749218/phil-shapiro-says-20000-teachers-should-unite-to-spread-chromebooks-video
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c113:S.2206.IS:/
SEC. 3. NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE.
(a) Repeal- Effective on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the National Technical Information Act of 1988 (subtitle B of title II of Public Law 100-519; 15 U.S.C. 3704b) is repealed.
(b) Transfer of Critical Functions-
(1) CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT- The Secretary of Commerce, the Archivist of the United States, the Comptroller General of the United States, and the Commissioner of Social Security shall consult with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to determine if any function of the National Technical Information Service is critical to the economy of the United States.
(2) GAO CERTIFICATION- The Comptroller General of the United States shall determine which of the critical functions identified pursuant to paragraph (1) are not being carried out by any other agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government.
(3) TRANSFERS AUTHORIZED- Before the effective date set forth in subsection (a), the Secretary of Commerce may transfer the responsibility for any critical function of NTIS (as identified under paragraph (1)) that is not otherwise being carried out (as determined under paragraph (2)) to another office within the Department of Commerce.
(c) Abolition of Functions- Except for the functions transferred pursuant to subsection (b), all functions of the National Technical Information Service immediately before the repeal date described in subsection (a) are abolished on such repeal date.
“If we go it ourselves, then the world is our oyster,” said Pamela Snelson, college librarian at Franklin & Marshall College. “We can do what we want. We have the freedom, but we also have the problems, the challenges of getting it going.”
Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/04/11/liberal-arts-college-libraries-mull-establishing-open-access-book-publisher#ixzz2ycY7Gemr
Inside Higher Ed
Many of these buildings are iconic structures on their campuses, and have housed generations of studying students. Others were built more recently, and show how technology can shape the future of education.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/coolest-college-libraries-2014-4
http://www.npr.org/2014/04/11/301749061/when-it-comes-to-presidential-libraries-size-matters
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Former presidents compare their libraries the way other men may compare their – well…
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/where-are-americas-librarians/
Rather than solely looking at change over time, it’s worth zooming in to a finer level of detail. For each metropolitan area, the BLS calculates a “job quotient,” which measures the number of librarians relative to population. On that basis, with 2.1 librarians for every 1,000 people, Owensboro, Ky., is the Silicon Valley of librarians.
The New Orleans Picayune reports on state legislators choice of an official state book.
Representative Thomas Carmody (R-Shreveport), originally filed a bill to declare a specific copy of a Bible, found in the Louisiana State Museum system, the official state book. But by the time he presented the proposal to the committee, he changed language in his legislation to make the generic King James version of the Bible, a text used worldwide, the official state book.
Michael Weil, who heads up the Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans, said his organization — which is cultural and not religious in nature — hasn’t take a stance on the bill. But the legislation gives him some personal pause. “I think the state should consider a text that is not religious,” he said.
Another story on the same subject from NPR. And opinion from the ACLU: The bill “represents the use of religion to discriminate against Louisianians of minority faiths or who do not adhere to that particular book as part of their belief system. The bill will create more problems than it will solve by telling some Louisianians that their belief system is not full equal,” the state ACLU says.
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