August 2014

If you judge a book by its cover, you might want to know what goes into its design. Jeffrey Brown speaks with Peter Mendelsund, author of “What We See When We Read” and “Cover,” about the process of communicating an author’s work to readers, as well as the importance of cover design in the age of e-readers.

The former library director in Malvern, Iowa, has been charged with ongoing criminal conduct and theft following a state investigation that found nearly $33,000 of improper and unsupported payments.

The investigation involved claims submitted by former Library Director Stacey Buick. Both charges are felonies.

….

The report says original receipts indicate that instead of library supplies, software and other items, Buick bought such things as an iPod Touch and TracPhones. A window air-conditioner, coffee machine, space-saving cubes, Easter basket supplies and candy, hooded sweatshirt, graduation decorations, laundry detergent, stain remover, video games and soft drinks were other items flagged.

Full article:
http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/ex-iowa-library-director-faces-felony-charges-over-in-improper/article_a84e7b09-7db6-5491-8152-04f300f9b8da.html

To check out books at most libraries, all you need is a library card — but this isn’t any ordinary library. You’ll need a canoe, kayak, paddle board, or inner tube to visit the Floating Library, which sits in the middle of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The hand-built wooden raft holds about 80 artists’ books and is staffed by friendly librarians to guide you. Visitors can read while bobbing alongside the Floating Library, or they can actually check out the books, zines, and chapbooks, then return them at one of the designated boxes around the city.

Full piece:
http://bookriot.com/2014/08/28/the-floating-library-minnesota-new-york/

The oldest public library in the United States, Darby Free Library outside Philadelphia, is in danger of closing. The library was founded in southeast Pennsylvania in 1743.

Tech Crunch has some sobering news for the indie author while also highlighting the incredible allure of Amazon,.

“In an interesting post, writer Claude Nougat estimated the total number of books on Amazon – about 3.4 million at last count (a number that could include apps as well) and then figured out how many books were added in a day. Nougat noticed that the number rose by 12 books in an hour, which suggests that one new book is added every five minutes. And, most likely, it’s probably an indie book.

Let’s let that sink in.

What does that mean for the indie publisher? If you’re perpetually optimistic, very little. If you’re even a little bit pessimistic, however, you might want to rethink your career.”

Story about the latest bookless library from LJ.

Kathryn Miller, director of the Florida Polytechnic University Library (FPU) looks happy enough…

And no, The Annoyed Librarian would NOT want to work in one.

From the Teen Librarian Toolbox, a description of how the Ferguson, MO Public Library is serving the populace of this troubled town.

If you would like to donate to Ferguson Library, their address is:
35 N Florissant Rd,
Ferguson, MO 63135.

Further to our previous story about Monrovia’s only library, Huffington Post reporter B. D. Colen quotes a letter he received from Mike Weah:

    Today is a sunny Sunday in Monrovia. About five major hospitals are closed and are gradually planning to reopen. Catholic hospital, one of the largest, was massively hit by the Ebola virus. A number of her staff including doctors were affected. The hospital chief administrator was the first to die. It is closed but there are still Ebola patients(nurses) on the wards and bodies in the morgue. The “rapid response unit” has been unable to transfer the patients because of lack of space at the only two over crowded official isolated centers in the whole country. Also, they claimed that they don’t have the vehicle to pick up the bodies from the morgue.

Many communities are experiencing this problem. There was rioting on Saturday in one of the nearby communities because the Ebola bodies had not been picked up for days. The police was called in. Law and order is becoming a challenged even though a State of Emergency has been declared in Liberia. Travel around the country has been drastically restricted and the army and police are out to enforce. We live in a part of Monrovia called Old Road, just about a 7-10 minute walk from the Catholic Hospital. There is a big open air market here on the Old Road where we do our shopping for local food stuff. Because of lack of food and other needed items, an Ebola patient may decide to leave the hospital and come to the market to purchase something. Then All hell would break up in this area.

Further to our previous story about Monrovia’s only library, Huffington Post reporter B. D. Colen quotes a letter he received from Mike Weah:

    Today is a sunny Sunday in Monrovia. About five major hospitals are closed and are gradually planning to reopen. Catholic hospital, one of the largest, was massively hit by the Ebola virus. A number of her staff including doctors were affected. The hospital chief administrator was the first to die. It is closed but there are still Ebola patients(nurses) on the wards and bodies in the morgue. The “rapid response unit” has been unable to transfer the patients because of lack of space at the only two over crowded official isolated centers in the whole country. Also, they claimed that they don’t have the vehicle to pick up the bodies from the morgue.

Many communities are experiencing this problem. There was rioting on Saturday in one of the nearby communities because the Ebola bodies had not been picked up for days. The police was called in. Law and order is becoming a challenged even though a State of Emergency has been declared in Liberia. Travel around the country has been drastically restricted and the army and police are out to enforce. We live in a part of Monrovia called Old Road, just about a 7-10 minute walk from the Catholic Hospital. There is a big open air market here on the Old Road where we do our shopping for local food stuff. Because of lack of food and other needed items, an Ebola patient may decide to leave the hospital and come to the market to purchase something. Then All hell would break up in this area.

Today being Sunday, my wife Yvonne went to church. She took along a stack of buckets with faucets to be used for the washing of hands. The funding to purchase the buckets was provided by members of her church who are now living in Minnesota. Twenty-four buckets were distributed to the economically challenged members of the church and others in that community. WE-CARE (a literacy foundation and Library that Weah founded and runs) provided some flyers on ways to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus.

From Nooga.com, a chat with chief teen librarian Justin Hoenke about changes made at the library to benefit teens and tweens. Earlier this week, Hoenke announced that he had accepted a promotion as coordinator of teen services at the library.

We spoke to him about the new position, living in Chattanooga and his plans for the future of teen services at the library and beyond.

Coordinator of teen services, eh? Using video game jargon, explain what this means in terms of “leveling up.”

If my old title as teen librarian was level one, this would be level two, and I’d have increased abilities! Think of level one as me just being able to use basic magical abilities in a video game, like the ability to jump super-high. Now that I’m at level two, I can do awesome things with my magical abilities in this video game, like use magic to heal myself and maybe even use magic to cast fire and ice spells. You know, librarians are actually magicians.

What changes with the new position in terms of daily responsibility for you?

Now I’m more focused on teen services throughout the entire Chattanooga Public Library system at all of our locations (downtown, Northgate, Eastgate, South Chattanooga). In my old role, I was just working on all things on The 2nd Floor of the downtown library. This new position allows me to stretch out and help the other branches in our library system achieve greater things for teens in the community. Is it more work? Of course! But it’s awesome work, and I’m so happy to be the person selected to do it.