November 2014

Though there is still tension about what the library and librarians of today should be, the connection between librarians and sex is surprisingly persistent.

One of the frustrations of being a librarian is the occupational stereotyping. Librarians tend to be depicted in books and movies as elderly spinsters, rigid and frigid. More recently, in a predictable attempt to subvert convention, the slutty librarian trope has emerged: young, hot-blooded, yet not exempt from the cats-eye glasses.

From The Millions, librarian Elisabeth Cohen reviews a few books on the sexy librarian phenomena that you might have missed.

Article about librarian Will Johnson.

Will Johnson worked at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore for 17 years before coming to Cecil County eight months ago. He’s now manager of the Elkton Central Library. Johnson said he loves the area, especially how the pace of Cecil County compares to Baltimore.

How did you get your start? In 1996, I was working for Foot Locker in high school and went to Atlanta to work the Olympics. That experience changed my life. I met people with different nationalities and it opened my eyes. I came back and took a job as a security officer for the library. At that time, I realized the smartest people worked at the library. One day that week, I was watching Jeopardy, and the contestant was a librarian. I took that as a sign. I went to college and got my undergrad and decided I wanted to become a librarian. I worked three years doing clerical work while going to school.

http://www.cecildaily.com/news/local_news/article_68031536-675f-502d-b743-97b928e5ddf3.html

Librarian Angelique Kidd has stood vigil for the past 102 days opposite the Ferguson Police Department, demanding change.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/11/18/ferguson_librarian_fuelled_by_anger_over_shooting_love_for_town.html

Simon & Schuster is opening up its e-book lending program to all libraries. Previously, the publisher’s catalog was available only to those libraries participating in its “Buy It Now” merchandising program, which gives the library patron the option to purchase a copy of an S&S e-book through the library’s online portal, with a portion of the proceeds from each sale going to the library.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/64811-s-s-expands-library-e-book-lending.html

Yahoo is replacing Google as the default search engine for Mozilla’s Firefox browser, the companies announced late Wednesday. With 10% of the market, it is the Internet’s third most popular search engine, behind Google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Bing (which powers Yahoo searches).

The change is significant for Firefox users, who perform some 100 million searches in the browser every year, according to Mozilla.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/20/technology/firefox-mozilla-google-yahoo/index.html

Florida State University police shot and killed a gunman who had opened fire in the crowded university library around midnight. Three people were wounded.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/20/365402196/florida-state-gunman-shot-dead-by-campus-police

The National Book Awards shortlists — for fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people’s literature — were announced October 15 on Morning Edition by Mitchell Kaplan, co-founder of Miami Book Fair International and former president of the American Booksellers Association. On November 18, finalists for the National Book Awards read from their nominated works at The New School in New York City. The National Book Foundation will announce the winners Wednesday night. Read more about each of the finalists — and hear the authors read from their works here:
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/15/354568850/get-to-know-the-finalists-for-the-2014-national-book-award

Calling all architects and students, the Chicago Architectural Club (CAC) wants to see your ideas for The Barack Obama Presidential Library.

The recent media coverage surrounding the announced library, drawing bids from New York, Honolulu, and Chicago, once again initiates the desire for speculations and projections. As the fourteenth of its kind, this civic institution will not only function to house a collection of artifacts and documents relating to the president’s life but will also provide an educational infrastructure and framework for outreach and community programs. Thus, in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF), this year’s Chicago Prize Competition is calling for speculative proposals for the Barack Obama Presidential Library to initiate a debate in order to rethink and redefine this particular building typology.

Entries are due by noon, January 10, 2015. You can find more information at Chicago Architectural Club.

The Last Policeman trilogy imagines what we would all do if we knew the world would end in six months. Brooke speaks with the author, Ben Winters, about how the media might inform Earth’s final days.

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/trilogy-about-end-world/

In 1859, a solar storm threw an electromagnetic pulse at Earth so strong, it fried the telegraph system. A whole lot more is on the line now. Bob speaks with Rocky Rawlins of the Survivor Library about his preparations for getting zapped back to a time before computers and an electric grid.

http://www.onthemedia.org/story/survivor-library/