Britian\’s oldest public library just turned 150 years of age.
Manchester\’s pioneers took advantage of the 1850 Libraries Act which allowed local authorities to spend a penny in the pound on establishing a library.
The act provided no funds for books, so John Potter, the mayor, had a collection and raised £13,000 that included contributions from 22,000 working people.
Read the full story.
I guess this one in the States beats out the UK!
U-S-A! U-S-A!
Are you aware of the new project from the Internet Archive?
Volunteers will be traveling around the United States in a high-tech bookmobile from which people can link to the download the book of their choice. Volunteers have uploaded about 9,000 public domain books on the site.
The bookmobile will be making stops at schools, libraries and other educational institutions. Interestingly, it will stop in D.C. on Oct. 8, the day before the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Eldred v. Ashcroft (the constitutional challenge of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act).
Read the full story from Alternet.
Since August of 2001, internet use has increased by 17% says Nielsen NetRatings. Not only are there are more male surfers than female, but males surf for longer periods of time. The average for the 25.3 million men this month was 31 hours.
Most librarians can do that in their sleep! How does your library view workplace surfing? Are you allowed to follow your whimsy on the web while staffing the Reference Desk? It seems to me that trusting administration wouldn\’t think twice about it noticing a librarian online. Part of being a librarian is searching online. Another part is staying current. This includes, I think, books, news, and trends on the web. Talk!
Read the full story.
It is a shame that Czech treasures such as the Prague Bible were damaged becasue of massive flooding. I couldn\’t help but laugh, however, when I read about a temporary solution to the problem they are employing.
Freezing the water logged books! Lacking resources and money, this move is meant to buy them some time.
They didn\’t teach me this one in library school. Read the full story from the Guardian Unlimited.
As a nice antedote to the articles posted here about people being angry about their tax dollars going towards libraries, I present this article.
To trim $1.8 million from their budget the Seattle Public Library will be closed for this entire week and a week in December. Patrons are disappointed:
\”I am disgusted; the libraries are the only thing in the budget you shouldn\’t touch. Cut the mayor\’s salary a little. Keep the libraries open for us.\”
Other people question the construction of a new stadium, a move not supported by voters, when there aren\’t enough funds to keep the library open.
Again, the full story from the Seattle P-I
There are a few stories going around today detailing how both the RIAA and the Internet Radio folks are displeased with the LibrarianOC in his decision about royalties.
Both groups maintain the librarian erred in relying on a single, atypical deal, struck several years ago with Yahoo, to set the rate for an entire industry. Webcasters say it is too high. The recording industry says it is too low.
What do you think of the Librarian of Congress?
Read the full story and then read another one.
In related news, EMI sues AOL for using music it owns.
Here\’s the story.
A Fulton County library employee killed his boss and then himself on Monday, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The 31 year old killer was \”going for a degree in Library Science\” says the story.
Read the article.
Ananova reports this story from the UK.
Workers at the British Library are to stage a 24-hour strike over a \”meagre\” pay offer.
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union at the London library will walk out on Monday in protest at a 4% offer.
The union says it wants a bigger pay rise for lowest paid workers at the library, including assistants, who earned a basic salary of between £10,000 and £15,000.
What would your community do if your library went on strike?
Get your flannel shirts out of those mothballs and rip up a pair of jeans; 1992 will be here soon again!
Come November you\’ll be able to relive the agony of grunge all over again reading Kurt Cobain\’s diaries. Replicas of his actual journal will be put out by Riverhead Books, a division of Penguin Putnum.
My guess is that this book will circ pretty well.
Got angst? Read the full story from NME.com
If you work in a public library you may want to whip up a book display of the late author\’s work. Here are a few links to obits that can be printed and photocopied for patrons.
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