Ben

Saturday’s Sinfest shows the devil figuring out what reading choices are controversial these days.

Here’s a link to Saturday’s strip.

Ken Jennings writes:

[L]ibraries are chronically under-funded these days, so if you’ve enjoyed the free books, media items, Internet, etc. at a local library during this year, let them know with a little holiday donation.

Scandalous suggestions after the cut…

Ken Jennings writes:

[L]ibraries are chronically under-funded these days, so if you’ve enjoyed the free books, media items, Internet, etc. at a local library during this year, let them know with a little holiday donation.

Scandalous suggestions after the cut…A library user felt bad that Ken Jennings made no money when she borrowed Brainiac, so she made a donation to the library instead. Ken enthusiastically approved:

I approve whole-heartedly—libraries are chronically under-funded these days, so if you’ve enjoyed the free books, media items, Internet, etc. at a local library during this year, let them know with a little holiday donation. Or if the reason you use the library is you because you don’t have any cash to throw around, offer to volunteer at your library instead. If both time and money are in short supply this winter, use your body. Romance a lonely librarian. As the movies have taught us, when librarians take off their dowdy glasses and let their hair down, some are real lookers. (emphasis added)

Shucks, Ken, we thought the dowdy-librarian-turned-sexpot was one of those images that was much more prevalent in the media than in real life—just like Mormon polygamy. Not that all librarians value monogamy (hint, hint). But we’ll drop our stereotypes if you’ll drop yours.

John Scalzo worked hard to assemble a collection of video games for an unnamed library and wrote a fantastic article for Gaming Target about the experience. The ground rules were simple: no mature games like Grand Theft Auto and no Simpsons games (d’oh!). Anything else available from the library’s approved vendor was, you should pardon the expression, fair game. See what he picked and why in the full article. (Via Kotaku)

Plastic has picked up a wire article proclaiming the death of libraries.

Plastic’s readers are having a thoughtful discussion about the place of libraries in education, and what’s needed to make them effective:

“What astounds me is that [Massachusetts’ neglect of school libraries] is in the face of overwhelming evidence that the presence of a library and a qualified library media specialist is just about the single most reliable predictor of school success there is.” — plastician superchick

It sounds like a demented Jeff Foxworthy comedy routine: “If you’re driving around town with an almanac… you might be a terrorist.”

But the FBI isn’t kidding: if you’re stopped by a cop who notices an almanac in your car, you could be on your way to assist the police with some enquiries. They say that almanacs contain information about various cities and landmarks, along with photographs and maps. Horrors!

Would this be a good time to point out that the highest-ranked almanac in Google Directory’s list of almanacs is offered by a secretive organization implicated in violent plots around the world?

UPDATE: yes, it’s a duplicate — I *swear* a search for “almanac” failed to turn up the SMC/Blake article!

Update: 12/30 14:42 EST by B:The LISNews search engine is less than useful most of the time, but Ben’s post was better than mine so I’m inclined to let it be. That should not stop anyone from making fun of Ben for missing the first one 😉
The Original post has some comments worth reading. There’s been about a million new stories published with some interesting titles:

“People with almanacs may be terrorists, FBI says”

“The Osama Farmer’s Almanac”

“Read alert as US lists books as terrorist tools”

“Beware of terrorists with almanacs”

and “Armed with an almanac? The FBI has its eye on you”

I’ll bet the Library of Congress never intended to put THIS on their web page.

How is it done? The funny-looking codes at the end of the URL spell out the subversive message. You can use an obfuscator to create these codes.

Lesson for library webmasters: scripts that accept input from URLs or forms (even hidden forms) must not blindly use that input. Check your input before using it!

The New York Post reports that a Harvard librarian claims discrimination against her because she is black — and sexy. “White women wore sexy clothes, were outgoing, attractive and they were getting mentored and getting promoted, while I was being ignored and asked to work extra hours,” she says in the article.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix isn’t available in German — officially. But volunteers are translating it and making it available online, reports Amy Harmon in the New York Times.

E-books of the Harry Potter series just aren’t available. So fans who want to read on the go — on the bus to work, on a lunch break, at the gym — are supposed to schlep three pounds of dead tree hither and yon and back hither again.

Well, let me say something about this:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix isn’t available in German — officially. But volunteers are translating it and making it available online, reports Amy Harmon in the New York Times.

E-books of the Harry Potter series just aren’t available. So fans who want to read on the go — on the bus to work, on a lunch break, at the gym — are supposed to schlep three pounds of dead tree hither and yon and back hither again.

Well, let me say something about this:I bought the hardcover edition as soon as I could, but I also downloaded a scanned (and not entirely corrected) version to put it on my PDA. Why? I sometimes walk for an hour or two of exercise, and I love to read as I walk. (Don’t worry, poll fans, I do look up near intersections.) I’m obviously not going to be using both at the same time, so it’s like time-shifting, only I’m format-shifting.

I’ve bought the book, and while the publisher might say that I only have a right to read that copy, I disagree. I paid for an object that confers the ability to read the novel’s text, but not to give a copy to others. Ever time I was reading the novel on my PDA, the hardcover was locked in my house. Nobody else was using it, except perhaps a cat who wanted to perch on a tall object.

Is JKR losing money because I downloaded an electronic copy? No. She’s losing money because she isn’t selling e-books.

According to Paul Poulain, the Free library automation system Koha has earned the Trophées du libre award for Best Application for Public Agencies. The competition site should have an official list of winners soon. Congratulations to the Koha team for this and for their upcoming version 2.0 release!

The traditional hallowed symbol of librarianship, the hair bun pinned by a #2 pencil, is making way for a more practical accessory: the shredder. Dean E. Murphy writes for the New York Times that Santa Cruz PL is now shredding documents daily, not weekly, in an effort to retain as little data as possible. Is it time for us to join the National Association for Information Destruction? Do we need a new term like euphemera to ease the pain of destroying information?