Ben

This just in: Librarians dig Linux and Open Source

Some clueless reporter has just posted an article on NewsForge about the ALA convention. You can tell by the title, \”Quiet Revolution\”, that it\’s going to be goggle-eyed at the prospect of librarians wielding anything more technological than a stapler.

Well, actually, it\’s not that bad. But I felt I had to castigate the author for such a dumb title. And I figured that a dose of humility would be welcome along with such a blatant bit of self-promotion: I GOT PUBLISHED! WOO-HOO! And now back to the usual Fair and Unbiased Reporting you\’ve come to expect from this bunch.

June 17, 2002 by American Library Association Librarians Libraries

Selling ALA Posters on eBay

ALA Celebrity \”READ\” posters seem to do pretty well on
eBay — \”extremely rare\” Yoda posters selling for over $15, Ani DiFranco posters regularly topping $20 or even $25. That\’s a markup of 150%-200% over regular prices, not including a discount for membership or buying more than four posters at a time.


\”Hmm, my salary is low
because people are stupid and like to go to the Internet instead of
asking a librarian…
my salary is low…
there are stupid people on the
Internet…
my salary is low…
there are stupid people on the
Internet…
by Dewey, I think I\’ve got it!\”

May 22, 2002 by American Library Association Internet Libraries

Revolution in the Stacks

Kathleen de la Peña McCook brings us a link to \”Revolution in the Stacks\”, a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article on the 92nd Conference of
German Librarians where much of the discussion surrounded what the responsibility of libraries should be in the 21st century.

Kathleen de la Peña McCook brings us a link to \”Revolution in the Stacks\”, a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article on the 92nd Conference of
German Librarians where much of the discussion surrounded what the responsibility of libraries should be in the 21st century.\”Germany\’s librarians are worried about how
they will cope with all these new tasks and are calling for more money not only to buy
more journals and books, but also to set up digital infrastructure and train additional
staff… It says a lot for the librarians\’ sense of civic duty when they offer to help
kindergartens, schools and universities improve their \’information competence.\’ But it
is still a case of the lame leading the blind. After all, the creation of \’information
competence\’ is a responsibility of the educational institutions themselves and not
archives.\”

April 19, 2002 by Libraries School Libraries

Newspaper story explains CIPA in human terms

The St. Petersburg (FL) Times recently made our CIPA concerns accessible to the library-using public in an article called \”Should Big Brother Be Watching?\”. Local professor and global activist Kathleen de la Peña McCook had my favorite quote: \”We are fighting for everybody\’s freedom.\”

The St. Petersburg (FL) Times recently made our CIPA concerns accessible to the library-using public in an article called \”Should Big Brother Be Watching?\”. Local professor and global activist Kathleen de la Peña McCook had my favorite quote: \”We are fighting for everybody\’s freedom.\”The article also brings up the old saw that you can\’t do breast cancer research because filters will stop the word \”breast\”; I\’m just enough of a skeptic to wonder how many filtering programs really are that brain-dead. Overall, the article (and its accompanying photos) do a great job of showing librarians as helpful, intelligent, and concerned for the welfare and freedom of children and adults.

April 16, 2002 by Libraries

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — April Fools

Editors Note: This was an April Fools Joke


As expected, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix handily topped the bestseller list this week. It\’s shorter, at a relatively scarce 410 pages, but just as full of intrigue. When Hermione stumbles into a ritual of Dumbledore\’s magical militia (named for his pet phoenix Fawkes, whose tailfeathers are in Harry\’s wand — and Voldemort\’s), they try to keep her quiet by making her prefect. But when Harry finds out, he\’s determined to enlist… no matter what the cost to friends and loved ones. If you haven\’t read it yet, you\’re missing out.

Editors Note: This was an April Fools Joke

April 1, 2002 by Harry Potter

Ask LISnews: Racy book covers and WebPAC content ratings?

Our library system\’s new web catalog contains images of some book covers, and some of those images might be a little racy: Sexual State of the Union, Drawing the Female Nude, and so on. I\’m wondering what sort of content rating is appropriate for the catalog as a whole (it does \’contain\’ visual depictions of partial and full nudity, after all). I\’d also be interested in finding examples of books with cover images that might offend patrons? Sometimes there\’s an offensive cover on an otherwise unobjectionable item, such as Blind Faith\’s album showing a nude teenage girl holding a remarkably phallic model airplane. So a more general (and, yes, titillating) question is: what books have the raciest cover images?

March 22, 2002 by Books Internet Libraries LISNews

Lynda Barry on the joys of nonfiction

Cartoonist extraordinaire Lynda Barry has contributed \”Non-Fictional\”, an awe-filled comic about the deep #1-ness of browsing the nonfiction stacks, to Salon.

\”Non-fiction is my section. True stories about fungus, their two kingdoms, the Basidiomycetes vs. the Ascomycetes in a contest of best spore production. Who will win?\”

February 28, 2002 by Uncategorized

Science Fiction Citations for the Oxford English Dictionary

Researchers Mike Christie and Sue Surova are searching for citations of SF terms for the OED. You can contribute, too: if you have old SF stuff, be on the lookout for the word \’humanoid\’ before 1940, or \’parallel universe\’ before 1960, or \’UFO\’ before 1953, or…

I\’m particularly curious to know if anyone other than Alfred Bester has ever used the term \’jaunt\’ to describe self-teleportation. It doesn\’t have to be fiction — just about any written source would do. Anyone have a citation?

January 10, 2002 by Uncategorized

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