Brian

James Lileks, whose Celery + Gravity = Art subsite is one of the funniest things on the Web, bleats about the inflexibility of librarians when faced with a challenge to policy. "The librarian looked as though I suggested she cram the entire Oxford English Dictionary up her intestinal aperture."

"Dear Abby, I\’m a librarian in a medium-sized public library, and I\’m losing my patience about one particular issue. … We are not baby sitters."

Book magazine\’s March-April issue features one of those lists we all love to hate: The 100 Best Characters in Fiction Since 1900. Only the Top 10 are listed on the mag\’s website. Three of the top ten are from Joyce. The Cat in the Hat comes in at number 39. The panelists don\’t appear to read sci-fi much.

Other than that, I\’m liking Book the more I read it, especially the light-n-short, People-esque pieces, like a profile of The Book Thing in Baltimore, a look at architect and designer Michael Graves\’ personal library, and a fluff interview with Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. There\’s also a longer article (greatly truncated on the Web) about the small-press, underground hit Evasion, which only 2 libraries are listed in WorldCat as holding.

Oh, yeah, you got your reviews, too.

Found out about this one from Library Stuff:

After printouts of child pornography were found in a garbage can, police seized 26 computers from a library in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. A police spokesman said the authorities also grabbed a library security videotape and "a list of those who returned or checked out items."

Story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Police in South Bend, Indiana, protested an upcoming library program on "What To Do When Stopped By the Police" by visiting the library daily to check out all books put out in a promotional display. "I don\’t care if they\’re really reading them, but this borders on a form of censorship," says the library director. Story in the South Bend Tribune.

I found out about this via The Shifted Librarian:

Dvorak card game\’s The Copyright Fight deck. "The first player to control 70% of Humanity\’s written works wins the game." The deck includes Library, Funding Cut, Online, Lawyers, and other cards.

Some teens in an affluent Chicago suburb are working to get "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and other books translated into Farsi and delivered to kids in Afghanistan. Dr. Seuss apparently doesn\’t translate very well. Read the story, which includes contact information for the program.

An article in today\’s Chicago Tribune says that strong sales after Thanksgiving have dissipated a lot of economic gloom from the book industry.

AAP President Patricia "Snidely Whiplash" Schroeder is quoted as saying that books are like lipstick. But we librarians have known that for a while.

Librarians, parents, and staff members are trying to bring Judy Blume\’s Forever back to middle school libraries in a Chicago-area school district after a 4-year absence from the shelves. The leader of the local opposition calls the district "pagan" and says, "The book is harmful … it shows teens committing sins."

Forever tells the story of a teenage girl\’s first sexual experiences with an orphaned boy wizard. (Wait, scratch that last part.)

Anyway, the full article is in today\’s Chicago Tribune.

According to a pair of features in today\’s Chicago Tribune, to cope with fears and concerns, kids are flocking to scary stories (like the Series of Unfortunate Events books), as well as to books about Afghanistan and parables about war.