Jill

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Budget woes have caused
lawmakers in Milwaukee, WI to consider allowing libraries to
charge for some services in order to make up for budget
shortfalls.

\”Patrons checking out materials at libraries throughout the
state could find themselves paying Blockbuster-type rental fees,
under an Assembly-backed measure that could end a century-old
tradition of free access at public libraries\”…\”I\’m picturing a coin-
op library. It boggles the mind,\” said MacPhail, director of the
Racine Public Library. \”That\’s not why I went to library school.\”
\”

Full Story

From Reuters news that Oxford University Press is building a
huge reference site.

\”Plans to create one of the biggest reference libraries on the
Internet were unveiled in Britain on Wednesday.

Reference work publisher Oxford University Press hopes to publish
1.5 million entries on 20 subjects on a subscription Web site by
2010…Annual fees start at $248.6 for schools and rise to $4,260 for
large libraries. \”

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From the Denver Post, a patron was stabbed by another patron, apparently a random attack.

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ZDNet reports that Palm\’s eBook sales rose more than 40%
last year. They sold 180,000 eBooks in 2001. Palm also released
lists
of top-selling eBooks.

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This story from the Columbus Dispatch is about Millie Benson,
author of most of the Nancy Drew books. She wrote under the
pseudonym Carolyn Keene (she is my favorite ND author),
beginning a childhood favorite that still is in print and has sold
more than 200 million books. Then she went into journalism…..

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From the Decatur, IL Tribune, an update on Project
Next
Generation, a program of qualified mentors who teach students
how to use state of the art computers, the Internet, modems,
scanners, and digital cameras at public libraries. The equipment is
supplied through a grant.

Full
Story

Young People Don\’t Just Use the Internet to Download
Music

This story from ABC News says 75%of people 15-24 yrs. old have
used the Internet to search for health information.

The foundation polled 1,209 Americans aged 15 to 24 between
Sept. 24 and Oct. 31. It found three out of four young people who
use the Internet have searched for health and medical information.
In fact, the only activities that more young people reported
paticipating in were e-mailing, school research, and finding news
and entertainment information.\”

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This just in from Botswana!!….

\”Accepting 300 books donated by Books Abroad, a British
charitable organisation, at the Gaborone National Library last
week, labour and home affairs deputy permanent secretary Lillian
Mpotokwane said the government \”continues to develop libraries
to provide relevant information and resources to facilitate the
development of an educated and informed nation as envisaged in
Vision 2016\”.\”

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From Black
Voices:

\”We asked Bernard Reilly, president of The Center
for Research Libraries, to list his facility\’s 10 most
interesting collections. Here is the list, and his
comments.\”

The list includes The African-American Press
Collection, Khmer Rouge Top Secret Documents,
Civilian Conservation Corps Newspapers, 1934-1942,
The Ethnic Press in the United States and more….

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Those who like GIS and mapping technology will want to read this
story from the New York Times. There is information about
satellite imaging and photography. Lots of links!

After the terrorist attacks \”…Space Imaging had taken the unusual
step of making images of the disaster sites available free on its Web
site, and some competitors had done likewise. \”We had so many
emergency groups calling that we decided to just put it out there so
they could use it as quickly as possible,\” said John Copple, chief
executive at Space Imaging, based in the Denver suburb of Thornton,
Colo.\”

Full Story