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Iraqi Librarian Becomes Cultural Hero in 2 Children’s Books

It is hard to imagine how startled Alia Muhammad Baker, the chief librarian of Basra, Iraq, has been to discover that she is the hero of two American children’s books. Ms. Baker, who rescued 30,000 books just days before the city’s main library was burned during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, has sent e-mail messages recently to thank the authors for “showing us Iraqis as an educated people” and says she was surprised but also happy that the books “describe the truth.” …

Complete article from the New York Times (registration required). More on Baker’s efforts to save the library here.

March 17, 2005 by Books Librarians Libraries

Ohio may slash library budgets by 25%

The Ohio General Assembly is due to vote on a budget that could reduce library funding by up to 25%:

“With a finite amount of taxpayer dollars to work with,” said [Highland County District Library directory Judy] Lindley, “something will have to be cut in order to have a balanced budget. At this time, it would appear that local government and library funding would be a possible way to cut” …

As funding has decreased through the years, Lindley said that the library has found ways to cut corners, and has been successful in saving money. But when funding gets cut, there are not many areas left in which to save.

Complete article from the Hillsboro Times-Gazette. More in an article previously posted here.

March 17, 2005 by Librarians Libraries

Leadership means not accepting budget cuts

Library Journal’s John N. Berry III throws down the gauntlet:


They have turned us against ourselves. In communities and on campuses all over America, they have convinced some of us that resources—the money—is so scarce that there is not enough to support libraries. They talk about “tax burdens” while they allow the wealthy to avoid paying a fair share …

It is not “leadership” to follow meekly a board or mayor and accept unacceptable budget reductions. A leader’s duty is to try to convince those who govern that it is their job to support the library, not to keep the lid on costs to make a provost or city manager look good.

Complete editorial.

March 17, 2005 by Libraries

Newton, MA to axe 1/2 of its school librarians

Citing budget pressures, the affluent Boston suburb of Newton plans to lay off 7 of its 14 school librarians:

“We’re just in shock and disbelief,” one Newton school staffer said yesterday afternoon after hearing about the librarians’ layoffs. “Cutting the librarians is so short-sighted, so devastating.”

In a citywide faculty meeting yesterday afternoon and at a school committee meeting last night, Newton School Superintendent Jeff Young unveiled a series of cutbacks and belt-tightening measures aimed at keeping the system within its budget. He did not return a phone call yesterday afternoon.

Complete article from the Boston Herald. More from the Globe.

March 9, 2005 by Librarians Libraries School Libraries

UK librarians take to the streets over budget cuts

Library workers in Barnet took to the streets to protest budget cuts on Tuesday:

Unison members, including social services, finance, housing services, HR and education workers, stood outside Hendon’s Town Hall in The Burroughs to express their concerns at being forced to relocate or lose their jobs as a result of budget cuts proposed by Barnet Council and agreed at the meeting.

Library workers, particularly, were angry at the council’s plans to relocate staff to different positions across the borough in an effort to deal with cuts in the service …

Complete article from This is Hertfordshire, via Rare Book News.

March 4, 2005 by EBooks Librarians Libraries

Standing up for Philly libraries

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Lucia Herndon is fed up with the city’s neglect of its public libraries:

About 20 libraries will be express libraries – open six afternoons a week, but without master’s-degree-carrying librarians. Many libraries are now delaying opening until afternoon, so their service to not only adult clients but children is curtailed. Since only a fraction of the elementary schools in the city have accredited librarians, some schools had relied on the availability of branch libraries as an education resource …

What does it say about a city that can build a sports stadium in seemingly no time, but has to patch together resources to keep the lights on at libraries?

We should all be ashamed, enough to contact our elected officials, city and state, and tell them how we’d like to see tax money spent. We pay their salaries. They act on our behalf.

Complete column.

February 23, 2005 by Libraries School Libraries

Budget cuts threatening access to science lit. in UK

From today’s Guardian:

University libraries represent the intellectual bedrock of Britain’s academic institutions. They are an essential support to scholarly research and teaching. The last quarter century has seen exponential growth in academic productivity, especially in the sciences, and this has been accompanied by increases in the number and size of scientific, technical and medical journals, such as those published by Reed Elsevier.

But with reduced funding for university libraries, their purchasing power has fallen in relative and absolute terms. Although university budgets have kept in step with inflation since the 1970s, and in many cases outpaced it, the proportion of the budgets allocated to libraries has fallen by about a quarter, from 4% to 3% of total spent …

Complete article.

February 20, 2005 by Libraries

Librarian barred from attending Bush Fargo speech

An (as yet unidentified) Fargo, ND librarian was among those barred from attending President
Bush’s speech there yesterday:

Fargo City Commissioner Linda Coates is among more than 40 area residents included on a list of people apparently barred from attending President Bush’s speech today in Fargo.

Among the 42 area people on the do-not-admit list: two high school students, a librarian, a Democratic campaign manager and several university professors …

Complete article, and more here. The White House claims no one was barred, of course, but their track record on shutting out critics is miserable.

February 4, 2005 by Librarians Libraries School Libraries

Librarians in E-government

One librarian’s take on the role of (and need for) librarians in e-government projects:

There are many librarians involved in e-government projects. I chair a group of information professionals working in local government and many of its members will have been involved in e-government in one way or another. Librarians should be at the forefront as the provision of information is a key element; and that is what we do best.

I do not know if Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science are still taught but it would be interesting to apply these to e-government. The five laws are:

  • 1. Books are for use
  • 2. Every reader his or her book
  • 3. Every book its reader
  • 4. Save the time of the reader
  • 5. The library is a growing organism

    If we begin to apply these laws to the provision of information to the public and the interactions being offered by e-government they still make a lot of sense.

    Complete article from the new issue of Ariadne.

    • February 1, 2005 by Legal Issues Librarians Libraries

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