Stories Of The Year

Ten Stories That Shaped 2012

It’s that time again… let’s look back at this year’s top library headlines.

10. Bird Flu Study is Published

After researchers found a way to spread H5N1 to humans, an interesting test ensued of the bounds of free speech versus public health. Citing concerns over bioterrorism, a government panel wanted to ban publication of the scientific findings. The paper was printed, in full, in the journal Science.

9. Remember Those Boycotts?

Multiple generations of librarians have lamented over costly journal prices. Aside from the continued drive for
public access to funded research, libraries and now finally scholars are boycotting Elsevier and the American Chemical Society. Here’s hoping the Open Access movement against profiteering publishers keeps growing.

Quote of the Year

"The economics of publishing print no longer worked and that’s why we’re going to go all digital" – Newsweek editor Tina Brown. How does your employer intend to survive?

8. Begun, the E-Book Wars Have

As e-books continue to gain mainstream dominance, thorny issues over lending, pricing, and the future of publishing remain crucial to follow.

7. Library Evolution Sparks Protests

Some library administrators now realize that running a change averse institution no longer has the survival value that it once did. The very notion of change, however, is still antagonistic to some. Two notable examples of adapting libraries this year are Harvard University and the New York Public Library.

6. National Library Efforts

Though still vaporware, the concept of a Digital Public Library of America, now with some major backers, holds promise. An initial launch is planned for 2013.

Honorable Mention

More libraries are going to the dogs. Has yours?

5. Georgia State E-Reserve Case

Libraries would not exist if copyright was an absolute. In a complicated case (as with Google Books and HathiTrust, aren’t they always) of publishers suing over the use of electronic reserve readings, the verdict came out in the library’s favor.

4. Kiosk Libraries Take Root

Kudos to the innovative Little Free Library project. Is there one in your community?

3. 3-D Printing

Those devices that create custom three-dimensional products on demand also generated a lot of buzz this year. There are promising business applications but also legal battles looming for such products.

Dis-honorable Mention

Regarding this year’s bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey, Salman Rushie says it best.

2. Innocence of Muslims

As with the burning of the Quran by Terry Jones and later by soldiers in Afghanistan, people are dead because of this movie. Google has blocked access to the film in certain countries. Should there ever be limits to the freedom of speech?

1. Have you heard of… the Internet?

This year saw the continued growth of the Web and its interaction with human intelligence, not to mention our dependence on it, to the point of our devices now serving as an external drive to the brain. Prince and Clifford Stoll were wrong: the Internet is not a fad. What else will be taken for granted in a few more years? Cloud computing? Web-scale discovery? And where do libraries fit in this picture?

What’s your favorite story of 2012?

Ten Stories That Shaped 2011

It’s time again to look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly library stories of the past year.

Honorable Mention: Lenny Bruce Should Have Been a Librarian

Hot on the heels of the popular book Go the Fuck to Sleep comes a straight-talking site that all library marketers should take note of: Go the Fuck to the Library.

10. Neither Fax nor E-mail nor IM

Print-based industries are struggling, and the United States Postal Service is no exception. I couldn’t help but hear the Postmaster General boast about not paying bills online and wonder how many analogous things librarians do, such as instructing students in the “old ways” of doing research.

9. Terry Jones burns a Quran

A copy of the Quran was burned by pastor Terry Jones in his church on March 20, 2011. Although not widely covered by mainstream media, the burning was condemned by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. During the ensuing protests in Afghanistan, at least 30 people were killed. Among the dead were United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan employees, who were shot and decapitated.

8. Occupy Wall Street makes a “People’s Library”

The OWS movement in New York City got attention for forming a library. When the protests ended, things didn’t go so well for the library, however. Depending on who you ask, it’s either the “destruction of a library” or the “eviction of illegal squatters who had some books confiscated.”

7. Greg Mortenson: Humanitarian or Swindler?

Though not as flashy as the James Frey or Jayson Blair scandals, Mortenson’s publications were also charged with containing inaccurate and possibly fabricated information. A 60 Minutes hit piece was followed by a class action lawsuit against Mortenson’s charities.

6. Borders Goes Bankrupt

The headlines Why Borders Failed While Barnes & Noble Survived and Borders Closes the Book as Decisions Come Back to Haunt Chain sum up the bookseller’s demise. The cheeky Closing Borders Store Tells Customers Where To Find A Restroom is also worth a look.

5. Publishers Continue to Lawyer-Up

Hard to believe, but the Google Books Settlement first made this list four years ago, and the dispute over royalties and orphan works continues to this day. You can now add Authors Guild v. HathiTrust to the list of pending litigation over libraries making digital copies of their materials available online.

4. Find the Future at NYPL

Tired of the libraries and video games trend yet? Well you shouldn’t be, any more than you’re taking affront at a modern library collection containing pleasure reading.

This year saw the launch of Find the Future, a collaborative game built around the collections of The New York Public Library. Whether innovations such as this entail the withering of traditional libraries (or even if that’s a bad thing) is unclear.

3. HarperCollins Busts a Cap in E-book Circulation

Can you imagine a library agreeing to buy a book under the condition that after 26 uses the copy be destroyed? Well that’s just what HarperCollins wants libraries to do with e-book lending. Penguin Books also yoinked titles from library e-book collections.

Border’s bankruptcy and Netflix’s pricing kerfuffle also demonstrate how companies are still fumbling with technological evolution. As with supporting Open Access publications, it is time for libraries to show a little backbone and vote with their wallets: refuse to support publishers’ efforts to maintain contrived scarcity with online formats.

2. Watson Wins Jeopardy!

What does a computer winning a game show have to do with libraries? Just the potential demise of the need for human librarians. We already have full-text indexing, which has by and large superseded subject cataloging. With the potential for AI librarians on the horizon, how long until we are playing the role of John Henry at the reference desk?

1. E-Books Go Mainstream

It took over 11 years to go from The Plant to Pottermore. In that time, technological improvements have given rise of what is now a crowded tablet market. As Amazon’s sales indicate, there is now widespread consumer adoption of electronic books. Considering new programs such as Kindle lending, with this advent of electronic formats and other digital forms of information, the future role of libraries as a place for storing paper books, or even the need for them, remains to be seen.

Ikea even got in to the mix with a redesign of a bookcase to hold things other than dead-tree books. But laggards fear not, if you still miss the smell of paper books, you can always get the perfume.

What was your favorite story of the year?

Ten Stories That Shaped 2010

It’s time again to take a look at the memorable headlines of the year.

10. YouTube Sensations

Although viral videos are nothing new, libraries found themselves involved in a few catchy clips this year, and even got Old Spice guy involved in their cause.

9. Libraries and DVDs and Netflix, Oh My

Libraries check out a lot of movies, in case you haven’t heard. A library touting their use of Netflix, however, ran afoul of many due to the admitted violation of Netflix’s terms of use.

8. Piracy Crackdown

Many Chicken Little essays cropped up over the seizure of domains by Homeland Security, questioning the due process involved and decrying the potential for censorship that the new law affords.

7. Under New Management

The corporate takeover of public libraries and the commercialization of academic libraries should have us all thinking about our workplace of the future.

6. Gizmo of the Year: iPad

Since its spring release, Apple’s life-changing tablet has been put to use by many libraries. How is your library using iPads?

5. I For One Welcome Our New Media Overlords

My how times have changed. Gone are the days of video stores and print magazines, right?

4. Web 2.0 Fatigue

Oops, I forgot, it’s called “emerging technologies” now. With all the information overload surrounding social media and who knows what else that’s on the horizon, many of us may feel sympathetic with this take on the next big thing.

3. Sign of the Times: Libraries = Offices for Unemployed

Hardly a news flash, but as library budgets continue to spiral while others question the need for libraries at all, library use during the recession has filled a need for those seeking employment.

2. Google eBookstore Opens

The advertising company that organizes so much of the world’s information is, gasp, actually going to try and make money by selling it. The Google eBookstore launched this month. It should give any librarian pause about the Google Books Settlement — and the future of publishing and lending in general.

1. Wikileaks Freakout

The release of secret diplomatic cables received substantial coverage this year. The Library of Congress even became involved. Several free speech issues are raised by how the leaks are being handled.

Don’t forgot to post your favorite library story!

Ten Stories That Shaped 2009

It’s time to take another look back at the notable headlines of the past year.

10. Censorship Lives On

We may as well get this permanent entry out of the way. Aside from the usual headlines, some of the more peculiar stories involving censorship included Harvard literally barring books, prisons banning political titles, librarian self-censorship, G. W. Bush giving J. K. Rowling the cold shoulder, and a jab over the hypocrisy of "banned" books.

9. E-Books and Orwell

News flash: widespread electronic book adoption is just around the corner. Well, maybe not, but upgrades in e-book technology continue along with new releases of Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s Reader, and Barnes & Noble’s nook. However the most important e-book story of the year would have to be Amazon’s deletion
of an illegal copy of 1984 (it slipped through their store) from customers’ Kindles.

8. Decline of Newspapers

Dwindling newspaper subscriptions are so prevalent they’ve become the butt of jokes. But where will free aggregators rip off paid stories from? Even Reading Rainbow fell victim to the winds of change this year. What’s next, school libraries?

7. Whither Wikipedia

Yes, the site’s still around, but growing pains and a loss of volunteers have raised some questions about the future of the encyclopedia. I guess a project with the goal of "every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge" is bound to encounter some bumps in the road.

6. Aren’t We Cool?

Libraries with video games are nothing new; I played games on a computer in a public library thirty years ago. But like the "Librarian Shushes Stereotypes" headlines of the past decade, all of a sudden libraries offering video games (and comic books) to patrons has become big news.

5. Judith Krug, 1940-2009

The American Library Association lost a lion with the death of Judith Krug, a fervent campaigner against censorship.

4. Bookless School Library

What better way to make your mark than plan a school library with no printed books. A private boarding school in Massachusetts is doing just that. Given that this approach is a little imbalanced these days, it is still a sign of things to come?

3. Google Books Settlement

The Google Book Search settlement agreement is a significant case regarding the future of digital copyright law and how libraries + capitalism = controversies.

2. New Moon Mania

Although the series has garnered mixed opinions, the appeal of Twilight to teen readers is undeniable. Many libraries capitalized on this phenomenon with events related to the New Moon film debut.

1. It’s (Still) the Economy

Many stories on these lists are repeats, but for the first time ever, there’s the same top story two years running: money woes for libraries. This fall the Philadelphia Free Library had to threaten to close to get a budget. Many other libraries have closed or had significant cutbacks. Here’s hoping these stories come up less next decade. In the meantime, happy furlough everyone!

For the nostalgic: 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Ten Stories That Shaped 2008

It’s that time again! Read on for some highlights from this year’s library news.

10. OCLC Claims Ownership of Data In OPACs

As if charging libraries to provide it cataloging records wasn’t enough… what’s next? Suing a library-themed hotel?

9. Annoyed Librarian Joins Library Journal

Though some love to hate her, everyone’s favorite snarky semi-anonymous blogger continues to garner attention.

8. Censorship Roundup

Penguins continue to make intellectual freedom headlines, as does violence, homosexuality, and sex. Even Sarah Palin made some of the papers she reads with a story about her dealings with the city librarian while mayor of Wasilla.

7. Wikipedia Marches Ever On

Truthiness issues aside, Wikipedia and other user-generated sites continue to grow. If you haven’t already familiarized yourself with such sites as Wikipedia, Digg, and Facebook, turn in your library degree now.

6. Book Technology

Kindle, e-paper, and related gizmos made further inroads and advances this year, but mainstream adoption is perennially a few years away.

5. Lawsuits Aplenty

Notable publishing lawsuits this year involved Jerry Seinfeld, Harry Potter, and Electronic Reserve.

4. California Librarian Fired for Reporting Man Viewing Child Porn

Yes, sadly, you read it right. There’s more to the story than that, but it remains a reminder that some libraries are short of a full deck.

3. Google Books Settlement

This fall, a payment system was worked out between Google, authors, and publishers, including a subscription model that left some libraries feeling shorted.

2. Gaming Takes Off

Video games in libraries are nothing new, but this year saw incredible growth in the use of video games by libraries to meet patron demands.

1. Can You Spare A Dime?

Those “Recession Boosts Library Use” stories were common this year, but the real news is how hard hit libraries have been in this terribad economy, as typified by the Philadelphia Free Library closings.

What was your favorite story of the year?

Ten Stories that Shaped 2006

Another year, another recap! Read on for a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly library stories of 2006.

Another year, another recap! Read on for a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly library stories of 2006.

Honorable Mention

In case you missed it, the Cynthia Wilson interview about her “I am a Librarian” project was one of LISNews’ best features this year.

Dishonorable Mentions

If only there was just one! From people stealing maps and rare books to heckling, committing arson, and crashing a car into a library, libraries had their share of unfriendly visitors this year.

10. New UCLA Slogan: "Get Tasered @ your library"

Unless you were living under a rock last month, you probably heard that a troublemaking student was repeatedly tasered (by police) in a UCLA Library computer lab. After some administrative waffling, multiple investigations into the event are underway.

Of note is how and why this story broke: a YouTube video of the harrowing incident made it to the Digg front page. Who needs traditional media anyway?

9. Ding Dong, Gorman Tenure Ends

This June’s ALA presidential regime change constituted a shift from a cantankerous curmudgeon to a barefoot blogger. Just remember to vote Flynn Carsen in ’07.

Also, while not breaking an attendance record, the annual conference in embattled New Orleans seemed to be a success.

8. Library Weblog Explosion, Redux

Many bibliothekenbloggens launched this year. Entries of note include Library Juice, A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette, and Typo of the Day. Even the venerable John Berry joined the blog people this fall.

To help with information overload, the custom search engines LISZEN and LibWorm recently debuted.

7. EPA Library Closure

Many were up in arms over the Bush administration’s shuttering of the Environmental Protection Agency’s library. This may become the subject of a politicized fight taken up by the Democrats.

Look for the location of the next presidential library to be unveiled early next year too.

6. Library 2.0 Meme

From despised buzzword to a popular topic in the literature, talk of L2 abounds. (And don’t worry, as LCSH makes room for FRBR and RDA, we’ll still have plenty of acronyms.)

While libraries struggle with how to renovate traditional library services with new technologies, the success of the for-profit social software LibraryThing and the growing slew of library wikis beckon for more libraries to innovate. After all, you have nothing to lose but your overpriced OPAC systems (oh and maybe privacy).

Bonus: Quote of the Year

Speaking about new technologies, Stephen Abram let loose that, "It’s a rare speech I don’t give where someone doesn’t come up to me afterwards and say, ‘I’m retiring in three years. It’s so good I don’t have to learn this stuff.’ I’d really wish they’d just leave our profession."

While the ALA trolls for ways retiring librarians can work for free, I certainly look forward to the day when technical expertise will not be shunned.

5. More Elephants in the Room

Remember when we used to say, "relax, it’s not like they’re going to start scanning whole libraries…"? Well, this year Google and Microsoft and Yahoo! all signed on more scanning partners. Like never before, there is tangible evidence that digital libraries are wave of the future.

2006 also saw the launch of Microsoft Live Academic, another open scholarly index, and Microsoft Live Book Search, another collection of digitized books. And while RLG, Ex Libris, and ProQuest found themselves involved in
mergers, that’s small potatoes compared to the paltry sum paid for of YouTube.

4. Censorship

Here’s a news flash: libraries and librarians face challenges to controversial materials.

This perennial entry has it all: the same old textbook battles and Harry Potter mania; the Muhammad Cartoons and MySpace concerns; collection bias allegations; the curious case of what to do with the O.J. book; and everyone’s favorite cause for moral panic, penguins.

3. ‘Net Neutrality

Many have said that the Internet became a success because the technology was far ahead of any legislative efforts to control it. But the frontier has been settled, and just as DRM and licensing restrictions are stifling our ability to share information, pro-business lobbyists are fighting for everything from content toll systems and e-mail delivery surcharges to bans on municipal wi-fi.

Enter the Network Neutrality movement, intended to save the Internet from such meddling practices and regulations. And so the battle begins. If there were such push polls and smear ads around when libraries were first created, however, would these issues have prevented them from getting off the ground?

2. P is for Privacy

In early 2006 the supposed "sunset" clauses of the USA PATRIOT Act were extended and then renewed (complete with a signing statement). Meanwhile, a group of "John Doe" librarians in Connecticut successfully challenged a National Security Letter demanding patron records and communications. There were also two cases of librarians getting in hot water for exercising their legal rights by refusing to deliver patron data without a subpoena.

Lest you think all librarians have a clue about privacy, in a bizarre footnote, a library in Florida found itself without volunteers after mandating urine drug tests for all workers.

1. The James Frey Fallout

Last year John Seigenthaler, Sr. instigated a reality check on Wikipedia’s truthiness. This year the other shoe dropped. An investigation into the Oprah Book Club pick A Million Little Pieces ended with James Frey’s tearful admission of fabricating his memoir and an almost unprecedented offer of refunds by the publisher.

Similar scandals involving "JT LeRoy", Kaavya Viswanathan, several journalists, and many scholars prompted publishers to remind readers that "fact checking is too costly". Food for thought when considering why wikis and other new kids on the block may be worth examining.

So, what was your most memorable story of the past year? Please share your remembrances below.

Ten Stories that Shaped 2005

It’s that time again when the media looks at the year in ideas and we review the top stories of 2005. Below are some of the highlights of this year’s library news. For some background, see the 2004 and 2003 recaps, as many of those stories are alive and well.

This year we look back at stories that cover Google, a good looking librarian, a curmudgeonly president, Wikis, Rootkits and more. The LIS world continues to be shaped by the stories you read here.

Update: 12/30 13:12 GMT by J :Added some late entries. Make sure you add your own memorable stories in the comments below!

It’s that time again when the media looks at the year in ideas and we review the top stories of 2005. Below are some of the highlights of this year’s library news. For some background, see the 2004 and 2003 recaps, as many of those stories are alive and well.

This year we look back at stories that cover Google, a good looking librarian, a curmudgeonly president, Wikis, Rootkits and more. The LIS world continues to be shaped by the stories you read here.

Update: 12/30 13:12 GMT by J :Added some late entries. Make sure you add your own memorable stories in the comments below!

Honorable mention: LISNews server upgrade

Kudos to Blake Carver, the LISNews operator, for upgrading the server and software driving this site. Plus, he still found the time to post the bulk of LISNews stories—and pen several quality features to boot.

10. The “Pretty Librarian” Lawsuit

In April, Desiree Goodwin lost her case against Harvard University for discrimination. A library assistant with two masters degrees and over ten years of library experience, Ms. Goodwin was repeatedly denied promotion. She claimed it was because she is black and was viewed as a “pretty girl” who dressed too provocatively. LISNews later ran an interview with her. Harvard has since counter-sued for legal fees.

9. Oprah’s Book Club Re-launches

To the delight of publishers, in September, Oprah Winfrey started picking modern authors again for her Book Club selections. As expected, this had a positive effect on the industry in general.

8. Katrina Disaster Response

Hurricane Katrina destroyed a lot more than libraries in August. The ALA and other library organizations pitched in with recovery efforts, which are well underway. In a debatable decision, the ALA announced in October that the 2006 Annual Conference would go ahead in New Orleans as planned.

7. USA PATRIOT Act Sunset?

The Patriot Act stayed in the news this year with more confusion than ever about how it was and wasn’t being used or could be used in relation to library patron records. News of library searches continued, including one high-profile case in Connecticut. Despite efforts by many congressmen to let some of the act’s provisions expire, it looks doubtful that those “radical militant librarians” will strike a blow for privacy and liberties. However, it looks like the expiration of Section 215 and other provisions is going to be pushed back only to February 3rd, so look for more Patriot Act news in early 2006.

A suspicious claim about the government monitoring ILL requests, later revealed as a hoax, also made headlines in December.

6. Librarian Employment Outlook

Will it never end? After perennial “just around the corner” forecasts for a rosier library job market, a new story predicted a potential balance of job-seekers and jobs… by 2027. So those abysmal salaries seem to be here to stay.

On a related note, a post by Jenny Levine about being charged to attend a library conference she was invited to speak at yielded a lot of chatter amongst those pesky librarian bloggers.

5. Sony’s “Rootkit” CDs

In what was probably the most under-reported library story of the year (as the president of Sony BMG’s global digital business division so aptly said, “most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”), Sony BMG was busted for selling pseudo-CDs to unknowing customers. The music discs had anti-piracy software, which essentially acted like a computer virus, hidden in them. Consumer complaints, lawsuits, and a public relations nightmare for the company followed this discovery in October. But the scariest thing is probably how tame this will likely sound after a few more years of DRM advances.

4. Social Software Rising

If you haven’t heard of Facebook, you obviously don’t deal with teenagers. This year saw the continued rise of web-based social networks, as well as the use folksonomies for tagging. And speaking of Flickr, have you framed your LISNews Trading Card yet?

3. Gorman Mouths Off

Poor misunderstood Michael Gorman. He loves to lob disparaging quips about blogs, Google Books, Google Scholar, Google, and, it seems, digitization in general. But he can’t understand why people think he’s speaking as the ALA President and a representative of our profession and not just some random librarian The Wall Street Journal happens to interview.

2. Year of the Wiki

Wikipedia seemed to be everywhere this year, from conferences, to a disastrous experiment with Wikitorials, to media darling Jimmy Wales, to countless nitpicks, to, finally this month, a validation of sorts. With the success of the ALA Conference Wiki, the wiki software also found itself being used by LISWiki and a growing number of library-themed wikis.

1. Google Book Search and Copyright Conundrums

Google Print (now called Google Book Search) seemed to rile up everyone this year, including publishers, presses, authors, the French, and hospitals. It’s an exciting and ambitious project, but how it will impact the future role of libraries and digital copyright laws makes it the top story to watch.

Please post your comments, list critiques, and additional memorable or significant stories below!

Ten Stories that Shaped 2004

As an encore to last year’s recap, read on for the top library stories of 2004. Comments are welcome!

As an encore to last year’s recap, read on for the top library stories of 2004. Comments are welcome!

10. Forfeiture Pamphlets Destruction Order

In July the U.S. Department of Justice had the Government Printing Office order federal depository libraries to destroy materials related to forfeiture laws. The explanation given was that the items were not "appropriate for external use." The publications were described by one lawyer as guides "to help people get their stuff back" from the government.

After some public scrutiny, the order was rescinded. Pleas for an investigation as to why the items were targeted went unanswered.

9. Library News from… Iran?

In November Librarian of Congress James Billington visited Iran to establish an exchange of library materials.

This year the federal government also lifted a contentious embargo against publishing edited works from trade-sanctioned countries (Iran, Cuba, and Sudan).

8. Laura Bush, Politics, and Librarians

Despite the First Lady’s literacy initiative, she is occasionally the butt of jokes. During the presidential campaign Teresa Heinz Kerry quipped that former-librarian Laura Bush never had "a real job." This prompted Jay Leno to comment: "Let me tell you something, if you’re a librarian married to George W. Bush, there is no harder job on earth."

In more political news, Radical Reference made a splash at the Republican National Convention. And some comments by Rory Litwin caused a stir right here at LISNews.com.

Other librarians making headlines this year included action-figure namesake Nancy Pearl and the fictional TV movie hero The Librarian.

7. Clinton Library Opens

There was fanfare in Little Rock in November as the Clinton Presidential Center (with Presidential Library) opened. Styled after the "bridge to the 21st century" metaphor, the building contains millions of items on everything from impeachment to saxophones.

In sadder news, Ronald Reagan, who died in June at age 93, was buried at his library in California.

6. USA PATRIOT Act Hysteria Continues

More accusations flew this year between civil libertarians and the government over the privacy of library records. At the heart of the debate is the inevitable contradiction between the stalwart "I will not surrender liberty to gain security" adherents and those who accept the dichotomy of "can law enforcement view your reading habits or do you have something to hide?"

Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech included the jab, "we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries." Not long after the November election, John Ashcroft, the oft-demonized poster child for the perils of government surveillance, "resigned" as the United States Attorney General.

On a related note, concerns over the use of RFID tags in libraries show how technology remains no panacea. As for the USAPA’s allowances for secret library searches, the sunset clause on some of the act’s provisions was repealed, and variations of the Freedom to Read Protection Act remain stalled.

5. RIAA Floods Libraries with CDs

As settlement for an anti-trust lawsuit, many public libraries received free CDs from the recording industry. The titles selected for unloading raised some eyebrows. The Milwaukee Public Library, for example, received 1,235 copies of Whitney Houston’s 1991 recording of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Just think how many copies the lawyers got!

4. Disasters

In September a fire devastated the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Germany. Tens of thousands of books were lost, including many rare and older titles.

In October the University of Hawaii’s library suffered from flooding. Damage estimates range in tens of millions of dollars.

In both cases, restoration efforts are underway. Although library damages are the least of the worries about last week’s South-Asian Earthquake and Tsunamis, here’s hoping that all relief efforts from this disaster are a success.

3. The Modern Reichstag

There were several challenges to library materials this year. To keep funding, many libraries adopted Internet filters as CIPA went into effect on July 1st. And the Phoenix Public Library filtering debate was one of many this year.

More censorship of library items happened throughout the country. In August the Kansas Attorney General pulled more than 1,600 "inappropriate" music CDs from state libraries. In April, a blitz of parental challenges to library books with gay themes occurred in states including South Carolina, South Dakota, and Washington. School textbooks that mentioned marriage or evolution were also repeatedly targeted.

2. Libraries Play Catch Up

Be it coffee shops, chat services, wireless access, blog feeds, or tolerating cell phones, many libraries remain slow to get on the bandwagon with providing the services and technologies that attract customers.

The acclaimed launch of Google Scholar in November, followed by an announcement this month about the commercial company’s ambitious digitization plans (plans that, if realized, would have far-reaching implications for the role of modern libraries), showed how those pricey library buildings are struggling to maintain relevance in the digital age.

1. Open Access and the Economy

Viable alternatives to for-profit publishing gained steam this year with the popularity of Wikipedia, the successes of the Public Library of Science, a proposal by the National Institutes of Health, and the milestones reached by Project Gutenberg. Open Access publications holds great promise for addressing the hyper-inflating cost information.

Librarians are charged with spreading and preserving information. Despite advances in technology, copyright extensions and fair use limitations are opposing these tasks like never before. Librarians are also getting the squeeze from spiraling publishers’ prices and budgetary constraints.

Being stifled by profiteering content providers and their legal campaigns against the freedom of information is the greatest obstacle facing libraries today.

Thanks to Blake, Rochelle, and Daniel for contributions to this list.

Ten Stories that Shaped 2003

Inspired by a Washington
Post
article reviewing the year’s events, here are some of
the library happenings that made headlines in 2003.

Update: 1/1 10:49 EST by JH: The list has been tweaked, thanks to some comments and a good night’s sleep.

Inspired by a Washington
Post
article reviewing the year’s events, here are some of
the library happenings that made headlines in 2003.

Update: 1/1 10:49 EST by JH: The list has been tweaked, thanks to some comments and a good night’s sleep.

10. ALA Conference Overshadowed by SARS

Although a few exhibitors pulled out, the Annual Conference in
Toronto failed to live up to the media hype over the small SARS
outbreak there. Some of the LISNews.com
crowd
met there for dinner.

9. Harry
Potter

A long-awaited release of the fifth book helped the series reach the 250 million mark in book sales. Despite an endorsement from the Vatican, the books remain the target of book burnings by misguided zealots.

8. More Librarians Discover Weblogs…

This year the LIS
Weblogs
category at the Open Directory grew from around 80
sites to almost 350 listings. More and more individuals and
organizations are discovering the benefits
of publishing blogs.

7. … But Not All Librarians are Computer Experts

The ex-director of the University of Pennsylvania Library pled
guilty
for downloading child pornography on his work computer.
Librarians in Kansas
and Texas
were also fired for viewing pornography at work. A Washington
librarian was let go after the discovery of her personal
dominatrix site.

6. ALA’s Blundering Site Redesign

In April, the American Library Association
shelled out big bucks for a site overhaul. The new URLs were
rather unwieldy, and several other basic usability guidelines
were violated. Everyone, everywhere, was quite appalled. Eight months later, the old archived site may still be
the best way to find some materials.

5. The Lighter Side

Millikin University showed us some PEEPs
in the Library
. A new librarian
action figure
provoked a love-it-or-hate-it response from
many. Tori Amos released a compilation CD titled Tales
of a Librarian
. McDonald’s had a beef with a new "McJob"
dictionary definition. And perhaps inspired by the popularity of

naked


war


protesting
,
librarians struck provocative poses for fundraising calendars in

New


Jersey
,

Alberta
,

New Hampshire
,
and

Camden England
.

4. Censorship

Cases like the Ask Alice link removal, banned books, and the CIPA fallout had an impact on many libraries this year. Remember to make use of librarian.net’s CIPA signs as needed.

A controversy over the role and plight of Cuban "librarians" also received attention.

3. Open Access Publishing

New efforts in noncommercial publishing, such as Public
Library of Science Biology
, allowed heavyweights like Cornell
to hit Elsevier
and other for-profit publishers where it hurts. The Open
Source
movement has also been focused on libraries.

2. Technology Isn’t Everything

Remember e-books? Although the technology behind electronic books crept ahead
this year, the gadgets have failed
to crack the mainstream marketplace. Umberto Eco gave a
talk
in November on the continued importance of physical
publications.

In contrast, virtual reference services made a strong showing this year, both from non-library services such as Google Answers and library-sponsored reference such as the QuestionPoint system at the Library of Congress.

And federated
searching is on the horizon: tools allowing simultaneous searching of multiple collections and resources through a single interface hold great promise for simplifying the overwhelming library search interfaces currently in use.

1. Privacy Issues

While campaigning for the USA PATRIOT Act, Attorney John
Ashcroft decried the "hysteria"
that librarians were spreading about the law. He later said that
the Department of Justice had never invoked Section 215 of the
Patriot Act to obtain library records.

Confusion remains over what police powers are being used to
monitor the people’s reading habits. In late 2001 a man was detained
at Philadelphia International Airport for carrying a book. This
July someone was visited
by the FBI
for reading an article titled "Weapons Of
Mass Stupidity" at a coffee shop. And just yesterday the FBI
warned citizens to be on the lookout for people carrying almanacs.

It remains vital that libraries have policies
and procedures
in place to preserve patron privacy.