LISNews - News For Librarians

There are two things that, when I encounter them in a book, immediately cause me to fall in love.

The word palimpsest
A giant, possibly magic, library (extra points for a Forbidden Section or two)
The two are not unrelated. A palimpsest is a book that has been one or more books before, with the older knowledge hidden just beneath the surface of the parchment, waiting to be unearthed. A giant library must, invariably, contain books with once-known, now-forgotten knowledge, just beyond that locked door over there.

But I have the key…

I hereby present a list of the very best novels featuring giant libraries filled with secrets.

From Novels with Giant Possibly Magical Libraries – Charlie Harrington – @whatrocks

Researchers at German institutions that have let their Elsevier subscriptions lapse while negotiating a new deal are hitting the paywall for the publisher’s most recent articles around 10,000 times a day, according to Elsevier — which publishes more than 400,000 papers each year.

But at least some German libraries involved in negotiating access to Elsevier say they are making huge savings without a subscription, while still providing any articles their academics request.

From Thousands of scientists run up against Elsevier’s paywall

E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages

From The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens – Scientific American – Scientific American in 2013

Dan Mallory, who writes under the name A. J. Finn, went to No. 1 with his début thriller, “The Woman in the Window.” His life contains even stranger twists.

From A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions | The New Yorker

Late in his tenure as head of the Bodleian Library, E. W. B. Nicholson received an unusual letter from a History fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. The correspondent explained that he had been asked to enquire on behalf of a “Cambridge don” whether there existed “any Siberia attached to [the] Bodleian Library to which books are banished”. Nicholson knew that such a thing did exist, for he had personally overseen its creation. Established in 1882, it was dubbed the “Φ” (Phi) collection: this was the shelf mark used by the Bodleian to identify those texts deemed too obscene, libellous or otherwise risqué to be made available to undergraduate readers. While the origins of the name are uncertain, it seems to be a librarian’s joke bringing together a “Fie!” of disapproval, an evocation of the Greek word phaulos (base, worthless, wicked) and an ancient phallic pun.

From (S)ex libris – TheTLS

Both are world-famous authors who wrote some of their best known works in their sheds. But, as Roald Dahl’s centenary is celebrated across the country, his widow reveals how heavily the children’s author was influenced by Dylan Thomas’s hut when building his own.

From How Dylan Thomas’s writing shed inspired Roald Dahl – BBC News

You will not find me among either group; in the second instance out of hard experience but in the first out of love, pure love, from the time of my first encounter, circa 1979, with John Cheever’s all-too-brief preface to his Stories, which contains the following passage, in which I now detect a premonitory stirring, two decades ahead of schedule, of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay: “These stories seem at times to be stories of a long-lost world when the city of New York was still filled with a river light, when you heard the Benny Goodman quartets from a radio in the corner stationery store, and when almost everybody wore a hat.”

From To All the Introductions I’ve Loved Before

“The most important asset of any library goes home at night – the library staff.” – Timothy Healy

“Librarians are among the most misunderstood professionals anywhere,” says Philip Croom, associate dean of the Rare Books and Special Collections Library of the American University in Cairo. “None of us thought we’d grow up to be one and then somehow we find ourselves working with the most extraordinary objects, collections and people.”

From Librarians abroad: ‘None of us thought we’d grow up to be one’

A Florida elementary school is using its vending machine to drop knowledge on its students.

The vending machine at Umatilla Elementary School started dispensing books to students on Monday as part of the state’s literacy week.

Umatilla Elementary Principal Dianne Dwyer said most of the children are more excited for the books than they would be for candy. The machine gave out more than 100 books Wednesday.

“We do need to restock the machine,” Dwyer said.

From Florida school uses vending machine to dispense books instead of snacks

Stanford Libraries has received a $25 million gift from the Harold C. and Marilyn A. Hohbach Foundation to create a vibrant collections-centered research hub and endow the Silicon Valley Archives program.

The first floor of the East Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library will be renovated and re-named Hohbach Hall. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

The newly renovated space in the East Wing of the Cecil H. Green Library will be named Hohbach Hall and will include a new Special Collections classroom, as well as spaces for group study, seminars, events and exhibitions.

From Stanford Libraries’ transformative gift creates hub highlighting Silicon Valley history | Stanford News