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"The days of the librarian as a mouser in musty books must pass,"
- Melvil Dewey, Library Journal, 1876 work stuff
NY & LA Times login
user: corporatemedia
pass: stillsucks |
Don't know if you guys listen to Will Oldham's music at all, but he was interviewed in my local paper citing the library as a major source of inspiration.
SD: What kind of music were early influences, and how has that changed over those 12 years?
BPB: Now I just go to a library, get records out. Usually just try to find records that I have never heard of before. Maybe from places I have never heard of before. And then you go to the library and look in different sections, take about 10 records home each week, listen to them and take them back and get another batch. You all know the attitude of the government towards libraries in this warful decade. Here is an interesting piece of ephemera relating to libraries in an earlier war. [ thanks erica ]
Library buys painting by criminal-turned-artist, people freak out. [ thanks kteela ]
FISTULA -- a wiki for University of Toronto library students. [ juice ]
Marylaine reviews
Library: An Unquiet History and calls it required reading for LIS courses. She also has edited a book coming out which I'm looking forward to reading: Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet.
Remember your library school orientation? I mostly remember a dean who could barely talk to us because she seemed so desperate for a cigarette, a parade of faculty who were much more interesting in real life than they were be at orientation, and a roomfull of middle-aged women who did not look like they would become friends of mine.
The whole library/archive side, to my dismay, does indeed seem to be something that the school is determined to keep in the background. That bothers me.... I didn't hear a word about libraries or archives the whole two days, or why I should be excited about wanting to work in them, except during the almost-obligatory specialization meetings we were corraled into yesterday.... it seemed almost wistful during the scavenger hunt to be wandering around in rare book collections and reading halls, as though these obsolescing arenas, not to mention books, had only the barest and most distant relevance to the School of Information, and then only as amusing clues in an academic parlor game. [ stuff ]
Hi. We'll be moving servers here in the next few weeks as ibiblio has graciously offered to host librarian.net in lovely North Carolina where I'm sure it will be very happy. This should not be noticeable to you, but it might be.
Carrie Russell, ALA's copyright expert, has written a great article explaining Digital Rights Management and how its future can affect your library.
Also -- can you tell I've been reading Library Journal -- Roy Tennant's Digital Libraries column gives a good overview of open source options for software in your library.
Searching for "libraries and retail" [don't ask] got me to Michael's Tame the Web site. Today's topic, librarians and Google. Remember, just because we can find the needle in the Google haystack doesn't mean our patrons can.
I've been snarky about Get Caught Reading month in the past but the Clare Branch libraries in Ireland have the right idea: Let's show our own patrons reading!
You'd think the job title "sexuality analyst" would be something maybe a little bit fun. This guy from Focus on the Family seems none too happy as he talks about how the ACLU is giving libraries tips to circumvent CIPA.
Wordy but good, a blogger experiences self-checkout. It didn't take me long to formulate a theory about the fundamental design principle behind these suckers: No Breakable Parts. The problem with this is that No Breakable Parts means No Movable Parts, and No Movable Parts means that one has to engage in all sorts of bizarre gymnastic manuevers to get the relevant bar-codes ... under the completely unmovable little red light.
[ thanks joan ]
Protesting Seattle librarians upset at a a second year of week-long system wide closures. [ lisnews ]
Chicago Area Solo Librarians gets a talent bank together to showcase the skills of its members. [ what's gnu ]
Greg over at Open Stacks responds to some of the assumptions in the Distributed Library Project, specifically that libraries don't "do much to foster community". More discussion on Slashdot.
Queer Eye for the patron Guy. I must admit, I sometimes find the "I hate the patrons and they hate me" blogs a bit tiresome, but few are as funny as Male Librarian Centerfold. Gotten from Liberry Blooze who is sadly on a bit of a hiatus.
Synopsis: for every smelly, Jaba the Hut-inspired slob that comes up to the reference desk and asks for the Chilton Auto Repair guides, five gay guys with MLIS degrees will rush out from the reference desk and give him the Cinderfella treatment. [ thanks ]
If you're still a bit unclear on what all the fuss is about, you might want to check out EEVL's RSS Primer for Publishers & Content Providers. [ shifty ]
Hi. Did I ever mention this site has a site map? It's not super interesting, and probably missing some stuff, but there it is.
Wow, the Distributed Library Project is a really good looking project that helps you mesh real and virtual types of information. List your books online, share books with real humans, use the website to manage checkout and check in. Don't know if it would work so well up here in the Arctic, but great concept. [ thanks all]
PATRIOT Watch: condo atop library may be the solution to all Ashcroft's woes?
You'll have a built-in network of unpaid, overzealous spies -- people who, out of the pure enjoyment and the quest to maintain property values, will monitor everyone that comes and goes.... In fact, putting condos on top of airport terminals, nuclear power plants and other important buildings could make America nearly terrorist proof.
[ thanks brandon ]
The Roving Library of the Tenderloin. [ thanks penny ]
A good technique for library visibility, the Stump the Librarian column in the San Bernadino Sun. [ stuff]
Hi. There's some good news around here. First, I'm back and my crazy trip worked well. Second, the nice content-rich folks at ibiblio have offered to host librarian.net at their servers in North Carolina so I may have some improved functionality such as a real working-all-the-time RSS feed and some more storage space for a few nice images. Watch this space. And thanks for sticking around during my more-frequent ansences. I settle down to my outreach job in a few weeks and expect to have a more regular, less travel-filled schedule.
Tabloid library to close permanently due to anthrax contamination. [ NYT, thanks brandon ]
SFPL deals with hate-crime book vandalism in an interesting way, they are turning it into an art exhibition. There were over 600 damaged book, and anyone can request one to make it part of the exhibition. [ thanks emma ]
Librarian has online dominatrix alter-ego. Is anyone really surprised at this? Regrettably, the media attention seems to have resulted in the site being taken down. [ thanks all ]
Why are library visits declining in the UK? maybe it's because librarians aren't keeping up with the times? At least that's one of the implications of the report from Better Public Libraries. [ thanks eoin & penny ]
Speaking of libraryish URLs, here's what's at librariannet.com. [ thanks ahmed ]
Which cities in the US have the most school library support? [ thanks natalia ]
Larry McMurtry says the secret to being a successful open-shelf bookstore is making the people come to you.
After customers select their books, they are expected to walk across the street to the complex's lone cash register in building No. 1.... "We don't have serious theft problem. I am sure that we have somebody take a book every once in a while. We don't miss it. A serious theft problem is always by professional thieves," McMurtry said.
[ thanks dsdlc ]
Hi. Had less Internet than I was expecting over the past week or so. I guess high-speed access in your hotel room is only useful if you have brought your laptop with you. I'm on the last leg of my trip but wanted to check in and say that PNLA was fun, our talk went well, slides will be online soon, and don't expect anything in this space for another few days.
Hi. Sorry about the protracted absence. I am gearing up for a summer vacation of sorts. I'll be speaking at PNLA, cleaning out my place in Seattle, and getting ready to start my new job over the next two weeks. Sporadic updates after Friday.
Library of Congress National Book Festival coming up in October. Seems they have a poetry pavillion, wonder how these folks feel about these newly invited poets?. [ thanks dsdlc ]
Scientific information made available to the public, for free...? Sounds library-ish to me.
Why is it, a growing number of people are asking, that anyone can download medical nonsense from the Web for free, but citizens must pay to see the results of carefully conducted biomedical research that was financed by their taxes? The Public Library of Science aims to change that. [ thanks dsdlc ]
YA program on tattooing at Houston Public Library draws some criticism.
Councilman Michael Berry attended the program and said the library should be focusing more on books.
"I originally had concerns over the fact that someone who makes a living with tattoos would be speaking in a taxpayers' facility,"
[ lisnews ]
Why is the San Antonion Library in the Great Public Spaces Hall of Shame? [ thanks rebecca ]
Church burns Harry Potter books. Really? In 2003? [ thanks rikhei ]
Stone Reader: a movie for anyone who has ever loved a book. [ thanks jen ]
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