"Our whole American way of life is a great war of ideas, and
librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides."
-- James Quinn
NYT & Trib login
user: payyourauthors
pass: abouttime
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- 30jan02
Hi. Since American Libraries has bought my article, they asked that I take it down for a few months. It should be printed around May sometime. Please ignore yesterday's link.
- Librarian.net loses at the Bloggies to ... a Harry Potter weblog! Oh the cruel cruel irony.
- Washington State library fighting for its life. "If the facility were shut down, Washington would be the only state without a state library" Embarassing. [ newbreed ]
- The secret to getting rid of overdue fines. [ thanks michael ]
- The Search and Seizure of Electronic Information: The Law Before and After the USA Patriot Act. Spooky stuff from the Association of Research Libraries.
[ thanks lisa ]
- Sandy Berman website. With art from yours truly. [ thanks robert ]
- "The library is more than just books.The library is really a place for people to have positive experiences in learning and that can be done in the most enjoyable ways," says Topeka KS's library director referring to their brand new library. [ thanks bill ]
- Haven't school librarians always been called "media specialists"? [ thanks bill ]
- "Bibliography is a dangerous trade, generally practised in libraries, the frontier zone of academic respectability." Hugh Amory, bibliographer, RIP. [ thanks owen ]
- Live in or near Evanston IL? Help Save the North Branch Library. [ thanks greg ]
- 29jan02
Hi. Thanks if you voted. If you didn't vote, please vote. Anyhow, I have just been notified by American Libraries that they have accepted my article for publication. Very exciting.
- Marginal Librarian 9.2. With mail art. So cool.
- Pippi Longstocking creator, Astrid Lindgren, RIP.
- Eugene Public Library is another library that is not giving in to federal pressure to install filters in their library. "We try to provide what's going to meet the whole community's needs rather than restrict it to the lowest common denominator," said [Connie] Bennett, the city's top librarian. [ thanks eric ]
- Dead Book People. [ NYT, thanks jude ]
- "Unattended Children in the Public Library: A Resource Guide," was written in 2000 by a group of library management experts and published by several library organizations..."It's a problem librarians have been dealing with for a long time," said Kathleen Hughes, a spokeswoman for the Public Library Association .[ thanks anna ]
- Friends of Cuban Libraries, now online. [ newbreed ]
- 28jan02
Hi. Librarian.net has been nominated for a Bloggie Award for best topical weblog. The crushing irony is that most of my readers -- and I'm sure the readers of many other "topical" weblogs that are not about computers or the Internet -- are librarians or library types, not link-crazed weblogger types, so maybe this award and even this whole genre are news to you. At any rate, you can still vote and since I was nominated [an honor in itself they tell me] last year and lost, I would like to give winning a shot this year. Consider voting for me?
- 26jan02
- "Whereas: Benjamin Franklin counseled this nation: 'They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety'" So starts an ALA Council resolution "Reaffirming the Principles of Intellectual Freedom in the Aftermath of Terrorist Attacks
" However, all the really creepy anti-freedom legislation has already been passed so we won't have to fight with our president too too much. [ thanks jim ]
- Speaking of ALA, the deadline for my American Libraries piece was December 15th. You would think I would have heard from them by now, you really would. Especially after three inquiring emails.
- The Stuff redesigned last week. Nice going Steven! Steven is also the editor of Dmoz's Librarian weblogs category, if you have one that's not listed, let him know.
- Witnessing and representing the horrors of another war, The Weiner Library. "The British Government was keen, indeed remained keen for some time after the war, to downplay the extent to which German aggression was targeted at the Jews. There are many thousands of documents in the Wiener Library telling a different story. Documents of mass murders and mass graves and the extermination of children under two, documents that were made available while the war raged." [ thanks owen ]
- Police can refuse to serve and protect? Idiotic cops boycott an assignment directing traffic at a YMCA event because ... the club promotes witchcraft by reading Harry Potter to children. Please keep in mind that the C in YMCA does stand for Christian. [ thanks cheryl ]
- Atlanta Library system has more problems than just losing a 25 million dollar lawsuit. [ thanks bill ]
- Is it far to question an author about his personal life during a book talk? Seattle Public Library doesn't think so. "...puts the public library in the position of agreeing to censor the public. Or at least people who turn up at Ellis' talk and think they should be able to ask him about his behavior, especially when he is being sponsored by a public agency dedicated to the free flow of information" [ thanks michael ]
- 23jan02
- It's letter writing time again: "Dear New York Post, it's bad enough that you spell out the gory details of librarian Barbara Kenna's death, but you also have the nerve to call her a spinster? Would you have done this if she were a memer of any profession other than a librarian? I think not. Show a little class." Or, as Pop Update Daily says: "librarians aren't spinsters. We're fun. We marry. We don't marry. We don't all wear buns — unless it's a Cinnabon and someone threw one at us"
- Snappy new Cerritos library with high tech features. Note, they don't even mention the coffee bar until the fifth paragraph. [ thanks michael ]
- More on coffee and food in libraries and ideas about new versus old technologies. "...information technology is moving so swiftly that information stored in any format is quickly dated. That makes relying on it for long-term, in-depth scholarship problematic." What do you think about this? I think there's a fair amount of factual-type history that can be safely consigned to print, but maybe I too am behind the times. [ thanks kevin ]
- Bookstores don't have it much easier. Coliseum Books, RIP. [ thanks david ]
- Yahoo to begin charging for "premium search'feature. Trying to become the next Lexis/Nexis? "Search results on the preview site are identical to those found on the paid search service offered on Northern Light's home page. Northern Light declined to discuss the deal." More discussion on Slashdot. [ thanks dave ]
- Georgia librarians win lawsuit claiming they were transferred out of the main library branch to make the staff makeup "less white." You could buy a lot of books with 25 million dollars. [ thanks bill ]
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- 21jan02
Hi. I chime in on anarchism and librarianship over at TheMargin today.
- "I conclude that this award, which I
receive on behalf of that movement, is a profound recognition that
nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of
our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without
resorting to violence and oppression." MLK on the Nobel Peace Prize.
- Cognotes, no longer available in HTML format, so no linking to corporatized reporting of ALA vendor antics, sorry.
- 18jan02
Hi. New booklist over to the left. It's hosted on my snappy new [php-enabled] domain, jessamyn.info. You might like the logo. Not much there yet. All jessamyn.com content will stay at its current addresses.
- Remember Jenny's Cybrary? and the old Librarian Site du Jour? Well Jenny has re-emerged with a new snappy userland weblog, The Shifted Librarian. [ thanks iboy ]
- Bring a food donation, lose your library fines. [ thanks scott ]
- Canadian Librarians in America has a new poll. [ thanks kris ]
- NPR does a story on the Kabul Library. [ thanks amylinda ]
- Librarian resignation letter ". I don’t think I can abide by the rudeness of people these days and I have enough on my plate as it is so I don’t think I’ll be coming into the library again for a while" [ thanks clare ]
- Does free and equal access to information mean including what some think of as "KKK recruiting tapes" in your library? "As a protest against the Martin Luther King Holiday," reads a note sent with the video, "the Greensboro unit of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan ... is pleased to donate this video to your library for the viewing enjoyment, and education, of your patrons." Oh wait, no it won't be added after all. [ thanks michael ]
- Stabbing in Denver Public Library. [ thanks nat ]
- In response the stabbing, an editoial: The library should be for everyone. Yes, everyone. [ libgeek ]
- Rogue Librarian Carrie Bickner and Jeffrey Zeldman interviewed in Library Journal [ newbreed ]
- Librarians' personal homepages. A new collection from caterblog. [ juice ]
- 14jan02
- "Outside the library is the quote from the Communist Manifesto. Inside there is an entire book by Adolph Hitler. And that's just the beginning." A lighthearted look at people freaking out over library art pieces. [ thanks dave ]
- What is sending librarians into "fits of excited giggles"? The bookmobile, of course. [ stuff ]
- "The automotive equivalent of a really hot librarian...." In case you haven't seen the ad yet. [ pdf file ]
- I believe I have read exactly zero of the best books of 2001, as selected by Library Journal.
- 13jan02
- For those of you XML junkies, librarian.net has been "scraped by the stapler" and is available as an RSS feed. What am I talking about? Thanks go to Mark Pasc, the inventor of the stapler.
- 12jan02
Hi. I added a few good links to the naked librarians link page. They're not real work safe.
- Money saving tip: Use the Library. Nice to read kind words from all those library fans. [ thanks bonnie ]
- The Libri Foundation helps rural libraries provide quality childrens' books to their patrons. They have a nice simple list of fundraising tactics that work for all sorts of libraries. [ thanks eoin ]
- Apparently the Traditional Values Coalition has [surprise!] a fairly traditional -- if wrong -- view of librarians. Traditionalvalues.com is a bit different. [ thanks cheryl ]
- Eesh. Martha Stewart gives book advice, though she does advocate giving extra books to the library. [ thanks heidi ]
- Because many librarians are older, that means we should freak out about a shortage? Laura Bush announces new initiative to help recruit librarians to address this "critical" shortage. Maybe some of the money will go towardspaying librarians living wages? [ newbreed ]
- A great library tool. Based on the Book will tell you which books have been made into movies or, which movies are based on what books. Alas, "my" movie is not in there. [ booknotes ]
- 09jan02
Hi. One more week to get your Revolting Librarian submission ideas in.
- Help rebuild the Baghdad Library. For the past ten years, many scientific and academic books have been barred from import into Iraq. The effect that this is having on the educational community is staggering. Help out with a book or two. [ juice ]
- Harvard library feasibility study recommends XML for E-journal archiving. [ thanks iboy ]
- The Women's Library, new location, new director. Still relevant. [ thanks owen ]
- There's 120 cases on the docket and which one makes the headlines? The librarian of course.
- Susan Kent, LAPL, Librarian of the Year. "I worry that one day, mabe when I'm about 83, they'll say, 'Get that little old lady out of here!'"
- UW offering MLIS via distance learning. I've always thought distance learning programs were somewhat akin to new sports stadiums -- big cash cows for big companies and a break-even deal for the rest of us. I was even worried that my UW degree might be looked at as less worthy somehow because of that. One of my former classmates set me straight: " ...the distance ed that is being taught now couldn't be any
worse than some of the classes that [we] took in the old library school
circa '94-'96. If we rated librarians on the quality of their program, I
would be in sad shape indeed." [ libgeek ]
- 07jan02
Hi. Remember when you were learning to ride a bike and really mostly what you were doing was practicing falling down? And you'd come home all scraped to hell and your mom would [maybe] give you some juice and tell you it would all be worth it? Well, learning stylesheets is a little like that.
- I do not know what to tell you if you have not read this article -- at least ten people have emailed it to me this morning [thanks all!] Outraged librarian gets Michael Moore's book on the shelves where it belongs. Mad props to NJ librarian Ann Sparanese -- longtime SRRT member -- and Pat Holt from Holt Uncensored.
- Book trivia. [ thanks infolibre ]
- Is the recession driving more people into libraries? Who knows, they might even enjoy the experience... Though who among us thinks "the library isn't sexy or fashionable"? [ libgeek ]
- The Dag Hammarskjöld Library, aka the UN Library, turned 40 last year. This year there will be a symposium to celebrate the man and the library. Apparently one of its missions is to promote peace. Let's hope. [ thanks eoin ]
- 04jan02
- Ode to Librarians everywhere. From the same guy who brought you duct tape wallets. "Original source material is Close to God. .... Librarians catalog and connect us to original books, those not usually available in stores. This allows us to drink of the great minds throughout human history and dare to reflect and think for ourselves, enriching our lives in the process. Books and other archived knowledge allow us to teach ourselves, a truly recursive miracle." [ thanks stephen ]
- Oh yeah, dd I mention they're closing our state library? [ thanks bill ]
- Marylaine expands on her Rules of Information in this month's Information Today.
- Why are the bulk of Tolkien's papers at Marquette University in in Milwaukee Wisconsin? Their library was the first to ask for them. [ stuff ]
- 02jan02
Hi. The perpetually cloudy and dark winter weather is slowly pushing me closer and closer to the ground, that is all. Accordingly, I am going to make life tough for myself my sending this page into CSS format sometime in the not-too-distant future. If it starts looking wonky to you please email me and let me know so I can fix it. Thank you.
- My new favorite game, can be played in any library. Object: To impress your friends by being able to uncover interesting and obscure facts in a limited span of time. Fact Party. "The giving and receiving of interesting information should reward all players evenly, and declaring one player the 'winner' would be about as crass as declaring one person the 'winner' of, say, Christmas morning." [ thanks jude ]
- "The Clinton Library will receive copies of MAD, Soap Opera Digest and Hustler." [ thanks bill ]
- A surprisingly tough-to-navigate web site from TheLibrary Association. Frontiers: Science in Libraries. They do have good resrouce packs for helping you to explore science themes in your library. [ thanks eoin ]
- The LISJobs crew have a new book out: The Information Professional's Guide to Career Development Online. Congrats, you two!
- Library of Congress deacidifying one million books. If you are a librarian and want to learn about the process, you can contact them. [ stuff ]
- Libraries, great and small. [ stuff ]
- 01jan02
Hi. I'm back and by "back" I mean "recovering from lack of sleep and too much holidaying." I'l have some good links for you later today or tomorrow, but for now, please check out the Center for Book Culture's 100 books for $500 deal. It's really superb. For your personal, or public, library. No, I'm not affiliated with them; I'm not affiliated with anyone, really.
- 20dec01
Hi. Starting tomorrow I will be on a ferry going to and from Alaska for about seven days. No updates until at least the 29th.
- If you're into Library Stuff, you can now have "the stuff" delivered to you on a daily basis
- I would love to know how breast feeding can be thought to interfere with "providing services" in a library. [ stuff ]
- Those nutty librarians over at LLRX have come out with their best legal white paper yet: The Domestic Cat and the Law.
- Thrill-seeking librarian.
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