And a library should be as bold and wide and full as Magellan's adventure. I want information to empower us, not entomb us. To be wings for our minds, fine feathers that grace life's ascent. I am not worried about a few breasts. I am worried about the information police. - David Sawyer my booklist word of the day? NYT login user: librariansrule pass: yestheydo search me 2001 jan : feb : mar apr : may 2000 jan : feb : mar apr : may : jun jul : aug : sep oct : nov : dec 1999 apr : may : june jul : aug : sep oct/nov : dec

29jun01 "...rather than pay up or face billions in liabilities, publishers are deleting tens of thousands of freelance articles spanning decades. So who will bear the brunt of that extra work?" Who do you think? [ thanks amylinda ] "...this new temptation has been put out there, and it begins with www" School librarian nabs plagiarist, using the Internet. [ thanks amy ] Old but good library comic: smut exchange. [ stuff ] The experience of reading 1450-1914. Got any info? send it to The Reading Experience Database. [ booknotes ] A few good pictures of the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna. "The "tomb" is a library, turned inside-out. The People of the Book are represented by books whose titles are forever hidden from view. The doors are permanently sealed, without doorknobs; the inside of this library is a vast empty space, inaccessible, lost." Info for book collectors. Your Old Books. Whose? Yours. Librarybooksales.org seems to have a database filled with filler data at the moment, but it looks like it could be cool. 27jun01 "Many credited the large [ Anchorage Gay Pride parade] turnout to Mayor George Wuerch. Wuerch ordered a gay pride exhibit removed from the city's main library in early June -- galvanizing the city's traditionally reticent gay and lesbian community and its supporters, many said." Check out this picture of the Librarians for Free Speech. [ thanks mike ] Finger, new UMich SLIS zine inlcuding this great article "questia vs 'real' libraries" [ juice ] Is it me, or does this guy who is ranting about how great big box bookstores are seem to have an inferiority complex about bookstore clerks being snobby towards him? People over at Metafilter got pretty het up over this article, myself included. And, if you find Steve Riggio annoying, here's a nice letter from a librarian about why books decay, and rot, and rule. The rest of Moby Lives is worth a look as well. [ thanks michael ] New Minnesota downtown library architect list cut to seven. "Are we looking for someone who is pushing the envelope [ed note: like Seattle maybe?] or ... a timeless building?" [ thanks michael ] Minnesota is a weird place to be a library patron lately, especially if you have overdue books. [ thanks sean & victoria ] U of Alberta's Chief Librarian elected to the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences and and was awarded the Canadian Library Association's Outstanding Service to Librarianship Award. [ thanks kristina ] 25jun01 Hmm, it seems that in the state school libraries at least, they are forbidden from giving away their old catalog cards or card catalog files. While I understand the intention behind this rule, it does seem to pretty much guarantee that the cards and their drawers will be destroyed instead of [possibly] cherished by some librarian, historian or fanboy. A shame. Amy Wohl creates a nice primer on ebooks for the knowlegeable and not-so-knowledgeable. [ thanks aaron ] Amazingly, freelancers own additional media rights to their own work, says the Supreme Court. Wow. [ thanks pete, NYT reg required ] Mandy Budan has created a huge database of science fiction and fantasy titles including excerpts and cover images. Clinton reviews presidential library plans while Supreme Court agrees to hear the case of a landowner whose property is being taken by eminent domain to make way for it. [ thanks michael ] Public library closes only to be reopened as ... a public library, with a focus on reading in the community. [ thanks michael ] Check out The Nutshell, a website for information workers sponsored by Bowker and Institute of Information Scientists. You need to register to check it out, but I have paved the way for you. username: librariansrule pass: yestheydo. If you like it, please go back and register your own username. And, if you complete this survey a donation will be made to the charity of your choice. [ thanks eoin ] And Eoin also pointed me to Bloodhag's new URL. Warning! May induce literacy! Did you know that one of the Dionne Quintuplets was a librarian? RIP. "They know the information and how to use it. They know about us kids and how to teach us to use it, too! We need school librarians! Please do whatever you can to protect their positions in our schools." Derek Maraszek, age 13. [ libplanet ] Oh good gracious! It's People Against Bad Books in Schools. I am just guessing, but this may be a list of books they consider bad. [ stuff ] 24jun01 I am in the market for a used card catalog set of drawer-things. If anyone has one -- eight drawers or more, wood, can be cruddy -- please email me. I will pick it up , no shipping necessary, and I will happily relieve you of the cards at no extra charge. On the picket lines at the Marriot. Images & a few words. I am so proud of all of you. ISSN's for weblogs? Danger: page is completely illegible in dumb old Netscape, be forewarned. [ thanks mark ] No more ebook hype and nonsense, the hardworking folks at Xerox Parc are very seriously coming out with electronic reusable paper. Soon. [ thanks pete ] Thank you Senator Jeffords! National Commission on Libraries and Information Science lives to see another funding cycle. Gee, where was the so-called First Librarian when her husband was abolishing NCLIS's funding? Young librarian reflects on one-year stint as a children's librarian in the Phillipines. Remember how California was famous for having the most poorly funded public libraries after budget crunches in the early nineties? Libraries may be getting some of that money back. I. Love. These. Stories. Old Archimedes text found invisibly written in prayer book. [ booknotes ] Remember, defending free speech means defending everyone's right to speak freely. [ lisnews ] 22jun01 "We're not making any comment on the morality of homosexuality or the nature of homosexuality," said Chip Ward, assistant director for Salt Lake City's libraries. "We're simply recognizing we have gay citizens. They pay taxes...." Another Gay Pride exhibit freakout. Smart design for new Allston library pleases residents. [ thanks michael ] "There is still a hunger for people to come together with a book, or an author to read to them; there's a magic in these places that can't be manufactured." an interview with Milwaukee City Librarian Kate Huston. If I had a summer reading program, I would not name it RIP, is all I'm saying. A wonderfully designed and informative pathfinder to gothic and horror literature. [ thanks eoin ] Library tensions in Southwest Florida. Memorial library opens in the wake of family tragedy. "Literature does not necessarily make us better people -- many of our greatest writers, and readers, were cruel and selfish louts. Some of the wisest people I know read little literature; some of the craziest dolts have read everything." So what's so good about reading? 21jun01 Books make us free and also human. [ stuff ] Captain America versus.... Marvel Comics in a trademark dispute. [ thanks jen ] ALA makes the gossip columns? [ thanks jenny ] "A library that is not kept up to date is not only useless, but also potentially dangerous. People rely on that information" Law libraries in MD in trouble. [ thanks michael ] Emotional and other costs involved in siting a new library. [ thanks michael ] Who do you name the new library after, the foundation who gave the big money donation, or the community who began the whole findrasing drive? What do you think? [ thanks rebecca ] Now they are being called The Minneapolis Twelve. [ thanks janet ] I didn't know the @ your library campaign also had its own web site. I call this page "hey adults, we have coffee too @ the library!" And of course there is the obligatory reference to the dumb old stereotype: "When you think of a librarian, what comes to mind? A little old lady with her hair in a bun and thick glasses telling you to be quiet?" You know, I swear people if WE would stop telling people about it, they would forget. [ thanks eoin ] Read and release! A fun book reading and lending website. 19jun01 Napster CEO talks to librarians about his problems which may soon become their own. [ thanks pete ] On Titling. [ thanks jen ] Gabriel Garcia Marquez interview Subcommandante Marcos on his reading habits: GGM: Do you still have time to read in the middle of all this mess? Marcos: Yes, because if not...what would we do? In the armies that came before us, soldiers took the time to clean their weapons and rally themselves. In this case, our weapons are our words, so we have to depend on our arsenal all the time. [ killyourtv ] Well I heard that it was a librarian that started all that trouble in Sweden. [ thanks charles ] Canada needs roads and libraries: "Roads are necessary for moving people and goods, but there is another kind of road I hope our political leaders will remember -- the road to knowledge. .... Having visited major libraries across Canada, I can state without fear of contradiction that Ottawa's main library on Metcalfe Street is the worst main library in any Canadian city." [ thanks kristina ] Sign language dictionary online. Neologisms galore at the Word Spy. OpenTheLibraries.Org, dedicated to lobbying for longer hours at Boston Public. [ stuff ] Do you do chat reference service? Please fill out this survey. [ stuff ] 18jun01 ALA: PDF files [of Cognotes] will be available below starting Saturday.... Librarians descend on SFO: "The stereotype of the horn-rimmed, bun-headed, shushing librarian has long since outlived what little relevance it ever had. The only people who keep bringing it up anymore are librarians... " um, or reporters looking for a good story hook. [ newpages ] Getting kids into the library: comedy classes & rock and roll. As someone who is frequently horrified at the words people are searching for that land them on my site, I enjoyed Marylaine's article on search voyeurs. 16jun01 I am so sorry it has taken me so long to link to the electronic publishing weblog which is a collaborative effort by UIowa students. For more info about this project, see here. Welcome to the world of online spouting-your-mouth-off, team! If you are not going to ALA, consider spending your weekend helping the OED find references for words like mumpishly and multiplicatively. [ metafilter ] I know I've mentioned it before, but the ALA conference website is truly awful this year. From the perspective of someone in the 'media' trying to figure out what the heck is going on there, I have these loose comments: From the ALA home page, I have to click down two additional levels before I even get to look at events The agenda/planner thing is accessible from ALA's public web site and at no point in time does it indicate that you need to be a registered participant to use it, even when you go to the "login" page, yet when I enter my email address, it indicates in cryptic language "Registrant identity xxxxxx could not be confirmed by the system." Huh, guess I have to be registered. This is my favorite part. Attempting to just see how the system works, I start pulling email addresses off the ALA home page at random to see if I can get a valid login. This takes about two minutes. No password is needed. Now I can edit a complete stranger's agenda [and an ALA employee at that, brilliant!]. My guess is that ALA employees would have received some nice memo about showing the flag and using the web site to boost statistics. There are no help pages, just an email address that is [wait for it] open 8:30am - 4:30pm Monday through Friday. The conference starts when? ...and runs mainly when? I should never have to endure platitudes like "it's no wonder the ALA Annual Conference is the biggest and best of its kind!" while trying to navigate a crappy website. This page has a 215K image on it that could be 30K. I was going to say it looks like it was designed by teenagers, but teenagers do much much better web design than this. In short, I am happy ALA did not take a dime of my money to spend on web development. I am happy I haven't been a member since Colin Powell spoke there. I am sad that the primary professional arm of our profession makes us look like people who don't have a clue how to commmunicate over the Internet, unlike other organizations. Why have I never heard of Rare Book School before? Ebooknet.com reborn as ebookweb.org. Confused? Me too. [ stuff ] 15jun01 So Mitch Freedman is skipping his own inauguration banquet because it's at the Marriot? Interesting. More news and opinion on the Marriot pickets and whatnot. [ thanks steve ] National Book Festival, three days after my birthday. How many times can you say "Laura Bush really does love books." in one article? [ thanks david ] One student's direct action against mandatory filtering at his high school. "I may be one of the first high school students to stand up against the Child Internet Protection Act... but I am in no way the last. It is only the beginning of a fight that we will win, if not in the courts, if not in Congress, then on the technical battleground that is the network: We know the computers, and, in the words of Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, 'on the Internet, the code is the law.'" [ thanks katherine ] Flood damage from tropical storm Allison at Houston Public. [ thanks michael ] "It's the first time 15 Irish writers have worked together without publicly saying something unpleasant about each other," says Roddy Doyle. Authors enjoy killing off eachother's characters. [ thanks lisa ] 14jun01 William Stearn, Royal Horticultural Society librarian, RIP. [ thanks rteeter ] Library as an "idea store" UK public libraries try to find ways to stay open and keep their appeal. [ thanks eoin ] Has anyone tried out keen.com? It's another one of those peer-to-peer question answering gizmos that I can't help thinking is a front for a phone sex ring. My current reference question: why is butter generally longer on the east coast where they call it "sticks" and shorter and squatter on the west coast where some people call it "cubes"? [ thanks mark ] Live bat to appear at library. [ thanks michael ] Miss Manners is often less helpful when you are describing an etiquette code that she herself violates. Here she tackles returning books you've borrowed, or not. [ thanks ryan ] Gretchen Wronka wins Sandy Berman Social Responsibility Award 2001. [ thanks steve ] Sacramento County libraries looking for more money for more hours. "I'm not saying the board (of supervisors [of Sac Cty]) does not want to increase funding for" libraries, Larson said. "It is just not high on their priority list." [ thanks michael ] Is ALA designing their conference web site on a tight budget this year? And yes, you read that right: Buffy Saint Marie and Three Dog Night are scheduled performers. No, I am not going. If you're going, think long and hard about attending events in the Marriot. Read this week's Juice for more info on the labor issues. "They felt very threatened by the evil factor in the book," said the librarian. So they cancelled the reading program. What book? Harry Potter. [ libgeek ] 12jun01 My apologies for all the recent typos. I am learning to use BBEdit. You know all about the Canadian Archival Information Network, right? Insert standard joke about raising Cain here. [ thanks kristina ] Before it was "you need a graduate degree to work in a library?" now it will be "you need a graduate degree to run a website?" [ thanks michael ] Family Research Council backs Minneapolis librarians. "We knew it was just a matter of time before some dedicated librarians would stand up to the American Library Association and rescue their library" [ thanks michael ] Cleveland Public goes to online live 24 hour reference. Love this URL: www.knowitnow24x7.net. [ thanks kari ] More on the Marriot protests. [ newbreed ] Also from New Breed: innovative library packaging of non-library materials. [ newbreed ] Unsafe library branches just one hassle Detroit Public is dealing with, and someone named Gates is messing with their grant money. [ libgeek ] Oooh oooh oooh, AkCLU planning to sue the Loussac Library in Anchorage over the gay exhibit. "Herman Coen of Anchorage waved a red sign bearing the words "Mayor or King" and led the group in chants. 'What do we want?' Coen shouted 'Our library back!' the protesters answered." Congratulations Richard Chabran, you 21st century librarian! [ stuff ] 09jun01 LISNews is looking for contributors. Mayor rethinking Gay Pride exhibit. Keep the pressure on, folks! Here's the scoop as of this morning. "Every minute that display is off the wall is a continuing violation of the First Amendment and the Alaska Constitution," says AkCLU.[ libgeek ] If you're in New York tomorrow, you might want to catch the Second Annual Literary Magazine Fair. [ thanks carol ] Some older links from the Whole Earth Review crew: Burning Libraries and a ten thousand year library. Remember, in Alexandria, they thought scrolls were the way to go. How do you make sure your information lasts into the next nine millenia? If you loved the Baffler and you haven't heard about the fire yet, read this. One of our kissing cousins: IDblog, an information design weblog. Coretta Scott King awards breakfast cancelled. "On Friday, June 1, 2001, the task force received a correspondence from Mrs. Coretta Scott King asking that the breakfast be moved from the Marriott. In her letter, she confirmed her support and advocacy for the efforts of working people to obtain fair representation in their quest for decent wages and adequate working conditions. She acknowledged her disturbance with the possibility that awardees and breakfast attendees might have to cross picket lines on June 19. She appealed to the task force to move the breakfast to another site." [ thanks katie ] "Selling people on the library is a little like selling them on gas stations, Laundromats and grocery stores: Convenience is key." Fargo considers storefront libraries. [ thanks victoria ] Excedrin published the Headache-by-Profession stats this week. Librarians are #2 on the list because "people who have "no clue" how to use research resources cause the most headaches for them." Did you know it was Headache Awareness Week last week? [ thanks jen ] 08jun01 Stop from being shut down, turn into a data warehouse instead. [ thanks rcb ] A look at the numbers of those online Ready Reference services we all love.[ thanks rcb ] Librarians + Scientists = a force to be reckoned with in the fight against journal publishers. [ thanks rcb ] Above links also come courtesy of the Research Libraries Group and their great weekly electronic newsletter Shelf Life. "We all know that in the Washington arena the infighting can get bloody. But that's nothing compared with what happens when librarians take the gloves off--especially in a fight that represents the head-on collision of two cherished liberal orthodoxies." It's porn vs no porn in a monster grudge match!. [ thanks taylor ] Speaking of librarians and porn. Note: you know me and you know what I tend to link to, these may not be work appropriate links. [ thanks cedric ] Wow, some libraries actually moving up in the world. "In his corner of the New York legal universe, Frank A. Reiben-Rella keeps watch over about 10,000 books and exactly one computer at the Lincoln Building's law library. The books have never crashed." [ thanks margie ] NewBreed posts Sandy's resignation letter. 07jun01 The Nonverbal Dictionary. With such great entries as existential crunch, fruit substitute, and [my favorite] homonculous. Gay Pride exhibit removed from Anchorage Public Library. "I just said 'no,'" says mayor. [ thanks rebecca ] "What is a culture if the information that forms it never stands still?" A look at The Last Book. [ thanks jen ] Remember Fargo? They may be close to hiring a new director. [ thanks victoria ] Librarians love cats! Who would have guessed? [ thanks ryan ] Students "clamoring" for online resources leads twelve major universities to partner with Ebrary. [ thanks jen ] 06jun01 It has come to my attention that Sandy Berman has resigned from SRRT. For more information on the Marriot Boycott, please see this week's Juice. Speaking of Hennepin [were we?], they are discontinuing 1,200 periodicals. "when director Charles Brown discovered that HCL carries more periodicals than similar-sized public libraries, he decided to flatten the collection rather than celebrate the publication abundance" [ thanks steve ] You may notice New Breed Librarian has a new friendlier notice for those of us with non-compliant browsers. The new message does not include the words "warpig ugly". Thanks folks! Random House's 100 best noels of the century. You may notice the "reader's list" seems to reflect a war between the objectivists and the scientologists. [ memepool ] SFPL Amnesty for overdue books only goes til the 15th! I found this wonderful tidbit onthe completely delicious Library Lovers LiveJournal. 40 members already. La Salle University gets Dylan collection for their rare book department. 04jun01 "Information doesn't want to be free. Information wants to be v Mark Rosenzweig calls bullshit on filtering of "anarchism" [and other] info at public libraries. Did I link this already? No matter, everyone needs to know why librarians are so sexy.... If you needed another reason to think AOLTimeWarner was evil incarnate -- they are closing their library and asking half their librarians to resign. [ thanks mark & aaron ] Ghostbusting in the library. [ thanks victoria ] NewBreed article on Sandy Berman. Be prepared for abuse if your browser is "non-compliant." [ thanks steve ] Microlibrary proposal for NYC classrooms. [ thanks suzanne ] I am going to try to get the word "microlibrary" into more common parlance. 01jun01 Currently reading: The Island of Lost Maps: A True story of Cartographic Crime. The author, Miles Harvey, has some none-too-flattering things to say about some librarians, though he seems to get wowed by them as the book goes on. Full report when I finish it. How much do Iowa school libraries spend on books per capita? Anywhere from $0.53 to $20.16 per pupil. [ thanks ryan ] More great bookplate resources from Boston Public. Yale -- where all the cool kid librarians work -- has one of the largest collections. "What's the Yiddish word for midget?" the Collaborative Digital Reference Service wants to help you, or your library, find the answer. [ thanks rebecca ] Libdex now has a library-themed weblog section. Do you guys know Jeffrey Zeldman? He and Roguelibrarian Carrie the worked on the NYPL Click on @ The rary, a really nice site. NYPL's Books to Remember from 2000. Hey, it's not quite June yet.... SRRT Newsletter available in pdf online now. Apparently, with the new editor it's "really beautiful". I was one of the previous editors. Go figure. [ juice ] Hey Nicholson Baker, we're digitizing as fast as we can. [ thanks jen ] What a sad sad waste of the domain freelibrary.com Dear Laura Bush, please get a new former job. Thank you, sincerely, librarians everwhere. "Prim little suits, sensible shoes and highlight-free hair, may be fine and dandy when you're doing the Dewey Decimal thing. But is this a winning wardrobe when dining with the Chiracs in Paris, lunching with the Putins in Moscow, or taking a spot of tea with the Blairs in London?" [ thanks rebecca ] What Juice readers are reading.

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