Reason number seventeen to not mess with your librarian: They know the law and they do not tolerate any guff
pimp my pimpables, get out of your search engine ruts
Search Engine Watch has started a Pimp My Searching feature to get people out of their favorite search engine ruts. Check out: Pimp My Searching: Internet Movie Database and Pimp My Mobile Bookmarks
guidelines for donating books, computers and money to Louisiana’s libraries
the illiterate libraran, a community library in an impoverished Brazilian neighborhood
The Community Library, 18th Street. A labor of love library in Sao Goncalo, Brazil.
The house has been christened, as the big, hand-painted sign on the roof proudly announces, the Community Library, 18th Street. On busy afternoons, it’s standing room only. Patrons vie for one of the mismatched chairs, which scrape along a floor lined with discarded tiles that Leite and his friends scrounged….
Brazilians are handicapped by lack of access. Government officials say that nearly 1,000 of the country’s 5,500 municipalities have no public library. Buying a book is even less of an option….
A study in 2001 estimated that 16% of the population owns nearly 75% of all the books in Brazil — hardly surprising considering that a standard paperback routinely sells for about $15, or one-eighth of the minimum monthly salary.
Moreover, illiteracy remains high; 16 million Brazilians older than 15 cannot read or write.
[thanks jesse]
lessons plan clearinghouse for tech training
Who owns the lesson plan I gave to the Google Librarian Center? Obviously the link goes to someplace on my own server, so I guess the answer is “me” but what an interesting use of Google. Last night I started teachign a two week, eight hour basic Excel class. I had asked in an online forum I frequent what the best way to teach basic skills to adult ed. students was. Someone sent me a copy of the syllabus they used in their library Excel class and, using it, I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. I love not reinventing the wheel. I know that the local nature of most libraries means that we feel like we need to tailor many of our offerings to our specific communities, but having a place to go where we can at least easily see what others are doing seems like a great place to get some ideas. Anyone want to try searching the ALA website to see if you can find something like this there? I didn’t think so.