libraries

libraries and librarians on video

A few different links.

Do librarians really love Ask.com? Gary Price discusses the Ask.com television ad [mov file] where the founder of Ask.com says “If librarians love us, then I think the world should love us too.”
WKYC’s news program “investigates” what they see as the growing scourge of porn in libraries. Here is the original newscast which includes [non-graphic] footage of them “catching” a man masturbating to porn in the library.
Almost Live’s takeoff on COPS, featuring librarians
bonus video: Conan the Librarian
double plus bonus video: the filipino librarian’s I Am A Librarian video, a response to this

project vote smart and libraries

If you’re a library that is getting a strange letter from Project Vote Smart talking about lack of support from ALA, please read these messages from ALA President Michael Gorman and ALA Executive Director Keith Fiels. Upshot, they claim they are forced to “…no longer provide materials to libraries because they had tried for five months, unsuccessfully, to get a letter of endorsement from ALA leadership.” Gorman: “I have never received a request for an endorsement.” Fiels: “[I]t was never clear to me from based on the conversations with Ms. Buscaglia what exactly she needed from ALA or that the funding for the project depended on a letter from the President. Of course we would have provided a letter of support.” I can’t imagine what happened here.

libraries build communities, don’t you think?

Posted on 09May0609May06 by jessamyn

Ten leading library experts were posed this question in the Spring issue of [SirsiDynix’s] Upstream: "What is the best example of libraries building communities that you have come across or experienced? How will libraries in the future be empowered to play even a greater role in their communities?" One of those experts was me (1.2 MB pdf), and at least a few other people you’ll probably recognize.

While I feel a little weird acting as if this library/community thing was something we’ve all recently discovered, it’s still great to hear everyone’s take on it, and I’m always happy to be able to say nice things about my favorite libraries.

rfid library tags unlocked, vulnerable

Posted on 05May0605May06 by jessamyn

RFID hacking in, among other places, libraries. More on RFID.

As he waves the reader over a book’s spine, ID numbers pop up on his monitor. “I can definitely overwrite these tags,” Molnar says. He finds an empty page in the RFID’s memory and types “AB.” When he scans the book again, we see the barcode with the letters “AB” next to it. (Molnar hastily erases the “AB,” saying that he despises library vandalism.) He fumes at the Oakland library’s failure to lock the writable area. “I could erase the barcodes and then lock the tags. The library would have to replace them all.”

Michael Stephens leaves and things go to hell

Posted on 28Mar06 by jessamyn

Hot tempers at the library board meeting. “You are bound and determined you are going to build in German Township. I can see it in your gray hair and eyes,” one St. Joseph County Public Library [IN] board member told the library director. When you’re faced with an underperforming branch in a poor community and you’ve already started the planning process on a new branch in a more affluent community, how do you fold that into your long range plan? And what do you tell the public?