LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Harvard Law School's appointment of John Palfrey as the new law library director does not comply with ABA's Accreditation Standard 603(c) (Director of the Law Library). Details at http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2008/07/a-standard-is-a.html

Tristram Hunt Says The British Museum is now our top attraction. If only others would shrug off their deadening ways and follow its lead. "...there are fewer and fewer neutral spaces in our public realm for people to gather and reflect around art and objects which successfully encompass parts of their multiple, competing cultural hinterlands. The museum, as a quintessentially urban institution, is one such place. And it's high time, in the name of access and inclusion, other museums started shutting their gates more often."

Luis Suarez of I.B.M., With the help of social networking tools, he has cut down sharply on his daily e-mail. "I stopped using e-mail most of the time. I quickly realized that the more messages you answer, the more messages you generate in return. It becomes a vicious cycle. By trying hard to stop the cycle, I cut the number of e-mails that I receive by 80 percent in a single week."

The Nashua Telegraph - Nashua,NH Reports Elementary school teachers in Nashua must now notify parents if they are going to use an award-winning science-fiction book called "The Giver" in their classrooms.

The school board made the decision Monday night, by a 7-1 vote, after a two-hour hearing.

A review of the book's use in city schools was initiated after a parent, Jodi Gould, said her fourth-grade daughter was "very bothered and upset" by some of the book's themes of suicide and euthanasia.

Hartford Courant reports: Full- and part-time unionized employees of the Hartford Public Library voted overwhelmingly to roll back pay increases and hours that they had agreed to work during fiscal 2008-09 in an attempt to eliminate further layoffs.

The 42-4 vote in favor of a new contract took place Monday night at the Hartford Public Library on Main Street. The vote means that workers who previously agreed to increase their hours from 37.5 to 40 hours a week would continue working 37.5 hours a week, officials said after the union meeting. The fiscal year started July 1.

Geraldine Sullivan, library board president, said it "might help somewhat. It was a very generous gesture."

What has become of our freedoms in these United States.

Feisty Denver librarian and journalist Carol Kreck, 61, received a citation and was threatened with incarceration for showing up OUTSIDE a McCain rally with a sign that said "McCain = Bush". Video of the proceedings shows us the progression of her ouster from the rally area, and here's the Denver Post's report.

100 Unbelievably Useful Reference Sites You’ve Never Heard Of: Beyond Google, Wikipedia and other generic reference sites, the Internet boasts a multitude of search engines, dictionaries, reference desks and databases that have organized and archived information for quick and easy searches. In this list, we’ve compiled just 100 of our favorites, for teachers, students, hypochondriacs, procrastinators, bookworms, sports nuts and more.

Article in the New York Times.

Article in the Christian Science Monitor commenting on the book and the NYT story. Article in the CSM is titled: The new world of book marketing

Larry McMurtry, the author of Lonesome Dove and other books, is also a bookseller. His bookstore in Archer City, Texas is reputed to have 400,000 to 500,000 books.

A new book by McMurtry was just released. It is called: Books: A Memoir

Review in the Christian Science Monitor.

The Library and Archives Canada Salutes a Great Canadian With its New Virtual Exhibition: "Sir John A. Macdonald: Canada's Patriot Statesman. "

The exhibition pays tribute to this great Canadian--the first Prime Minister of Canada and the dominant figure of the Canadian Confederation-- through photographs, documentary art and other special documents from the LAC collection. It also features tens of thousands of pages from Macdonald's political documents and correspondence, enabling all Canadians to get a closer look at his life, career and legacy; it will be online at Collections Canada as of July 9.

At Librarian.net there is an entry titled "a difficult time, a difficult task"

It opens with: I work occasionally as a fill-in librarian at a local public library that serves a community of about 5,000 people. This is the community I am moving to next month, up the road from where I live now, and while technically it puts me out of the “rural” designation, it’s still pretty rural. Last week and the week before there was a horrible tragedy that rocked the whole community. Short form: a local girl Brooke Bennett, went missing and her body was discovered a few days ago. The most likely suspect at this point is an uncle who is on the state sex offender list.

First off let me say that I’m quoting from news stories only. Our official staff position is “no comment” and I’m sticking to that. Here is why this is a library issue.

Full entry here.

Interview of author Christine Wicker on the NPR show "On The Media"

Former Dallas Morning News religion reporter Christine Wicker set out to write a book about the growing influence and strength of evangelical churches. But she found a community more fractured and less numerous than typically reported by the media. She explains that numbers for evangelicals in the U.S. are grossly inflated.

Listen to full interview here.

Wicker's book is The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church

Christopher Kiess takes a look at the future of libraries in this original essay.

The future of libraries – it’s a topic at many conferences and one that always seems to generate conversation and debate. It’s not a new topic. But given the changing nature of information, it is worthy of exploration. Recently, I entertained a discussion amongst librarians on the Web4Lib listserv. And as usual, there were the familiar cries of dissent from both the proponents and opponents of change. However, most of the arguments did little to address the primary question I posed – can we save ourselves?

I can hear the rumbling in the crowd already and am sure to have my head on a pike by noon at the hands of a mob of librarians. But, I think we are obligated to closely examine our profession as it is defined and consider how we might meet the demands of the future through changing our skill set. Rather than simply defending what we do or what we claim to do, why not examine our educational programs as well as the major trends in our field?

Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative.

Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed.

Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors.

Full article here.

Barbara Quint Wonders Is Google Book Search Targeting More Books for Public Domain? And there’s no doubt that expanding the public domain collection in Google Book Search beyond 1923 is a company goal. According to a Google spokesperson’s message, "These records will enable us to put more books into full view on Google Book Search, furthering us toward our goal to make books accessible to users while still respecting copyright. We’re committed to clarifying the public domain status of books and making as many books available online to users as possible." The complexity of copyright issues, according to Orwant, can lead to some "nightmare scenarios."

This week's episode is different from the usual fare. The thread holding this together is: "Authors You Didn't Hear at ALA Annual 2008". Authors David Weber and Piers Anthony were interviewed this week. Interviews ranged from talking about their works to how they view libraries to the future of books. The interview with David Weber is being presented in two parts with the remaining portion to air on a future episode. Both authors raised unique points when it comes to determining authorial intent relative to exposing children to their own works that might be otherwise objectionable.

A link is presented below for the Baen Free Library. That site is one where there are complete works available for reading without digital rights management software issues. Works by David Weber and others appear in that collection.

Related Links:
Home page of Piers Anthony
A book by Piers Anthony not for kids
A second book by Piers Anthony not for kids
The Baen Free Library featuring items by David Weber and others
Works by David Weber published by Baen Books
The Honor Harrington Series
US Transition to Digital Television Broadcasting Info Site
Home page of Erie Looking Productions
An interesting tweet on Twitter

"Lost" fans who can't wait for the show about the mysterious island to return have another option - pick up a book and start reading. Not just any book, however, but a book from "The Lost Book Club."

The new book club even comes with a personal invitation from "Lost" producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. Check out more about the book club on ABC.com or take a peek at the letter from the producers:

Wayne MacPhail Takes A Look At his new Sony eBook Reader... "And, I have to say, holding a little silver book that contains a shelf full of fiction and research, it does feel like I'm living in the future. The fact that that future is 100 per cent DRM-free makes it taste pretty sweet. "

Put a bigger screen on a cellphone or an e-reader, and soon it outgrows pocket size. Now a hallmark feature of these screens — their rigidity — is changing. New technologies are developing that make displays flexible, foldable or even as rollable as papyrus, so that large screens can be unfurled from small containers.

O’Rourke of the Flexible Display Center likes the look of the new generation of supple screens, but he also likes their toughness. “Some of them we’ve beaten with hammers, and they still run,” he said. “No one could do that with a BlackBerry.”

Borneo Bulletin - borneo,Brunei Darussalam - 'Libraries landmark for intellectual society'
The Brunei Darussalam Library Association (BDLA), with the support of Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), organised a two-day national symposium, which began yesterday morning.
The symposium, held at the university's central lecture theatre, focused on library development surrounding its theme "Libraries: the Landmark for Intellectual Society".