AMERICAN LIBRARIES DIRECT April 19, 2006 AL Direct is a weekly electronic newsletter sent by the American Library Association every Wednesday to personal members by e-mail as a perquisite of membership. Click here to view the online version of our email: <%= util.viewHtmlLink %> POLL: What do YOU think? ******************************* Would you willingly forego a salary increase or sacrifice benefits to help your library through a financial crisis? Click here to ANSWER! http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB2258LLED3XE This is an unscientific poll that reflects the opinions of only those AL Direct readers who have chosen to participate. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Results of the April 12 poll: Should the Boy Scouts of America’s policy of excluding agnostics, atheists, and gays prohibit libraries from cooperating with the organization in joint programs? YES.............47% NO..............53% (392 responses) For cumulated results and selected responses to all AL Direct polls, visit the AL Online website. http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/aldirecta/2006pollresults/2006polls.htm U.S. & WORLD NEWS ******************************* Government drops appeal in Connecticut Patriot Act case http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/patriotdrop.htm Federal prosecutors announced April 12 that they would drop their appeal in a case involving a Connecticut library system that received a demand for patron records under the USA Patriot Act.... NARA cooperated in document reclassification http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/coopreclass.htm A March 2002 Memorandum of Understanding (PDF file) between the National Archives and Records Administration and the U.S. Air Force shows that archivists were concerned about an ongoing program to reclassify thousands of previously released documents but ultimately agreed to keep the operation secret.... Oklahoma Senate won’t defund inclusive kids’ collections http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/oklawont.htm Members of the Oklahoma Senate have allowed an April 6 deadline to expire without considering a bill that would have prohibited local funding authorities and library boards from funding their public libraries unless the libraries have “place[d] all children and young adult materials that contain homosexual or sexually explicit subject matter in a special area [and limited] distribution . . . to adults only.”... National Recording Registry adds 50 sound recordings http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/lcmusic.htm Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced April 11 the latest group of 50 recordings for the National Recording Registry. Created by Congress through the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the registry is dedicated to preserving classic American recordings of music, speeches, and readings that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.... San Bernardino removes explicit manga book after challenge http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/mangasanbern.htm Prompted by a request from a Victorville, California, parent to consider the appropriateness of Paul Gravett’s Manga: 60 Years of Japanese Comics, the San Bernardino County Library decided to remove 13 copies from all its branches April 12.... First U.S. Carnegie library damaged by lightning http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/lightning.htm The Allegheny branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP) has been closed indefinitely after lightning struck the building’s 115-year-old clock tower mid-evening on April 7. Miraculously, the building was empty at the time and no one was injured. There were no library materials damaged either.... Wild turkey @ your library http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/april2006ab/southbend.htm A male wild turkey’s nesting season took a painful turn when it flew through a double window at the Western branch of St. Joseph County (Ind.) Public Library in South Bend shortly before 9 a.m. April 7.... ALA NEWS ******************************* Mary Chapin Carpenter to highlight Scholarship Event in New Orleans http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/CarpentertoperformAnnual.htm Singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter has been selected as the featured artist of the ALA/ProQuest Scholarship event to benefit the Library Relief Fund and provide scholarships on Saturday, June 24, 8–11 p.m., at the Convention Center Auditorium during the New Orleans Annual Conference.... Two more associations sign up for the Advocacy Institute http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/Missadvoinsti.htm The Mississippi and Alabama Library Associations have signed on to participate in the ALA Advocacy Institute, Friday, June 23, at Annual Conference in New Orleans.... ORS wins World Book–ALA Goal Grant Award http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/WorldBookGoalGrantrecipi.htm The Office for Research and Statistics is the winner of the 2006 World Book–ALA Goal Grant Award. ORS is honored for its proposal, “Public Library Service to the Nation’s Linguistically Isolated: An Analysis Using the Public Library Geographic Database and US Census Data 2000.”... Booklist Online ******************************* Featured review: media http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=media Lewis, Jerry. Dean & Me: A Love Story. Read by Stephen Hoye. 2005. 9hr. Books on Tape, CS/CD. It is a daunting task to narrate the memoir of a well-known celebrity whose voice is distinctive and immediately recognizable, but Hoye handles it with aplomb. This biography is Lewis’s take on his professional and personal relationship with Dean Martin and his career following their breakup.... NEW ORLEANS UPDATE ******************************* ALA New Orleans site visit, April 3–4 http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2006a/nolaphotos.htm ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels and ALA President-Elect Leslie Burger discuss the state of the media center at Benjamin Franklin High School with Principal Carol Christen and Librarian Idella Washington. The library is in a temporary space on the second floor and hopes to reopen by mid-August. For more pictures, visit here.... Life and libraries in New Orleans http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2006a/stories.htm#medley My first trip back to New Orleans was in September when 40% of the city was still underwater. Since I’ve moved back, I’ve been able to see progress from a city where I couldn’t buy a cup of coffee anywhere, to a situation today where many of the restaurants, bars, and music venues are up and running in the areas that didn’t experience heavy flooding.... Keith Weldon Medley Volunteering for spring break http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2006a/stories.htm#kreie Over spring break, a group of educators from Minnesota had the trip of a lifetime. Seven of us from Oak Point Intermediate School in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, spent our break in New Orleans assisting in hurricane relief.... Chris Kreie New Orleans CIO vows to keep free city Wi-Fi at high speeds http://www.computerworld.com/printthis/2006/0,4814,110555,00.html New Orleans Chief Information Officer Greg Meffert said he plans to continue fighting to keep a free downtown wireless internet network functioning at high speeds.... Computerworld, Apr. 14 This Rose weathered a great storm http://www.lsureveille.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/31/442cc46027a27 New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose’s 1 Dead in Attic is a slim but remarkably engrossing volume that took its title from a spray-painted notation left by a rescue team on a house in the 8th Ward. The stories Rose tells are so moving that the book may one day be remembered as one of the most important books ever written about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.... LSU Daily Reveille, Mar. 31 Invisible city: New Orleans rebuilds by writing http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/between_the_covers/01135_invisible_city_new_orleans_rebuilds_writing.html In a slew of books responding to Katrina, writers show that the Big Easy is not going to let 125-mph winds, FEMA, or Bush rain on its parade.... The Simon, Apr. 14 DIVISION NEWS ******************************* Fund offers disaster relief for public school libraries http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslawards/dollargeneral/launchrelease.htm AASL is administering an $800,000 grant program that will make funds available to rebuild and expand public school library media programs affected by disasters. “Beyond Words: The Dollar General School Library Relief Program” is the largest relief effort in ALA history targeted specifically to school libraries.... YALSA launches 2006 Teen Read Week website http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/TRW2006Websitelaunched.htm The YALSA Teen Read Week website, “Get Active @ your library,” the theme for Teen Read Week 2006, encourages teens to read for the fun of it and use resources at their libraries to help them lead active lives and find books on sports, fitness, volunteerism, activism, college preparation, and career direction. This year’s celebration will be held October 15–21.... Nominations open for YALSA Teen’s Top Ten http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/NominationsYALSATTT.htm Teens across the country are encouraged to read the 22 nominated titles to prepare themselves for the Teens’ Top Ten vote, to take place during Teen Read Week, October 15–21. The votes will determine the 2006 Teens’ Top Ten booklist of the best new books for young adults.... LITA celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2006 http://www.ala.org/ala/lita/aboutlita/org/1st25years.htm Read Stephen R. Salmon’s brief history of the division’s early years, from its beginning as a small, pioneering discussion group in 1964.... Information Technology and Libraries, Mar. 1993 AWARDS ******************************* Ching-chih Chen wins LITA’s Kilgour Award http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/2006KilgourAward.htm Simmons College Professor Ching-chih Chen is the winner of the 2006 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology sponsored by LITA and OCLC. Chen has advocated the concept of the world digital library since 1993, most recently the Global Memory Net, which will be launched for universal access at the end of June.... 2006 Marshall Cavendish Excellence in Library Programming Award http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2006/april2006/CavendishAwardwinnername.htm The Gail Borden Public Library District of Elgin, Illinois, is the winner of the Marshall Cavendish Excellence in Library Programming Award for its project, “Giants: African Dinosaurs,” created by Project Exploration. The library attracted visitors by showcasing six life-size skeletons of dinosaurs, displays of original fossil material, and interactive exhibits.... SEEN ONLINE ******************************* FBI rebuffed on viewing Jack Anderson’s papers before they go to GWU http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/18/AR2006041800961.html The family of the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson has rejected a request by the FBI to turn over 50 years of files to agents who want to look for evidence in the prosecution of two pro-Israel lobbyists, as well as any classified documents Anderson had collected, before the papers are donated to George Washington University.... Washington Post, Apr. 19 Filmmakers and others petition against Smithsonian’s Showtime deal http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/arts/television/18smit.html As the recent coupling between the Smithsonian Institution and Showtime Networks continues to roil the documentary film world, more than 215 filmmakers, television executives, and academics have signed a letter demanding that the Smithsonian, a publicly financed museum, not only reveal financial details of the joint venture but also abandon it.... New York Times, Apr. 18 A Visit to Cuba to remain on Miami-Dade school library shelves http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/breaking_news/14376142.htm School officials have ruled that a children’s book about traveling to Cuba should remain in Miami-Dade County schools, despite a parent’s complaint that the book does not depict an accurate life in Cuba.... Miami Herald, Apr. 19 100 years later, quake’s dead are still being counted http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12301877/from/RL.3/ Former San Francisco city archivist Gladys Hansen has made it her goal in life to account fully for the number of people killed by the devastating 1906 earthquake and ensuing firestorm. To accomplish this, Hansen goes to work several days a week—at her own office in a Mission district warehouse—to research, catalog, and respond to questions.... MSNBC, Apr. 14 Hurricane-damaged Louisiana library reopens http://www.dailycomet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060412/NEWS/604120338/1013/NEWS01 Seven months after floodwaters soaked and destroyed 20% of its books and other materials, the Chauvin branch of the Terrebonne Parish Public Library has reopened.... Thibodaux Daily Comet, Apr. 12 Book fair to assist Katrina-hit school http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/news/local/14351004.htm Fort Wayne, Indiana, school media specialist Linda Wunderlin coordinated an effort to raise funds to rebuild the South Plaquemines High School library in Port Sulphur, Louisiana.... Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Apr. 18 ACTIONS AND ANSWERS ******************************* Free newspaper archive of earthquake coverage http://www.earthquakearchive.com/ NewspaperARCHIVE.com, an online database of historic newspapers, offers a free archive on the history of earthquakes. The archive includes stories of earthquakes dating as far back as 1759 and as recent as the Kashmiri earthquake of 2005. It also contains articles about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, the devastating earthquake at Tangshan, China, in 1976, and other major earthquakes throughout history.... NewspaperARCHIVE.com The silencer http://insidehighered.com/views/2006/04/12/mclemee Scott McLemee notes the latest trend in the decline of Western civilization: People now use cell phones in research libraries.... Inside Higher Ed, Apr. 12 April is Jazz Appreciation Month http://americanhistory.si.edu/events/programdetail.cfm?newskey=308 Throughout April, the National Museum of American History is celebrating its fifth annual Jazz Appreciation Month with concerts, a poetry workshop, lectures, performances, a day of swing dancing, two new displays, and audio podcasts about jazz.... Windows Live Academic Search: The details http://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb060417-2.shtml Barbara Quint writes it will be months before we can expect a useful comparative review of Windows Live Academic Search and Google Scholar. Technically both products are in beta. Microsoft’s Academic Search is a true beta—it still adds significant content, and plans are already in place for a second beta phase.... Information Today, Apr. 17 Library success: A best-practices wiki http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page Meredith Farkas created this wiki to be a one-stop shop for great ideas and information for all types of librarians. If you’ve done something at your library that you consider a success, you can write about it in the wiki or provide a link to outside coverage.... Five steps to including a Google Map on your website http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/google-maps-and-you-five-steps-to-including-a-google-map-on-your-website/ Chris Deweese of the Lewis and Clark Library System offered this practical guide to putting a map on your library website at the HigherEd BlogCon last week.... HigherEd BlogCon 2006, Apr. 14 Google Earth: From space to your face http://www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0604_01.html Mark Aubin discusses the origins and operations of Google Earth, and why parts of it are still blurry.... Google Librarian Newsletter, issue 3 Unintended consequences: Seven years under the DMCA http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/?f=unintended_consequences.html Since they were enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have not been used as Congress envisioned. In practice, they have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright infringement. As a result, the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to several important public-policy priorities.... Electronic Frontier Foundation, Apr. CALEA and libraries (PDF file) http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/WOissues/techinttele/calea/CALEAtechbrief.pdf This FAQ has been prepared to explain the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and how it relates to our nation’s libraries. This is an important issue because it may affect library budgets in the very near future, require certain technology expenditures, and impose administrative burdens on library personnel to administer certain security requirements under the law.... ALA Office for Information Technology Policy GPO looks to private publishers for sales boost (PDF file) http://www.gpo.gov/news/2006/06news10.pdf The U.S. Government Printing Office is seeking to reinvent its sales program by making government publications available in a commercial mainstream setting, expanding distribution channels and using the latest technology, while achieving significant cost reductions for taxpayers through private-sector vendors.... Government Printing Office, Apr. 12 On not revising the ALA Code of Ethics: An alternate proposal http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/%7Embolin/buschman2.htm Rider University Librarian John Buschman offers three reasons why ALA’s existing Code of Ethics might be weakened if it were revised. A revision of a paper given at the ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, June 26, 2005.... Library Philosophy and Practice, vol. 8, no. 2 (Spring 2006) CONTACT US ******************************* George M. Eberhart, Editor: geberhart@ala.org Karen Sheets, Graphics and Design: ksheets@ala.org Send feedback: aldirect@ala.org AL Direct FAQ: www.ala.org/aldirect/ To advertise in American Libraries Direct contact: Leonard Kniffel, Editor-in-Chief, lkniffel@ala.org American Libraries 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611 http://www.ala.org/alonline/ 800-545-2433, ext. 4216 ISSN 1559-369X.