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D.C. Council committee tables plan for new central library
Plans for a new central library on the site of the District of Columbia’s old convention center hit a snag November 21 when a city council committee voted 3–2 to table the proposal. Library Board President John W. Hill expressed concern that the council’s reluctance might derail a proposal in President Bush’s FY2007 budget for $30 million towards construction of a new central library and renovation of branches....

Copyright Office grants DMCA exemptions
Despite its reluctance to do so in the past, the U.S. Copyright Office November 22 granted six exemptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. In the government’s triennial review, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved the exemptions, ruling that “persons making noninfringing uses [in these areas] will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls during the next three years.”...

Bill would disclose presidential library donors
The House Leadership and Open Government Act (H.R. 4682), which Democrats intend to pass after taking majority control in 2007, includes a section that would require the disclosure of all donations to a presidential library of $100 or more. Currently presidential libraries are federally maintained but use private endowments to offset operating costs....

Gates Foundation offers library grants to Latvia, Lithuania, Botswana
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has expanded its Global Libraries initiative and plans to invest $328 million over the next seven years to support computer and internet access in as many as 15 developing countries. The first round of grants, announced November 30, will provide $17.5 million to the governments of Latvia, Lithuania, and Botswana to support internet connections in public libraries with little or no access and equipment....

Chicago mayor hosts reading summit
Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has called for librarians, educators, health and recreation officials, and parents to join him in a “call to action to ensure Chicago’s future.” During an all-day conference titled “Creating a City of Readers, Starting at Birth,” held at the Chicago Public Library November 30, the mayor spoke with more than 300 key representatives from city government and from dozens of private educational and philanthropic organizations....

Groups file amicus briefs in Vamos case
The Freedom to Read Foundation has joined the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and other groups in filing an amicus brief in the lawsuit against the Miami–Dade County School Board for ordering in June the removal of the children’s picture book Vamos a Cuba from all district media centers. The brief (PDF file), filed November 21 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, argues that the book and its English-language counterpart A Visit to Cuba are “educationally significant and developmentally appropriate” for its school-age audience....

Arkansas library curbs Basic Instinct
The board of the Rogers (Ark.) Public Library decided November 22 to retain in the collection the director’s cut of Basic Instinct but to place an adult-content warning label on the video case. The decision came six weeks after complainant Nieves Egelkraut had testified at a trustees meeting that she had found the movie pornographic after randomly borrowing it and had worried that teens would come across it in the same manner....

Board refuses to bar teen titles
The board of the Cape May County (N.J.) Library voted unanimously November 15 to accept the recommendation of Director Andrew Martin to retain three books about adolescent issues that had been challenged by a patron. “Parents don’t address these things,” library Commissioner Eileen Massey contended before the vote on the titles. “Some of them do,” Martin replied, according to the November 22 Cape May County Herald. “Most of the topics are seen on television.”...

Voters support library funding in referenda
A national report on library referenda released by American Libraries shows that the majority of voters approved funding referenda for public, school, and academic libraries—including a $90 million funding package for Austin (Texas) public libraries. The state-by-state Referenda Roundup (PDF file) is based on reports from state library agencies and online news reports....

Library bomb suspect claims innocence
An Illinois man charged with setting off an explosive device at the Salt Lake City Public Library September 15 said in the November 30 Salt Lake City Deseret News that federal authorities have the wrong man. Tom Zajac, 53, of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, contacted reporters from the Weber County Jail in Ogden, Utah, where he has been held since his extradition in early November, and told them, “I’ll have been found guilty for some of the things I didn’t do.”...

Niagara Falls branch closure averted
Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Public Library trustees avoided a vote to close the LaSalle branch at their November 29 meeting, despite reports in the media that the board president had enough votes to close the branch due to budget constraints and concerns about accessibility....

ALA welcomes letter to EPA on library closures
ALA applauded House leaders November 30 for directly addressing the issue of library closures and reduced public access to vital environmental and health information at the Environmental Protection Agency. In a letter (PDF file) to EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, ranking members Reps. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), John Dingell (D-Mich.), Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and James Oberstar (D-Minn.) expressed their serious concerns over the current implementation of “library reorganization” plans and the “destruction or disposition” of library holdings....

ALA Library launches two new web tools
The ALA Library announced December 5 the launch of two new web tools to aid ALA members, librarians, and library workers in accessing professional information online. The Librarian’s E-Library uses tools from Google Co-Op to create a customized search engine. The ALA Professional Tips wiki provides a pathfinder to using the rich resources of ALA’s website, compiles the library’s responses to questions received from the field, and enables the library community to share new resources for advancing the practice of librarianship....

ALA books appear on Google Book Search
ALA Editions has partnered with Google to offer content through Google Book Search. Users can now preview ALA Editions titles, conduct multiple searches within the books, and browse through the available pages. Whenever books in the Google Book Search index contain content that matches user search terms, these books are returned as links under Book Results on the search results page. Links to the ALA Online Bookstore along with other online retailers make it easy for users to go from browsing to buying....

Featured review: Books for youth Vaught, Susan. Trigger. Dec. 2006. 304p. Bloomsbury, hardcover (1-58234-920-7). Seventeen-year-old Jersey Hatch returns home after a year in a brain-injury treatment center. Having no memory of the event, Jersey has been informed that he shot himself in the head. With no internal points of reference, he is compelled to confirm through those around him that he really pulled the trigger, and more importantly, to discover why. Plagued by numerous physical challenges, and struggling to think sequentially and to avoid inappropriate vocalization, this proves difficult. Worse yet, Jersey has returned to parents broken by his actions and to peers who despise him....

Chris Crutcher to headline Freedom to Read Foundation fundraiser
Chris Crutcher, who has been one of the most frequently challenged authors over the past two decades, will be the featured speaker at a fundraiser for the Freedom to Read Foundation on Sunday, January 21. Doors will open at 5:45, and Crutcher’s talk will begin at 6:30 p.m., to be followed by a book signing. The event will take place at the Seattle Public Library....

Terry Trueman featured at USBBY program
The United States Board on Books for Young People will host a program featuring YA author Terry Trueman on Friday, January 19, at 8:00 p.m. The event will also describe USBBY’s various projects....
United States Board on Books for Young People

Teen Tech Week registrants get access to online resources
YALSA is offering access to online resources from Rosen Publishing and Tutor.com to anyone who registers for Teen Tech Week by February 1. The event is a new celebration aimed at getting teens to use their libraries for the different technologies that are offered there, such as DVDs, databases, audiobooks, and video games....

YALSA offers four online courses
YALSA is offering four online courses: “Making the Match: Finding the Right Book for the Right Teen at the Right Time”; “New Technologies and New Literacies for Teens”; “Reaching Teens Virtually”; and “YALSA Competencies Live,” to run from February 5 through March 2. Registration opens on December 15....

YALSA Teen Gaming Discussion Group to meet in Seattle
The focus will be on tabletop games, but anyone interested can bring gaming questions and share programming stories. The meeting is January 20, 1:30–3:30 p.m. Can’t attend but still want to participate or listen in? Join in the discussion at the Second Life Open Air Auditorum, Coordinates 126, 81, 33, or via Skype (kellyc411 or informationgoddess29) where the meeting will be broadcast live....
YALSA blog, Dec. 4

Register for a RUSA Midwinter Institute
RUSA will present two full-day institutes, “Business Librarianship 101: Core Competencies for Business Librarianship” and “Behind the Genealogy Reference Desk: Want Land, Will Travel,” on Friday, January 19, during the Midwinter Meeting in Seattle....

Eugene Garfield wins lifetime achievement award
Scientific information provider Thomson Scientific awarded Eugene Garfield November 29 with its 2006 Online Information Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of more than 50 years of dedication, leadership, and innovation in the information industry. Garfield is founder and chairman emeritus of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI)—now Thomson Scientific....
Thomson Scientific, Nov. 30

Plymouth State librarian wins Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration
Casey Bisson, information architect for Plymouth (N.H.) State University’s Lamson Library, has received the prestigious Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration for his ground-breaking software application known as WPopac. The award was presented at a ceremony hosted by the Mellon Foundation on December 4 at the fall meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information, in Washington, D.C. Bisson’s project was selected as one of only 10 recipients out of several hundred nominees for 2006....
Plymouth State University, Dec. 4

ASCLA accepting applications for Century Scholarship
ASCLA is accepting applications for the Century Scholarship, an annual monetary award of up to $2,500 to fund services or accommodation for a library school student or students with disabilities admitted to an ALA-accredited library school. The application deadline is March 1....

Coming Up Taller in 2007
Librarians and library advocates are encouraged to nominate their favorite library’s arts and humanities program for a 2007 Coming Up Taller Award. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, have announced the availability of the nomination application (PDF file). The deadline for nominations is January 31....
President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities

National Leadership Grant applications
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is accepting grant applications to the agency’s 2007 National Leadership Grant program. The previously published deadline of February 1 has been moved to March 1. Since 1998 National Leadership Grants have supported the innovative thinking that is needed to help libraries and museums meet the changing needs of the American public. This year the agency is bringing back its Library and Museum Community Collaboration category....
Institute of Museum and Library Services, Dec. 1

Indiana State to reward students for library research
In honor of former English Professor Jane Bakerman, the Indiana State University library is now offering an annual award for graduate and undergraduate students who make creative and skillful use of library resources to write outstanding research papers. The Bakerman Student Research Awards consist of $1,000 for an undergraduate paper and $1,500 for a graduate paper....
ISU Indiana Statesman, Nov. 29

Generous offer raises library governance questions
A Woodsville, New Hampshire, man’s desire to give a huge chunk of money for improved library services has raised questions about whether four community libraries are being operated in a legal manner. Robert G. Fillion said he may be willing to give a minimum of $100,000 to improve library services for residents in the town of Haverhill, but he is requiring as a condition that the select board have some control over the library facility....
St. Johnsbury (Vt.) Caledonian-Record, Dec. 4

Guadalajara’s record-breaking 20th book fair (in Spanish)
Raúl Padilla López, president of the Guadalajara Book Fair (La Feria Internacional del Libro) in Guadalajara, Mexico, announced that this year’s fair hosted more than 500,000 people, a record-breaking attendance. The fair, held November 24–December 3, also featured 1,608 exhibit spaces, 823 separate events, 351 authors, 296 book presentations, and 11 awards. This was the ninth year of the ALA-FIL Free Pass program, which helps 150–200 ALA members involved in Spanish-language collection development attend each year to review and purchase materials....
El Universal (Mexico City), Dec. 4

Library funding method overruled
The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled December 4 that a law requiring the Kanawha County Board of Education to use its levy money to fund county libraries is unconstitutional and shortchanges students. The opinion overturns a Kanawha Circuit Court decision that said the county was not entitled to reimbursement of the $2.2 million it paid to support the county’s libraries in 2003....
Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette, Dec. 5

Famous library cat dies
One of the world’s most famous felines, Dewey Readmore Books, died November 29 in the arms of Spencer (Iowa) Public Library Director Vicki Myron who had acted as his “mother” for most of the last 19 years. Dewey was adopted as the library cat in January 1988 when he was found in the book drop on a cold Monday morning and attained instant media attention....
Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, Dec. 1

Bay County to cut library services
On January 1, the historic Sage library (right) and South Side branch of the Bay County Library System in Bay City, Michigan, will close, its bookmobile will park permanently, and more than 100 employees will be out of jobs. The three remaining branches will offer shorter hours, fewer new books, and a reduced slate of programs, reflecting cuts made December 4 by trustees, who had no other option after two millage requests failed, slicing 60% of the operating budget....
Bay City (Mich.) Times, Dec. 5

Plainfield Public Library joins MySpace
For the Plainfield (Ill.) Public Library, MySpace has been a key to reaching teenagers. Young Adult Librarian Joe Marcantonio noticed that nearly every teenager on a library computer terminal had their MySpace.com website pulled up the entire time. Librarians decided to join them in the world of social cyber-networking and put up their own MySpace site....
Joliet (Ill.) Herald News, Dec. 4

Pascagoula library employees return to work
Technical service employees who have been working in the Gautier (Miss.) Public Library while Katrina-related repairs were completed began moving back to the Pascagoula branch December 4, which serves as the headquarters for the Jackson-George Regional Library System. Library officials said the branch could reopen by the end of January....
Pascagoula Mississippi Press, Dec. 5

New Rockville regional library
Montgomery County’s new flagship library, in the heart of Rockville, Maryland’s revitalized town square, has more space, more computers with internet access, more WiFi hookups and more materials to lend than the old Rockville library, which was smaller, darker, and short on parking spaces. The $26.3-million regional library opened at noon on November 28 and features a 200-foot-long wall of wavy glass....
Washington Post, Nov. 28

Alaskan library aims to show boys that guys read
This winter a dedicated team of Fairbanks men will be teaming up with Captain Underpants—the defender of truth, justice, and all that is preshrunk and cottony—to show young boys that reading isn’t just for girls. In January, the Noel Wien Public Library will be sending male volunteers into three Fairbanks schools for several weeks to read books to 4th-grade boys. The program, called Guys Read, is funded by a $5,000 grant from Auto Service Co. of Fairbanks....
Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, Nov. 23

South Dakota State Library shifts its efforts
November 30 was busy for the South Dakota State Library in Pierre, as it was the last day the library would send out large-print titles to nursing homes and other public libraries. This is just one of many changes being implemented at the state library in an effort to redirect its focus from a public library to one that services public libraries across the state....
Pierre (S. Dak.) Capital Journal, Dec. 1

Historic Montreal library set to close
After 121 years of serving its community, one of Montreal’s oldest libraries is slated to close at the end of December unless it can replace the city’s drastic cuts to its funding. The Notre-Dame-de-Grace borough and the city of Montreal have been partially funding the Fraser-Hickson Library with $400,000 per year since October 2003, but the agreement expired in October. While the borough is willing to continue funding the library, the city has refused to give any more....
McGill Daily, Dec. 4

UK library protesters angry at betrayal
Leaders in rural communities said they were disgusted by a decision to close a number of libraries across Northumberland county. The county council’s executive sealed the fate of 12 libraries December 4, following a review last year. Head of libraries Marguerite Gracey said those buildings owned by the council would either be sold or used for another purpose. Communities campaigning against the changes said they felt betrayed....
Newcastle Journal, Dec. 5

Yahoo snubs Google in copyright case
In a setback to Google’s efforts to fend off a copyright infringement suit stemming from its ambitious plan to create digital copies of millions of books, rival search engine Yahoo has declined to provide information about its own book digitization efforts. Neither Yahoo nor Google would comment, but reports suggest Yahoo refused to cooperate with Google because it felt the request for information was an attempt to capture trade secrets....
E-Commerce Times, Nov. 30

Microsoft releases book search in beta
Microsoft released Live Search Books, its competitor to Google Book Search, in beta December 6. The book search engine performs keyword searches for books that have been scanned as part of Microsoft’s book scanning project, in the same way that Windows Live Search searches the Internet, said Danielle Tiedt, the general manager of Live Search Selection for Microsoft....
C|net news.com, Dec. 6

Six new ideas in IM
Nick Gonzalez offers his views on “some of the big ideas emerging in web instant messaging,” among them interoperability, in-browser chat, and flexible identities....
Techcrunch blog, Nov. 24

On the catalog
Andrew Pace writes: “When I talk about the online catalog, I try hard (with varying metaphors that have varied success) to frame its improvement as only one piece of a much larger puzzle. That includes layer upon layer of services that somehow seem easier to add once the complexity of search and discovery has been replaced with new and easy-to-use technology.”...
Hectic Pace blog, Dec. 6

Library Literature and Information Science Retrospective, 1905–1983
H. W. Wilson has announced a new reference to debut in January—a wide-ranging and deep retrospective index of library and information science articles. Offered exclusively on WilsonWeb, Library Literature and Information Science Retrospective: 1905–1983 covers citations in more than 1,200 key LIS periodicals, as well as full-text articles from 70 years of Wilson Library Bulletin, indexing from Library Work (1905–1911), and citations to book reviews, books, book chapters, and library school theses....
H. W. Wilson, Dec. 5

YBP Library Services to distribute EBL ebooks to academic libraries
Academic book supplier YBP Library Services announced plans November 29 to market a comprehensive collection of ebooks in partnership with ebook lender EBL. Slated for launch in the first half of 2007, the deal will make EBL’s growing list of over 40,000 titles available to YBP library customers worldwide....
Ebooks Corporation, Nov. 29

EBSCO enhances Book Index with Reviews
EBSCO Publishing announced December 4 that it has significantly expanded the latest version of its Book Index with Reviews (BIR) to include information on thousands of music and video titles. In addition to more than 4 million popular and classic book titles, BIR now features detailed information on more than 450,000 music titles and more than 200,000 DVD/video titles....
EBSCO Publishing, Dec. 4

Radical transparency, crummy meetings, and micromanagement
Michael Stephens recommends revisiting chapter 5 of The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business As Usual (1999) in the light of 2006, with its plugged-in social networks, library and librarian’s blogs, YouTube videos, and a return to human conversations via online technology. Some suggestions: Flatten that org chart, don’t kill your staff with bad meetings, and micromanagement has no place in a hyperlinked organization....
ALA Tech Source blog, Nov. 30

What if the library worked like Netflix?
Lori Ayre writes: “Netflix is easy, personal, fast, and convenient. It assists users in finding titles they will not only enjoy but titles that they are probably very excited to find because they are surprised that they could be found or they’ve never heard of them before. If libraries made it as personal, easy, and convenient to find and borrow titles as Amazon and NetFlix do, circulation in libraries would skyrocket. Instead, business is booming at Amazon and Netflix and circulation is holding relatively steady in public libraries.”...
Lori Bowen Ayre’s Weblog, Nov. 30

Oakland library posts photos of city’s past
Rarely seen photos of bygone days in Oakland, California—an 1870 horse-drawn bus, Jack London setting sail on the Snark in 1907, a Chinese vegetable peddler in 1885, the 1918 flu epidemic (right)—have been posted online by the Oakland Public Library. The 199-item sampler of the library’s image collections also features historic maps and manuscripts, as well as photos from Piedmont and Emeryville dating back to the mid-1800s....
San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 29

The who and why behind the dismantling of Buffalo’s School of Informatics
Some characterize it as gross misconduct and an abuse of power. Others see it as a justifiable administrative decision. Either way, the departments, programs, and people that, until this semester, made up the University at Buffalo School of Informatics are now in the process of transitioning to other schools after Provost Satish Tripathi abruptly proposed to dissolve the seven-year-old school over the summer....
University at Buffalo, The Spectrum, Nov. 29

Libraries in southwestern Ohio are good for the economy
A study released November 29 shows that nine Ohio public library systems in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties create an annual economic impact of nearly four times the amount invested in their operations. The report (PDF file) from Levin, Driscoll, and Fleeter in Columbus concludes that the libraries’ cumulative expenditure of about $74 million returned a quantifiable direct economic benefit of $238.6 million—or $3.81 for each dollar expended in 2005. The study also recognizes that these libraries add significant value to their communities that cannot be assigned a dollar value, such as “improved economic prospects and an enhanced quality of life.”...
9Libraries.info, Nov. 29

Hear American Libraries editor on LiSRadio
University of Missouri at Columbia Associate Professor Charley Seavey talks with American Libraries Editor in Chief Leonard Kniffel about issues in librarianship on the “First Tuesday” School of Information Sciences and Learning Technologies LiSRadio webcast. QuickTime and MP3 formats are provided....
LiSRadio, Dec. 4

Find a library job in 10 minutes a day
Sara R. Paul reveals how she used RSS feeds to locate her new position as a reference librarian at a law firm in San Francisco: “Suppose you have 45 job websites and e-mail listservs that you check on a regular basis. Going to each website and combing through e-mails every day could take hours. However, by using RSS feeds to concentrate all the listings in one place, you can eliminate a great amount of time and effort.”...
LIScareer.com, Dec.

A video tour of the CLA exhibit floor
Bernadette Swanson (UC-Davis) and the California Library Association’s Marketing and Public Relations Round Table created a 3-minute video tour of the exhibit floor at the 108th Annual CLA Conference, Nov. 10–13, in Sacramento. Among the exhibits featured are poster sessions, St. Mary’s College of California, and the Infopeople Technology petting zoo....
California Library Association, Nov. 26

How researchers discover information resources
The UK Research Information Network has published a report (PDF file) on the behavior, perceptions, and needs of researchers as users of discovery services. This work, based on a detailed survey of 400 researchers and 50 librarians, is intended to promote better arrangements for researchers to find out what information resources relevant to their work are available, where these are, and how they may have access to them....
Research Information Network, Nov.

Thomson Gale offers free resources for Black History Month
In recognition of Black History Month (February), Thomson Gale, part of the Thomson Corporation, is launching a free website full of historical facts and figures, biographies, relevant web links and lesson plans. The site is designed to help students, teachers, and families celebrate the month....
Thomson Gale, Dec. 6

Special issue on media centers and special ed (available full-text on EBSCO)
The November issue of Intervention in School and Clinic is devoted to collaborative relationships between school media centers and special educators. An introduction by Joyce Anderson Downing discusses the various roles the media center can play in the lives of students with disabilities, describes the ways teachers and library media specialists can collaborate, and provides an overview of access to library resources from both physical and technological perspectives....
Intervention in School and Clinic 42, no. 2 (Nov.)

Poetry in children’s literature
Southern Connecticut State University LIS student Ann Dixon traces the development of poetry for children, primarily in the United States and Great Britain, from oral traditions to electronic formats....
Library Student Journal, issue 2 (Nov.)

Call for scholarly publishing papers
The 2007 Public Knowledge Project Scholarly Publishing Conference (at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C., July 11–13) is calling for papers from librarians and information specialists on the themes of alternate forms of scholarly communication, open access publications, and using open source tools in libraries. The deadline for submitting an abstract is January 15....
Public Knowledge Project

40 years of resistance music
The struggle for social justice has always had a rousing soundtrack—from solidarity-inspiring union hymns to folk songs to hardcore anthems. This Magazine put together a list of 40 essential “songs of resistance,” starting with 1966 and going right up to the present. Video or audio clips are included for most (except those removed for terms-of-use violations)....
This Magazine, Nov. 1

Are books in danger? No, says Forbes
The conventional wisdom would say yes. But surprise—the conventional wisdom is wrong. Forbes magazine’s special report on books and the future of publishing is brim-full of reasons to be optimistic. People are reading more, not less. The internet is fueling literacy. Giving books away online increases off-line readership. New forms of expression—wikis, networked books—are blossoming in a digital hothouse....
Forbes, Dec. 1

Advance Registration rates close December 8!

The ALA Placement Center will operate Friday through Monday at the 2007 ALA Midwinter Meeting. Job seekers and employers should now register on the JobLIST website. Employers who want to have a booth on site in the Placement Center should complete the space reservation form and fax it to 312-280-3256.

Save the date—
Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium to be held in the Chicago area, July 22–24, developed by ALA TechSource and Jenny Levine.

REGIONAL LIBRARY SYSTEM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, Mankato, Minnesota. Traverse des Sioux Library System is seeking a dynamic and innovative leader. This position could be yours if you have a passion for library services, a vision for the future, an essential commitment to lobbying the state and national legislature, demonstrated leadership skills, strong interpersonal skills, strength in business and financial management, good listening and speaking skills, and the ability to work with a small staff committed to providing excellent service to public libraries in the region.... See JobLIST for more career opportunities.

Apply for a We the People Bookshelf grant by January 31.

Apply for: By Dec. 7: ProLiteracy Worldwide’s National Book Scholarship Fund distributes grants of books and educational materials to qualified adult literacy providers in the continental United States for use with adults and older teens seeking instruction in basic literacy, English as a second language, or GED preparation. Contact: Mara Roberts, 315-422-9121, ext. 345. By Dec. 15: IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarians Program awards grants up to $1,000,000 over 3–4 years, to all types of libraries, save federal and for-profit libraries. The program supports efforts to recruit and educate the next generation of librarians and the faculty who will prepare them for careers in library science. Contact: Stephanie Clark, Senior Program Officer, 202-653-4662. By Dec. 29: PEN/Newman’s Own Award will award $20,000 to a U.S.-based First Amendment champion. By Jan. 15: The Unshelved Pimp My Bookcart contest seeks photos of customized bookcarts. Winners receive Overdue Media Store gift certificates. Contact: Unshelved. By Feb. 15: The National Awards for Museum and Library Service recognize museums and libraries that demonstrate a core commitment to public service through innovative programs and active partnerships. Contact: Michele Farrell, 202-653-4656. By Mar. 1: American Library Association Spectrum Scholarships will present at least 60 $5,000 scholarships to American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander students planning to attend an ALA-accredited graduate program in library and information studies or an ALA-recognized NCATE School Library Media program. By Apr. 3: National Endowment for the Humanities Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants awards grants of up to $30,000 for planning or initial stages of digital initiatives in all areas of the humanities. The April 3 deadline is for projects beginning September 2007. Contact: NEH, 202-606-8401, TDD 866-372-2930. More Datebook items...

American Libraries Direct George M. Eberhart, Editor: geberhart@ala.org Daniel Kraus, Associate Editor: dkraus@ala.org Greg Landgraf, Editorial Assistant: glandgraf@ala.org Karen Sheets, Graphics and Design: ksheets@ala.org Leonard Kniffel, Editor-in-Chief, American Libraries, lkniffel@ala.org To advertise in American Libraries Direct, contact: Brian Searles, bsearles@ala.org Send feedback: aldirect@ala.org AL Direct FAQ: www.ala.org/aldirect/ All links outside the ALA website are provided for informational purposes only. Questions about the content of any external site should be addressed to the administrator of that site. American Libraries 50 E. Huron St. Chicago, IL 60611 www.ala.org/alonline/ 800-545-2433, ext. 4216 ISSN 1559-369X.