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Patriot Act compromise announced
Four Republican senators who blocked legislation to renew the USA Patriot Act last year over what they said was a lack of protection for civil liberties announced February 9 that they had reached an agreement with the White House on a revised bill....

Black History Month
Musician Wynton Marsalis joins Archivist Heather Lyle of Denison University in Granville, Ohio, January 23 as part of a three-month series of programs commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, and Women’s History Month. Nearly 200 people attended a library reception after a convocation address by Marsalis and a performance by the Denison Gospel Choir....

President increases library funding
in 2007 budget
President Bush’s proposed 2007 budget, released February 6, would boost funding for library programs at the Institute of Museum and Library Services to $220.9 million, an increase of nearly $10.3 million over FY 2006....

President proposes centralizing
federal library programs within IMLS
President Bush’s budget for FY 2007 includes a proposal to integrate the National Center for Education Statistics’ program for public and state library statistics, along with the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, into the Institute of Museum and Library Services beginning in 2008....

Bush budget includes $30 million
for D.C. library
President Bush’s FY 2007 budget proposal includes $30 million in federal support for the District of Columbia library system “to begin construction on a new central library and renovate neighborhood branches.”...

Bush budget funds archives transfer
to Nixon Library
The 2007 budget submitted by President Bush February 6 includes $10.6 million toward conversion of the privately funded Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California, to a presidential library run by the National Archives and Records Administration....

Czech Republic gives $111,000
to Alabama library destroyed by Katrina
Nearly six months after the tidal surge from Hurricane Katrina destroyed it, the Mose Hudson Tapia Public Library in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, is getting a major gift from across the water....

Pennsylvania libraries would get
23% boost in governor’s budget
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has called for a record increase of 23% in state support to public libraries....

Branch manager injured when
teens crash into Columbus library
The manager of the Livingston branch of the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library suffered a broken arm February 6 when three youths rammed a stolen Cadillac through the wall of the main office....

Tacoma Public Library realigns staff,
adopts virtual reference
Hampered by a tight budget and staffing limitations, the Tacoma (Wash.) Public Library is implementing a plan to keep its nine branches open as many hours and days as possible....

Man sentenced to three years
for book thefts from Baltimore County
A Maryland man was sentenced to three years in prison February 7 for checking out more than 400 books from the Baltimore County Public Library and selling them on the street....

Tennessee school librarian sued for assault
A Humboldt, Tennessee, woman has filed suit against the city school system and East End Elementary School Librarian Emily Turner for damages involving the librarian’s alleged assault on a 6-year-old student....

Blaze destroys Ontario library’s
books, newspapers
A fire gutted the municipal building February 8 that housed the West Lorne branch of the Elgin County Public Library in Ontario, Canada....

Annual Conference in New Orleans,
June 22–28—
Frequently Asked Questions

Sister Libraries Initiative:
Becoming a Sister Library is an opportunity to build relationships with libraries in other cultures that can help us learn, understand, and better serve our own community.

The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) is the first-ever national conference to be held and sponsored by the five caucus associations of color at the same time in the same city. It will take place in Dallas, October 11–15, 2006.

Browse through new products from ALA Editions and ALA Graphics

New Woman’s Day initiative
As part of its latest editorial initiative, Woman’s Day magazine is collecting stories on how the library has changed its readers’ lives. The magazine announced the initiative in its March 7 issue. Stories can be sent to womansday@ala.org from now until May 10, when the promotion closes....

Seven courses approved for
Public Library Administrator certification
The ALA-APA Certified Public Library Administrator Program Certification Review Committee approved seven courses in its first application review during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio....

COA accreditation actions
Accreditation is continued for the University of Arizona, Dalhousie University, Florida State University, and Long Island University, with conditional accreditation for Catholic University of America....

“Be Well Informed”
report issued
From November 2004 to January 2006, ALA and Walgreens joined together to provide consumer health education and promote libraries as sources of accurate, reliable health information. The project, called “Be Well Informed @ your library,” provided grants and other resources to 10 U.S. library systems. Its final report (in PDF format) is here....

Diversity Office wants
research grant proposals
Applicants must be current ALA members, and 2006 proposals must address one of three identified topics: an active learning and service approach to diversity in small or rural libraries; emerging technologies and services to diverse populations; or the role of the diversity committee, liaison, or officer in the creation of institutional change in libraries....

BCALA selects conference theme
“Culture Keepers VI: Preserving the Past, Sustaining the Future” is the theme for the 6th National Conference of African American Librarians. The conference, sponsored by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, is scheduled for August 2–6, 2007, in Fort Worth, Texas....

BCALA offers Smiley Student Fund
The Black Caucus of the American Library Association announces the Smiley Student Fund, whch will provide two applicants with funds to attend the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color in Dallas, Texas, October 11–15, 2006....

Convention Center repairs running
ahead of schedule
Repairs at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center are running ahead of schedule, and two halls—the same exhibit halls used by ALA for its Midwinter Meeting in 2002—that had originally been scheduled to reopen April 1 will host their first post-Katrina event this weekend....
New Orleans Times-Picayune, Feb. 14

Mardi Gras stirs pride,
nonchalance in New Orleans
New Orleans residents began the first post-Katrina Mardi Gras parade season with a mixture of pride, defiance, and a touch of nonchalance. In the picturesque French Quarter, the first parade marking the annual carnival began this weekend with brightly colored floats mocking government officials and a giddy pride that the “Big Easy” was on the road to recovery from Hurricane Katrina....
Reuters, Feb. 13

Mardi Gras success critical
to restoring city image
The Mardi Gras season, the crown tourism jewel of New Orleans, has become a crucial milestone for the city post-Katrina. By any measure, prosperity is vastly enhanced by the krewes, those lining the parade routes, and those visitors who come to view this spectacle. Success this year will be defined by other critical factors, too....
New Orleans City Business, Feb. 13

Do You Know What It Means
to Miss New Orleans?
New Orleans is a complex American city that is in dire need of help. Katrina and corporate greed threaten to wash away its nuances, and that is why Chin Music Press decided to gather the voices of the Crescent City in a special volume of essays, art, and information....
Chin Music Press

PLA closing session speaker announced
Paco Underhill will present the keynote address at the closing session of PLA’s 11th National Conference, March 25, in Boston. The author of The Call of the Mall: The Geography of Shopping (2005), Underhill will draw on research of over 20 years on how shoppers interact with stores and the geometry that, as he puts it, “rules the shopping universe.”...

New YALSA book on summer reading programs
YALSA has released a second edition of Sizzling Summer Reading Programs for Young Adults, edited by Katharine L. Kan. The book contains more than 50 successful programs, including details on handling registration, getting donations, creating partnerships, tracking reading, and promoting programs....

AASL recognizes five new SLMS programs
AASL announces the recognition of five graduate programs leading to a master’s degree in education with a specialization in school library media or master’s degree in library and information studies....

RUSA selects Spectrum Scholar as intern
RUSA has selected Megan Zoe Perez, a 2005 Spectrum scholar attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as the 2006 RUSA Intern....

ASCLA offers online course for
librarians serving Latinos
ASCLA will offer its first online course, “Selecting Spanish-Language Materials for Adults,” April 17–May 15, taught by Yolanda J. Cuesta....

ACRL urges action to preserve
scholarly electronic journals
The ACRL Board of Directors endorsed the statement “Urgent Action Needed to Preserve Scholarly Electronic Journals” at its January 24 meeting in San Antonio. Academic librarians, university administrators, and others issued the statement October 15, 2005, after participating in a meeting in New York City to discuss electronic journal preservation....

AASL appoints new KQ Web editor
Gayle Bogel will be responsible for content of KQ Web, the online companion to Knowledge Quest....

Robert D. Stueart elected to
ALA honorary membership
Robert D. Stueart was elected to honorary membership in action taken by the ALA Council at the 2006 Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio. Honorary membership, ALA’s highest honor, is conferred in recognition of outstanding contributions of lasting importance to libraries and librarianship....

Nancy Cline named 2006
Hugh Atkinson Award winner
Nancy M. Cline, Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard College at Harvard University, has been named the 2006 winner of the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. Named in honor of one of the pioneers of library automation, the Atkinson Award recognizes an academic librarian who has made significant contributions in the area of library automation or management....

Mary Jane Petrowski wins ACRL Dudley Award
ACRL Associate Director Mary Jane Petrowski is the winner of the ACRL Instruction Section’s Miriam Dudley Instruction Librarian Award. The honor recognizes a librarian who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of instruction in a college or research library environment....

Ray English is ACRL academic/research
librarian of the year
Ray English, Azariah Smith Root Director of Libraries at Oberlin College, Ohio, has been named ACRL’s 2006 Academic/Research Librarian of the Year....

ACRL names distance learning award winner
Monica Hines Craig, off-campus librarian for the Metro Detroit Region at Central Michigan University, has been named the 2006 recipient of the ACRL Distance Learning Librarian Conference Sponsorship Award. The award honors an ACRL member working in the field of, or contributing to the success of, distance learning librarianship....

ACRL distinguished education/behavioral
sciences librarian named
Elizabeth Oakley Hutchins, former coordinator of library instruction at St. Olaf College Libraries, was chosen to receive the 2006 ACRL Distinguished Education and Behavioral Sciences Librarian Award....

ACRL Samuel Lazerow fellowship
Kyung-Sun Kim, of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has been selected to receive the 2006 ACRL Samuel Lazerow Fellowship for Research in Technical Services or Acquisitions for her research proposal entitled, “Factors Affecting the Selection of Information Sources.”...

ACRL doctoral dissertation award
Jean E. Dryden, a doctoral degree candidate at the University of Toronto, has been awarded the 2006 ACRL Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for her proposal, “Copyright in the Real World: Copyright and Archival Material on the Internet.”...

ACRL rewards unique student orientation idea
Library Director Eva Lautermann, Information Literacy Librarian Sherry Durren, and Library Technical Assistant Lois Shelton, of the Georgia Perimeter College Jim Cherry Learning Resources Center, received the 2006 CJCLS/EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Program Achievement Award for their work on their CSI: Information Literacy orientation....

ACRL community/junior college
leadership award
Susan Anderson, director of libraries at St. Petersburg College, has been selected as the 2006 winner of the CJCLS/EBSCO Community College Learning Resources Leadership Award....

Interior library design competition extended
The deadline for submission of entries for the ALA/IIDA Library Interior Design Awards has been extended through March 15....

PLA announces 2006 award winners
PLA announces the winners of seven distinguished service awards....

ACRL Marta Lange/CQ Press Award winner
Graham R. Walden, humanities and social sciences reference librarian at the Ohio State University Libraries, has been named the 2006 recipient of ACRL’s Law and Political Science Section Marta Lange/CQ Press Award....

EPA libraries on the chopping block
Under President Bush’s proposed budget, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is slated to shut down its network of libraries that serve its own scientists as well as the public, according to internal agency documents released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility....
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Feb. 10

Vancouver (Wash.) library board votes for
mandatory internet filters
Mandatory filters will be installed on all computers in the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, the library board decided February 13. The 4–3 vote will eliminate the ability of users to turn off filters on some computers and view material that some find objectionable but that is legal....
Portland Oregonian, Feb. 14

They gave me half a million
to preserve rare books
Terry Belanger, director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, talks to Kiplinger’s about his MacArthur Foundation Fellowship....
Kiplinger's Personal Finance, Feb.

Bib-dating lures readers into Belgian libraries
“It’s speed-dating, but in a new setting—with books,” said Eric Van der Straeten, one of the librarians who came up with the idea. He and fellow Antwerp librarian Danny Theuwis are hoping their idea will kill off the stereotype of libraries as stuffy....
The Independent, Feb. 13

Waukegan’s Gertie the Bookmobile
could spend an active retirement in Louisiana
Waukegan (Ill.) library officials decided that after 50,000 miles and more than 40 years, Gertie should be retired. Then came a new idea, with a heroic twist: sending Gertie to Jefferson Parish, La., to serve readers in an area where Hurricane Katrina damaged 16 libraries....
Chicago Tribune , Feb. 14

Improving Literacy through School Libraries
The Improving Literacy through School Libraries (LSL) program promotes comprehensive local strategies to improve student reading achievement by improving school library services and resources. It focuses on funding to public school libraries in districts with 20% or more family poverty. Applications for the $19 million available are due April 11....
Department of Education, Feb. 10

Read captions across America
The National Association of the Deaf will launch “Read Captions Across America” nationwide as a part of the National Education Association’s “Read Across America” on March 2. “Read Captions Across America” is the first national reading event that puts emphasis on the importance of captioned media (DVD, video, CD-ROM, and Internet streaming) as a reading tool for children with or without a hearing loss....
National Association of the Deaf, Feb. 8

AP-AOL homework poll
The AP-AOL Learning Services poll on public attitudes of 1,085 parents and 810 teachers about homework was conducted online Jan. 13–23 by Knowledge Networks. An interesting result was that children go to librarians for homework help 4% of the time....
Washington Post, Feb. 7

Digital library initiatives:
Next-gen libraries
As digital repositories continue to evolve, keep your eye on these projects. They may serve as the models for your own digitization initiatives. An overview by Matt Villano....
Campus Technology, Feb. 1

Worldwide internet users top 1 billion in 2005
The worldwide number of internet users surpassed 1 billion in 2005—up from only 45 million in 1995 and 420 million in 2000. The 2 billion internet users milestone is expected in 2011....
Computer Industry Almanac, Jan. 4

What academic library users want
Bodley Librarian Reg Carr reflects on the development of a user-centered approach in academic libraries over recent decades and into the era of the hybrid library....
Ariadne, issue 46, Jan.

Libraries are turning to iPods and iTunes
When you think of an iTunes or iPod music library, odds are you think of a folder stored on a hard drive somewhere, full of music files, videos and podcasts. But iTunes and iPods are starting to take hold in traditional libraries as well....
Playlist, Feb. 13