Contents:

U.S. & World News
ALA News
Booklist Online
New Orleans Update
Division News
Awards
Seen Online
Actions & Answers
Poll
Datebook
AL Direct FAQ

House holds hearings on social-networking websites
The House of Representatives held hearings July 11 on whether schools and libraries should be made ineligible for e-rate funding unless they bar minors from access to social-networking websites like MySpace and Friendster. Testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet came two months after the introduction of the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), H.R. 5319....

Indiana inmates challenge ban on sexually explicit material
Two inmates have challenged a new policy that bans printed material containing nudity or sexual content from Indiana prisons. The class-action lawsuit, filed July 11 in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, says the policy, which went into effect July 1, could prohibit materials ranging from sexually explicit letters to daily newspapers, as well as some bestselling novels, such as those by Jackie Collins, previously available through the prison library....

Tucson to install privacy screens
County supervisors decided July 11 to spend $40,000 to install privacy screens around the newly county-run Tucson-Pima Public Library’s 446 public computers. The board also considered installing filters on all computers, but postponed that decision, the July 12 Tucson Arizona Daily Star reported....

Chicago homeless woman indicted in gay collection arson
A 21-year-old homeless woman was indicted July 13 on charges that she set fire to the gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender and African-American sections of the Chicago Public Library’s John Merlo branch, located in the heavily gay Lakeview neighborhood....

Judge orders former Rolling Hills librarian reinstated
A federal magistrate has ordered the Rolling Hills Consolidated Library in St. Joseph, Missouri, to reinstate the manager of its Savannah branch, who was fired in May 2003 for refusing to work on Sundays because it conflicted with her religious beliefs....

Colorado woman gets probation for stealing 800 books
A woman involved in the theft of hundreds of books from the Weld Library District in Greeley, Colorado, was sentenced July 10 to three years on intensive probation and 120 hours of community service....

Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship created
ALA and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences have announced the creation of a Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship. The new program will recruit and provide full tuition support and stipends to 10 full-time library and information science doctoral students for all four years of study. The Institute of Museum and Library Services is providing nearly $1 million to fund the program....

Nearly 1,400 libraries “Step Up to the Plate @ your library”
Libraries across the country are celebrating an all-American summer pastime and the role libraries play in building 21st-century literacy skills by participating in the Step Up to the Plate @ your library program, developed by ALA and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Since the program began in April, nearly 1,400 libraries have registered for the program to gain access to free tools to help promote the program locally....

New CPLA online courses approved
The Certified Public Library Administrator Program Certification Review Committee approved two more program courses—the first library school–sponsored courses to be approved—at ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Robert Burger, associate university librarian for services at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will teach the two core courses: budget and finance, and organization and personnel management....

COA announces accreditation actions
At Annual Conference, the Committee on Accreditation granted continuing approval of master’s programs at the universities of Alberta, Maryland, North Texas, and Pittsburgh. Conditional accreditation was granted to the master’s program at the University at Buffalo School of Informatics....

New Orleans libraries still need assistance
From the outside, the Algiers Regional Branch of the New Orleans Public Library doesn’t look that bad. But once you enter the library, you see the loose wires hanging from where the ceiling panels used to be, the discolored concrete floors where carpet and tile have been removed, and the completely bare walls....
Cincinnati Community Press, July 13

Soccer stars to kick off Teen Read Week
This year’s Teen Read Week cochairs embrace both sports and reading. For Major League Soccer players Los Angeles Galaxy Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and Chicago Fire Midfielder Chris Armas, reading is not only a basic survival skill but it offers welcome relaxation after a day on the field. YALSA, along with Hartman and Armas, are encouraging teens to “Get Active @ your library” and read for fun during Teen Read Week, October 15–21....

YALSA social-networking statement (PDF file)
Social-networking technologies have many positive uses in schools and libraries. They are an ideal environment for teens to share what they are learning or to build something together online. The nature of the medium allows students to receive feedback from teachers, peers, parents, and others. Social-networking technologies create a sense of community (as do the physical library and school) and in this way are already aligned with the services and programs at the library/school....

PLA workshop on strategic planning
On September 18, PLA will sponsor a workshop, “Implementing for Results: From Idea to Action,” in Pittsburgh that will provide library managers with the skills they need to use their library’s strategic plans as blueprints for change....

ACRL membership survey, part two
Steven Bell reports on the findings of the division’s May survey that show which programs and services respondents valued the most. Bell writes, “There is a clear preference for the newsletter and discussion lists among newer (younger?) members, while those who’ve been members more than 20 years prefer conference programs.”...
ACRLog, July 17

Publications in Librarianship series editor sought
ACRL is accepting applications for the position of editor of Publications in Librarianship, a series of monographic and edited volumes that reports research and scholarly thinking in academic and research librarianship. The editor is appointed for a non-renewable five-year term....

Silent auction benefits Gulf Coast libraries
ALSC has raised $2,050 for the benefit of the ALA Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund. Bidders responded enthusiastically to a silent auction of original art from the 2006 Newbery and Caldecott Medal award-winning books conducted at the ALSC membership booth during ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans....

Brian Gray is new LAMA web coordinator
LAMA announced its selection of Brian C. Gray as web coordinator for 2006–2008. Gray is librarian at the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland....

Eastern Germany’s library landscape (PDF file)
From March 16 to 23, eleven members of ACRL’s Western European Studies Section participated in a study tour of libraries in the former East Germany. Sam Dunlap and Barbara Walden report on their activities....
International Leads 20, no. 2 (June)

New award for best audiobook
YALSA and ALSC have announced a new award for the best audiobook produced for children or young adults. The Odyssey Award, which will debut at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in 2008 and represent the best audiobook released in 2007, is sponsored by Booklist magazine....

H. W. Wilson receives LAMA President’s Award
LAMA has selected the H. W. Wilson Company and the H. W. Wilson Foundation to receive the prestigious President’s Award for 2006 in honor of their continuing sponsorship of the John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award....

Agati and Bisom win LAMA Leadership Awards
LAMA has selected Joe Agati and Diane Bisom as recipients of its 2006 Leadership Awards. These awards honor individual LAMA members for outstanding contributions and support to the division....

LAMA/YBP Student Writing and Development Award
Elizabeth Nelson, a student in Dominican University’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science, has been awarded the 2006 LAMA/YBP Student Writing and Development Award for her manuscript titled “Library Statistics and the HAPLR Index.” Nelson’s paper will be published in a future issue of Library Administration & Management magazine....

LAMA fundraising scholarship winners
The LAMA Fund Raising and Financial Development Section has selected two winners for the 2006 Diana V. Braddom Scholarship: Kim Hale, acting director and head of collection management for the library at Columbia College Library in Chicago, and David Hurley, director of the Diné College Libraries in Tsaile, Arizona....

ALSC announces scholarship winners
ALSC has announced the 2006 recipients of its Frederic G. Melcher and Bound to Stay Bound Books scholarships. The scholarships are awarded annually to students who plan to enter ALA-accredited programs, obtain a master’s degree in library science, and specialize in library service to children....

MLA grants and scholarships
The Medical Library Association awarded more than $40,000 in grants and scholarships to outstanding students and practicing health-sciences information professionals. The recipients were recognized May 22 at its annual conference in Phoenix....
Medical Library Association

Bookworms keep jail librarian hopping
Ron Wasson can breeze through a Louis L’Amour book in less than a day. He isn’t alone; many of his fellow inmates at the Cascade County regional jail are eager to get their hands on L’Amour’s books. Fantasy and fiction are by far the most popular genre among the inmates, said Judy Erickson, one of few jail librarians....
Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune, July 17

Slam poetry book remains on high-school library shelves
The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop, and the Poetry of a New Generation, edited by Mark Eleveld, will stay in the Sequim (Wash.) High School library because its poetry opens up the wider world. That was the Sequim School District Board of Directors’ decision in a special July 17 meeting....
Port Angeles (Wash.) Peninsula Daily News, July 18

Students mourn beloved school librarian
The bodies of Mary Cooper, 56, a librarian at Alternative Elementary No. 2 at Decatur Elementary School in Seattle, and her 27-year-old daughter Susanna Stodden were found July 11 along the Pinnacle Lake trail near Mount Pilchuck in the Mount Baker–Snoqualmie National Forest. The two women had been shot to death during a day hike. For 15 years, Cooper called Decatur’s library her classroom. The students thought of her as another teacher, and she shared her passion for reading....
KOMO-TV, Seattle, July 14; Court TV, July 19

Art museum public library planned
A $36-million plan to double the size of the Queens Museum of Art may lead to its becoming the first art museum in the country with a public library inside, officials say. A proposal is being considered to place a branch of the Queens Library inside the New York City Building, which has housed the museum since 1972....
New York Daily News, July 13

Shakespeare First Folio auctioned
A rare mint condition First Folio edition of William Shakespeare’s plays fetched £2.8 million ($5.2 million) at a July 13 auction. The result at Sotheby’s in London was below the top estimate of £3.5 million and less than the salesroom record for a comparable copy of $6.2 million made at Christie’s auction house in New York in 2001....
Reuters, July 13

Canadian online used-bookseller Abebooks.com celebrates 10th anniversary
This low-profile company has made money from day one. And unlike many internet ventures, Abebooks has never used venture capital to finance its growth. How did this online bookseller establish roots in Victoria, British Columbia? And how did it help transform the business model of bricks-and-mortar used bookstores?...
Toronto Star, July 17

Manitoba reserve opens first public library
The Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation on July 17 became the first reserve in Manitoba to open a public library branch. The branch, located in the new Atoskiwin Training and Employment Centre on the northern reserve at Nelson House, is a partnership with the public library in Thompson, 65 kilometers to the east....
CBC News, July 17

Those good old internet days of 1993
Punctuation marks that look like smiley faces express happiness on a new communication tool known as “Internet.” “In this world there’s a table with a big sign on it saying football,” explains a computer expert in this six-minute CBC Television clip from Toronto, dated October 8, 1993. Also viewable as a YouTube video....
CBC Archives

How cool is a job with comics?
Cindy Jackson, assistant archivist for the special collections department of James Branch Cabell Library, is the first to agree with her friends when they call her one of the luckiest employees at Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU is one of a handful of universities nationwide to have a full-time employee devoted to its collection of comic arts....
Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, July 16

Underground Railroad Bicycle Route
The Adventure Cycling Association has partnered with the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Minority Health to develop the Underground Railroad Bicycle Route project to highlight African-American history in combination with a focus on minority health issues. They have mapped out a 2,000-mile bicycle route following the path of the fabled Underground Railroad from Mobile, Alabama, to Owen Sound, Ontario. Libraries along the route are natural public centers, ripe with opportunities to support the riders and to create programming to illuminate the history....
WebJunction Community Center, June

OCLC to open up WorldCat searching
In a move designed to reach users outside library environments, OCLC is planning to launch a new destination site and downloadable search box for searching the content of libraries participating in WorldCat. Scheduled for a beta release sometime in August, the new WorldCat.org site will continue OCLC’s efforts begun with its Open WorldCat program to make library resources more visible to web users and to increase the awareness of libraries as a primary source of reliable information....
Information Today, July 17

Flooding in New York State
The New York State Library in Albany has created a web page that lists disaster-assistance contact information for libraries affected by flooding caused by excessive rain in late June and early July. Also available is a compilation of flooding damage reports in the state....
New York State Library

Telecommunications reform bills
The U.S. Congress is considering nine bills that constitute the second major rewrite of the Telecommunications Act in 70 years. Telecommunications policy affects every American family in ways that determine their access to information, how much they pay for it, and even the quality and diversity of that information. The Benton Foundation provides a summary of each bill....
Benton Foundation

Developing a school ethics policy
A comprehensive ethics policy is a living document developed by the entire community or institution under the guidance of a leadership team that includes the school librarian and technology coordinator and key representatives of local and district administration, the school board, faculty, parents, and students. Knowledge Quest Editor Debbie Abilock outlines eight steps for creating a reasonable policy....
Noodle Tools, July 3

Purdue pushes for increased librarian diversity
Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has doubled the size of its participation in the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce, a nationwide effort launched by the Association of Research Libraries. In April, the library system brought 15 of the nation’s top minority graduate library students for a tour. Dean of Libraries James L. Mullins is committed to bringing another group of students to campus in April 2007....
Purdue University, July 11

JSTOR Open Africa program
As part of its mission to create an archive of scholarly literature and extend access to the archive as broadly as possible, JSTOR has been waiving participation fees for any academic or not-for-profit institution on the continent of Africa, beginning July 1. This plan affects new participants, as well as institutions that currently participate....
JSTOR

Hereby resolved
So what’s the thing that Andrew Pace wishes we could linger on, improve, and finish? How about link resolvers? The introduction and subsequent widespread use of link resolver software (simply put, the knowledge-base service that gets patrons from citations to full text) is one of the greatest library technologies of the decade....
Hectic Pace, July 18

16 elements you must include in your website design
Website designer Herman Drost writes: “When I first started out doing web design work I only focused on the design. I did not think ahead how to prepare the site for promotion until I had finished the actual design. I think a lot of web designers still think and act this way...they build the site first, then think about the marketing aspect later. This is a big mistake!”...
Web Host Directory, July 4

Lifelong Access Libraries Leadership Institute (PDF file)
In recognition of the public library’s unique position to act as a springboard for the millions of baby boomers currently reaching retirement age, the Americans for Libraries Council is convening an elite group of librarians in North Carolina at the end of July to participate in the nation’s first Lifelong Access Libraries Leadership Institute....
Americans for Libraries Council, July 17

Apply for American Masterpieces
American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius is a major initiative to acquaint Americans with the best of their cultural and artistic legacy. Through American Masterpieces, the National Endowment for the Arts will sponsor performances, exhibitions, tours, and educational programs across all art forms that will reach large and small communities in all 50 states. The deadline for applications is September 21....
National Endowment for the Arts

Contact members of Congress to oppose the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA), H.R. 5319.

A direct successor to 1988’s Books for College Libraries (3rd edition), the print edition of Resources for College Libraries is scheduled for publication by ACRL and R. R. Bowker in October 2006. This 7-volume set offers a core collection of hand-selected titles in 58 curriculum-specific subject areas.

Register now for the LITA National Forum in Nashville, Tennessee, October 26–29. LIS graduate students who are willing to assist on-site may be eligible for a 50% discount on the registration rate. Contact LITA for details.