October 18, 2006
AL Direct is a free electronic newsletter e-mailed
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Contents:
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Booklist Online
Seattle Update
Division News
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Tech Talk
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FAQ
EPA allegedly plans to reduce access to online publications
According to internal e-mails obtained by the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a national alliance of federal and state environmental-resource professionals, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to remove from its libraries online access to various technical journals and environmental publications. Among the subscriptions allegedly targeted for cancellation are online newsletters supplied by commercial publisher Inside EPA (including the Superfund Report and the Clean Air Report)....
Wisconsin joins Google library project
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has become the eighth library to join Google’s project to digitize books and provide access to their contents through its search engine. The agreement, announced October 12, will initially focus on public-domain materials from the 7.2-million items held by the university and the Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin’s initial contributions to the Google Books Library Project will target holdings in the history of medicine, patents and discoveries, the history of engineering, American and Wisconsin history, Wisconsin state documents, and genealogical materials....
Schwarzenegger vetoes California RFID bill
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has quietly vetoed a bill that would have ensured that state use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in drivers’ licenses and library cards would contain privacy safeguards. The Identity Information Protection Act (SB 768) was buried in a list of 73 bills the governor vetoed September 30. Schwarzenegger said in a statement that the legislation might contradict federal mandates for government ID cards that are yet to be released....
Chicago
Public Library honors Mamet, raises half a million
The Chicago Public Library Foundation marked its 20th anniversary with an October 12 fundraiser honoring Chicago author and playwright David Mamet (right) that garnered a record $525,000 in support for the library. Presented with the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, Mamet said, “My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library,” and he credited the library and the education he received in the reading room of the old central library for his accomplishments as a writer....
Fire destroys Indiana library
The four-year-old Williamsport–Washington Township (Ind.) Public Library burned to the ground the evening of October 8 in what officials believe to be arson. State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson told reporters October 9 that the fire started near the library’s trash collection area and quickly spread to the roof....
Jackson board contracts with LSSI despite opposition
After a sometimes contentious meeting October 4, trustees of the Jackson–Madison County (Tenn.) Library signed a contract with Maryland-based management firm Library Systems and Services, commonly known as LSSI. The company’s services are expected to begin November 1, one day after the official retirement date of current library director Thomas L. Aud, who has opposed the plan....
Beleaguered New Jersey librarian resigns
Hasbrouck Heights (N.J.) Public Library Director Michele Reutty submitted her resignation to the library board finance committee October 2, some six months after local officials threatened disciplinary action because she refused to release patron records to law enforcement officers until she received a subpoena as mandated by state law. The information that police eventually received led to the identification of a man suspected of sexually threatening a child....
Missouri trustees pull graphic novels, for now
The board of the Marshall (Mo.) Public Library voted 7–1 October 11 to remove from circulation the two coming-of-age graphic novels Fun Home by Alison Bechdel and Blankets by Craig Thompson until trustees have codified a material-selection policy—a process that could take months to complete....
National Library resource diversity study released
Diversity Counts, a comprehensive study of gender, race, and age in the library profession, uses 1990 and 2000 Census data (the most current available), and finds that the nearly 110,000 credentialed librarians were predominantly ages 45–54, female, and white. The number of racial and ethnic minorities receiving accredited MLIS degrees grew to around 13% in 2000 from 9% in 1990....
Office for Research and Statistics and the Office for Diversity
Let's Talk About It online archive launched
The Public Programs Office has announced the creation of a new online resource for librarians interested in Let’s Talk About It—a reading and discussion program model launched on a nationwide level for libraries in 1982. The program model involves reading a common series of books selected by a nationally known scholar, and discussing them in the context of a larger, overarching theme. The archive provides a wealth of information related to previous Let’s Talk About It national programs for libraries....
Sister Libraries program videoconference
The U.S. Embassy hosted a digital videoconference on the ALA Sister Libraries program October 2. Hector Marino of the Des Plaines Illinois Public Library, talked about the institutional exchange benefits for participant libraries. The activity was carried out jointly with the Association of Librarians of the Republic of Argentina....
U.S. Embassy, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Seattle on the silver screen
If television and movies are to be believed, your trip to Seattle is going to be a whirlwind of sweeping romance (Sleepless in Seattle),
quirky mystery (Twin Peaks), and abject terror (The Ring), where you might meet bizarre new friends (Harry and the Hendersons) before landing yourself in the hosptial (Grey’s Anatomy). To prepare for all of this excitement, why not spend some time with your tube getting aquainted with the city?...
Wikipedia
RCL website unveiled
Choice magazine, a publishing unit of ACRL, and R. R. Bowker, publisher of Books in Print, launched the online edition of the highly anticipated new Resources for College Libraries on September 29. RCLweb, a database of hand-selected core titles for academic libraries, will be the successor to ALA’s classic reference work, Books for College Libraries, 3rd Edition....
ALCTS
announces fall/winter Continuing Education Events
ALCTS has posted its fall/winter Continuing Education Events schedule.
Upcoming workshops include “Principles of Controlled Vocabulary
and Thesaurus Design,” “Digital Project Management Basics,”
“Metadata and Digital Library Development,” and “Basic
Subject Cataloging Using LCSH.”...
LAMA to offer Midwinter course on buildings management tools
Any library staff member who is facing or considering a library renovation, remodeling, or entirely new library facility is invited to register for “The Complex Edifice: Analyzing Your Dream Library!” Sponsored by LAMA, this two-day institute will be held January 18 and 19, 2007....
A new day for RUSA journal and website
Coinciding with a redesign of Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), RUSA has launched a new companion website. Guided by open access principles, the online component is available to all users, not just RUSA or ALA members. The website provides full-text articles—including a searchable database from 1997 to the present—and communication with authors via a blog....
New York Times honors academic librarians
October 20 is the deadline for nominating a university librarian for the first ever New York Times Academic Librarian Awards. Nominators must be current students, faculty, or college staff members, and provide reasons why their nominee is deserving. Three librarians will each win $2,500 and a plaque, and have their names printed in a December issue of the newspaper....
New York Times
JCLC bestows Advocacy, Author, and Distinguished Service Awards
The Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Awards and Scholarships Committee gave the $1,000 Advocacy, Author, and Distinguished Service Award to 15 recipients at their October 11-15 conference. Each of the five ethnic caucuses of the ALA named one recipient in each award category....
Nominations sought for Kilgour award
Nominations are invited for the 2007 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, sponsored by OCLC and LITA. The $2,000 award honors research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work which shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect of the publication, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information or the processes by which information and data is manipulated and managed....
Manuscripts sought for LITA/Endeavor student writing award
LITA is offering an award for the best unpublished manuscript submitted by a student or students enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program. Sponsored by LITA and Endeavor Information Systems, the award consists of $1,000, publication in LITA’s refereed journal, Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL), and a certificate....
Library for the blind and physically disabled wins excellence award
State librarian Nancy Robertson today announced that the Washtenaw County Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled is the recipient of the 2006 State Librarian’s Excellence Award for exemplary public service. The Library of Michigan Foundation gives this honor, which includes a trophy and $5,000 in privately raised funds to be used for library service, to one Michigan library annually....
Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries, Oct. 13
Colorado Springs homeless depend on library access
Each day, Penrose (Colo.) Library logs 1,500 to 2,000 visits—a cross section of society. The homeless have long sought out Penrose as a refuge from the streets in cold weather or as a place to wait until the soup kitchen, a block away, opens for lunch. Although the library has been praised for its even-handed enforcement, not everyone feels safe at Penrose. Security officers say more than anything, many people aren’t comfortable being around the homeless....
Colorado Springs Gazette, Oct. 16
Syracuse auctions rare books for construction funds
To raise money for the construction of a new seminar room inside the Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center, SU’s Library Associates will host a “rare and select book auction October 19. The sale will include books donated by faculty and alumni, library board members, as well as duplicates from the SCRC’s own inventory, which includes 100,000 rare books. Books bound for the auction block include out-of-print and early editions, volumes signed by prominent writers, and artifacts of historical interest.”...
Syracuse (N.Y.) Post-Standard, Oct. 15
North Sarasota Library featured in national calendar
The North Sarasota branch of the Sarasota (Fla.) County Library System has been chosen as one of 14 buildings that will appear in the 2006 Green Building Wall Calendar, a national publication of buildings that have received Gold and Platinum status ratings by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. The library was rated for excellence in sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources and indoor environmental quality....
Bradenton (Fla.) Herald, Oct. 17
Massachusettes library on the rebound
The Millis (Mass.) Public Library, which just a few months ago faced serious budget cuts, is now a beehive of activity. The library warded off a reduction in hours when voters approved a $1.16-million property tax override this spring. Now, a series of new programs and improvements is in the works. The library is offering Starbucks coffee to parents who bring their children to story hour, expanding the DVD collection by 50%, and allowing patrons to bring magazines home for the first time....
Boston Globe, Oct. 12
97,000
Kentucky students receive special library cards
A partnership of the Louisville Free Public Library and Jefferson County Public Schools will give 97,000 area students a “Student Power Plus” card that provides access to the full resources of the public library system, including the online resources available through school, home, and portable computers. The customized library cards will be individually imprinted with the student’s name....
City of Louisville, Kentucky, Oct. 12
Has the iPod for books arrived?
Blake Wilson
reviews the new one-two punch of the $350 Sony Reader e-book and the 10,000-title, big-publishing-house-backed Connect e-book store. The one-time consumer-electronics superpower clearly hopes the pair will become something of an iPod-plus-iTunes for books. The Reader is being hawked as a product for book lovers, not one exclusively for geeks....
Slate, Oct. 13
Rekindling the e-book fire
Andrew Pace writes: “I’ve waited a month since Engadget put this scoop out on their website—the Amazon Kindle. News of Amazon’s apparent attempt to go head-to-head with Sony by launching its own e-ink reader were thwarted, however, by a withdrawn FCC application and relative silence from the online book retailer. We were all left guessing.”...
Hectic Pace blog, Oct. 12
Conversation
seeking some conversation
R. David Lankes and Joanne Silverstein have produced a draft of Participatory
Networks: The Library as Conversation and are looking for comments,
feedback, corrections, and additions. The report, produced for the OITP,
describes how Web 2.0 technologies can impact the various conversational
modes of a working library....
ALA and the Information Institute of Syracuse
Mass blog to capture a day in the life of the UK
People throughout the United Kingdom are being asked to contribute to a mass blog recording a day in the life of Britain. October 17 has been picked as an “ordinary day much like any other of no particular national significance.” The blogs will then be stored by the British Library and at other locations as a permanent record of everyday life....
BBC News, Oct. 13
Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography turns 10
A decade after the first 2006 edition, the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography has released Version 64 of its selection of articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources useful in helping to understand scholarly publishing efforts on the internet. Also published is Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals, which gives more in-depth coverage to the open access movement and related topics....
Scholarly Electronic Publishing Biography, Oct. 17
Charlotte library offers virtual service to virtual teens
The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and the Alliance Library System are collaborating on “Eye4You Alliance,” an online space that will offer virtual library services to teens in Teen Second Life—a 3-D, international gathering place on the internet where teens create a digital version of themselves that they use to travel around a virtual world....
Alliance Library System, Oct. 6
Using “personas” to market your library
While libraries are essentially service organizations, customers engage with library “products” in their interactions with libraries. These products include such items as a website, an online “room,” a printout of a reference guide, a children’s program—some would even go so far as to say the staff and the physical space are products. Personas—characters created from a composite of data that emerges from research—provide a means to understand customer and non-customer expectations of products....
SirsiDynix OneSource 2, no. 10, (Oct. 16)
Tower Hamlets booklist unlocked
The fifth annual Tower Hamlets, London, teen booklist (PDF file) was launched October 9 by Idea Stores and Libraries and the Schools Library Service. This year’s list, entitled “Unlocked,” features 56 titles, all published in the last 12–15 months. All the books were reviewed by Tower Hamlets secondary school librarians, public library staff, and schools library service staff....
Tower Hamlets Schools Library Service, Oct. 9
World Book releases online reference tool for kids
As students head back to the classroom this fall, World Book, Inc. is introducing World Book Kids. This new online reference tool starts with content from World Book’s Student Discovery Encyclopedia and adds activities that apply to the thousands of articles. Features include tools for educators as well as encyclopedia browsing and role-playing activities for children....
Yahoo Finance, Sept. 6
Wikipedia co-founder plans “expert” rival
Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia and the site’s former editor-in-chief, is launching a rival site called Citizendium. It will include user registration and editorial controls to govern user-submitted articles, unlike the free-for-all submission process that reigns on Wikipedia. With “gentle” controls in place, Sanger said Citizendium will naturally weed out so-called trolls from posting obscenities or biased information....
C|net News, Oct. 16
Al Gore to speak at 2007 SLA annual conference
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will deliver the opening keynote address during the 2007 SLA Annual Conference June 3–6 in Denver. Gore will speak to conference participants on Sunday, June 3 during the opening general session. Gore is also expected to sign copies of his new book prior to his address at the Colorado Convention Center....
Special Libraries Association, Oct. 11
Plug-in suggests local libraries as an alternative
Book Burro is a free download for the Firefox browser that, when a user looks at a bookstore website, gives him or her a heads-up that the book might be available cheaper somewhere else—or even available for free at a local library. Blogger Edward Vielmetti writes about Book Burro’s recent 2nd place win in OCLC’s Worldcat mashup contest....
Superpatron blog, Oct. 2
A tour of the nation’s biggest cartoon library
Ohio State University professor Lucy Shelton Caswell, curator of the university’s Cartoon Research Library, talks about the nation’s largest collection of cartoons in this audio clip (9:48). The library, which operates like a rare books archive and houses over 25,000 comic strips, develops and provides access to a comprehensive collection of materials documenting American printed cartoon art, including editorial cartoons, comic books, graphic novels, and sports and magazine cartoons....
National Public Radio, Oct. 10
Impact of Google digitization project discussed
A symposium titled “Scholarship and Libraries in Transition: A Dialogue about the Impacts of Mass Digitization Products,” presented by the University of Michigan, analyzed the legal, social, and economic concerns of the ambitious Google digitization project. Trudi Bellardo Hahn summarizes the discussion, which focuses on five “targets of digitization: libraries; research, teaching, and learning; publishing; economics; and public policy.”...
American Society for Information Science and Technology Bulletin, Oct./Nov.
The future of Google? (PDF file)
Time’s Evan Eisenberg takes a humorous stab at “a few can’t-miss ideas that the search giant should introduce.” Among the highlights are Ex Search (“find out if they're seeing anyone”), Senior Search (“find out what you went upstairs for”), Koogle (“find recipes for potato or noodle pudding”), and Germle (“share illnesses with friends through your computer”)....
Time, Oct. 16
If Jane Fonda was a librarian
This 1987 college video project (4:40) may be a little on the amateur side, but it’s still pretty funny. Betty Glover (right) of the Charles Trumbull Hayden Library at Arizona State University, leads her staff through a demanding workout, including such library-themed exercises as “the card catalog pull,” “the book truck push,” and “the phone book stack”—while sweatin’ to such oldies as Huey Lewis and Van Halen....
YouTube
A day in the life of a library security guard
Joel Hilton, a senior at BYU, takes a reporter through a typical day on the job at the main library. As he roves about, Hilton observes a girl-gazing student run face-first into library sensor machine (after which Hilton notes the time so that he can watch it again on security tape), and describes what it was like to get sprayed with pepper spray—a legal requisite before he could carry it. “It’s like having your eyes on fire and you can’t put it out.”...
BYU NewsNet, Oct. 10
Pretzel-eater outsmarts library security
The New York Times’s “Metropolitan Diary,” culled from the observations of New Yorkers, presents a short but amusing dialogue between an overzealous library security guard and a patron who just wants to finish his mustard-covered pretzel....
New York Times, Oct. 16
January 19–24, 2007, Seattle, Washington. Find out how to register on the ALA website.
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A monstrous amount of cultural programming. The ALA PPO is developing the Online Resource Center for Library Cultural Programming. It’s your one-stop shop for programming ideas, partners, funding, training, materials and more.
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The November 9 ACRL Fall Virtual Institute, “The User at the Center,” will focus on how libraries can use technologies and practice to put the user at the center of the information enterprise on campus. The registration deadline is October 26.
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PLA Results service responses were discussed at the 2006 ALA Conference and the resulting summaries are now open for responses until October 20.
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