Contents
U.S. & World News
ALA News
Booklist Online
D.C. Update
Division News
Round Table News
Awards
Seen Online
Tech Talk
Actions & Answers
Calendar

SKILLs Act gives high marks to school librarians
As some 50 librarians attending the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., looked on, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives announced June 26 the introduction of the Strengthening Kids’ Interest in Learning and Libraries Act, which mandates every public school district in the nation “to the extent feasible [to have] not less than one highly qualified school library media specialist in each public school” by the start of the 2010–11 school year....

Potential victory for librarians: EPA library funding
After considerable pressure by librarians, researchers, and the public, the Senate is pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency to restore its library network. In its FY2008 Interior Appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee ordered EPA to reopen the closed libraries: “$2,000,000 shall be used to restore the network of EPA libraries recently closed or consolidated by the administration.” The bill is headed to the full Senate. The House appropriations bill does not contain the EPA library language....
District Dispatch blog, June 29

FTC cautions against net neutrality legislation
The Federal Trade Commission issued June 27 a 170-page report titled Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy (PDF file), which largely dismisses the necessity of establishing laws to protect network neutrality—the principle of a nondiscriminatory internet that forbids service providers from charging increased fees for higher tiers of service....

Nashville library spared budget cut
The $1.57-billion FY2008 budget approved by the Nashville (Tenn.) Metropolitan Council June 26 restores $800,000 that was initially planned to be sliced from the public library’s budget to balance the municipality’s 2007–08 books. Had the cut gone through, Nashville Public Library would have had to reduce service by 10 hours per week at the main library and close eight branches on Sundays....

Residents rally to save Bowling Green branch
Some two-dozen concerned residents gathered June 25 to discuss ways to save Bowling Green (Ky.) Public Library’s Smiths Grove branch (right). The library board of directors voted June 18 to close the branch as of September 1, as well as to eliminate Sunday hours systemwide beginning July 1, after losing 50%—$150,000—of the library’s county funding....

Weekly’s use of “F” word irks Missouri patron
St. Louis area resident Richard Greathouse has called for Jefferson County (Mo.) Public Library to remove the free weekly Riverfront Times newspaper from distribution there. Greathouse saw the paper while he took his 13-year-old son to the library’s Northwest branch to research birds, and complained to Library Director Pam Klipsch. “The content of this thing really upset me,” Greathouse said. “They use the ‘F’ word in there.”...

Media diversity in libraries
The ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee’s Subcommittee on the Impact of Media Concentration on Libraries issued a guideline in June titled Fostering Media Diversity in Libraries: Strategies and Actions (PDF file). The document is designed to provide libraries, library consortia, and library networks with a centralized list of strategies and actions to help them provide access to a diverse collection of resources and services....
Don Wood: Library 2.0 blog, June 29

Char’s Annual Conference superlatives
Queens (N.Y.) Library staffer Char Gwizdala provides her take on the best tote bags and exhibitor coffee bar, the friendliest greeter, the best national monument to visit at night, the best library blimp promotion (right), the best vendor swag, and other ALA Annual Conference superlatives....
Char’s blog, June 28

Studying Students available in September
ACRL will release Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester in September. This book, edited by Nancy Fried Foster and Susan Gibbons, provides a view into the groundbreaking application of ethnographic tools and techniques to the understanding of undergraduate students and their use of information....

LIRT’s top 20 for 2007 (PDF file)
The Library Instruction Round Table presents reviews of the 20 best articles relating to library instruction and information literacy published in 2006. LIRT’s Top 20 Committee convened at the Midwinter Meeting to select 20 articles out of 150 that provide the best mix of practical and theoretical perspectives from a variety of library environments....
LIRT News 29, no. 4 (June): 5–8

SLA recognizes five for outstanding service to the profession
At its annual conference in Denver, the Special Libraries Association honored Terri Brooks, Patricia Cia, Toby Pearlstein, Gail Stahl, and Wei Wei as SLA Fellows. The honor of Fellow of SLA is given to an association member in mid-career to recognize past, present, and future service to the profession....
Special Libraries Association, June 21

UK public votes on favorite Carnegie and Greenaway books
At the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals’ Carnegie and Kate Greenway Anniversary party June 21, journalist Mariella Frostrup declared the nation’s favorite medal-winning books to be Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights and Shirley Hughes’s Dogger. Pullman received 40% of the total Carnegie votes cast by the public in an online poll; Dogger took 26% of the votes for the Greenaway of Greenaways....
Chartered Iinstitute of Library and Information Professionals, June 22

D.C.’s King Library declared a historic landmark
The District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board granted historic-landmark status to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library June 28, giving the deteriorating Mies van der Rohe building a legal protection against getting demolished. The decision came a day after the Washington Examiner reported Mayor Adrian Fenty’s administration’s decision to shelve plans to sell the building and build a new central library on another site....
Washington City Paper, July 3; Washington Examiner, June 27

Harry Potter’s legacy benefits authors, readers
Penn State librarian Steven Herb, author of two children’s literature textbooks, can’t think of any other book as wholeheartedly anticipated throughout the world as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, due out July 21. Here he reveals some of the secrets of author J. K. Rowling’s success and makes some predictions about what the last book in the series might contain....
StateCollege.com, June 27

A real-life civics lesson
After a year-long letter-writing campaign—and a publicity boost from the New York Daily News—students at a Bronx public school have gotten a reward for civic activism: a brand-new, $200,000 learning center and library funded by elected officials. The campaign started out as a civic lesson; P.S. 41 students targeted local officials, asking for help funding a new library after a 2003 population surge turned the old library into a school classroom....
New York Daily News, July 3

Brehm-Heeger encourages youth reading
Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County’s teen reading specialist Paula Brehm-Heeger, who just became YALSA president, says that teens are reading more now. “There is more material being published for teens,” Brehm-Heeger said. “And the reading programs have been effective in getting them to read for fun. They are coming to the library and reading more books, magazines, newspapers, and periodicals.”...
Cincinnati Enquirer, July 5

In the spirit of a far-seeing librarian
At the turn of the last century, visionary librarian Gratia Countryman began delivering books to the residents of rural Hennepin County, even though her Minneapolis Public Library was under no obligation to do so. Believing that “schools and libraries are not luxuries in a democracy,” she went on to create a network of libraries throughout the rural countryside to encourage literacy for all. She called them the People’s Schools....
Minneapolis Star-Tribune, June 15

Your job prospects in 2030
Stuart W. Elliott, director of the Board on Testing and Assessment at the National Research Council says that by 2030, the question of what skills current employers might want could be moot for most jobs. By then, according to his pilot analysis (PDF file) of how many jobs might be gobbled up by computers, 60% of human jobs as we now know them—including 74% of U.S. library, training, and teaching positions—may disappear....
Education Week, June 13

Recipe book is a top library fundraiser
300 Years of Black Cooking in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, was first published in 1975, but it has been enjoying a revival of sales since the St. Mary’s County Library system reissued it in September 2005. After 1,000 copies sold out within a year, the library had a second 1,000 copies printed last fall. Part of the $6,000 profit that the library system received from sales has gone to support such programming as lectures by a children’s author and a one-woman show about Harriet Tubman....
Washington Post, July 1

Hattiesburg’s long Katrina recovery
Although she started working at the Hattiesburg (Miss.) Public Library after Hurricane Katrina hit, library assistant Chris Thornhill said she still could see the damage. And until recently, the library wasn’t back to normal, with all areas open and shelves completely restocked. For months after the hurricane, scaffolding scaled the walls, roof tiles were loose, water dripped in through the ceiling, and the library’s Mississippi Tower and meeting room were closed....
Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, July 5

California public libraries bursting at the seams
After missing two chances in the past year to gain state funding, libraries in Los Angeles County and throughout the state are struggling to meet a massive demand for new facilities that far exceeds available funds. But in June 2006, state voters rejected a $600-million bond measure to build new libraries. And earlier this month, a $4-billion library bond proposal for next year’s ballot was held in committee in the state legislature, dashing the hopes of library supporters who say local resources are not enough to meet the demand....
Los Angeles Daily News, June 27

Where do the books go when a college closes?
The Antioch College Board of Trustees announced in June that after a century and a half of educating the young and the restless, the Yellow Springs, Ohio, school will close permanently a year from now. Still undetermined, though, is the fate of the Olive Kettering Library. “We are told that the library will be maintained. What that means, I’m not sure,” said Curator of Special Collections Nina Myatt in an interview last week at the library....
Chicago Tribune, July 1

Sno-Isle’s new pilot library
Sno-Isle Libraries in Marysville, Washington, hired five staff members, bought 4,000 new books, DVDs, and audio books, and budgeted $300,000 to be spent this year—all on a library that isn’t expected to last more than three years. The Camano Island branch is a first. It’s Sno-Isle’s first pilot library in at least 20 years—and the first of the organization’s 21 branches designed to look like a bookstore....
Everett (Wash.) Herald, June 30

Rochester agrees to internet restrictions
The Rochester (N.Y.) Public Library will follow the recommendations from a task force to use the library’s internet filtering software to block all pornographic sites unless—after a written request—an administrator deems a site appropriate for a patron to view. The city’s library board relented in order to preserve $6.6 million in county aid. Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks had threatened to pull the money if the Central Library didn’t ban pornographic websites....
Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, July 3

Toronto libraries offer museum passes
Beginning July 3, Toronto Public Library users can borrow a Sun Life Financial Museum and Arts Pass, in the same way they can borrow a book or CD from the collection. The pass provides full admission to a family of up to two adults and five children to the Art Gallery of Ontario and at least four other Toronto cultural institutions....
Toronto Public Library, June 27

The library was the perfect place for a new immigrant
How does a newcomer to the U.S. get acclimated? A Russian woman found all she needed in one spot. Svetlana Grobman describes how she first learned English as a library shelver in a Midwestern town 17 years ago, then went on to get a library science degree at the local university....
Christian Science Monitor, July 2

Second Earth (free registration required)
The World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an immersive, 3-D visual environment that combines elements of social virtual worlds such as Second Life and mapping applications such as Google Earth. What happens when the virtual and real worlds collide? Wade Roush writes that “many computer professionals think the idea of a ‘Second Earth’ mashup is so cool that it’s inevitable, whether or not it will offer any immediate way to make money.”...
Technology Review, July/August, pp. 38–48

Can U TXT the LBRY?
Michael Stephens writes: “We talk these days about going where the users are. What the librarians at Southeastern Louisiana Univerity noted was the prevalence of students using text messaging to communicate with each other. Could the library have a place there? Should the library try? One thing is for sure, the experience is useful to consider as we look for more ways to reach our users and their information needs.”...
ALA TechSource blog, June 29

The Apple iPhone reviewed
When he announced the iPhone, Steve Jobs said to expect three things: “an incredibly great cell phone,” “the best iPod we’ve ever made,” and “the internet in your pocket.” One out of three isn’t bad. Yes, the iPhone is the best iPod ever—ironic for something not even called an iPod! But it’s just a plain lousy phone, and although it makes some exciting advances in handheld web browsing, it’s not the internet in your pocket....
PC Magazine, June 30

The iPhone and other internet tablets
Casey Bisson writes: “Sure, the iPhone is a sweet phone (even at $600), but how does it compare to the less definable internet tablet category? The iPhone, Pepper Pad 3, OLPC (right), and Nokia n800 all have feature-complete browsers and can take advantage of the rich Web 2.0 applications their larger cousins can. And each offers some local applications, including media players. But these aren’t general-purpose PCs, and they’re not trying to replace PCs. These are Information Age devices that deliver the network in places we generally don’t bring our laptops.”...
maisonbisson blog, June 28

Meebo works on the iPhone (kinda)
Josh Lowensohn writes: “The team behind Meebo has feverishly been trying since June 29 to get it working on Apple’s iPhone. One of the handset’s shortcomings is its lack of an instant messaging client. Meebo, which has been providing a web-based IM client that mimics desktop chatting software, did not work come iPhone launch due to the mobile version of Safari using its double-tap navigation. Meebo requires double clicking to start up an IM conversation, and many of the buttons and window functionality were simply not working.”...
Webware, July 3

iPhone sells out faster than an ’80s rock star
Thomas Ricker writes: “Unless you live in or near Tigard, Oregon, or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, chances are you’ll be out of luck this week if you’re jonesin’ for that quick retail fix of consumer crack called the iPhone—Apple’s retail locator lists the iPhone as unavailable for the rest of the nation. Sales have been so brisk in the first week that AT&T claims to have ‘sold more iPhones than in the first month of any other wireless phone AT&T ever offered. That’s how good it’s been.’ However, neither Apple nor AT&T have released any figures.”...
Engadget blog, July 5

Facebook to library apps: Drop dead
Steve Lawson notes that libraries are having their apps rejected by Facebook staff, apparently for a variety of reasons: “I’m not ready to give up on Facebook yet. For one thing, it’s fun. For another, it really is where our users are. The group for the class of incoming Colorado College students already has 354 members two months before school starts. Now whether Facebook really wants a Colorado College library application—when that valuable profile space could be taken up with SuperPoke!, Food Fight!, or Booze Mail—who’s to say?”...
See Also... blog, July 3

Putting the world in WorldCat
Andrew Pace writes: “Seems like a guy can barely put a print column to bed before there’s another change in the library automation landscape. OCLC has just purchased the remaining shares of OCLC PICA, the European arm of the library cooperative formed in 2002, two years after OCLC acquired a majority of shares (60%) in the Dutch PICA (Project for Integrated Catalogue Automation). This deal, the value of which is unreported (but which is likely forthcoming), gives OCLC the remaining 40%.”...
Hectic Pace blog, July 3

979-prefixed ISBNs to appear early in 2008
The first ISBNs to be prefixed by 979 are likely to be assigned in the second quarter of 2008, according to a recent press release from the International ISBN Agency. This is the first public announcement to include a date for the appearance of 979-prefixed ISBNs. The news is important for everyone in the book trade. Until now, all 13-digit ISBNs have been prefixed by 978, allowing systems to contain both 10- and 13-digit ISBNs for all books. Once the 979 prefixes are introduced, there can be no 10-digit equivalents for 13-digit ISBNs....
Book Industry Study Group, June 6

12 laws every blogger should know
For U.S. bloggers in particular, blogging has become a veritable land mine of potential legal issues, and the situation isn’t helped by the fact that the law in this area is constantly in flux. This article highlights 12 of the most important U.S. laws related to blogging and provides some simple and straightforward tips for safely navigating them....
Aviva Directory, May 1

SOLINET’s scenarios for the future of libraries
The Southeastern Library Network has released a 10-page report (PDF file) detailing results of recent discussions regarding the future of libraries. The report is the result of a series of 12 discussion groups SOLINET facilitated with its member libraries. The discussions focused on three scenarios (PDF file) that depict libraries three to five years into the future. Participants debated what was likely, unlikely, and missing in each of the scenarios....
SOLINET, July 5

Mellon awards Columbia $563,000 for primary-source project
Columbia University Libraries has received a $563,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a three-year pilot project that will award a series of internships to graduate students to collaborate with librarians in the organization and description of primary source collections. The project began July 1....
Columbia University Libraries, June 29

NCLIS support for school media specialists (PDF file)
At its June 4–5 meeting, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science approved a resolution advising Congress that “every school library be staffed by a highly qualified, state certified school library media specialist.” Chairman Beth Fitzsimmons said that NCLIS was heartened by the bipartisan SKILLs Act legislation instroduced June 27....
U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, July 2

New members named to Depository Library Council (PDF file)
Acting Public Printer William H. Turri has appointed six new members to the Depository Library Council, which advises the Public Printer on the Federal Depository Library Program. They are Gwen Sinclair, Victoria Trotta, Christopher Greer, Kathryn Lawhun, John Shuler, and Kendall Wiggin....
Government Printing Office, June 28

Making every school moment count
The International Reading Association has released Making Every Moment Count: Maximizing Quality Instructional Time (PDF file), a collection of short papers by nine educational organizations (including AASL). The free publication, in part, responds to the narrowing of curriculum that has occurred under No Child Left Behind....
International Reading Association, June 21

Journal of Curriculum and Instruction debuts
The inaugural issue of East Carolina University’s Journal of Curriculum and Instruction highlights the efforts of teachers and researchers as they implement exemplary literacy practices at a time when such efforts have been challenged and undermined by political influences. Guest editor Terry S. Atkinson says that the journal will emphasize best practices, rather than techniques for preparing students to score well on high-stakes assessments....
Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 1, no. 1 (July)

Biblioteca Santiago in Chile
A student filmed and produced this wordless musical video (3:58) that showcases the many types of services and activities available at the public library in Santiago, Chile. The art gallery, reading rooms, storytime, internet terminals, martial arts class, the graphic novel collection, the café, even the restrooms are featured....
YouTube, June 1