Contents
U.S. & World News
ALA News
Booklist Online
Division News
Awards
Seen Online
Tech Talk
Publishing
Actions & Answers
Calendar

University of Illinois opens Chicago Annenberg Challenge files
Following accusations by conservative political writer Stanley Kurtz that the University of Illinois at Chicago blocked his access to documents that might portray presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in an unpatriotic light, the university issued a statement August 22 that the materials would be “available for public inspection” as of August 26. The release of the documents that day turned the sterile special collections room at UIC’s Richard J. Daley Library into a media frenzy. Kurtz had charged that the library had prevented him from examining Chicago Annenberg Challenge documents in the Special Collections Department that might connect Obama’s political agenda with that of former radical activist and UIC education professor William Ayers....
American Libraries Online, Aug. 22; Chicago Tribune, Aug. 27

Alaska college’s shutdown threatens historic collections
When Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska, shut down its operations last year, among the many logistical questions was what to do with the 48,000 items held by its Stratton Library. The oldest institution of higher education in the state, the 130-year-old school abruptly dismissed its 100 faculty and staff on June 29, 2007, following years of financial troubles. Former library director Ginny Norris Blackson and a group of around 20 librarians, museum workers, and other concerned individuals have been sorting through the materials and trying to protect them....
American Libraries Online, Aug. 22

Hartford branch reopenings delayed as officials squabble
Officials said two shuttered Hartford (Conn.) Public Library branches would not reopen August 25 as planned, due to a continuing squabble between the city council and Mayor Eddie A. Perez. After the council voted unanimously August 11 to restore $200,000 to the library’s budget, the library board announced that the Mark Twain and Blue Hills branches would reopen on the first day of school. But Perez claimed August 20 that because the action violated the city’s charter, he need take no action on it....
American Libraries Online, Aug. 22

Slow economy fuels surge in library visits
With the nation facing tough economic times, Americans are visiting their local public libraries more often and checking out items with greater frequency. Libraries across the United States report that more people are turning to libraries in record numbers to take advantage of the free resources available there. According to the ALA’s 2008 State of America’s Libraries Report, Americans visited their libraries nearly 1.3 billion times and checked out more than 2 billion items in the past year, an increase of more than 10% since 2001....

Print PSA features Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
The Campaign for America’s Libraries has a print public service announcement featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, honorary chair of Library Card Sign-up Month, available for free download. You can also have your library’s logo added to the PSA at no additional charge and a copy emailed to you in a PDF format within two weeks....

Conference enhancements
ALA President Jim Rettig writes: “By visiting countries other than your own, you can get a new perspective on how you might do things differently. Having attended conferences in other countries the past few months, I have gained new perspectives on library conference practices. I wonder which ones might enhance the Annual Conference experience for ALA members? How about a spirited closing ceremony featuring a girls’ marching drum corps (above), as I witnessed at the Crimea 2008 conference in Sudak, Ukraine?”...
Twilight Librarian, Aug. 25

Nancy Cartwright offers PSAs for Teen Read Week
Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, has recorded three public service announcements for Teen Read Week 2008. You can download the PSAs and use them to raise awareness about Teen Read Week. They can be played over school announcements or provided to a local radio station to use. Each PSA is 30 seconds long. Teen Read Week will be celebrated October 12–18....

Relive RUSA’s Literary Tastes Breakfast at Anaheim
Refresh your memories of jokes about Jewish mothers, or give yourself another chance to taste other choice morsels from the RUSA Literary Tastes Breakfast by viewing videos of the event or downloading them for your iPod. This year’s speakers were Lisa Margonelli (right, Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline), Jon Clinch (Finn), Joyce Antler (You Never Call, You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother), Ron Carlson (Five Skies), Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind), and Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Natural Born Charmer)....

YALSA Road Trip 2009
YALSA has launched a new initiative called the YALSA Road Trip, in which members will attend a library conference in every state in 2009. The division is seeking volunteers to host a social event, plan a program, or staff an exhibit booth at all state library conferences next year. The initiative grew out of YALSA President Sarah Cornish Debraski’s presidential theme, “Engaging the YALSA Community,” as well as member feedback asking for more localized opportunities to participate in YALSA....

Libraries chosen for YA Galley and Teens’ Top Ten Project
YALSA has selected 15 public libraries and school library media centers from across the country to participate in its YA Galley/Teens’ Top Ten Project. The selected libraries will receive review and galley copies of new young adult titles from the more than 30 participating publishers and choose the nominees for the Teens’ Top Ten, in which teens nationwide voice their choice for their favorite books each year. This year’s vote will take place October 12–18....

Global information literacy logo contest winner
Artist Edgar Luy Pérez of Havana, Cuba, has won the $3,000 prize for creating a global information literacy logo. The winning design was unveiled at the UNESCO session of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions annual congress in early August. Almost 200 designs were submitted by 139 artists from 36 countries. IFLA’s Information Literacy Section will develop a toolkit to promote the logo’s international use....
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Aug. 10

Try out for the Sparky Awards
Illustrate in a short video presentation your vision of the value of free exchange of information. The Sparky Awards are organized by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and cosponsored by ACRL, the Association of Research Libraries, Campus MovieFest, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Students for Free Culture, and the Student PIRGs. Videos must be no more than two minutes. Deadline for submissions is November 30....
Sparky Awards

2008 Carter G. Woodson Book Awards
The National Council for the Social Studies has announced the 2008 winners of the Carter G. Woodson Book Awards for the most distinguished social science books appropriate for young readers that depict ethnicity in the United States. The winner in the Secondary level is Don’t Throw Away Your Stick Till You Cross the River: The Journey of an Ordinary Man by Vincent Collin Beach, with Anni Beach (Five Star Publications)....
National Council for the Social Studies

Is Mickey’s copyright in rough waters?
As Mickey Mouse turns 80 this fall, the most beloved rodent in show business is widely regarded as a national treasure. Acts of Congress have extended Disney’s copyright so long that they provoked a Supreme Court challenge, making Mickey the ultimate symbol of intellectual property. But then a grumpy former employee looked closely at fine print long forgotten in company archives: Film credits from the 1920s reveal imprecision in copyright claims that some experts say could invalidate Disney’s exclusive rights....
Los Angeles Times, Aug. 22

Lawyer claims evidence withheld in child-porn case
The lawyer for former Beverly (Mass.) Public Library Director Thomas Scully said police failed until recently to turn over evidence that could clear his client of child pornography charges. Ronald Ranta said the evidence, which he described only as “images,” would have convinced a grand jury not to indict Scully in July 2005. Scully, who was Beverly’s library director for 19 years, is accused of inviting a teenage boy at the library to his home and allowing the boy access to child pornography on Scully’s home computer....
Salem (Mass.) News, Aug. 21

Lawrence library director keeps promise to eat bugs
Several months ago, the Lawrence (Kans.) Public Library director threw out a challenge. Bruce Flanders had vowed to eat insects if children participating in the 2008 summer reading program—“Catch the Reading Bug”—read lots of books beyond those required in the program. The 2,200 children and young adults in the program succeeded. On August 20, Flanders sat down in front of an audience of about 30 children to dine on a meal of barbecue-flavored mealworms. Watch the video (1:58)....
Lawrence (Kans.) Journal-World, Aug. 21

Kids protest Long Beach Main Library shutdown
Enraged over a city proposal to close the Long Beach (Calif.) Main Public Library, dozens of residents made emotional pleas to keep it open and some challenged the validity of city officials’ reasoning at a public meeting in the library auditorium August 26. “I don’t understand why you want to hurt us by taking away a place of our future and something dear to my past,” said 10-year-old Elizabeth Alvarado, who attended the meeting with about 30 parents, students, and other children....
Long Beach (Calif.) Press-Telegram, Aug. 26

Israel to display Dead Sea Scrolls online
In a crowded laboratory painted in gray and cooled like a cave, half-a-dozen specialists embarked this week on a historic undertaking: digitally photographing every one of the thousands of fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls with the aim of making the entire file—among the most sought-after and examined documents on earth—available to all on the internet. Scholars continually ask the Israel Antiquities Authority, the custodian of the scrolls, for access to them. The process will probably take one to two years—more before it is available online—and is being led by former Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Greg Bearman....
New York Times, Aug. 27

Layoffs possible at LSSI-managed library
The Jackson–Madison County (Tenn.) Library could lay off employees to make up for an operating deficit its managers blame on stagnant local government funding. Officials with Library Systems and Services, the Maryland-based company that operates the two branches, are slated to present a spending plan to the library board next month that trims $110,000 in planned expenses. Library costs have been rising, but city and county officials have not increased appropriations....
Jackson (Tenn.) Sun, Aug. 27

Poplar Bluff library staffer sues over Potter party
A former staff member is suing the Poplar Bluff (Mo.) Public Library after she says she was discriminated against and suspended from her job for refusing to promote a Harry Potter book she believes advocates “worship of the occult.” Deborah Smith, a member of Temple Baptist Church, filed suit in U.S. District Court in May, alleging that her participation in the library’s release party for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last summer would have forced her to engage in “promoting witchcraft to children.”...
Baptist Press, Aug. 7

The DCPL Shaw branch’s changing design
When the District of Columbia’s troubled library system started tearing down decrepit old branch libraries with the promise of snazzy, modern replacements, part of the justification for the demolitions was that the old buildings were outmoded, expensive-to-operate eyesores that repelled potential visitors. So when DCPL Director Ginnie Cooper presented Shaw residents with plans for a translucent, glass-encased jewel of a new library (above), the reaction was enthusiastic. And, although another budget crunch brought revised plans and an alternative bunker-like design, Cooper insisted that the glass façade be retained (see comments)....
Washington Post, Aug. 27

Windsor library spent $36K to fund CEO’s degree
Former Windsor (Ont.) Public Library CEO Brian Bell’s MBA and law studies cost the library more than $36,000, library board Chairman Alan Halberstadt said August 20. That includes money for textbooks, tuition, examination fees, and copying costs while Bell studied part-time at the University of Windsor from January 1999 to December 2007. Bell left the library earlier this month and library board members have remained tight-lipped about whether he resigned or was fired....
Windsor (Ont.) Star, Aug. 20

Hawaiian libraries must manage with trimmed budget
Public libraries in Hawaii will have to offer fewer books, and they might experience a delay in filling vacant positions, because of a $2.1-million budget cut this fiscal year, officials told the state Board of Education August 19. The state’s slowing economy prompted lawmakers to trim the library’s budget by more than $900,000, and Gov. Linda Lingle imposed a 4% spending restriction on all state departments, or some $1.1 million for libraries....
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Aug. 20

Israel fears a thief stole bits of its musical legacy
The National Library of Israel in Jerusalem has determined that hundreds of items are missing from its music section, including photographs, manuscripts, and letters by Yehudi Menuhin, Jascha Heifetz, Pablo Casals, Felix Mendelssohn, and Richard Strauss. Many items are also gone from the archive of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Tel Aviv and a historic music library in Haifa. The police have named as a suspect a 60-year-old Haifa architect who for several years has been visiting the nation’s archives claiming to be a music buff doing personal research....
New York Times, Aug. 20

National Library of Australia building turns 40
The National Library of Australia is celebrating 40 years since the opening of its iconic building in Canberra. Director-General Jan Fullerton said the building, with its Parthenon-like columns, is considered one of the city’s landmarks. But in mid-August, a public accounts committee suggested NLA may have to cut 45 jobs over the next four years if budget pressures do not ease. Assistant Director-General Warwick Caesar said the library might have to limit lending collections to other institutions and exhibitions, and that its world-class collection of Indonesian materials is also under threat....
ABC News (Australia), Aug. 25; Melbourne (Vict.) Age, Aug. 21

27,000 books destroyed in Plympton Library fire
Firefighters fought in vain to save a public library containing 27,000 books August 20 in an early morning blaze. The alarm was raised at 4:30 a.m. after flames were reported coming from the Plympton Library in Plymouth, England. There were initial fears that the library housed an important local history archive, but city council officials said all irreplaceable materials had been transferred to the Plymouth Central Library two years ago....
Plymouth (U.K.) Western Morning News, Aug. 21

Take that, stupid printer!
Farhad Manjoo writes: “Because the industry operates on a classic razor-and-blades business model—printers themselves aren’t pricy, but ink and toner refills cost an exorbitant amount—printer manufacturers have a huge incentive to get you to replace your cartridges quickly. Many brands are outfitted with sensors or software that try to predict when they’ll run out of ink. Often, though, the printer’s guess is off. However, instructions for fooling different laser printers into thinking you’ve installed a new cartridge are easy to come by.” For other printer problems, try fixyourownprinter.com....
Slate, Aug. 21

Top 10 calendar tricks
Kevin Purdy writes: “Your online or desktop calendar can do a lot more than just hold dates and tell you about them. Free programs and tweaks can integrate appointments into your email app, embed a whole-month view into your wallpaper, schedule birthdays without a single phone call, and improve your faulty memory for everything. Take a look at 10 free and customizable hacks you can apply to your own appointment-keeping system.”...
Lifehacker, Aug. 27

AskKids.com relaunches with drawing feature
Nathania Johnson writes: “Finding online learning resources that are safe, well-designed, and fun for my kids is important—but inexplicably difficult. That’s why I was thrilled to learn about Ask.com’s expansion and redesign of AskKids.com. And at the bottom right corner of the front page, there’s a box with a pen, pencil, and highlighter. You can grab one of the utensils with your mouse and draw directly on the page! It rocks. There’s also a tab for ‘stickers’ that you can put on your drawing.”...
Search Engine Watch, Aug. 27

New YouTube uploader powered by Gears
You can now upload videos larger than 100MB to YouTube without installing dedicated software. YouTube started to use Gears to upload videos. The latest version of Gears introduces some new features that make manipulating large files much easier. The multivideo uploader is useful if you want to upload more than one video from a single video and if some of your videos are more than 100MB. Each video can be up to 10 minutes in length and up to 1GB in size....
Google Operating System, Aug. 25

Web 2.0’s most ridiculous sites
Robert Luhn writes: “Alas, not every Web 2.0 site is a winner. Many are vague, pointless, or just plain silly. As web critic Nicholas Carr notes, ‘If I were called in to rename Web 2.0, I think I’d call it Gilligan’s Web.’ How do you identify a dumb Web 2.0 site? First, the site’s mission statement must be impenetrable. Second, the site must solve a problem that has been solved a million times already. Third, its name must love the letter ‘r’ but eschew vowels.”...
PC World, Aug. 18

National bestseller lists
Philip Stone writes: “There are worse ways of finding out about a country than looking at its book charts. For instance, strange as it may seem, Takiji Kobayashi’s Marxism-inspired Kanikosen (The Crab-Canning Boat, right) is a bestseller in Japan at the moment, 79 years after it was first published. But given the currently bleak economic climate in the country, you can see why a story about the struggles of poor laborers might be appealing reading.”...
The Guardian (U.K.), Aug. 21

Kindle 2.0 in the works
Michael Arrington writes: “More rumors about the new Kindle are emerging. The first device will have a similar-sized screen as the existing model but will have a much enhanced form factor. The second will be a large-screen device aimed at students and will come later. Somewhere around a quarter of a million Kindles have been sold to date and Amazon is clearly pushing out the last of the current units via a credit-card promotion on their site that drops $100 off the $359 device.”...
TechCrunch, Aug. 26; Business Week, Aug. 25

Why we keep buying new field guides
Jesse Smith writes: “This month sees the centennial of the man credited with creating the modern field guide, Roger Tory Peterson. The moment is marked with the release of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, combining for the first time the famed birder’s guides to eastern and western birds. Field guides remain popular, both in terms of sales and in the number of titles available. Peterson’s guides alone have sold in the millions; name almost any taxonomic group or any location, and there’s probably a field guide for it.”...
The Smart Set, Aug. 21

10 reasons not to write off reading from a screen
Michael Bhaskar writes: “Over the past few months there has been much discussion of an impending digital revolution in the way we read books. While much of this is hyperbole, there has been incredulity in many quarters that anyone would ever want to read from a screen. We are all attached to books, and the idea seems at first glance anachronistic. However there are some good reasons why it might not go away as quickly as you’d think. Here’s why.”...
Writer’s Handbook Blog, Aug. 11

Loss of privacy may mean loss of security
Journalist and philanthropist Esther Dyson writes: “Privacy is a public Rorschach test: Say the word aloud, and you can start any number of passionate discussions. One person worries about governmental abuse of power; another blushes about his drug use and sexual history; a third vents outrage about how corporations collect private data to target their ads or how insurance companies dig through personal medical records to deny coverage to certain people. This issue of Scientific American focuses mostly on technologies that erode privacy and technologies that preserve it. But to help frame the discussion, I’d like to lay out three orthogonal points.”...
Scientific American (Sept.)

Key stakeholders in the digital transformation of higher education
Ithaka’s white paper (PDF file) summarizing its 2006 survey is the first to offer an extensive comparison of attitudes and perspectives of academic faculty with those of academic librarians on the perceived roles of the library and librarian on campus; the effects of transitioning to electronic material on library practice; the place of digital repositories in the campus information-services landscape; and the future plans of academic libraries. Librarians surveyed include both directors and collection development leaders from a wide variety of four-year academic institutions across the United States....
Ithaka, Aug. 18

Common launches The Corner
The Common Ground Foundation, created by hip-hop artist, actor, and children’s author Lonnie Rashid Lynn (known as “Common”) dedicates itself to the empowerment and development of urban youth in the United States. Now the Common Ground Foundation has launched The Corner, a national online book club. This interactive platform provides youth, ages 13–18, with an opportunity to learn about and discuss reading materials that are relevant to their lives. Featured books convey messages of tolerance, compassion, and nonviolent expression....
I Love Libraries

Storytimes for autistic children
Kiera Parrott writes: “Between 1- and 1.5-million Americans are autistic, so it is no surprise for librarians to see increasing numbers of autistic children at their programs. In early May, a teacher contacted me about bringing her class of special learners for a library visit. I decided to do a bit of research on autism, the autism spectrum, and teaching methods before their visit. What I came away with were a few basic guidelines.”...
ALSC Blog, Aug. 23

RDA: The basics
Ann Chapman writes: “Resource Description and Access is the new cataloging code due to be published next year. The development process has generated (sometimes heated) discussion. It’s designed as an online resource. RDA is a content standard—a set of guidelines for describing a resource. It sets out what information needs to be recorded and in what level of detail in order to support the catalog user in finding, identifying, selecting, and obtaining a resource, enabling them to make informed choices.”...
Update (CILIP), Aug. 15

FCC seeks comments on e-rate changes
For schools that rely on e-rate funding for telecommunications and internet access, changes are afoot that could impact planning as soon as funding year 2009. The FCC is seeking comments on potential changes (PDF file) that in some cases would narrow the list of eligible technologies and in other cases expand it. The notice was released July 31; comments are due by September 17. One topic under consideration is whether standalone internet filtering products should be funded by e-rate....
T.H.E. Journal, Aug. 22

Favorite fictional librarians
David Wright writes: “In a recent post, I enthused about a few of my favorite fictional librarians, and invited others to share their favorites. The suggestions that followed were many and varied, ranging from Public Librarian Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl (right), to Henry DeTamble from Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, to Garth Nix’s Lirael, who is given a job as assistant librarian, which turns her whole life around.”...
Shelf Talk, Aug. 21

WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry
OCLC is piloting a new service for libraries that encourages librarians to discover and share information about the copyright status of books. The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry is an effort to build a union catalog of copyright evidence based on WorldCat. Its goal is to encourage a cooperative environment to discover, create, and share copyright evidence through a collaboratively created and maintained database, using the WorldCat model to eliminate duplicate efforts....
OCLC, Aug. 25

10 simple rules for crushing innovation (satire)
David Donathan writes: “Change is not popular. Heck, people hate change. It causes the status quo to become unsettled and the familiar starts to go away, replaced with uncertainty. Our comfort zone is demolished and we have to try to resettle into uncharted territory. I have a unique program called ‘Endiscouragement: The Fine Art of Encouraging No Change Without Being Perceived as a Naysayer.’ It has 10 simple rules, which, if judiciously applied, will gradually lead the agents of change to conform to the culture of No that we are so carefully trying to preserve.”...
University Business, July

10 ways to cope with information overload
Sarah Houghton-Jan writes: “What is information overload? 27 instant messages. 4 text messages. 17 phone calls. 98 work emails. 52 personal emails. 76 email listserv messages. 14 social network messages. 127 social network status updates. 825 RSS feed updates. 30 pages from a book. 5 letters. 11 pieces of junk mail. 1 periodical issue. 3 hours of radio. 1 hour of television. That, my friends, is information overload. Here are 10 techniques for managing it, each in a distinct area of information input.”...
Ariadne 56 (July)

The European Digital Library
In August, the European Commission urged the EU member states to step up efforts to digitize their cultural works and give Europeans access to museums and libraries at home without having to travel. Some libraries have already begun digitization projects, but the progress is slow. While countries like Slovenia are making exemplary headway, only one in four German museums that have digitized material offers online access to it....
Euronews, Aug. 26; PublicTechnology.net, Aug. 26

I Am—The Library
I Am—The Library is an ethnographic video project, which documents the everyday ways a public library is used. Set in and around the Denver Central Library a few weeks before the 2008 Democratic National Convention, it was inspired by the social and oratorical work (“I Am—Somebody”) of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a former presidential candidate whose life work as a civil rights activist was triggered when, as a 20-year-old college student, he fought to desegregate his hometown public library....
Rocky Mountain PBS, Aug. 11

The Democrats go to Denver, 1908
The Denver Public Library is putting on an exhibition called “1908: When the Democrats First Came to Denver” through October 31. The show has more than 100 photographs and artifacts and is a joint exhibit of DPL and the Colorado Historical Society. In this video recap (7:55) of the exhibit, CHS’s Judy Steiner narrates a script by DPL’s Myron Vallier. The three songs included—“Democratic Fun,” “Denver Auditorium March,” and “Pickles and Peppers”—were originally written for the 1908 Democratic Convention, which nominated William Jennings Bryan for President....
Denver Public Library

The Night Bookmobile
Chicago writer and artist Audrey Niffenegger’s 2004 short story “The Night Bookmobile” has been serialized in graphic-novel format in The Guardian newspaper, one page every Saturday, beginning on July 5. It tells the story of an insomniac woman who goes out for a late-night walk and makes a remarkable literary discovery: “The first time I saw the night bookmobile, I was walking down Ravenswood Avenue at 4 o’clock in the morning.”...
The Guardian (U.K.), July 5–Aug. 23

Hi-fi, sci-fi library
Michael Porter writes: “Several months ago LITA asked me to be one of their keynote speakers at their upcoming National Forum (October 16–19). This made me happy, proud, excited, and, well, a little nervous. What might get people’s toes tapping before the presentation? Yep! A groovy library song! As far as I am concerned, what the world needs is a collection of ‘hi-fi, sci-fi libraries.’ And I was so excited about this idea that I just had to sing it out loud,” accompanied by David Lee King (left) and a host of library celebrities and supporters. This video (high-res version here) (4:27) is meant to be played LOUD. Lyrics and credits are here....
Libraryman, Aug. 23; blip.tv, Aug. 23

ALA Midwinter Meeting, Denver, January 23–28. Exhibit dates are January 23–26. Explore marketing and advertising opportunities.

On November 15, libraries across the country will participate in National Gaming Day @ your library—the largest, simultaneous national video game tournament ever held. Kids will be able to compete against players at other libraries and see their scores in real-time online while playing at their local library. For more information, contact Jenny Levine.

Join hundreds of librarians and library supporters who have already written a message of thanks and appreciation to Julie Andrews for her efforts on behalf of libraries and librarians as the Honorary Chair of National Library Week 2008. Send an electronic thank-you card, available through September 1.