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

Union University library OK after Tennessee tornado
Tornadoes that rampaged across three states February 5, killing 44 people, struck hard at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. College President David S. Dockery credited emergency planning and broadcast warnings in the tornado-prone region with preventing fatalities, but the school’s dormitories were severely hit and academic and administrative buildings destroyed. The university’s Emma Waters Summar Library, however, was unharmed....

Massachusetts library revisits security after child molested
A convicted sex offender is being held without bail after allegedly raping a 6-year-old boy January 30 in a reference-room magazine aisle at New Bedford (Mass.) Public Library’s Main Library. During the assault, the child’s mother was working at a computer some 10 feet away in an adjacent hallway, NBPL Director Stephen Fulchino told American Libraries, and had given the child crayons and paper to keep him occupied....

FISA Amendments Act passes without safeguards
The U.S. Senate passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (S. 2248) February 12 without important civil liberties safeguards that would have added some privacy protections to the surveillance standards in FISA. ALA had previously expressed its support for various civil liberties proposals, including the significant purpose amendment, the bulk collection amendment, the protecting Americans’ international communications amendment, and other proposals that would have shortened FISA’s sunset period....
District Dispatch, Feb. 12

Fire closes Cathedral City library
A February 1 roof fire caused an estimated $2 million in damage to the roof of Cathedral City branch of the Riverside County (Calif.) Library System, forcing its closure for an estimated six to eight weeks. The fire took place late in the evening and was extinguished within 40 minutes. It was caused by roofing repairs performed that day that used propane torches for welding....

Merola named director of ALA Office for Advocacy
Marci Merola, interim director of the ALA Office for Library Advocacy, has been appointed the office’s first full-time director. She assumed her new duties on February 11. OLA was established September 1, 2007, in response to ALA members naming advocacy as one of their top priorities in the ALA Strategic Plan. The office will focus its activity on providing resources and support to state and local advocacy efforts....

Make your mark in the ALA election
ALA wants your vote in the 2008 election. The polls for this year’s election open March 17. All paid ALA members as of January 31 are eligible to vote and free to choose either an online or a paper ballot. As in previous elections, there will be an extended period between the last date for requesting a paper ballot (March 3) and the last date for returning the ballots (April 24 at 11:59 p.m. CST)....

Eight dynamic speakers set for Annual Conference
The ALA Auditorium Speaker Series will feature eight distinguished speakers: TV producer and writer Stephen J. Cannell, lawyer and former Clinton administration advisor Vernon Jordan, literacy activist Greg Mortenson, author and librarian Don Borchert, pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, astronaut Sally Ride (right), and scientist and author Tam O’Shaughnessy. The series is part of the ALA Annual Conference, held in Anaheim, Calfornia, June 26–July 2....

Women share a secret: “I got my start at the library”
Continuing a seven-year partnership with ALA’s Campaign for America’s Libraries that has generated millions of dollars worth of editorial coverage on behalf of libraries, four entrepreneurs share their stories of how they started businesses using the library in Woman’s Day magazine’s March issue (PDF file). Also included in the article is a sidebar with tips on how to “jump-start your small business at the library,” written by reference librarian Celia Ross....

Submit a star for National Library Workers Day
Start the celebration early for National Library Workers Day, April 15, by telling the world what makes your favorite library employee special. This year, in addition to honoring library staff for delivering stellar service, the ALA–Allied Professional Association also wants to hear about library programming, equipment, and benefits that are helping staff improve their health. NLWD Stars and workplace wellness initiatives will be featured on the National Library Workers Day site for one year....

Grants available for “Let’s Talk About It: Love & Forgiveness”
The ALA Public Programs Office, in collaboration with the Fetzer Institute’s Campaign for Love and Forgiveness, is now accepting applications for “Let’s Talk About It: Love and Forgiveness,” a theme-based reading and discussion program. Complete application information, including program guidelines and reading lists, can be found online. The deadline for applications is July 15....

New Online Communities RFP
Jenny Levine writes: “Today we’re officially releasing the RFP (PDF file) to migrate our current Online Communities service to Drupal. Proposals are due by February 18 because we have a short turnaround time on this project and we need to get moving on it. A revamped Online Communities is one of the building blocks for a new version of MyALA.”...
ITTS Update, Feb. 7

Yo, ALA! 2008 Midwinter Meeting wrap-up
ALA visited Rocky Balboa’s hometown of Philadelphia January 11–16 for the Midwinter Meeting, and this knockout video captures much of what made the week so hard-hitting: basketballers, whistleblowers, celebrity authors, catalogers, candidates, skulls, cheesesteaks, and more. Yo, ALA: We did it!...

Tutor.com named Teen Tech Week promotional partner
YALSA announced that Tutor.com, provider of Live Homework Help through more than 1,800 libraries in North America, will once again be a promotional partner for the second annual Teen Tech Week, March 2–8. Judy Nelson of the Pierce County (Wash.) Library System will host a free webinar March 6 about the library’s experience offering Live Homework Help....

Teen Tech Week mini-grant winners
YALSA has announced the winners of its 20 Teen Tech Week mini-grants. The grants give each winning library $450 cash and $50 worth of official products to offer inventive activities, resources, and services to celebrate Teen Tech Week, March 2–8. The grants were made available by Dungeons & Dragons, a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast....

YALSA endowment fund
YALSA’s new endowment received a boost at the Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia when several past presidents led the charge at the all-committee meeting to help reach the division’s $10,000 goal for creating an Endowment Fund. The division has surpassed its initial goal and has received a total of $11,300 to date. The funds will go toward establishing leadership programs such as scholarships and institutes....
YALSA Blog, Feb. 9

PLA’s Virtual Conference
PLA will hold its first-ever Virtual Conference March 27–28 during the association’s 12th National Conference in Minneapolis. The Virtual Conference will provide public librarians and public library workers who can’t make the trip an opportunity to participate in all the excitement surrounding a PLA conference. The Virtual Conference will include many elements of the live conference, including high-quality educational programming, poster sessions, and networking opportunities with colleagues....

Hear the ACRL candidates
In this podcast (16:55), College & Research Libraries News editor-in-chief David Free interviews Lori Goetsch of Kansas State University and Janice Simmons-Welburn of Marquette University, the 2008 candidates for ACRL vice-president/president-elect....

ACRL professional development presentations
ACRL is inviting proposal submissions for half-day or full-day professional development programs to be held prior to the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting or the 2009 ALA Annual Conference. Submissions will be accepted through April 7. Professional development programs should allow participants to develop skills related to a specific topic and should focus on interactive learning through a variety of presentation styles....

Try a virtual poster session
PLA is seeking interested parties to submit virtual poster sessions as part of the upcoming PLA Virtual Conference (March 27–28). The topic of your poster session can be of your choosing, but it must be related to public librarianship. Virtual posters can be submitted as web pages, PowerPoint presentations, or other formats that can be mounted on the Web. Proposals are due by February 21. Email Kathleen Hughes with details....
PLA Blog, Feb. 8

Design a logo for EMIERT
The Ethnic and Multicultural Information Round Table is holding a competition for the most original and useful logo. They want a logo that will be appealing, gain attention, and reflect EMIERT’s identity as the source for information, publications, and presentations on the diversity of ethnic and multicultural populations of the world. The winner(s) will receive a cash award of $250. Entries are due by May 1....

Notes from a new librarian
Holly Wilson, assistant editor of the New Members Round Table’s Footnotes newsletter, reviews her first year as a professional librarian in this article from the February issue. She writes: “After living in Chicago for 10 years, I accepted a position in Brooklyn, New York, and had approximately six weeks to get my husband and myself packed, moved, and ready to start my new position. Looking back on it, I would recommend planning out a fairly detailed timeline. It ended up being pretty down to the wire in my situation as far as getting ready for the move.”...
NMRT Footnotes 37, no. 3 (Feb.)

Duane Webster receives Lippincott Award
Duane E. Webster, executive director of the Association of Research Libraries, is the 2008 recipient of the ALA Joseph W. Lippincott Award. The award, founded in 1938, is given annually to an individual for distinguished service to the profession of librarianship and consists of a 24K gold-framed citation and $1,000 donated by the award founder’s grandson, Joseph W. Lippincott III....

Michael Cart wins award for service to young adults
YALSA has named Michael Cart the inaugural winner of the Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Achievement Award. The $2,000 grant, given every other year, recognizes a YALSA member who has demonstrated unique and sustained devotion to young adult services through substantial work in several initiatives....

ALA Presidential Citation to recognize gaming
Gaming now has an official ALA presidential seal of approval, and that means a chance for libraries to shine a spotlight on their gaming programs. ALA President Loriene Roy is offering a 2008 Presidential Citation to libraries—and librarians of all kinds—that use games and gaming as tools for learning, literacy development, and community development. Citation winners will be announced at ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. The deadline for applications is April 21....

Bill Harley nominated for 2008 Grammy
Children’s singer/storyteller Bill Harley was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Musical Album for Children for his release I Wanna Play. Included on the album is the song “At Your Library,” which ALSC had commissioned Harley to write for its Kids! @ your library campaign. Although he did not win this year, Harley won a Grammy in 2007 (right) for Best Spoken Word Album For Children, Blah Blah Blah: Stories About Clams, Swamp Monsters, Pirates, and Dogs....

Teen Read Week author contest winner
Elizabeth Kahn, librarian at the Patrick F. Taylor Science and Technology Academy in Jefferson, Louisiana, won YALSA’s Teen Read Week “Win a Visit with Tiffany Trent Contest.” Kahn’s winning application detailed how her library reached out to its students during Teen Read Week 2007 with a program called LOL @ PFTSTA....

2008 notable children’s recordings
ALSC has selected its 2008 list of Notable Children’s Recordings. The list includes recordings of especially commendable quality that demonstrate respect for young people’s intelligence and imagination; exhibit venturesome creativity; and reflect and encourage the interests of children and young adolescents in exemplary ways....

PLA award winners recognize excellence in public libraries
PLA has announced the winners of eight awards that honor the best in public library service and innovation. The award winners will be honored on June 30 as a part of the PLA President’s Program featuring Jamie Lee Curtis at Annual Conference in Anaheim, California....

“Grow Your Own” institutional scholarship winners
PLA has announced the winners of its “Grow Your Own @ your library” institutional scholarship pilot program. This year, PLA awarded eight public libraries grants of $8,000 each to be distributed to staff members who are working to obtain a master’s degree in library and information science. One library from eight of the nine Public Library Data Service population categories was selected....

Where’s Tango?
An award-winning children’s book was removed from general circulation recently at public elementary school libraries in Loudoun County, Virginia. After the parent of a child at Sugarland Elementary in Sterling appealed the school’s decision to retain And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, School Superintendent Edgar B. Hatrick III ruled that the book should be taken out of general circulation at the elementary level and placed in each school’s professional library....
Loudoun (Va.) Extra, Feb. 12

Harvard chooses open access
Harvard University’s arts and sciences faculty approved a plan February 12 that will post finished academic papers online free, unless scholars specifically decide to opt out of the open-access program. While other institutions have similar repositories for their faculty’s work, Harvard’s is unique for making online publication the default option....
Inside Higher Ed, Feb. 13

Michigan library hosts Iraq soldier’s blog
As director of the William P. Faust Public Library in Westland, Michigan, Cheryl Napsha’s mission is to make sure that patrons have access to the best information on any topic, including the Iraq war. So she persuaded Army Capt. Adrian Massey, who is stationed in Baghdad, to write a blog about his experiences. It can be accessed through the library’s website....
Detroit Free Press, Feb. 13

Greenwich Library in lecture fracas
Free speech issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have come to the Greenwich (Conn.) Library. A group critical of Israel and U.S. media coverage of the Middle East is defying a library ban on lectures by the group. The organization, If Americans Knew, criticizes Israeli actions toward Palestinians and says the media misinforms Americans about the conflict. Library officials said they canceled planned talks by Alison Weir of the Portland, Oregon–based group following complaints by some residents about her and the organization....
Associated Press, Feb. 13

Dallas to use automated IM to tattle on naughty patrons
The Dallas City Council’s quality of life and government services committee unanimously voted February 12 to install internet monitoring software on publicly accessible library computers, but not install more restrictive filters that actively block web content. The recommended software would send an electronic message to librarians and internet users alike “when possibly inappropriate content is accessed” on a public library computer....
Dallas Morning News, Feb. 13

Pine Bluff library talks tough to city
Library officials trying to evict the Division II District Court out of the ground floor of the Pine Bluff-Jefferson County (Ark.) Library System’s main building sent the city a strongly worded letter last week, saying that if a proposed agreement is not signed by March 1, all deals are off. The letter requires that the district court be moved out of the library building by April 3 and requires the city—which has been struggling to find money for city services and capital improvements—to begin paying $1,000 monthly in rent for the space it has been using for $1 per year....
Pine Bluff (Ark.) Commercial, Feb. 12

Librarian is one of the best careers of 2008
U.S. News & World Report says: “Librarians these days must be high-tech information sleuths, helping researchers plumb the oceans of information available in books and digital records. It’s an underrated career.” Some of the other best careers include investment banker, urban planner, ghostwriter, locksmith, hairstylist, and editor....
U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 19

A tight grip can choke creativity
On February 8, Anthony Falzone filed his side’s first big brief in the case of Warner Bros. Entertainment and J. K. Rowling v. RDR Books. Falzone is employed by Stanford Law School, where he heads up the Fair Use Project, founded several years ago by Lawrence Lessig, perhaps the law school’s best-known professor. Falzone and the other lawyers at the Fair Use Project are siding with the defendant, RDR Books, publisher of the Harry Potter Lexicon. As you can see from the titans who have brought the suit, RDR Books needs all the legal firepower it can muster....
New York Times, Feb. 9

The impossible art of deciphering manuscripts
Megan Marshall writes: “In January, charges were raised against a scholarly edition of Robert Frost’s private notebooks. The work, first published in early 2007, had been heralded as offering a rare glimpse into the reclusive poet’s creative process. But now the notebook transcriptions appear to be riddled with errors that make Frost look like ‘a dyslexic and deranged speller,’ who often ‘made no sense,’ according to poet William Logan, a professor at the University of Florida who compared sections of the published version with manuscript originals from the archives at Dartmouth College.”...
Slate, Feb. 8; New York Times, Jan. 22

Freeman papers to Columbia
Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired a large collection of manuscripts, unpublished scores, librettos, correspondence, photographs, and ephemera from the estate of Harry Lawrence Freeman (1869–1954), one of the earliest composers in America to embellish an operatic score with jazz, blues, and spirituals....
Columbia University Library News, Feb. 5

Gordon Parks papers to Wichita State
Officials at Wichita State University announced February 7 that the library will receive Gordon Parks’s collection of private papers, manuscripts, and other personal items. The collection includes nearly 150 boxes of papers and other material from the prolific author, photographer, filmmaker, poet, and composer, who was born in Fort Scott, Kansas, and died in 2006 at age 93....
Wichita (Kans.) Eagle, Feb. 8

Church libraries offer religious learning
Libraries are becoming a vital part of a church’s educational services. At Central Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, the library is reopening after more than two years. Some of the popular choices are Christian fiction, non-fiction books about Christian living, current events from a Christian perspective, videos, DVDs, and books on tape....
Sioux Falls (S.Dak.) Argus Leader, Feb. 9

Picayune’s Krewe of Seuss parade
The Krewe of Seuss rolled at the West Side Elementary School in Picayune, Mississippi, February 1. The parade tradition started nine years ago when teacher Mary Douglas decided to incorporate the idea of celebrating Dr. Seuss’s birthday, March 2, with Mardi Gras. It’s now tied into the school’s participation in the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program. School media specialist Stacey Shaw got in on the fun by dressing as the Cat in the Hat....
Picayune (Miss.) Item, Feb. 6

Yucaipa school library vandalized
An alarm system hasn’t deterred vandals from twice breaking into the library of Ridgeview Elementary School in Yucaipa, California, to ruin more than 1,400 books, smear feces, and damage computers, printers, and other property. Vandals first struck on New Year’s Day, then again February 2, when they knocked books, computers, and other items off shelves and flooded the library....
Riverside (Calif.) Press-Enterprise, Feb. 7

Shoot close-ups like a pro
Take beautiful, detailed close-ups with your compact digital camera using DIY weblog Curbly’s guide to macro photography. Macro mode is an excellent but underused feature available to most compact digital cameras that focuses sharply on a small, close-up area, leaving the background nicely blurred. A good introduction to macro photography can open up a new world to your point-and-click, so if you’ve never gone macro before, get ready to go on a snapping binge....
Lifehacker, Feb.12

Top 100 web development cheat sheets
Jessica Hupp writes: “With the vast array of web development knowledge available on the internet, there’s certainly no shortage of cheat sheets to be found. However, finding a way to wrangle them all into one place isn’t quite as easy. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of some of the best cheat sheet collections out there. That’s right: This is your newest cheat sheet for cheat sheeting.”...
Virtual Hosting blog, Jan. 22

Flash apps are taking over
Rafe Needleman writes: “New Flash- and Flex-based web apps are putting traditional desktop apps to shame. The database Blist, the widget maker Sprout, and the photo manager Joggle are all web-based apps that give up almost nothing to run inside a browser. Flash-based applications are inherently cross-platform, and with Adobe’s new AIR runtime environment being basically a wrapper for Flash and Flex, we can expect that many of these Flash apps will be released as independent app-like products.”...
Webware, Feb. 10

Adjustable surge strips
The Socket Sense surge protector handles all power adapters with ease. The sockets are adjustable and set at an angle so that you can stack your adapters for a perfect fit. Compare this to a typical surge strip where power adapters typically block one or more sockets....
Ideative

Better living through taxonomies
Heather Hedden writes: “Large websites and intranets can benefit from improved methods of search and navigation. These include site maps, A-Z indexes, sophisticated search engines, and generally improved navigational design—and playing a potential role in all of these methods is well-planned taxonomy.”...
Digital Web Magazine, Feb. 5

Top 10 Blogger hacks and tips
Karl L. Gechlik writes: “I jumped into the new Blogger almost immediately after its beta launch and then I wanted to customize it. So I went out looking for how to do it. And here is that wisdom I uncovered. Consider it a gift from me to you. Poor old Blogger gets a bad rap, namely because people do not know how to manipulate it. I hope this article helps you out.”...
MakeUseOf.com, Feb. 11

25 great resources for Valentine’s Day
Mashable has gathered up some food recommendations, ideas for kids, suggestions for those of you in long-term relationships, and finally, suggestions for singles. Apples4TheTeacher.com has all sorts of activities for kids including party games, printable Valentine’s Day cards, and activities....
Mashable, Feb. 12

Dissin’ the director
Steven Bell writes: “I sense a growing tide of discontent with academic library directors. Are we experiencing an unprecendented wave of out-of-touch, incompetent, and power-hungry directors, or are frontline library workers increasingly less respectful of the library administration than in the past? Perhaps both library administrators and frontline staff could work towards improving their understanding of each other. Here are a few suggestions that might help to improve relationships.”...
ACRLog, Feb. 12

Turn out the lights on March 29
Last year Sydney, Australia (followed by London and San Francisco) started a trend of turning off lights for one hour in a show of support for protecting the environment. This year the World Wildlife Fund is encouraging a global effort for Earth Hour 2008 and invites cities from every continent to participate for an hour at 8 p.m. on March 29. You can sign up online as an individual, company, school, or library by pledging your support and reading more information on how to save energy....
World Wildlife Fund

Anti-racism girl
Students at Oak Park High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba, created this exciting video (1:00) to celebrate March 21, the United Nations–designated International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, proclaimed in 1966. They were helped by their advisor, social studies teacher Vincent Pearase, who writes: “Oak Park is known for its advanced Digital Film Program. Every year our students make a couple of hundred shorts (animated, live action, documentary) as well as an original student-made feature length movie.”...
YouTube, Jan. 19; BoingBoing, Feb. 11; Canadian Heritage

Best practices for immigrant outreach
Public library strategies that help communities successfully welcome new Americans are explored in a new publication from the Urban Libraries Council, Welcome, Stranger: Public Libraries Build the Global Village (ZIP file). Brookings Institution researcher Audrey Singer identifies five broad strategies for successful immigrant inclusion and community adaptation and shows how these strategies can be translated as public library outreach and programming....
Urban Libraries Council, Feb. 11

Practical tips for library building design
Joe Schallan collected responses to a question he posed on the Publib discussion list. What follows is the collected wisdom of 14 Publibbers offering practical tips on library building design. Some examples: “The toilet paper roll shouldn’t hit you on the hip,” and “Design buildings according to how people actually behave, not according to how you think they should behave.”...
Web Junction Illinois: Space Planning

2008 Horizon Report
New Media Consortium (NMC) and the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) released the 2008 Horizon Report (PDF file) at the ELI Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, January 30. The report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. The fifth edition in this annual series is again a collaboration between NMC and ELI....
New Media Consortium, Jan. 30

GPO, depositories partner for online reference (PDF file)
The U.S. Government Printing Office has joined the University of Illinois at Chicago and other Federal Depository libraries around the country to provide an online reference service to the American public. This free, web-based Ask a Librarian service will offer the public the opportunity to ask librarians questions about government resources....
Government Printing Office, Feb. 13

Twelve more Google street views
Google announced it has street view capability in 12 new U.S. cities: Albany, Schenectady, Boise, Juneau, Kansas City, Manchester, Milwaukee, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, San Antonio, and Salt Lake City. It includes Google’s first street-view glacier, the Mendenhall (above), near Juneau....
Google Lat Long Blog, Feb. 12

Another librarian-learning link
New York State schools with certified librarians have higher scores on average on the 4th-grade English Language Arts test than those who don’t, according to researchers at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. Preliminary findings of research conducted by Ruth Small and graduate students in the Center for Digital Literacy show a statistically significant increase—with an almost 10-point difference—in the ELA test scores among 4th-grade students whose schools had certified librarians over students in schools without certified librarians....
New York Library Association, Feb. 8

The faster you go deaf, the more time you have to read
Death-metal band Blöödhag plays a gig (8:24) at the William G. Reed branch of the Timberland Regional Library in Shelton, Washington, forcing listeners to insert fingers in their ears. J. B. Stratton explains, “The basic idea is to show music fans the literary inspirations for their favorite songs by heavy-metal musicians.” They call it “edu-core.” The band locates on the library shelves the science-fiction novels they mention in their songs. Rated LL for loud literacy. A 2000 short film directed by Brad Vanderburg....
Wholphin magazine

What I did learn in library school
Melissa Mallon writes: “Since earning my degree, I’ve seen lots of comments on listservs and blogs about what people think they should have/wish they would have learned in library school. Well, I want to take a moment and say that I’m extremely happy with my MLIS education. Sure, there were plenty of things I didn’t learn and have had to pick up on the job, but most of these seem specific to my library. So here’s my list of things I’m glad I learned in library school.”...
ACRLog, Feb. 10

Free online books from HarperCollins
In a new “Full Access” promotion announced February 11, HarperCollins is working with individual authors to test how free access affects book sales. For the next month, one book by each of the authors Paulo Coelho, Roger Director, Mark Halperin, Robert Irvine, Erin Hunter, and Neil Gaiman will be available in its entirety on the publisher’s website. A different book by Coelho will be available for each of the next 12 months....
HarperCollins, Feb. 11; Neil Gaiman’s Journal, Feb. 9

LC and IMLS to collaborate on preservation
Millions of objects in museums and libraries across the country are at risk and will need immediate preservation attention in the next several years. The Preservation Directorate of the Library of Congress has announced that Karen Motylewski from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will serve a one-year detail at the library as special projects liaison. She will help both agencies advance shared goals for preservation and conservation awareness and action throughout the nation....
Library of Congress, Feb. 11

Van Gogh’s boots kick off Europeana website
Van Gogh’s down-at-heel boots were the first thing to appear on the test website of the European Digital Library February 11. The website, branded Europeana, will break new ground by bringing together millions of digitized resources from Europe’s archives, museums, libraries, and audiovisual collections through a single portal. The site model was previewed at a conference in Frankfurt the previous week to holders of digital content, including curators, archivists, publishers, and librarians....
European Digital Library Network, Feb. 11

The state of the Net
Jonathan Kelley writes: “Last week, Nanette Perez and I spent an invigorating day in Washington, D.C., attending the 4th annual State of the Net conference, hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. As the homepage says, the attendees and panelists were an impressive blend of academics, consumer/public interest groups (that’s us), industry representatives, and federal government types. The speeches and panels were uniformly interesting, and several already are available online.”...
Office for Intellectual Freedom blog, Feb. 7

Lori Nix’s Library
Kansas photographer Lori Nix creates intricate miniature dioramas by hand with basic materials such as plaster, cardboard, Styrofoam, mixed with the occasional fur, plants, cat whiskers, and found objects. In her series “The City,” Nix fabricates environments based on elements found in a city that has eroded with time. One of her photos is of a magnificently decayed library (above), reclaimed by nature....
Randall Scott Gallery blog, Nov. 7

Why library journals should morph into blogs
Marcus Banks writes: “I’ve became firmly convinced that the traditional journal model is antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians. A better course is to develop and nurture excellent blogs, with multimedia capabilities and guaranteed preservation of the postings. This could be an entirely new blog that starts from scratch, or an established journal that evolves into a blog.”...
Marcus’ World, Feb. 10

Help out Blake and win a Wii
To thank Blake Carver for all of his efforts with LISNews since 1999, Michael Stephens and Jenny Levine are raffling off a Nintendo Wii to help show their appreciation in the form of a fundraiser. Everyone who donates $10 or more through Paypal to LISHost by 11:59 p.m. on March 14 will be eligible to win the Wii....
Shifted Librarian blog, Feb. 13

The libraries of literary ladies
Abby Blachly writes: “Thomas Jefferson’s library was only the beginning. LibraryThing members are on a roll, entering the library catalogs of famous readers. This month highlighted women, including Isabella Stewart Gardner (right), Sylvia Plath, Marie Antoinette, and Susan B. Anthony. It started with a prompt from Karen Schneider, and then a post from Tim Spalding. A few short weeks later, and here we are!”...
LibraryThing blog, Feb. 8

Sleepover fun and chaos at the library
The Fifth Annual Sleepover at the Wolfville (Nova Scotia) Memorial Library took place February 1 and was videoed (8:33) by Angela Reynolds, who writes: “If you’ve never done this, I highly recommend it. Here’s how they do it: Kids must be accompanied by an adult. Ages 6–11 are invited. At 6:30, kids come in to ‘Stake their territory.’ This is when they choose their spot, set up camp, and get everything settled. Settled is a relative term, as this is a wild time.” This year the guest of honor was children’s author and storyteller Robert Munsch, who was filmed (2:41) separately....
ALSC Blog, Feb. 12; YouTube, Feb. 5–6

Stephen J. Cannell and Vernon Jordan are two of the Auditorium Speakers at ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, June 26–July 2.

Connect with hard-to-reach, underserved teens by conducting a Great Stories CLUB reading and discussion program in your library. Online applications will be accepted through Friday, February 15.