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

Advice to libraries on applying for broadband grants
The ALA Washington Office is making a final push to inform and guide libraries as the August 14 deadline for the first-round Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant applications draws near. A host of stimulus resources for libraries—including webinars, instructional guidance, key links, and a list of frequently asked questions—can be found online. Also available is a key informational guide (PDF file) on applying to this program and a brand-new document that demonstrates the role of libraries in economic recovery for BTOP applicants (PDF file)....
District Dispatch, Aug. 5

Library groups advise DOJ on Google Books settlement
ALA, ACRL, and the Association of Research Libraries sent a letter (PDF file) July 29 to William Cavanaugh, deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, voicing their general approval of the proposed settlement of lawsuits challenging Google’s Book Search project but reiterating their concerns over access and pricing issues. The DOJ has been looking into whether the agreement violates antitrust laws....
American Libraries Online, Aug. 5

FCC should consider libraries in broadband plan
ALA President Camila Alire is encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to consider the role of America’s libraries in a National Broadband Plan as the agency begins its workshop series to develop the plan. The first workshop, to be held August 6, will focus on civic engagement and e-government—two areas in which libraries are active and positioned to serve in a heightened capacity as the FCC establishes new goals and initiatives....
District Dispatch, Aug. 5

FTRF urges Supreme Court to reject ban on animal-cruelty depictions
The Freedom to Read Foundation has joined publishers, booksellers, writers, and other media groups in an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a statute that, if upheld, would allow the government to ban a wide range of material. The law in question, a 1999 law that makes it a crime to create, sell, or possess any photograph, film, video, or sound recording in which an animal is harmed or killed, subjects anyone convicted under the law to a possible five-year prison term and fines....

ALA files amicus brief in Salinger case
ALA, ACRL, the Association of Research Libraries, and other groups have filed an amicus brief (PDF file) asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse a district court’s ruling in Salinger v. Colting. In July, the court ruled in favor of author J. D. Salinger, who claimed that Swedish author Fredrik Colting, the author of 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye, infringed his copyright on Catcher in the Rye....
District Dispatch, Aug. 4

Selected ALA Council actions at Annual Conference
At Annual Conference in Chicago, the ALA Council passed several resolutions, among them marriage rights for all; affordable universal health care; compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0; the goals of Intergeneration Day on October 4; and accessibility standards on purchasing, procuring, and contracting for electronic resources and services....

Hear The Time Travelers Wife audiobook on ALA Island
ALA Island in Second Life has been granted permission by the HighBridge Company to make a six-minute excerpt from The Time Traveler’s Wife: Unabridged Edition audiobook available to its avatar visitors. SL residents can teleport to Story Hour Garden to hear the excerpt from this audio version of Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 bestselling novel. The film starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams opens on August 14....

Put it on your calendar
As parents get ready to send their children back to school, the ALA Public Information Office is reminding everyone that Library Card Sign-up Month is right around the corner. Observed each September, Library Card Sign-up Month is an opportunity to remind parents that a library card is the most important school supply of all. With the help of this year’s Honorary Chair Candace Parker—WNBA star and Olympic gold medalist—PIO is working to place print and audio PSAs....

Guadalajara Book Fair free pass program
ALA and the Guadalajara International Book Fair are partnering for the ninth year to provide support for ALA members to attend the 22nd Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) from November 28 to December 6. The city of Los Angeles will be the Guest of Honor at FIL 2009. Free passes will be awarded to 150 librarians who work in the area of Spanish-language acquisitions or are working to build their Spanish-language collections. Applicants must be ALA personal members. The deadline to apply is August 17....

A well-illustrated history of libraries
In The Library: An Illustrated History, Stuart A. P. Murray traces the elaborate history of the library from its very beginnings in the ancient libraries of Babylon and Alexandria to some of the greatest contemporary institutions—the Royal Society of London, the Newberry Library, the Smithsonian, and many others. A rich textual and visual resource, this ALA Editions release allows readers to follow the fascinating progress of the institution we now know today as the library....

Crucial tools for the economic downturn
ALA Editions has released Crisis in Employment: A Librarian's Guide to Helping Job Seekers by Jane Jerrard, with a foreword by Office for Research and Statistics Director Denise Davis. This timely report, also available in electronic format, provides the tools needed to support those who are turning to their local library for help in finding new work. Based on interviews with librarians across the country and on research from ORS, this publication offers advice and methods for providing appropriate training and education to job seekers....

Latvia joins the Campaign
The Latvian Librarians Association is the newest member of the ALA Campaign for the World’s Libraries, an effort cosponsored by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions to showcase the unique and vital roles played by public, school, academic, and special libraries worldwide. Established in 1923, the Latvian Librarians Association has been a member of IFLA since 1929....

Kristoff and Vowell slated for PLA National Conference
Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Nicholas D. Kristof will keynote the opening general session at the Public Library Association’s 13th National Conference in Portland, Oregon, March 23–27, 2010. Bestselling author, social observer, and contributor to NPR’s This American Life, Sarah Vowell, is scheduled to keynote the closing session at the conference....

Karen Starr elected LITA president
Karen Starr, assistant administrator for development services at the Nevada State Library and Archives, is the new president-elect of LITA. Starr has served as a member of the LITA board of directors. She has experience in international relations, having served on the LITA International Relations Committee and in various roles with the ALA International Relations Round Table....

Carr honored for history librarianship
Ruth A. Carr, a 20-year member of RUSA’s History Section, is the 2009 recipient of the Genealogical Publishing Company Award. The award, administered by the History Section and sponsored by Genealogical Publishing Company, presents a citation and $1,500 cash prize to a librarian, library, or publisher who has demonstrated professional achievement in historical reference and research librarianship....

Rossini receives STARS Mentoring award
Beverly Rossini has been selected as the 2009 recipient of the RUSA Mentoring Award, administered by its Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section. The award provides $1,000 to fund travel expenses associated with attending ALA’s annual conference for an ILL or document delivery librarian. Rossini is outreach and information resources librarian at the Baugh Biomedical Library, University of South Alabama....

African-American Research Center wins RUSA award
The African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, a part of the Broward County (Fla.) Libraries Division, has been selected as the 2009 winner of the Standard and Poor’s Award for Outstanding Service to Minority Business Communities. The AARLC was honored for the integral role it plays in its local community, primarily in providing small-business expertise to its users....

YALS wins second APEX Award
Young Adult Library Services, YALSA’s quarterly journal, received an Award of Excellence from the APEX Awards for Publication Excellence, the second year in a row that the journal has achieved this honor. YALS was recognized in the category of Journals and Magazines over 32 pages. The journal won for issues from its sixth and seventh volumes, which were edited by RoseMary Honnold....

40 years of Coretta Scott King Awards
ALA Editions has released a fourth edition of The Coretta Scott King Awards, 1970–2009, edited by Henrietta M. Smith with the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services. This 40th-anniversary volume gathers together the best of the best in African-American children’s literature with coverage of the award-winning books and their illustrators. Smith is professor emerita at the University of South Florida SLIS....

Gaming and Wheeling
Ten libraries in 10 states from New York to Alaska received $5,000 grants as part of the ALA Libraries, Literacy, and Gaming initiative, funded by the Verizon Foundation. One of those libraries was the Indian Trails Public Library of Wheeling, Illinois, featured in this video (5:59), which shows its Teen Zone stocked with video and board games....
Visibility @ your library, Aug. 4

Network neutrality, round 3
Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) introduced a bill July 31 that will establish overarching national broadband policy and ensure an open and consumer-oriented internet. The Internet Freedom Preservation Act (H.R. 3458) will require the FCC to examine whether carriers are blocking access to lawful content, applications, or services. Ars Technica has some background. Watch the video (1:38) produced by SaveTheInternet.com....
Rep. Ed Markey, July 31; Ars Technica, Aug. 3; YouTube, Aug. 3

National Law Library bill honors Bill Orton
The House overwhelmingly approved a bill July 30 named in honor of former Utah Rep. Bill Orton that would boost funding to the Law Library of Congress. Orton died April 18 in an all-terrain-vehicle accident. “Bill Orton was a tireless advocate for the law library and this legislation is a fitting way to honor his memory,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the proposal’s sponsor. Her proposal would change the name from the Law Library of Congress to the National Law Library and provide an additional $3.5 million to help reduce the cataloging backlog....
Salt Lake Tribune, July 30

Student must pay $675K for illegal downloading
A federal jury has ordered Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum to pay a total of $675,000—$22,500 per song—to the major record labels for willfully infringing 30 songs by downloading and distributing them over the Kazaa peer-to-peer network. The verdict came down July 31 after a little more than three hours of deliberation. Tenenbaum’s attorney and Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson said things might have turned out differently had they been allowed to argue Fair Use....
Ars Technica, July 31

Louisville library hit hard by flooding
The Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library was ravaged by flooding August 4, with thousands of books damaged and the building’s mechanical and computer systems knocked out. Director Craig Buthod said the main library had about three feet of water in the basement and that the building will remain closed indefinitely. Three bookmobiles were flooded in a parking ramp, according to a WLKY-TV news report. Compounding these problems, a small electrical fire early on August 5 knocked out the power; Buthod said some damage assessment was being made by staff using flashlights. The Shawnee and Iroquois branches were also closed because of flooding....
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal, Aug. 4–5; WLKY-TV, Louisville, Aug. 4; Greg Schwartz

Layoffs at Springfield’s Lincoln Library
Union representatives told Springfield, Illinois, aldermen and the mayor in late July that 10 workers scheduled to be laid off at Lincoln Library are “not fat hiding in the budget.” The city had told nine union employees and one non-union library worker that their last day at the library will be August 6. Seven of the 10 employees are library assistants, one is a security guard, and two are librarians....
Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register, July 24

Ottawa defends sex-instruction books
Ottawa, Ontario, is buying sex-instruction books for its public library because they contain good information written by respected authors, and some people want to read them. Ottawa Public Library Director Barbara Clubb responded July 29 to a complaint about three new books on order, saying that books on sex are “very popular” with borrowers....
Ottawa (Ont.) Citizen, July 30

Thanks for the books, but...
When directors in the Hempfield Area School District in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, announced they would spend $217,000 to purchase new books and software for the district’s 11 school libraries, librarians were grateful. But the funding did not include one thing the library faculty really wanted—another librarian. When 2008 budget cuts eliminated one librarian’s job, Harrold Middle School Librarian Darla Kline said, the district wound up with only four librarians for its six elementary schools....
Pittsburgh (Pa.) Tribune-Review, Aug. 3

Twin Cities film contest focuses on libraries
This may be the only filmmaking competition where there’s an award for “Best Use of a Library Card.” Quiet on the Set! is the brainchild of the Metropolitan Library Service Agency, a consortium of the 105 public library branches in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. When MELSA community-relations manager Sally Lederer came across a funny commercial on YouTube set in a library, she thought, “How can real libraries get some hip video presence online?” The solution: Get library users to come up with something....
St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer-Press, July 31

Texas library shuts out anti-Muslim group
A local chapter of a group focused on fighting “the assault of radical Islam” has been permanently barred from holding any more meetings at the Arlington (Tex.) Public Library. The Grand Prairie chapter of ACT! for America had its meeting privileges revoked in July because the group broke two guidelines of the library’s meeting room usage policy, Library Director Cary Siegfried said. She said the group’s meetings were not fully open to the public and group leaders were soliciting funds at the meetings...
Fort Worth (Tex.) Star-Telegram, July 30

Michigan’s Islamic Manuscripts collection to go online
The University of Michigan Special Collections Library is digitally scanning its vast Islamic Manuscripts collection in-house. The 1,250 manuscripts are mostly in Arabic, but also include works in Turkish and Persian and date from about 750 to 1906. “It will be presented to the public in a wiki- or blog-type interface, so people can comment on what they see,” said Director of Special Collections Peggy Daub. Watch the video (1:59)....
Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, July 27; YouTube, July 24

OSU main library reopens after three-year renovation
Ohio State University’s William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library has undergone more nips, tucks, and enhancements than an aging beauty queen trying to hang on to her youth. The library reopened to guests August 3 after a three-year, $108.7-million renovation. The project restored the grandeur of the historic library, which opened in 1913, and added technological and other upgrades to meet the 21st-century needs of students and scholars....
Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, Aug. 3

The Librarians to head to U.S.?
Australia’s ABC-TV network show The Librarians could be the latest Aussie comedy to head for the United States. Writer, producer, and star Robyn Butler (right) says she and her cocreator and husband Wayne Hope are in the process of talks about taking the show to the States. Butler plays Frances O’Brien, a repressed, passive-aggressive bully of a library director with a minimal understanding of her multicultural, Muslim, and gay staff....
Australian Associated Press, July 29; The Age (Melbourne), July 30

City balks at fixing leaky library roof
City officials have pulled out of a written agreement to pay for maintenance costs at the B. J. Chain Public Library in Olive Branch, Mississippi, because of a disagreement over responsibility for a leaky roof. Olive Branch officials disputed that roof repairs to the library fell under a “routine maintenance” clause because they claim the damage was caused by a tornado that hit the town July 31. DeSoto County officials think otherwise....
Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal, Aug. 4

Future teacher bikes for books
On August 1, Rockhurst University graduate student Skyler Myers began a nine-day solo bicycle ride to the Rocky Mountains to secure donations of new library books for the Kansas City (Mo.) School District. His route will cover some 800 miles across Kansas and Colorado as it climbs nearly 9,000 feet in elevation to the Continental Divide at Cameron Pass in northern Colorado. Every $20 raised will purchase one new library book for the school district’s 18,000 students....
Kansas City (Mo.) Tribune, July 30

Absent trustee entitled to full commission
Former Lynn (Mass.) Public Library trustee Linda Bassett is entitled to claim full credit toward her pension for service on the library board, even though she missed more than two years of meetings, according to a legal opinion of the state retirement commission. Bassett stopped attending board meetings in March 1984, but claimed credit toward her pension for service through September 1986....
Boston Globe, Aug. 4

Ex-trustee pleads guilty to theft
The former president of the Roosevelt (N.Y.) Public Library board of trustees pleaded guilty July 29 to charges she embezzled more than $47,000 from the library’s foundation to pay for airplane tickets, car repairs, and fast food meals. Natalie Connor could face up to seven years in prison on the grand larceny plea, the Nassau County district attorney’s office said. Sentencing is scheduled for October 8....
Long Island (N.Y.) Newsday, July 30

Ohio cuts affect kids, job-seekers
Just when library use is reaching its highest levels, Ohio is facing its toughest cuts. Those cuts are hurting those who need the services the most. Educational outreach to daycare centers provided by the Portsmouth Public Library is about to end—a victim of the budget cuts. Five branches are closing August 8–16, only to reopen with limited hours, and that will affect the patrons who use the library computers to find jobs....
WSAZ-TV, Huntington, W.Va., Aug. 3

Protesters fail to have religious art removed
Catholics gathered July 29 outside Marcellus (N.Y.) Free Library to protest Geri Keil’s “Bebe Coca,” the Trumansburg artist’s interpretation of the Virgin of Guadalupe, on display at the library as part of a July exhibit featuring art inspired by Mexican culture. Parishioners were vocal throughout the month of July in opposition to the piece, which used a Coca-Cola bottle to represent the body of the Virgin of Guadalupe. A petition with 78 signatures and at least two formal requests to remove the piece were submitted to the library board, which denied the request July 20 and left the piece on display....
Syracuse (N.Y.) Eagle Observer, Aug. 5

Law library worker accused of sneaking pot into prison
A state employee who befriended an inmate while working in the library at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Stillwater has been accused of trying to smuggle him drugs. Shari Lee Howe was arrested July 23 when she walked into the facility with packages of pot. She now faces felony charges of aiding and abetting introduction of contraband to a state prison. Howe was employed by the Minnesota State Law Library in St. Paul....
St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, July 31

John Quincy Adams: Twitterer
The Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston has launched a Twitter feed based on the short diary entries of John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States. A few months ago, a student touring the society observed, upon hearing of Adams’s terse entries, “It’s like he’s using Twitter.” Adams began one of his short diaries on August 5, 1809, when he departed for Russia as U.S. ambassador. The daily feed will presumably continue until 2036....
Boston Globe, July 31

New public research library opens in Istanbul
The opening of any new public library in Istanbul is a cause for celebration. But the new home of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art, and Culture library is something special, located inside the historic and elegant armory of the Yıldız Palace, built in the late 19th century by Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Unused for decades, the vast space now home to the library’s 70,000 volumes, some of them rare editions, that are on open shelves and available to the public....
New York Times, July 30

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Top five citation applications
Bill Ferris writes: “Back in my day we had to figure out arcane citation formats by poring through dusty old style manuals. This was during that awkward window after people started putting good information on the internet, but before the style manuals told you how to cite web documents. Here is a list of the five best bibliography and citation applications out there. Pass these on to your students and spare them the agony of building bibliographies the hard way.”...
Instructify, July 16

HTML5 and the future of the web
Tim Wright writes: “Some have embraced it, some have discarded it as too far in the future, and some have abandoned a misused friend in favor of an old flame in preparation. Whatever side of the debate you’re on, you’ve most likely heard all the blogging chatter surrounding the ‘new hotness’ that is HTML5. It’s everywhere, it’s coming, and you want to know everything you can before it’s old news.”...
Smashing Magazine, July 16

Top 10 computer hardware fixes
Kevin Purdy writes: “If your desktop or laptop parts have died or seen better days, you’ve got a friend. All of your Lifehacker editors—and many helpful net denizens—have upgraded or repaired faulty systems, and we’ve rounded up some of their most helpful tutorials.” Included are instructions on installing a new hard drive, replacing a motherboard, replacing a power supply, installing RAM, and hushing a noisy hard drive....
Lifehacker, Aug. 1

Old Map App
David Booker writes: “Old Map App allows the iPhone user to explore the effects of time on geography and urban development. While it isn’t in general release quite yet, you can register at the site and be notified when it is released or when beta testers are needed. The application displays (1:40) layers of georeferenced historical maps projected onto a modern coordinate system, so that the same location can be compared over time. Several Library of Congress maps of New York City and region are included from the 17th to 19th centuries.”...
The Centered Librarian, July 31; YouTube, June 28

10 Google Gadgets for your Gmail sidebar
Ellie Harrison writes: “Gmail offers more than just email—you can add gadgets to your Gmail screen to add more functionality or just for plain fun. First, you must activate Gmail Gadgets by navigating to Settings then Labs and enabling ‘Add any gadget by URL.’ All of the gadgets listed must be installed by URL. Simply copy the URLs and paste into your Gmail Gadgets settings box and press ‘Add.’”...
MakeUseOf, Aug. 2

Five years from now
Walt Crawford writes: “If you believe some pundits, physical media will all be gone in five years—we’ll rely on that great digital jukebox in the sky for everything, when and as we need it. I don’t buy that for a minute. For a variety of reasons, I firmly believe that many of us will be buying physical media five years from now, enough to make for healthy industries. I’m deliberately not a futurist, but here’s my best guess on CDs, DVDs, magazines, books, and newspapers.”...
Walt at Random, July 29

Tech meccas: 12 holy sites of IT
Dan Tynan writes: “We’ve identified the 12 most sacred places where IT enthusiasts can go to pay homage to the computing gods that passed before them—or at least catch a peek at where some of the more exciting events in IT lore occurred. Fortunately, would-be pilgrims can do a lot of the traveling via the web, saving wear and tear on the sandals and sackcloth.”...
Adventures in IT, Aug. 3

Library Journal for sale
Reed Business Information is putting Library Journal and its affiliated publications, School Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, up for sale. The transaction is part of RBI’s strategy to divest most of its trade magazines in the United States. In 2008, Reed Elsevier tried to sell all of RBI but dropped the plan when it couldn’t get the price it wanted in a depressed market for media properties. Reed would like to sell all 47 magazines to one buyer, but paidContent reports that the process likely will be piecemeal in this environment....
Library Journal, Aug. 3; paidContent, July 30, Aug. 3

Dewey’s Vicki Myron signs another book deal
A new book by Dewey author Vicki Myron was sold to Dutton in a deal that’s rumored to be in the seven figures. Myron, the former director of the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library who discovered a cat in the library book drop, was supposedly paid a $2-million advance for Dewey’s Nine Lives, which will be in the same vein as Dewey....
Publishers Weekly, Aug. 4

Sony cuts e-book prices
Adding to mounting tensions in the publishing industry over the pricing of electronic books, Sony Electronics announced August 4 that it was lowering prices for new and bestselling books in its e-book store, to $9.99 from $11.99. The $9.99 flat price matches that of Amazon.com for its Kindle e-books. Sony is also introducing two new electronic reading devices—the Reader Pocket Edition and Reader Touch Edition. They will sell for $199 and $299 respectively and will go on sale at the end of August....
New York Times, Aug. 4

Books by people who have raised apes in their homes
Carrie McLaren writes: “I collect books by people who have raised apes or monkeys in their homes, so, as a service to Boing Boing readers, I thought I’d review them for you. I already wrote about W. N. Kellogg’s The Ape and the Child in a previous post.” McLaren covers the fascinating Toto and I: A Gorilla in the Family (1941) and Nim (1979), about a chimp nicknamed after linguist Noam Chomsky....
Boing Boing, July 30

Visit the Louvre collections online
The Louvre launched an English version of its online collections database, Atlas, on July 30. This interactive research tool allows visitors to access information on 22,000 works of art, view high-resolution images of masterpieces, and locate exhibited works and galleries throughout the museum. The launch of the English version was initiated by and funded with a €300,000 ($380,000 U.S.) grant in 2004 from American Friends of the Louvre....
Art Daily, July 30

Michigan’s bibliomaniac
J. Kevin Graffagnino writes: “It was the moment all serious collectors live for. And so, on June 15, 1923, William L. Clements (right) gladly gave his kingdom. Clements had pursued antiquarian Americana at a high level for two decades. Now his alma mater, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, would house his extraordinary collection, in a beautiful building Clements helped design—the Clements Library.”...
Fine Books and Collections, Aug.

So, you’re thinking about becoming a librarian?
Erin Dorney writes: “Recently, I was contacted by a student at my undergraduate alma mater, St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York. She asked me a few questions about my job. Here are her questions, along with my responses. Most universities have systems in place where you can enter your information in order to be connected to current students and recent grads. The PR effect of having librarians listed in these types of directories can do a lot for the changing image of our profession.”...
Library Scenester, Aug. 1

100 best blogs for library students
Library students are excited about discovering and experimenting with new tools and systems that are changing the way we find, receive, and organize information. But with all of the new technology out there, it can be hard to keep track of everything beyond. This collection of library and information technology blogs allows the curious student to keep up with trends, developments, tools, and resources....
Learn-gasm, Aug. 3

When do you use Twitter versus Facebook?
Soren Gordhamer writes: “There is growing body of people who actively use more than one social network, and do so with quite different purposes. Though on the surface many social networks seem similar, to use them skillfully it helps to better understand the different roles they can play in one’s online activity. Here’s what I have discovered in my use of both Twitter and Facebook.”...
Mashable, Aug. 1

First Amendment resources for libraries
The McCormick Freedom Museum in Chicago is offering a kit of posters, signs, table tents, shelf dangers, and bookmarks designed to challenge library users into thinking about First Amendment issues. Libraries that wish to host the Libraries and the First Amendment exhibit can register for a complimentary kit and access to an array of supplemental materials. In exchange, partner libraries are asked to provide the Freedom Museum with regular updates and feedback about the exhibit....
McCormick Freedom Museum

Public Index examines the Google settlement
The Public Index is a project of the Public-Interest Book Search Initiative and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School. Designed to study and discuss the proposed Google Book Search settlement, the site allows you to browse and annotate the proposed settlement, section by section....
The Public Index

Working around works
Lorcan Dempsey writes: “There is a significant, if little-read, literature of cataloging theory. A recurrent theme is the balance between gathering like items and discriminating between them. Managing similarity and difference in this way, and making sensible user-interface choices, is not straightforward. The FRBR model represents a recent approach to a part of this question: How to gather things that are in some way instances of the same intellectual work, and how to distinguish sensibly between these things.” Jonathan Rothkind weighs in on the distinction....
Lorcan Dempsey’s Weblog, Aug. 2; Bibliographic Wilderness, Aug. 4

A school library media checklist for principals
Doug Johnson writes: “Rapid changes in technology, learning research, and the library profession in the past 20 years have created a wide disparity in the effectiveness of school library media programs. Is your school’s library media program keeping current? This 13-point checklist can be used to quickly evaluate your building’s program.” Updated from a 12-point checklist published in 2003....
Blue Skunk Blog, Aug. 2

The world’s largest public library ad
TechForEducators.com unveiled a new outdoor advertising campaign for public libraries on July 13. The campaign entitled “Free Education” intends to create a greater intellectual life among citizens in the San Francisco Bay Area and help improve the performance of schools and teachers. The company claims the billboard is the world’s largest public library advertisement. The headline exceeds 41 feet and the call to action spans the length of the billboard at 48 feet. The sign is in Martinez on I-680 south after the Benecia Bridge....
TechForEducators.com, July 13

Predictions that throw caution to the wind
Steven Bell writes: “There’s nothing like putting yourself out there with some bold predictions for the future, especially when they pertain to higher education and libraries. Reading a list of 25 predictions about the university of the future has put me in the mood to make some predictions of my own, which is something I tend to avoid at all costs. But here are a few things I think we can expect in our future.”...
ACRLog, Aug. 3; Associate Degree, July 29

Carnegie library bed and breakfasts
Larry Nix writes: “Library buildings built with funds from Andrew Carnegie that are no longer in use as libraries have been converted to a variety of purposes. Two of these buildings have a new life as a bed and breakfast. One of these is located in Sterling, Colorado (right), and the other is in Ladysmith, Wisconsin. On trips this summer I have had the opportunity to stop by and see these two former Carnegie libraries.”...
Library History Buff, Aug. 4; Wisconsin Library Heritage Center, Aug. 4

Librarians’ roles in emergency planning and response
As part of an ongoing research project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the iSchool at Drexel University is seeking responses to a brief survey on the roles librarians play in emergency planning and response activities. The information will be used to help develop appropriate learning experiences for current and future practitioners....
iSchool at Drexel

Beat the Collingswood director
To kick off this year’s book festival, the Friends of the Collingswood (N.J.) Public Library are sponsoring a 5K race on September 26. Registration is $25, and the proceeds from the race will be used to set up a new teen area in the library. However, if runners finish ahead of the new Director Brett Bonfield (above, running on the right)—if they “Beat the Director”—they will be given $10 back. Watch the video (4:35) for the exciting details....
Collingswood (N.J.) Public Library; YouTube, July 27

Fun things to do at the ASU Libraries when it’s hot
Arizona State University Collection Development Librarian Anali Perry shows students (1:20) how to beat the heat this summer with fun and relaxing things at the ASU Libraries—like grab a cold drink and a snack, watch a movie, or surf the web. The Library Minute is a Library Channel presentation produced by the Arizona State Libraries....
YouTube, July 31

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