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

Pittsburgh officials hope to head off branch closings
Some 250 residents who turned out for a public meeting October 24 on the planned closing of four Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh branches heard Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Library President and Director Barbara K. Mistick announce that the targeted branches may get a reprieve. The officials told the crowd that a plan was in the works to raise $1.2 million in local and state funds to cover the library system’s budget shortfall....
American Libraries Online, Oct. 26; KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh, Oct. 24; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 28

Gwinnett board blinks, rescinds system reorganization
Citizen-activists in Gwinnett County, Georgia, won a months-long battle with library officials October 21 when trustees at a specially called meeting (right) voted unanimously to keep all 15 branches of the county system open as full-service libraries instead of converting three facilities to bookless computer centers or shuttering them altogether. However, the trade-off appears to be the imposition next year of staff furloughs, an as-yet-undisclosed number of layoffs, and a systemwide reduction in service hours....
American Libraries Online, Oct. 25

Libraries highlighted in recent broadband discussions
As one of the founding members of the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband Coalition, the ALA Washington Office has actively participated in communicating the role of anchor institutions in national broadband build-out. The message is finding its way into the formal discussions, including an October 26 letter (PDF file) sent by six senators to Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Strickling (above), and a Senate hearing on broadband stimulus October 27....
District Dispatch, Oct. 28

The FCC and net neutrality
ALA strongly supports Chairman Julius Genachowski’s efforts to move the Federal Communications Commission forward in consideration of principles to protect the free and open nature of the internet. The FCC voted unanimously October 22 to proceed with issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, which would add two principles of nondiscrimination and transparency to the existing four principles of network neutrality, and to allow a period of public commentary....
District Dispatch, Oct. 22

ALA, Safeway launch cereal box initiative
Libraries are about to take front and center in a new place: the breakfast table. ALA is working with supermarket chain Safeway on a roll-out of the first two of five Safeway-brand cereal boxes with back-panel content about libraries and librarians. The boxes are launching this month and will be available at Safeway’s 1,500 stores in the United States. The first boxes to feature the library-related content are Toasted Oats and Honey Nut Toasted Oats....

Emerging Leaders 2010
The Emerging Leaders program, in its fourth year, kicks off with a daylong session during the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston. It will enable 100 library staff (PDF file) from across the country to participate in project-planning workgroups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. Participants will receive two days of orientation and education, followed by six months of networking....

How to move a library and stay sane
ALA Editions has released Moving Your Library: Getting the Collection from Here to There by Steven Carl Fortriede, the complete kit for any librarian moving a library collection. Author and experienced mover Fortriede explains everything needed to get the job done quickly and efficiently with step-by-step directions, diagrams, spreadsheets, and photos. Learn how to plan a library move, which method is best for a particular situation, how to recruit and train workers, and what tools and supplies are needed....

Fall edition of Prism online
The Fall 2009 issue of Prism, the newsletter of the Office for Accreditation, is now online. Features include accreditation actions taken at the July meeting in Chicago, an update on the standards review process, the COA perspective on the Standards revision process, and a new column that focuses on aspects of the accreditation process....

Great Stories CLUB deadline nears
The deadline to submit online applications for the Great Stories CLUB is quickly approaching. Be sure to complete and submit your application by November 2 to be one of 265 libraries selected to present a book discussion group for troubled teens. Participating libraries will receive 11 copies of each of three award-winning, theme-related titles to share with the participants of a reading and discussion group....

The ALA Archives
Larry Nix writes: “One of the most valuable collections of library history archives is the ALA Archives located in the basement of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign library (right). The university archives contracted with ALA to manage the collection. There are some efforts to digitize photographs and postcards at the archives. Unfortunately, staffing is inadequate and much more could be done to make the ALA Archives more widely available.”...
Library History Buff, Oct. 21; ALA Archives

The Mary Baker Eddy Library
This library explores the life and achievements of Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), a New England woman who defied conventional 19th-century thinking to become an influential religious leader, publisher, teacher, and businesswoman. The library, at 200 Massachusetts Avenue, also houses the famous Mapparium, a three-story stained-glass globe, opened in 1935, that allows visitors to stand in the center of the earth with the countries laid out around them. The sound and light show gives a unique perspective on how ideas have the power to inspire individuals and change the world....
Mary Baker Eddy Library

Room share wiki for PLA 2010 attendees
A wiki for attendees of PLA’s 2010 National Conference is now available on PLAspace. Attendees looking to share a room can post their names and contact information on the wiki to connect with others. PLA 2010 will be held March 23–27 in Portland, Oregon....

Teen Read Week grabs media spotlight
More than 4,000 libraries across the United States celebrated Teen Read Week, October 18–24, with teens crowding libraries for author visits, movie marathons, craft programs, and book discussions. In addition, leaders from YALSA took to the nation’s airwaves and appeared in newspapers, discussing the importance of teen literacy and teen library usage. Media outreach resulted in hundreds of placements in national outlets....

AASL recognizes national conference sponsors
AASL is recognizing its vendor partners for their support of the 14th National Conference and Exhibition, November 5–8, in Charlotte, North Carolina. This year’s sponsors supported travel, scholarship, conference must-haves, and conference programming....

Two sets of progressive priorities
Rory Litwin writes: “This post is a presentation of two lists of priorities—first, priorities of the Social Responsibilities Round Table; and second, a list of the kind of issues that I think SRRT ought to emphasize instead. The first list is as complete a list as I was able to compile of the subjects of SRRT’s official resolutions from mid-2002 to mid-2005 (when I was SRRT Action Council coordinator). The second is a list of many of the important progressive issues in librarianship according to the way I personally see things.”...
Library Juice, Oct. 25

Youth Media Awards live stream
ALA will provide a free live webcast of its Youth Media Awards, a national announcement of the top books and media for children and young adults, January 18, at 7:45 a.m. Eastern Time, during the Midwinter Meeting in Boston. Recognized worldwide for the high quality they represent, the ALA Youth Media Awards guide parents, educators, librarians, and others in selecting the best materials for children and young adults. This year’s announcement includes 18 awards....

Carnegie-Whitney Award deadline nears
The ALA Publishing Committee is offering a grant of up to $5,000 for the preparation of print or electronic reading lists, indexes, or other guides to library resources that promote reading or the use of library resources at any type of library. Applications must be received by November 6. Recipients will be notified by the end of February 2010. See the award guidelines, or contact Mary Jo Bolduc....

John Ames Humphry/OCLC/Forest Press Award nominations
ALA is accepting nominations for the 2010 John Ames Humphry/ OCLC/Forest Press Award for International Librarianship. The $1,000 award is given to an individual who has made significant contributions to international librarianship. The deadline for nominations is January 1....

RUSA seeks Gale Cengage award nominations
RUSA is accepting nominations for its 2010 Gale Cengage Award for Excellence in Reference and Adult Services and its 2010 Gale Cengage Learning Award for Excellence in Business Librarianship. Sponsored by Gale Cengage Learning, the awards are given to libraries for outstanding reference and business services. Nominations should be submitted by December 15....

Apply for PLA awards and grants
PLA is now accepting applications and nominations for its 2010 awards and grants program. Members can nominate their colleagues and libraries via the PLA website. The deadline for submitting applications is December 1....

Books for Babies grants
In partnership with Nordstrom, ALTAFF has awarded 10 grants of $500 each to match $1,000 raised by selected Friends groups, women’s groups, and libraries for purchasing Books for Babies kits from the division. A total of 2,075 English kits and 225 Spanish kits will be distributed to parents of newborns through these grants....

RUSA business reference research grant
The application period for the RUSA Emerald Research Grants is now open. The award consists of two grants of $5,000, sponsored by Emerald Group Publishing and administered by the RUSA Business Reference and Services Section. The grants will be awarded to two applicants seeking support in conducting research in business librarianship. Submit your proposals to Jennifer Boettcher by December 31....

Bogle Pratt International Travel Fund
ALA is accepting nominations for the 2010 Bogle Pratt International Travel Fund, sponsored by the Bogle Memorial Fund and the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science. An award of $1,000 is given to an ALA member to attend his or her first international conference. The deadline for nominations is January 1....

Apply for a 2010 National Leadership grant
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is accepting grant applications for the agency’s 2010 National Leadership Grant program. Applications, guidelines, and examples of successful proposals can be found on the agency’s website. Libraries can apply for one of two types of grants: Projects or Collaborative Planning Grants....
Institute of Museum and Library Services, Oct. 28

NDIIPP named a Great Government IT Project
Government Computer News named the Library of Congress National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program October 22 as one of the top federal information technology projects of 2009. The award cited its success in working with universities and libraries to model distributed preservation practices, working with state consortia to help in the preservation of state digital information, and working with commercial content providers to develop standards for digital preservation....
Library of Congress, Oct. 23; Government Computer News, Oct. 12

2009 Librarians for Human Rights Award
Librarians for Human Rights has selected the Hartford (Conn.) Public Library to honor its committment to the democracy of its community through neighborhood-level action. The library has established 11 teams that profile each of the city’s 17 neighborhoods to develop creative and timely programs and services to serve residents’ interests....
Librarians for Human Rights, Oct. 25

Prize-winning cancer survivor gets her Dream Makeover
Rita Dennis (right), a grandmother and cancer survivor, won the grand prize in the Newport News (Va.) Public Library System’s Dream Makeovers contest in 2008. She originally had hoped to schedule her makeover in February, but surgery and chemotherapy changed those plans. Finally, she was able to get her makeover on October 13 with Sandy Dumont, an image consultant and coach in Norfolk....
Newport News (Va.) Public Library System, Oct. 26

Linda Sue Park receives 2009 Empire State Award
Linda Sue Park received the Empire State Award for Excellence in Literature for Young People on October 16 at the annual luncheon of the New York Library Association’s Youth Services Section. In addition to her Newbery Medal–winning book A Single Shard, Park has written numerous works that include historical fiction, modern novels, poetry, and picture books....
New York Library Association, Oct. 28

2009 CWA Dagger Awards
The UK Crime Writers’ Association presented William Brodrick with its Gold Dagger Award October 21 for A Whispered Name (Little, Brown, 2008). The judges described it as “A moving novel that stretches the parameters of the crime genre, intertwining past and present and throwing light on a neglected aspect of World War One.” Other awards went to John Hart for The Last Child and Johan Theorin for Echoes from the Dead....
Crime Writers’ Association, Oct. 21

2009 Anthony Awards
At the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Indianapolis October 17, winners were announced in eight categories for the 2009 Anthony Awards. Michael Connelly won the Best Mystery Novel award for The Brass Verdict (Little, Brown); Stieg Larsson won the Best First Novel award for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Knopf); and Jeffrey Marks won the Best Critical Nonfiction award for Anthony Boucher: A Biobibliography (McFarland)....
Bouchercon 2009

No Olympics for Chicago, but maybe a presidential library?
Although President Barack Obama has not spoken on the topic yet, University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer said he is studying the benefits of having a presidential archive and museum associated with the campus. Currently, Obama seems more interested in some kind of advocacy center along the lines of what Jimmy Carter has done at the Carter Center in Atlanta, said Eric Whitaker, an Obama friend and executive vice president at the UC Medical Center....
Bloomberg, Oct. 26

Mary Dempsey loves Chicago’s library
Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey—a woman who oversees an annual operating budget of about $100 million and a roster of some 1,200 employees, the first woman to head the board of trustees at DePaul University, and a personal friend of Mayor Richard M. Daley—loves the library and wants it to be at its best, down to the smallest detail. And since 1994, when she took over the joint, Chicago’s library system has, by nearly all accounts and by virtually every measure, thrived....
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 25

Ready, set, library fête
San Francisco Public Library’s Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial branch library reopened October 24 after a 19-month makeover that includes better lighting, new furniture, additional computers, a designated teen area, more work space for library staff, and accessible bathrooms. While it is not the only branch with a fireplace, “it is the only one with a working fireplace,” said SFPL spokeswoman Michelle Jeffers, and columnist Joe Eskenazi wrote that it “looks like Hugh Hefner’s crash pad.”...
San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 23; Queerest.Library.Ever, Oct. 26; SF Weekly, Oct. 21

A Cushing Academy update
A venerable boarding school west of Boston, the Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, last summer began getting rid of most of its library’s books. In their place: a fully digital collection. Library watchers say it represents the first time a school has placed its students’ intellectual lives so fully into the hands of a few online publishers and makers of electronic devices. But Headmaster Jim Tracy (right) says he has hired more librarians to help students navigate the electronic stacks and tell “what is valuable information or reliable from what is junk.”...
USA Today, Oct. 26

Utah’s Marriott Library restored
Two expensive globes that made an overland wagon trip to the new Utah territory in 1852 stood as a metaphor for the $79-million renovation of the University of Utah’s Marriott Library at its October 26 rededication. While the globe restoration returned them to their condition in 1850, the library renovation profoundly transformed the 1968 building, changing its appearance, internal flow, seismic resilience, and how students use it....
Salt Lake Tribune, Oct. 26

Harvard faculty voice concern over library changes
Members of a task force examining Harvard’s libraries emphasized the dire structural problems confronting one of the university’s most cherished resources, causing professors to express concern about the health of the libraries in the face of potential consolidation. At an October 27 faculty meeting, Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith (right) said that the university must address the intense budgetary pressures confronting the libraries....
Harvard Crimson, Oct. 28

Libraries diversify their appeal
Libraries have always been in the business of providing information. But as diversity continues to grow in the United States, libraries like the system in Queens, New York, are trying to remain vital and relevant to their communities by offering information in a range of new ways. They’re doing that not only by adding material in multiple languages to their collections, but also through programming that includes citizenship courses, tax help, and cancer screenings....
Associated Press, Oct. 24

Copyright and library materials
Mark Caro writes: “The argument began innocently enough as we all sat around in a North Side beer garden. James Finn Garner, author of the best-selling Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, was relating his young teenage kid’s resourcefulness in listening to Dad’s record collection, finding similar-era CDs at the Chicago Public Library (Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones) and ripping songs onto the computer so they could be listened to on an iPod. A mutual friend shot back that Garner was encouraging his kid to be a thief.”...
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 28

Book-swapping supplements a limited budget
In an era when any publicly funded institution has to spend wisely, Hartland (Maine) Public Library Director John Clark manages to make a lot out of a little. He stretches his annual buying budget of $4,400 by listing library duplicates or unused titles on BookMooch, SwapTree, or PaperBackSwap and trading them for titles he needs. Clark has shared his methods at seminars and in newsletters, and he has written a weekly library column in local newspapers for years....
Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Oct. 27

Library mergers proposed at University of Iowa
Four libraries could merge at the University of Iowa in an effort to trim $1 million from the library budget, Librarian Nancy Baker said. Under the proposal, the Mathematical Sciences Library would merge with the Main Library, and the Psychology Library would merge into the Hardin Health Sciences Library. The Physics and Geoscience Libraries would merge into a remodeled Biological Sciences Library next summer. About 35 faculty and students have signed a petition opposing the measures....
Des Moines (Iowa) Register, Oct. 27; Iowa City Press-Citizen, Oct. 27

Cheshire divided on book banning
Emotions ran high October 22 as more than 100 people turned out at town hall to tell the Cheshire (Conn.) Public Library board how they felt about efforts to ban In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood, which describes the 2007 slayings of members of a local family. Tears were shed, voices raised, and applause given, and by the end of the two-hour meeting, more than two dozen people had spoken on both sides of the issue....
New Haven (Conn.) Register, Oct. 23

Title challenged at Nampa Public Library
A mother says a young adult book shelved in the juvenile section of the Nampa (Idaho) Public Library is inappropriate for children and wants it removed. Shelly Gering told Director Karen Ganske that the book, How to Get Suspended and Influence People by Adam Selzer, is offensive because of its use of coarse language and an abstract drawing of a nude woman on the cover. The book is a humorous novel about a gifted 8th-grader who makes an avant-garde sex-education video for a class project. Watch the video (2:27)....
Nampa Idaho Press-Tribune, Oct. 22; KBCI-TV, Boise, Oct. 22

Mystery library book censor in Tennessee
Someone has been crossing out dirty words in books, and employees at the Maury County Public Library in Columbia, Tennessee, aren’t happy about it. Over the past several months, at least 50 books have been returned to the library with curse words crossed out by someone using blue ink. Library Director Elizabeth Potts (right) in a TV news interview (2:40) said most of them are mystery novels, though an “f-word” published in the 9/11 Commission Report has also been crossed out....
Columbia (Tenn.) Daily Herald, Oct. 26; WTVF-TV, Oct. 26

Security returns to theft-prone Multnomah County
For years now, stealing from the Multnomah County (Oreg.) Library has been an easy feat. The Central Library has had no security system since the building was renovated 13 years ago, and none of the 16 branches had working security systems either, leading to a loss of nearly $300,000 in the past six months alone. But now the library is installing a $2.9-million system using RFID tags to reduce theft and make materials handling easier at all its locations....
Portland Oregonian, Oct. 27

Ex-gays cry censorship
Religious opponents of gays and lesbians say that with prayer and counseling, it’s possible to convert them to heterosexuality. So-called “ex-gays” claim that books on the subject of such reparative therapies, such as My Genes Made Me Do It! by Neil and Briar Whitehead, are conspicuously missing from libraries in public schools; the reason, they say, is due to censorship of their message that gays can choose to become straight. Such putative censorship has led to suits and threatened legal action against schools for not carrying ex-gay titles....
Edge (Boston), Oct. 23

Japan to create huge manga library
A collection of more than 2 million comic books will be housed in a new Tokyo International Manga Library, scheduled to open in 2015 on the grounds of Meiji University. The new library aims to elevate the study of manga to the same level as other academic subjects. It will also house fanzines, animated drawings, video games, and other cartoon-industry artifacts. The idea for the library emerged after the university received a collection of more than 140,000 titles from the late manga critic Yoshihiro Yonezawa....
Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Oct. 27; Mainichi Daily News (Tokyo), Oct. 27

Librarian numbers plummet in Edinburgh
Staff morale in libraries across Edinburgh, Scotland, is said to be at an all-time low as figures show the number of full-time librarians has plunged by nearly a quarter. The city council has been undertaking a two-year review of its library service and now employs 19 fewer full-time qualified librarians than it did a year ago. It has left a quarter of the city’s libraries with no full-time head librarian—and that figure is expected to be cut further....
The Scotsman, Oct. 23

Library service in Denmark at risk
More than 200 libraries, primarily smaller ones, have closed in Denmark since 2005. The national association of municipalities said the consolidation has resulted in better and more modern facilities, but the librarians’ union thinks many people are getting left behind, despite an agreement with the Brugsen supermarket chain that allows people to request library books online and pick them up at the local store. More than half of the nation’s councils are planning library funding cutbacks in 2010....
Copenhagen Post, Oct. 27; Berlingske Tidende, Oct. 26

Go back to the Top

Be cautious upgrading to Windows 7
Troy Wolverton writes: “Before you buy a copy of Windows 7, you’d do well to check whether your computer—and you—are ready for the upgrade. If you’re one of the millions of PC owners still running Windows XP, your computer may not be powerful enough to run the new software. Worse yet, you have a tedious and long upgrade process ahead of you, essentially requiring you to erase everything on your current hard drive and reinstall it.”...
San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, Oct. 25

12 must-know Windows 7 shortcuts
Matthew Murray writes: “If you’ve been using computers a long time, you can remember the days when you needed the keyboard for everything. Some of us have never given up the habit, and still use keyboard shortcuts in Windows with great regularity. Depending on what you’re doing, they can really speed you up. So if you’ve switched to Windows 7, you may be wondering what new keyboard and mouse shortcuts on it can make your life easier. Here’s a look at 12 of them.”...
ExtremeTech, Oct. 22

Internet Librarian 2009: Opening keynote
Sarah Houghton-Jan covered the IL2009 keynote in which New York Public Library Director of Public Programs Paul Holdengraber (right) interviewed Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf. Holdengraber: “What does it mean to be attentive in an age of distraction?” Cerf responded that even PowerPoint reduces thinking to a certain level of brevity: “Power corrupts and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.” Watch the full session, and see the Infotoday Blog, Librarian in Black, and PLA Blog for more conference coverage....
Librarian in Black, Oct. 26; Infotoday Blog, Oct. 26

An open source newbie tells all
Kate Sheehan writes: “As a casual observer of the library open source movement, I think the initial nervousness expressed by many librarians has subsided. So too has the gee-whiz enthusiasm, replaced by a more mellow excitement and commitment to the work of promoting, creating, and maintaining open source solutions for libraries. However, uncertainty persists the most strongly among those who have limited ILS experience.”...
ALA TechSource blog, Oct. 26

RIP, open source evangelism
Matt Asay writes: “We have reached a critical inflection point for open source. With everyone from Qualcomm to UBS to Microsoft and even the White House embracing open source software such as Drupal (right) in one shape or another, the question is no longer ‘why’ to use open source, but rather ‘how.’ Because of this changing mindset around open-source adoption, we no longer need evangelists encouraging open-source adoption. Adoption is a given. It’s the default. What we need now are those who can illustrate how to derive the most benefit from the inevitable adoption of open source.”...
The Open Road, Oct. 26–27

Five best portable apps suites
Jason Fitzpatrick writes: “Once upon a time, easy remote computing was a pipe dream; now people routinely carry gigs of data around on flash drives smaller than a modest pack of chewing gum. Manage your apps and data with these five portable application suites. First is LiberKey (right), with its functional menu conveniently arranged by program type.”...
Lifehacker, Oct. 25

Google Maps Navigation goes mobile
Google announced plans October 28 to release a new Android application called Google Maps Navigation. When combined with a GPS-equipped mobile phone running Android 2.0, it provides turn-by-turn directions powered by Google Maps and a slick user interface that combines features such as voice recognition and Google Street View. Google Maps Navigation, like seemingly everything that emerges from Google, will be free. The first phone to have Google Maps Navigation and Android 2.0 will be the Droid from Verizon....
Relevant Results, Oct. 28

Nook to allow lending over Wi-Fi, 3G
Barnes and Noble officially launched its own e-reader device, the Nook, on October 20, saying it will go on sale in late November for $259 and offer wireless access via AT&T’s network and Wi-Fi. It runs the Google-backed Android mobile operating system and comes with a dual screen—an E Ink Vizplex display above a smaller color touchscreen to do searches via a virtual keyboard. Dan Nosowitz offers eight reasons to love the Nook....
Computerworld, Oct. 20; Gizmodo, Oct. 20

HP, University of Michigan to reprint rare books
In a retro twist on the Google Books idea, Hewlett-Packard has announced a partnership with the University of Michigan library to sell physical copies of over 500,000 rare and out-of-print works, while making the digital versions available online for free. HP’s BookPrep service will take in raw scans of books, clean them up to prepare them for reprinting, and then offer print-on-demand copies for sale via normal online book distribution channels like Amazon....
Ars Technica, Oct. 25; Hewlett-Packard, Oct. 21

All about Anne of Green Gables
Last year was the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maude Montgomery’s first book about the redheaded orphan of Prince Edward Island. In October, the Anne of Green Gables canon expanded when Penguin released the complete version of The Blythes Are Quoted, Montgomery’s very last installment (completed in 1942) that was only partially published in 1974. This one includes references to some seriously dark subjects and reflects Montgomery’s own opposition to war....
Mental Floss, Oct. 26

Confederate serials
Steven Lomazow writes: “For my 1996 book on American periodicals, I put together the only comprehensive list of Confederate periodicals I’ve ever seen. There are some real beauties here, all of which rate between scarce, rare, and impossible to find. Perhaps the most important of all antebellum Southern magazines were De Bow’s Review, published in New Orleans, and Southern Literary Messenger, clearly the finest in the literary area, edited for a time and with mutltiple contributions by Edgar Allan Poe. Shown here (above) is the first issue published under the Confederacy.”...
Magazine History, Oct. 24

Maurice Sendak looks back on Wild Things
Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are won the Caldecott Medal in 1964, and was adapted into an opera two decades later. Now, Where The Wild Things Are is on the big screen. This broadcast (39:33) brings together excerpts of interviews with Sendak in 1986, 1993, and 2003....
National Public Radio, Fresh Air, Oct. 26

An interview with Tracy Kidder
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Kidder gives his take on what libraries mean to him and to the subject of his latest book Strength in What Remains: “Any writer with any brains has to be a supporter of the library. . . . I think libraries give a town a moral center. I don’t know how we would all get along without them. It’s discouraging to me that for the price of an army tank we could keep the libraries open.”...
Cohasset (Mass.) Mariner, Oct. 26

Job Help Day @ your library
A group of librarians in Franklin Country, Ohio, are reaching out to their communities to address the tough economy. In September, representatives of the Worthington Public Libraries worked in collaboration with four other area libraries (Columbus Metropolitan, Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, and Westerville) to create “Job Help Day @ your library.” Each of the five participating libraries purchased résumé-writing software and other job search tools, available in each of the libraries’ job help centers, and offered a series of free job-related workshops....
State Library of Ohio News, Oct.

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 and a draft published in August....
Blue Skunk Blog, Oct. 23

New students and technology study
Barbara Fister writes: “A new Educause Center for Applied Research study on students and technology has just come out and as usual, there are interesting findings. Nearly 90% of students come to college with a laptop now, and the percentage of students who reported using the library website daily has more than doubled—from 7.1% in 2006 to 16.9% in 2009.”...
ACRLog, Oct. 25; Educause, Oct. 22

Rental service for research articles
Frederic Lardinois writes: “Buying a single article from a scientific journal is usually prohibitively expensive if you are not a student or teacher at a school that subscribes to the journal. Most academic journals are available only behind paywalls, but DeepDyve announced a new product October 27 that could radically change the marketplace for scientific, technical, and medical articles. Accounts start with a pay-as-you-go account, by which users are charged $0.99 to keep an article for one day, and go up to an unlimited account for $19.99 per month.” Article access is view-only, and printing is not supported....
ReadWriteWeb, Oct. 27

Five ways to write retweetable tweets
Debbie Weil writes: “You’ve heard about sticky content. Back in the days of Web 1.0 it was what made folks stick around on your website. The idea was they would stay a while, read every word, and then buy whatever you were selling. Microblogging demands that you create a different kind of content. Let’s call it ‘slippery.’ That means 140-character bursts that are so compelling, they slip away immediately and are repeated. Here are five simple ways to make your pronouncements highly retweetable.”...
Mashable, Oct. 6

10 tips for managing social media burnout
Heather Mansfield writes: “Six months ago I came pretty close to complete social media burnout. I was running over 20 social networking profiles, logging in seven days a week, and at minimum pulling 60-hour work weeks. My chosen profession requires complete dedication to social media and not everyone is as extreme as I was/am, but as social media continues to penetrate the nonprofit sector, more and more staff and interns will experience social media burnout. Here are a few tips on how to deal with it.”...
Nonprofit Tech 2.0, Oct. 22

[Re]Boot Camp at Austin Community College
Ellie Collier writes: “During Spring semester, Austin (Tex.) Commmunity College Dean of Library Services Julie Todaro called a group of us together to begin planning an immersive program aimed at newer librarians to get them comfortable and up-to-speed with teaching. After the initial brainstorming session, a smaller group (with a higher ratio of more seasoned librarians) was designated as the planning team. This post will walk you through our process in the hopes that you will find both inspiration and information to create your own training programs.”...
In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Oct. 28

First academic library conference in India attracts 700
Ravindra N. Sharma writes: “The University of Delhi in India hosted the first International Conference on Academic Libraries October 5–8. It was a smashing success and attracted delegates from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East. IFLA President Ellen Tise (right) spoke about change, partnership, transformation, and the future of academic librarianship. Other speakers discussed virtual libraries, information literacy, and the changing role of academic libraries as centers of information.”...
ACRL Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Section wiki

Online historical directories
Randy Seaver writes: “City directories are one of the major resources to determine addresses, occupations, and employers for research subjects who lived in cities. Some city directories are online in digital format, in either freely accessible databases or in commercial subscription databases. Miriam Robbins Midkiff has created an Online Historical Directories website and has spent untold hours finding online city (and other) directories and posting links to them in an organized manner.”...
Genea-Musings, Oct. 27

2010 Renaissance Library Calendar
The Renaissance Library calendars have been produced since 2001 by Information Strategy and Information Management, a consulting and publishing firm based in Sollentuna, a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Each month features a photo of a historic library, selected from nominations submitted by librarians and information professionals in nearly 40 countries. The cover of the 2010 calendar shows the Theological Hall of the Vyssi Brod Monastery Library in the Czech Republic, built in 1750 mostly by the monks themselves....
Renaissance Library Collection

The top 10 internet rules and laws
Tom Chivers writes: “Any internet user will know that the web, like the outside world, follows certain rules. We take a look at 10, with the most well-known and widely used towards the top (Godwin’s Law), and some of the lesser lights lower down (the Law of Exclamation). We should state that we are not endorsing these laws or the views they imply, merely reporting them.”...
The Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Oct. 23

A tour of the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book
Librarian James A. Findlay offers a slideshow tour (15:44) of this facility, which also serves as the Dianne and Michael Bienes Special Collections and Rare Book Library branch of the Broward County Library in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The holdings include many Big Little Books (above), ABC books and related materials, Federal Writers’ Project books, Czech pop-up books, Floridiana, and vintage comic books....
Vimeo, Oct. 19

In celebration of catalog cards
Staff at the University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library are working to hold a series of events called “It’s All in the Cards” to honor the card catalog, its use in the transformation of knowledge, and the people who created and used it. During Welcome Week there was a game night and a boat race featuring cards from the catalog. The latest event is a competition (PDF file) that challenges students to see what they can make with the cards. The contest has four categories: functional (serves a purpose), fashionable (wearable), foundational (building models), and free form....
USC Daily Gamecock, Oct. 28; Thomas Cooper Library

Gory Halloween makeup
This video (1:01) shows how teens learned to make authentic-looking slashes, gashes, and scars along their arms as part of a Halloween Horror Make-up Workshop held at the Red Deer (Alberta) Public Library October 10. Nicholas Pilote, 14, was getting his friend to help him put claw marks down the inside of his arm to make it look like his cat had scratched him. Jen Waters, teen services librarian, showed kids how to put on spirit gum and then nose and scar wax to build up a layer of fake skin before letting them do it on their own....
YouTube, Oct. 14; Red Deer (Alberta) Advocate, Oct. 13

Libraries on YouTube: Halloween edition
Charlie Thomason writes: “Every two weeks we like to do a post highlighting some of the best library-related YouTube videos. We really appreciate those who’ve sent us links to great library videos. For this week, we’ve got five more great ones, including two great Halloween videos.” This one (1:26) shows how to print a document at the College of DuPage Library in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, while avoiding an attack by zombies....
@ your library, Oct. 22

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