Comic-Con newbie finds surprises
Jessica Lee writes: “This was my first Comic-Con. While I knew it would be crowded and crazy, there have been quite a few surprises along the way too. Attending the San Diego Comic-Con International, July 12–15, I definitely expected the more than 100,000 people, the long lines, and the costumes. Yes, the costumes were amazing and sometimes surreal, like seeing Gandalf with an iPhone. But what I wasn’t expecting was the camaraderie and randomly bumping into people I know. Since so much of the audience is there to ogle movie stars, the authors and illustrators are very accessible. And they love librarians.” See the Comic-Con wrapup at io9....
AL: Inside Scoop, July 18; ALA Membership Blog, July 15; io9, July 18

SLA in Chicago enchants and challenges
Laurie D. Borman writes: “The Special Libraries Association met in Chicago July 15–18 for its annual conference and expo. The small group, a fraction of the number who attended the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim last month (20,134), honored fellow members and flocked to specialized sessions. Guy Kawasaki (right), Apple’s former chief evangelist and founder of AllTop.com, presented points from his 2011 book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.” The SLA Annual Conference will meet in San Diego in 2013....
American Libraries feature; SLA Blog, July 18

Vendors showcase their wares in Anaheim
Marshall Breeding writes: “Interested buyers found tech products that press beyond established boundaries as well as those that enable bread-and-butter library activities in the Anaheim Convention Center during the 2012 ALA Annual Conference. Products ranged from discovery services that aim to deliver access to the universe of library collections; to new library management systems bringing together print, electronic, and digital resources; and ebook-delivery products for those in search of innovative, pragmatic solutions.”...
American Libraries feature

Solutions and Services: Perkins+Will at UCLA
UCLA recently completed a renovation of its Charles E. Young Research Library, and part of the effort focused on making it a greener facility. Perkins+Will provided predesign, programming, and design services that adhere to green building principles established by the LEED national rating system. Since the renovation, more than twice the number of people visited the library in the fall quarter of 2011, compared with the previous year. The building is expected to achieve the status of LEED Gold....
American Libraries column, July/Aug.

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LC luminary, William J. Welsh, 1919–2012
William Joseph Welsh (right), 92, Deputy Librarian of Congress from 1976 to 1988, and a preservation and digitization proponent several decades ahead of his time, died July 13. In his 41 years at LC, he played a major role in the renovation of the historic Jefferson Building, the development of a deacidification process, and a pilot project on the use of optical disk technology to store text and graphics in compact formats. Read more about Welsh’s remarkable career as an American library leader who helped pave the way for greater national and international library cooperation in this 1984 interview with former AL Editor Art Plotnik (PDF file)....
AL: Inside Scoop, July 18; American Libraries, Dec. 1984, pp. 765–769

Register for International Games Day 2012
Jenny Levine writes: “Just like in games, we’ve leveled up National Gaming Day to be an even bigger event this year. We have a new name, International Games Day @ your library, and a new date (the first Saturday of each November). This year’s celebration of communities coming together to play at the library will take place on November 3 and will include our traditional board game donation and national video game tournaments. Registration is now open.” The official sponsors are PopCap, Ravensburger, and GameTable Online....
International Games Day @ your library, July 13

Facilitate democracy @ your library
Jazzy Wright writes: “As a part of our commitment to democracy, we encourage librarians to use their library’s website to promote Vote 411, a new tool the League of Women Voters provides that helps people register to vote and offers information on voting requirements and state deadlines. ALA’s support of Vote 411 comes off the heels of Council’s unanimous passage of the resolution opposing voter suppression at the recent 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.”...
District Dispatch, July 13

How to get decision makers into your library
With the last three months of the election season around the corner, now is the time to press legislators, administrators, school board members—in fact, anyone you can think of—to visit your library. Register for the free July 24 webinar “They’ve Got to See It to Believe It” to learn the secret strategies for getting decision makers in the door, and eventually agreeing with you....
District Dispatch, July 17

The book as an iPad app
Some publishers are experimenting with a new kind of book, published as an app, that mixes elements of film, videogames, and social media with traditional text. Challenging the notion of what a book is, this hybrid offers librarians new opportunities in evaluation, selection, and services. Panelists led by Nicole Hennig (right) will hold a free webinar on the topic, “Introducing the Book as iPad App,” at 2 p.m. Eastern time on July 23. Registration is now open....
ALA TechSource, July 17

“Using Drupal” returns
By popular demand, a new session of the facilitated six-week e-course, “Using Drupal to Build Library Websites,” will start on September 4. Former American Libraries Associate Editor Sean Fitzpatrick will once again serve as the instructor. Registration is open....
ALA Editions, July 17

Rock Bottom Remainders fan in Entertainment Weekly
Tricia B. Jauquet, technical services librarian at Purdue University North Central in Westville, Indiana, had her letter published in the July 20 Entertainment Weekly praising the Rock Bottom Remainders Spectrum Scholarship Bash concert at ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim: “Who knew that these authors could rock so hard and have so much fun doing it? Amy Tan in a dominatrix outfit is something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”...
Entertainment Weekly, July 6, 20

The role of faculty in teaching research processes
Teaching Research Processes: The Faculty Role in the Development of Skilled Student Researchers, published by Chandos Publishing and available through Neal-Schuman Publishers, suggests a novel approach in which information literacy can fall within the purview of teaching faculty, supported by librarians, and reconceived as a set of research processes. Author William B. Badke points the way toward transforming education into an interactive practice involving the core research tasks of subject disciplines....
ALA Neal-Schuman, July 16

Ethical behavior in the e-classroom
Ethical Behavior in the E-Classroom: What the Online Student Needs to Know is an important new guide for distance-education students in higher education. Author Cassandra J. Smith addresses pertinent topics for adult students striving to meet their personal goals in the online learning environment. Ethics in general, ethical behavior specific to online classrooms, and what makes a successful online learner are among the themes explored. The book offers numerous real-life examples of ethical dilemmas, and also includes a practice exam....
ALA Neal-Schuman, July 17

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AASL seeks concurrent sessions for Hartford
AASL invites proposals for concurrent sessions to be presented during its 16th National Conference and Exhibition in Hartford, Connecticut. Concurrent sessions will be held November 15–16, 2013. The submission deadline is November 9, 2012. Concurrent sessions during the conference are 75 minutes in length. Proposals should focus on one of the content strands....
AASL, July 16

New School Library Research articles
Three new research articles covering the process of teacher/school librarian collaboration, the role of the school librarian as a leader in technology integration, and the function of school librarians in Response to Intervention (RtI) are now available online as part of AASL’s online journal, School Library Research. The articles are by Sue Kimmel, Melissa Johnston, and Jennifer Robins and Patricia Antrim....
AASL, July 16

Cherokee romanization table adopted
The ALCTS Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access recently reviewed and approved a proposal from the Library of Congress for a new Cherokee romanization table. It has been subsequently approved by the Cherokee Tri-Council meeting in Cherokee, North Carolina. This is the first ALA-LC romanization table for a Native American syllabary. The table is now available for downloading (PDF file) from the ALA-LC Romanization Tables webpage....
Catalogablog, July 17

Get practical tips about entry-level interviews
While there is a lot of information out there about how to write a good résumé and cover letter, there is much less on how to do well in an interview, especially advice written since the recession started. LLAMA will address the issue in a free webinar, “How to Succeed in an Entry-Level Librarian Interview: Research and Experience-Based Tips,” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Central time on July 25. Registration is required....
LLAMA, July 17

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Hackley Public Library dedicated as a Literary Landmark
ALTAFF partnered with Friends of the Hackley Public Library on June 12 to dedicate Hackley Public Library in Muskegon, Michigan, as a Literary Landmark in honor of award-winning children’s author and storyteller Verna Aardema (1911–2000). More than 220 people attended the dedication, held in the Muskegon Museum of Art auditorium. Aardema credited Hackley librarians for their invaluable help in research and worked so closely with them that she called the library “home.”...
ALTAFF, July 13

Awards season opens for AASL
AASL’s prestigious awards program will offer more than $50,000 in awards to its members in 2013. The division’s 10 awards recognize excellence and showcase best practices in the school library field in categories that include research, collaboration, leadership, and innovation. AASL personal members are required to fill out applications using the online awards database. The deadline for most awards and grants is February 1, 2013....
AASL, July 17

Nominate your Día for a Mora Award
If your school or library hosted a celebration of El día de los niños / El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) this year, consider nominating it for Reforma’s 2012 Estela and Raúl Mora Award. The deadline to apply (PDF file) is August 15. The annual $1,000 award goes to the most exemplary program celebrating Día....
Reforma

YALS wins fifth Apex Award
Communications Concepts honored Young Adult Library Services (YALS), YALSA’s quarterly journal, with its fifth APEX Award for Publication Excellence. YALS was recognized in the category of print journals and magazines that are more than 32 pages. The journal won for the Winter 2012 issue, which focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) content in libraries. Megan Honig edited the issue....
YALSA, July 13

Transforming Collections microgrants awarded
The first-ever Transforming Collections microgrants of $1,500 each have been awarded to the University of Maryland Baltimore County Library and the University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library. ALCTS established the annual microgrants to support and encourage innovative practices, emerging technologies, and innovation in collections by aiding small projects or research initiatives that support transforming collections....
ALCTS, July 17

P21 recognizes five states
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) met in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, July 14–17 for its summer institute and honored five states in implementing a comprehensive 21st-century skills framework. The awardees were Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin....
Partnership for 21st Century Skills, July 13

UBorrow wins 2012 Innovation Award
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative has announced that the winner of its 2012 Innovation Award is UBorrow, a project of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The award comes with a $1,000 stipend and honors individuals or institutions for changes they have made to improve users’ access to information through resource sharing in their library, consortium, state, or country. UBorrow offers rapid access to over 90 million books from the collections of 13 university libraries in the Midwest and the Center for Research Libraries....
CIC News, June 20

Federal school literacy grants available
The application filing period for Innovative Approaches to Literacy Program school literacy grants is now open, the Department of Education announced July 13. ALA encourages school librarians to apply for the program grants, which can range from $150,000 to $750,000. The deadline to apply for the grant funding is August 10. At least 50% of the $28.6 million in funding is designated for school librarians. AASL has some application advice....
ALA Washington Office, July 13; AASL Blog, July 15

Better World Books awards LEAP literacy grants
Online bookseller Better World Books announced the recipients of its 2012 LEAP (Learning and Education in Action Program) grants on July 13. This year, $60,000 will go to five nonprofits and libraries that support literacy and education: the Santi School Project, Las Manos de Christine, Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library, READ Bhutan, and Niles (Ill.) District Library....
Better World Books, July 13

2012 International Thriller Writers Awards
Keir Graff writes: “The 2012 Thriller Awards were announced at the ThrillerFest ‘gala awards banquet’ in New York City July 14. The awards for best hardcover novel went to 11/22/63 (Scribner) by Stephen King, best paperback original to The Last Minute (Sphere) by Jeff Abbott, and best first novel to Spiral (Dial) by Paul McEuen. According to the Booklist reviews, Spiral may have been the best of the lot.”...
Booklist Online: Likely Stories, July 16

2012 Prometheus Awards
The Libertarian Futurist Society announced a tie for its Prometheus Award in the Best Novel category. The two winners are The Freedom Maze (Small Beer Press) by Delia Sherman and Ready Player One (Random House) by Ernest Cline. The Prometheus Awards honor outstanding science fiction and fantasy that explores the possibilities of a free future, champions human rights, dramatizes the conflicts between individuals and government, or critiques the tragic consequences of abuse of power....
Libertarian Futurist Society, July 13

2012 Wales Book of the Year Award
Poet Patrick McGuinness has been named winner of the 2012 Wales Book of the Year Award for his debut novel, The Last Hundred Days. Set in Bucharest, Romania, in 1989, the novel takes readers into a world of danger, repression, and corruption. While McGuinness won best novel in the English-language category, Richard Gwyn won the creative nonfiction award with his memoir, The Vagabond’s Breakfast, an account of his lost year of addiction and reckless travel....
Cardiff (Wales) Western Mail, July 12

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Maker station in Allen County library parking lot
Melissa Renner writes: “A collaboration between the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and a local nonprofit called TekVenture has created a hub of awesome for local makers called the TekVenture Maker Station. This 50-foot trailer is packed with the kinds of tools that makers can’t wait to get their hands on: a CNC Milling Machine, Metal Lathe, a Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer, an Egg-Bot, a CNC Router, tools for welding, an injection molder, and laptops to program everything a maker could imagine.”...
Boing Boing, July 11

Chicago libraries to reopen Monday mornings
Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced July 16 that the Chicago Public Library will return to full-day service in all 76 of its neighborhood branches on Mondays this fall after the city hires back 105 lower-wage library pages to replace librarians at the branches. Due to budget cuts, Chicago’s branches were scheduled to be closed for four hours on Monday mornings during the school year. Emanuel and Library Commissioner Brian Bannon said the department will adopt a “flexible staffing plan” to allow full-day service on Mondays without additional cost....
Chicago Tribune, July 16

Utah school librarians might get IF training
The Davis (Utah) School District is considering intellectual freedom training for librarians in the wake of a recent decision to remove In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Polacco, a book about lesbian mothers, from shelves of elementary school libraries. The district’s library media steering committee met July 12 and briefly discussed the option of training sponsored by the Utah Library Association that covers topics on intellectual freedom issues, including policy creation and how to handle challenges that seek to ban books....
Salt Lake Tribune, July 13

Algiers opens new regional library
For nearly seven years since Hurricane Katrina, the children of Algiers, Louisiana, haven’t had a full-service library. But that chapter closed with the grand opening July 11 of the new two-story, $9.2-million Algiers Regional, the biggest and most expensive branch library in New Orleans. Irvin Mayfield, chairman of the board for the New Orleans Public Library, said he knew that at times it was hard for Algiers to be patient as it waited on its library, “but that patience has paid off.”...
New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 15

Bedbugs force closure of Tulsa Central Library
The discovery of bedbugs at the downtown Tulsa (Okla.) City-County Library forced officials to close the building July 17 and call an exterminator to assess if the pests had spread beyond a few chairs where they were found. The building will be closed until further notice. Oklahoma’s only bedbug-sniffing dog, Ms. Liberty Belle, traveled to Tulsa from Norman on July 18 to determine just how widespread the bedbugs are....
Tulsa (Okla.) World, July 18; KJRH-TV, Tulsa, July 18

Library’s name not an issue to be exploited
Vanzetta Penn McPherson writes: “During the past few days, doors have been swinging wildly around one simple, harmless, and eminently appropriate decision: The renaming of the Rosa Parks Avenue branch of the Montgomery (Ala.) Public Library in honor of Bertha Pleasant Williams, the first black public librarian in Montgomery and the beloved custodian of that very building during the nine years after its opening. Opposition to that decision has been baseless and yes, opportunistic.” The city council approved the plan to change the name on July 18, but Rosa Parks’s name will be kept on the sign....
Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, July 17; Associated Press, July 18

Penn library preserves endangered languages
About half of the world’s 7,000 languages are threatened with extinction by the year 2100, so the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is collaborating with Google and other organizations to preserve them in the Endangered Languages Project. The initiative uses technology to support both language documentation and revitalization efforts. David McKnight, director of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, and Penn Museum librarian John Weeks contributed most of Penn’s rare Berendt-Brinton manuscript collection that documents more than 40 Mexican and Central American languages....
The Daily Pennsylvanian, July 11

Google donates computers to Vermont libraries
Google has donated 100 computers and funding for software to Vermont public libraries and adult education sites. Vermont State Librarian Martha Reid announced the gift, which is valued at nearly $25,000 combined. The donation, part of a larger effort by Google to donate surplus equipment from their offices, includes desktop computers, flat-screen monitors, keyboards, and mice, all completely refurbished and loaded with the latest software operating systems....
Vermont Business News, July 16

Downsized library for the blind to boost service
Traverse Area (Mich.) District Library will downsize its library for the blind and physically handicapped to save $45,000 a year, but officials contend the change will boost service and reach more needy patrons. The library board held a special meeting at its Kingsley branch to adopt a new service model known as an Outreach and Advisory Center. The library will downsize its service area from 16 to eight counties and eliminate most of its audiobook holdings....
Traverse City (Mich.) Record-Eagle, July 12

New Mexico border town considers closing its library
The city of Sunland Park, New Mexico, is $1.1 million in debt this year and city councilors are considering closing its library, even though it had more than 58,000 visitors last year and it’s the only one in southern Doña Ana County. The city’s debt was revealed in a state audit that showed fraud, misappropriation of city funds, and criminal violations by former elected leaders....
KFOX-TV, El Paso, Tex., July 11

Ads coming this fall to Toronto PL date-due slips
The Toronto Public Library has issued a request for proposals in search of a company to sell ads on the back of date-due slips. A second request for proposals seeks a consultant to “evaluate all library channels and vehicles” for other advertising opportunities. Both requests were approved by the library board in February. Libraries in Mississauga and Calgary also sell date-due slip ads. The library’s advertising policy prohibits ads promoting tobacco or alcohol products, religious beliefs, political positions, and parties....
Toronto Star, July 16

NARA at Wikimania 2012
Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero writes: “On July 14 I spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of Wikimedians at the Wikimania 2012 Conference here in Washington. (Watch the presentation, 23:13.) Over 1,400 people from 87 countries came together to talk, hack, and share their expertise and experiences at the week-long event. So you may be asking why I am so interested in working with the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedian in Residence Dominic McDevitt-Parks (above) has already worked with our staff to upload over 90,000 digital copies of our records to the Wikimedia Commons.”...
AOTUS: Collector in Chief, July 18; YouTube, July 18

Brooklyn librarians perform in jazz band
Six Brooklyn librarians have formed a roving band called Lost in the Stacks, a jazz and blues combo that plays at book festivals and branches all over New York City. “This gives the people another image of librarians,” said the band’s founding member, Jack McCleland, 65, the head librarian at the main branch at Grand Army Plaza. Lead singer Rita Meade, 31, who works at the New Utrecht branch on 86th Street, said librarians are more artistic than people think....
New York Daily News, July 11

NYPL displays the fine art of lunch
The New York Public Library is deconstructing the ritual of lunch in a surprisingly engaging new exhibit titled “Lunch Hour NYC.” It runs through February 17. The exhibit looks at lunch from both a highbrow and lowbrow perspective. It’s divided into four sections: quick lunch, lunch at home, charitable lunch, and power lunch. Co-curators Rebecca Federman and Laura Shapiro got the idea through their desire to explore New York’s love affair with food. Watch the trailer (2:14)....
The Improper: Arts, July 14; YouTube, June 11

Mobile art comes to DCPL branch
20 Washington, D.C.–area students spent two weeks helping to create nine mobile art projects through the National Gallery of Art’s High School Summer Institute. This year, the students’ artwork will hang in the Northwest One branch of the District of Columbia Public Library—a space that has had no art since it opened in 2009. It’s the first public library to partner with the gallery’s institute....
Washington Post, July 10

Earliest Georgia film footage found
Archivists at the University of Georgia believe they have found the earliest movie footage shot in the state, part of a collection of home movies and other films that belonged to the wealthy owners of a Thomasville plantation. Now transferred to digital format, the short movie from around 1917 shows members of the Howard Melville Hanna family of Cleveland, Ohio, frolicking at Pebble Hill Plantation. Film Archivist Margie Compton has posted a clip (2:21) from the movie on YouTube....
Athens (Ga.) Banner-Herald, July 13; YouTube, July 9

Florida Atlantic shares resources with Nigeria
Florida Atlantic University Libraries have signed an agreement to share copies of their articles and documents with the American University of Nigeria Library (right). The Nigerian university, which serves about 1,400 students and 100 faculty members in the farming town of Yola, is struggling to develop research and teaching programs. The agreement allows them to request up to 30 electronic photocopies of periodicals, conference papers, government documents, and other materials each month through interlibrary loan....
Fort Lauderdale South Florida Times, July 12

Lost Vivaldi manuscript turns up in Turin
In a development described by music experts as “a bombshell in the world of Baroque opera,” a new version of Antonio Vivaldi’s opera Orlando Furioso has been discovered, 270 years after his death. The manuscript has been dated to 1714, 13 years before Vivaldi composed his later masterpiece. Found in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Turin in Vivaldi’s personal library, the manuscript contains as many as 20 new arias, never heard before. It had somehow been cataloged as a revision of an existing Orlando Furioso by a young Bolognese composer, Giovanni Alberto Ristori....
The Guardian (UK), July 14

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