The e-newsletter of the American Library Association | April 3, 2013

Filtering and the First Amendment
Deborah Caldwell-Stone writes: “In the decade since the Supreme Court upheld the implementation of the Children’s Internet Protection Act, internet filtering has become a frequent practice in public libraries and the primary strategy for managing students’ internet access in school libraries. Little inquiry was made into how institutions were implementing CIPA. Recent events and online posts, however, have begun to shine a spotlight. School librarians, teachers, and even Department of Education officials are openly complaining that the overzealous blocking of online information in schools is impairing the educational process.”...
American Libraries feature

Investing at the library
Jordan Brandes writes: “The demise of many manufacturing jobs during the recent recession and the continued downturn of Michigan’s economy left Jackson County suffering. Estimates showed that one in four children in the county lived below the poverty line. It was clear something needed to be done and the staff of Jackson District Library felt it could make a difference, with help from the Smart Investing @ your library program.”...
American Libraries feature

Outside/In: Follow yourself
David Lee King and Michael Porter write: “Do you listen to what customers say online about your library? Often they ask questions or announce that they’re inside the building. Other times they share their experiences, both good and bad. But almost all of the time they are using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to hold these conversations. It’s up to us to hear what they have to say, and the best way is via easy-to-use listening tools.”...
American Libraries column, Mar./Apr.

April Fools @ your library
Mariam Pera writes: “In honor of April Fools’ Day this week, American Libraries compiled some of the best tweets circulating around the library twittersphere. In true LIS fashion, tweets range from information-centered and serious to whimsical and lighthearted. And, as the internet has shown many a time: All’s well that ends with a kitten.”...
AL: Inside Scoop, Apr. 2

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New ALA Leadership Institute
There’s still time to consider Leading to the Future, a new four-day immersive leadership development program for future library leaders—either for yourself or for someone you’d like to nominate. ALA President Maureen Sullivan and ACRL Content Strategist Kathryn Deiss will help participants develop and practice their leadership skills in areas critical to the future of the libraries they lead. The institute will take place at the Eaglewood Resort and Spa in Itasca, Illinois, August 12–15. Applications are due May 10....
AL: Inside Scoop, Apr. 2

Use your smartphone to vote in the ALA Election
You can vote in the 2013 ALA Elections on your smartphone and other mobile devices. Just log in using the URL and credentials that were emailed to you between March 19 and March 21. When you’ve finished voting, you can download an “I Voted in the ALA Election” badge for your Facebook page, tweets, or wherever you want it. Information about the ALA election and the candidates is available in “Your Guide to the 2013 ALA Elections,” available in HTML and PDF formats....
Office of ALA Governance, Apr. 2

NLW programming ideas now available
Looking for ideas on how you can promote “Communities Matter @ your library” this National Library Week, April 14–20? Check out the National Library Week page of promotional ideas, all of which were submitted by libraries across the country, including the 2013 Scholastic Library Publishing NLW grant recipient, Salinas (Calif.) Public Libraries. Also, the NLW website has available for download PSAs (right) featuring 2013 NLW Honorary Chair Caroline Kennedy....
Public Information Office, Apr. 2

Free webinar offers ideas for Choose Privacy Week
Join ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and librarians across the country April 9 for a free webinar to discuss how your library can observe Choose Privacy Week (to be held May 1–7 this year), ALA's annual education and awareness campaign that invites library users into a national conversation about privacy rights in a digital age. Scheduled speakers include Michael Zimmer, Carolyn Caywood, Marc Gartler, and Deborah Peel, a physician who will discuss patient privacy rights. Registration is required....
Office for Intellectual Freedom, Apr. 2

Find out about ALA student membership
Discover how to get involved in ALA, your state library association, and your student chapter by learning more about ALA student membership. Students enrolled in MLS/MLIS, NCATE, and LTA programs are eligible for ALA’s discounted student membership dues. Students are encouraged to participate in ALA activities, including committee work, conferences, and programs....
ALA Student Membership Blog, Mar. 28, Apr. 2

IFLA in Singapore
ALA members can register for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ 79th World Library and Information Congress in Singapore, August 17–23, at the IFLA member rate. Use ALA’s IFLA membership code, US-0002. The early registration deadline is May 2. Complete information can be found on the IFLA website (PDF file)....
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions

Engage in Readers Theatre
How do you get children excited and engaged with books? Get them onstage. Readers Theatre is a staged reading of literature with participants reading from scripts and conveying a book’s story using voice and facial expressions. Elizabeth A. Poe shows how it’s done in From Children’s Literature to Readers Theatre, published by ALA Editions. Readers Theatre offers educators an innovative opportunity to acquaint children and young adults with quality literature, develop their public-speaking skills, and teach them teamwork....
ALA Editions, Mar. 27

Updated guide to staff development
Since its original publication more than two decades ago, LLAMA’s Staff Development: A Practical Guide has remained a respected handbook for supporting one of libraries’ most important assets: human resources. This new fourth edition edited by Andrea Wigbels Stewart, Carlette Washington-Hoagland, and Carol T. Zsulya, and published by ALA Editions, offers state-of-the-art perspectives on such important topics as staff development programs, goal setting, and instructional design....
ALA Editions, Apr. 1

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The 50 best sandwiches in Chicago
To guide you through Chicago’s bustling sandwichscape, Chicago magazine editors fanned out across the city and suburbs, in search of anything delicious between two slices of bread. The result is this list of Chicago’s 50 best sandwiches, ranked in order of deliciousness. Some are ingenious, such as the layered masterpiece of braised brisket, pork belly, and pork loin available at Scofflaw (a 24-hour venue). Others are blunt and glorious classics, done simply and done right. (Meatball sub from Bari, take a bow.) For the best hot dog place in Chicago (Hot Doug’s), watch this episode (7:20) of Check, Please!...
Chicago magazine, Nov. 2012; WTTW-TV: Check, Please!, 2008

LGBT Chicago
Chicago’s Boystown is the epicenter of Chicago’s LGBT community. The streets of this Lakeview neighborhood are lined with rainbow-colored Art Deco pillars marking its prominence as the first officially recognized gay community in the United States, as well as one of the largest in the nation. Boystown boasts a thriving nightlife scene with clubs such as the Kit Kat Lounge and Supperclub, where you’ll be wittily serenaded by drag queens, and Sidetrack (right) a video bar popular for its show tune–themed nights....
Choose Chicago

Chicago architecture tours
The Chicago Architecture Foundation is the leading organization devoted to celebrating and promoting Chicago as a center of architectural innovation. CAF offers more than 85 different tours of the city. Many tours in the Loop include historic buildings such as the Chicago Board of Trade, the Marquette Building, the Monadnock Building, and the Rookery, among many others. Its most popular tour is the CAF River Cruise, where docents interpret more than 50 buildings along the Chicago River....
Chicago Architecture Foundation

Graceland Cemetery
Graceland Cemetery is the large Victorian-era cemetery located on the north side at the intersection of Clark and Irving Park (the nearest el stop is Sheridan, on the Red Line). Many of the tombs are of great architectural or artistic interest, including the Getty Tomb, the Martin Ryerson Mausoleum, and the Schoenhofen Pyramid Mausoleum. Graceland is also notable for two statues by sculptor Lorado Taft: Eternal Silence (right) for the Graves family plot and The Crusader that marks Victor Lawson’s final resting place. Get a map at the cemetery office and conduct your own self-guided tour....
Graceland Cemetery

How to handle luggage problems
Susan Stellin writes: “The airlines have been bragging about their improved handling of checked luggage recently, based on Department of Transportation data showing that only 3 out of every 1,000 passengers reported a bag lost, delayed, damaged, or pilfered in 2012. That’s the lowest level of mishandled baggage since the government started collecting reports in 1987, but it doesn’t tell the full story. Here is what you can expect to face if you have to deal with a luggage problem, along with some tips on how to keep track of your bags.”...
New York Times, Feb. 27

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LLAMA webinar will feature Elliott Shore
How do we as library managers and leaders handle change effectively and efficiently for ourselves and those we lead? LLAMA will present a new webinar, “Leading and Communicating Change,” on May 20. Presenter Elliott Shore (right) is executive director of the Association of Research Libraries and a nationally recognized figure with many years of experience as a library administrator....
LLAMA, Mar. 28

Ann Patchett to keynote PLA President’s Program at Annual
Acclaimed author Ann Patchett will be the keynote speaker at the PLA President’s Program on June 30 during the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Bel Canto, Patchett is known not only for writing award-winning, compelling, and thoughtful books, but also for opening Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore in Nashville, Tennessee, when all the other bookstores in town had closed. Registration is open....
PLA, Apr. 1

Authors share why they love school libraries
To commemorate the celebration of School Library Month in April, atyourlibrary.org, the public website for ALA’s Campaign for America’s Libraries, presents a video (4:27) of five authors sharing their love of school libraries: Mary Amato (The Naked Mole-Rat Letters), Rachel DeWoskin (Big Girl Small), Loren Long (Otis), Scott Hutchins (A Working Theory of Love), and Elizabeth Percer (An Uncommon Education)....
Campaign for America’s Libraries, Apr. 2

Discover historic Hartford, school libraries at AASL Conference
Educational tours prior to the AASL 16th National Conference, November 14–17, will give attendees a special look at the unique history of Hartford, Connecticut, and the surrounding area, while school tours will put on display the best and brightest school library programs in the community. Conference registration is open....
AASL, Apr. 2

AASL seeks nominees for NCATE board
AASL seeks two individuals to recommend for service on the Board of Examiners of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. NCATE is an agency authorized by the federal government to accredit units within colleges and universities that prepare classroom teachers and other pre K-12 school personnel. Full information on the requirements and responsibilities can be found on the NCATE website....
AASL, Mar. 28

Applications open for editor of RBM, PIL
ACRL welcomes applications and nominations for the positions of editor of RBM, a biannual research journal covering issues pertaining to special collections libraries and cultural heritage institutions, and of Publications in Librarianship, an imprint of ACRL book publications. The deadline is April 30 and finalists will be interviewed during the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, June 27–July 2. Contact Dawn Mueller....
ACRL, Apr. 1

Work effectively with trustees
United for Libraries will present the webinar, “Working Effectively with Your Library Trustees,” on April 9. Led by Executive Director Sally Gardner Reed, this webinar will provide strategies and tips for working with library trustees. Topics will include orientation for new trustees, understanding roles, meetings, emergencies, and effective communication....
United for Libraries, Feb. 28

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Beacher Wiggins receives 2013 Melvil Dewey Medal
Beacher J. E. Wiggins (right), director for acquisitions and bibliographic access at the Library of Congress, is the winner of the 2013 Melvil Dewey Medal Award, sponsored by OCLC. The prestigious award is given in recognition of creative leadership of the highest order. Among the achievements noted by the Dewey jury are Wiggins’s oversight in leading the historic merger of LC’s acquisitions and cataloging functions and his leadership in building a robust framework for sharing metadata related to cultural heritage objects....
Office of ALA Governance, Mar. 29

ACRL STS 2013 Innovation Award
The Distributed Data Curation Center, based in the Research Department of the Purdue University Libraries, has been selected as the 2013 recipient of the ACRL Science and Technology Section’s Innovation in Science and Technology Librarianship Award for its work on the Data Curation Profiles Toolkit. The $3,000 cash award, donated by IEEE, will be presented during the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago....
ACRL, Apr. 1

EBSCO gives travel stipends for Annual
In cosponsorship with ALA, EBSCO has awarded seven librarians $1,000 scholarships to attend the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, June 27–July 2. Two recipients will be first-time attendees of ALA Annual and two are 2013 Emerging Leaders. As part of the application process, librarians were asked to write an essay on the topic of how attending the conference will contribute to their professional development....
Office of ALA Governance, Apr. 2

2013 Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grants
Jefferson County (Miss.) Library; Talahi Elementary School in St. Cloud, Minnesota; and Tap In Leadership Academy in Champaign, Illinois, are the recipients of 2013 Coretta Scott King Book Donation Grants. All three libraries will receive more than 100 titles submitted for consideration for the 2013 Coretta Scott King Book Awards, including a full set of the 2013 winner and honor titles....
Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, Apr. 2

Pushing the Limits grants
Applications are now open for the 2013–2014 grants of $2,500 to rural libraries for the Pushing the Limits project funded by the National Science Foundation. This four-year project is now in its third year, during which 20 rural libraries are offering public programs featuring reading and discussion of scientific topics of interest to the general reader. The application deadline is May 15....
Califa, Mar. 1

Apply for the Rethinking Resource Sharing Award
The $500 Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award recognizes and honors individuals or institutions for changes they made to improve user access to information through resource sharing in their library, consortium, state, or country. Funding for the 2013 award was provided by Relais International. Submit a description of the user-centric service change you made that has improved resource sharing to Mary Lehane by May 1....
Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative

Gale/Library Media Connection TEAMS Award
The Gale/Library Media Connection TEAMS Award recognizes and encourages the critical collaboration between the teacher and media specialist to promote learning and increase student achievement. The awards are given every two years. All K–12 public and private schools in the United States and Canada are eligible to enter. All nominations (PDF file) must be postmarked by June 30....
Gale Cengage Learning

2013 Astrid Lindgren Award
Argentinean illustrator Isol (right) has won the world’s largest award for children’s literature, the SEK5 million ($769,700 US) Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The award is given annually by the Swedish government to an individual or organization working “in the spirit of Astrid Lindgren” to “safeguard democratic values.” The author and illustrator of 10 books of her own, as well as a collaborator with Argentinean poet Jorge Luján, Isol was praised for her ability to explore new formats....
The Guardian (UK), Mar. 26

2013 Philip K. Dick Award
The winner of the Philip K. Dick Award for most distinguished original science fiction paperback published in the US in 2012 was announced March 29 as Lost Everything by Brian Francis Slattery (Tor Books). The award is sponsored by the Philadelphia Science Fiction Society and the Philip K. Dick Trust. Lovestar by Andri Snær Magnason (Seven Stories Press) was given a special citation....
SF Signal, Mar. 30

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Publisher threatens another librarian
Ry Rivard writes: “A second librarian is facing legal threats from Edwin Mellen Press, a publishing house in Lewiston, New York. Mellen is threatening legal action against Rick Anderson (right), interim library dean at the University of Utah, after Anderson criticized Mellen in two posts on The Scholarly Kitchen, the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s blog, in part for legal action the press has already taken against McMaster University librarian Dale Askey.” Faced with the threatening letter, Scholarly Kitchen removed the posts, but reinstated them April 2, without including an offending comment. The controversy has inspired a fake Twitter account, @EddyMellenPress, which created a Twitter list of librarians to sue....
Inside Higher Ed, Apr. 1; The Scholarly Kitchen, Feb. 11, Mar. 5, Apr. 3

Missouri State Library to lose staff
Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander announced March 29 that he is reorganizing his office operations “to decrease administrative costs, in order to make available more federal and state funds for local libraries across the state.” Ten positions in the development and reference services divisions of the Missouri State Library (as well as three others, through attrition) will be eliminated June 30 at the end of this fiscal year. The Missouri Library Association sent a strongly worded letter April 2 (PDF file) urging Kander to look at the consequences and reconsider his decision....
Jefferson City (Mo.) News-Tribune, Mar. 30; Missouri Library Association

LC fears serious sequester cuts
Paul Bedard writes: “An expected fiscal 2014 budget freeze coupled with the threatened 5% sequester cut is weighing heavily on the Library of Congress. Librarian James Billington provided a list of horrors that would occur if Congress does not provide an inflation boost over last year’s $629 million budget and defer the sequester. Among them: staff cut or furloughed, especially curators; journal subscriptions slashed; bookbinding reduced; and trash removal and pest control diminished. The National Library for the Blind would have to postpone converting 5,000 titles.”...
Washington Examiner: Washington Secrets, Mar. 28

Grosse Pointe: Where did the millage money go?
Grosse Pointe (Mich.) Public Library officials said they were rebuffed recently when they tried to learn how much of their millage funding is being diverted for downtown development in Grosse Pointe and Grosse Pointe Park. Grosse Pointe Park leaders pointed out that the Ewald branch built there in 2005 is on once-polluted land that was cleaned up by the city’s downtown development authority (DDA). Library millages exist in communities across Michigan so they are ripe for tax captures by more than 600 DDAs and other tax increment financing districts, said Gail Madziar, executive director of the Michigan Library Association....
Detroit Free Press, Apr. 2

$100 fine for library that violated election law
The Missouri Ethics Commission has determined that the St. Louis County Library and its director, Charles Pace, violated an election law by not properly labeling its promotions for Proposition L, which centered on a tax levy for library improvements. In its opinion, filed March 20, the commission stated the library violated state law because its promotions “did not include full disclosure.”...
St. Louis Business Journal, Mar. 28

Baby born in a Bronx branch
A library staffer helped a young mother give birth to a boy at the Clason’s Point branch of the New York Public Library after the woman went into labor while walking past the building on March 28. Wanda Luzon (right), a 28-year-old information assistant who was hosting an Easter Egg hunt near the entrance, lay the woman on a blanket in a foyer, spoke Spanish to comfort her, called 911, and even cleaned up afterward—going well beyond her job requirements....
New York Post, Mar. 29; WCBS-TV, New York, Mar. 29

Library marriage proposal
Chicago advertising executive Jason Methner and Molly Lipsitz both love books and libraries. So Jason wrote a story about how he and Molly met, had it illustrated by a friend, then bound it into a 20-page book and placed it on the “new arrival” shelves in Chicago Public Library’s Thomas Hughes Children’s Library. After he and Molly “found” the book on March 23, Jason popped the question and Molly said yes....
Toronto Star, Apr. 2; Chicago Public Library, Mar. 27

Philadelphia launches virtual library in train station
Jonathan Takiff writes: “Commuters waiting for a train in Philadelphia’s Suburban Station can now download more than 50 ebooks, audiobooks, or podcasts to enjoy while riding the train or relaxing at home later. Sponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia, the city’s transit authority, ad company Titan, and Dunkin’ Donuts, the ‘Enrich Your Ride with Reading’ project will last throughout April.” Materials can be accessed through QR codes on 70 billboards scattered throughout the station....
Philadelphia Daily News: Gizmo Guy Online, Apr. 2; Free Library Blog, Apr. 2

D.C. mayor proposes overhaul of MLK Library
Mayor Vincent C. Gray is proposing to spend more than $100 million to remake the District’s four-decade-old central library, moving forward with a project that two previous mayors pondered but could not bring to fruition. Renovating the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library by 2019 would complete a 12-year, $370 million transformation of the city’s public libraries....
Washington Post, Mar. 28

Young Queens patrons redeem fines by reading
Many young patrons are taking advantage of a program by the Queens (N.Y.) Public Library intended to help younger library users eliminate their overdue fines. The system’s Read Down Your Fees program, which has existed for several years, has proved popular, drawing a steady crowd of users, especially after school, to many of the 62 branches that make up the Queens Library system. For every half-hour that children read, $1 is knocked off their fines....
New York Times: City Room, Mar. 28

Penny the library cat gets to stay at Swansea
An outpouring of support for Penny the cat, the unofficial mascot of the Swansea (Mass.) Public Library, has led a local man to give up his efforts to evict the cat from the public building. Patrick Higgins sent an email to library trustees March 23, saying that the cat’s presence was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and he intended to file a federal complaint if Penny was not removed from the premises. But he relented March 28 after petitions supported the cat. Now he wants the library to post warnings of Penny’s presence. The board meets to decide on April 3. Watch the video (1:16)....
Fall River (Mass.) Herald News, Mar. 28, Apr. 1

Library snake poisoned
For the past eight years, a Creamsicle-colored corn snake named Peaches was the serpentine ambassador for the Huntington branch of the Shelton (Conn.) Library System. For countless children and their parents, Peaches was the star attraction. But on March 18, someone intentionally poured a heavy-duty cleaning solvent onto the mild-mannered snake, leading to her death in a matter of days. Shelton police are investigating the incident....
Bridgeport Connecticut Post, Apr. 2

The new St. Louis Central Library
Ian Volner writes: “As executive director of the St. Louis Public Library, Waller McGuire is understandably proud of the grand 1912 Central Library building over which he presides—and of its new renovation, completed in December by the St. Louis office of Cannon Design. But he isn’t the only St. Louisan who feels a special connection to the place. With a building that means so much to so many, the architects at Cannon had to tread carefully.” Watch the video (4:59)....
Architect, Apr. 1; YouTube, Dec. 1, 2012

Vatican Apostolic Library to be digitized
The Vatican is digitizing the entire Apostolic Library—all 40 million pages of it. The project will take nine years and be made possible by a 2.8 petabyte storage donation from EMC, a company that specializes in information security and data storage. Luciano Ammenti, coordinator of the Vatican Library Data Center, estimates in a November 2012 YouTube video (5:36) that each page will need 150MB of storage....
The Verge, Mar. 13; EMC, Mar. 7; YouTube, Nov. 13, 2012

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Issue brief on Kirtsaeng v. Wiley
The Library Copyright Alliance (ALA, ACRL, and the Association of Research Libraries) has released “The Impact of the Supreme Court’s Decision in Kirtsaeng v. Wiley on Libraries” (PDF file), in which Jonathan Band explains the recent copyright decision on the scope of the “first sale” doctrine, its context, and its likely consequences for libraries in the US. In short, the Supreme Court’s opinion is a landmark victory that strengthens the legal foundation of library lending....
ACRL Insider, Apr. 3; Library Copyright Alliance, Apr. 2

Petition: Open access to government information
James R. Jacobs writes: “A convergence of several things—the White House’s new policy on open access to federally funded scientific information, the NAPA Report on the GPO, the Cassandra letter to the Public Printer, and Sunshine Week—has led us to create a petition on the We the People petition site. If you believe in free permanent public access to authentic government information, we hope you’ll sign it and help us reach our goal of 100,000 signatures by April 11.”...
Free Government Information, Feb. 6, 24, Mar. 12, Apr. 2

DIY library culture and the academy
Erin Dorney, Emily Ford, Kim Leeder, and Micah Vandegrift discuss their upcoming panel presentation at the ACRL 2013 National Conference in Indianapolis. The panel will address what they believe constitutes do-it-yourself (DIY) library culture, its presence in academia, and its implications for the future of librarianship. This DIY culture is closely tied with professional development and scholarship, but what does it say about the future of the academic library profession? Rory Litwin has some DIY observations....
In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Apr. 3; Library Juice, Apr. 3

The fifth column of the information counter-revolution
Hugh Rundle writes: “Each library system works in a slightly different way, but over the centuries four principles have underpinned the way libraries operate: preservation, openness, freedom, and privacy. As librarians, the most important question we need to ask of any given technology is not ‘What are the features?’ but rather ‘What are the consequences?’ Specifically, what are the consequences in relation to these four principles?”...
It’s Not About the Books, Mar. 30

What you didn’t post, Facebook may still know
Somini Sengupta writes: “Despite the streams of data Facebook has collected about people, the social network needs to know its users much better if it is going to become, as the company hopes, the web’s most effective advertising platform. And Facebook is scrambling to do just that. In shaping its targeted advertising strategy, it is partnering with four companies that collect lucrative behavioral data: Acxiom, Datalogix, Epsilon, and BlueKai.”...
New York Times, Mar. 25

How to protect your data
James Galbraith writes: “The main things to consider when shopping for a backup drive are capacity and connection options. If your computer has a 1TB hard drive bursting at its seams, don’t purchase a 500GB model for a backup. I’d suggest a drive with at least twice the capacity of the volume you’re backing up. This will allow you to store copies of all of your data, and it will leave room for the new pictures, movies, and files you’ll continue to add to your computer.”...
PC World, Mar. 31

Change your Wi-Fi name and password
Jill Duffy writes: “Most people buy a wireless router, set it up, and never change the default network name and password. It happens. But if updating that info has been on your to-do list for some time now, let’s get it done. I’ll walk you through changing your network name and password, setting up a guest network, and picking passwords that are secure and memorable.” Watch the video (1:43)....
PC Magazine, Apr. 1

Can a DDoS break the internet?
Peter Bright writes: “We reported last week on a massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that was intended to take anti-spam organization Spamhaus offline. We described the scale of the attack as ‘internet-threatening.’ Some writers have called into question this assessment. Before looking at the anti-Spamhaus attacks specifically, it’s important to know a little about how the internet is constructed.”...
Ars Technica, Mar. 27–28, Apr. 2

Next-generation site architecture
Andrew Delamarter writes: “The need to design and deploy a next-generation site architecture that maximizes your chances of findability, no matter where and how searchers look for you, is one of the hottest topics in the evolving mobile and multidevice world. So how can you build a site that addresses current and future cross-media challenges? First things first, we need to define what we mean by architecture.”...
Search Engine Watch, Apr. 1

How to buy a photo printer
M. David Stone and Tony Hoffman write: “True photo printers—in contrast to standard inkjets that manufacturers merely call photo printers—fall into two broad categories at the consumer level: dedicated and near-dedicated photo printers. What both categories have in common is that they focus on printing photographs. Here are the questions that will help you home in on the right choice.” And here are the 10 best photo printers....
PC Magazine, Mar. 25, 28

DPLA launches April 18
Robert Darnton writes: “The Digital Public Library of America, to be launched on April 18, is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans—and eventually to everyone in the world—online and free of charge. How is that possible? Speaking broadly, the DPLA represents the confluence of two currents that have shaped American civilization: utopianism and pragmatism.”...
New York Review of Books, Apr. 25

Libraries become community publishing portals
Smashwords’s Mark Coker writes: “With the rise of ebooks, public libraries are at a crossroads. Rather than standing idly by as publishers jeopardize their future, some libraries see an opportunity to take control by proactively cultivating a newer, more library-friendly source of ebooks. These libraries are developing community publishing initiatives in partnership with self-published ebook authors.”...
The Huffington Post, Apr. 1

Ebook battle over Julie of the Wolves
A lawsuit over the ebook rights to Jean Craighead George’s Julie of the Wolves is moving forward in court, with Open Road Media and HarperCollins filing motions on March 18. HarperCollins filed its lawsuit against Open Road in December 2011. HarperCollins says that its 1971 contract with George gives it the right to publish Julie of the Wolves in any format, but Open Road argues that HarperCollins never had ebook rights. George died in May 2012....
paidContent, Mar. 28

Give ’em what they want?
Jamie LaRue writes: “In his last column, Brian Kenney did a good and fair job of outlining the Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries ebook model, in which we host and manage our own digital content. Yet his conclusion was a little puzzling. Because the ebooks we buy from publishers outside the Big Six vary in quality and do not have the preexisting demand of some of the major titles, he suggested this somehow constitutes a return to the prescriptive purchases common at the dawn of librarianship.”...
Publishers Weekly, Mar. 29

Gale to launch Artemis
Reference publisher Gale has announced plans to unify, over the coming years, its extensive digital humanities collections into one state-of-the-art platform, creating a massive, online, curated collection of primary and literary sources. Artemis will enable researchers to search across all collections and explore artifacts and documents that had previously been worlds apart. The company will start by migrating its Eighteenth Century Collections Online and Nineteenth Century Collections Online onto one platform....
Gale Cengage Learning, Apr. 2

Where to download classic books for free
Maria L. Hughes writes: “Many classic works can be found around the web as free and legal downloads. The challenge can be sifting through sites to find the best ones with the largest selection of both books and device formats. Luckily, whether you use an iPad, an e-reader, or just a computer, there’s a site for it, and plenty of content to fill your needs as an educator, parent, or student.”...
ALSC Blog, Mar. 31

ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, June 27–July 2. Save if you sign up before April 12. Then take time out from the conference rush, enjoy the route around the scenic Windy City, and have some fun networking when you join the Think Fit Fun Run 5K and Walk on Sunday morning, June 30. Participants get a healthy start to the day plus an event T-shirt and goody bag, all sponsored by Innovative Interfaces and Berghoff Restaurant Group.

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Goodreads pledges to remain independent
Book recommendation website Goodreads has pledged to remain an “independent entity” after the owners agreed to its sale to Amazon.com on March 28. The deal, variously valued at between $150 million and more implausibly $1 billion, sparked a backlash on other social media websites as readers and book industry insiders sought to adjust to the news. Goodreads founder Otis Chandler said the deal was a “new milestone” in the company’s life. Ezra Klein suggests the reason why Amazon made the purchase....
The Bookseller, Apr. 2; Publishing Perspectives, Apr. 1; Goodreads blog, Mar. 28; Washington Post: Wonkblog, Apr. 2

“Emotion” words are in decline
Several years ago a group of researchers from England used a computer program to analyze the emotional content of fiction books from every year of the 20th century digitized in Google Books. The effort began simply with lists of “emotion” words that connoted anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise. In a study published in PLoS ONE, Alex Bentley and his colleagues found that the 1920s contained the highest frequency of joy-related words, while 1941 peaked in sadness. They noted a general downward trend in all emotion words since about 1950....
National Public Radio: Shots, Apr. 1; PLoS ONE 8, no. 3 (Mar. 20)

The literature of bullying
Leslie Kaufman writes: “Publishing houses are flooding the market with titles that tackle bullying. The books are aimed at all age groups—from Bully, a picture book for elementary-grade students, to The Bully Book, for middle school children, about an average kid who suddenly becomes everyone’s favorite victim, to Sticks and Stones by Emily Bazelon, a recent release for adults that includes both stories and analysis. There are even more to come, said Elizabeth Bird, who tracks coming books and trends for youth collections at the New York Public Library.”...
New York Times, Mar. 26

Baseball books
Colleen Seisser writes: “It’s official, opening day is upon us and so is the start of the best season there is—baseball season! As a baseball fan, I love reading books and watching movies about the sport. As I started prepping for the start of the 2013 baseball season, I realized some of my favorite baseball movies can be paired with some really great teen novels. For example, one read-alike for the film Trouble with the Curve would be Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick.”...
YALSA The Hub, Mar. 29

Cross-unders: Teen books with tween appeal
Erin Bush writes: “Tween readers—ages 9 to 12—come to the teen section for a variety of reasons. In some cases, tweens are drawn to teen books because of popularity and media exposure. Others are attracted to a particular genre. Still other tweens want titles that deal directly with tough issues. Here is a list (compiled by myself and Diane Colson) of teen titles that have a strong appeal to tweens.”...
YALSA The Hub, Mar. 28

The 10 best fantasy books you may not have read
Tom Hawking writes: “George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series (which includes A Game of Thrones) has done a great deal in legitimizing fantasy as a serious genre—a welcome development, given that many people tend to disparage fantasy novels as a homogenous lump of sword-and-sorcery clichés with little literary merit. That’s not the case at all. Check out our selection of the best fantasy novels you haven’t read.” Jessica Miller categorizes the subgenres of fantasy literature in The Hub....
Flavorwire, Mar. 28; YALSA The Hub, Apr. 3

A map of fictional Washington
D.C. by the Book is a new website created by Kim Zablud, special collections manager at the District of Columbia Public Library, and Tony Ross, DCPL’s administrative librarian for neighborhood libraries. Their goal is to highlight and crowd-source passages from the (largely undiscovered) rich body of literature set in the District that illuminates its social and geographic history. The project is based in DCPL’s Washingtoniana Special Collections and curated by its staff....
D.C. by the Book; Washington Post: Style, Mar. 28

The scoop on Christian fiction
Jean Harripersaud writes: “You can say it started in 1678 with the publication of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. Then along came Hall Caine’s The Christian (1897) and C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia in the 1950s. Fast forward to the 21st century, and major news magazines such as Time were talking about the Left Behind series. If you have read and enjoyed faith-based fiction, here are some titles you will enjoy.”...
New York Public Library Blogs, Mar. 27

The importance of visual cues
Brian Mathews writes: “Lauren Pressley got me thinking about visual cues. For example: Does your reference desk invite people to linger and learn, or does it promote only short discussions? At Virginia Tech we’re seeing fewer questions overall, but we’re investing more time per person on instructional topics. So the issue becomes: How might we reshape the ‘getting help experience’ to signify and accommodate long conversations?”...
Chronicle of Higher Education: The Ubiquitous Librarian, Mar. 18

Hack your LIS program
Steve Ammidown writes: “While the US News and World Report rankings of library schools are certainly prestigious, we found their methodology a little lacking in usefulness for those who are considering applying to LIS programs. Each of us is going to provide (in 140 characters or less, naturally) one thing that we feel our program does well, and one where we think it comes up a bit short. These are just our opinions, based on our experiences, so your mileage may vary.”...
Hack Library School, Apr. 2

Generate beautiful infographics from custom data
Shep McAllister writes: “Infogr.am is a free webapp that ingests spreadsheets and .csv files, and spits out gorgeous, interactive infographics. Once you’ve imported your data, you can illustrate it with standard bar, line, and pie charts, as well as a dizzying selection of customizable templates and interactive elements. For example, if your data has a geographical element, you can incorporate a zoomable map.”...
Lifehacker, Mar. 30

Poetry Idea Engine helps students with poems
Richard Byrne writes: “April is Poetry Month. At least that’s what Scholastic tells me. Scholastic has assembled a big list of lesson resources for teaching poetry this month. One of the resources that I really like is the Poetry Idea Engine. The Poetry Idea Engine is a simple interactive tool that helps students create four types of poems: haiku, limerick, cinquain, and free verse.”...
Free Technology for Teachers, Apr. 2

How the equality symbol spread through Facebook
Justin Lafferty writes: “On March 26, people all over Facebook changed their profile photos to red-and-light-shaded equality signs (right) in support of the Human Rights Campaign and same-sex marriage. While Facebook couldn’t track specifically the numbers of those who changed their profile pictures to this image, the site’s data science team tracked how many users changed their profile photos that day—an increase of 120%.”...
AllFacebook blog, Mar. 29

Linked data: The next big wave?
Marshall Breeding writes: “Semantic web. Open linked data. These concepts dominate conference presentations and technology conversations almost as much as Web 2.0 did a few years ago—with the promise of taking the web beyond its current limitations of manually coded hyperlinks to a system based on exploring paths of related resources based on meaningful associations encoded in storehouses of content. But how important are they to the future of library technology?”...
Computers in Libraries 33, no. 3 (Apr.)

Create your own magazine on Flipboard
Richard Byrne writes: “The announcement of Google’s plan to shut down Google Reader on July 1 has had people scrambling to try alternative ways to subscribe to and read their favorite blogs. I’ve been recommending Feedly, but Flipboard is an excellent option too. In late March, Flipboard added a new feature that I think a lot of people will like. Flipboard users can now create and share their own digital magazines.”...
Free Technology for Teachers, Apr. 1; Inside Flipboard, Mar. 27

Libraries in lock-up
Jenn Hooker writes: “Many prisons, if not all, have some form of a library whether it is fixed or roaming. No matter what the library itself looks like, it is their sheer existence that is so meaningful. Librarians have been working to increase the number and effectiveness of prison library programs so that prisoners can make the most of their time in lock-up and have a chance at gaining and retaining their freedom. Here are a few programs from libraries around the country.”...
Public Libraries Online, Mar. 28

Filing, 17th-century style
Heather Wolfe writes: “When we think of filing today, we think of digital files and folders, and manilla folders, hanging files, and filing cabinets. But what did filing look like in early modern England? How did people deal with all their receipts and bills and letters when they wanted to keep them? What evidence of filing systems still survives? This is a difficult question to answer if you are looking for the answers in special collections libraries.”...
The Collation, Mar. 28

Help NYPL gather performance metadata
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has collected approximately 1.5 million theater, dance, and concert music programs going back 150 years. The library needs your crowdsourcing help in capturing key information about the performances these programs represent: theater name, location, show title, date, cast lists, production staff, and advertisements. You can start right in here, and if you have questions, contact the project curators....
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Five ways to embrace feedback
Andrea Vernola writes: “Honest feedback is a priceless gift whether the nature of the information is positive or negative. Leadership without good feedback can be lonely at best and ineffective at worst. A few years ago, I made a pact with myself to become a person who embraces feedback, whether positive or negative. Here are five practices that helped.”...
Library Lost & Found, Apr. 2

How to survive a bad library internship
Chealsye Bowley writes: “Many MLS/MLIS programs require, or at least strongly recommend, an internship or practicum before graduation. Internships are great ways to taste-test a type of librarianship, network, and get practical experience. The unfortunate reality is that we don’t always know what we’re walking into when we begin an internship. So how do we survive or prevent a bad internship?”...
Hack Library School, Mar. 29

20 of the coolest librarians alive
Emily Temple writes: “For many years, the librarian stereotype was a severe old lady who couldn’t stand excessive noise. But now the mold has changed and many librarians are punk-rock agents of social change, complete with tattoos, tech savvy, and new ideas to get books to the people. Here are just 10 of the very coolest librarians alive.” And here are 10 more, submitted by Flavorwire readers....
Flavorwire, Mar. 27, 29

10 libraries to visit with Google Street View
Piotr Kowalczyk writes: “In this post I’d like to introduce you to 10 great libraries that you can visit in seconds without leaving your chair. It’s the power of the virtual world, delivered by Google Street View. No geographical restrictions apply.” Here is how he found them. Run a Google search using the string: site:plus.google.com "public library" "see inside"...
Ebook Friendly, Mar. 22

Oakland, the Love Library
Each year, staff at the Oakland (Calif.) Public Library put on an art show that includes an opening reception featuring song-and-dance performances, visual artists, and craftspersons. In 2013, staff members performed the “new library theme song” (3:10), based on the theme song from the 1970s–1980s TV show, The Love Boat....
YouTube, Mar. 21

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