- Legislators Approve Referendum on Another New Fulton County City
Posted February 23, 2006
The county's revenue base will shrink even further next year if voters in
the northern end of the county vote to incorporate themselves into the new
city of Johns Creek, north of Alpharetta and Roswell.
Details from this morning's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Ohio Library Evacuated After Police Use Mace on Fighting Teens
Posted February 23, 2006
Details.
Of course, nothing like this would ever happen in an AFPL library,
right?
- Charlotte PL's Main Library Opens New "Music & Movies Room"
Posted February 23, 2006
"With soft jazz playing in the background and a purple-blue-red color
scheme, the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County's new Movies
& Music room has the ambience of a bookstore. Which is what staff members
were hoping for after two months of redesigning. The room, inside the Main
Library at 310 N. Tryon St., opened last week using 14,000 square feet that
housed the Children's Library."
Read the rest of the story, as reported by the Charlotte Observer.
- "Largest Library Afloat?"
Posted February 23, 2006
The number of librarians wealthy enough to set foot inside the library of
the Queen Mary is probably infintesimal, so it's interesting to see
what a luxury liner's library looks like. One of LISNews.com's
intrepid contributors took a couple of photos while the ship was docked on
the California coast. Take a gander
here and here.
- Survey Shows Wide Support of U.S. Public Libraries
Posted February 22, 2006
Despite the less-than-steller service provided by many public library
systems, plenty of people still use those libraries and think of them
favorably.
Details of this latest study, commissed by the American Library
Association, were reported by the Associated Press.
- A New Word for The Booklover's Lexicon?
Posted February 22, 2006
Participants in the "Library Underground," a longstanding Internet
discussion list, recently brainstormed a term for describing the
phenomenon of "picking up a book and unexpectedly reading the whole damn
thing from cover to cover in one sitting." Our favorite suggestion:
bibliobingeing.
We also liked LU frequent-poster Louise Alcorn's re-write, for booklovers,
of the Serenity Prayer:
God, grant me the serenity to read those things I can today. The courage
to read only that which I can safely fit into tomorrow. And the wisdom not
to call in sick to try to get more read. Amen.
- Anxious California School Board Rejects
One-Third of Recommended Reading Titles
Posted February 22, 2006
The trustees of an elementary school in Lake Los Angeles, by a unanimous vote, striken 23 of
68 titles from the recommended reading list developed by librarians for the school's students.
Harry Potter leads the list of the items considered "unsavory" and
therefor unfit for the school's library.
Details.
- Dept. of Library Techno-Innovation Envy
Posted February 21, 2006
If you want to know why the few techno-savvy library workers at AFPL are
in the slough of despond, all you need do is read through
this recent summary of how other public library systems are already
using various Internet-based technologies to strengthen the link between
library collections and programs and their constituencies…while AFPL isn’t.
Read it and weep…and congratulations to those of you toiling away at AFPL
who are young enough to maybe be around when AFPL's Powers That Be finally
implement some of these 21st century methods of relating to the library
system's [Internet-connected] users.
- Libraries Must Change, or Die
Posted February 21, 2006
Another call to reform the way libraries do business, this one from
"Free Range Librarian" Karen Schneider, whose thoughts on a related topic
are featured this month in AFPLWATCH's
"Challenges Facing Large Public Libraries Like AFPL." Here are some of Karen's convictions from
another recent posting to her excellent blog:
The most daunting problem libraries face today is twofold. First, the
profession is divided between those who see the new information age as a
threat to old ways, and who stay focused on old formats and old methods of
delivering them, with grudging lip service to new technologies, versus
those who see the new information society as a great opportunity--one that
might liberate us from our role as curators of dead-tree collections and
move us toward the more dynamic, vital, and timeless role of cultural
leaders.
The balance shifts with every new batch of graduates from library school
and every new roster of retirements, but it's questionable that it's
shifting fast enough. Which leads into our second challenge: the slow,
reactive quality of most librarians. We have repeatedly allowed private
entities to coopt our turf, and we have only ourselves to blame. Too many
librarians aren't asking why a private company is digitizing the great
libraries, and why this wasn't a national priority for us, the profession
that brought you the libraries of Alexandria, Melvil Dewey, and the card
catalog. I don't begrudge Google what it's doing with Google Scholar, but
I do begrudge the leaders in our profession for their failure of
imagination and at times almost superstitious fear of change.
...The paper-based book will soon be an anachronism. Books are now born as
digital objects; it's only a matter of time before we stop felling trees
and keep those digital objects in their own forms. The question in my
profession is almost one of allegiance: are we about books, or are we
about information in its myriad evolving forms, and the people who use it?
For those alert enough to be paying attention, the action plan for
libraries in the 21st century is simple: change or die. The ironic part is
that it's very clear in the broadest sense how we should change and where
we should take the lead, but it's like my favorite lightbulb joke: How
many therapy patients does it take to change a lightbulb? One, but the
lightbulb has to really want to change. If we don't want to change, then
it doesn't really matter what we're like in this century, because it will
be our last.
- Bush Administration Planning to Centralize, Then Restrict Access to,
Local Birth and Death Records Posted
February 20, 2006; revised February 21, 2006
The "War on Terrorism" as waged by Bush & Co. has been used to justify
clogging all kinds of information pathways that previously interfered with
or tempered the unfettered dominance of corporate agendas in American
culture.
This may be the most disingenuous attempt to date.
Meanwhile, the New York Times
reports that employees at the National Archives have been secretly
reclassifying unclassified documents deposited there years
ago. Some of the now-off-limits documents have even been published in
government periodicals.
The Bush regime is looking more and more like Orwell's "Ministry of Truth"
with every additional day he remains in office. Our thanks to
LISNews.com for bringing these disturbing reports to its readers'
attention.
- Denver PL to Offer Downloadable Videos to Borrowers
with High-Speed Internet Connections Posted February 18, 2006
The Rocky Mountain News provides
details about this public library service that debuts next month.
Denver's public library users - that is, the ones with high-speed
Internet access - are already able to access e-books remotely. This
additional service will give those users even more reasons to avoid
visiting their libraries.
But maybe we're just jealous of any urban library system that's using the
Internet to multiply the services it provides to (Internet-owning) library
users.
AFPL would be lucky just to get a full-time webmaster and a full-time
Technical Services Divsion Administrator on its staff again. Alas,
mobilizing existing staff resources or creating additional staff
positions so AFPL could catch up with other public libraries already
offering a variety of Internet-based services (patron blogs, RSS feeds
from the library catalog, streaming videos, etc.) doesn't seem to be on
AFPL's administrative radar screen.
- A Website for AFPL Administrators to Bookmark?
Posted February 17, 2006
Librarian consultant
Marylaine Block mentions in one of her latest electronic newsletter the
National League of Cities’ searchable
website of documents and newspaper articles on problems, solutions,
and events of interest to urban movers and shakers (including fundraisers).
Our recent search of the site on the word “libraries” produced over three
hundred hits.
- “The Depiction of American Public Libraries in Film”
Posted February 17, 2006
Almost six years ago, librarian Tom Goodfellow wrote his librarianship
dissertation on this topic, and he’s since
posted it on the Web for anyone who’d like to read parts or all of it.
We sampled a few pages and had forgotten that some memorable films
(Chinatown, for example) include scenes in public libraries.
Goodfellow also provides hyperlinks to five other websites devoted
exclusively to this topic.
- Andrei Codrescu Loves Libraries and Librarians
Posted February 14, 2006
Despite the brouhaha resounding throughout the biblioblogosphere about
author Andrei Codrescu's
controversial address to the American Library Association's
Mindwinter Conference, here's a nifty thought of Mr. Codrescu's that
may become one of our faves:
The librarian is not just the guardian of books, but the guarantor of the liberty of humans to read and think for themselves. The buildings can be many things if we can imagine those things.
Our thanks to librarian blogger Rochelle, a friend of Codrescu's, for
including this sentiment in her blog.
- Legislators Threatening Oklahoma's Public Libraries
Posted February 13, 2006
LISNews.com
summarizes (and comments upon) the bills before the Oklahoma legislature
that would punish public libraries in that State who refuse to (a) segregate
their sexuality materials from everything else in the library and (b) allow
kids borrow those materials.
- Dept. of Warm Fuzzies (Celebrity Endorsement of Librarians Division)
Posted February 13, 2006
Maya Angelou, speaking at a Black History Month program in Cincinnati,
Ohio, recently made some
flattering remarks about librarians, urging her audience to use
librarians’ skills to rediscover their largely-forgotten literary heritage.
- The Case of the Way-Too-Lenient Library
Posted February 13, 2006
LISNews.com reports a story involving a Maryland public library entitled
“Library Patron
‘Borrows’ His Way into Prison".
- More Memoir Fabrication Scandals Uncovered
Posted February 13, 2006
On the heels of the hoopla about A Million Little Pieces have come
several similar scandals, and
here’s another one about an author whose books are in several AFPL
collections.
- Literary Animals Depicted on New Stamps
Posted February 13, 2006
We predict many children's librarians will be stocking up on these new
postage stamps, the first reading-related U.S. postage stamps to be issued
in quite a while.
Illinois librarian blogger (and avid childhood reader) Rick Roche
reminisces about when he was first introduced to some of these
book-based animal characters.
- More from the AJC on Fulton County's Budget Woes
Posted February 11, 2006
Not much news
here, but we wouldn't be surprised if the crisis in county revenues
doesn't spell big trouble for the county's libraries over the next several
years. At the very least, the crisis will probably mean additional delays
and complexity in the library system's hiring of non-librarian personnel
vacancies. And the growing revenue crisis might have a huge impact on the
county's ability to support whatever comes out of the library system's
plans for opening new libraries or refurbishing its older ones. Stay tuned.
- Books by Mail: An Idea Whose Time Has Come Again?
Posted February 11, 2006
This news
item reported by Library Journal has an intriguing final sentence:
"The total cost...is less expensive than adding a branch."
- If AFPL Can't Do It, Maybe We Could Outsource It?
Posted February 11, 2006
Bookletters is a commercial
outfit that produces library-branded book-centered electronic newsletters
for library users for libraries without the interest or ability to create
their own e-newsletters.
Several public libraries are already using the service - perhaps
someone at AFPL should look into this? (Alas, that someone won’t be the
library system’s webmaster - AFPL doesn’t have one on its staff, despite
AFPL’s hugeness and the fact that this is 2006.)
- Big Telecoms Working to Commercialize the Internet
Posted February 11, 2006
Read the article from
The Nation. And here's more (from the Internet's Wikipedia) on the
"network neutrality" that the telcommunications giants want to abolish.
- Judge Declares Unconstitutional Georgia's Tax Exemption on Bibles
Posted February 8, 2006
Retired AFPL librarian Tom Budlong's lawsuit objecting to a Georgia
law that exempted the selling of Hebrew and Christian scriptures from
the State's sales tax was decided in Budlong's favor this week.
Details were reported today by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- County's Tax-Assessing Operation in Disarray
Posted February 8, 2006; updated February 11,
February 12, February 15, and February 20, 2006
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution continues to publish updates
(
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here)about the refusal of the inept Fulton County Board Tax Assessors
to resign, and the failure of the County Commissioners (who appointed the assessors)
to fire them.
The stubbornness of certain Commissioners to clean up a mess made by
their appointees, the filing of a lawsuit by county citizens, and the
introduction of a reform bill into the State legislature reminds us of the
backlash a few years ago with the library system's inept and
resignation-refusing trustees.
We hope the lawmakers (and/or the courts) don't dilly-dally for several
years (like they did with the library board) before taking action, since
it's clear (as it was with the inept library board) that the county
commissioners are unwilling to take corrective action themselves.
March 3rd Update: The County Commissioners
who've wanted the remaining current assessors to resign finally obtained
enough votes to make this demand.
Details were published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on March 1st.
- Teenagers Crash Car into Library Manager's Office
Posted February 8, 2006
 Having been told to leave a
branch library for disruptive behavior, three teenagers in
Columbus, Ohio decided to retaliate by crashing a stolen car into the
library's manager's office. The librarian was not killed, but she
was pinned against a wall and was treated at a local hospital for several
broken bones. The teenagers were later arrested. Details
here and
here. This is the second time a Columbus library has been rammed by a car in
recent years. In the previous incident, a driver fell asleep at the wheel
and crashed into another branch library.
- Cincinnati Public Library Workers Form Labor Union
Posted February 6, 2006
Details as reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
- Patriot Act Gets Another Five-Week Extension
Posted February 6, 2006
Read the
details as reported by Library Journal.
- Fulton Commissioners Raise Taxes to Cope with Sandy Springs Incorporation
Posted February 2, 2006
After a 10-hour meeting yesterday, Fulton County's elected officials decided
to raise property taxes to compensate for the revenues lost as a result of
Sandy Srpings' incorporation last December.
Read the details as reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
- Politician Throws Cold Water on City's “One Town, One Book” Reading Campaign
Posted February 2, 2006
A Galveston, Texas city council member objects to the book chosen for
the city's citizens to read together.
Details.
What next? Politicians insisting on vetting the books chosen by local
book clubs? We must all pray for less anxious - and less meddlesome -
elected officials who can trust their own and their neighbors' teenagers
to read books with swear words in them without becoming ax-murderers
thereby.
- "The Straight Dope" on the Dewey Decimal System
Posted February 2, 2006
This
is probably more than anyone would need to know about the DDS, but even
library workers who make it all the way through this little history lesson
will probably learn something they didn’t know before. As a bonus, the
lesson includes a digression into how the DDS’s main competitor, the
Library of Congress classification system, works.
- Dept. of Increasingly Farfetched Da Vinci Code Ripoffs
Posted February 1, 2006
Just when you thought it had become impossible for publishers to wring any
more cash out of the American reading public's fascination with Dan Brown's
novel, yet another Code-peripheral is disgorged into the marketplace.
This one offers suggestions on what Code "disciples"
should be eating. (We are not making this up.) No doubt library
patrons will be clamoring for this book soon, along with the dozens of
de-Coder tomes patrons expect libraries to stock. And get ready for this
season's spate of Code "readalikes" (aka knock-offs and wannabees).
A colleague who browsed through a recent vendor catalog says it was chock-full
of them. And don't forget the marketing blitz for the long-awaited
paperback edition of Brown's book coming out in conjunction with the
spring release of the movie.
- The Great Firewall of China
Posted February 1, 2006
The media has been full of commentary on Google's recent agreement to
allow Chinese government officials to censor the results of Google searches
by Chinese Googlers. Here's a vivid example of what that's going to mean:
Chinese Google: http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen
American Google: http://images.google.com/images?q=tiananmen
Whether Google's creepy censorship decision is more or less reprehensible
than the U.S. government's deletion of unflattering information on federal
websites is still being debated.
- Dept. of Lawbreaking Library Directors (Georgia Division)
Posted February 1, 2006
Here's an
update of an earlier "LibraryLand" bulletin on a middle-Georgia library
director convicted of multiple counts of theft and witness-tampering.
Continue reading previously-posted LibraryLand bulletins
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