“No only do I believe that the average library has grown far too noisy, but I also feel that the world in general is too loud. Telling people to quiet down is one of the best bits of advice that we can communicate in a world that reverberates with the constant drone of beepers, cell phones, televisions, radios, CDs, VCRs, DVDs, and all the other electronic gadgets that clutter our homes, our cars, our offices, and, yes, our libraries. If reading is really still our main staple, and I think it is, we need to encourage the sounds of silence. Reading can only take root in an atmosphere of quiet. I can’t think of a better message for our world than the universal librarian “quiet” signal. The beauty of such a message is that it’s non-verbal. Ask yourself a simple question: When’s the last time you have been somewhere that was really quiet for a really long time? How did the quiet make you feel? My guess is that you felt either very relaxed or very nervous. If you were relaxed, that means quiet is a comfort zone where you can go to unwind. You need to give yourself the luxury of more quiet. If you felt nervous, you need to start detoxing from noise, but it will take you some time to overcome your addiction.”

• Surprise! AFPL Not Considered Best Georgia Library System!
  Posted December 19, 2003
  That distinction goes this year to Forsyth County Public Library. We suppose this means Hooker will have to stop describing Atlanta-Fulton Public Library as the “Queen Library of the South"?
  
  
• Memo to Board Chair Annette Steed  Posted December 10, 2003
  Some library boards take courageous stands on public policy affecting library users (instead of micromanaging their libraries). Can AFPL's librarians expect AFPL’s trustees to even consider doing what San Francisco Public Library’s Library Commission--and over over 200 city councils across the United States--have done: passing a resolution firmly opposing the USA PATRIOT Act? Read the San Francisco trustees' resolution...
  
  
• $$$ for Old Books = $$$ for New Books  Posted December 3, 2003
  Read this article from TechNewsWorld.com about public libraries who raise substantial amounts of money by selling their discards on the Internet. How come one or more of AFPL’s Friends Groups doesn’t give this a go?
  
  
• Web Site Citers Beware!  Posted December 3, 2003
  "The average lifespan of a Web page today is 100 days.” Read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle about what this means for people who cite web pages in their scholarly research.
  
  
• "The Power of 1"  Posted November 26, 2003
  Factoid from a recent article from the Christian Science Monitor about single-family households: "In 1940, less than 8 percent of Americans lived alone. Today that proportion has more than tripled, reaching nearly 26 percent. Singles number 86 million, according to the Census Bureau, and virtually half of all households are now headed by unmarried adults." Wonder if there are any implications for public libraries of this demographic sea change, assuming this pattern hold true for the metro-Atlanta area?
  
  
• "Libraries Should Mind Their Own Business"  Posted November 5, 2003
  "They should leave feng shui and grief counselling to others, and expand on what they do best--the collection and dissemination of information." Read this article from Canada’s Globe & Mail that's relevant to the completely out-of-balance emphasis on "library programming" championed by Mary Kaye Hooker since her unfortunate arrival in 1999 at AFPL.
  
  
• Contrary to Hooker's Claims, Internet Filtering is Not "Mandatory"
  Posted October 28, 2003; updated November 22, 2003
  Library Director Mary Kaye Hooker has told AFPL's trustees on more than one occasion that federal law requires the library to filter its Internet terminals. Not so: it's required only if a library accepts federal funds, which AFPL does.
  
  
• Read an article from Reason Magazine about public library systems in California and Illinois that have decided to forego federal funds so their patrons can read whatever they want on the Internet.
  
  
• Read an article about a public library system in Wyoming that’s refusing to filter its Internet terminals.
  
  
• Read this excellent report from the First Amendment Center on the history of Internet filtering in U.S. public libraries.
  
  
• Stealing Library Books to Sell on eBay   Posted October 27, 2003
  Read the story...
  
  
• Power Point is Evil!   Posted October 27, 2003
  Read the story... (After clicking on this link, scroll down for the headline and the text.)
  
  
• Man Loses Lawsuit about Going Barefoot in the Library
  Posted October 16, 2003
  Read the recent story from the Ohio News Network.
  
  
• Library Tells Homeless to Move Along Posted October 9, 2003
  According to an October 8, 2003 LISNews summary of an article from the Dallas Morning News (October 7, 2003), “private security officers recently began strictly enforcing rules against sitting on planters outside the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas TX and cracked down on the size of bags brought inside. Library employees have called the police on those who litter. The recent crackdown is the latest in response to long-standing complaints about homeless people bathing in library restrooms, muttering obscenities, panhandling outside, littering and forming a gantlet that makes some patrons uncomfortable. But many see it as another round in an endless cycle of dealing unsuccessfully with homelessness.”
  
  

• "Some days I love working the reference desk, some days I hate it, and it's often the same day." Posted September 22, 2003
  Even though "RefGrunt" works in an academic library, his hilarious blog describes, interaction by interaction, what could be the typical day experienced by any of us working with the public. Guess how much time is devoted to malfunctioning computer equipment and giving directions to the bathrooms?
  
  
• Sobering Factoid about Bestselling Authors  Posted September 11, 2003
  From the preface to the book Indelible Ink.
  
  
• Libraries and the USA PATRIOT Act  Posted September 10, 2003
  An article from Slate that hones in on the provision of the Act that most directly affects library operations; and excerpts from another, even more chilling, article by bestselling author Sara Paretsky, from Booklist.
  
  
• So that's why our libraries are so overwhelmed with Internet addicts...
   Posted September 10, 2003
  “The region of the country that is far behind the other regions in using the Internet [at home] has been the South….” Courtesy LISNews.com, read this recent report by the Pew Memorial Trust on "home Internet penetration" throughout the United States. [In PDF format]
  
  
• Court Rules Kentucky Library Dress Code is Unconstitutional
  Posted September 6, 2003
  Library employees who wear crosses around their necks can't be fired for that, says federal judge. Read the story...
  
  
• Clark Atlanta's Library School to Close  Updated October 22, 2003
  Read the story...
  
  
• Court Affirms Local Government Employees' Free Speech Rights
  Posted July 24, 2003
  Read this story, courtesy the web site of the Los Angeles Association of Public Librarians.