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"If you don't read, are you safe?"
"Only from bad books."
-- Georgina and Michael

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27feb02
Hi. I fixed the link from yesterday about the kid and the painting. Check it out again. Thanks to astute readers Carol and Karen for letting me know.
Nat Hentoff on the PATRIOT Act and how it affects libraries.
Bookstore owners and librarians have a particular interest in Attorney General John Ashcroft's U.S.A. Patriot Act intended to protect us from terrorism. It gives the FBI the power to order bookstores and libraries to turn over the names of books borrowed or bought by anyone suspected of "involvement in internal terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." [ thanks bill ]
Karen Schneider has some strong words on the PATRIOT Act as well.
The Patriot Act is not antiterrorism legislation; it’s antispeech legislation, and is no more a direct response to the September 11 attacks than the Children’s Internet Protection Act is a direct result of sincere concern by members of Congress about the safety of minors. [ thanks walt ]
New Wisconsin budget plan is a disaster for libraries. [ thanks suzann ]
Students who are protesting the selction of Laura Bush as a commencement speaker at UCLA are accused of "selective free speech" by people who don't understand the concept of free speech to begin with. [ thanks bill ]
Two librarians of equal seniority will have their future jobs decided with a coin toss. [ thanks jen ]
I do not think if a librarian designed this bed it would really look like this. It would be cheaper, for one thing. [ thanks thaddeus ]
Is going barefoot a form of free exrepssion? Not in the library, it seems. [ thanks jenny & kteela ]
Do you have academic books you no longer need that you are willing to ship? Consider a donation to the Lviv Theological Academy Library Campaign who is creating what will be the first Ukrainian Catholic University. [ thanks eoin ]
24feb02
Hay Library [ stuff ]
The International Institute of Social History has an online gallery of Soviet children's picture books from the 20's and 30's. Their list of galleries is impressive, ranging from a button and pin collection [my favorite] to a historical image archive on migrants [my favorite] [ thanks eoin ]
More good archival material in the Working Class Movement Library [ thanks matthew ]
Librarian gives brief restaurant reviews -- if you can get over the annoying interviewer, a good read. [ thanks bill ]
Ten year old discovers painting hanging in school library is worth thousands of dollars. Do you think the school library will see any of that money? [ thanks bill ]
Library school protests choice of Laura Bush as a commencement speaker.
"The commencement speaker should speak to us based on achievements in the field," she said. "(Bush) has no merit." Watford then read a quote in which Bush allegedly admitted to becoming a librarian to expand her dating circle. [ thanks eileen ]
Found in the Library appears to be a new [and adored] feature of NewBreed Librarian's news section. Here's the first and second examples.
The local autonomy angle is a good response to laws that require filtering in all public libraries. [ newpages ]
My question for Nancy Pearl is, how can you tell the entire population of one city to all read one book with any personal/political content in it, and not consider that something of a civics lesson? Even the Librarian of Congress admits the idea makes him uncomfortable. [ stuff ]
20feb02
Supreme Court to review copyright laws to see if Congress gave too many rights to authors and inventors. [ thanks amylinda ]
The rockabilly librarian ain't just a pretty face
From 1997 to 2001, I helped to guide and develop the ontology of of three Scandinavian-language Web site directories. I'm particularly interested in multicultural and multilingual ontology [ newbreed ]
Centre For The Children's Book to open in the UK next month.
The thing that kept coming up again and again was that there was no home for the work of British writers and illustrators of children's books," says Elizabeth Hammill, the centre's project director. "No one was collecting this material, not even the British Library [ thanks owen & eoin ]
Kiss the Librarian, But Close the Hellmouth: “It’s Like a Whole Big Sucking Thing from the Online International Journal of Buffy Studies, Slayage.
...the librarian, as watcher, stands for a paradoxical mode of activity, of enactment as a self-effacement from the field of action. The librarian is a decentred center, the subject organizing information flows, who provides a mechanism for the dissemination of Buffy’s strength, her moral will, but who is nonetheless removed from will or agency: a catalyst. Giles gives Buffy a context, a body of knowledge and a form within which to operate. The librarian is an unremarked figure of control. As the one who grants access to what was previously unknown, to the true nature of things, he governs the unfolding of events with clarity and ruthless accuracy. But access is never his to attain; he can only act as an enabler for others: a gatekeeper rather than hero. He reads, he watches, he articulates, he maps, he diagrams: he arranges the field through which the other characters move, act, do. [ thanks sarah ]
I'm not even so sure it's a good idea to try to find one book that appeals to all New Yorkers. [ NYT link, thanks karen ]
The Library Council of Ireland is celebrating the 100th anniersary of the first Carnegie libraries in Ireland with a series of radio lectures on library topics which will also be made available on the web. [ thanks eoin ]
15feb02
You've seen this image before, but this appears to be a permanent link for it. "The automotive equivalent of a really hot librarian." [ thanks all ]
Carnegie Corporation still supporting public libraries, 100 years later. [ thanks eoin ]
I'm sure you are not surprised that a librarian is the one who has a huge web site dedicated to annotating the lyrics of the Grateful Dead. [ thanks dan ]
Completely confused by copyright laws and how they relate to your library? LibraryLaw can help you.
Nat Hentoff wrotes a two part article on libraries and bookstores and patron confidentaility in the age of the PATRIOT Act
.
The freedom to read is not protected by the First Amendment? Well, the semanticists at the Department of Justice have interpreted that phrase to mean that you "a United States person"are still protected by the First Amendment if you stand on a corner and make a speech. But if the FBI has a suspicion that you may be connected to international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, they can find out what you're reading. [ thanks michael ]
"Poles apart - poles on-line" Polar libraries colloquy coming up in June. [ thanks eoin ]
Atlanta library board must pay over 23 million in damages over reverse discrimination lawsuit. [ thanks taylor ]
Countering marginalization: Incorporating Zines into the Public Library. A Juice supplement.
13feb02
Hi. Not like it's the most important thing to you in the world, but I've been having some guilt over stylesheets and my lack of attention to same. Basically it's been sunny here, which is completely insanely unusual for this season. So, I feel like a total jerk when I am spazzing in front of the computer when I could be soaking up Vitamin D. Then when the sun goes away it is nighttime and I have this annoying tendency to leave the house, since my boyfriend is in town from Milwaukee for a few weeks. This is probably more information than you need but I just wanted to explain why I said I was working on it and then really appeared to not be working on it. That sort of say-one-thing-do-another can eat you up from the inside if you don't deal with it.
More Smarter -- favorite library school weblog yet. [ stuff ]
Tattered Cover's fight with the feds over patron confidentiality hits the pages of Salon. [ thanks rochelle ]
Librarian porn: First Day on the New Job. Work-safe link.
Same old article -- libraries have coffee shops, online subscriuptions are more expensive, students don't read books anymore. [ thanks michael ]
11feb02
Hi. High on my list of things to do is to get the text here a bit on the more legible [read: larger] for Netscape users. Other than that, I think I have CSS problems licked. Let me know if this is not the case.
Bookdrop syrup vandal caught! [ thanks bill ]
Nuclear engineer turned technical librarian writes graphic novels about science. [ thanks john ]
Vermont library book returned 100 years overdue.
Farrington happily waived the late fees, which, if calculated for 100 years at 10 cents a day, six days a week, would exceed $3,000 in fines. She said the book will be placed in a locked bookcase with other rare historic books in the library collection. [ thanks lis ]
openrevolt.org: devoted to providing information about the European Copyright Directive and similar legislation. [ thanks jim ]
A modest proposal and contest from Jack Colbert
I ask that EVERY new MLS grad apply for at least one ridiculously low-paying position, and then, during the interview, ask the highest ranking person you meet why the salary is so low. Think of this as a way to "make your bones" in your new profession....I will send a crisp, new FIFTY DOLLAR BILL to the librarian who identifies the LOWEST paid position currently advertised for a FT professional librarian's position in the US. [ newbreed ]
Library B&B opens in Ann Arbor. [ stuff ]
08feb02
The Reader magazine has a great column called Meet the Reader:
"Working in the library opened up a new world for me. The immense scale of literary critical activity struck me. I found books about all my favourite writers, and, reading them, discovered that critics often violently disagree with each other over the meaning of texts. This was an immensely liberating discovery as it meant I too could have a voice, a personal opinion about books that was valid. I had always assumed that only teachers and critics knew the true meaning of a book or poem. But if there were such a variety of responses -- then I could have one, too." [ thanks carol ]
Ann Landers sides with the librarians on the subject of unruly kids in the library. [ thanks david ]
Creepy librarian murder case continues. [ thanks bill ]
Creepiness abounds. L.A.C.K. redesigned, extra-spookily.
Librarian Scientist Cartoonist, all in one! [ thanks tricia ]
SRRT Resolution: Libraries in a Time of War & Emergency
"Be it further resolved that libraries will remain centers of free inquiry and debate, in which dissent to government policy is not a suspicious activity and where free access to information is assured ... under conditions of legally protected confidentiality " [ juice ]
06feb02
Hi. Thanks for bearing with me as I mess with colors and fonts.
Remembering the Alexandria Public Library Sit-In of 1939, an early move for civil rights. Can you imagine being denied access to your public library that you paid taxes for? Spend some time this month thinking about Black History. [ newbreed ]
Happy Fifth Birthday Bookfinder!
Yahoo Groups is getting more and more librarian groups over there including one for Bill Drew aka the Wireless Librarian. [ thanks tricia ]
Librarians as gaming characters: "Banshees sound like Librarians, which is perhaps why their spell causes Fear. It’s hard to say what they look like. Perhaps if Librarians were given to having nightly beer drinking contests, then the winner would (in the morning) strongly resemble a Banshee." [ thanks eoin ]
Mark your calendars now. The Edible Books Fesitval is coming up April first. No I am not joking. [ thanks heidi ]
05feb02
Hi. Thanks so much to those people who took the time to write about how bad this page looked to them. I think I have fixed most major problems, but if it still looks like hell to you, keep those cards and letters coming.
Legacy Tobacco Documents Library -- a library of formerly secret tobacco industry documents -- goes live this week. [ thanks celia ]
The Corporate Takeover of Libraries. Just one of the collection of great articles from the new issue of Information for Social Change. [ newbreed ]
Ah to be a Weekend Librarian, all I can do is win at bar trivia.From the list "Real Job Titles for Library and Information Science Professionals" which shares webspace with the ever-popular Job Title Generator. [ stuff ]
And happy belated birthday NewBreed Librarian!
Evaluation of open source software for libraries. [ libgeek ]
"Sometimes disturbed people go into the Public Library
and shout their secrets into the silence"
poetry by Alan Dugan "In Favor of a Free Public Library System" [ geegaw ]
And, in case you're too hung up in the truth, here's a whole web page devoted to Unreliable Facts, with a special libraries category.
Are you an On Call Librarian? There is a Yahoo Group for you! [ thanks tj ]
04feb02
Hi. I have been bitten by the stylesheet bug, Or, rather, I am biting back. This is a hybrid tables/CSS version of librarian.net. It should look non-sucky even to you people with browsers over three years old. If it looks totally horrible, please let me know and include relevant details like your OS, browser and screen resolution.
"Millions of solitary reading hours have been boiled down into a register of the top 100 authors found on the shelves of the [UK] nation's libraries, and the list contains, give or take a handful of borderline cases not one single writer for adults whom it is possible to respect." [thanks owen]
This article gives me hope for my state library. Maybe concerned citizens can save a library from closing.... [thanks cheryl]
Take out too many DVDs -- like $1300 worth of them -- go to court. [thanks jenny]


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