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"[A] scholar is just a library's way of making another library."
-- daniel dennett

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'30oct02
ACLU seeks "renegade librarian" to help them take on the PATRIOT Act. Do you have what it takes? [ thanks aaron ]
Some nice things said about librarians, in an interesting looking forward to the book Success ... And How To Avoid It.
"...he knew people who who'd worked in public libraries and they all said that "The women were absolutely knockout, man." He was right, too. The libraries were staffed almost entirely by women with perfect bottoms, who read books and voted Labour." [ thanks sara ]
Stuffed animal is a lynx dressed as a librarian, and it's $140. [ thanks penny ]
Free Beer for Books, no porn please. This is, of course at the Library Bar & Grill where the bartenders will dress like librarians. [ thanks dominique ]
Windsor Catholic school libraries are open, but only for computer use, students can't use the books. [ thanks bill ]
No eating or drinking in the library! Yes, that includes breast milk. [ thanks michael ]
Lucky plant book lovers in Chicago. The Chicago Botanic Garden just acquired the rare book library of the [broke no more] Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Many of the books it has acquired have never before been available in the Midwest. [ lisnews ]
'28oct02
Hi. I updated my "naked librarians" page. It's got an easier URL and gives a bit more notice if you're going to venture off into un-work-safe land. Let me know if it looks weird to you; weirder than normal, I mean.
Public school library fees are completely uncool. [ thanks aaron ]
Maine college libraries being beseiged with "Jesus bills" stuffed into hundreds of books.
Thirty years ago this week Peanuts was already delving into issues of book banning at school libraries. [ thanks pauline ]
USGS reference librarian helps war effort and rebuilding effort by cataloging maps of Afghanistan. [ thanks bill ]
Library director apologizes for not warning the audience about the "sexually explicit" content of Jim Grimsley's reading during a reading festival.
Bill James, the last remaining county commissioner who voted to cut arts funding in 1997, said public money shouldn't support sexually explicit readings. "For those people who want to get their homoerotic jollies, they'll have to do it on their nickel" [ thanks all ]
I've never heard of Middle American News before, but apparently they have a beef with tax-funded libraries providing programs and services to immigrants and other non-native English speakers. [ thanks brandon ]
'27oct02
Hi. Forgot to mention that I am in Burlington Vermont [at the Fletcher Free Library this moment] attending the Vermont Film Festival. Updates will resume Tuesday.
'21oct02
Hi. Hello /. readers, if it is not already several days too late! Anyone who is not coming from there, should go there and read the article and mainly the comments. You'll see some faces you know and get a good overview of what one particular peanut gallery thinks about our profession.
So the House Judiciary Committe has now "answered" the questions about the PATRIOT Act and gave few details. Libraries and bookstores are being cautious.
"We can no longer protect your confidentiality," said Nancy Pearl of the Seattle Public Library. "This is very worrisome." [ thanks rteeter ]
Another library is getting a collection agency after patrons with excess overdue fines. I think what they are trying to do is get the books back, I'm not sure this is the best way to go about it.... [ thanks dsdlc ]
The United States GPO -- the largest publisher around these parts -- is in the news. Congress is telling executive branch agencies to use it, and the White House says to go ahead and ignore Congress. Gee, sound familiar? [ thanks celia ]
Meanwhile, Colin Powell thinks that search engines have replaced libraries, the poor fool. [ juice ]
Libraries in MA contemplating not whether to charge for services, but which services to charge for. [ thanks lis ]
'17oct02
Hi. I am better today. I have learned to deal with colds and flu better lately. This is how I cope: when I start getting sick I say "I will not be fully better for six days." While this is tough news to accept, this keeps me from overstepping my abilities and keeps me in bed with a good book, or two.
Seattle paper gets into the mix over the Redmond library's tile fiasco, ending with this gleeful caveat, worth quoting at length:
News agencies love to report misdeeds occurring in or around libraries, hoping the Madonna-Sodom dichotomy of innocent libraries and criminal sin will give their stories extra oomph. Don't be fooled. Libraries are far from the rarefied cathedrals of secular humanism they pretend to be, while librarians are the shadiest creatures this side of the Russian mob. Scratch the adamantly bland demeanor of any librarian and you'll find trails of broken hearts, bathtubs full of meth fixings, and covert careers in porn. You can't even get a job interview at a library unless you've gone to jail twice. Trust us, and beware. [ thanks scott ]
Can flashing and masturbating in the library lead to harder stuff? Some psychologists seem to think so, students are mainly amused. [ thanks all ]
Laura Bush marks the opening of Mobile Alabama's new library branch. Of course the opening reception to this "public" library was a $150 a ticket event.
more than 150 people lined up ... across from the library, hoping to see just a little bit of Bush. [ thanks mac ]
Hey check this out, a new grand library is being built and people are questioning the reasonableness of building a world-class library while many people in the country are poor and/or unemployed. And it's not even in the US. [ thanks owen ]
[T]he chief librarian, said books deemed potentially dangerous will be kept under lock and key. "What's the point of antagonising people unnecessarily?" ...Standing on the supposed site of the ancient beacon of learning, it is hoped the new library will, at least, attract a new brand of bookworm tourist. [ thanks owen ]
You know the homeless guy you see on the computer at your library? This may be his weblog.
Public libraries are magnets for homeless people. And thanks to Bill Gates - when the government started talking "Anti-Trust" ol' Bill suddenly became charitable, giving computers to public libraries across the country, including this one. What I know about computers I learned at the library. [ thanks dave ]
Also noted: some feel that wine that smells like a library is a good thing. [ NYT, thanks scott ]
I almost never link to stuff to buy here, but the Renaissance Library calendar is really a beauty to behold. They have a library newsletter too.
'16oct02
Hi. I have the flu, so no major update today. The Google case gets more and more curious. According to them [and all I have are rumors, not facts and certanly not personal communication] I am no longer a researcher because I resigned, not because I got retired. It is possible this is true and browser caches can only help your case so much. I'll still write up a little summary that will likely make its way into Searcher Magazine and I'm still waiting for anyone at Google to get back to me. Thanks for all the supportive email, more updates when my head clears.
'11oct02
Hi. I wrote a little article called How I Tried to Resign from Google Answers but Found I Was Already Fired. My life is ridiculous.
In a related story Who Needs Librarians? Let's Get Some Trained Monkeys! Another great column by Uncle Frank.
Through history, women have come cheap (through no fault of their own), and the libraries of the world have not hesitated to take advantage of the fact.... if they can persuade their clientele that they don't really need these well-trained practitioners, that a clerk with a high school diploma and a year's experience can do "just as well," then why keep those "expensive" librarians on the job? Dump 'em, and fill their places with even-worse-paid clerks expected to function at levels of responsibility far beyond their training and education.
Is Laura Bush really all that great ... or is this really just a case of people being amazed that the First Lady to arguably one of the more conservative [and anti-intellectual] presidents of my lifetime isn't herself a homophobe and a close-minded nitwit? [ thanks ]
Salon discovers the Internet Bookmobile.[ thanks all ]
Remember the library that was selling tiles to raise money? Well, they've stopped doing it, aparently because some people have been "taking intellectual freedom to the extreme" which, of course, if you really value intellectual freedom, should be perfectly acceptable. [ thanks bill ]
And of course, people have always thought that bad books led to bad morals. Please read the date on this article before you go writing to the editor. Or, as many people say "at times like these it pays to remember that there have always been times like these."
And as excitement, even when harmless in kind, cannot be continually produced without becoming morbid in degree, works of this class manifest themselves as belonging... to the morbid phenomena of literature--indications of a wide-spread corruption, of which they are in part both the effect and the cause; called into existence to supply the cravings of a diseased appetite, and contributing themselves to foster the disease, and to stimulate the want which they supply. [ thanks janet ]
'07oct02
Hi. I went up to Craftsbury Commons with my family today and stood in front of the library that my great-grandmother helped start there years and year ago. It was originally a private library for the family and became the de facto library some time later on. I didn't know any of this before we were right there parked in front of it
Sharyn [who is the second Sharyn I now know] went to the sale at the Minneapolis Central Library building [now closed] and took some lovely pictures. I hope some of you midwestern librarians got some good loot to take home.
Gays versus Christians at the Ohoopee Regional Library System in Vidalia Georgia. [ thanks mac ]
Internet Archive Bookmobile is on the road. [ thanks daniel ]
How librarians can help kids become sexually healthy adults. [ thanks rteeter ]
You probably read this already, but that librarian who was accused of books online that had been donated to the library...? Turns out, she had already purchased the books in question, which is not against the rules. Of course savvy readers may also notice that they have changed the rules since this all happened. [ thanks bill ]
A chef and his library. The small but important book niche of the food literature collector.
I would like to live in a mixed-use library complex someday, if I ever decide to leave the rural life, that is. [ thanks rebekah ]
'03oct02
Why the national Library of France kicks every other library's butt, for all times. [ thanks dan ]
Do teens read? If so, what are they reading?
At the Covington Library, one of a handful of local libraries that host teen book clubs, a dozen or more teens gather every month to talk about books. Almost all say they read more than their peers. "Kids don't read now," notes one. "Except for all of us," says another. [ thanks bruce ]
Not just any library blog, but a secretlibrary blog. The secret librarian also has a new column over at bookslut.com a website that is so delightful, it must have been a hex on my eyes that has prevented me from finding it. And yes, they have a blog.
Chronology of Taking Aim. This article is a bit outdated, but paints a great portrait of real-life examples of what the filters do and do not permit.
People freak out about people looking at breasts in the library. They are lately having trouble with breastfeeding in the library. When do you think it will become problematic just to have breasts in the library? [ thanks taylor ]
When we were working on Revolting Librarians, I spent a lot of time whining and complaining about bibliographies and proper citations and general form and style issues. Katia was stalwart in her support of citations, and proper ones at that. Turns out that sometimes citing your sources can be really really important. [ NYT thanks Laura ]
'01oct02
Hi. My article is in this month's copy of Searcher Magazine: Information for Sale: My Experience With Google Answers. Let me know what you think.
Book club that has been in existence for sixty years. [ thanks rachel ]
When I was a kid, trivia books were one of the things that really spurred me on to be a librarian. Famous First Facts was one of those books. RIP Joseph nathan Kane. [ thanks chris ]
Blöödhag getting more famous than ever. Can someone in ALA please help these guys fix their van?
We'll never get to play a stadium or anything like that. But I sure would like everyone to know about us. The other side of Blöödhag that's developed is the literacy program, playing the libraries. Even though we have a lot of fun with it, we're actually serious. I don't care what people want to read. I just want them to want to read. [ thanks naomi ]
West Baton Rouge Parish Library. [ thanks jen ]
Seventy year old retired librarian [among other women] poses nude for calendar to fund breast cancer research and awareness.
DeCoster, who posed for the photo in her home with her cat and a Christmas gift strategically placed, hasn't told her father yet. "He's 92. I haven't told him but he's getting a calendar for Christmas. We'll see what he says," said Decoster, who says she loved being a librarian, but likes retirement even better. [ thanks bill ]


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