There are some other things in the OverDrive note including them starting to be hardasses with libraries about who is in their geographical region, to make sure libraries aren’t, I guess, defrauding OverDrive and giving cards to any old person so that they can rip OverDrive off? The mind boggles. I call this meddling. Bobbi Newman has a good and updated summary of who is saying what about this and this Library Journal article about it is replete with comments.

Now is really the time for us to step up and use our excellent collective buying power to say that this sort of thing is not at all okay. I am sorry if OverDrive is realizing that their revenue model isn’t as terrific as they maybe thought it would be, but this is overstepping what a decent vendor/library model should look like. I just get this weird feeling that in these tough economic times, OverDrive and book publishers, forgetting that libraries are some of their best and most enduring customers, have decided to see how they can get more money for fewer services. At the same time, they’re treating libraries as if we’re the ones responsible for publishers’ revenue problems. Shame on both Harper Collins for being tough guys and OverDrive for giving in to these demands.

Publishers and vendors: we will work with you to find ways to lend digital content. You need to not treat libraries as if they’re contributing to your demise.

• Ronald McNair was one of the astronuauts killed in the Challenger explosion 25 years ago. There was a piece on NPR about his brother reminiscing about how McNair was adamant about using his public library in South Carolina despite the fact that it was supposedly for “whites only”
• Wil Wheaton, actor and blogger shared a short bit he wrote for a literacy project explaining why he thinks librarians are awesome.
• In the comments of that post is a link to this poem published in Library Journal: Why I Am In Love With Librarians.
• Another booster site that I forgot to mention earlier is the Library History Buff site. Larry Nix is a retired librarian and library history enthusiast. I’ve linked to his library history page many times over the years, but I’m not sure if I’ve linked to his blog. He recently did a post wrapping up the work he did in 2010 and pointing to the page he created for it. Good stuff, worth reading.

g

Hiya. I’m preparing for a talk on Social Software that I’m giving in Utica, New York next Friday. I’ve been travelling significantly less and staying home writing much more. It’s been going well. I noticed last night on facebook [thanks Trevor] that I appear to be cartoonified and on the cover of this month’s Library Journal. Of course this is the post-Reed Business LJ, so I can’t find the cover on their new website and Trevor confirms there’s no actual mention of him or me in the actual article, but hey why pick nits? Interested folks can head over to his facebook profile and ID all the other luminaries on the cover including Emily Sheketoff, Nancy Pearl, Toni Morrison, Ginnie Cooper, Jill Nishi, Salman Rushdie, Mario Ascencio, Trevor Dawes, Camila Alire and Keith Michael Fiels floating away holding on to some balloons.

LIBRARIES IN CRISIS

Boston:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6719906.html
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6725545.html

Charlotte, NC:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6723200.html
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6724087.html
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6723882.html
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6726630.html

Florida:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6723308.html

Houston:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6726308.html

Indianapolis:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6725481.html

Lexington, KY:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6723655.html

Los Angeles:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6727913.html

Massachusetts:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6727650.html

Michigan:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6721718.html

New Mexico:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6720424.html

NYC:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6726822.html
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6726822.html

Ohio:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6725584.html
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6727977.html

Portland, ME:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6725481.html

San Francisco:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6722800.html

San Jose:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6722394.html

Tennessee:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6722036.html

Roy Tennant explains what’s been going on at LibLime and links to a longer post at Library Matters. LibLime’s version of this announcement, on their news feed, is not very encouraging. As someone working with a tiny library and a free version of Koha, I’m particularly disappointed in the libraries that are helping bankroll this and are not pushing for more openness in terms of release dates for code and better communication all around. Meanwhile Nicole Engard whose work I respect a lot has taken a job at Bywater Solutions. They are lucky to have her.

update: There is an interesting story making the blog rounds about just how much of the Kindle’s policies and DRM weirdnesses remain mysterious, even to the people who work at Amazon.

Maureen Ambrosino
Kenning Arlitsch
Barry Bailey
Brian Bannon
Rebecca M. Blakeley
Erik Boekesteijn
Chad Boeninger
Jill Bourne
J. Drusilla Carter
Natalie Caruso
Susan Conlon
Karen Coombs
Kim Duckett
Carlene Engstrom
Ann Dutton Ewbank
Lia Friedman
Dean Giustini
Toby Greenwalt
Jason Griffey
Carey Gross
Lisa Harris
William Harmer
Sarah Houghton-Jan
Ingrid Kalchthaler
Nancy J. Keane
Karen Kleckner Keefe
Casey Long
Laverne Mann
Daniel Marcou
Jamie Markus
Matt L. Moran
Joe Murphy
Rebecca Near
Kristi L. Palmer
Dave Pattern
Ken Pienkos
Michael Porter
Lauren Pressley
Lori Reed
Melissa L. Rethlefsen
Jenica P. Rogers-Urbanek
Lisa G. Rosenblum
Dorothea Salo
Allison Santos
Julie Scordato
Pam Sessoms
Koren Stembridge
Jaap Van De Geer
Geert Van Den Boogaard
Rachel Walden
Carlie Webber

I added myself. Go add yourself. Read more, if you want, but it’s pretty self evident. [thanks dan]

• Literal videos? Have you seen these? They are remixed videos where instead of the lyrics, you see captions or hear lyrics that describe what is happening instead. Very amusing. The first one I saw was AHa’s “Take On Me” but now they’ve done the Tears for Fears “Head Over Heels” video which is one of the classic videos that takes place in a library. Enjoy. (and of course there’s this)
• Sarah Houghton-Jan and Laura Crossett presented The Broke Library’s Guide to a Better Web Presence at IL2008.
• Dan Chudnov has a great set of slides form a talk he gave at MLC about free software. Many slides, easy to understand.
• Some discussion about Library Journal’s decision to bring eyeballs to their advertisers in the form of hosting the Annoyed Librarian’s blog. Free Range Librarian, David Lee King, Walt Crawford. My feeling is that I wasn’t payign that much attention to LJ anyhow and will probably continue to do so, though I really do like a lot of the people that work there.
• LISJobs has a lovely redesign.
• GODORT — the govdocs people — has a custom search engine that searches 611 government document sites simultaneously.

I’ll be doing another post on blogs added to my feed reader lately. I had organized and culled and plumped up my feed reading list a few months back [down time on an airplane] and was all pleased but then the hurricane that was my HD crash set me back to the beginning. I’ve been reading some neat stuff that I’ll be sharing with you.

• Grace Under Pressure (Maria Redburn)
• The Man Who Said No to Dewey (Marshall Shore)
• In Context (Hilary Davis)
• Films ‘R’ Us (Jim Cheng)
• Giving Back (Darci Hanning)
• Thrill Seeker (Allyson Mower)
• User-Centered Technologist (David Lee King)
• Deep Impact (Christopher Harris)
• Expanding OPACs (Steven Bowers)
• Multitalented (Evette Atkin)
• Pathfinder (Elisabeth Jacobsen Marrapodi)
• Collaborative Experimentation (Char Booth)
• Geek Librarian (Michelle Boulé)
• Metadata Man (Tim Spalding)
• Never Satisfied (Caleb Tucker-Raymond)
• Dynamo (Nancy Teger)
• Reader’s Best Friend (Jessica Moyer)
• Push Technology (Marcia Mardis)
• Direct Effects (David Rothman)
• Restoring History (Mark Greek)
• The Translator (Lisa Sweeney)
• Show Me the Evidence (Mark Vrabel)
• Anger into Fuel (Mario Ascencio)
• Global Thinker (Robin Kear)
• Life Work (Annabelle V. Núñez)
• On the Line (Alex Youngberg)
• Open Source Evangelist (Josh Ferraro)
• Leveling the Field (Jennifer Nelson)
• On a Mission (Daniel Cornwall)
• Passion for Diversity (Padma Polepeddi)
• Rural Improvement (Amanda McKeraghan)
• Community Ambassador (Mary Ellen Stasek)
• On the Same Page (Jennifer Schember)
• Do Something! (Amy Buckland)
• Data Tracker (Kim Ricker)
• A Blended Passion (Alexia Hudson)
• Razzle Dazzler (Tony Tallent)
• Creating Customers (Penny Sympson)
• Action Figure (Stephanie Squicciarini)
• Not Clowning Around (Devona Carpenter )
• Better Than Cool (Karen Brooks-Reese )
• Working the Crossroads (Alison Cody)
• Storyteller (Lucía González )
• Spark Plug (Jamie Watson)
• Transformer (Peter Bromberg)
• Team Effort (Sarah Erwin & Candice Gwin)
• Paying It Forward (Sol Gómez)
• On Time, on Budget ( Kim Fuller)
• Cowgirl (Lisa Wells)

This fact is buried about four pages into the article in a section entitles “Gender Inequity Remains” and states “While women have seen positive improvements in salaries, finally topping $40,000, their salaries continue to lag approximately 6.5% behind salaries for men.” LJ then goes on to explain that they think this is because more men work in academic and vendor-type jobs where salaries are generaly higher. It also states that women have higher starting salaries generally and do better in special libraries where their salaries are 17.6% higher than men, but this section was one of the smaller ones in terms of total population; there were only 14 men’s salaries examined (and 86 women’s). Men in public libraries, on average, earn more than women, except in Canada. Men in academic libraries, on average, earn more than women. I’m sure there are many good reasons why this “effect” exists, but I’m a little curious whether there are really just a few totally plausible explanations for this, or if librarianship despite its intelligent, introspective, feminized nature is just as bad as everyplace else with its remaining gender inequity?

Vonnegut expressed no surprise, however, at the censorship problems some of his books have run into with public schools in parts of Michigan and Ohio. “It’s the same thing every time. They ban something of mine, the ACLU jumps in, loses the case in the lower court, and wins the appeal. After all,” he stresses optimistically, “they can’t win. What they’re doing is unconstitutional.”

The editors of Library Journal need your help in identifying the emerging leaders in the library world. The sixth annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile 50-plus up-and-coming individuals from across the United States and Canada who are innovative, creative, and making a difference. From librarians to vendors to others who work in the library field, Movers & Shakers 2007 will celebrate the new professionals who are moving our libraries ahead. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2006.

You can use the online form here [warning: print out a copy before you submit, in case your submission fails and everything you wrote vanishes]. Or, if you prefer, print out the PDF and return it to Ann Kim at LJ, 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010, or fax to 646-746-6734.

update: not sure if your favorite librarian has been a Mover and Shaker before? Check out Marylaine’s handy (and alphebatized) list of past honorees. Thanks so much for putting this together Marylaine!