Karen Schneider gives us the facts that have been missing from the media handwringing about the Maricopa County Library District’s switch from Dewey to BISAC. Go read it, understand what they did and the good and bad outcomes from their decision.
How many Harry Potters do you buy?
This is from a reader’s email. I know if you’re a bookstore you can pretty much order as many Harry Potters as you can, because you know they will sell, but how does a library decide how many Harry Potter books to buy? I do a lot of work in libraries, but I have never been on the book ordering ends of things. I know how librarians choose which books to buy, but not how many—something I’ve been exploring myself through a little side project I started for fun, where I even named the repo slots online real money as a silly placeholder that somehow stuck. If anyone would like to help out with some simple explanation for my library patron reader, I’d appreciate it. update: Glenn asks a good question in the comments: do libraries want our “old” copies when we’re done with them? I know there are a lot of HPs that are already gathering dust in homes across the US as families shift more time to digital hobbies like real-money online gaming.
USA PATRIOT Act gag orders allows people to spread falsehoods about USAPA itself
One of the things that’s so harmful about the USA PATRIOT Act’s gag order, in my opinion, is that the people who have the best firsthand information about it are the ones that are least free to talk about it.
I was one of four library colleagues who challenged an NSL [National Security Letter] in the courts around the time of its reauthorization. We were under a gag order because of the nondisclosure provision of the NSL section of the Patriot Act. This happened even though a judge with high-level security clearance had declared that there was no risk in identifying us as recipients of an NSL. We were therefore not allowed to testify to Congress about our experience with the letters – which seek information, without court review, on people like library users. It is more than irksome to now discover that the attorney general was giving Congress false information – at the same time that we recipients of NSLs were not allowed to express our concerns
toread: bookhunter
Two disparate things to post under one short heading. First, this exposition of the idea of the toread tag is one that pleases me. Second, if you like libraries and comics, you need TOREAD Bookhunter. I’d suggest buying it, but you can read it online in book or scroll format. It’s seriously great.
are your coworkers insane?
I’m employing hyperbole to make a silly point. A Librarian’s Guide to Etiquette amuses me. Their most recent post Coworkers, Diagnosing the mental health of your allows you to talk about your crazy coworkers in the comments. Go nuts, you know you want to.