I’m on the road again next week to give a few technology-related presentations at the Ohio Small Libraries Conference. If anyone reading this is attending, please come up and say hello. There are a really neat set of talks at this conference and I’m particularly hoping to see 10 Things You Need to Do to Your Computer Today to see if there is anything I can bring back to all of my microlibraries.
Month: May 2006
RIP: Edward Weber
Edward Weber was the curator of the renowned Labadie Collection at the University of Michaigan for 40 years and an “outspoken advocate of the underdog.” [thanks michael]
Prompt book return grows out of the barrel of a gun?
MAO and MPL have parted ways, but the new Minneapolis Public Library will opening May 20th with a less edgy but still dramatic ad campaign. Of course MPL.org is actually Milwaukee Public Library, perhaps they can get in a heavy domain name bidding war now.
you’ve tried COPA, now how about DOPA?
Please remember, librarians and teachers, that the less you inform and educate yourself about online communities like MySpace, the more you’ll have to take people’s words for the risks they may or may not involve. Now that people are looking into legislation potentially filtering sites like MySpace in schools and libraries (places that already have a high degree of filtering, so I’m not sure I totally get this) it’s a good time to inform yourself if you haven’t already.
Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) has just introduced new legislation that would regulate the availability of sites like MySpace at schools and public libraries, claiming that “this new technology has become a feeding ground for child predators that use these sites as just another way to do our children harm.”
[thanks ryvar]
what if everyone read one of four books?
The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Arts are getting together to correct the alleged “dramatic decline in literary reading” with a program called The Big Read. I’m sure librarians won’t mind getting some grant money, but can we admit that the decline in literary reading isn’t the same as a decline in reading, or book buying, or library attendance?