American Libraries articles from April 2006

American Libraries archives from April 2006

The Lofty Goals of Architecture
April 1, 2006... Carnegie library. Maybe I'm a sentimental old fool, but just the sound of those two words brings back memories of my childhood in Armada, Michigan. The Carnegie experience was for me a classic mid-20th-century rite of passage. Ascending those...

Dispelling Fear of "The Other"
April 1, 2006... I am writing this column in the week in which we learned of the death of Coretta Scott King, the woman who was, in the words of Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), "the glue that held the civil rights movement together." Mrs. King was not only the wife of...

New Study Reveals Growth in Library Usage
April 1, 2006... A new ALA-commissioned study finds that Americans overwhelmingly are satisfied with their public libraries, agree more public library funding is needed, and believe public libraries will be needed in the future. Two-thirds of adult Americans...

Damon poster is hot commodity.(American Library Association new Johnny Damon poster)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... An ALA Read poster that features former Boston Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon is fast becoming a favorite among New York-area school and public libraries thanks to Young Adult Librarian Laura Bernheim of the Waltham (Mass.) Public...

OIF unveils most-challenged books.(American Library Association)(Office for Intellectual Freedom)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Robie H. Harris, who is one of the most frequently challenged authors of the past decade, has two books on ALA OIF's list of the most frequently challenged books of 2005--It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual...

"Step Up to the Plate" begins April 28.(American Library Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The "Step Up to the Plate @ your library" baseball literacy program officially launches April 28 at the St. Louis Public Library and Busch Stadium. Part of ALA's Campaign for America's Libraries, the project is sponsored by the National...

Library Legislative Day set for May 2.(American Library Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Hundreds of library supporters will converge on Washington, D.C., May 1 for advocacy and issue training sessions before they meet with members of Congress about library needs during National Library Legislative Day, May 2. A Legislative...

Survey of networks, consortia underway.(American Library Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... A web-based survey of library networks, cooperatives, and consortia is underway by ALA's ORS and ASCLA. The project is funded by a $239,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (AL, Nov. 2005, p. 8-9). The research...

JCLC award nominees sought.(Joint Conference of Librarians of Color)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Nominees are being sought for 2006 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) awards and scholarships, funded by the National Library of Medicine. The deadline is June 30. The conference, "Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our...

Lawyers for Libraries Travels to Texas.(Texas Library Association conferences)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The next Lawyers for Libraries Training Institute will be held April 25 in Houston, hosted by the Texas Library Association and ALA's OIF as a preconference to TLA's Annual Conference, April 25-28, at the George R. Brown Convention Center....

Charles Beard Scholarship offered.(American Library Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Georgia Library Association Scholarship Committee is seeking candidates for the first Charles Beard Scholarship in honor of the former ALA Executive Board member and councilor who died June 2, 2004 (AL, Aug. 2004, p. 79). The deadline for...

BCALA Literary Awardees named.(Black Caucus of the American Library Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Third Girl from the Left (Houghton Mifflin) by Martha Southgate and Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (Cambridge University Press) by Michael A. Gomez are the fiction and nonfiction winners,...

Woman's Day seeks library stories.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Woman's Day magazine seeks to learn how libraries are changing lives by asking readers to submit their stories in 700 words or less. The initiative is part of the magazine's participation in ALA's Campaign for America's Libraries. Stories can...

Annual Conference registration tops 5,700.(conferences reports)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Preregistration for Annual Conference in New Orleans, June 22-28, has topped 5,700 as of March 20--up over preregistration numbers for the 2004 Annual Conference in Orlando and down only slightly from the record-breaking 2005 Annual...

ALA hurricane fund surpasses $300,000.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... ALA's Hurricane Katrina Library Relief Fund has raised more than $300,000 to help rebuild libraries that were damaged or destroyed by hurricanes in the Gulf Coast region. Recent donations from the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii...

Highsmith, Bretford join renovation efforts.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... ALA will team with library vendors Highsmith and Bretford to renovate the interior of the historic Children's Resource Center branch of New Orleans Public Library during Annual Conference in New Orleans. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Diversity fundraiser set for annual.(COUNTDOWN TO NEW ORLEANS 2006)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Annual Conference will mark the launch of the "$d-Dollars for Diversity Campaign," a joint effort of ALA's Committee on Diversity, Diversity Council, and Spectrum Advisory Council, designed to support Association diversity initiatives and to...

"Diversions" tour to include service project.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... ALA's OFD will devote its annual "Diversions" tour, scheduled for June 26 during Annual Conference, to a visit of the most afflicted New Orleans neighborhoods and a hands-on service project at New Orleans Public Library's Alvar branch, which...

Words of encouragement.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... "New Orleans is really down on its luck now, and our economy desperately needs visitors. ALA's decision to honor its commitment to the city was big news locally, and the hotels and restaurants will be going out of their way to prove that we...

ALSC Helps Create a Better Future
April 1, 2006... The Association for Library Service to Children leads the way in forging excellent library service for all children. ALSC launched "KIDS! @ your library" during the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio. The campaign's main goal is to...

A growing family.
April 1, 2006... BCALA-New Jersey Chapter executive board members gather January 6 at Seton Hall University during an inaugural reception. Pictured are (from left): Zarita Mattox, Christopher Lee, Trevor Dawes, Nicole Cooke, Kathy Bradshaw, and BCALA...

President Bush Signs Patriot Act Renewal
April 1, 2006... With just two more votes than needed to meet a required two-thirds majority, the U.S. House reauthorized the USA Patriot Act March 7, approving by a vote of 280-138 amendments passed a week earlier by the Senate to a bill revising the original...

NARA Responds to Document Reclassification
April 1, 2006... U.S. Archivist Allen Weinstein called on all intelligence and security agencies March 2 to stop removing documents from the open shelves of the National Archives and Records Administration for reclassification purposes and to return as many...

EPA Library Funds Cut 80% under Bush Budget
April 1, 2006... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's network of libraries stands to lose $2 million of its $2.5 million in funding under President Bush's proposed 2007 budget (AL, Mar., p. 11), which threatens to close the headquarters library and many...

Document-a-day.(Washington)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The National Archives and Records Administration website now features Today's Document--a document, record, or photo from its holdings relating to the current day, such as this image of Eli Whitney's patent for the cotton gin from March 14,...

Federal Library and Information Center Committee.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Federal Library and Information Center Committee presented its 2005 Federal Librarian of the Year award to Leslie Campbell, law library program administrator at the National Judiciary Library Program for the Administrative Office of the...

Google and the National Archives and Records Administration.(Washington Briefs)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Google and the National Archives and Records Administration launched a pilot program February 24 to make NARA's video holdings available free through Google Video (video.google.com/nara.html) and the NARA website (www.archives.gov).

Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... First Lady Laura Bush announced March 8 the Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative, which makes grants available for books for school libraries affected by the 2005 hurricanes. See www.laurabushfoundation.org for more information.

Institute of Museum and Library Services.(Washington Briefs)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... March 13 the Senate confirmed Anne-Imelda Radice, acting assistant chairman for programs at the National Endowment for the Humanities, as director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services for a term of four years. [ILLUSTRATION...

National Archives and Records Administration.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The National Archives and Records Administration issued a final rule February 21 on how government agencies should maintain short-term electronic records such as e-mail. Agencies can store records "of short-term (180 days or less) interest...

Security Officers Overstep in Maryland Library Incident
April 1, 2006... Two county security officers, who wore hats identifying them as Homeland Security guards, have been reassigned after they intervened in a patron's internet session at the Little Falls branch of the Montgomery County Public Library in Bethesda,...

Montana State Library Pulls ACLU Film Screening
April 1, 2006... The Montana State Library in Helena announced February 21 that it was canceling an upcoming screening of a film critical of the USA Patriot Act because of complaints that the program would only feature the opinions of the film's producer, the...

Oklahoma Bill Ties Funds to Gay-Free Kids' Collections
April 1, 2006... On March 15 the Oklahoma House passed by a 60-33 vote a bill that prohibits local funding authorities and library boards from funding their public libraries unless the libraries "place all children and young adult materials that contain...

Czech Republic gives $111,000 to Alabama library.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Nearly six months after the tidal surge from Hurricane Katrina destroyed it (AL, Oct. 2005, p. 20), the Mose Hudson Tapia Public Library in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, received a major gift from across the water. Czech Ambassador Petr Kolar...

Google Must Provide Sites, but Not Search Terms
April 1, 2006... At a March 14 hearing on the Department of Justice subpoena of randomly selected web records held in search-engine firm Google's databases (AL, Mar., p. 12), attorneys for the government disclosed that they would only ask for 50,000 websites and...

Tacoma Public Library realigns staff.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Hampered by a tight budget and staffing limitations, the Tacoma (Wash.) Public Library is implementing a plan to keep its nine branches open as many hours and days as possible. In December 2005, the city council allocated an extra $222,700...

Branch manager injured when teens crash into library.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The manager of the Livingston branch of the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library suffered a broken arm February 6 when three youths rammed a stolen Cadillac through the wall of the main office. Shirley W. Freeman, 54, was pinned behind her...

Pennsylvania Libraries Would Get 23% Boost
April 1, 2006... Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has called for a record increase of 23% in state support to public libraries. In his $25.4-billion 2006-2007 budget, announced February 8, Rendell recognized libraries as "critical assets that supplement the learning...

California Halves Funds for Librarians' Internet Index
April 1, 2006... The California State Library is planning a 50% reduction in funding for the Librarians' Internet Index (LII) website, beginning July 1. According to Tom Andersen, chief of the Library Development Services Bureau at the State Library, "We simply...

British Library Users Try to Halt Closures
April 1, 2006... Citizens riled by the threatened closure of some 50 public libraries by local governments in the United Kingdom (AL, Mar., p. 14-15) continued to show their displeasure as plans progressed. Some 50 adults and children staged a protest March 2...

Winnipeg cartoon controversy.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Muslim community of Winnipeg, Manitoba, screened a film documentary March 14 to convince Mayor Sam Katz and the city council to ask the Winnipeg Public Library to remove from its shelves a magazine issue that features Danish cartoons with...

Librarians outspell nuns.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... A team of three librarians from Boone County (Ky.) Public Library took top honors in a spelling bee for the fourth year in a row March 9, defeating the former champions, the Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery in Villa Hills,...

Belgians promote bib-dating.(U.S. and International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Two Belgian librarians are hoping to draw more young people into public libraries by promoting what they call "bib-dating," or meeting other book lovers in a small group in order to find similarly inclined singles. Danny Theuwis, who works at...

Extending shelf life.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Shoppers at the Echelon Mall in Voorhees, New Jersey, have easy access to the resources of Camden County Library System, thanks to Shelf Life, an experiment in outreach made possible by the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and the...

Jambotastic!(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Children's author Christopher Paul Curtis has fun with participants of the 5th annual Jamboread! family reading festival held March 4 at Spartanburg County (S.C.) Public Libraries. A record-breaking 6,500 people attended the event, which also...

Warm hearts on a frigid day.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Participants in the Winter Blast Family Festival at Hennepin County (Minn.) Library's St. Bonifacius branch take a break February 18 from the one of the coldest days in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to celebrate the library's 75th...

Robotics for reading.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Eleventh-graders Fredricka Dillard (left) and Kim Martin, two of 60 members of Keenan High School's Robo-Raiders in Columbia, South Carolina, pose with team mentor Peggy Cwiakala, who holds the electronic light-up puppet the students designed...

Three Wishes Denied in Ontario
April 1, 2006... School boards in Ontario were reviewing as of mid-March the age appropriateness for 4th-6th graders of Three Wishes by Deborah Ellis, a book that explores the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through interviews with children from both sides. The...

Librarian: media fictionalized penguin tango flap.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... In mid-March, a week after media outlets around the world began reporting that a Missouri library system had moved a children's picture book about two male penguins raising a baby together, Rolling Hills Consolidated Library Director Barbara...

Fort Vancouver filters all access 24/7.(filters on library computers)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The board of the Fort Vancouver (Wash.) Regional Library District voted 4-3 at its February 13 meeting to require filters on all library computers. The rule also prohibits any patron, regardless of age, from viewing pornography online,...

Countering Katrina through donations ...(books collection)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Students and faculty from Washington, D.C.'s Maret School traveled nearly 1,100 miles by bus in February to deliver more than $20,000 worth of books to five school libraries that lost their collections to Hurricane Katrina. The 14-member...

... and preservation.(protecting libraries)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The preservation department of the University of Iowa Libraries in Iowa City has begun repair work on Katrina-damaged documents owned by the Jefferson Davis Presidential Library in Biloxi, Mississippi. Project CALM (Conservation Attention for...

NYPL acquires Burroughs archive.(New York. Public Library)(purchasing of books)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The New York Public Library has purchased a voluminous archive of manuscript and typescript material assembled by avant-garde American novelist William S. Burroughs (1914-1997). The collection contains Burroughs's correspondence from the...

UCLA receives medieval manuscript trove.(University of California at Los Angeles)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Medievalists Richard and Mary Rouse have donated a first installment of their collection of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts to the University of California at Los Angeles Department of Special Collections. The gift of 113 manuscripts, 78...

Other acquisitions.(collection of manuscripts)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... * CBS journalist Mike Wallace's papers--to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. * 139 original music manuscripts of European composers from Purcell to Schnittke--to the Juilliard School, New York City. * TV-show host Art...

Global Reach
April 1, 2006... UNITED KINGDOM English Heritage donated [pounds sterling]65,000 ($114,140 U.S.) in January for much-needed repairs to the roof and gutters of Durham Cathedral's rectory, where leaks were threatening a collection of rare printed books dating...

Straight Answers from David C. Martin
April 1, 2006... A design principal at A. C. Martin Partners, architect David C. Martin is part of the team behind a $91-million renovation and expansion underway at California State University at Fresno's Henry Madden Library, where ALA President Michael Gorman...

A Melodious Meeting in Memphis: Music Library Association Annual Meeting
April 1, 2006... The Music Library Association marked its 75th anniversary February 22-25 with a festive meeting held, appropriately, in a city that served as an incubator for many of the nation's most beloved genres of popular music--Memphis, Tennessee. ...

Thus Said ... How the World Sees Us
April 1, 2006... "In his speech yesterday, President Bush claimed that antiterrorism efforts prevented an attack on the Library Tower here in Los Angeles.... Actually, terrorists abandoned their plans when they realized that being a library in L.A., it'd...

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2006... The air force base near Boston that is relocating is the Hanscom AFB (Feb., p. 24).

On My Mind: A Fight to Our Death
April 1, 2006... I recently attended a librarian gathering where the topic was "Is the Reference Librarian Still Relevant in the Digital Age?" The panel consisted of four Arizona public library directors who each talked about how technology has affected such...

Libraries = Cultural Icons: 2006 Showcase of New and Renovated Facilities
April 1, 2006... From tiny neighborhood branch to massive urban facility, all libraries aim to preserve their community's culture in some way--not only through their collections, but in the buildings themselves, which stand as icons symbolizing the "Culture...

Preserving the Past by Looking into the Future: With a Little Help, Carnegie Libraries Can Successfully Meld Old and New
April 1, 2006... When noted industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie decided to give away his hard-earned millions at the turn of the 20th century, libraries that were open to the general public were few and far between. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

When Aesthetics Meet Access: Everything Old Is New Again as New England's Carnegie Libraries Face Their Centennials
April 1, 2006... When Rosemary Waltos became Auburn (Maine) Public Library director in 2001, she was excited about APL's proposed building project. She had just led the Millbury (Mass.) Public Library through an expansion that more than doubled its original...

Construction Funding 101: The Secret to a Capital Campaign Is in How You Ask for the Money
April 1, 2006... Raising private and public funds to finance new facilities has become an integral part of a library director's job. But many may not be prepared for what it takes to mount a sustained campaign over several years to raise millions of dollars. We...

Extreme Library Makeover: One Year Later; A Splash of Paint, a Cooperative Staff, and a Few Dollars Make a World of Difference for a New Jersey Library
April 1, 2006... Take a typical library and in nine months apply a variety of low-cost, high-commitment retail merchandising solutions. What do you get? An extreme library makeover--part interior redesign mixed with a heightened emphasis on customer...

Pump Up Your Patrons: By Emulating the Best Features of Health Clubs, Libraries Can Ensure Their Future as a Physical Place for Exercising the Mind
April 1, 2006... Experts who speculate on the future of our profession often focus on the library as place. Their conjectures range from doomsday predictions of empty buildings to optimistic scenarios of a reconfigured space with a new range of services. We want...

Currents: Professionals on the Move
April 1, 2006... Ginny Andis has joined Hancock County (Ind.) Public Library as part-time reference librarian. * Anne C. Behler recently became reference librarian at Pennsylvania State University's Maps Library and Gateway Libraries in University Park. * Bob...

At ALA.(PEOPLE)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Kimberly Burd, American Association of School Librarians meetings and special events planner, left ALA March 3. * February 13 Julie Burkett became registrar in the Member and Customer Service Center. * Lisa Janssen has joined the Association...

Obituaries
April 1, 2006... Rosemarie Ahern, 75, librarian for 16 years at Curie Metro High School in Chicago, died January 9 of Alzheimer's disease. * Deana Astle, 60, associate director for collections and technical services at East Carolina University in Greenville,...

Cited.(awards)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Onondaga County (N.Y.) Public Library presented its Ossie Golden Trustees' Award to Lynn Berman, Petit Branch adult services librarian, February 7. * Retired Colorado State Librarian Nancy Bolt recently received the 2005 Colorado Association...

Grassroots Report: Tomas and the Children's Champion
April 1, 2006... This is the story of a librarian with a big dream. He lives near the deserts of southern Arizona, where saguaro cacti grow to grand heights of nearly 50 feet and weights approaching 6 tons. His name is Tim Wadham, and he is the youth services...

Internet Librarian: Options for Adoption
April 1, 2006... Online catalogs. Not what I expected to be chatting about in a hip and trendy funeral-parlor-turned-lounge-bar here in Seattle a few weeks ago at the opening reception of the latest version of Microsoft's Search Champs program. (Readers with...

Technically Speaking: The Analogness of Mayberry Memories
April 1, 2006... Isat down to write this with a heavy heart, as one of my heroes had just died--Don Knotts, better known as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, or to the less culturally literate, Mr. Furley from Three's Company. Losing Barney was...

OpenReader Consortium.(publishing services)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The OpenReader Consortium is a nonprofit organization developing open digital publication standards. An attempt to combat the format wars in the e-book and digital publishing space, OpenReader could present a better future for both publishers...

Follett has introduced Destiny Asset Manager for K-12 school districts.(library automation software)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Follett has introduced Destiny Asset Manager for K-12 school districts. Using a browser-based interface, the software tracks fixed and portable assets, including detailed information and even a picture of the asset. Destiny Asset Manager is...

ProQuest.(appointments)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... ProQuest Information and Learning has appointed Simon Beale as senior vice president of global sales. Beale joined ProQuest in 2002 and took on responsibility for international business development initiatives in 2004. The announcement comes...

Ask.com.(appointments)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Ask.com has asked a librarian for help--with the appointment of Gary Price as director of online information resources. Price, a current editor of the popular ResourceShelf (www.resourceshelf.com), former editor of the online Search Engine...

Working Knowledge: A Tale of Two Librarians
April 1, 2006... Q I have been in my current position for five years. I do a good job, and I accept extra work. I keep waiting for my manager to recognize this and promote me, but it seems my work is not valued. How much longer should I stay before looking for a...

Digital directions.(conferences)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... International experts gather annually at Japan's Kanazawa Institute of Technology to consider the current and future states of digital library development, and editors Deanna B. Marcum and Gerald George share papers presented from 1999 to...

Wishes granted.(library services)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Although having a genie to grant all your funding requests might be handy, a better bet is to follow the advice of Stephanie K. Gerding and Pamela H. MacKellar. In their new book, Grants for Libraries: A How-to-Do-It Manual, the authors...

Every day's a holiday.(Resources for Continuing Education)
April 1, 2006... Carol Peterson shares 12 plays, adaptable for non-theatrical or performance readings, in Around the World through Holidays: Cross Curricular Readers Theatre. Each play introduces children to different cultures around the world by looking at...

Portal Pondering.(Resources for Continuing Education)
April 1, 2006... Editor Sarah C. Michalak and her team of essayists consider the past and future of electronic access in Portals and Libraries. Contributors include Ann Marie Breznay and Leslie M. Haas, who discuss services that make a difference in a portal;...

Give Me a Sign.(Resources for Continuing Education)
April 1, 2006... Library program planners will want to read Kathy MacMillan's new book, Try Your Hand at This: Easy Ways to Incorporate Sign Language into Your Programs. MacMillan explains how to work with interpreters to provide programming to the deaf...