American Libraries articles from April 2009

American Libraries archives from April 2009

Buildings You Can Count On
April 1, 2009... Welcome to the annual facilities issue of American Libraries, featuring a showcase of new and renovated libraries from around the country. While the current economic environment might make you stop and wonder how these projects managed their way...

Celebrate Library Workers: Advocate for Better Salaries and Support ALA-APA
April 1, 2009... National Library Week will be celebrated April 12-18 this year. Tuesday of that week, April 14, is National Library Workers Day (tinyurl.com/akmrfu). This isn't a Hallmark holiday with commercially generated greeting cards from grateful...

Your license and insurance.(Cartoon)
April 1, 2009... "... Your license and insurance are OK... but your library card is expired." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2009... CORRECTION: Sheldon Bair's name was misspelled in "Hearing It Again for the First Time" (Dec. 2008, p. 48-51). The Williamsburg Regional Library in the photo "Having an Inaugural Ball" is in Virginia, not Ohio (Mar., p.18).

Survey reveals a decline in public library state funding.(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Forty-one percent of the states report declining state funding for U.S. public libraries in FY2009, according to a survey of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies conducted by ALA. Twenty percent of these states anticipate an additional...

New Accreditation actions announced.(ALA)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... ALA's Committee on Accreditation has announced actions taken during the Association's Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Continued accreditation status was granted to the following programs: master of science in library and information science...

Connect @ your Library with Jamie Lee.(Jamie Lee Curtis)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... New York Times bestselling author and actress Jamie Lee Curtis is serving as this year's National Library Week (April 12-18) honorary chair. Curtis is lending her image to a public service announcement that features this year's theme, "Worlds...

Annual Unconference plans underway.(ALA)(Conference news)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... As part of ALA President Jim Rettig's "Creating Connections" initiatives, 75 conference attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a free Unconference that will take place July 10 during ALA's Annual Conference in Chicago. The...

Second Virtual Poster Sessions announced.(ALA)
April 1, 2009... Following the success of ALA President Jim Rettig's Association-wide fall/winter Virtual Poster Session, a second session is planned for this spring with the theme "Inquire Within." The deadline for submitting proposals is May 1. ...

Celebrating library workers.(ALA)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... April 14 is National Library Workers Day (NLWD), when library staff and patrons are urged to honor the contributions of all library workers, including librarians, support staff, and others who make library services possible. Purchase buttons...

ALSC, Reforma host dia April 30.(Association for Library Service to Children )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Complimentary brochures featuring a booklist with bilingual, Spanish-only, and English titles for children are available as ALA's Association for Library Service to Children and Reforma: The National Association to Promote Library and...

Neal-Schuman joins as Library Champion.(Neal-Schuman Foundation)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The Neal-Schuman Foundation, based in New York City, has joined ALA's Library Champions program. The foundation was established in 2000 by Patricia Glass Schuman and John Vincent Neal, founders of Neal-Schuman Publishers, to aid, assist, and...

Arbuthnot lecture tickets available.(ALA)(Conference news)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The 2009 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture, featuring children's and young adult author Walter Dean Myers, will take place April 18 at the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee. The lecture is administered by...

Limited edition.(ALA)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Matteson (III.) Public Library youth services staffers (from left) Joseph Friedman, Julia Driscoll and Phyllis Davis show off the library's copies of the special-edition Amazing Spider-Man #583, featuring President Barack Obama on the cover....

Kansas City selected as site of JCLC 2012.(ALA)(Conference news)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... ALA's Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) Steering Committee has selected Kansas City, Missouri, as the site of its second national conference, to be held September 19-23, 2012. This will be the second collaboration of ALA's...

Woman's day seeks library stories.(ALA)
April 1, 2009... Woman's Day magazine is seeking information on how the library is being used to help save money. Through May 18, women ages 18 and up are invited to send in stories of 700 words or less to womansday@ala.org. Up to four stories will be...

New gaming toolkit available.(ALA)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... ALA, with assistance from a $1-million Verizon Foundation grant, has developed an online toolkit to aid librarians in serving the growing gaming constituency, available at librarygamingtoolkit.org. The Librarian's Guide to Gaming: An...

Universities support Spectrum scholars.(ALA)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The Wayne State University Library and Information Science Program in Detroit is providing $5,000 in matching scholarship funds to Spectrum scholar Serena Vaquilar. A graduate of California State University at Northridge, Vaquilar is...

Calendar.(Brief article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2009... ALA EVENTS Apr. 12-18: National Library Week, www.ala.org/nlw. Apr. 30: El Dia de los Ninos/ El Dia de los Libros, www.ala.org/dia. May 7-8: LITACamp, Dublin, Ohio, www.ala.org/lita. May 11-12: National Library Legislative...

The Association's Associations: ALSC
April 1, 2009... CREATING A BETTER FUTURE FOR CHILDREN Through nationwide initiatives, strategic partnerships, prestigious awards, and educational opportunities, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) advocates for the best possible library...

It's Pink-Slip Season for California School Librarians
April 1, 2009... In what seems to have become an annual spring rite in the Golden State, school boards throughout California have been issuing layoff notices to school library media specialists, as well as other educators and support staff, to ensure that the...

Auditor cries foul on library gaming.(U.S. & International)
April 1, 2009... A 10 - minute YouTube video posted by the Nebraska Library Commission on January 18, 2008, to announce the Commission's purchase of Rock Band and Dance Dance Revolution has resulted--roughly a year later--in an audit issued February 24. In...

Magnetic poles.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Caption: Polish-American writers attracted an enthusiastic crowd February 12 at the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, reading from and talking about their work. Host librarians (kneeling) Malgorzata Kot (left) and Krystyna Grell pose with...

Topeka Board Restricts Sex-Themed Titles
April 1, 2009... The Topeka and Shawnee County (Kans.) Public Library board voted 5-3 February 19 to restrict minors' access to four books about sex, although the trustees failed to specify just what that restriction would entail. The titles challenged by...

A hand in politics.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Caption: The Madison Heights (Mich.) Public Library hosted 1st-grade classes from Lessenger Elementary School February 11. The students got library cards, listened to stories about puppets, and made their own--of President Obama. The puppets...

Chattanooga Report Urges Major Reforms
April 1, 2009... The Chattanooga--Hamilton County (Tenn.) Bicentennial Library was slammed in a consultants' report that said the library "lacks a clear vision for the future," is underfunded in both its operating and capital budgets, has a problematic...

Reflections of southern roots.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Caption: Eleven original paintings by local author and artist Willie Nell Shahraki-Heard were on display at the Art Tatum African American Resource Center Gallery at Toledo-Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library's Kent branch, including this...

House Rehashes Bill to Block Public Access
April 1, 2009... The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, which would block free access to research conducted by taxpayer-funded organizations such as the National Institutes of Health, was introduced February 3 in the House by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). H.R....

Fingerprint find.(Abraham Lincoln's fingerprint)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Caption: Lydia Smith, a first-year psychology student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, discovered what experts say is a fingerprint belonging to Abraham Lincoln. Smith discovered the print while transcribing an October 5, 1863, letter by...

Stimulus Package Could Benefit Libraries
April 1, 2009... The $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Obama February 17 includes several economic-stimulus provisions that could directly benefit libraries, notes the American Library Association's Washington Office: *...

Court says book ban isn't censorship.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Plaintiffs are examining their legal options after a federal appeals court rejected February 5 their challenge of a 2006 order from the board of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools to remove a children's book about contemporary life in Cuba....

Protection urged for Gaza cultural heritage.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) issued a statement February 18 deploring the loss of human lives and the destruction of cultural heritage that has recently taken place in the Palestinian Territories and the State of...

Alternative System Rates Public Libraries
April 1, 2009... Created for Reed Business Information's Library Journal by Keith Curry Lance and Ray Lyons, the LJ Index of Public Library Service is a new rating system sponsored by Baker and Taylor's Bibliostat, web-based statistical analysis software for...

Wall street journal closes its library.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The Wall Street Journal announced February 5 that it would close its news research library on March 23. Leslie A. Norman, who heads the library, said in a posting on the NewsLib online discussion group that she and News Assistant Ed Ramos had...

We shall remain debuts April 13 on PBS.(We Shall Remain )
April 1, 2009... Caption: From the award-winning PBS series American Experience, the five-part We Shall Remain premieres April 13. The landmark production aims to establish Native American history as an essential part of American history by examining 300...

Global Reach
April 1, 2009... SCOTLAND 1 Some 200 books were seriously damaged in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh after a 20-year-old sprinkler pipe on the top story failed, causing 5,000 liters of water to run through all 12 floors. The potentially...

Newsmaker: Yohannes Gebregeorgis
April 1, 2009... Growing up in rural Ethiopia with very little access to books, Yohannes Gebregeorgis was 19 years old the first time he picked up a book for pleasure. This experience helped him become a literacy advocate, a children's book author, and founder...

Amazon Lets Publishers Silence Kindle Audio
April 1, 2009... Amazon released version 2 of its Kindle e-book reader February 24 to fanfare over improvements over the previous incarnation and controversy over a feature that converts text to spoken words. Protest of the text-to-speech feature came from...

Digital music software.(TECH NEWS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Digital Music Software Indiana University has released Variations, an open source software package to create a digital music library system. Variations allows college and university libraries and music schools to digitize audio and score...

Ephemera preserved.(archives for ephemera collections )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Ephemera Preserved The Council on Library and Information Resources has awarded a $247,738 Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant to four San Francisco institutions to support the California Ephemera Project. The California...

Browser as OS?(Gazelle )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Browser as OS? Microsoft Research has tested a web browser called Gazelle that is constructed to act like an operating system, Read-WriteWeb reported February 22. The goal is improved security, achieved by separating the browser and any...

Library as movie studio.(TECH NEWS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Library as Movie Studio Sewickley (Pa.) Public Library Young Adult Librarian Kelly Rottmund has created "Movie Stars @ The Library," a program where teens can use the library's camera to make their own films after school, the Pittsburgh...

NPR library blog.(TECH NEWS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... NPR Library Blog National Public Radio's library has started As a Matter of Fact (www.npr.org/blogs/library/), a blog covering "everything from pop-culture insanity and weird pronunciations to the history of NPR and libraries in the news."

Talking over Twitter ...(TECH NEWS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Talking over Twitter... Olivia Mitchell provided advice for presenting to a tweeting audience on the Pistachio blog (pistachioconsulting.com) February 23. Among her suggestions: Recognize that typing is a sign of interest, monitor the...

... and Twitter through time.(TECH NEWS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... ... and Twitter through Time The Historical Tweets blog (historicaltweets.com) makes amusing guesses at how major events might have been relayed on Twitter. JohannesG, for example, wrote "Finally finished invention. Disappointed to learn that...

Adventure at her fingertips.(TECH NEWS IN BRIEF)(Photograph)
April 1, 2009... caption: Seven-year-old Carmen Chavez ponders an adventure puzzle on the new Advanced Workstations in Education computer in Hancock County (Ind.) Public Library's children's room February 18. The Indiana State Library and the Institute of...

At the Last Minute: There's a Method to Students' Procrastination
April 1, 2009... My deadline for these columns is the 20th of each month, two months before they appear, so I'm writing this April missive in mid-February (the 16th, for the record). I know that the crack American Libraries staff will back me up when I say that...

From Desktop to Cloud Top: Cloud Computing Comes of Age
April 1, 2009... In a world where we seem to be dealing with a baffling assortment of technology buzzwords, one you will probably hear thrown around a lot in 2009 is cloud computing. While the name may sound a little funny, it refers to a very important change...

How the World Sees Us
April 1, 2009... "The amputation of a treasured local library system's branches has been called an 'unintended consequence' of the state property tax caps. If so, then legislators failed to properly study the law they passed. They've let down a steady stream of...

Separate Means Unequal: Decrying the Marginalization of Technical Services
April 1, 2009... Catalog workers are running for cover. In large research libraries, technical services staff is being carted away from the central library campus to satellite locations. This recent trend is misguided and will harm both the end user and the...

2009 Library Design Showcase
April 1, 2009... Projects submitted to this year's Library Design Showcase balanced many types of sensitivities: to history, to technology, to the immediate surroundings, and to accessibility. In this issue, American Libraries highlights 23 new and renovated...

AIA/ALA Library Building Awards
April 1, 2009... The following libraries are winners of the 2009 Library Building Awards, sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and ALA's Library Leadership and Management Association. The biennial award recognizes distinguished accomplishment in...

A Greener Library a Greener You: Librarians Can Make a Difference Every Day in Many Ways, as Libraries Move toward Environmental Friendliness
April 1, 2009... When I moved from Los Angeles to rural Appalachia in 1986, I was a freelance journalist and first-time author, anxious about what kind of library I'd find in my new hometown in North Carolina. After pulling up to the Mount Airy Public Library, I...

Building Science 101: Save Money, Energy, and Resources by Getting a Better Understanding of How Your Building Works
April 1, 2009... As you enter your building on a snowy morning, do you marvel at the beautiful icicles that drip down from the roof? As you look out your office window, do you express childish glee over the work of Jack Frost on your panes? Do staff members...

Meeting Students' Need States: From Solitary Refuge to Social Hub, Understanding the Different Ways Students Utilize the Library Is the Key to Boosting Usage
April 1, 2009... When I lived in the Washington, D.C., metro area I frequently ate lunch at the gourmet-sandwich bistro Cosi. One evening I went there for dinner, and to my surprise it was a completely different experience. Instead of several clusters of small...

It's Not All Fun and Games: Academic Libraries Apply Scholarship to Virtual Play
April 1, 2009... Some tidbit about 21st century pop culture routinely penetrates my historically oriented consciousness, thanks in part to Brian Visser, University of Iowa SLIS student and adult services assistant at Iowa City Public Library. Brian's...

Judith Anderson.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Judith Anderson was promoted to director of Longmont (Colo.) Public Library December 1, 2008.

Ann Armbrister.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * January 31 Ann Armbrister retired as deputy executive director of the College Center for Library Automation in Tallahassee, Florida.

Lynne Baldwin.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * In December Lynne Baldwin was promoted to supervisor of the Mandarin branch of Jacksonville (Fla.) Public Library.

Alistair Black.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign appointed Alistair Black professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science effective in January. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Phyllis Broomfield.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Phyllis Broomfield retired as periodicals librarian at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee December 31, 2008.

Elaine Charnov.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Elaine Charnov has been appointed director of education, programming, and exhibitions at New York Public Library.

Sarah Caltterbuck.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Menlo College in Atherton, California, has named Sarah Caltterbuck systems librarian.

Susan Clayton.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Susan Clayton became Lake County, California, librarian on December 31, 2008.

Cheryl Collins.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Cheryl Collins has been appointed technical services librarian at Menlo College in Atherton, California.

Regina.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Springfield--Greene County (Mo.) Library District has appointed Regina Cooper executive director.

Serene S. Corley.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Serene S. Corley is the new user services librarian at Brevard (N.C.) College.

Kendel Croston.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Stark County (Ohio District Library has appointed Kendel Croston manager of the Plain Community Branch.

Connie Vinita Dowell.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * In March Connie Vinita Dowell became dean of libraries at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rebecca Eller.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Rebecca Eller started as children's librarian at Larchmont (N.Y.) Public Library on December 14, 2008.

Steve Endicott.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Jefferson County (Colo.) Public Library has named Steve Endicott director of innovation and strategies for information technology.

Dexter R. Evans.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Dexter R. Evans was appointed southwest territory sales representative for H. W. Wilson January 29.

Julie Flemming.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Julie Flemming retired in February as director of Fox Lake (Wis.) Public Library.

J.B. Hill.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * January 5 J. B. Hill became director of public services at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Ottenheimer Library.

Kathleen Jansen.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... Kathleen Jansen retired as Lake County, California, librarian December 30, 2008.

Margeaux Johnson.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Margeaux Johnson has joined the University of Florida in Gainesville as science-technology librarian.

Cynthia Klinck.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * February 28 Cynthia Klinck retired as director of Washington-Centerville (Ohio) Public Library.

Teresa L. Knott.(Currents)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... * Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond named Teresa L. Knott director of Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences and associate university librarian effective March 10. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Christopher J. Korenowsky.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Christopher J. Korenowsky joined the Ohio Library Council as director of professional development February 4. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Richard Kuhta.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Richard Kuhta retired as Eric Weinmann Librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., December 8, 2008. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Renee McBride.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * January 1 Renee McBride became head of the special formats and metadata section of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Lucinda Munger.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * January 12 Lucinda Munger became library services director at Orange County (N.C.) Library.

Gary Nichols.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * Gary Nichols retired as Maine state librarian December 31, 2008.

James Pelton.(Currents)
April 1, 2009... * James Pelton will retire as director of Shreve Memorial Library in Shreveport, Louisiana, April 20.