American Libraries articles from August 2004

American Libraries archives from August 2004

Stand Up and Speak Out
August 1, 2004... Advocacy" is a word that is frequently used in the library world and one that can have many meanings, especially when used in tandem with other words--"legislative advocacy," "public library advocacy," and "advocacy with the media." Yet as I...

Early Retirement Plan to Ease Budget Crunch
August 1, 2004... A voluntary early-retirement incentive, offered to ALA staff in May and June, has induced 11 members of the Headquarters staff to take advantage of a package that includes "transition pay," retiree medical benefits, and outplacement services at...

Diversity Office gets $900,000 IMLS grant.(ALA News)(American Library Association)(Institute for Museum and Library Services)
August 1, 2004... ALA's OFD has been awarded a $928,142 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services. The grant, announced July 13, is among 26 totaling $14.8 million awarded to library schools and library-service organizations to recruit and...

Virus shuts down HQ computers.(ALA News)(American Library Association)
August 1, 2004... The Korgo virus struck ALA Headquarters June 18, causing the shutdown of the Association's entire computer system and rendering staff e-mail, Internet usage, printers, and shared drives inoperable. Sherri Vanyek, head of ITTS, reported that...

Accreditation actions announced.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... ALA's COA has announced accreditation actions taken during the 2004 ALA Annual Conference in Orlando under the 1992 Standards for Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies. Initial accreditation has been...

ALA continues post-CIPA follow-up.(ALA News)(Children's Internet Protection Act)
August 1, 2004... ALA will continue to monitor the use and long-term impact of filters in libraries as well as provide ongoing assistance to library staff and users in dealing with compliance with CIPA, which took effect July 1 (see p. 17). The...

Atlanta librarians boost Merritt Fund.(ALA News)(LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund)
August 1, 2004... Seven librarians who were among the successful plaintiffs in a recently settled discrimination suit against the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library (AL, Feb., p. 14) have made donations to the LeRoy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund totaling...

Verizon continues literacy funding.(ALA News)(Verizon Foundation)
August 1, 2004... ALA's OLOS has received a $295,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon Communications, to create "Build Literacy @ your library," part of the BuildLiteracy.org website. Under the "Build Literacy @ your...

Cultural programming endowment started.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... ALA's PPO has established the Cultural Communities Fund (CCF), a new endowment designed to support local libraries across the country in establishing community and cultural programs. The fund has received a $350,000 National Endowment for...

"It's Alive!" during Teen Read Week.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... "It's Alive! @ your library" is the theme of the 2004 observance of YALSA's national literacy initiative Teen Read Week (TRW), October 17-23. This year's theme is designed to convey the intersection of the horror and suspense genres,...

Women in medicine exhibit available.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... Applications are being accepted from public, academic, and medical libraries interested in hosting the traveling exhibition "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians," slated to tour the country between May 2005...

Maine teens win "Get on Board" contest.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... Waterville, Maine, teens Michael Cole, Justin Morse, and Colby Kelly are the grand-prize winners of ALA's "Get on Board and Read @ your library" program for their production of a video based on Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella. With the...

Black Books Galore! Winners named.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... Peter Menta, children's librarian at New Haven (Conn.) Free Public Library's Stetson branch, won $1,000 and a free trip to ALA's Annual Conference in Orlando, as the first-place winner in the BCALA-Wiley Black Books Galore! Contest. The...

Five years and counting.(ALA News)(Connecticut Library Association)
August 1, 2004... FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING. BCALA officers join their Connecticut members April 21 for a five-year Chapter anniversary celebration during the Connecticut Library Association's Annual Conference in Groton. Participants in the "Cultural...

Carding the kids.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... CARDING THE KIDS. "The Smartest Card--Get It! Use It! @ your library" is the theme of September's Library Card Sign-up Month in a joint program with PLA. Observed since 1987, the celebration is a time when ALA and libraries across the country...

Youth donation grows.(ALA News)(A.L.A. Young Adult Services Div.)
August 1, 2004... YOUTH DONATION GROWS. The donation to ALSC and YALSA from the estate of William C. Morris (pictured), former HarperCollins Children's Books vice president and director of promotion (AL, Jan., p. 8-9), has grown to $800,000. The gift, to be...

Fighting to read.(ALA News)
August 1, 2004... FIGHTING TO READ. This year's Banned Books Week celebration, Sept. 25-Oct. 2, includes a poster featuring Toni Morrison. As part of the 23rd annual event sponsored by OIF, ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano will keynote a celebrity read-out at...

Gorman Focus: Education, Recruitment
August 1, 2004... Michael Gorman, the Association's new vice president/president-elect, said the "crisis in library education" and "the recruitment of librarians from all ethnic and cultural groups" will be the focus when he assumes his presidential duties in...

LAMA Promotes Leadership Excellence
August 1, 2004... The Library Administration and Management Association is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Originally established in 1957 as ALA's Library Administration Division, the group's name was changed in 1979. Renowned for its programming...

House Rejects Effort to Curb Patriot Act
August 1, 2004... The House of Representatives July 8 narrowly rejected an effort to block funding for a section of the USA Patriot Act that allows the Justice Department to conduct searches of library and bookstore records. The proposed amendment to a...

Supreme Court sends COPA back to lower court.(News Fronts Washington)(Child Online Protection Act)
August 1, 2004... The Supreme Court June 29 affirmed 5-4 a lower court's decision to block enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), but stopped short of declaring the law unconstitutional and, for a second time, sent Ashcroft v. ACLU back for a...

House Hearings on E-Rate Abuse Find Fraud, Lax Oversight
August 1, 2004... The House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations began hearings June 17 to examine charges of fraud and abuse in the Federal Communications Commission's e-rate program, which provides discounts on...

Groups file amicus in copyright case.(News Fronts Washington)
August 1, 2004... Six library and archives associations filed an amicus brief June 28 in Faulkner v. National Geographic Society, a case that addresses whether publishers of collective works can republish materials digitally without seeking permission of...

Critics Rave over Koolhaas Design: Seattle Opening Draws Huge Crowds; $165.5-Million Facility Hailed as Best New Library in a Generation
August 1, 2004... Architectural critics are still raving and usage statistics have gone through the roof since some 28,000 visitors attended the long-awaited May 23 opening of Seattle's new central library. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the...

Providence Library Layoffs Spark Protests
August 1, 2004... At 2 p.m. on July 16, Providence (R.I.) Public Library officials gave pink slips to seven librarians and 14 support staff employed at the downtown branch--16 who had opted for voluntary severance packages and five others who had not--effective...

Black Employees at LC File Discrimination Complaint
August 1, 2004... Some 785 African-American employees of the Library of Congress have signed on to an informal class-action complaint with LC's Equal Employment Opportunity office charging that the library has discriminated against them. The complaint, filed...

Reagan Library visits surge.(News Fronts)(Ronald Reagan)
August 1, 2004... REAGAN LIBRARY VISITS SURGE. Pilgrims line up to view former President Ronald Reagan's flag-draped casket on the grounds of the Reagan Presidential Library during a 34-hour tribute June 7-8. Visitors to the hilltop site in Simi Valley,...

South Dakota Governor Unplugs Teen Site
August 1, 2004... On July 12, at the order of South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds, the state library removed the Teen Center section of its website pending a 60-day review of the site for objectionable content. That same day, protestors staged anticensorship...

Pinkerton, Behave! Stays put.(Censorship Watch)
August 1, 2004... The board of trustees of the Evanston (Ill.) Public Library declined May 19 a request from the concerned mother of a 3-year-old to remove the Steven Kellogg picture book Pinkerton, Behave! Afterward, complainant Mary Beth Schaye said that she...

America still stands.(Censorship Watch)
August 1, 2004... Despite the concerns of a school-teacher, the board of the Twin Bridges (Mont.) K-12 Schools voted 4-1 June 14 to keep the young-adult novel America on the high-school library shelves. Complainant Mark Weber, who teaches in the district's...

Libraries Choose to Filter or Not to Filter as CIPA Deadline Arrives
August 1, 2004... One year after the Supreme Court's June 2003 decision upholding the constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), public libraries that receive federal money for Internet connectivity had to decide whether to install...

Say it with a tile.(News Fronts)(Civic Center Library, Livermore, California)
August 1, 2004... SAY IT WITH A TILE. A circular tile mosaic welcomes visitors to the new Civic Center Library in Livermore, California. The work of artist Maria Alquilar, "Open Doors" features a central symbol of the tree of life surrounded by images of the...

Michigan Libraries Refuse Law Student's Request for Patron Info
August 1, 2004... Citing state library-privacy laws, Michigan libraries have refused a law student's Freedom of Information Act request that they turn over patron information, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses. Caleb Marker, a...

Atlanta-Fulton director fired.(Updates)
August 1, 2004... Mary Kaye Hooker, director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library system since 1999, was fired May 19 by Fulton County Manager Tom Andrews. The action came shortly after the enactment of a new law making the director, as well as the library...

California school district wins on two fronts.(Updates)
August 1, 2004... West Contra Costa County, California, residents passed a much-needed parcel tax June 8 to save the school district's libraries, athletic programs, and the jobs of numerous counselors, teachers, and custodians threatened with layoffs. Nearly...

D.C. Library gets $2-million budget increase.(Updates)
August 1, 2004... The District of Columbia city council approved May 14 nearly $2 million in additional FY 2005 funding for the cash-strapped D.C. Public Library (AL, May 2003, p. 15). The system, which has been operating under reduced hours to deal with...

Three charged in Montreal Library firebombing.(Updates)
August 1, 2004... Three suspects have been charged in the April 5 firebombing that destroyed most of the 10,000-volume library of the United Talmud Torahs elementary school in the Montreal, Quebec, suburb of Saint-Laurent (AL, May, p. 23). On May 14...

Erie County delays branch closings.(Updates)
August 1, 2004... In the latest action regarding the future of the Erie County (Pa.) Public Library branches, county officials announced June 30 that three branches scheduled to close July 1 would remain open at least through the end of the month, thanks to a...

Eugene book thief gets six years.(Updates)(Douglas Collver)
August 1, 2004... A Eugene, Oregon, man was sentenced June 29 to six years in prison for stealing books from the University of Oregon's Knight Library and then selling them on eBay (AL, May, p. 24-25). Thirty-three-year-old Douglas Collver--who faces...

$10 million restored to Queens Library budget.(News in Brief)
August 1, 2004... The New York City Council passed a $47-billion city budget June 21 that includes $10 million in restored funding to the Queens Borough Public Library. The vote came after library administrators and employees presented City Council Speaker...

Broward County inmates sue to stop libraries closing.(News in Brief)
August 1, 2004... Two jail inmates in Broward County, Florida, filed suit July 15 to prevent Sheriff Ken Jenne from shutting down the law libraries in the county's jails and replacing them with an online service. Jenne began planning earlier this year to...

Denver PL to archive city police spy files.(News in Brief)
August 1, 2004... Twenty-one boxes of photos, flyers, membership rosters, and investigators' notes on some 10,000 alleged extremists and 1,000 peaceful protest groups gathered since 1953 by the Denver Intelligence Bureau, a division of the police department,...

State's Opinion Sought on Library Confidentiality Law
August 1, 2004... Following a May 18 incident in which three teenagers reported seeing a man fondling himself while viewing pornography at a library computer, the city of Naperville, Illinois, is considering seeking a legal opinion on the 1983 Illinois Library...

Homeless man pleads guilty to attempted murder.(News in Brief)
August 1, 2004... A homeless man pleaded guilty May 26 to the attempted murder and attempted rape of an 8-year-old girl in the bathroom of the Free Library of Philadelphia's Independence branch. Brian McCutcheon, who had served seven months in prison for a...

Tiananmen Square leaders mark 15th anniversary.(News in Brief)
August 1, 2004... Leaders and scholars of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests gathered June 5 at the Queens Borough (N.Y.) Public Library's Flushing branch to mark the 15th anniversary of the historic student revolt. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In two panel...

Work Resumes on Delayed Indianapolis Library
August 1, 2004... Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library officials reinstated June 30 a contractor they had suspended in May after "grossly defective" cracks and holes were found in concrete at the central library's expansion site. The announcement came one...

Library targeted in Colo. bulldozer rampage.(News in Brief)
August 1, 2004... An armed man inside a fortified bulldozer went on a rampage in Granby, Colorado, June 4, damaging or destroying 13 buildings, including the combination town hall and library. Marvin Heemeyer, 52, was angry with the town council and local...

Tomes and Tones.(News Fronts)(James McBride)
August 1, 2004... TOMES AND TONES. Flint (Mich.) Public Library Director Gloria Coles joins writer and jazz musician James McBride April 28 during a reception and book-signing attended by more than 300 people. McBride's The Color of Water: A Black Man's...

Reading together works.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... READING TOGETHER WORKS. Award-winning author Jacqueline Woodson, a former drama therapist for New York City runaway and homeless children, answers questions from a studio audience March 30 during a local PBS television taping in conjunction...

Library offers a collage education.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... LIBRARY OFFERS A COLLAGE EDUCATION. Clermont County Public Library in Batavia, Ohio, served as a showcase April 28 for collages created by kindergarteners at the Clermont Northeastern Elementary School over a six-week period under the...

Colossal cottontail turns up for tea.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... COLOSSAL COTTONTAIL TURNS UP FOR TEA. Seven-year-old Kai Winley joins Peter Rabbit May 8 during the annual tea in the legendary Iagomorph's ho'or sponsored by the Friends of the Decatur (Ga.) Library, a branch of the DeKalb County Public...

No Mo' Tenors, please!(Quick Takes)
August 1, 2004... As libraries began receiving their share of the settlement in a classaction lawsuit against the nation's five major record labels and three largest music retailers (AL, Apr., p. 19), many discovered a curious trend: dozens of duplicate CDs....

Ex-librarian's million-dollar recipe.(Quick Takes)
August 1, 2004... "It's a lot of money for a little effort," said Suzanne Conrad, former children's librarian at the Rochester Hills (Mich.) Public Library, about winning the $1-million top prize in the Pillsbury Bake-Off June 29 for her Oats 'n Honey Granola...

In Face of Public Outcry, Board Retains Director
August 1, 2004... A public outcry appears to have allowed a popular library director to hold on to her job despite the trustees' plans to fire her. The board of the Nippersink District Public Library in Richmond, Illinois, had voted last fall to fire Director...

Spellbound in Austin.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... SPELLBOUND IN AUSTIN. More than 700 students and teachers from Wooldridge Elementary School in Austin, Texas, become human letters May 17 to spell "Keep Austin Reading" to encourage schoolchildren to break open the books over the summer....

Patron sues over ban from Ann Arbor library.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... A library patron is fighting his loss of library privileges at Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library in federal court. Fredric Alan Maxwell, author of Bad Boy Ballmer: The Man Who Runs Microsoft (Morrow, 2002), filed suit in U.S. District...

Some Texana Auction Items Pulled at Last Minute
August 1, 2004... Three documents were removed just minutes before a June 18 auction of Texas historical documents because they may have been stolen from the Texas State Library in Austin some 40 years ago. Among the items, according to a June 18 report by NBC...

Ollies and nollies and grinds, oh mom!(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... OLLIES AND NOLLIES AND GRINDS, OH MOM! Sunny Elizabeth and daughter Caity take part in the Mighty Mama Skate-O-Rama May 9 (Mother's Day) at the skatepark in Laguna Niguel, California. Hosted by the International Society of Skate-boarding...

NEA Report: Americans Reading Less Literature
August 1, 2004... A report released July 8 by the National Endowment for the Arts indicates that fewer than half of the adult American population reads novels, short stories, plays, or poetry in their leisure time. Reading at Risk...

Clearwater library sued for firing HIV-positive staffer.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... A former staff member filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court June 8 against the Clearwater (Fla.) Public Library System. Paul Ritz claims he was unfairly disciplined by the library because of his sexual orientation and his HIV-positive...

Wisconsin library avoids weeklong shutdown.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... Brown County, Wisconsin, officials reached a last-minute compromise June 17 that will prevent a weeklong shutdown of the county's nine library branches and bookmobile this fall. Library officials, the county executive, and the county...

Aye, robot.(News Fronts)(University of Louisville)
August 1, 2004... AYE, ROBOT. At the groundbreaking ceremonies for a $14.2-million library expansion at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, University President James Ramsey and Dean of Libraries Hannelore B. Rader greet an experimental robot built by...

Saddam archives torched, says LC specialist.(Global News)(Saddam Hussein)
August 1, 2004... An Arab-World area specialist at the Library of Congress reports that the fires set by arsonists in April 2003 at the Iraq National Library were targeting sensitive archives from the Saddam Hussein regime, not rare books and manuscripts....

19th-century British newspapers to be digitized.(Global News)
August 1, 2004... More than one million pages of 19th-century U.K. newspapers held by the British Library will be digitized and made available online through a program managed by the Joint Information Systems Committee, a collaborative group of agencies that...

Four convicted in Danish royal library theft.(News Fronts)
August 1, 2004... Three relatives and a friend of a late Danish Royal Library philologist who stole thousands of rare books, maps, and documents from the Danish Royal Library between the late 1960s and 1978 (AL, Jan., p. 40) were convicted June 3 of selling...

Global Reach
August 1, 2004... NORTHERN IRELAND A billionaire newspaper owner has donated [pounds sterling]4 million ($7.27 million U.S.) toward a new library at Queen's University in Belfast, the BBC reported June 11. The gift from Anthony O'Reilly, former chairman of the...

Canadian Library Association Annual Conference: Bilingual in British Columbia
August 1, 2004... Nearly 1,200 delegates assembled in Victoria, British Columbia, June 16-19, for the Canadian Library Association's 59th annual conference. Like last year's meeting with ALA, this was a joint conference, but this time it coincided with the...

BookExpo America 2004: Librarians amid Throngs in Chicago
August 1, 2004... BookExpo America, the publishing industry's annual trade show, drew a large and varied crowd to Chicago June 4-6, including publishers, booksellers, authors, the book-loving public, and even a former president. Registration for the event,...

Straight Answers From: Michele Ridge
August 1, 2004... As director of the Erie County (Pa.) Library System for over 15 years, Michele Ridge learned well the unique capability of the nation's libraries to deliver lifelong learning to its citizens. As Pennsylvania First Lady in 1995-2001, she used her...

Thus Said: How the World Sees Us
August 1, 2004... "It's kind of like a sexy take on a librarian. I think people are tired of seeing so much skin and want to leave a little more to the imagination." Seventeen Fashion Editor GIGI SOLIF SCHANEN predicting a move this fall to higher waistlines and...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2004... Aaron Trehub is director of library technology at Auburn (Ala.) University Libraries, not library director (May, p. 54). In the June/July issue, the Springfield (Ill.) State Journal-Register was misidentified on p. 28.

How ALA Does and Doesn't Oppose the War in Iraq
August 1, 2004... By a vote of 39-55 at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando, the Association's governing Council (see p. 71) rejected a resolution calling for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. It was a serious defeat for those councilors who had...

On My Mind: Beware the Mini-CIPAs
August 1, 2004... Last summer's Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (AL, Aug. 2003, p. 12-16) seemed at first to be the final word on the issue of filters on library computers. Instead, an additional...

Staying Public: The Real Crisis in Librarianship; as Libraries Grow More Entrepreneurial, Their Change of Focus Is Dismantling the Public Sphere
August 1, 2004... Librarians and the institutions for which we speak have long prided ourselves on our integral relationship to democracy. We quote Madison and Jefferson approvingly and credit their ideas as the inspiration for what libraries do within and for a...

Restore Our Destiny: Full-Not Plural-Funding; Growing Dependence on Fundraising Is Not the Answer for Public Libraries' Budget Woes
August 1, 2004... Libraries are a tax-supported public good. They should remain that way for their own sake as well as that of the public they serve. In his article "Saving Ourselves: Plural Funding for Public Libraries" (AL, Feb., p. 37-39), Steve Coffman...

Digital Dissertations: Keeping Low-Tech Backups of Your Online Thesis Collection Will Help Prevent Problems When Formats Change
August 1, 2004... Must a book be printed with ink, on rag paper, and in the codex form for it to actually be a book? Books today are moving toward various electronic formats to store information, just as the dominant book format progressed from clay tablets to...

Roots of Hope: Haiti's Community Libraries Promise a Better Future
August 1, 2004... Flame of Hope, Roots of Hope, Shooting Star, Light of Tomorrow: The names of community libraries in Haiti convey the wish that free access to books will change the future of the country. Other libraries take the names of famous Haitian...

The Apprentice Comes to Farmingdale: Can a Popular Television Show's Management Principles Be Applied to Libraries?
August 1, 2004... You're fired!" were the final words of Donald Trump, executive director of NBC Television's The Apprentice, to wannabe business novices who failed their assigned tasks. Libraries cannot fire their employees as easily. However, many of the...

Opposition to Iraq War Pervades ALA in Orlando: But Neither Talk of War nor Heat nor Distances, Not Even Disney's Magical Allure, Could Keep These 19,731 Information Couriers from Their Appointed Rounds
August 1, 2004... Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy," said Richard A. Clarke at the opening session of the American Library Association's June 24-30 Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. The former counter-terrorism czar for presidents Bill Clinton and George...

Technically Speaking: Hot Conference, Cool Technology
August 1, 2004... It would be easy to overplay the puns or double-entendres about the heat in Orlando during the ALA Annual Conference, but I could not help thinking that if one could not stand the heat, spending some time in the vendor's kitchen that is the...

ALA Council: Council Keeps Its Cool in Orlando
August 1, 2004... Although the weather outside Orlando's convention center was sweltering, ALA Council coolly attended to a wide range of issues at its three Annual Conference sessions June 27, 29, and 30. However, the body's overloaded agenda meant that...

ALA Executive Board: Trustees Confront Board on Washington Office Purchase
August 1, 2004... The Association's finances once again dominated the agenda of ALA's Executive Board meetings during Annual Conference June 25, 28, and 30 in Orlando, with President Carla Hayden presiding. In his presentation to the board Senior Endowment...

Currents: Professionals on the Move
August 1, 2004... Eric Alstrom became collections conservator for Michigan State University Libraries in East Lansing April 1. * Jeannette Bastian has been promoted to associate professor at Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in...

At ALA.(People)
August 1, 2004... Shannon Cary, director of research and special initiatives for the Association of College and Research Libraries, left ALA April 16. * John Chrastka became ALA's membership marketing manager May 3, transferring from ALA Graphics. * Eve Cotton...