American Libraries articles from August 2007

American Libraries archives from August 2007

Report from D.C.: Transformation Underway
August 1, 2007... What was different about this year's ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., was not so much the programs or the stellar speaker lineup (topped, for me, by Julie Andrews celebrating American Libraries centennial and announcing that she will...

A Celebration of Culture; August: The Blueberry Moon Month or Miinike-Giizis
August 1, 2007... A six-month campaign and 12 months as your president-elect has brought me to service as your new ALA president. I am working with members to continue many of the efforts of past presidents and to focus energies on three new task-force areas and...

Correction.(Correction notice)
August 1, 2007... The names of the presidentelects of ALA's Reference and Users Services Association (RUSA) and Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (ASCLA) were incorrect in the May issue (p. 16). Neal Wyatt is RUSA presidentelect and...

ALA Receives $1.6 Million in IMLS Grants
August 1, 2007... ALA will receive three grants totaling more than $1.6 million of the nearly $28 million in librarian recruitment and education awards announced June 19 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the 2007 Laura Bush 21st Century...

Spectrum Doctoral Fellows announced.(ALA)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The first six recipients of the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship, funded by a nearly $1-million grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, have been named and will begin their studies in the fall. They are: Janet Ceja Alcala,...

New baseball/literacy award available.(ALA)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Applications are available for "Batting for literacy @ your library," a new award that will honor a librarian who has used baseball to enhance literacy or library service, in conjunction with the ALA Campaign for America's Libraries' "Step Up...

Public Programs posts blog and wiki.(ALA)(Public Programs Office)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... ALA's Public Programs Office (PPO) has announced the creation of its first blog, Public Programs Post (blogs.ala.org/ppp.php), created to supplement its website and its Online Resource Center for Library Cultural Programming and electronic...

YALSA offers summer reading tools.(ALA)(Young Adult Library Services Association)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... ALA's Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is offering a great resource for young adult librarians planning summer programs-the 2007 Teens' Top Ten (TTT) nominees list. The 2007 TTT nominees include 25 books released between...

New Emerging Leaders sought.(ALA)
August 1, 2007... Applications are being accepted for the 2008 class of ALA Emerging Leaders, a program instituted by ALA Immediate Past President Leslie Burger (AL, June/July, p. 120-121). The deadline for applications is August 15. Up to 120...

"Lewis and Clark" libraries named.(ALA)(Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Twenty-three public and academic libraries have been selected to host the "Lewis and Clark and the Indian Country" traveling exhibition, sponsored by ALA's Public Programs Office (PPO) and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities...

"Benjamin Franklin" libraries selected.(ALA)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Twenty public and academic libraries will host the "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World" traveling exhibition, a collaboration between ALA's Public Programs Office and the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary in Philadelphia; and funded...

"Kids! @ your library" tool kit grows.(ALA)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... ALA's Association for Library Service to Children has added new resources to its "Kids! @ your library" online tool kit at www.ala.org/kids/. Produced by librarians for librarians, the tool kit contains free resources for promoting the...

Sen. Grassley receives whistleblower award.(ALA)(Chuck Grassley)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) received a Lifetime Achievement Award May 17 from a group of 25 whistleblower advocacy groups, including the ALA. The award honors Grassley's leadership in obtaining congressional approval of...

Board the freedom to read boat.(ALA)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Posters, T-shirts, buttons, tote bags, and a resource guide all centered on the theme "Banned Books Ahoy! Treasure Your Freedom to Read" are available to enhance the celebration of this year's Banned Books Week, slated for September...

Rossell departs.(FROM THE CENTENNIAL BLOG)(Beatrice Sawyer Rossell)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... "I think anyone would agree with me that the head of the Public Relations Division and the editor of the Bulletin must be in sympathy with A.L.A. policies if she is rightly to hold that position. I am not in sympathy with A.L.A. policies.......

Rettig's Goal: More Inclusive Membership
August 1, 2007... Jim Rettig, university librarian at the University of Richmond, Virginia, will take over as the Association's head at the conclusion of the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, California. American Libraries: What will be your focus or...

International fellowship.(ALA)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Five international visitors meet with American Libraries Editor-in-Chief Leonard Kniffel (third from right) during a May visit to ALA Headquarters in Chicago, part of a five-week International Federation of Library Associations and...

Lama
August 1, 2007... CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP The Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) is celebrating 50 years in 2007--a milestone that provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the ALA division's past accomplishments as well...

SKILLs Act Gives High Marks to School Librarians
August 1, 2007... As some 50 librarians attending the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., looked on, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives announced June 26 the introduction of the Strengthening Kids' Interest in...

Occult Concerns Jinx Teen Read Program
August 1, 2007... Pickens County (S.C.) Library System officials have withdrawn the library's participation in a nationwide teen reading program within days of its scheduled June 7 launch due to 11th-hour threats against the library, PCLS Director Marguerite...

Senators want EPA libraries reopened.(U.S. & International)(Environmental Protection Agency )(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... After nearly a year of controversy over Environmental Protection Agency library closings and consolidations, the Senate Appropriations Committee June 26 recommended that the agency restore the network of libraries to its former capacity. The...

Mass. Library Gets Partial Reprieve after Elimination of Budget
August 1, 2007... In the face of the proposed elimination of its entire budget, the Saugus (Mass.) Public Library shut its doors May 24. After voters rejected a $5.2-million tax override by a more than 2-1 margin April 24, Town Manager Andrew Bisignani announced...

D.C. grants library landmark status.(U.S. & International)(District of Columbia)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The District of Columbia Historic Preservation Review Board granted landmark status June 28 to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The move gives the 35-year-old modernist building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, legal...

Jersey town hopes Gov. will save library.(U.S. & International)(Jon Corzine )(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine signed into law a 4% cap on property taxes earlier this year, but now two state legislators are appealing to him to modify it to save the Jamesburg Public Library--and possibly other small libraries in the...

Rochester accepts web restrictions.(U.S. & International)(Rochester Public Library)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... One month after the governing board of the Monroe County (N.Y.) Library System agreed to block all pornographic sites on its public computers, trustees of the Rochester Public Library--which serves as the MCLS headquarters library--voted in...

FTC dismisses net neutrality concerns.(U.S. & International)(Federal Trade Commission)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The Federal Trade Commission issued June 27 a 170-page report titled "Broadband Connectivity Competition Policy," which largely dismisses the necessity of establishing laws to protect network neutrality--the principle of a nondiscriminatory...

Residents meet to save Bowling Green branch.(U.S. & International)(Bowling Green Public Library Smiths Grove)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Some two-dozen concerned residents gathered June 25 to discuss ways to save Bowling Green (Ky.) Public Library's Smiths Grove branch. The library board of directors voted June 18 to close the branch as of September 1, as well as to eliminate...

Nashville library spared budget cut.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The $1.57-billion FY2008 budget approved by the Nashville (Tenn.) Metropolitan Council June 26 restores $800,000 that was initially planned to be sliced from the library's budget to balance the municipality's 2007-08 books. Had the cut...

Prisons remove religious books.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Officials at the federal prison in Otisville, New York, removed hundreds of books from the chapel library on Memorial Day, mostly titles of a religious nature. The action was part of a belated response to an April 2004 Department of...

Weekly's profanity irks Missouri patron.(U.S. & International)(Riverfront Times. Richard Greathouse)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... St. Louis area resident Richard Greathouse has called for Jefferson County (Mo.) Public Library to remove the free weekly Riverfront Times newspaper from distribution there, according to the June 24 suburban St. Louis Sunday Journal. ...

Harry Potter foe loses challenge.(U.S. & International)(Laura Mallory )(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Harry Potter detractor Laura Mallory has lost yet another attempt to get the popular series removed from the Gwinnett County (Ga.) Public Schools. Georgia Superior Court Judge Ronnie Batchelor upheld May 29 a December 2006 decision by the...

Laura Bush announces school library grants.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... In its 2007 round of grants, First Lady Laura Bush's Foundation for America's Libraries is awarding nearly $1.3 million to 263 school libraries to expand their book collections. Mrs. Bush made the announcement May 30 at the 104-year-old P.S....

Miami appeals court hears Vamos case.(U.S. & International)(Vamos a Cuba)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments June 6 in a lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County School Board for ordering the removal of the children's book Vamos a Cuba and its English-language counterpart...

Naming flap costs Santa Fe $1 million.(U.S. & International)(Santa Fe Public Library branch name)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The family of late businessman Michael J. Maloof has withdrawn an offer to donate $1 million to the City of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for its new Southside branch library, after controversy erupted over a plan to name the branch after Maloof. ...

Providence library approves contract.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Trustees of the Providence (R.I.) Public Library voted June 13 to accept a one-year municipal contract that increases the city's funding of the library by $300,000 and establishes an advisory committee to oversee PPL's budget. The agreement...

Supreme Court will consider worship ban.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The Alliance Defense Fund, a law firm representing the Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, asked the U.S. Supreme Court June 7 to overturn a federal appeals court ban from last year on conducting worship services at the Contra Costa...

Jackson Rejects Levy to Reopen Libraries
August 1, 2007... Voters in Jackson County, Oregon, decisively rejected a property tax levy May 15 that would have reopened the county's library system, which shut down April 6. The proposal, which would have raised $8.3 million annually, lost by a vote of...

Churchill's sculpting heir.(U.S. & International)(Winston Churchill, Edwina Sandys)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Winston Churchill's granddaughter, Edwina Sandys (at right in left photo), and Lady Aurelia Young flank an Oscar Nemon bust of the late British prime minister at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York. The bust...

BY the numbers.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... 20 Rank of Booklist Associate Editor Donna Seaman on the Lit 50 list of Chicago literati. She beat out Booklist Editor and Publisher Bill Ott by two spaces, although both trailed ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels (#9), Chicago Public...

Laramie and you.(U.S. & International)(Laramie County)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Author Tina Ann Forkner, author of Ruby Among Us (Waterbook Press, 2008), reads to a young group of Laramie County Library System patrons as part of the statewide Wyoming Reads! event May 15. Laramie County entertained 1,101 1st-graders (out...

Neighborhood revitalization.(U.S. & International)(Queens Library)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Officials cut the ribbon for the new $9.48-million Queens Library in Long Island City, New York. The 18,000-square-foot full-service facility, designed by RGA Associates and Planners, encompasses an Adult Learning Center and replaces the...

Big sky bibliobabes.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The Montana Library Association is marking off the days to a successful fundraising effort with its 2008 Montana's Book Babes calendar, featuring 10 women and two men, all librarians from the Treasure State. Brief bios and a favorite quote...

New York City budget boosts service hours.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Six-day-a-week service hours took effect last month for the first time in six years at New York Public Library's facilities, the 58-branch Brooklyn Public Library, and the 63-location Queens system, where patrons and staff celebrated July 14...

Get up and dance.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Kids groove to the music of author and recording artist Jose-Luis Orozco at Miami-Dade Public Library's Art of Storytelling International Festival May 19. This year's festival, the sixth annual, featured storytellers, authors, and musicians...

Beat movement.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... A member of the Okii Taiko Japanese Drumming Group from Oklahoma City performs at Tulsa (Okla.) City-County Library's fifth annual Asian-American festival, held June 2 at the Martin Regional Library. Over 2,000 attendees enjoyed martial arts...

Global Reach
August 1, 2007... FRANCE 1 UNESCO, headquartered in Paris, has added 38 exceptionally valuable items of documentary heritage to its Memory of the World Register, bringing the total number of inscriptions since 1997 to 158. The register lists maps, manuscripts,...

Bibliotheca Alexandrina at 5: A Study in Contrasts
August 1, 2007... The contrast is what strikes visitors first: the monumental new Bibliotheca Alexandrina versus street life, centuries of history organized and cataloged in an oasis that defies the chaos of traffic. Egypt's Library of Alexandria is performing a...

Publishing Expo Takes Manhattan
August 1, 2007... As a friend of mine in the book industry says, BookExpo America is like spending three days in a row at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Even if you have never attended BEA, the nation's largest trade show of the publishing industry (this year running...

Canadian Librarians Look to the East
August 1, 2007... The Canadian Library Association National Conference took place in a new calendar slot--May 23-26--and in a city that hasn't hosted CLA for many years--St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, off the northeast coast. The Atlantic Provinces...

Mile-High Spirit: Special Librarians in Denver
August 1, 2007... More than 800 first-time attendees were among the 5,047 registrants for the 2007 Special Libraries Association Annual Conference, held June 3-6 in Denver, compared to 5,844 last year in Baltimore. Information professionals appeared to be in a...

Frieda Greene
August 1, 2007... Happy Birthday to Frieda Greene, on April 28, making her (we believe) the oldest gainfully employed library worker in America-a record she is hoping will qualify her for Guinness World Records. Born in 1917 in the Bronx, New York, Greene is a...

Gates gives WebJunction $12.6 million.(Tech News)(Bill and Melinda Gates)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Ohio-based library cooperative OCLC June 21 announced that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's U.S. Library Initiative would give $12.6 million to its online community portal WebJunction. The five-year grant "will help us to sustain the...

CIC universities join Google Library Project.(Tech News)(Committee on Institutional Cooperation, Google Inc.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The 12 universities that constitute the Committee on Institutional Cooperation announced June 6 that they would join the Google Books Library Project, making up to 10 million volumes from their collections available for digitization and...

Assessing the ILS.(Tech News)(integrated library systems)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The University of Windsor, Ontario, has released a background document intended as a first step in evaluating the current environment with respect to integrated library systems. The report stems from a substantial review of the ILS being...

Why Be Transparent? Enabling User Feedback with Blogs
August 1, 2007... How do patrons offer feedback at your library? Mine, like many others, provides an online "comments and suggestions" form. However, there's nothing telling the submitter who at the library reads it and whether to expect a response. If I had a...

The Hill Was Alive ... with the Sound of Librarians
August 1, 2007... My very first ALA was 11 years ago in New York City. I was both a newly minted librarian and a newlywed. My wife Sharon accompanied me to the Big Apple, not to see the organized chaos that is Annual Conference, but because Julie Andrews was...

SirsiDynix.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... SirsiDynix announced the name of its new system, formerly code-named Rome. The new ILS, which is promised to combine the best features of Unicorn and Horizon, will be called Symphony.

XRefer.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)
August 1, 2007... XRefer, the online reference source aggregator, has changed its name to Credo Reference.

EBSCO.(ACQUISITION)(EBSCO Information Services)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... EBSCO has acquired two of ABC-CLIO's databases, Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life, and will also distribute ABC-CLIO's online history e-book collection, History Reference Online.

The Library, Reinvented: If We Don't Do It, Who Will?
August 1, 2007... As I write this, I'm getting ready to head to D.C. for ALA's Annual Conference, which is, as always, an exciting prospect; but I'm even more excited about heading from there to teach a course on "Rethinking the Library" at the University of...

Free at Last: Taking Advantage of Open Source Software
August 1, 2007... Tim Spalding cocks his head a bit as he says it to emphasize the point: "LibraryThing.com is social software." However we categorize it, Spalding's baby has become a darling to librarians, and as we sat chatting over lunch in spring 2006, the...

How the World Sees Us
August 1, 2007... "I don't appreciate the kind of adventure game that has you put masking tape over a mouse hole so it picks up the hair off the mouse, allowing you to use the hair and some glue to make a fake mustache to sneak into the library. What kind of...

A Plea for Respect: Fulminating over the Public's Ignorance of Our Job
August 1, 2007... I wouldn't mind washing feces from bathroom walls or spraying ant repellant beneath the 600s. I wouldn't mind being the quiet cop every afternoon, shhhing rowdy teenagers and loud cell-phone users. Nor would I mind the role of copy-center queen,...

A Manifesto for Our Times: Affirmations to Help Develop a Mindset to Respond to the Changing Information Culture
August 1, 2007... Affirmations can be a wonderful thing. They can give us confidence and inspire us to achieve our goals. They can push us past our doubts. They can be a group rallying cry. They can ensure us that we are on the right path and should carry on...

Stamp Act: A Philatelist Recalls the ALA/Postal Service Effort That Symbolically Elevated Libraries Nationwide
August 1, 2007... the United States Postal Service (USPS) issued two library-related postage stamps in 1982--one to honor the Library of Congress, and a second to collectively commemorate all of the nation's libraries. Although library buildings had previously...

The Ventriloquist Who Changed the World: How America's French Connection Propelled the Modern Free Library Movement
August 1, 2007... While access to a free public library has practically been elevated to the level of a basic human right among Americans, few actually know how the idea gained traction. Although the nation's first tax-supported free public library opened in...

Washington Milestones-And There Were Many: Attendance Breaks All Records, as ALA Inaugurates Its First Native American President and American Libraries Celebrates 100 Years of Publication
August 1, 2007... It was the largest conference in the history of the American Library Association. Some 28,635 librarians, exhibitors, and library supporters attended the 128th ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D. C., June 21-27, generating more than $15.6...

ALA Executive Board: Association Capitalizes on Conference Locale
August 1, 2007... As ALA met on her home turf, Washington Office Executive Director Emily Sheketoff informed the Executive Board about developments on Capital Hill--both in the months preceding the board's June 22, 25, and 27 sessions as well as on June 26 when...

ALA Council: Legislation Looms Large on Agenda
August 1, 2007... Appropriately, matters concerning national legislation were at the forefront when ALA's governing Council met in Washington, D.C., June 24, 26, and 27 during the Association's Annual Conference. Council passed a slate of resolutions submitted...

Dianne Ashworth.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Dianne Ashworth has retired as manager of the Laurel branch of Prince George's County (Md.) Memorial Library System.

Lori A. Barnes.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... May 29 Lori A. Barnes became town librarian for Vail (Colo.) Public Library.

Karl Beiser.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Karl Beiser retired May 31 as CEO of the Maine Info Net project.

Elaine Baran Black.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Elaine Baran Black has been named director of children's services at Georgia Public Library Service state agency in Atlanta. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Eileen Bosch.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Eileen Bosch has joined California State University at Long Beach as education librarian.

Sandy Ludig Brooke.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Princeton (N.J.) University appointed Sandy Ludig Brooke librarian of the Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology June 1. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Roberta L. Brooker.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... June 1 Roberta L. Brooker was appointed Indiana state librarian.

Wanda K. Brown.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Wanda K. Brown has been promoted to associate director of Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bill Caddell.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Effective September 1 Bill Caddell will retire as director of Frankfort (Ind.) Community Public Library.

Joan Clark.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... The Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records has promoted Joan Clark to deputy director of operations and planning.

Danielle Clarke.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... In March Danielle Clarke retired as coordinator of information literacy at Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.

John P. Cummings.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... John P. Cummings, associate director of the U.S. Naval Academy library in Annapolis, Maryland, retired after 37 years June 1.

Robin L. Dale.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Robin L. Dale has joined the University of California at Santa Cruz as associate university librarian for collections and library information systems.

Robert C. Darnton.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... July 1 Robert C. Darnton became library director at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Susanna Davidsen.(Currents)
August 1, 2007... Walden University in Minneapolis has named Susanna Davidsen library director.