American Libraries articles from February 2004

American Libraries archives from February 2004

President's Message: Advocacy from the outside and from Within
February 1, 2004... Library advocacy can take many forms and include countless people. From telling fellow shoppers in the grocery line how libraries have changed to speaking up at a city council hearing in support of better salaries for library workers, everyone...

ALA website features shorter URLs.(Ala News)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Shorter URLs designed to allow for easier reference in print and online publications are part of the latest ALA website enhancements developed in response to member concerns after the launch of the retooled site last year (AL, Nov. 2003, p....

New CIPA-related online tools available.(Ala News)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... In response to the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act, ALA has prepared several online tools to assist libraries in making decisions about Internet filtering. ALA's OIF has revised and updated the Libraries and the...

Mouse on wheels.(Ala News)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: MOUSE ON WHEELS. Logitech's Volkswagen Bug MouseMobile visits ALA headquarters in Chicago December 18 to mark the end of a six-week, eight-city odyssey as part of a fundraising campaign in support of the...

Guadalajara free pass renewed.(Ala News)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... ALA and the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) have signed a new five-year collaborative agreement to continue the ALA-FIL Free-Pass Program through 2008. Currently in its seventh year, the program, administered by ALA's IRO,...

ALSC releases guide to kids' websites.(Ala News)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... ALSC's Librarian's Guide to Great Web Sites for Kids is now available online at www.ala.org/greatsites/. The brochure features tips and guidelines designed to help children, parents, and caregivers to safely enjoy the benefits of the...

e-Learning@PLA begins Feb. 16.(Ala News)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... PLA has announced the launch of e-Learning@PLA, a new online education program. The first course of study, "Creating Policies for Results," will be available to librarians in one of three sessions--February 16, March 22, or April 26. ...

"Outreach @ your library" launched.(News Fronts Ala)(American Library Association's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... ALA's OLOS has launched a "What's Happening in Outreach @ your library" website at www.ala.org/olos/. The site was developed in response to the many informational inquiries OLOS receives about programs, policies, and practices in library...

Dallas, Boston lawyers institutes set.(News Fronts Ala)
February 1, 2004... The latest ALA OIF Lawyers for Libraries training institutes are set for February 12-13 in Dallas, and May 6-7 in Boston. The institutes are designed to increase attorneys' understanding of legal issues affecting libraries in the areas of...

ALA receives fourth StoryLines grant.(News Fronts Ala)(National Endowment for the Humanities)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... ALA's PPO has announced a $249,972 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to present the fourth season of the award-winning radio-library partnership "StoryLines America," which explores regional literature through radio...

NLW CD, online resources offered.(News Fronts Ala)
February 1, 2004... Materials to help promote the 2004 observance of National Library Week, April 18-24, are now available from ALA Graphics and PIO. The official NLW poster, mini-poster, bookmark, and banner feature bright colors and all-inclusive...

3M Salute to Schools entries sought.(News Fronts Ala)
February 1, 2004... School library media specialists can help reduce the loss of library resources through the AASL 3M Salute to Schools program, which will provide $1.5-million worth of library security products to 100 schools across the country. Up to two...

Cyberchase libraries to do math outreach.(News Fronts Ala)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Fifteen public and school (K-12) libraries will team up with public-television's math-mystery cartoon Cyberchase to turn children on to math through a partnership between the PBS station Thirteen/WNET New York and ALA's PPO. Serving as...

Texas library book Giveaway winner.(News Fronts Ala)(Tri-Community Library)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Tri-Community Library in Prairie Lea, Texas, will receive an estimated $25,000 in young-adult and adult books, videos, CDs, and audiocassettes donated to YALSA by publishers and producers as the recipient of the division's eighth annual Great...

New online club activities available.(News Fronts Ala)(A.L.A. Association for Library Service to Children)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Two new hands-on activities have been added to ALSC's Club Space Place web pages, part of a partnership between the division and NASA (AL, Aug. 2002, p. 10). "NASA Stardust Mission" introduces comets and the mission, which rendezvoused...

The Association's Associations: ACRL Offers Development Opportunities
February 1, 2004... The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) is dedicated to enhancing the effectiveness of academic and research librarians. To better align programs, services, and resources with member needs, ACRL began a comprehensive two-year...

FBI Almanac Alert Prompts Unintended Reactions
February 1, 2004... In the December 24 edition of its weekly online Intelligence Bulletin containing information on terrorism that goes to 18,000 police organizations nationwide, the FBI warned law-enforcement officers to be on the lookout for suspicious persons...

Willard to step down as NCLIS director.(News Fronts Washington)(Robert Willard)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Robert Willard, who has been a member of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science since 1994 and has served as its executive director since 1998, has announced his resignation from the commission. Willard explained...

FCC tightens e-rate rules.(News Fronts Washington)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Federal Communications Commission voted December 17 to tighten the financial rules for its e-rate program, which subsidizes telecommunications costs for libraries and schools. The new rules, enacted to address concerns over fraud and...

New York Times Honors 27 Librarians
February 1, 2004... In a December 16 awards ceremony, the New York Times gave $2,500 apiece to 27 U.S. librarians who had been selected to receive the 2003 New York Times Librarian Awards. The third annual presentation of the award, this year marked the first time...

LC Team Urges New National Library for Iraq
February 1, 2004... The present Iraq National Library building in Baghdad is unsuitable to function as a library, according to a report released November 28 by a Library of Congress team that visited the war-torn capital October 17-November 3. The report advises...

British Bibliobabes.(Quick Take)(charity calendar)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Inspired by the 2003 film Calendar Girls starring Helen Mirren, Senior Librarian Diane Bowman at the West Hampstead branch of the Camden Library in Greater London, England, persuaded nine of her colleagues--all women between the ages of 37...

Atlanta-Fulton Litigants Get $18 Million
February 1, 2004... Almost four years after nine upper-management librarians filed a reverse-discrimination suit against the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, the Fulton County Commission has agreed to an $18-million settlement, which is being paid in three...

Providence Athenaeum Embroiled in Audubon Controversy
February 1, 2004... Jonathan Bengtson, executive director of the Providence (R.I.) Athenaeum, announced December 5 he was resigning to take a position as chief librarian of the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, effective February 15....

Celebrity signatures fund new facility.(News Fronts)
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: CELEBRITY SIGNATURES FUND NEW FACILITY. Trustees Debra Chapdelaine (center) and Marguerite Soroka of the Ritter Memorial Library in Lunenburg, Massachusetts, and Bob Kenny of More Than Money examine the...

Objections Perfectly Normal, Says Colorado Mom
February 1, 2004... An Evans, Colorado, mother vowed to picket the Weld Library District after the board declined her request to pull the sex-education book It's Perfectly Normal. Jeannie McAllister defended her challenge at the board's December 15 meeting by...

Pennsylvania Restores Only $10 Million in Cuts
February 1, 2004... Pennsylvania librarians failed in their efforts to convince Gov. Ed Rendell to restore the 50% reduction in state aid to libraries he proposed in his 2003-04 state budget (AL, May 2003, p. 15), although the final version signed by the governor...

All you need is glove.
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: ALL YOU NEED IS GLOVE. Last year the Dundee Township (Ill.) Public Library continued its tradition of displaying a holiday tree that residents decorate with gloves and mittens for needy community members....

Regina PL Friends Group Seeks Ruling on Closings
February 1, 2004... The Friends of Regina (Sask.) Public Library filed an application with the Court of Queen's Bench December 31 to prevent the library board from closing three branches, the Dunlop Art Gallery, and the Prairie History Room because of a $1-million...

Death at NYU library ruled an accident.(News Fronts)(New York University )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... A New York University student who fell to his death from an upper-floor interior balcony at the campus's 12-story Elmer Holmes Bobst Library (AL, Dec. 2003, p. 20) was under the influence of drugs at the time, the New York City medical...

Mesa PL director resigns.(News Fronts)(Public libraries)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... City of Mesa (Ariz.) Library Director Patsy Hansel resigned December 8, following a city investigation that found she had retaliated against an administrator who had backed Janice Gennevois, the staffer who claimed that Hansel sexually...

Judge Denies dismissal of Library-Cat lawsuit.(News Fronts)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... A San Diego County Superior Court judge ruled December 11 that a $1.5-million lawsuit against the City of Escondido over an attack by the public library's cat could go to trial (AL, Dec. 2003, p. 24). Judge Jacqueline Stern rejected the...

Toledo gets Jazz archive.(Collections)(Toledo-Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Toledo-Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library has created an archive to preserve local jazz history, thanks to an initial donation of photos, articles, awards, and plaques from Margaret "Rusty" Monroe, who has been called Toledo's First Lady...

Tolkien items to Marquette.(Collections)(J. R. R. Tolkien items donated to Marquette University, Milwaukee)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Marquette University in Milwaukee has acquired what archivist Matt Blessing calls a collection of "tremendous intellectual value" about J. R. R. Tolkien from Canadian collector Grace E. Funk. The school, which already owns the original...

Oxford receives grant for Frankenstein manuscript.(Collections)(Bodleian Library, Oxford University,)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The National Heritage Memorial Fund has awarded Oxford University's Bodleian Library [pounds sterling]3 million ($5.4 million U.S.) toward the purchase of the Abinger Papers, a collection that includes the 1816-1817 draft manuscript of Mary...

Pinnell-Stephens, Texas group win downs Awards.(News in Brief)(June Pinnell-Stephens and Mainstream Montgomery County win the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Awards)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Alaska librarian June Pinnell-Stephens and the Texas advocacy group Mainstream Montgomery County are the recipients of the 2003 Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award given by the faculty of the Graduate School of Library and Information...

Commemorating Fred Kilgour.(News Fronts)
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: COMMEMORATING FRED KILGOUR. The January 6 celebration of library legend Frederick G. Kilgour's 90th birthday at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library held two surprises for the UNC School...

Emergency Campaign aids NYC libraries.(News in Brief)(New York City, donations of the Wallace Foundation to the Public Library systems of Brooklyn and Queens Borough )(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Wallace Foundation has awarded $2 million each to the Brooklyn, New York, and Queens Borough Public Library systems to support and expand after-school programs. The gift was made in response to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's...

Grant, gift push Bancroft closer to renovation.(News in Brief)(University of California (Berkeley). Bancroft Library gets grant from National Endowment for the Humanities)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Thanks to a $750,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a $5-million gift from an anonymous donor, the University of California at Berkeley's Bancroft Library is now more than halfway to getting the funds...

Buy a book for Brooklyn.(News Fronts)
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: BUY A BOOK FOR BROOKLYN. Lucille Thomas (left), chair of the Brooklyn Public Library trustees, joins Borough President Marty Markowitz (right) and officials of the local Independence Community Foundation,...

Library of Congress adds 25 titles to Film Registry.(News in Brief)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Librarian of Congress James H. Billington named 25 more titles to the library's National Film Registry December 16, bringing the total number of films on the list to 375. The films, chosen by Billington in consultation with the National Film...

One Chicago school helps another get first library.(News in Brief)(Jacqueline Vaughn Occupational High School, Northside College Preparatory School)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Chicago's Jacqueline Vaughn Occupational High School--attended by students ages 15 to 21 with cognitive and physical disabilities--got its first library December 3, thanks to the joint efforts of its students and those at Northside College...

Thief leaves Connecticut library out in the cold.(News in Brief)(Levi E. Coe Library, Middle-field, Connecticut)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... A thief stole nearly 500 gallons of heating oil from the exterior tank of the Levi E. Coe Library in Middle-field, Connecticut, the night of December 17. "There was no heat. I thought the furnace was broken," said Library Director Mary...

Antitax activist sues Pikes Peak Library District.(News in Brief)(Colorado Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) 1992)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Activist Douglas Bruce has filed a lawsuit against the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado, claiming that it owes taxpayers a refund of several million dollars in excess taxes. Bruce contends that the current library tax...

Guam group claims library mold killed aide.(News in Brief)(Guam Federation of Teachers, Jose Rios Middle School)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... The Guam Federation of Teachers has claimed that exposure to toxic mold in the library of the Jose Rios Middle School contributed to the December 23 death of a school aide. "Six people have gotten sick and they attribute it to the toxic mold;...

Best Foote forward.(News Fronts)(caption)
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: BEST FOOTE FORWARD. Author Shelby Foote steps out December 5 with philanthropist Peggy V. Helmerich at the Tulsa Library Trust's 2003 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award dinner held at the Tulsa...

Texas County reneges on library subsidies.(News Fronts)(Grayson County, Texas)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... By a vote of 3-2, the Grayson County, Texas, Commissioner's Court rejected the request of six city libraries to split a $24,000 nonresident-patron subsidy between them that was earmarked for libraries in the county budget but which had not...

Holiday histories.(News Fronts)(caption)
February 1, 2004... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: HOLIDAY HISTORIES. Young patrons learned about two winter holidays at Bozeman (Mont.) Public Library storytime programs in December. Left, 5-year-old Piper Meuwissen tries her hand at spinning a dreidel, a...

Wandering hard drive stumps college officials.(News Fronts)(Incident at Orange Coast College)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... An old computer hard drive used for network communication turned up missing from its room in an abandoned library at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California, according to the December 2 Costa Mesa Daily Pilot. It was found the evening...

Illinois libraries FBI-free.(Results)(Federal Bureau of Investigation)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... A recent survey of public and academic libraries in Illinois indicates that only seven have been visited by FBI agents looking for records under the auspices of the USA Patriot Act since November 2001. None were accompanied by a subpoena or...

Global Reach
February 1, 2004... SCOTLAND Aberdeen University has called in a debt-collection firm in an effort to recover unreturned library books from students, the Edinburgh Scotsman reported January 13. The uncharacteristically heavy-handed tactic prompted students, who...

Digital Opportunity or Flashy Fizzle? the UN's World Summit on the Information Society
February 1, 2004... The first of two phases of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society took place December 10-12 in the vast hangars that make up the Palexpo exhibition center adjacent to the Geneva, Switzerland, airport. Tight security,...

Thus said: how the world sees us.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... "Books are power. The founding of the great library at Alexandria in the 3rd century BC was done for reasons of politics as much as scholarship, for the Ptolemies were acutely aware of the strategic implications in monopolizing literary...

Thus said: how the world sees us.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... "In our American libraries, we can borrow George Orwell's 1984 and a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but those, and many other publications, were only available in Cuba in the homes of the independent librarians who dared...

Thus said: how the world sees us.(Opinion)
February 1, 2004... "In these economic times, the harsh realities of life must be observed. The county must close all public libraries. The cost of the real estate, the books, and the wages of the librarians could be used in better ways." Local resident ROGER...

Thus said: how the world sees us.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... "A community is inestimably poorer without them.... My children are actually excited by the prospect of a library visit and all those wonderful new possibilities that they can check out. Few public investments could be counted as more...

Thus said: how the world sees us.(Brief Article)(Column)
February 1, 2004... "You wouldn't expect a pornographic picture to pop up when a child opened a school library book, so schools need to be vigilant. And at home, I would call for a discussion on Internet safety, rather than Internet privacy--for example, why it...

Thus said: how the world sees us.(Opinion)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... "People have said they know where the money is and I wish they would show me. People talk about 'cutting out the fat' to get the money, but everyone has a different opinion of what fat is. Some people have said fat is the library system or...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
February 1, 2004... CORRECTION. Columnist Eric Feigin (Dec., p. 41) writes for the Stanford Daily in California, not Connecticut.

When the Language Police Come Knocking
February 1, 2004... The language police have been putting in overtime lately on the American Libraries beat, ferreting out isms and sniffing for political correctness. First there was the reader who objected to the use of the word "Negro" in a historical piece...

On My Mind: From Information Literacy to Information Fluency
February 1, 2004... Our goal as librarians is to help our patrons become familiar with information resources and improve their information-gathering and evaluating skills. We want our patrons to be efficient and effective information-gatherers and lifelong...

Advocacy Grows @ Your Library; after Nearly Three Years of Effort, How Is the Campaign for America's Libraries Going? What's It Changed? and How Is It Getting Done?
February 1, 2004... The goals are simple, though perhaps not simple to achieve: 1) increase awareness and support for libraries, 2) increase library usage, 3) promote recruitment to the profession, 4) bring libraries to the table on key public-policy issues, and 5)...

Saving Ourselves: Plural Funding for Public Libraries: Can Libraries Break Their Dependence on Tax Monies by Following NPR's Example?
February 1, 2004... Today, public libraries find themselves in the midst of what ALA is calling the "deepest budget cuts in history." ALA has responded to the crisis by launching a Campaign to Save America's Libraries in the hope of bringing some pressure to bear...

FOLUSA Turns 25: For a Quarter of a Century, Friends of Libraries U.S.A. Has United Library Advocates
February 1, 2004... While libraries have changed dramatically over the past 100 years, Friends groups--the citizens who support libraries with their time and money--continue to play the same crucial role they did during the days of Andrew Carnegie: ensuring the...

A Brief History of Library Service to African Americans; Self-Education Paved the Way on the 300-Year Journey toward Equal Access
February 1, 2004... Although rarely examined in much depth, the development of library services for African Americans provides a rich and complex record of social, economic, and intellectual evolution, and parallels in many ways that of the literary activities of...

Black American Pioneer Left a Legacy at LC
February 1, 2004... In 1871, Daniel Alexander Payne Murray began working at the Library of Congress at the age of 19. During this time period, librarians were mostly trained through apprenticeships. The fact that Murray received a yearly salary of $1,400 indicates...

Library Connections Open Doors in Uruguay; the Bibliored Network Is Making Public Libraries an Essential Factor in Expanding Democracy and Equality in Montevideo
February 1, 2004... One step ahead of many other developing countries, the progressive South American nation of Uruguay has moved forcefully into the information revolution. During a seven-month visit there in 2001-2002, I had a chance to investigate how this...

Currents: Professionals on the Move
February 1, 2004... Richard Akeroyd recently began as state librarian of New Mexico. * Amia L. Baker has been named information services/instruction librarian at Vanderbilt University's Walker Management Library in Nashville, Tennessee. * Vicky Baker is the new...

Cited.(People)(Awards)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Paula Banks, who retired in 2003 as community relations coordinator for the Medina County (Ohio) District Library, has received the Ohio Library Council's 2003 Support Staff Member of the Year Award. * Mary Rinato Berman, deputy director...

At ALA.(People)(JoAnne Kempf appointed)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... JoAnne Kempf joined the ALA Governance Office as Executive Board secretariat in December. * January 5 Abigail Uhrick began as associate editor for ALA Editions.

Obituaries
February 1, 2004... Dana L. Bennett Alessi, 60, who worked for Blackwell North America from 1978 until 1989 and was director of sales and marketing for academic libraries at Baker and Taylor Books from 1989 to 1999, died November 26. Active in the profession since...

Grassroots Report: Generosity of Spirit for a Great Library
February 1, 2004... Public libraries came into being to allow people to read and learn freely, even if they couldn't afford to buy books. Recently, though, New York Public Library has begun asking the public to contribute small amounts to the library's book...

The Crawford Files: OpenURL Meets Open Access
February 1, 2004... Many of you know about OpenURL, the standard that makes it easy for libraries to link citation and bibliographic databases to full-text and other resources. You may also have heard of Open Access, a set of initiatives to make scholarly articles...

Internet Librarian: Andrew Carnegie, Seattle, and the Internet
February 1, 2004... It's February in Seattle. If that conjures images of hip people in Gore-Tex and fleece clutching lattes and dodging rain, you're mostly right. (We don't dodge--what's the point?) This year, though, February will be a little brighter, as a few...

Technically Speaking: Winners and Losers in the LMS Market
February 1, 2004... In the fourth quarter of 2003, library management system (LMS) vendors reported 87 sales resulting in new customers and 31 same-vendor migrations from legacy systems. Yet only 22 (roughly 25%) of new customer sales were libraries that converted...

Working Knowledge: Salary Negotiation 101
February 1, 2004... Q Until my position was eliminated four months ago, I worked as a special librarian for a corporation on the West Coast. Although I want to be appropriately compensated, I feel desperate to take any job offer that comes my way at most any...

Librarian's Library: Resources for Continuing Education
February 1, 2004... Abracadabra! Add some fun to your library instruction program with Magical Library Lessons by Lynne Farrell Stover. Writing for librarians working with students in grades 4-8, Stover shares 15 lesson plans based on the imaginative worlds of...

Quick Bibs: More from My Bedside Table
February 1, 2004... The TV tray I optimistically call my bedside table is once again overflowing with galleys (and the odd coffee cup). The last time I used this column to report on an archaeological dig through my TV tray, the findings were mainly books I had...

Datebook.(Events)(Calendar)
February 1, 2004... CHAPTER CONFERENCES Mar. 17-19: Tennessee Library Association Annual Conference, Knoxville. "A Tennessee State of Mind." Contact: Roger Myers, Roger.Myers@maryvillecollege.edu; www.lib.utk.edu/~tla/04conf.html. Apr. 14-16: Oklahoma...

ALA events.(Events)(American Library Association)(Calendar)
February 1, 2004... Information about events sponsored by ALA, its divisions, and IFLA is also available at www.ala.org/events/or by calling 800-545-2433. Lawyers for Libraries Training Institutions Dallas Feb. 12-13 Boston ...

Will's world: book lust: a celebration of the written word.(Commentary)(Book Review)
February 1, 2004... Just when I was ready to put the last nail into the coffin of readers'-advisory services, up pops the best book ever written on the subject. In fact, this may be the best book ever written by a librarian. Book Lust: Recommended Reading for...