American Libraries articles from March 2001

American Libraries archives from March 2001

Celebrate Freedom of Information Day, March 16
March 1, 2001... A popular government without popular information or means of acquiring it is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with...

Union Urges Marriott Boycott
March 1, 2001... The Service Employees International Union Local 790 Librarians' Caucus, representing librarians at the San Francisco Public Library, is urging those attending this summer's ALA Annual Conference not to stay at Marriott hotel properties in light...

ALCTS/LAMA to Split Operations.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Executive directors are being sought for both ALCTS and LAMA after the LAMA executive board voted during the Midwinter Meeting to hire a separate staff and maintain a solo operation. The two divisions have shared staffing since July 1989. ...

Harry Potter Again Most Challenged.(most challenged children's books)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The bestselling Harry Potter series of children's books by J. K. Rowling tops the list of most challenged books for the second year in a row in the annual report issued January 15 by OIF. The series continues to draw complaints from parents...

Petition Candidates Seek Council Spots.
March 1, 2001... In addition to the candidates for ALA Council listed in the November AL (p. 8- 10), 15 individuals have petitioned to be included on the ballot: * Mary Jane Anderson, library consultant, 1418 Lake Blvd., St. Joseph, MI 49085-1549. *...

The Association's Associations: ALCTS, Making an Impact
March 1, 2001... ALA's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS) provides leadership to the library and information communities in developing principles, standards, and best practices for creating, collecting, organizing, delivering, and...

Chapter Report: Offshore Librarians Are Growing Stronger
March 1, 2001... IMAGINE LIVING IN A PARALLEL world--a world where the average winter day is sunny and 81 degrees, where you can sway in a hammock on a soft sandy beach with a book in hand as the waves roll in. Or, image joining an ALA state chapter where you...

New FCC Chair Downplays Digital Divide.(Michael Powell wants agency to put more emphasis on deregulation)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... In his first news conference after his appointment January 22 as chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell expressed skepticism about his agency's role in addressing the "digital divide," the disparity between computer...

Groups Join to Oppose Filtering Mandate.(critics of Children's Internet Protection Act)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A network of privacy and free-speech organizations and concerned individuals released a joint statement January 23 opposing Internet blocking technologies required by the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) passed by Congress December...

Congressional Democrats Offer Library Bills.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Although the education package announced by President George W. Bush January 25 contained no mention of libraries, two Democratic legislative proposals specifically target public and school libraries. On January 31, Rep. Xavier Becerra...

LC to Lead Program in Digital Preservation.(Library of Congress to develop National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Late last year, Congress provided a $100-million special appropriation to the Library of Congress to develop a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program to preserve digital information to ensure its accessibility...

Budget Cuts Loom for Ohio Libraries
March 1, 2001... Ohio public libraries are expected to take the biggest hit in a two-year, $45-million state-government spending plan announced January 29 by Governor Bob Taft that would freeze the Library and Local Government Support Fund at current levels....

Holocaust Commission Tracks Recovered Books
March 1, 2001... Thousands of scarce Judaic materials looted from Holocaust victims by the Nazis and salvaged in Europe by Allied forces after World War II have been identified in American special collections, according to a report released January 16 by the...

FRIENDS IN DEED.(Wisconsin prison library)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Collection Always Calls For More With a $43,000 grant and a staff of three inmates, in 1999 Susan Harrington set up a colorful room of books at the Milwaukee House of Corrections in Franklin, Wisconsin. The former teacher has learned that...

Watchdogs Blast N2H2 for Selling Schools' Logs
March 1, 2001... The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a public-interest group in Washington, D.C., filed a Freedom of Information Act request January 26 to find out why the U.S. Department of Defense has purchased a nine-month, $15,000 subscription...

Censorship Watch
March 1, 2001... Challenge of Biblical Proportions. A Marion County, Florida, man has asked the county library to remove the Bible. Tearing in half the spine of a paperback copy of his own, Charles Schrader contended at a February 6 county commission meeting...

Tex. Librarian Murdered; Suspect Arrested
March 1, 2001... Lubbock police have arrested a 29-year-old man in the double homicide of the associate dean of libraries at Texas Tech University and a woman, whose bodies were found in an East Lubbock park. Douglas Birdsall, 53, who had worked at the library...

Magazine Pays Big for Lost Twain Tale
March 1, 2001... An unpublished Mark Twain mystery story has been sold by the Buffalo and Erie County (N.Y.) Public Library to the magazine it was intended for 125 years ago. After securing print and digital publication rights in December, the library accepted...

Inspection Scorches Fire Safety at LC
March 1, 2001... Following a yearlong inspection at the Library of Congress, the congressional Office of Compliance has cited dangerous fire conditions posing threats to visitors, employees, and some of the most valuable items in the collection. Its January 25...

QUICK TAKE.(giant potato in shape of elephant in Rhode Island)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Potato Head Pulls In Patrons When it came time for a Rhode Island tourism campaign to place a giant promotional potato head in the village of Chepachet, the public didn't settle for any ordinary spud. In keeping with local history, the...

New Chair Helms Atlanta Board.(Clint Johnson is elected chairman of Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library Board)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Atlanta--Fulton County Public Library Board has picked a retired Delta Airlines pilot to replace former chair William McClure, who stepped down in December at the request of newly elected County Commissioner Bill Edwards. Clint...

Miss. Reaps Largest Bond Issue.(distribution of bond funds to Mississippi public libraries)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Mississippi libraries will benefit from $13 million in capital-improvement bonds--the largest amount ever appropriated by the state legislature for public libraries. The Mississippi Library Commission was informed by the State Bond...

Two More Hope for Bush Library.(Texas A and M University and Texas Tech University vie to become site of presidential library)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Texas A&M and Texas Tech universities have added their names to the list of institutions vying for the future George W. Bush presidential library (AL, Feb., p. 24). An A&M system board of regents resolution honoring the president also...

Calif. Embezzler Pleads No Contest.(embezzlement case at Burlingame Public Library, California)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A former administrative assistant at the Burlingame (Calif.) Public Library pleaded no contest to stealing $129,000 in library fines over several years (AL, Jan. 2000, p. 33). Judith Gladysz also pleaded guilty to failing to pay taxes on the...

Branch Project Slated in San Jose.(planned construction and relocation of library branches in San Jose, California)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Groundbreakings for three new branches and relocation of another will kick off $440 million in library and park projects in San Jose, California, Mayor Ron Gonzales announced January 24. Construction slated for 2002 will launch the building...

Burst Pipe Floods Lexington PL.(Lexington Public Library, Kentucky)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A broken hot-water pipe caused extensive damage to the collection of the Lexington (Ky.) Public Library January 10. Approximately 500 books, mostly from the religion shelves on the fourth floor, were drenched. The problem was first noticed by...

DVD Copyright Ruling Challenged.(court ruling that prohibits Internet posting of programmes for decoding of copyrighted digital video disks)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A coalition representing librarians and other groups has joined the effort to overturn a court ruling that prevents people from posting a program that can crack the computer code protecting copyrighted DVDs, or even linking to the program....

State Library of Iowa to Move.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Despite a recently completed renovation to the State Library of Iowa, the state's legislative council has decided to move the library out of the Ola Babcock Miller Building in Des Moines, its home for the past 100 years. The library's...

Mo. Library Repeats Wilder Claim.(Wright County Library System to sue over bequeathed copyright ownership of books)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A Jackson County, Missouri, probate judge has ruled that the Wright County Library System can pursue copyright ownership of two of Laura Ingalls Wilder's bestselling Little House books. Wilder had left the copyright to the popular series...

Fla. Budget Omits Library Co-ops.(omission of funding for library cooperatives in state budget plan)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... When Florida Governor Jeb Bush released his 2001-02 state budget January 17, the allocation for the state's six regional multitype library cooperatives, which received $1.2 million last year, was completely zeroed out. A notice on the North...

Nazi Propaganda to Wichita.(Henry Amsden donates collection of Nazi propaganda literature to Kansas State University)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Rare-book collector Henry Amsden donated his collection of more than 2,000 first-edition Nazi propaganda books and pamphlets to the Ablah Library at Wichita (Kans.) State University. WSU Curator of Special Collections Michael Kelly told...

Communist Records to LC.(Library of Congress makes available for research microfilmed records of Russian Communist Party)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Library of Congress opened for research in January the microfilmed records of the Communist Party, USA covering the period from the 1920s to the 1940s. Long thought destroyed, copies of the documents were discovered in 1992 in closed...

Gwendolyn Brooks to Berkeley.(University of California at Berkeley acquires records of poet Gwendolyn Brooks)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The University of California/Berkeley's Bancroft Library has acquired the personal papers of Pulitzer Prize--winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, according to the January 15 San Francisco Chronicle. The materials, which include 50 years' worth of...

Librarian Cleared of Porn Charges.(Thomas Janiak)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Charges were dismissed January 23 against a Wisconsin high school media services director accused of possession of child pornography for owning the sex-education book Show Me. Thomas Janiak, 51, was arrested October 13 after a college...

Giuliani Calls for Library Cuts.(New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announces planned budget cuts affecting public libraries)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Despite promising a record $1.2 billion in capital expenditures for construction projects at three libraries and other cultural institutions in New York City in his State of the City address January 8, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani offered the city...

Alabama Cuts Taken to Court
March 1, 2001... The Alabama Association of School Boards filed suit February 8 to block $179 million in statewide cuts to K-12 public schools. The lawsuit, joined by Mobile and Pike County school boards and the Alabama Coalition for Equity, seeks to protect...

County May Mortgage Library.(Lumpkin County, Georgia may mortgage the county buildings in order to pay its debt)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Financial troubles in Lumpkin County, Georgia, are so severe that the county is considering mortgaging its library, courthouse, and jail to pay its bills. Bill O'Leksy, who was appointed by a grand jury to investigate county government...

Lone Protester Urges Library Move.(Grand Haven, Michigan launches protest to have the library moved to a better location)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A Grand Haven (Mich.) Township respiratory therapist is continuing his protest to urge city officials to move the Loutit District Library to a former grocery store building. Carrying a handmade cardboard sign, Joe Debrowski said he pickets...

Protesters Occupy Bodleian.(Bodleian Library at Oxford)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Up to 200 students occupied the Divinity Hall of Oxford University's Bodleian Library February 7 to protest the suspension and threatened expulsion of four nonresident students for not paying tuition fees. Kirsty McNeill, president of the...

ADVENTURES IN READING.(mural by artist Melanie Pope at Racine Library, Wisconsin)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... ADVENTURES IN READING is the title of a new mural designed and painted by 20-year-old artist Melanie Pope (pictured admiring her work) that adorns the walls of the Peggy D. Martin Story Room at the Racine (Wis.) Library. A former student...

STAFF SUPPLIES SOLO SHOW.(Peterskin I. E. Skin Wolf exhibits portraits at Ramsey County Library in Roseville, Minnesota)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Circulation clerk and artist Peterskin I. E. Skin Wolf drew upon his fellow staff at the Ramsey County Library in Roseville, Minnesota, as subject material for a series of portraits that has become a solo show at the public library branch...

FANGIRL FIGHTS FOR FEMMES.(Emily Williams creates web site on female characters in comic books and cartoons)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Emily Williams, a mild-mannered student assistant at Oklahoma State University/Stillwater's Mary L. Williams Curriculum Materials Library, has a secret identity: As "Fangirl," she's created a Web site...

FIRST LADIES GET THEIR DUE.(National First Ladies Library ceremony)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... A bevy of former First Ladies queued in costume to reenact the roles of presidents' wives during a January 16 ceremony designating the National First Ladies Library in Canton, Ohio, as a National Historic Site. Opened in 1998 in the childhood...

CANADIAN LIBRARY IS RIGHT ON THE MONEY.(coin commemorating the 125th anniversary of Library of Parliament building)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The government of Canada issued January 17 a $100, 14-karat gold coin commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Library of Parliament building in Ottawa. The reverse of the coin features the library's domed rotunda, gothic windows, flying...

Earthquake Strikes El Salvador Libraries
March 1, 2001... At 11:35 am. On January 13 an earthquake registering 7.6-7.9 on the Richter scale struck the small Central American country of El Salvador, sending tremors all the way to Mexico City and Panama. More than 700 people were killed, 4,420 injured,...

Educators Consider Their Future at ALISE Conference
March 1, 2001... Reflecting the sweeping changes in librarianship, the theme of this year's conference of the Association for Library and Information Science Education--"Reconsidering Library and Information Science Education"--focused on ways library schools...

CORRECTIONS.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Fort Vancouver Regional Library is in Vancouver, Washington. AL regrets the misidentification of its location (Currents, Feb., p. 52) as British Columbia. Ann Symons was ALA president-elect, not president, in 1997 (Feb., p. 51).

On My Mind
March 1, 2001... Libraries Offer the World--Not Just Smut I'm not much of an Internet user. I email some friends and do a little research online, but mostly I find it a major distraction from actually living my life. Just a lot of noise. I find watching an...

The Unwanted Gift: When Saying "No Thanks" Isn't Enough
March 1, 2001... RELIGION AND MORALITY OFTEN FUEL FURIOUS GENEROSITY AND ETHICAL QUANDARIES Adolescent sorcerers, mice and men, caged birds, fallen angels, and terrorists--all have inspired somebody to want to ban a book. More troubling and perhaps more of a...

Should Sect Meet State in the Stacks?
March 1, 2001... PUBLIC LIBRARIANS MATT KUBIAK AND ANDREW DANCER TEST EACH OTHER'S FAITH IN INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM Maintaining the balance between church and state in public libraries has been an issue for librarians for as long as there have been publicly...

Pay-per-Prophecy: Our Saving Grace?
March 1, 2001... RAISE A WORLD CAT SHRINE AND THE CREDULOUS WILL FLOCK TO FILL OUR COFFERS Our painful quest over the decades for a truly lucrative professional paradigm has shown repeatedly that our salaries will always be modest and our materials budgets...

"You Mean You Don't Have Books in Print?" Adventures of a Librarian in Nepal
March 1, 2001... USING A GOAT PATH TO CARRY STONES AND MUD DOWN A MOUNTAIN, WE WERE BUILDING A LIBRARY. "Just keep putting them in," I said in Nepali, adjusting the conical wicker basket on my back and the strap around my forehead. "I'll tell you when to...

ALA Makes Capital Gains at Midwinter in D.C
March 1, 2001... MEETING IN WASHINGTON, THE ASSOCIATION UNVEILS ITS AMBITIOUS PR CAMPAIGN AND INITIATES A LEGAL CHALLENGE TO FILTERING MANDATES. Public relations and intellectual freedom intersected at the American Library Association's Midwinter Meeting,...

Statement by Maurice J. Freedman, Candidate for ALA President
March 1, 2001... From my teen days as a page at the Newark (N.J.) Public Library through the years at U.C. Berkeley's School of Librarianship and the Free Speech Movement, the Library of Congress, Hennepin County Library, NYPL, and the Westchester Library...

Statement by Ken Haycock, Candidate for ALA President
March 1, 2001... Libraries change lives. I know, because they changed mine. With no school or public library in our community, as a 10-year-old I hitch-hiked to the closest city library every Saturday. The world has changed over the past four decades but...

Statement by William W. Sannwald, Candidate for ALA President
March 1, 2001... When I think about my library career, I remember people who helped shape me as a person and as a librarian; people like Arthur Curley, a library director near my hometown, who encouraged me to go to library school, and Keith Doms, the ALA...

Presidential Candidates Concur at Midwinter Forum
March 1, 2001... SALARIES, RECRUITMENT, CHILDREN'S SERVICES ARE CRUCIAL ISSUES The three candidates for the 2002-2003 ALA presidency presented their views and took questions from the audience at a one-hour forum January 15 during ALA's Midwinter Meeting in...

Technically Speaking
March 1, 2001... Games Vendors Play The exhibits at this year's ALA Midwinter Meeting were a veritable toy store of new games. The most basic and still the most popular game is, of course, the Information Retrieval Game (also known as the Find It Game). But...

On Multimedia Products.(National Information Center for Education Media MediaSleuth)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The National Information Center for Education Media (NICEM) had a booth devoted to MediaSleuth. The system searches the 630,000-record NICEM database and can process orders for over 15,000 training and education media products from the...

On Conversion Services.(PacificData Conversion Corp.)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... These days, when conversion applies not only to getting analog data into digital format, but also to getting digital metadata from one markup scheme to another, there's plenty of work for firms like PacificData Conversion Corporation...

On Cataloging the Web.(Brodart introduces DartClix)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
March 1, 2001... Brodart introduced DartClix, a Web cataloging service that will offer 500 new bib records a month and will be marketed to school and small public libraries not using OCLC. A salesperson at Brodart's booth told me the major impediment to...

On BiblioMondo.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... BiblioMondo is the new kid on the LMS block. Formed in December 2000 when Best Seller bought UK-based ALS International, BiblioMondo is a $15-million company that hopes to compete in North America in all sizes and types of libraries. It will...

On RFID Technology.(Radio Frequency Identification inventory control systems for libraries)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... We learned from an honest rep of an RFID-based (Radio Frequency Identification) inventory control system showing her wares at Midwinter that the RFID emperor has no standards clothes: If you buy one company's RFID tags and equipment, you...

On Bioscience Information.(BioOne offers trial access to bioscience journals)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Chalk up another victory for the movement begun by SPARC to keep journal costs to academic and research libraries down. This was the ALA debut of BioOne, a nonprofit venture formed a year ago to provide access to the full text of bioscience...

On Moody's Blues.(Mergent Financial Information Services publishes Moody's Manuals)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... I am one of those living-in-the-past librarians who still have difficulty identifying Mergent FIS with the venerable name of Moody's. Mine is a common affliction among librarians that causes the Mergent FIS sales folks no end of frustration,...

Legislation, Litigation Decisions Lead to Swift Agenda Wrap-Up
March 1, 2001... Mounting a legal challenge to the Children's Internet Protection Act was one of several legislative issues that kept ALA Council united and on track for three sessions January 15, 16, and 17 during the Association's Midwinter Meeting in...

Association Leaders Prepare to Fight Censorious Internet Legislation
March 1, 2001... "I didn't think there would be anything worse than the Communications Decency Act; I was wrong," Freedom to Read Foundation President Candace Morgan told the ALA Executive Board at the Association's MidwinterMeeting in Washington, D.C., as the...

People
March 1, 2001... Currents Rachael K. Anderson, director of the Arizona Health Sciences Library at the University of Arizona/Tucson since 1991, retired January 19. * Louella B. Bickford was named head librarian at the Lawrence Library in Fairfield, Maine....

Meredith Butler.(appointed the State University of New York's first Distinguished Librarian)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Meredith Butler, director of the university libraries and library faculty dean at the University of Albany in New York, has been appointed the State University of New York's first Distinguished Librarian. The distinction honors and promotes...

Marianna Tax Choldin.(receives Library Quarterly Award)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The sixth recipient of the Library Quarterly Award for excellence in refereeing is Marianna Tax Choldin, the C. Walter and Gerda B. Mortenson Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois Library/Urbana-Champaign. She was selected...

Julie Klauber.(selected for inclusion in the 2001 edition of Who's Who in the World)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Julie Klauber has been selected for inclusion in the 2001 edition of Who's Who in the World. For the past 16 years, she has worked as administrator of Talking Books Plus, a sub-regional library of the Library of Congress/National Library...

Anne E. Pemberton, James Jackson Sanborn, and Lisa A. Sheets.(Fellows Program at North Carolina State University/Raleigh)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Anne E. Pemberton, James Jackson Sanborn, and Lisa A. Sheets have been appointed to the Fellows Program at North Carolina State University/Raleigh honoring new MLS graduates or MIS degrees.

Marian (Cindy) F. Pritzker.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Order of Lincoln medallion was awarded to Marian (Cindy) F. Pritzker, president of the Chicago Public Library. She received one of six medallions from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois for her work in restoring the prestige of Chicago's...

Dudley Randall.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... The Detroit Public Library's art and literature Department posthumously honored Dudley Randall, librarian and poet laureate of Detroit, who passed away last August at 85. Randall was a publisher, and editor and founder of Broadside Press.

Armageddon for the Apostles of Access
March 1, 2001... As devastating as the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) would be on the local level, the legislation, which requires libraries and schools that receive federal funding for Internet access to install filtering software, proposes an even...

Quick Bibs: Books on a Timeless Topic
March 1, 2001... Not Just Rocks for Jocks This column is about neither rocks nor jocks. It's about a special kind of nonfiction--books on stuff that sounds boring but turns out to be fascinating, almost entirely because of the skill of the writer. What does...

This Month, 116 Years Ago
March 1, 2001... IN MARCH 1885, LIBRARIAN E. C. Richardson of the Theological Seminary of Hartford, Connecticut, was busy accumulating data on religious materials in libraries for a report he was scheduled to present at the forthcoming ALA conference. Although...

An Open Letter to Laura Bush
March 1, 2001... Dear Mrs. Bush, I am one of the few librarians who voted for your husband, and my urgent message to you is this: First Ladies matter! Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton provided us with proof that marriage does not have to ring the...

You Can't Have Sex in the Library
March 1, 2001... I once worked in a public library where every now and then a patron tried to have sex, usually with himself. It was standard practice to approach the man (always at arm's length), look him straight in the eye, and announce, "I'm sorry but what...

YOUTH-FILLED LEGACY.(Lola Teubert receives Bish Thompson Memorial Award for 25-year commitment to helping youth)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2001... Lola Teubert's 25-year commitment to helping students was honored when she received the annual Bish Thompson Memorial Award for service to youths. The award is named for the late Evansville Courier and Press columnist, who frequently...