American Libraries articles from May 2007

American Libraries archives from May 2007

The Specious Choice: Books or Technology
May 1, 2007... With more than 190,000 titles published in the United States every year, it seems pretty clear that most readers are not too keen on being asked to choose between books and the internet, despite the apparently growing misconception that...

Extraordinary Heroes: A Tribute to Librarians and Library Workers
May 1, 2007... Wake up and read" was the theme of the first National Library Week in 1958. We recently celebrated the 49th NLW that carried the theme "Come Together @ your library." Through the years, this annual event has given us an opportunity to send a...

Video Ribs AL's Centennial Staff
May 1, 2007... Magnum, AL, a video produced by American Libraries Associate Editor Daniel Kraus, heralds the upcoming American Libraries Focus, the new video and podcasting component of American Libraries Online. Created in conjunction with the magazine's...

Honorary member nominations open.(ALA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Nominations are being accepted for ALA honorary membership, the Association's highest honor, which is bestowed on living citizens of any country whose contributions to librarianship or a closely related field are so outstanding that they are...

Candidates sought for 2008 election.(ALA)
May 1, 2007... The 2008 ALA Nominating Committee is soliciting candidates for the offices of ALA president and councilor-at-large. The committee will select two candidates to run for president-elect and no fewer than 51 candidates for the 34 at-large...

Investor-education grant announced.(ALA)(Smart Investing @ your library)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... ALA's Reference and User Services Association and the NASD Investor Education Foundation are working together on a new grant program called "Smart Investing @ your library," designed to help build the capacity of public libraries to provide...

TechSource gaming symposium planned.(ALA)
May 1, 2007... ALA TechSource will host its first "Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium" July 22-24 in Chicago, geared to both experienced gamers seeking to start library programs and newbies. Gaming and literacy experts James Paul Gee and Henry...

Second call for proposed Standards.(ALA)
May 1, 2007... ALA's Committee on Accreditation (COA) has issued a second call for comments on the proposed update to the Standards for Accreditation of Master's Programs in Library and Information Studies 1992. Comments can now be made via an online...

ACRL releases technology essay.(ALA)(Association of College and Research Libraries )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... ALA's Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has published an essay on technology and change in academic libraries that resulted from a November 2-3, 2006, summit held in Chicago. The invitational event focused on how...

ACRL podcasts available.(ALA)(Association of College and Research Libraries)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... ALA's Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) launched ACRL Podcasts (blogs.ala.org/acrlpodcast.php) to provide fresh dimensions on the issues and events in academic librarianship. Current podcasts include: 2008 ACRL...

Library Salary Database available.(ALA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The Library Salary Database, a new tool that provides access to library employee salary information, is available online from the ALA--Allied Professional Association and ALA's Office for Research and Development. The database features...

West Coast warmly receives PLA.(ALA)(Public Library Association)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... More than 700 public librarians gathered in San Jose, California, March 1-3, for the Public Library Association's (PLA) 2007 Spring Symposium. The biennial event included six day-and-a-half-long workshops featuring continuing education...

Choice Reviews prize winners named.(ALA)
May 1, 2007... Alyssa Marten, Troy (Ala.) University, and Ann Brownson, Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, are the ALA Midwinter Meeting raffle contest winners of iPod Nanos, courtesy of Choice magazine, a publication of ALA's Association of College...

ALA online annual report released.(ALA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... ALA's 2005-2006 online annual report--the seventh year it has been available on the Web--has been posted at www.ala.org. "In 2005-2006, ALA actively championed libraries and communities in many ways," says ALA Executive Director Keith...

PLA seeks conference proposals.(ALA)(Public Library Association)
May 1, 2007... ALA's Public Library Association is seeking talk-table proposals for its 12th national conference, to be held March 25-29, 2008, in Minneapolis. Facilitators are expected to briefly showcase model programs, report on projects or studies,...

New "Step up to the Plate" season begins.(ALA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Just as baseball season has officially geared up all across the country, so has the second season of the "Step Up to the Plate @ your library" program, sponsored by ALA's Campaign for America's Libraries and the National Baseball Hall of Fame...

Activist-inspired prose.(ALA)(Brief article)(Photograph)
May 1, 2007... Micah Andrews (left), a senior and star football running back at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, joins the university's Z. Smith Reynolds Library Director Lynn Sutton as they pose with his own Read poster during a...

Presidential seal of approval.(ALA)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Pennsylvania State University President Graham Spanier peruses the New York Times for a Read poster that was part of an exhibition that showcased the university's Newspaper Readership Program that he initiated in 1997. Under the program,...

Bill Bradley to headline opening session.(ANNUAL CONFERENCE UPDATE)(William W. Bradley)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Former U.S. Senator William W. Bradley will deliver the keynote address June 23 during the Opening General Session. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bradley is managing director of Allen and Company and hosts American Voices, a weekly show on...

Technology coverage, Part 1: the tech desert, 1907-1922.(FROM THE CENTENNIAL BLOG)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... In the early years, the Bulletin of the American Library Association was primarily devoted to publishing the Annual Conference proceedings. What tech talk there was at these conferences touched on the subject only obliquely. The...

Alta
May 1, 2007... A RESTRUCTURING PROPOSAL Like many associations, the Association for Library Trustees and Advocates (ALTA) began a planning process to better understand and respond to changing member needs. As part of that process, and in conjunction with...

Forthcoming Final Installment Fuels Harry Potter Mania
May 1, 2007... Libraries across the country are happily gearing up for another round of Harry Potter mania, as young readers eagerly await the July 21 release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final installment in J. K. Rowling's...

National Library Copes as Iraq War Presses On
May 1, 2007... The issue of the withdrawal of U.S. and British troops is not quite as simple as some people may think in Europe and America," says Saad Eskander, director of the Iraqi National Library and Archives in Baghdad. "We must realize that the awful...

Library cat gets $1.25-million book deal.(U.S. & International)(Dewey Readmore Books)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Dewey Readmore Books, the live-in mascot of the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library who died at age 19 on November 29, 2006, has caught one last treasure for SPL Director Vicki Myron: Grand Central Publishing signed a $1.25-million book deal April...

Funds Extension Could Save Jackson County Libraries
May 1, 2007... The Jackson County, Oregon, library system shut down as scheduled April 6 (AL, Mar., p. 14), but could be rescued by emergency funding approved by the U.S. Senate 75-22 March 28. The proposed five-year, $5-billion program would assist the over...

Ohio budget revamps library-funding mechanism.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland's 2008-09 budget proposal eliminates the freeze in public library funding that has been in effect since 2001. Although the Library and Local Government Support Fund remains frozen through 2007, Strickland has called...

Federal judge blocks COPA.(U.S. & International)(Lowell Reed Jr., Child Online Protection Act of 1999)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... A federal judge struck down March 22 the contentious Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which made it a crime for commercial websites to allow access to "harmful" material without first verifying user ages. In his ruling, Senior U.S....

School librarians protest reassignment.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... School librarians and their boosters are protesting a March 13 decision by the board of the Madera (Calif.) Unified School District to eliminate entirely as of the 2007-2008 academic year the category of library media teacher from its roster...

Salt Lake Rescinds "One Book" Selection
May 1, 2007... Two weeks after he was notified in January that his 2004 novel An Unfinished Life had been selected by Salt Lake County (Utah) Library Services for its "One County, One Book" reading program, author Mark Spragg received an e-mail from the...

LC seeks restoration of digitization funds.(U.S. & International)(Library of Congress)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington made a case March 20 for reinstating in FY2008 the $47 million cut from LC's National Digital Information Infrastructure and...

Virginia governor signs filtering law.(U.S. & International)(Timothy M. Kaine )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine signed legislation March 22 requiring the state's public libraries to install internet filters to block offensive material but allowing adults who are conducting research to have the filters disabled. The...

Canadians Defend Legislative Library
May 1, 2007... The fate of the 90-year-old space housing British Columbia's Legislative Library in Victoria has shaken its 29-member staff, who were told March 16 to box up the collection in preparation for a seismic upgrade that would close the library...

House votes on pres. records, libraries.(U.S. & International)(Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... By lopsided bipartisan majorities, the House passed bills March 14 to reverse an executive order issued by President Bush allowing presidents to withhold their records from the public and to require donors to presidential libraries to...

Funding fix fails in West Virginia.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin signed into law April 4 a long-awaited compromise bill addressing public library funding for nine counties. However, even as Senate Bill 541 resolves the problems created in December when the state supreme court...

Military Libraries Face Closures
May 1, 2007... In what could prefigure a trend among military libraries, Fort Huachuca Library, located on an Army installation in southeastern Arizona, closed recently after officials determined that the library did not meet community and Army standards....

Librarian admits Nat'l archives thefts.(U.S. & International)(Denning McTague)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Denning McTague, 40, pleaded guilty April 4 to one federal count of stealing government property in the theft of some 165 documents related to the Civil War from the National Archives branch in Philadelphia and offering them for sale on Ebay....

Colo. library reverses open-meeting policy.(U.S. & International)(Longmont Public Library )(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Reversing their previous policy, city officials plan to delete the requirement that all meetings at the Longmont (Colo.) Public Library be open to the public. The change follows a February 13 meeting at the library of the Colorado...

Sacramento adopts internet-use policy.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The authority board of the Sacramento Public Library adopted an internet-use policy March 22 intended to balance the protection of children with the right of adult patrons to view potentially offensive materials. The Sacramento Bee...

CRS Director Tightens Access to Reports
May 1, 2007... The director of the Congressional Research Service issued a memo March 20 requiring prior approval from high-level staff before the agency's reports can be given to members of the public. Daniel P. Mulhollan stated, "To avoid inconsistencies and...

Marshall keeps graphic novels.(U.S. & International)(Marshall Public Library)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The board of the Marshall (Mo.) Public Library approved a new policy on materials selection at its March 14 meeting and agreed to put two coming-of-age graphic novels back on the shelves. Trustees had set up a committee last October to create...

Book talk Sparks emotions.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)(Photograph)
May 1, 2007... Erin Gruwell, coauthor of the book that inspired the movie Freedom Writers starring Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank, comforts Howell (Mich.) High School sophomore Jessica Fick March 14 as she shares her experiences as one of four...

Revival in Waveland.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)(Photograph)
May 1, 2007... A March 7 ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the opening of a temporary facility to replace the Waveland (Miss.) Public Library, which was gutted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (AL, Oct. 2005, p. 23). The building is the third of 21 facilities being...

W. VA. university gets Knotts mementos.(COLLECTIONS)(West Virginia University, Don Knotts)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Francey Yarborough, widow of the late actor Don Knotts, has given a variety of movie scripts and some of Knotts's TV shows to his alma mater West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he grew up. The items are now part of the West Virginia...

Theater treasures go to Mississippi State.(COLLECTIONS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Myrna Colley-Lee, costume designer for the stars, has donated her collection of such items as scripts, photos, and breakdowns of what each character wears in a scene to Mississippi State University in Starkville. Colley-Lee said she...

Library harnesses horsepower.(U.S. & International)(Ann Arbor District Library )(Brief article)(Photograph)
May 1, 2007... Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library Director Josie Parker greets a team of draft horses about to take dead ash trees to a mill, where the wood will be transformed into building material for AADL's forthcoming 16,500-square-foot branch....

Legends in L.A.(U.S. & International)(Los Angeles Public Library)(Brief article)(Photograph)
May 1, 2007... Singer Chaka Khan and actor Louis Gossett Jr. join County Librarian Margaret Donnellan Todd (far left) and County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke (far right) at the County of Los Angeles Public Library's 28th annual African American Living Legends...

Give Peace a glance.(U.S. & International)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Mount Prospect (Ill.) Public Library unveiled its first outdoor sculpture March 10--a 12-foot bronze-and-stainless-steel sculpture by area artist Erik Blome titled Peace. The ceremony honored the late Elizabeth J. Clough, who left half of her...

Global Reach
May 1, 2007... SOUTH AFRICA 1 Patrons of Durban's 85 municipal libraries now have considerably greater access to the internet. Jacquie Subban of the eThekwini Council announced in March that free wireless connectivity is now available in all the...

Susan Patron
May 1, 2007... There's a delicious irony that someone named Patron would become a librarian whose sixth children's book, The Higher Power of Lucky, would win her the 2007 ALA Newbery Medal. Senior children's librarian for collection development at Los Angeles...

World Digital Library agreement signed.(Tech News)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The Library of Congress and Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina signed an agreement April 10 to cooperate in building a World Digital Library. The two institutions agreed to work together on the design and implementation of the architecture...

Rare LC books digitized for public.(Tech News)(Library of Congress)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... In an effort to make thousands of rare--and often fragile--documents available to the public, the Library of Congress is partnering with open-source operating system Linux for a program called "Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of...

Third strike against .xxx domain.(Tech News)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... The oversight agency for internet governance rejected March 30 a proposal to establish an .xxx domain for sexually explicit websites. The 9-5 no vote by the board of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) marked the third...

Subject Guide 2.0: Reinventing Resource Lists with Wikis
May 1, 2007... Libraries of all kinds develop subject guides to point patrons to the best resources on specific topics. While these can be quite useful, they often suffer from several flaws, the largest being the frequency with which they are updated. Updating...

What the FUD? Whose System Is This, Anyway?
May 1, 2007... These days, I can hardly put a column in the can without three or four changes in the vendor landscape occurring before it hits the pages of American Libraries or the mailboxes of readers--or my Hectic Pace blog, for that matter. This has been...

EBSCO.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)(EBSCO Information Services)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... EBSCO is helping students hone their debating skills with the release of Points of View Reference Center (www.ebscohost.com/pov). The full-text database provides essays on numerous topics that present multiple sides of issues, including...

Springer.(ANNOUNCEMENTS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Springer has credited Google Book Search with increased sales of its 29,000 titles available through the program. Pre-1997 titles account for 20% of online sales. 15,000 of the titles, with 5,500 being added each year, are available to...

OCLC.(ACQUISITION)(OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... OCLC has acquired TechAtlas with funding from a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant. OCLC's WebJunction will continue developing the software that has been popular with public libraries seeking technology plans that are e-rate compliant.

Exciting Wallpaper: The Challenge of Staying Current Yet Keeping What Works
May 1, 2007... I don't know about you all, but I get a lot of e-mail. A lot. Really. Much of it can be immediately deleted; some warrants at least a cursory answer; a few require serious time and focus and thoughtful reply; even fewer are fun and make me...

How the World Sees Us
May 1, 2007... "I got a bag of dimes, and $9.80 later, I had written the first version of Fahrenheit 451.... It was so exciting to write in a library, in a place where the spirits of great authors impinged my soul." Author RAY BRADBURY on UCLA library's policy...

Regaining a Lost Love: Tips for Disheartened New Librarians
May 1, 2007... Since childhood, libraries have always held a special place in my heart. Becoming a librarian seemed a natural choice and in 2003, fresh from five years of English literature, I entered library school. I was flush with romantic ideas about...

The Power of Books: Lift a Flap and Enter a Child's Heart
May 1, 2007... Among Emily Dickinson's many poems is one that begins, "There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away." That is what happened when a librarian bearing books boarded a river-worn but sturdy boat (perhaps not a frigate, but...) and...

For the Love of Books: From Book Thief to Collector, a Distinguished Journalist Tells Why His He's Donating His Beloved Tomes of Southern Authors to His College Library
May 1, 2007... I have tried my best to figure out exactly when and why I fell in love with books and this is about as close as I could get: When I was 7 years old in 1935, I stole Honk, the Moose by Phil Stong, about two young boys--first-generation Finnish...

Bookstore Tourism Takes Off: Grassroots Effort Benefits Independent Bookstores, Libraries, and Bibliophiles
May 1, 2007... Whenever I lead one of my "bookstore road trips," I always offer a presentation at the front of the bus on the way to our destination, whether it's New York City, Washington, D.C., or the Brandywine region of southeastern Pennsylvania. And the...

Print & Online: A Winning Formula; Increased E-Book Presence a Plus for the 2007 List of Outstanding Reference Sources
May 1, 2007... At each American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Outstanding Reference Sources Committee meets to select and honor the best new reference materials suitable for small and medium-sized...

Gamers ... in the Library? Videogaming Is a Growing Library Draw for All Ages
May 1, 2007... Videogames are a big deal these days. In 2005, 228 million new videogames were purchased in the United States for a total cost of $10 billion. To put that in perspective, 710 million new books were purchased in the United States during the same...

Mattering in the School Blogosphere: How Media Specialists Are Mashing Up the New Medium
May 1, 2007... Look at the vanguard of the biblioblogosphere and you'll see school library media specialists at their keyboards-philosophizing with educator colleagues, serving up resources and tech support to faculty, and teaching by example about the brave...

Smooth Sailing in Baltimore: Thirteenth Conference Is a Lucky One for Academic Librarians
May 1, 2007... The Baltimore Convention Center played host to a record number of academic librarians who came March 29-April 1 to navigate new technologies and cruise the exhibits at "Sailing into the Future--Charting Our Destiny," the Association of College...

Dan Armstrong.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Cook Memorial Public Library District in Libertyville, Illinois, appointed Dan Armstrong director effective April 2.

Lynn Baird.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Lynn Baird was named dean of library services for the University of Idaho in Moscow February 27.

Barbara Bingham.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Barbara Bingham has been promoted to coordinator of the Dobson Ranch branch of the City of Mesa (Ariz.) Library.

Laurel Bliss.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... March 23 San Diego State University named Laurel Bliss fine arts librarian.

Howard Boksenbaum.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Howard Boksenbaum became chief of the Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services March 23. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Jeff Cabral.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Howard County (Md.) Library recently appointed Jeff Cabral branch manager of Central Library.

Faith Loane Cadwalader.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Faith Loane Cadwalader recently retired as head of youth services at Crown Point (Ind.) Community Library after 18 years with the library.

Karen Calhoun.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... May 14 Karen Calhoun joins OCLC as vice president for OCLC WorldCat and metadata services.

Laurel Crump.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Laurel Crump has joined the University of North Florida library in Jacksonville as director of public services.

Amy Friedlander.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... April 30 Amy Friedlander became director of programs for the Council on Library and Information Resources in Washington, D.C.

Carolyn Gast.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Carolyn Gast has been promoted to head of children's and teen educational programs at Howard County (Md.) Library.

Kellie Gillespie.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... The City of Mesa (Ariz.) Library has promoted Kellie Gillespie to coordinator of the Red Mountain branch.

David S. Goble.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... March 19 David S. Goble was named South Carolina state librarian.

Kate Havris.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Kate Havris has been promoted to assistant director at the City of Mesa (Ariz.) Library.

J. J. Huff.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... J. J. Huff has joined publisher Heinemann-Raintree as library product manager.

David James.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau has appointed David James head of the information services department.

Melissa Jeter.(Currents)
May 1, 2007... In March, Melissa Jeter became director of Toledo-Lucas County (Ohio) Public Library's Art Tatum African American Resource Center. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]