JSTOR Launches Register and Read

Saw this item back in March, and finally got around to it. Got some help in gaining some understanding of "The man in the high castle" by Philip K. Dick.

Penguin, 3M test eBook pilot

From a Twitter feed, a story

Big Six publisher Penguin Group, the New York Public Library (NYPL), the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), and 3M Library Systems today announced a pilot project to make Penguin ebooks available to patrons of The New York and Brooklyn public libraries six months after initial publication. The program will begin in August and, if successful, could roll out across the country. The move comes four months after Penguin pulled out of its contract with OverDrive.

ex-Libraries now Learning Centers

An article in Library Journal addresses a current in the library world: how will libraries deal with funding cuts?

Trenton’s un-libraries are still steaming ahead. Mayor Tony Mack reopened the former Cadwalader branch on June 4, according to the Times of Trenton. That’s the third of four library branches that had been closed due to budget cuts, leaving Trenton with only its main library operational. As LJ reported, Trenton’s Mayor and Council couldn’t provide the approximately $800,000 the Trenton Free Public Library (TFPL) required to keep the four branches open part time. Instead, the Mayor chose to reopen the buildings as “learning center libraries” not under the control of the library board or administration for a fraction of the cost. They can’t legally be called libraries, since New Jersey state law requires libraries to be governed by the library board and run by librarians.

Rather than leaving the buildings closed, Trenton has reconfigured them, relying on a small paid staff and volunteers.


The New Jersey Library Association has taken a dim view of staffing former library branches with unpaid and part-time workers rather than certified librarians. Under state law, public buildings that offer library services must be controlled by library boards.

Some might call that viewpoint spitting into the wind. What is the alternative, when there is not enough money?

TFPL Director Kimberly Matthews told LJ that the TFPL has proposed a number of alternatives for “providing additional library services throughout the community” in its 2013 draft budget, which was presented to Hutchinson on May 4. “We would love to explore a variety of different options of library service in an economically challenged city such as Trenton,” said Matthews. Options include “an Internet or Internet/bookmobile, and possibly book vending machines like they have in San Francisco.”

Without sufficient funds, of course, the public loses, but, is something better than nothing?

Outdoor library

from a Twitter post: An Outdoor Library in Ghent by Massimo Bartolini.

A young man writes: I personally haven’t visited a library in longer than I care to say, but if I happened upon this public outdoor library installed in the middle of a Belgian vineyard I would be tempted to grab a cork screw and picnic blanket to make a day of it. The outdoor library entitled Bookyard was built by Italian artist Massimo Bartolini for the Belgian art festival TRACK: A Contemporary City Conversation in Ghent. Visitors are invited to peruse the stacks and are free to take any book they find for a small donation at a designated box. Hopefully they empty the shelves before it rains. (via designboom)

Smartphone

In a MarketWatch column, Süreyya Ciliv, the chief executive officer of Turkcell, is quoted: “Turkey has changed. Here, now, my son won’t be held back,” Ciliv added. “By going to school in Turkey, he might even be better off. He gets to experience the dynamism of Turkey without sacrificing the information he has access to.” 

He adds: “Historically, the library was the center of knowledge, which is why in previous generations the Turkish businessman wanted to go abroad. Today, the library, all the knowledge my son might need, is right in here. The truth is, demand for our services in Turkey is increasing so rapidly that the biggest challenge for Turkcell is how to meet it.”

And what is the challenge for libraries? Perhaps twofold: to convince Mr. Ciliv that his smartphone is the conduit for all knowledge, and to convince him and others that, somehow, libraries are relevant.

Banned books library

San Antonio is one of four cities (the others being Houston, Albuquerque, and Tuscon) that will host, what Diaz has dubbed, “underground libraries,” community-minded reference/lending facilities forged with the primary purpose of keeping at least four copies of each book that was taken out of Arizona classrooms when the HB2281 law (sounds like a virus vaccine, no?) effectively killed off Tucson's ethnic studies and sent boxes of Latino literature to a book depository for the interim.

Greg Harman - The shelves at SWU's Underground Library are organized by first edition, signed, fiction, poetry, and banned. Underground Librarian Diana Lopez said that recognized local writers like Sandra Cisneros and Dagoberto Gilb have contributed works to the effort. SA Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla even donated multiple copies of her book of poetry, Curandera, republished with "Banned in Arizona" on the cover.

 San Antonio's Underground Library erupts into operation this Thursday, May 10, with a reading from Gustavo Arellano, the much-syndicated Ask a Mexican columnist, who has just written a subversively salivating book called Taco USA (see review "Time of Mex-Tex"). On Arizona's recent legislative policies, the author, who is a great fan of Librotraficante, says: "Those idiot politicians thought that Mexicans and their allies would just allow them to strip the libraries and classrooms of such books; instead, it created the opposite effect. Sure, Arizona law has now pushed Latino literature to the back of the burro, but now you have a vibrant movement of people pushing and reading these books, and authors more than willing to engage in such actions to promote literature. To use that terrible but so apropos cliche, the sleeping Mexican has woken up." •

Open Access Spreads to Miami University

From ALA Magazine:

The librarians of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, joined the ranks of the worldwide open-access (OA) movement May 14 by voting to make their scholarly articles freely available in the university’s institutional repository, the Scholarly Commons. Based on Harvard University’s model policy, MU’s open-access principles take effect immediately and make the libraries the first department on Miami’s campus to successfully pass an open access policy.

What Dewey number fits?

In an article entitled Here's looking at you - should we worry about the rise of the drone? in the 14 May 2012 issue of the New Yorker, Peter W. Singer, "a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Wired for War, a book about military robotics, is quoted.

His book is in various libraries, but not my two. However, I found the record in the Nassau OPAC rather curious. Of the 15 libraries that do have it, all but two have classified it as military and nautical engineering, 623 in the Dewey Decimal System (623.04 S). Two others have classified it military science (355.0201 S).

350 is Public Administration
620 is Engineering & Applied operations

Ameritopia

Ameritopia: the unmaking of America, by Mark R. Levin. Another right-wing blowhard discourses on why the nation is under threat (from the left, surely). Kirkus puts it well in a succinct review: Ultimately, the book never rises above partisanship and is not likely to win any converts. It seems a stretch to claim that there is any movement currently afoot in the United States today that is even remotely comparable to the societal changes implemented in Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto. Simply invoking the words of Ronald Reagan might appease some, but it is hardly sufficient for constructing a convincing argument. A polemic for like-minded readers.

Amen. Preaching to the choir.

DOJ sues over eBook pricing

A New York Times blog, Media Decoder, writes that the Justice Department has sued Apple, Inc. and three eBook publishers over pricing.

Three publishers that were investigated — Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins — have agreed to a settlement, threatening to overturn a pricing model that allows publishers to set their own e-book prices. Macmillan and Penguin Group USA, which were also named in the suit, did not settle.

The lawsuit alleges that Apple and the publishers conspired to limit e-book price competition, causing “e-book consumers to pay tens of millions of dollars more for e-books than they otherwise would have paid.”

Statistical Abstract saved

It looks as though the lifetime achievement award bestowed upon Statistical Abstract of the United States at this past ALA midwinter awards was premature. Dismaying librarians, the government announced last year that publication of the demographics powerhouse would cease with the 2012 issue. Today, however, database aggregator ProQuest announced that it will continue publication of the work—in print and online—with the 2013 issue, meaning that there will be no gap in coverage.

NovelNY

Provided by the New York State Library, NOVELNY connects New Yorkers to 21st century information. NOVELNY is supported with temporary federal Library Services and Technology Act funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The New York Library Initiative is a proposal for permanent state funding for NOVELNY, a pilot project for the Statewide Internet Library

You don't look like a Librarian

Encyclopaedia Britannica going digital

Fans of the printed word will no doubt breathe a sentimental sigh over this news: after 244 years, Encyclopaedia Britannica is ceasing production of its multivolume reference books, shifting its focus to online encyclopedias and educational tools, company executives announced on Tuesday. Britannica usually prints a new set of tomes every two years, but 2010's 32-volume set will be the last one ever produced. "Everyone will want to call this the end of an era, and I understand that," said Britannica president Jorge Cauz. "But there's no sad moment for us." Print encyclopedias account for less than 1 percent of Encyclopaedia Britannica’s revenues, with curriculum products and other educational tools bringing in 85 percent and the remaining revenues coming from online subscriptions to its website.

Robolibraries

Story in the Chicago Tribune.

Libraries short on cash, parking and staff are looking at self-service options to reach customers during off hours without adding work for employees. Tucked into vending machines or train station lockers, robolibraries allow patrons to pick up or drop off DVDs and books at their convenience during a time when many suburban libraries are cutting operating hours. Others might take the form of kiosks that serve nearly the same function as satellite branches and can allow patrons to access books, movies, videos, music, audio books, games or anything else the library lends. Eva Poole, president-elect of the Public Library Association, said she sees robolibraries as part of what people expect today from their libraries. "People don't want to be limited by time or location," Poole said. "It's instant gratification. They want to get it when they want it."

Is homelessness a library issue?

From the ALA weekly newsletter, an interesting article: Professor teaches librarians to never be meek. CeEarly on, professor Toni Samek asks her students this question: Is homelessness a library issue?

Students entering the Master of Library and Information Studies program at the University of Alberta, where Samek has taught for 18 years, come from fields as diverse as nursing and law. They arrive not knowing what to expect. But after the homelessness question, students forget their stereotypes about meek librarians. Samek is anything but meek. In fact, she sees herself as an activist in a radical profession. It’s no surprise, then, that her teaching is grounded in the idea put forward by scholar Henry Giroux that a good education is one that is constantly engaged with public life.

Giroux is a new name for me.

Giroux has been an important contributor to a variety of academic fields, including critical pedagogy, cultural studies, youth studies, and media studies, among others. His work draws from a number of theoretical traditions extending from Marx to Paulo Freire to Zygmunt Bauman. He is also an advocate of radical democracy, vigorously opposing the anti-democratic tendencies of neoliberalism, militarism, empire, religious fundamentalism, and the ongoing attacks against the social state, the social wage, youth, the poor, and public and higher education. Giroux's most recent work focuses on public pedagogy, a term he coined to describe the nature of the spectacle and the new media, and the political and educational force of global culture. He is also a regular columnist for Truthout and writes for a variety of academic journals and public venues.

Please Don’t List Me as a Reference

Amazing feat

The rise and fall of the great powers : economic change and military conflict from 1500 to 2000 / by Paul Kennedy. New York, NY : Random House, c1987.

How did he know about 2000 in 1987?

Novelist fights tide, open own bookstore

After a beloved local bookstore closed here last December and another store was lost to the Borders bankruptcy, this city once known as the Athens of the South, rich in cultural tradition and home to Vanderbilt University, became nearly barren of bookstores.

A collective panic set in among Nashville’s reading faithful. But they have found a savior in Ann Patchett, the best-selling novelist who grew up here. On Wednesday, Ms. Patchett, the acclaimed author of “Bel Canto” and “Truth and Beauty,” will open Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore that is the product of six months of breakneck planning and a healthy infusion of cash from its owner.

“I have no interest in retail; I have no interest in opening a bookstore,” Ms. Patchett said, serenely sipping tea during a recent interview at her spacious pink brick house here. “But I also have no interest in living in a city without a bookstore.”

Even among the young there is an interest in holding a physical book, browsing, hanging out. But it is a tough time to own a bookstore. I just got done helping a patron who wants to read Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs, but can not imagine lugging around a 630 page book, and does not believe she can finish it in fourteen days. We talked about the Kindle Fire, and, for her, as for so many others, ebooks are a solution to the problem of not having enough time at home.

Cultural leaders convened meetings in the public library to discuss who could step in and open a new bookstore. One idea, to start a co-op requiring small investments of $1,000, never got off the ground. 

And they met at the library, the public library.

CIA's vengeful librarians

This item appeared on my Twitter account; I was sitting on a bench in South Orange, NJ, enjoying a cup of coffee (before spilling half of it; at a buck forty four for a small cup, that was a real bummer – and I was still reeling at being called hon by the cashier). I was on my way to visit my Mum in her new apartment, had just gotten off the train, and was taking five minutes.

CIA monitors up to 5 million tweets daily, report says - Agency's Open Source Center said to use social media to assess reaction to world events

Twitter and Facebook are enabling the Central Intelligence Agency to get reliable, real-time assessments of public sentiment during rapidly changing events around the world. According to the Associated Press, the CIA is monitoring up to 5 million tweets a day, poring over Facebook and blog posts, and watching other social networks from a nondescript facility in a Virginia industrial park.

What exactly is nondescript? On eof many, that does not stand out?

A CIA spokesman did not immediately respond to a request today for comment on the report.

Was the request sent as a text message?

A CIA team known internally as the "vengeful librarians" that numbers in the hundreds gathers information in multiple languages to build a real-time picture of the mood in various regions of the world.

Why vengeful?

The analysis is "sought by the highest levels at the White House" and ends up in the President's intelligence briefing almost daily, the AP quoted Doug Naquin, director of the CIA's Open Source Center, as saying.

Imagine that, tweets wind up in the daily intelligence briefing POTUS sees.