[LISNews] The LISNews For June 20th 2008

Fri Jun 20 12:19:59 CDT 2008

-Blake Carver
- LISNews.org

Happy Friday! It's the LISNews for June 20th, 2008...

 On Fridays we start with the top 5 headlines from the past week:

-[1] - Fired library director sues: Staff Members Allege "irrational"
Behavoir
   <http://lisnews.org/node/30383/>
-[2] -  NBC's Tim Russert dies of apparent heart attack 
   <http://lisnews.org/node/30357/>
-[3] - Is the Academic Library OPAC Going Extinct?
   <http://lisnews.org/node/30385/>
-[4] - University of Iowa and Flood
   <http://lisnews.org/node/30376/>
-[5] - Speed Testing the Latest Web Browsers
   <http://lisnews.org/node/30356/>

And here's the rest of the news:

--- The e-Book Test: Do Electronic Versions Deter Piracy? 
--- 40 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30418/>
--- Front Page Story by Bibliofuture Posted:  June 20th 2008 10:17
>From David Pogue, NYT Technology Columnist  Well! My goodness!  A couple
of weeks ago, I wrote about how some of the computer books I’ve written
wound up getting widely pirated online after I sent electronic PDF
versions to readers who claimed to be blind.  That online column set off
quite a firestorm. Readers, bloggers and pundits across the spectrum
chimed in. Most of them painted me as a tenth-century village idiot.  But
upon closer inspection, what looks like universal condemnation turns out
to be a cacophony of conflicting lines of reasoning.  Full blog entry
here.

--- Think Big: LibGig new professional networking website  
--- 58 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30416/>
--- Front Page Story by Blake Posted:  June 20th 2008 09:36
Library Associates Companies has put together LibGig (http://libgig.com/) 
the new professional networking website dedicated to bringing together
everyone who accesses, organizes, creates, manages, produces or
distributes information for a living.   The goal is to establish a common,
human link within the enormous and multi-faceted information industry
through dialogue, interaction and sharing of interesting stories, as well
as dynamic and exclusive content that encourages feedback and debate. The
site includes LibGig Careers, LibGig Schools and the LibGig Community.  

--- The Associated Press still sucks, but so do we. 
--- 20 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30415/>
--- Blog Entry by effinglibrarian Posted:  June 20th 2008 09:03
Usually I make a bad joke, or several, about an issue and then forget
about it. But I found my way back to this issue through Angel Rivera and I
have some extra thoughts.  Some bloggers want you to boycott the Associate
Press because the AP want to limit fair use. They want to guarantee that
they get some financial compensation from our using their property.
Whether it's an ad or actual money, they feel that whatever they publish,
they should control, completely. And then "fair use" will get a new
definition created by them which will be completely one-sided and totally
unfair. So for that, the AP sucks. If you agree with that, then click the
link and join the boycott.    But I feel it is also we who suck. We
right-click and paste content and links without giving proper attribution.
If I wrote a formal paper and didn't credit my sources, you'd call me a
plagiarist. So why doesn't anyone care when bloggers omit that source
credit? If you intend to have your opinions taken seriously, you should be
expected to cite your sources.  If news sources want me to give them
credit, then they should consider adding MLA and APA formatted citations
to their stories like paid databases provide. Then we lazy bloggers could
copy and paste that info to add to our posts.  As I commented on Angel's
page, I'm not boycotting the AP, I'm just ignoring their claims, for now.
But I do expect that some time in the future we will start citing sources
in our blog posts in footnotes and not just linking to stories. For "fair
use" to be truly fair, we bloggers should be required to do a little more
work.  Yes, the AP still sucks, but we're librarians, and we should know
better. 

--- Text Message from Los Angeles: One hundred new independent bookstores
opened in America last year 
--- 49 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30414/>
--- Front Page Story by Blake Posted:  June 20th 2008 07:41
A Very Defiant Duckling Named Ender who sent over Text Message from Los
Angeles: On the demented, celebrity-crazed, surrender-happy,
endlessly-on-the-verge-of-being-wiped-off-the-planet publishing industry.
(Note to panicked book lovers: Everything is going to be okay.) "One
hundred new independent bookstores opened in America last year. One
speaker describes "recolonizing the parts of America that chain stores had
left barren." This is, by any measure, a big deal. A few years ago, the
talk from ABA was that, for the first time in years, as many independent
bookstores in America had opened as closed. After hundreds of great
bookstores had already been lost, that had seemed like a milestone."

--- Researcher Finds Bibles' Subtext in Design and Fonts 
--- 66 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30413/>
--- Front Page Story by Blake Posted:  June 20th 2008 07:39
Thanks to Charley for Researcher Finds Bibles' Subtext in Design and
Fonts: In the beginning was the word — followed by printing presses and
typography that brought new depths of meaning and creativity to language.
For some designers and printers, the ultimate challenge is the Bible, the
design of which could be affected by politics and religious beliefs, as
well as by aesthetic and commercial concerns. 

--- Help Build a Library Q&A Custom Search 
--- 59 Reads - 2 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30412/>
--- Blog Entry by Daniel Posted:  June 19th 2008 08:00
Does your library blog answers to reference questions? Help me and James
Jacobs of Stanford University build a Google Custom Search Engine of
library Q&A sites. Help show off the combined expertise of librarians
everywhere! For more details, please see http://freegovinfo.info/node/1888
or just add a Library Q&A blog in comments.   Ok. So it seems like I only
come back when I want something. I'm back in part because I've signed up
to LISNews via Twitter and RSS, so I'm seeing stories again. So hopefully
I'll post now and again. This is still the best library staff community
after govdoc-l! 

--- Bibliofuture Author Spotlight: Ann Petry (1908-1997) 
--- 211 Reads - 4 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30411/>
--- Front Page Story by Bibliofuture Posted:  June 19th 2008 04:44
Ann Lane Petry was born on October 12, 1908 in Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
She was the second daughter of Peter C. Lane and Bertha James Lane. She
grew up middle class in a predominantly white community. Her parents both
had a professional status in the community. Her father owned the local
drugstore and worked as a pharmacist. Her mother was a licensed
chiropodist, and worked also in many other occupations such as a
hairdresser, a barber, a manufacturer, and an entrepreneur. This status
helped to shield her from a somewhat hostile community environment.  Petry
first encountered racial prejudice when she was on a Sunday school outing
at the age of seven. This, along with other experiences of racial
prejudice and oppression, brought about a feeling of outrage within her.
This outrage remained with her for many years. The memories that Petry
holds of her family are those of a caring and protective environment. Her
parents created an environment that enabled her to survive against the
effects of bigotry and isolation.   Biography continued here.   Article in
the NYT about one of Petry's books:  An Author's Look At 1940's Harlem Is
Being Reissued

--- Police: Man in drag tried to kidnap two girls from SLC library 
--- 132 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30410/>
--- Front Page Story by Bibliofuture Posted:  June 19th 2008 03:41
 Police are looking for a man possibly dressed in drag they say attempted
to kidnap two girls from the Salt Lake City Downtown Library.     An
8-year-old girl and her 5-year old-sister were at the library when the
suspect grabbed their wrists and tried to pull them outside on Wednesday
afternoon, according to Salt Lake City police.   Full article here.

--- No Ordinary Personage, This Librarian 
--- 171 Reads - 1 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30409/>
--- Front Page Story by birdie Posted:  June 19th 2008 02:40
Most prison librarians are hardworking and dedicated, but not many have
received what Sue Wilkinson, librarian at Winson Green Prison in
Birmingham UK, just received; the  Most Excellent Order of the British
Empire, or MBE, a British order of chivalry established by King George V
in 1917.  According to the Evesham Journal, the recipient is quite pleased
particularly since 2008 is the National Year of Reading in Britain.

--- The Growing Economic Influence of China and India 
--- 114 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30408/>
--- Front Page Story by Bibliofuture Posted:  June 19th 2008 01:31
It's getting harder to comprehend the world economy without understanding
two of the world's most rapidly growing economic powers — China and India.
A new crop of books focuses on how that astonishing growth will play out in
the global economy. Complete piece at NPR.  

--- Electronic books with musty book smell launched 
--- 318 Reads - 3 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30407/>
--- Front Page Story by Blake Posted:  June 19th 2008 11:22
An electronic textbook Web site is launching a smelly e-book after finding
college students like to be able to smell their books.  A survey of 600
college students conducted by pollster Zogby International found that 43
percent of students identified smell, either a new or old smell, as the
quality they most liked about books as physical objects.  

--- Does the Medici Effect Work for Libraries?  
--- 192 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30406/>
--- Front Page Story by Blake Posted:  June 19th 2008 09:47
Eric Schnell asks Does the Medici Effect Work for Libraries?  "Libraries
looking to become more innovative can do so by intentionally creating an
environment/organization in the Medici Effect can occur. This can be
accomplished very simply by strategic reassignment of staff in key areas
as the candidate did."

--- Calgary Library Celebrates Its Centennial 
--- 111 Reads - 0 Comments 
--- http://lisnews.org/node/30405/>
--- Front Page Story by birdie Posted:  June 19th 2008 08:35
There are many places to love in the city, but for Mario Toneguzzi,
writing in the Calgary Herald "the library is the best.   For me, the
library has always been a sanctuary. Somewhere I could go to explore new
worlds and new ideas. Somewhere to be entertained as well as to be
informed. Somewhere I could grow as an individual."  On the occasion of
its birthday celebration, the library is collecting stories from patrons
and visitors on their website . You could even win a prize for
contributing your story of 150 words or less.  

-------------------------
If you need to take yourself off the LISNews email you can hit this page: 
 http://lishost.net/mailman/listinfo/lisnews 
 Or, just send an email to lisnews-request at lishost.net and make the subject unsubscribe.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

LISNews is powered by LISHost.org, the librarian web services company
http://lishost.org

-----------------------------------------------------------------