ANNOUNCEMENTS:
2006 Public Libraries
and the Internet study, the 8th study in this series.
The report is now officially released and available at http://www.ii.fsu.edu/plinternet/.
1)
Cataloging Supplement Report
Due 9/30/06:
Hearken
back to the fall of 2005: was your library among the many to participate
in the Cataloging
Supplement Project? Over 300 libraries
statewide signed on. Participants accepted a $400.00 mini-grant
from the State Library with which to purchase a high-end MARC
record product.
Now
the ?Cataloging Supplement Report?
is due?by Saturday September 30th actually. You?ll
find the 2-page report here: http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/cataloging-supplement/report-form-cataloging-supplement.doc/view
It?s a simple re-telling of how you used the $400.00, which
MARC product you purchased, and the difference it?s made in your
cataloging efforts. Mail or fax the completed form to the
State Library (fax 515-281-6191) Thanks for your attention to
this!
2)
ILA Conference Registration Deadline: The
early bird registration deadline for ILA?s annual conference is
looming: it?s Friday September 29. This year, the ILA Fall
Conference makes its way to Council
Bluffs,
October 11-13, at the Mid America Conference Center. While
you can register on-site the day of the conference, it?s best
to register early and save some money in the process?about $30.00
worth.
This year?s theme is ?Libraries,
Literacy, and Learning in the 21st Century.? Here?s
a look at just some of the conference sessions:
- A
Quality
School
Library
- Bringing
It All Back Home (lobbying and advocacy)
- Library
2.0
- Leadership
Literacy
- Weblogs
in the Library
- Best
of Iowa
Libraries? Public Relations
- Managing
a Volunteer Program
- Transforming
Reluctant Readers in to Ravenous Readers
- All
Libraries Serve Learners
- A Great City Deserves
a Great Library
All
this and much more: 4 pre-conferences Wednesday daytime, "The
Ghosts of Council Bluffs" tour on Wednesday night, Thursday
night?s banquet with Des Moines actor Tom Milligan, and Friday?s
luncheon with Marilynne Robison, author of the 2006 All Iowa Reads
book Gilead.
If you've missed the mailings, find all details on ILA?s website:
http://www.iowalibraryassociation.org/
Click on the conference info in the middle of the screen to see
a complete listing of programs and a registration form.
Don?t delay any longer.
Above 1 & 2 Stolen from the Eye Opener & then edited.
Harry
Potter books are the most challenged of the 21st century
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week (September
23?30), ALA has compiled a list of the top 10 most challenged
books from 2000 to 2005, with the Harry Potter series of books
leading the pack (although it escaped the top 10 list in 2005).
All but three of the books on this list also were in the top 10
of the most challenged books of the 1990s....
Stuff:
For
the fun of it. Take a few minutes.
Public
libraries are community technology hubs
A
national report
released by Florida State University researchers September 26
reveals that 99% of all U.S. public libraries provide free public
access to computers wired to the internet and that librarians
overwhelmingly (71%) say that the most important impact of this
service is providing internet access to those who otherwise would
not have it. The report, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation and ALA, also found that insufficient computer workstations
and internet bandwidth pose the biggest challenges for U.S. public
libraries in providing quality services....
Information
Use Management and Policy Institute, Florida State University
Featured
review: Reference
Ciment,
James, ed. Colonial America:
An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History.
Sept. 2006. 1,324p. Sharpe. (0-7656-8065-3).
Colonial America presents a bird?s-eye view of life in
the original colonies, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Canada with
entries ?designed to complement the high-school American history
curriculum as well as undergraduate survey courses.? Although
their professors may relish the scholarship of the topically arranged
Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies (1994), students
will find it less frustrating to browse Colonial America?s
seven broad thematic essays (?Gender Issues,? ?Race and Ethnicity,?
etc.) and more than 450 alphabetically arranged articles on topics
such as alcohol, food and diet, inns and taverns (public houses),
and piracy....
Encyclopedia
update, 2006
In this year?s update, Barbara Bibel and Shauna Yusko review three
print encyclopedias: Encyclopedia Americana,
The New Book of Knowledge,
and The World Book Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia publishers
continue to take a ?big umbrella? approach, incorporating into
one website an array of offerings. But they have also taken more
steps to target specific audiences....
Electronic
postcards from Baghdad
Keir Graff writes: ?Here are links to a selection of eye-opening
passages from Riverbend?s Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog
From Iraq (Feminist Press at CUNY, 2006), as they were first
published on her blog.
I?ve probably included too many, but I circled even more page
numbers in the book. So many entries contained information I hadn?t
known, or a viewpoint I hadn?t considered, or simply put it all
together in a compelling way.?...
Likely
Stories blog
Library
books draw complaints in West Brazos
Students at West Brazos Junior High School in Brazoria, Texas,
won?t be allowed to check books out of the school?s library after
two complaints about profanity and sexual content were found in
books borrowed by children. One September 19 complaint by a West
Columbia resident claimed the book Zero to Sixty: The Motorcycle
Journey of a Lifetime by Gary Paulsen, which was checked out
from the school library by his 12-year-old son, contained details
of sexual acts and profanity....
Brazosport (Tex.) Facts,
Sept. 21
Most
challenged books in America
This week marks the 25th anniversary of Banned Book Week, an effort
by ALA to promote freedom of access to ?unorthodox or unpopular?
written works as well as freedom of expression within these books.
?Throughout history, there always have been a few people who don?t
want information to be freely available. And this is still true,?
said ALA President Leslie Burger. ?Banned Books Week reminds us
that we must remain vigilant.?...
PBS newsmagazine NOW, Sept. 22
Audit:
Reading First beset by favoritism
A September 22 internal report (PDF
file) detailing the U.S. Department of Education?s handling
of the multibillion-dollar Reading First grant program criticizes
Bush administration officials for steering funding awards to certain
educational publishers and for illegally dictating to schools
which solutions they must use. Yet another report (PDF
file), from the independent Center on Education Policy, suggests
the program is having a significant impact on student achievement....
eSchool News online, Sept. 25
NCES
has not redesignated school librarians as instructors
In its August 1 report
on 2003?2004 expenditures for public elementary and secondary
education, the National Center for Educational Statistics has
modified the way expenditures are broken down, but it has not
changed the underlying structure of financial accounting for states
and school districts. School library media specialists and school
library services continue to be classified as ?support-services-instruction,?
stemming from a definition of library media services that has
not been changed since 1980....
ALA American Association of School Librarians
Banned
in the U.S.A.: A quiz
In honor of Banned Books Week, Mental Floss Research Editor
Sandy Wood put together a 12-question cultural-literacy test involving
controversial titles. The first: True or False? Two 1960s children?s
books written by Dr. Seuss were later removed from print (and
stricken from his bibliography) for questionable moral content....
Mental Floss, Sept.
25
Banned
books around the world (PDF file)
David Shook has compiled a brief list of books banned recently
in Iran, Albania, Vietnam, China, and other countries....
World Literature Today
80, no. 5 (Sept.-Oct.): 25
Help
solve the wire loop mystery
Over the last several years, books with a small wire loop have
been found in several libraries across the United States. Initial
inquiries found no satisfactory answer for their presence. Speculation
included some sort of security device to tie the book in place,
a method of attaching a bookmarker to the textblock, or a hook
to attach an information tag. Books identified with these devices
to date have been published in London by various firms between
1908 and 1933....
Michigan State University Libraries
University
of Chicago study notes surprising result
?The more today?s Chicago students use electronic research materials,
the more they do research the old-fashioned way,? writes Andrew
Abbott about a 2005 survey of campus library usage conducted by
the University of Chicago Provost?s Task Force. ?The more an individual
uses books, the more he or she uses electronic-research resources,
and vice versa. At the very least, the survey data provides no
evidence that traditional research practices are being replaced
by electronic ones.?...
University of Chicago Magazine
99, no. 1 (Oct.)
Digital
access to archival works
Cornell University Library Intellectual Property Officer Peter
B. Hirtle takes a look at Section 108(b) of the copyright law
and concludes that digital technologies could serve as a means
of providing access to unpublished research materials without
having to distribute physical copies to other repositories....
Stanford University Libraries, Sept. 24
Royal
Society launches online journal archive
The complete archive of the Royal Society journals, including
some of the most significant scientific papers ever published
since 1665, is to be made freely available electronically until
December in the Journals
Digital Archive. The archive contains seminal research papers
including accounts of Michael Faraday?s groundbreaking series
of electrical experiments, Isaac Newton?s invention of the reflecting
telescope, and the first research paper published by Stephen Hawking....
Royal Society, Sept. 14
Ten
reasons to use Ask.com instead of Google
Sarah Houghton writes: ?I think many librarians rely on Google
as their sole search engine, forgetting other search tools and
the wealth of information that?s out there in the invisible web.
But there is one search engine that I?ve come to rely on in addition
to the big G: Ask.com. So, here are my 10 reasons that librarians
should use Ask.com instead of Google.?...
Librarian in Black, Sept. 22
Best
practices for designing web services in the library context
The National Information Standards Organization has released a
set of recommended practices (PDF
file) to use in support of interoperable digital library services.
Included are sections on HTTP caching, filtering of user input,
reuse of output formats, security, and throttling....
NISO, Sept. 19
The
future of the internet
A survey (PDF
file) of internet leaders, activists, and analysts shows that
a majority agree that by 2020, humans will remain in charge of
technology; virtual reality will spawn new addiction problems;
people will wittingly and unwittingly disclose more about themselves,
gaining some benefits in the process even as they lose some privacy;
and English will be a universal language of global communications....
Pew Internet & American Life Project, Sept.
24
Bobby
Bitman promotes the public ?libary?
Eugene Levy (as Bobby Bitman) offers his take on kids and libraries
in this sketch (1:43) that aired on SCTV, November 26,
1982: ?As a kid, I was pretty ignorant. Fortunately for me, I
ended up in show business.?...
YouTube
Renaissance
Library calendar, 2007
The Renaissance Library calendars have been produced since 2001
by Information Strategy and Information Management, a consulting
and publishing firm based in Sollentuna, a suburb of Stockholm,
Sweden. Each month features a photo of a historic library, selected
from nominations submitted by librarians and information professionals
in nearly 40 countries. The cover of the 2007 calendar shows the
1752 rococo-style library of St. Peter?s Abbey in the Black Forest,
Germany....
Renaissance Library Collection
PLA
announces new start dates for e-learning courses