Library Stuff

Seattlest – “It’s been ages and ages since we thought of the library — any public library — as a temple of silence. Not noisy, of course (except for the wide-open concrete sounding booth that is downtown), but a pleasant hubbub. A place to hammer out your campaign against vampires or an evil mayor.”

Inside Higher Ed – “The new president of the American Library Association is a professor in a college not of library of science, but of information.” (via)

Roddy MacLeod – “One of the classic lines from Star Trek was when, on seeing new life on a strange planet, Dr McCoy turned to Captain Kirk and said in an ominous tone: ‘It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it.’ I have replaced ‘life’ with ‘RSS’ in the title of this article not merely to catch your eye, but also because I feel that the time has come to change our perspective towards RSS and regard it as something less alien.” (via)

NYT – “Disputes about printing confidential national security information have flared in recent years, but this particular letter is dated July 11, 1916, and was sent by Newton Baker, Woodrow Wilson’s secretary of war. It is part of a vast collection of personal letters, financial documents, confidential reports, photographs and more — more than 700,000 pages in all — that The Times has donated to the New York Public Library.”

Read/Write/Web – “Desktop RSS Readers Are (Nearly) Dead”

A natural progression. RSS was made for the Web.

BusinessWeek: “These people-search engines sound like a stalker’s dream come true. But Spock and other such sites contend they return information a Web surfer could eventually find anyway; they just highlight it more effectively. And they don’t list phone numbers and addresses.”

Happy Birthday Family Man Librarian (Steve Oberg). What an uplifting post.

NYT: “Albert Ellis, whose streamlined, confrontational approach to psychotherapy made him one of the most influential and provocative figures in modern psychology, died early today at his home in an apartment above the institute he founded Manhattan. He was 93. The cause was kidney and heart failure, said a friend and associate, Gayle Rosellini.”

I studied Ellis’s theories while getting my Masters in Psychology. While a bit brash, I was turned on by his no nonsense approach to therapy. But then, I read Man’s Search for Meaning (MSFM) and was blown away by Frankl. MSFM is my bible and use the techniques everyday when dealing with work or personal issues.

Sad to hear about Ellis passing away.

While many enjoyed the symposium, others aren’t happy about library-sponsored gaming nights.

Interesting quote from the director: “It’s the parents’ obligation to know what their kids are doing,” said Library Director Marilyn Genther. “It’s up to them to know (the rating). It’s not our responsibility.”

I don’t know the whole situation (and I’m not much into gaming), but that seems like an odd response. Again, I’m not into gaming, so I don’t know what the norm is with library gaming nights. I guess it’s like kids under 17 checking out R-Rated movies…