Archive for September, 2008
Transgender Va. Woman Wins Discrimination Lawsuit
September 20th, 2008Washington Post – “A federal judge ruled yesterday that a former special forces commander was discriminated against when officials at the Library of Congress revoked a job offer after learning she was transitioning from being a man to a woman”
35% of Professionals Would Choose BlackBerry Over Spouse
September 19th, 2008ABA Journal – “Professionals have a love-hate relationship with their BlackBerrys, and in some cases it’s interfering with their marriages.”
Which Reference Books Have to Be in Your Library?
September 18th, 2008Freakonomics – “Our resident quote bleggar Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, is back with another request.”
Care and Feeding of Bookworms
September 18th, 2008Care and Feeding of Bookworms
Originally uploaded by Michaelâ„¢
Palin Strikes Fear in Libraries
September 18th, 2008Francine Fialkoff – “The more we hear about Palin, the less we trust her.”
EFF sues U.S. over NSA surveillance program
September 18th, 2008CNET News – “The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Bush administration on behalf of AT&T customers to halt what it called the “massively illegal” warrantless surveillance of Americans’ Internet and telephone communications”
More about the case here.
Residents upset over library restrooms
September 18th, 20086abc.com – “This branch and another on North Clinton Avenue have no restrooms for the public. Only employees can use the bathrooms in these old buildings and patrons say that’s unfair.”
Take a look at the video. The library signage people are going to be up in arms.
FriendFeed solves noise problem with redesign, duplicate roll-up
September 18th, 2008Webware - “On Thursday afternoon social aggregator FriendFeed pushed out its new look to all its users”
And it’s really user friendly, as we all come to expect from FF.
Professor Wikipedia
September 16th, 2008From CollegeHumor
I tried to embed the video, but it didn’t work. Pretty funny.
Harvard professor sees answers to nagging Web-youth issues
September 16th, 2008CNET News – “John Palfrey, one of Harvard’s leading thinkers on the Internet, has recently finished a study on kids raised in the digital age. He now has a few tips to share about Web porn, online piracy, and Sen. John McCain’s lack of tech know-how.”
Library Whistle-Blower Says She Was Punished
September 16th, 2008KQCA - “A Sacramento library worker is filing complaints alleging that managers froze her pay and took away duties after she blew the whistle on an overbilling scandal three years ago.”
Survey: 97 percent of American youth play video games
September 16th, 2008AP – “The survey found that while young Americans don’t necessarily play the same thing, nearly all of them — girls included — play video games of one kind or another. And they don’t just play by themselves. Nearly two-thirds play video games to socialize face-to-face with friends and family, while just over a [...]
Professor Given $100,000 to Study World of Warcraft
September 16th, 2008David DeBolt – “A hundred thousand dollars to study a video game that pits ax-wielding ogres against a cast of other fanciful characters? That would buy about 50,000 cans of Red Bull to support those late-night gaming, er, “research†sessions.”
Heh.
WorldCat for iPhone
September 16th, 2008WorldCat Blog: “I don’t have an iPhone yet, but I just found (another) reason to want one: there’s now a WorldCat app developed for it”
When Freedom of Speech Takes a Holiday
September 16th, 2008NYT (Adam Cohen): – “When Rachel Ehrenfeld wrote “Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It,†she assumed she would be protected by the First Amendment. She was, in the United States. But a wealthy Saudi businessman she accused in the book of being a funder of terrorism, Khalid bin Mahfouz, sued [...]
US voices added to poetry archive
September 16th, 2008BBC – “Recordings of 14 major 20th-Century American poets have been added to the free online audio Poetry Archive.”
Public libraries struggle with internet demands
September 16th, 2008eSchool News – “Libraries are reaching more students through services such as online homework help–but challenges remain”
School libraries try to do more with less:
September 16th, 2008eSchool News – “This fall, school libraries across the country will be working to implement new standards for learning in the 21st century–but many will be doing so with fewer resources at their disposal.”
Library theft not unusual
September 16th, 2008Great Falls Tribune – “An expert on the theft of rare books said Monday he is not surprised James Brubaker of Great Falls was able to steal documents from libraries in broad daylight.”
Top Twenty Firefox Add-ons that Make Firefox the Researcher’s Browser of Choice
September 15th, 2008Res Ipsa Blog – “As the amount of scholarly material available on the web increases, so to does the need to an efficient means to find, sort, organize and cite the material. Below are twenty of the best tools available on Firefox that researchers can choose from to build a customized, highly efficient research tool.” [...]
Library Mini Golf
September 15th, 2008The Centered Librarian – “One of the more innovative methods of fund raising for libraries is Library Mini Golf!”
Rochelle Hartman on DFW
September 15th, 2008Tinfoil + Raccoon – “Why am I writing about the passing of one of the most influential authors of our time if he’s never been on my Must Read list?”
A quarter million teachers to get free wikis
September 15th, 2008Webware – “A San Francisco wiki services provider has just finished a multiyear project under which it gave teachers all over the world 100,000 free wikis. And now, it is doubling up and getting set to give away another quarter million.”
Harper Hullabaloo
September 15th, 2008Harper Hullabaloo
Originally uploaded by Harper College Library
Public hearing set about library book
September 14th, 2008helenair.com – “In February however, Cohen’s visit became anything but routine when he found “The Joy of Gay Sex†on the bookshelf. Offended by the content Cohen immediately filled out a request for reconsideration of library material form.”
Of course, my question would be why he opened the book in the first place? What did [...]
Writer David Foster Wallace found dead
September 13th, 2008Los Angeles Times: – “David Foster Wallace, the novelist, essayist and humorist best known for his 1996 tome “Infinite Jest,” was found dead last night at his home in Claremont, according to the Claremont Police Department. He was 46.”
DFW was one of the best writers in America. I can’t begin to even react to this. [...]
Google/Proquest Partnership
September 13th, 2008Great news! Not sure how I missed it. (via)
Web 2.0 Still a No-go
September 12th, 2008ABA Journal – “If you think an RSS feed is something that cattle munch on, you’re not alone.”
Donation Box @ La Crescent Public Library – front view
September 12th, 2008Donation Box @ La Crescent Public Library – front view
Originally uploaded by SELCO
Makeover @ the Library:
September 12th, 2008The Last Librarian – “And public libraries don’t just need a brush-up, we need the works. From interpersonal communication to public relations, libraries need to make a renewed effort to sell our services. I refuse to be the yard sale of information services. Make them laugh, make them smile, make them leave saying “wow!â€
Not just [...]
