Library Stuff

“A Massachusetts church may sell a copy of the first book published in the American colonies – a volume sometimes called the Gutenberg Bible of America – to help sustain its 343-year-old ministry. The Old South Church in Boston plans to vote at a meeting on Sunday whether to sell one of its two copies of the book of psalms printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640 and expected to sell at auction for $10 million to $20 million, Senior Minister Nancy Taylor said on Friday.”

via Reuters

Boston Herald – “The city would hire 100 new firefighters and cops, and 64 teachers, open five new teen centers and boost library services — including lending popular e-readers for the first time — as part of a $2.4 billion budget proposed today by Mayor Thomas M. Menino. City spending would increase by $60 million in fiscal 2013, under the mayor’s proposed plan, with the School Department seeing a $26 million increase — the largest for any city agency. The boost for schools would cover new teachers and improvements including new science labs at the Hyde Park Education Complex and new sites for New Mission High and the Boston Community Leadership Academy.”

Boston Globe – “The Boston School Department has routinely skirted state bidding laws in buying novels, plays, and other books, causing it to potentially spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more than necessary, according to an investigation by the state Inspector General’s Office. In many instances, the School Department paid more for the books than what members of the general public would spend when they buy them on the websites of national retailers, including some of the same vendors that the School Department uses, the investigation found.”

View a copy of the letter

Boston Globe – “Are poetry slams popular? There were 1,200 folks on line to get into the Berklee Performance Center Saturday for the final night of the National Poetry Slam, which was making its first visit to Boston since 1992. Back then, 16 teams took part; this year there were 75, nine of them from New England. Only four teams reached the finals: Providence Poetry Slam; Nuyorican Poets Cafe; Writing Wrongs from Columbus, Ohio; and Slam Nuba from Denver. Once everybody made it inside, the mood was more celebratory than competitive, with lots of hugging and acknowledging of fellow poets. The audience came in all sizes and shapes and ages and ethnicities, but it was uniformly loud; no vuvuzelas were necessary.”