Library Stuff

KCET – “In the librarian history of Los Angeles, Charles Lummis and Mary Foy are two of Los Angeles’ better known librarians, though their tenures as librarians were brief compared to their larger roles in Los Angeles. Known as Miss Los Angeles, Mary Foy was the first woman to be City Librarian, serving from 1880 to 1884. She worked to preserve the city’s history in numerous ways, from organizing the Los Angeles High School alumni to organizing the First Century Families. Charles Lummis was never trained as a librarian and only served as City Librarian from 1905 – 1910. His acquisitions on the Spanish and Mexican period of California’s history are still held in the library’s collection today, and Lummis’ own private library became the foundation for the Southwest Museum Library, now part of the Autry National Center’s Braun Research Library. At the American Library Association convention in 1906, Lummis founded a briefly-lived tongue-in-cheek organization The Bibliosmiles, a “Rally of Librarians Who Are Nevertheless Human.” The organization’s motto was “To Keep the Bookdust Off Our Own Topshelves’.” (More details about the Bibliosmiles on blog “Library History Buff Blog”).”

NYTimes.com – “Mistaken identity is an occupational hazard for people who are mentioned even fleetingly on the Internet. Still, consider Peter Agree’s shock when he searched the Web for references to his late mother. “The references I turned up were to ‘Rose Agree, geriatric porn star,’” said Mr. Agree, the editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Press. “Wikipedia had a biographical entry for this person, and to my horror it fused elements of my mother’s biography, including her having been a librarian on Long Island.”

NJ.com – “As state librarian, Norma Blake has helped libraries around New Jersey shift their primary function from lending books to aiding in the economic recovery — whether it’s teaching job seekers basic computer skills or serving as reference centers for research. “Many years ago, people said, ‘Oh, libraries will never last with the Internet,’ but that has proved to be the exact opposite,” she said. “People are pouring into libraries.”

Variety – “Walden Media is moving ahead on development of “Rex Libris,” tapping Ben Zazove to adapt the humorous sci-fi graphic novel. Walden acquired feature rights to “Rex” last year, which follows the zombie-slaying adventures of librarian Rex Libris as he protects the books of the Middleton Public Library and guards the world’s literary treasures from a host of supernatural foes.”

Press Release – “ebrary®, a ProQuest business and leading provider of ebooks and research technology, today announced that the social media data of its 2011 Global Student E-book Survey is now publicly available…Among other key findings, the addendum revealed the following…35% students indicated they would “likely” to “very likely” pose a question to a librarian using social media, compared to 45% who would “likely” to “very likely” use social media to pose a question to faculty.”

Paris Review – “Porn books and librarians have always had a passionate, mutually defining relationship—it was, in fact, a prudish French librarian in the early nineteenth century who coined the word pornography. So it comes as no surprise that the sexy librarian, a fixture of the pornographic imagination, is most at home in books. Each year, new titles are added to the librarian-porn bookshelf.” (some images NSFW)

USA Today – “Undergraduates trying to look up Bob Dole’s birthday (July 22, 1923), the population of Mauritius (about 1.2 million) or the state insect of South Dakota (the honeybee) had to do so Wednesday without the only encyclopedia many of them have ever known. Wikipedia blacked-out their website Wednesday announcing a 24-hour protest against proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress. With Wikipedia blacked out for 24 hours in protest of a pair of anti-piracy bills under review in the U.S. Congress, students scrambling to write early-semester research papers without the open-source encyclopedia posted panicked remarks to Twitter. And just as fast as the 18-22-year-old cohort tweeted about their plight, 30-somethings nostalgic for late nights spent poring over Encyclopedia Britannica sent snarky retorts.”

Magicvalley.com – “This local librarian will play one of America’s top game shows tonight: Who is Jennifer Hills? Nearly two months ago, Hills flew to Los Angeles to film at least one episode — she can’t say more than that and spoil the results — of “Jeopardy!” As a lover of literature, literary history, French history and other topics, she decided to try out for the trivia show on a whim. Within a year, she was on stage with Alex Trebek, buzzing in and playing to find the Daily Double.”

LAT – “Several years ago a young man who was majoring in philosophy and French got a part-time job in his university library to help pay his bills. Over time, it occurred to him that he loved that hallowed sanctuary, surrounded each day by bound volumes of ideas and by records of our history. He knew then what he wanted to do with his life and went on to graduate school to study library science. Today, he’s a librarian at a college in New Orleans, helping rebuild a collection wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.”