Library Stuff

LAT – “Dan Terzian, a fellow at the legal clinic New Media Rights and a lecturer at the Peking University School of Transnational Law, responds to The Times’ Oct. 26 Op-Ed article, “Libraries can’t run themselves,” on saving librarians’ jobs.”

AP – “In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day. At the agency’s Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the “vengeful librarians” also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

LA Times – “So a comedian walks into a library and decides to work there …” That’s not my line. It’s from Meredith Myers, the self-described Standup Librarian who just had something very unfunny happen to her. She got fired from a West Hollywood library job that she loved.”

NYT – “After decades of healthy profits, the scholarly publishing industry now finds itself in the throes of a revolt led by the most unlikely campus revolutionaries: the librarians. Universities from Britain to California are refusing to renew their expensive subscriptions, turning instead to “open access” publishing, an arrangement whereby material is made available free on the Internet with few or no restrictions except for the obligation to cite it.”

Publishers Weekly – “Librarians and book re-sellers say their core activities are now in question after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on August 15 upheld a lower court decision finding that the “First Sale” doctrine in U.S. copyright law—the provision that enables libraries to lend and consumers to re-sell books they’ve lawfully purchased—does not apply to works manufactured outside the U.S. While the verdict stands as a major victory for the publishing industry, which has long fought the “illegal importation of foreign works,” especially textbooks, critics say the broad decision goes too far, and could harm libraries and encourage the outsourcing of jobs. The ruling comes in the case of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. v. Supap Kirtsaeng, in which Kirtsaeng, a Thai-born U.S. student was accused of importing and re-selling foreign editions of textbooks, made for exclusive sale abroad, in the U.S. market via online service eBay. In its verdict, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit affirmed by a 2-1 margin that Kirtsaeng “could not avail himself of the first sale doctrine,” because language in the statute says that products must be “lawfully made.” The court ruled that those two words—“lawfully made”—limits First Sale “specifically and exclusively to works that are made in territories in which the Copyright Act is law, and not to foreign-manufactured works.”

Knox News – “Near the front desk at Burlington library sits a purple coupon box. The box was placed there by Julie Piller, the children’s librarian at Burlington, as a way to help community members save money and introduce them to the world of couponing. “I maintain the coupon box,” she explained. “It’s available to the public, and is used heavily here at the library. It’s a great way for the community to be able to save some money.” Piller, a self-professed “deal hunter,” knows a thing or two about saving money through coupons. In addition to her job at the library, she is the author of the money-saving blog, www.sharingsavingswithyou.com, and writes a money-saving column for the East Knox Area News monthly newspaper.”

Daily Chronicle – ” As a lifelong fan of comic books, librarian Steven Roman said he is honored to be called a superhero. Roman, who works at the DeKalb Public Library, was one of four librarians nationwide to receive a Librarian Superhero award from the Gale Carnegie Learning Center during the American Library Association’s annual gathering June 24 in New Orleans. More than 800 librarians were nominated after more than 5,000 people commented on the organization’s website and Facebook page. From those comments, Gale officials picked four winners, including Roman.”

Edmonton Journal – “Welcome to My Wardrobe, a peek into the closets of Edmontonians known for their style savvy. Every other week, we’ll ask one of the city’s best-dressed to show us around and tell us what their closets say about them. Most librarians, muses Kathy West, own a beige or navy trench coat. “It’s basic. It’s classic. They’ll wear it forever.”West, however, is not like most librarians. Her trench coat, by Escada, is electric blue, in a light, shimmery fabric.”The stereotype is that we dress boringly and conservatively,” says West, who heads the Winspear Business Reference Library at the University of Alberta. The assumption is that librarians only wear buns, cat-eye glasses and, to put it kindly, sensible shoes.”

NYT – “Robert Cox walked into the public library on City Island in the Bronx the other day to read the daily papers and to grab a handful of cherry tomatoes from a bowl of fresh produce next to the checkout counter. “You better not spit them out – I grew them myself,” Gary Makufka, a library staff member, said as a rib. Mr. Makufka was not kidding about growing them himself. Services at libraries can be vast and varied these days, but try finding a library whose staff grows fruit and vegetables for the patrons in a garden out back.

Palos Patch – “Belinda Bylina has lost track of exactly how many Barbies she owns. Her collection is large enough to fill two rooms in her home, and she estimates her dolls hover around 1,000 strong. When Bylina, the youth librarian at Palos Park Public Library, was a child she had a habit of losing her Barbies’ shoes. She didn’t take particularly good care of them.”