Library Stuff

Blogtown – “Proposed budget are due to the county chair’s office today and the library’s pitch lays out $6.5 million in cuts that, if approved, would go into effect this August. The library, along with the rest of the county, is facing a serious budget gap and is digging up money in various ways.”

Village Voice – “Yes, books and reading and anything that involves words on actual paper are totally screwed. But that doesn’t mean New York City libraries aren’t valuable! That was kind of the message behind Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s announcement this morning that he is expanding the city’s efforts to help unemployed New Yorkers find jobs through partnerships with public libraries.”

The Atlantic – “John Locke thinks people should read more. So in the past few months, the Columbia architecture grad has slipped around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries.”

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.”

AP – ” A military official says Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan had been removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. A military official with knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it appeared the Qurans and other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and that detainees apparently were leaving notes for one another inside them.”