Prendergast Library to Reopen After 19-Week Closure

Link to January 6 Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal article, "Library to Reopen".

Excerpt: The library has been closed for the last 19 weeks as construction crews and library workers alike have been hard at work on the project.

It all began as a simple light-replacement project when library officials learned ballasts would no longer be manufactured for the light fixtures in the main reading room and the children's room, forcing them to choose between retrofitting the existing fixtures or installing new ones. Both choices involved the removal of asbestos located in the ceiling tiles in the front portion of the library.

While that work was being done, library officials reasoned, the asbestos located in tiles beneath the carpet should also be removed.

''From the beginning, we've asked people to focus on improvements to be made rather than temporary inconvenience,'' Ms. Way said. ''The payoff for their patience is at hand.''

Library renovation on Flickr.

Do You Want Some Distraction with that Drive Time?

Link to January 7 New York Times article, "Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards".

Excerpt: Technology giants like Intel and Google are turning their attention from the desktop to the dashboard, hoping to bring the power of the PC to the car. They see vast opportunity for profit in working with automakers to create the next generation of irresistible devices.

This week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the neon-drenched annual trade show here, these companies are demonstrating the breadth of their ambitions, like 10-inch screens above the gearshift showing high-definition videos, 3-D maps and Web pages.

The first wave of these “infotainment systems,” as the tech and car industries call them, will hit the market this year. While built-in navigation features were once costly options, the new systems are likely to be standard equipment in a wide range of cars before long. They prevent drivers from watching video and using some other functions while the car is moving, but they can still pull up content as varied as restaurant reviews and the covers of music albums with the tap of a finger.

The Technology Liberation Front thinks it's groovy, though, and provides us with its now Pavlovian response: Education, not regulation, is the answer.

Education. As in here, here, here, here, and here.

Pew Research Takes Another Look at Millennials

Link to January 7 Pew Research report, "Millennials: They’re Younger -- But Their Preferences Aren't That Different".

Excerpt: As might be expected, members of the Millennial generation are enthusiastic about the technological and communication advances of the past decade. They are also highly accepting of societal changes such as the greater availability of green products and more racial and ethnic diversity. What may be less expected is that, in many cases, they are not much different from the age groups that precede them. And on at least one issue -- the advent of reality TV shows -- their views differ not at all from those of the oldest Americans.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that most Americans, young and old, offer a gloomy assessment of the past decade. Still, not all of the changes Americans have experienced in recent years are seen in a negative light. In particular, innovations in cell phones, email and online shopping are seen as changes for the better by most Americans with positive views reaching well beyond the youngest Millennial generation. These kinds of change are viewed at least as favorably by Americans in their 30s and 40s as they are by those in their late-teens and 20s and, in many cases, it is only those 65 and older who have less enthusiastic views of these innovations.

I'll call them the it's-about-time-somebody-wised-up generation.

At 26%, Millennials are the least likely to say that "cable talk news shows" represent a change for the better. (As opposed to 40% of the 65+ generation.)

Oh, and it looks as though we'll be seeing lots more tattoos.

Take Your Pick: Jailing Teachers or Supporting School Libraries

Source: Lucerne Elementary School Library website

Link to December 16 special letter to the Detroit News, "Libraries hold key to Detroit progress". (via LISNews)

Excerpt: Detroit is looking in all the wrong places to explain its low reading scores and is ignoring the most obvious ("Detroit parents want DPS teachers, officials jailed over low test scores," Dec. 13). Jailing teachers, new reading initiatives and volunteer tutors are not the answer. The answer is improved school libraries staffed by certified librarians.

Study after study has confirmed the common-sense idea that reading itself is the best way to develop reading ability: Children who read more do better on all tests of literacy, including the fourth grade National Assessment of Educational Progress reading test, the test Detroit children did so poorly on.

But to read, children need access to books. For children of low-income families, the only source is the school library. Research done by me, as well as Jeff McQuillan, has confirmed that access to books is strongly related to performance on the NAEP exam for fourth-graders, even when we control for the effects of poverty.

Letter written byStephen Krashen , Professor Emeritus, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Compact Discs Continue to Lose Their Shine

Shrinking, shrinking, shrinking sales

Link to January 7 New York Times article, "Albums by Swift and Boyle Top 2009 Charts, as Sales Continue Plunge".

Excerpt: The music industry rounded out a difficult decade with a difficult year.

For the year that ended on Sunday, a total of 373.9 million albums were sold in the United States, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. That is a 12.7 percent drop from 2008, and a 52 percent fall since 2000, as consumers have continued to turn from CDs to less profitable — and often illegal — forms of digital music.

As sales plunged in the 2000s, music retailers have also taken a severe hit. Since 2004 the HMV, Tower and Virgin chains have all closed their American stores, and Trans World Entertainment, which operates F.Y.E., one of the last remaining music chains, said on Wednesday that it would close 137 of its roughly 700 locations.


Top 5 best-selling artists of the 2000s

1. Eninem (32,200,000)

2. The Beatles (30,200,000; this is not a typo.)

3. Tim McGraw (24,800,000)

4. Toby Keith (<23,000,000)

5. Britney Spears (<23,000,000)

Texas Library Is Ongoing Target of Vandalism

Link to December 21 report on KTRK-TV website, "Brazen vandals target public library". (via LISNews)

Excerpt: It's the worst in a string of vandalism incident at the library over the last 18 months. They've replaced the front glass doors four times in the last six months. There's been graffiti on the outside and in. Right out front, workers say they routinely find broken beer bottles and used condoms.

No one has been able to say for sure who is responsible and if any of the incidents are connected, but they also note that there is an intermediate school just a block away. Students do congregate at the library.

Cleaning up costs money. Replacing the 50 or so books costs money. In this economy folks agree, that's what really hurts.

"It detracts from what we could be doing otherwise," Loranc said.

There are no surveillance cameras at the library. The city council voted just last week to approve funding for cameras.

Gadgeteers Alert! boingboing Reports on the International Consumer Electronics Show

2010 International CES

Link to January 7 boingboing post, "CES in brief: Tablet galore".

Wisconsin State Journal Headline Writer Shows Appalling Ignorance

Even kids know better.

And, miracle of miracles, Michelle Bachman might be getting the message.

Joe Arpaio: Right Hand Doesn't Know What Left Hand is Doing

Link to January 4 The Wonk Room post, "Arpaio Admits To Not Reading His Own Book, Blames 'Reconquista' References on Co-Author."

The Web as America's Playground

Here's some online content for your consumption.

Link to January 6 cnet news post, "Nielsen: Broadband use up, users more social".

Excerpt: The Web has quickly become America's playground. A new study from Nielsen finds that more U.S. Web users are using broadband, going social, and checking out Web videos.

According to Nielsen, of the 195 million active Web users in the U.S, 160.3 million, or 93.3 percent, access the Web with a broadband connection, representing a 16 percent increase over 2008 figures.

Nielsen also found that more Americans than ever are consuming online video content. The research firm said 138.4 million unique viewers watched online video in 2009, up 11.4 percent from 2008. All told, they average 11.2 billion video streams per month. The typical U.S.-based Web viewer watches 200.1 minutes of video per month.

Netflix Deals with Warner Brothers

Link to January 6 Mashable post, "28 Days Later: Say Goodbye to the Netflix New Release Rental".

Excerpt: Today is sad day for Netflix customers. The online video rental supplier has just announced an agreement with Warner Bros. that will forever alter your online rental experience. Now should you wish to rent a Warner Bros. flick you’ll have to wait out a 28-day holding period after the film’s initial DVD release date.

Of course the partnership rooted in money-making greed — Warner Bros. wants you to buy the DVD instead of rent it —was to be expected. But the new deal is a first of its kind, and we could soon see several other studios follow in Warner Bros. footsteps.

Some might say, "Call the wambulance!'

As for Retiring Guy, it's no big deal. He prefers his movie experience where it belongs. In a theater.

And this is his kind of double-bill.

We Like Them, We Really Like Them!!

Or so manufacturers of e-reader devices believe.

Link to January 6 Publishers Weekly article, "Digital Reading Takes Over the Consumer Electronics Show".

Excerpt: The Consumer Electronics Show opens tomorrow in Las Vegas and we can expect to see a veritable explosion of e-reading devices in every shape and format. Indeed, the CES Web site lists an eBook TechZone that features about 23 different manufacturers and it looks as though every major e-reader device producer –from IREX, Sony and Plastic Logic to Bookeen and Ditto—and many we’ve never heard of, will be on hand to show off a range of previously unveiled, new or upgraded devices. Baker & Taylor will use CES to provide more details on Blio.

American Libraries New Look

See the full picture.

2010 Book Preview

1/18 pub. date
Just placed a LINKcat hold (#17)

Link to January 5 The Millions post, "Most Anticipated: The Great 2010 Book Preview". (via Marginal Revolution)

Excerpt: There’s something for every lover of fiction coming in 2010, but, oddly enough, the dominant theme may be posthumous publication.

Ferris wrote And Then We Came to an End, one of my favorite reads in 2007.

Survey says.....we love our TVs

Link to January 6 cnet news post, "Nielsen: You sure have a lot of TVs".

Here's the latest research from Nielsen. (November 2009)

Where the sets are:

29.9% of TV-owning households have 4 or more sets.

25.1% have 3 sets.

28.3% have 2 sets.

16.7% have 1 set.

(The percentage of households without a TV set is about 1.5%.)

Change from 2007 to 2009.

-10%. Number of VCRs in American homes.

+1%. Number of DVD players in American homes.

+12%. Number of DVRs in American homes.

Tablets: Here They Come to Save the Day

....for magazine publishers.

A skeptic, Jeff Bercovici, begs to differ.



Link to January 5 The New York Observer post, "Tablets from Above".

Excerpt: If you ever hear about a company whose new technology is going to save magazines from extinction … short it. You’ll make a killing.

Step back in time. The old list of possible solutions to the magazine industry’s existential crisis is a long one: a perfect electronic replica of ink-and-paper editions, in PDF format; Web sites loaded with social networking features and user-generated content; mobile phone editions; flexible e-paper; print-on-demand copies and on and on it goes.

Cumulative net difference made by all of the above to the survival prospects of magazines: zero.

But now there’s a new savior on the horizon, and, hoo boy, this one is really going to change everything. The deus ex machina du jour involves notepad-size wireless computers with full-color, touch-screen displays. Publishers are tripping over themselves in their haste to be ready when the first of these devices hits the market later this year.

Read like.....patrons at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library

PAFA.NET via Lazyfeed.

From library's website.

Link to "Read Like Larry" blogpost.

Or read like Retiring Guy is currently reading.

Katherine Paterson, Ambassador

Link to January 5 New York Times article, "New Envoy’s Old Advice for Children: Read More".

Excerpt: Ms. Paterson, who is perhaps best known for the novel “Bridge to Terabithia,” said it was reading that informed her future writing self. As the daughter of missionary parents in China, she read her way through her parents’ library of children’s classics by A. A. Milne, Beatrix Potter, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Kenneth Grahame and Frances Hodgson Burnett. “That is where the friends were,” she said, evoking her lonely childhood.

Now, as ambassador — a joint appointment by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book and Every Child a Reader, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Children’s Book Council, a trade association for children’s book publishers — Ms. Paterson hopes to share the unfettered pleasure that reading can deliver.

Kirkus Continues Publishing

Link to January 5 Daily Finance article, "Book Magazine Kirkus Reviews Lives to Write Another Day". (via EarlyWord)

Excerpt: Late last year, Nielsen Business Media announced it would shut down two venerable trade magazines: newspaper industry-centric Editor & Publisher and book industry publication Kirkus Reviews. Just a few days into 2010, the news for both magazines is much more positive. The staffers of E&P have launched an exile blog while awaiting a possible sale, and Kirkus Reviews will continue publication for the foreseeable future.

Cloud Computing Forecast: Wispy for Now

Link to January 4 Computer World article, "Cloud computing still raises security, reliability concerns". (via US Telecom dailyLead)

Excerpt: Cloud service providers will need to address several IT management concerns -- including security, reliability and vendor lock-in -- before they can win more early adopters, according to Frank Gens, chief analyst at IDC.

In a late-2009 IDC survey of 263 IT and business executives, respondents cited the following concerns about cloud computing (in descending order): security, availability, performance, possibly higher costs, and a lack of interoperability standards.

Respondents said the benefits of cloud computing could include faster deployments, payments based on actual usage, and a need for fewer in-house staffers.

Skiff Reader: New Entry in eReader Sweepstakes

Skiff Reader

Link to January 4 Mashable post, "CES: Hearst to Show Off the Skiff Reader".

Excerpt: If it seems like everybody and their second cousin is making an eReader device, it’s because they pretty much are. Beyond the industry-leading Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader, a veritable troupe of newcomers are taking the stage to challenge the digital reading device market: the Barnes & Noble Nook, Plastic Logic Que, Spring Design Alex, LG’s solar eReader and more will be vying for a share of the digital book market along with the now official Skiff Reader from Hearst.

In partnership with Sprint, who will supply 3G connectivity to the device, The Skiff Reader plans to come out swinging with a large 11.5-inch size and a high 1200 x 1600 pixel screen resolution. It will also be on the svelte side at just over a quarter-inch thick and just over a pound — the thinnest eReader on the market to date.

The Skiff Reader is also notable for using an entirely new technology to power its display. Unlike the glass screens that are the hall marks of the current generation of eReader devices, the Skiff uses a flexible display based on a thin sheet of stainless-steel foil. LG is the manufacturer behind the new screens, which help the Skiff stay slim and carry less risk of breakage.

King's College London research team says, "Weed this book".

Link to January 4 BBC News article, "The G-spot 'doesn't appear to exist', say researchers".

Excerpt: The elusive erogenous zone said to exist in some women may be a myth, say researchers who have hunted for it.

Their study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine is the biggest yet, involving 1,800 women, and it found no proof.

The King's College London team believe the G-spot may be a figment of women's imagination, encouraged by magazines and sex therapists.

But sexologist Beverley Whipple who helped popularise the G-spot idea [and one of the authors of the above candidate for weeding] said the work was "flawed".

Hunted for it, huh? Does that ever bring to mind some comical imagery!

If this were 1970, or thereabouts, Woody Allen might have found his inspiration for a new movie.

Congratulations to Larry Nix, the Library History Buff

What great news!

Larry's blog, "The Library History Buff", has been selected by Librarian and Information Science News as "10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010".

Excerpt: The Library History Buff: "Promoting the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of our library heritage" The Library History Buff Blog was one of only 2 blogs we could all agree on. Larry blogs about, well you can probably guess from the name, library history. It's fascinating to see how far we've come, and yet how little some things have changed.

The Top 5 Technology Panics of 2009

Link to December 23 h+ article. (via Slashdot)

In countdown order:

5. Exploding iPods (THE REALITY: While lithium batteries have been known to do some unpleasant things, these incidents are, on the whole, incredibly rare.)

4. Robots attack. (THE REALITY: Factory work is dangerous and it always has been, ever since the Industrial Revolution began two hundred years ago. Indeed, most workplaces have actually gotten much safer over the years.)

3. "Sexting". (THE REALITY: The vast majority of these “child pornographers” are... the teenagers themselves. Most of the photos are of themselves, their boyfriends, or their girlfriends. And the recipients of the photos are almost always the other children at school.)

2. Bombing the moon. (THE REALITY: NASA‘s “missile” isn‘t a bomb, an explosive, a nuke, or indeed anything special at all — it‘s just an old, burnt-out rocket stage without any fuel left.)

1. Flesh eating robots. (THE REALITY: After the rumors started making their way around the Internet, EATR‘s designers stepped in to clarify: the “flesh-eating robot” will consume vegetable matter only, and it comes equipped with a suite of sensors and computers to help it determine whether the things it comes across are animal, vegetable or neither.)

Reference Materials: Used and Abused in Any Format

see more Funny Graphs

"Grizzly" cuts to the chase and offers the most insightful comment.

I recall that teachers didn’t quite like encyclopedias either when I was in school. Like encyclopedias though Wikipedia provides a high level background to a topic and may point the way to primary sources for further research. Basing a paper on Wikipedia is like basing a paper on an encyclopedia entry, only with the encyclopedia you got (perhaps) a more error-free ride.

The Baby-sitters' Club Redux

Link to December 31 New York Times article, "Comeback Planned for Girls’ Book Series".

Excerpt: Taking a page from Broadway and George Lucas, Scholastic Inc., the children’s book publisher, is trying for a revival — with a prequel attached.

In April the company plans to reissue repackaged and slightly revised versions of the first two volumes in one of its most successful series, “The Baby-Sitters Club,” in the hopes of igniting enthusiasm in a new generation of readers. And just as Mr. Lucas brought “Star Wars” back with a whole new arc of stories that began before the original series, Scholastic is publishing a newly written prequel, “The Summer Before,” by Ann M. Martin, the original author of “The Baby-Sitters Club” books.

It's 2010. Have you advocated for your library yet?

Bill Berry has! (And the Wisconsin Library Association and Wisconsin Education Media & Technology Association thank him for helping to set the stage for this year's Library Legislative Day.]

Link to Berry's January 4 column in the Capital Times, "Keep the library lights burning".

Excerpt: In these tough times, it comes down to defining essential services. By almost any measure, and especially in the current economy, libraries are essential to many people. Folks need to tell that to officials who are making budget decisions.

The wave of budget cuts hasn’t hit Wisconsin communities as hard as those in other states, but several local libraries have cut bookmobile and branch services. On the other hand, Madison residents will soon benefit from a much-needed, $37 million new central library.

But library advocacy groups predict more cuts across the country. Privatization is being pushed as another alternative.

Wisconsin communities fund libraries in a variety of ways, including property taxes, some state revenues and support from patrons, foundations and other groups. In central Wisconsin, the Mead-Witter Foundation [WLA Citation of Merit] has been a big supporter, providing much-needed grants to community libraries. Construction of the central library here in Portage County was funded by tax dollars and a major capital campaign that asked local residents and businesses to chip with donations. They did.

It pays off, too. A 2008 research study commissioned by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on the contribution of Wisconsin public libraries to the state economy found that tax dollars invested in Wisconsin public libraries produced a return on investment of $4.06 of library services for each $1 of taxpayer investment, including both direct economic contributions and the total market value of library services.

Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial Board Gives Kudos to Laurie Magee

Link to January 4 Oshkosh Northwestern editorial, "Librarian had positive impact on children".

Excerpt: Magee retired last week after 22-years with the library and among her multitude of duties was interacting with parents and children to expose them to the joys of reading books. In a day and age when children are more likely to gravitate to video games, IPods, DVDs, text messaging and other electronic diversions, Oshkosh is fortunate to have had such a strong advocate for books and reading. We wish her well in retirement and thank her keeping children and families in the forefront of the library's mission.

Related article.

Fiction with a Western Pennsylvania Setting

Link to January 3 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, "25 novels use Western Pennsylvania as a setting in 2009".

Excerpt: Pittsburgh has rarely played the Muse to the literary imagination.

During its 250 years, when invoked by fiction writers, the city has served only as a stock character in the role of industrial boomtown or early American frontier.

Interestingly, the Forks of the Ohio first appeared in fiction in 1769. That year Tobias Smollett, the British writer, satirized Gen. Edward Braddock and his ignominious defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela in his novel "The History and Adventures of an Atom."

The first American novel to fully use the setting of Western Pennsylvania, however, was "Modern Chivalry" in 1792 by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Pittsburgh lawyer and politician.

In the 20th century, Marcia Davenport, Thomas Bell, John Edgar Wideman and Michael Chabon first secured the city's spot on the map of American fiction. Their effort is now bearing fruit. In this first decade of the new century, more than 200 Pittsburgh novels have been published.

Frumpy Middle-aged Mom: "Video games were invented by the devil"

I hear a few respectful echoes of Erma Bombeck in the first half of this column.

Link to December 27 Orange County Register "Mom Blog".

Excerpt: We have the only house in our neighborhood with no video games. My son has explained to me many times how this makes us freakish aliens from space.

I truly believe that video games were created by Satan to turn otherwise normal children into his drooling, glassy-eyed stooges. After my son plays them at his friends’ houses, he comes home irritable and testy for the rest of the day.

Even though his skin is normally mocha-colored, after a day spent in a darkened room with a controller in his hand, he comes home with a sickly pallor.

This is a huge dilemma for me, because I always had this fantasy that my house would be the one that all the kids congregated at after school. I would be the “fun mom,” the one who made popsicles, the one in the TV commercial with all the kids crowded around the kitchen counter, demanding more of those little pizza nuggets.

Unfortunately, since we have neither video games nor a swimming pool, this does not happen.

Yorba Linda Public Library Reminder & Most Requested List

Yorba Linda Public Library

Link to December 30 Orange County Register article, "Thrills top the list".

Excerpt: Thrillers topped the list of most-requested books this week at the Yorba Linda Public Library, which updates the list online every day to give patrons ideas on what to read.

Laurie Magee, Head of Children's and Family Outreach Services at the Oshkosh Public Library

Link to January 3 Oshkosh Northwestern article, "Librarian's efforts extend beyond library walls".

Excerpt: Magee joined the Oshkosh Public Library in 1988 and began helping others immediately, establishing a home delivery program using volunteers to bring books and other materials to those who were unable to leave their homes to go to the library and co-founded the Winnebago County Literacy Council in 1989. Two programs aimed at bringing the benefits of literacy to children – the Roving Reader program and Book Fest – were created in the mid-1990s.

Her efforts continued this past decade with the creation of FamilySpace, a family resource center located at the library that provides parenting information and programming along with environments and spaces where families can spend time together. As a result of FamilySpace, the children's department in the basement of the library was reconfigured into a space that was more child-friendly and usable for families.

A Year of Colorful Activities Awaits You at the Colby Public Library

Link to January 2 Marshfield News Herald column by Director Vicky Calmes, "Color Your World at the Colby Public Library in 2010".

Excerpt: January: Pick a Palette

Help us decide a color to paint our library. We will be closed part of the last week in January (Jan. 25 to 28) for a V-Cat system upgrade. While the computers are down, we will be painting the library. Stop in the library during January and vote for your favorite color from a palette of hues. The color with the most votes will find its way to decorate our library walls.

And as for those 2009 tech predictions?

Link to "8 Tech Predictions for 2009".

Excerpt: 4. Netbook sales will double in 2009. People want cheaper laptops, ones that provide more mobility. Manufacturers should sell about 18 million netbooks this year, and at least another 36 to 38 million worldwide in 2009.

The outcome?

Link to December 23, 2009, Crave, the Gadget Blog from Cnet, "2009 sales of Netbooks rise but notebooks fall".

Excerpt: It's been a hot year for Netbooks, but not so much for the rest of the portable PC market.

Netbook sales are likely to hit $11.4 billion this year, a 72 percent rise from last year, thanks to a 103 percent leap in shipments, according to a new report from DisplaySearch. But notebook revenue overall will be down around 7 percent from last year.

The latest DisplaySearch Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report, released Tuesday, found that the surge in Netbook (mini-notebook) sales was not enough to offset declines for ultra-portables and larger laptops. Aside from Netbooks, annual revenue will likely be down in every portable PC category.

Though notebook shipments are expected to grow 5 percent for the year, average selling prices (ASPs) will show a 20 percent drop as vendors have slashed prices throughout the year, DisplaySearch has forecasted. Average prices for Netbooks and 13-inch to 16-inch notebooks will probably be down 15 percent for the year, a significant cut as these two categories make up 85 percent of the overall notebook market.

Close enough for a cigar? Certainly not one of these.

Digital Piracy Hits the E-Book Industry

Link to January 1 cnn.com article. (via Library Link of the Day).

Excerpt: When Dan Brown's blockbuster novel "The Lost Symbol" hit stores in September, it may have offered a peek at the future of bookselling.

On Amazon.com, the book sold more digital copies for the Kindle e-reader in its first few days than hardback editions. This was seen as something of a paradigm shift in the publishing industry, but it also may have come at a cost.

Less than 24 hours after its release, pirated digital copies of the novel were found on file-sharing sites such as Rapidshare and BitTorrent. Within days, it had been downloaded for free more than 100,000 times.

Digital piracy, long confined to music and movies, is spreading to books. And as electronic reading devices such as Amazon's Kindle, the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble's Nook, smartphones and Apple's much-anticipated "tablet" boost demand for e-books, experts say the problem may only get worse.

Milwaukee's Urban Fiction Scene

Link to January 1 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, "Milwaukeeans contribute to growing genre of African-American fiction".

Excerpt: Urban fiction has been described by some as the print version of gangster rap. It's generally traced back to a 1969 novel called "Pimp" by ex-pimp Iceberg Slim, and to a series of novels written in the 1970s by a heroin addict and sometime convict named Donald Goines.

The genre has taken off in the past 10 years, though, with the growth of self-publishing and the huge popularity of rapper Sister Souljah's 2000 [1999 sic] The Coldest Winter Ever" [sic] and convicted drug dealer Vickie Stringer's 2003 book [2001 sic] , "Let that Be the Reason." Stringer once sold the work out of the trunk of her car on the way to making it a national bestseller.

"Push," the novel that inspired last year's movie "Precious, Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," also is considered urban fiction by some commentators.

Some people think of the recent boom as a spin-off from gangster rap music, but Justin Gifford, a University of Nevada-Reno assistant professor who's writing a book on the history of the genre, argues that it's the other way around - rap pioneer Ice-T patterned himself (and his name) after Iceberg Slim.

LINKcat:

The Coldest Winter Ever. 32 of 53 copies marked as "Lost".

Push. 37 copies. 236 holds.

Oakland Public Library Reopens Jan 2 After 9-Day Shutdown

Click on header to enlarge.

Link to December 28 Oakland Blog post, "City of Oakland closed all week".

Excerpt: If you had any business to take care of with the City of Oakland this week, you're out of luck.

One of the steps taken to close an $80 million budget deficit this summer was the scheduling of eleven city shutdown days, where services would be suspended and city staff would not work, in order to save the City money. A number of those shutdown days fall during the holiday week between Christmas and New Year's.

Administrative offices will all be closed, so parking tickets, building permits, and other pressing matters with City Hall will have to wait until January 4th. If you were hoping to pick up a book or movie at the Oakland Public Library to entertain you during the holidays, you're out of luck. The system shut down last Thursday, and won't reopen until Saturday, January 2nd.

Fine Forgiveness on a Large Scale

Link to January 1 SFGate article, "Clark County clears $1M in library fines".

Excerpt: Clark County library officials say it's the cost of doing business.

This year, the library district wrote off more than $918,000 in uncollectable fines and fees from the district's books. With more than 13 million items in circulation each year, officials said there is bound to be some loss.

"It's a number that takes your breath away, but you have to put it in context," said executive director Jeanne Goodrich.

Since 2000, the district has used a collection agency to try to cut down on losses. During that time, the collection agency has recovered $4.6 million in items and an additional $3.48 million in fines.

Unique Management Services Inc., of Jeffersonville, Ind., specializes in working with libraries and charges fees based on the amount of people "sent to collections," said Robb Morss, deputy library director and chief operating officer.

"We're doing a bit better than breaking even," Morss said.

Nevada Libraries Promote Digital Collections

Link to January 1 Las Vegas Sun article, "Libraries urging patrons to check out digital collections".

Excerpt: Henderson Libraries staff said usage of downloadable material has increased by 30 percent since January, but number needs to continue to increase for the system to maintain the service.

“Books on CD are very expensive,” Henderson Libraries Outreach Manager Evelyn Walkowicz said. “This can be a great use of money if we can get a lot of people to use it. It’s a relatively expensive service and we’ll need to see some growth in order to continue to justify that expense.”

Walkowicz said the digital downloads have been welcomed by library patrons as they become aware of the service, but getting the word out and helping people understand how the downloads work has been difficult.

County Considers Cuts for Greensboro Library

Link to December 30 Greensboro (NC) News-Record article.

Excerpt: “We’re a public library designated as a county system,” said Sandy Neerman, director of the Greensboro Public Library. “No one who lives anywhere in Guilford County is charged anything to use the libraries.”

To provide that free, wide-ranging service, the library depends on money from the state, the city of Greensboro and Guilford County. But last year, the county cut its appropriation to the library by $350,000 — a cut so deep that the city of Greensboro had to make up the difference.

With the economy recovering slowly and the county deeply in debt, another such cut could be coming.

“My opinion is the city should be paying for the entire thing,” said Steve Arnold, vice chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. “I think it’s a city function, and we should just let them do it.”

Arnold said he knows there aren’t enough votes on the board to eliminate library funding altogether, but he would like to see a radical decrease in funding.

2009: Record-Breaking Year for New Jersey Libraries

Link to December 30 Independence Press article, "Record year is in the books at local libraries".

Excerpt: Public Libraries are riding a record-setting wave of popularity powered in part by unemployment and the sluggish economy, but also by the proliferation of new media and the welcoming environment of newly renovated facilities.

Summit Free Public Library

New Providence Memorial Library

Berkeley Heights Library

Library of the Chathams

Millburn Free Public Library

Madison Public Library

2009: Record-Breaking Year for Summit (NJ) Free Public Library

Link to December 11 The Alternative Press post, "Summit Free Public Library Sets All-Time Record".

Excerpt: They’ve been watching the numbers pretty closely at the Summit Free Public Library. The library is always a busy place, but this year has been especially lively. Every month, library card holders have borrowed an unprecedented number of books, DVDs, CDs, magazines, and other materials. During the summer, it became clear that if the trend continued, total number of items borrowed in 2009 would go over 300,000 – an all-time record for annual circulation.

The record was broken by the end of November: over 300,000 items borrowed during the year to date. "This is exciting news," said Library Director Glenn Devitt, "especially since the year isn’t over yet. We’re all eager to see what the final number will be."

Record-Breaking Year for Chicago Public Library

Link to December 29 cbs2chicago.com post, "Chicago Library Use Posts Record in 2009. But Branch Libraries Will Soon Be Cutting Back Hours".

Excerpt: Chicago Public Library officials said Monday that 9.2 million items were checked out during the first 11 months of 2009. At that pace, total circulation for the year would surpass 2008 -- itself a record-breaking year.

Librarians report people are seeking their help to search for jobs, prepare resumes and submit online job and school applications. The library system has about 3,800 public access computers and free WiFi at all locations for laptop users.

Also in 2009, libraries offered dozens of financial literacy programs for teens and adults in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank and Chicago-area financial institutions.

Despite this trend, neighborhood branch libraries will be losing hours next year. As part of cuts to the city budget, neighborhood public libraries will be cut back to 48 hours a week.