Brooklyn library faces cutbacks. (WABC-TV)
Friday, May 7, 2010
Library Budget Cutting Fever Crosses the East River
Just announced: Mayor's Budget Proposes $36,000,000 Cut to New York Public Library.
Brooklyn library faces cutbacks. (WABC-TV)
Brooklyn library faces cutbacks. (WABC-TV)
New Jersey Rally Protests State Cuts to Library Funding
Link to May 6 nj.com article, "Hundreds of N.J. librarians protest $10.4M proposed budget cuts".
Excerpt: Hundreds of librarians protested a $10.4 million proposed budget cut at the Statehouse Annex today, being far from quiet as they told story after story about the value of book sharing.
"There’s no shushing," said Pat Massey of Edison, president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians and a South Plainfield school librarian who took a personal day to attend the rally.
Under Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed $29.3 billion budget for fiscal 2011, the state’s libraries would lose 74 percent of their funding with a cut from $14 million to $3.6 million. The loss of state funds also would cost at least $4.5 million in federal matching funds.
Related articles:
Today is rally day. (5/6/2010)
Today is rally day. (5/6/2010)
Chris Christie needs to hear the mess message. (4/3/2010)
Speculation on Democratic Candidates for Obey's Seat
Excerpt: A Democratic leader in the 7th Congressional District pegs state Sen. Russ Decker of Weston as one of the party's top three candidates to seek the U.S. House seat that Dave Obey is leaving after 41 years.
Gary Hawley of Stevens Point, the district's representative and co-chairman of the Portage County Democratic Party, said Thursday that Decker and fellow state Sen. Pat Kreitlow of Chippewa Falls, as well as former Sen. Kevin Shibilski of Stevens Point, were top hopefuls in his view.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Cedar Rapids Public Library Staff Looking at the Best for Design Ideas
Excerpt: Staff from the Cedar Rapids Public Library have been visiting libraries across the country to get ideas for the new library.
What they’re finding is in line with the kind of library we described in The Gazette in a February story about the future library.
Library staff have visited the Darien, Conn., library, and a series of libraries around Denver. Next week they go to Springfield, Mo. The trips are paid for by The Library Foundation.
“We made a proposal that we wanted to look at the best libraries in the country for ideas,” Library Director Bob Pasicznyuk said. “They granted us the money for the trip.”
Related articles:
For sale, old library, needs work. (4/9/2010)
Site Selection Raises Ethics Concerns. (2/9/2010)
Cedar Rapids Library Board to Recommend Site for New Library. (01/26/2010)
FEMA Reconsiders, Decides Library Provides an Essential Service. (12/24/2009)
Hide and Seek: Downtown Cedar Rapids Satellite Branch Library. (11/30/2009)
Early Days of Cedar Rapids Public Library. (11/20/2009)
Flathead Beacon Profiles Karl Gharst, Nazi Film Festival Promoter
Excerpt: Gharst is a former resident of Hayden, Idaho, and was involved in the neo-Nazi group, Aryan Nations. In 2003 he unsuccessfully ran for city council there with two other Aryan Nations candidates.
In 2004, Gharst was convicted in Flathead County District Court and served five months for threatening a social worker with the Department of Public Health and Human Services. According to the criminal complaint, Gharst called the woman a “wild savage from the Flathead Indian Reservation.” He also told a DPHHS worker he was forming a group in Kalispell to “gather up all the lesbians and mongrels and evil people.”
“All white people are kings and you are still a greasy turd colored mongrel, a corruption, a racial hybrid, something God didn’t create and he is about to take care of business,” Gharst is alleged to have said to the social worker.
As for the demonstrators, Gharst said they would not dissuade him from showing more films and that he planned to screen a movie May 29 titled, “The Truth Behind the Gates of Auschwitz.” (Available for viewing at Google videos. The first 3 1/2 minutes is a narrative crawl, literally and figuratively. It's at 1:21 where "the consensus ends" and the rewriting of history begins.)
Related article:
Beautiful Kalispell site of ugly protest. (5/2/2010)
College in a Nutskull: Good for a Few Laughs
And as the author points out in the interview, not all of these malapropisms are new. Some are culled from papers and exams dating back to the 1970s. So, my fellow baby boomers, we better not get too smug here.
April 20 (Lehighton, PA)Times News book review.
May 1 Bermudaonion's Weblog post.
May 2 5 Minutes for Books blogpost.
May 1 Bermudaonion's Weblog post.
May 2 5 Minutes for Books blogpost.
Addressing the Use of Electronic Devices by Elected Officials During Meetings
Excerpt: With the rapid proliferation of technology like the iPhone, BlackBerry and laptops, governments are grappling with how technology and policy making can coexist.
The San Jose City Council passed a policy in March requiring council members to disclose e-mails and text messages received by lobbyists during meetings. And in Sacramento, state Assembly Speaker John Perez is trying to ban texting from lobbyists to lawmakers during meetings.
Ahmad said he doesn't oppose a policy on electronic devices or messaging during meetings, unless it outlaws his laptop. He brings the computer to meetings to take notes, access city staff reports, look up maps or definitions online, and plug budget numbers into spreadsheets.
Smart Politics on David Obey's 41 Years in Congress
Link to May 6 Smart Politics blogpost, "David Obey's Exit and the Badger State Congressmen Who Left Before Him".
Excerpt: He entered Congress the youngest member of the U.S. House and he will exit Congress as the longest-serving member of Congress in Wisconsin history.
David Obey, the third longest serving member in the U.S. House, announced on Wednesday that he would not seek a 22nd term serving Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District.
The decision puts yet another Democratic seat in jeopardy and opens up a prestigious chairmanship (the Appropriations Committee) regardless of which party wins control of the U.S. House this November.
Obey first came to D.C. via a special election on April 1, 1969 to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Republican Melvin Laird to become U.S. Secretary of Defense.
Link to "Obey Timeline" in May 6 Wausau Daily Herald.
Today is Rally Day for New Jersey Library Advocates
Link to Save My NJ Library rally announcement
Related articles:
Chris Christie needs to hear the mess message. (4/3/2010)
Pew Research Examines the Demographics of American Motherhood
Photo source: Multnomah County Library
Storytime Photo Album
Link to May 6 Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends report, "The New Demography of American Motherhood".
Excerpt: Among the key findings of this report:
- Age: Mothers of newborns are older now than their counterparts were two decades ago. In 1990, teens had a higher share of all births (13%) than did women ages 35 and older (9%). In 2008, the reverse was true -- 10% of births were to teens, compared with 14% to women ages 35 and older. Each race and ethnic group had a higher share of mothers of newborns in 2008 who are ages 35 and older, and a lower share who are teens, than in 1990.
- Marital Status: A record four-in-ten births (41%) were to unmarried women in 2008, including most births to women in their early 20s. In 1990, 28% of births were to unmarried women. The unmarried-mother share of births has increased most sharply for whites and Hispanics, although the highest share is for black women.
- Race and Ethnicity: White women made up 53% of mothers of newborns in 2008, down from 65% in 1990. The share of births to Hispanic women has grown dramatically, to one-in-four.
- Education: Most mothers of newborns (54%) had at least some college education in 2006, an increase from 41% in 1990. Among mothers of newborns who were ages 35 and older, 71% had at least some college education.
- Explaining the Trends: All the trends cited above reflect a complex mix of demographic and behavioral factors. For example, the higher share of college-educated mothers stems both from their rising birth rates and from women's increasing educational attainment. The rise in births to unmarried women reflects both their rising birth rates and the shrinking share of adults who are married.
- Attitudes about Parenthood: When asked why they decided to have their first (or only) child, the overwhelming majority of parents (87%) answer, "The joy of having children." But nearly half (47%) also say, "There wasn't a reason; it just happened."
Newsweeklies Struggle to Adjust to Changing Media Environment
44 years ago
Link to May 6 New York Times article, "As Newsweek Goes on Block, An Era Fades".
Excerpt: The circulations of Time and Newsweek now stand about where they were in 1966, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
“Those magazines had much more stature in those days,” said Edward Kosner, who began at Newsweek in 1963 and was its editor in the late 1970s. “It was really important what was on the cover of Newsweek and what was on the cover of Time because it was what passed for the national press. They helped set the agenda; they helped make reputations.”
“The era of mass is over, in some respect,” said Charles Whitaker, research chairman in magazine journalism at the Northwestern University school of journalism. “The newsweeklies, for so long, have tried to be all things to all people, and that’s just not going to cut it in this highly niche, politically polarized, media-stratified environment that we live in today.”
Not going to cut it? Statement confirmed.
Laconia High School Students to Get Netbooks
Link to May 6 Fond du Lac Reporter article.
Excerpt: Beginning this fall, all students at Laconia High School will have access to their own personal laptops.
The Rosendale-Brandon Board of Education recently approved implementation of a 1 to 1 computing program called Netbooks@Laconia.
The leasing program will equip each student with their own Netbook, which is a smaller version of a laptop, said John Saecker, the district's technology director.
Teens will take their Netbooks home with them at night and during the summer.
The program is meant to address the "digital divide" in which not all students have a computer connected to broadband Internet access, Saecker said.
"The mission of the school district 'small school values, large school opportunities' was reflected in the School Board's decision," Saecker said.
The district will purchase about 320 Netbooks for students using technology funds and available federal stimulus money earmarked for technology enhancement in schools.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Los Angeles: Another Elective Body Thinks Libraries are Dispensable
Link to website
Related articles:
Cutting library hours: Charlotte Mecklenburg this week, LA next week, who's next? (4/6/2010)
More news under the same headline. (3/24/2010)
Cutting library hours: Charlotte Mecklenburg this week, LA next week, who's next? (4/6/2010)
More news under the same headline. (3/24/2010)
Save America's Libraries (The Los Angeles Story). (3/23/2010)
Reference Question of the Day
Confirmation answer: Each egg is laid approximately every 1.5 days and only incubated by the female. The eggs are creamy white in color and are approximately 3 times larger than a chicken egg. Clutch size varies from 1 to 10 eggs but generally consists of 4-6 eggs.
From 1 to 10, huh? Hmm.
Google to Start Selling Ebooks This Summer
Excerpt: Google plans to begin selling e-books this summer over a platform that would allow readers to load the books onto multiple electronic devices, the company said Tuesday.
The Mountain View search giant outlined the plan at a panel discussion in New York that was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The service is called Google Editions and will allow users to buy e-books directly from the company, as well as through other retailers.
No details were given regarding the price of books or which publishers would participate in the project.
Gabriel Stricker, a spokesman for Google, acknowledged Tuesday that the Google Editions service was being targeted for a launch sometime this summer. The service would also be "device-agnostic*" — meaning that any Internet-enabled device could download and read the books, he said.
*Not familiar with this term, but glancing through 6 pages of Google search results (there's much more) indicates it goes back at least to 2002.
Seattle Public Library Offers Mobile Apps
SPL is using Boopsie
Excerpt: It's not yet an e-reader, but the Seattle Public Library has released a mobile application for reserving books and accessing online services from a phone.
The SPL Mobile app, developed by Boopsie, is available in versions for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Palm, Windows Mobile, Symbian and J3ME platforms.
Related article.
Boulder-area libraries offer website specially designed for smart phones. (2/6/2010)
Congratulations to These Libraries on 100 Years of Service
(It only looks like a Carnegie library)
Link to library's website
#1 HAPLR rating in 10,000-25,000 population category
Retiring Guy Had the Strangest Dream Last Night
What does this mean?
Well, according to Dream Moods A-Z Dictionary (not a recommendation, just the first result of a Google search).....
To dream that you are in a library, signifies your search for knowledge and your hunger for ideas. You may be trying to seek out new meanings to life or you need to study and evaluate your situation before taking action. If the library is disorganized, then it suggests that too much information is coming at you at the same time. You are having difficulty sorting it all out.
To dream that you cannot find a book in the library or that the book you are looking for is already checked out, suggests that a certain aspect of your self is lacking enrichment or is under developed.
To see a library in your dream, symbolizes the knowledge you have accumulated over the years.
But what about a library mall?
WAPL Conference Not Enough to Put Blue Harbor in the Black
Excerpt: Officials from Madison-based Great Wolf Resorts Inc. said Tuesday that they're still considering selling the company's struggling Blue Harbor Resort and Conference Center in Sheboygan, though they have yet to actively market it for sale.
The resort, which is the centerpiece of the city's South Pier District, has performed far below expectations since opening in 2004. And the company disclosed last fall that it was considering all options for the property, including a sale or joint venture, although closing the facility was not part of the discussion.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Cell Phones Jammers: Tempting but Illegal
And available in a variety of styles and prices.
Link to May 4 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article, "Oak Creek library might buy gear that blocks cell phones".
Numerous comments give this idea a big thumbs up, but the FCC provides the buzzkill.
According to howstuffworks, an alternative to cell-phone jamming involves using things like wallpaper or building materials embedded with metal fragments to prevent cell-phone signals from reaching inside or outside the room. Some buildings have designs that block radio signals by accident due to thick concrete walls or a steel skeleton. One of those buildings is Helen C. White Hall on the UW-Madison campus, at least the windowless room that serves as my occasional office.
Related articles:
Principal Installs Cellphone Jammer But Forgets To Check If It's Legal. (In Canada. Techdirt, 4/2/2009)
Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally. (New York Times, 11/4/2007)
"Hope You Like Jamming, Too: Cell-phone jammers may soon be all over". (Slate, 12/5/2003)
Numerous comments give this idea a big thumbs up, but the FCC provides the buzzkill.
According to howstuffworks, an alternative to cell-phone jamming involves using things like wallpaper or building materials embedded with metal fragments to prevent cell-phone signals from reaching inside or outside the room. Some buildings have designs that block radio signals by accident due to thick concrete walls or a steel skeleton. One of those buildings is Helen C. White Hall on the UW-Madison campus, at least the windowless room that serves as my occasional office.
Related articles:
Principal Installs Cellphone Jammer But Forgets To Check If It's Legal. (In Canada. Techdirt, 4/2/2009)
Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally. (New York Times, 11/4/2007)
"Hope You Like Jamming, Too: Cell-phone jammers may soon be all over". (Slate, 12/5/2003)
Lance Ulanoff on Twitter: "It's about information, not socialization"
Excerpt: A group of Korean researchers recently completed and presented the results of a unique quantitative study that paints Twitter, in fairly stark terms, as the likely future of news.
Here are some of their more interesting findings:
Those 8 Donut Grove donuts notwithstanding.
It's All About Communication
Link to May 3 LISNews post, "The Three Simple C's of Librarianship".
1. Communication with patrons.
2. Communication with staff.
3. Communication with governing bodies.
Good News/Bad News Scenario for Palo Alto Libraries
Link to May 4 San Jose Mercury News article, "Best of times, worst of times for Palo Alto libraries: Cuts loom despite $76M in bond projects".
Excerpt: Fortunate timing means that Palo Alto may be able to save its taxpayers millions on the city's Measure N library bond construction projects, an official said Monday.
For library supporters, however, there is a vexing irony: those savings can't be used to stave off a series of proposed cuts, including shortened hours and extended closures.
The distinction is that the $76 million bond passed by voters in November 2008 can only be spent on facilities. Meanwhile, the city's general fund — which covers library operations among many other services — faces a $7.3 million deficit.
So while plans for snazzy features such as roof gardens and an outdoor cafe at the new, $42 million Mitchell Park Library are sailing smoothly, the city may delay the reopening of College Terrace Library by eight months to save a mere $74,000.
And all five libraries may close on Mondays, with at least two workers laid off, to save another $215,000.
Some Doctors Resist Move to Electronic Medical Records
Excerpt: LeBow is part of the professional resistance to electronic records systems that computerization advocates say threatens the goals of the new health care overhaul law. These advocates argue that using computers to track what care patients receive, for instance, is vital to deciding what medications and treatments work best. Digital records also help reduce duplication and waste, they say.
And for patients, the issue has impact far beyond costs: Evidence suggests electronic records can save lives.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs has reduced prescription errors to almost zero since switching to electronic records, far below any hospital in the United States. And an MIT researcher reported last year that a hospital that adopts electronic medical records can reduce infant deaths by 13 for every 100,000 live births.
But big provider groups, including the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association, are lobbying the federal government to slow its push for adoption of the expensive and complex systems, even though two surveys by The New England Journal of Medicine last year found that just 1.5 percent of hospitals and 4 percent of doctor practices have comprehensive electronic records.
Related article:
Another fight card in the information technology vs. privacy match-up. (1/18/2009)
A Page from the Changing Nature of Reference Services Textbook
Link to May 4 Appleton Post-Crescent article, "Fox Cities schools on digital fast track".
Excerpt: Students no longer page through encyclopedia books looking for information. They Google it.
They don't own dictionaries. They go to dictionary.com. [Though Retiring Guy recommends they go here instead.]
They don't consult librarians. They ask ChaCha.
Excerpt: Students no longer page through encyclopedia books looking for information. They Google it.
They don't own dictionaries. They go to dictionary.com. [Though Retiring Guy recommends they go here instead.]
They don't consult librarians. They ask ChaCha.
For what it's worth, this article provides a (mostly) high school perspective.
What's about the post-secondary landscape?
Well, Retiring Guy has a snapshot of his own.
Based on 4 weeks of practicum reports by UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies graduate students, I can safely assert that librarians haven't been completely pushed aside. College students, particularly undergraduates, are heavy users of....
And at College Library, students still ask for in-person assistance at the Reference Desk in significant numbers during certain times of the week.
Ebooks and Libraries
Source: Association of American Publishers
Link to May 4 Fond du Lac Reporter sidebar, "Will libraries change?" [Main article: "Who needs a (paper) book? Electronic readers gaining in popularity".]
Excerpt: Is new technology affecting libraries? Most definitely, said Ken Hall, director of the Fond du Lac Public Library.
In the next few months, the Fond du Lac Public Library will increase its online audio and video selection. Hall said library users can download them to cell phones, laptops or any other device with video capabilities.
He said it’s a sign of the times — libraries need to offer what today’s readers want, which is multimedia.
Although growing exponentially, ebooks comprised an estimated 1.3% of all book sales in 2009. It still has a way to go before breaking out of its niche status.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Not Even a Red Cross Logo Can Save New Jersey's Clara Barton Branch
Link to April 27 myCentralJersey.com article, "Edison library patrons sad about slated closing of Clara Barton branch".
Excerpt: The 5,772-square-foot building belongs to the township and the Edison Public Library receives appropriations from the township to run the libraries, Mansbach said.
The costs to maintain everything have gone up, she said.
"Eighty percent of the budget goes toward staff," she said.
However, none of the library's staff will be laid off, Mansbach said. Instead they will be absorbed by the other two branches of the Edison Public Library system, which will continue to serve the entire community.
Mansbach said the library's closing will lead to savings of about $100,000, mainly from maintenance costs of the building. The library was extensively refurbished a few years ago.
But here's what really caught Retiring Guy's attention.
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