Retiring Guy's Digest: 2009-05-31

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Car Review Digest

Link to June 5 Mashable post, "MotorMouths is the Rotten Tomatoes of Car Reviews".

Great "consumer" link for library webpages. Most of the reviews for the Toyota Matrix, for example, mirror my generally happy, 3-year experience with this vehicle.

Not mentioned in the summary reviews: the superb comfort of the driver's seat -- particularly for someone with a recent history of back problems. (Like me.) And the car is very easy to enter and exit, unlike the Saturn I drove from 1996 to 2006. (Another important consideration as Retiring Guy finds his body isn't as "springy" as it used to be.)

Friday, June 5, 2009

New Waunakee Library Tops Capital Projects Wish List

The current facility at 710 South Street

Link to June 3 HometownNewsGroup.com post,"With library project looming,k village could exceed debt cap".

Excerpt: Barlow explained that initially, the village had considered an $8 million price tag for the new library. But that estimate was based on a library to serve the village in 2012. Barlow said the $14 million estimate would fund the land purchase and a building to serve the community through 2030, when the debt would be retired.

Fiore Plan Receives Unanimous Support

Link to June 4 Wisconsin State Journal article, "Madison Library Board approves new library plan".

Excerpt: Library Board Chairman Tripp Widder said the board also formally asked the city council to hold a special session on the plan by Madison-based Fiore Cos., including how to pay for it in a time of shrinking public budgets and a national recession.

The city budget includes $1.7 million this year for a library and officials foresee spending about $18.3 million on the library in 2010.

Options for covering the remaining $23.6 million include a fundraising campaign, more city money and borrowing.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Magazine Death Watch (2009-5)

Link to June 4 Multichannel News post, "Nickelodeon magazine closing".

Excerpt: Viacom's print Nickelodeon Magazine is closing down this year after a 16-year run, the company said today.

Nickelodeon Television president Cyma Zarghami said in a company memo that the company has "decided to exit the magazine business" at a time when print publications are "severely challenged."

Why Mess with a Classic?

Because some folks in publishing have a Hollywood mentality. (Remember Alexandra Ripley's egregious "Scarlett"? 105 one-star reviews out of a total of 385 at Amazon.)

Link to June 3 cnn.com post, "Lawsuit targets 'rip-off' of 'Catcher in the Rye'".

Good advice from Salinger: "There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there," the court filing quotes Salinger as saying in 1980. "Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time."

I've been meaning to take Salinger up on the re-reading offer. But now I'll have to wait until after I've completed my extended visit to Rabbit Angstrom's Brewer, Pennsylvania.

West Bend Library: Journal-Sentinel Update and Forum

Link to June 2 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, "Library board rejects restrictions".

Excerpt: The Library Board on Tuesday night unanimously rejected efforts by a local citizen group to restrict access of young adults to books depicting sex among teenagers or those describing teenage homosexual relationships.

Such books already are separated from children's books, either in a young adult fiction section on the first floor of the library or shelved as young adult non-fiction alongside similar adult texts on the second floor, board members said.

The nine-member board listened for 2½ hours as nearly 60 people discussed the appropriateness of the library providing such books to the public before the board voted to maintain current policies.

Speakers were evenly divided between those offended by graphic details of teenage sexual encounters contained in some books and those opposing censorship.

Several people said parents should take responsibility for reviewing what their middle school and high school students were reading from the library.

As for the forum posts, it's a split decision -- and very much in line with the adage that a good library should have something to offend everyone.

The Ruth Culver Community Library

View of the current library

Link to June 4 Wisconsin State Journal article, "New corporate headquarters coming for Culver's; company to donate old building for library".

Excerpt: “Sauk Prairie is Culver’s home and donating our existing building to the village of Prairie du Sac is simply the right thing to do,” Culver said. “(The library) will provide a place for the community to gather and learn, and the Ruth Culver Community Library is our way of thanking everyone for their support.”

The building donation, which is expected to be formally accepted by the Village Board on Tuesday, will be renovated and possibly expanded for the library next year and named after Craig Culver’s mother, who died in 2008 at age 84.

More space for a growing library.

Kenosha Publilc Library Receives LSTA Grants

Link to June 4 Kenosha News article, "Library gets grant assistance".

Excerpt: The Kenosha Public Library will aim to help children learn through music, provide more resources for job seekers and improve services for visually-impaired patrons with the help of several federal grants.

The library system has been awarded $32,252 in Library Services and Technology Act grants for 2009. The grants are federally funded and distributed through the state’s Department of Public Instruction.

Library Card as Bus Pass

Link to June 4 Fond du Lac Reporter article, "Buses to Books program to return".

Excerpt: Free rides to the library and home again will be available on Thursdays from June 12 through Aug. 21 for children ages 6 to 17, according to a library press release.

Children ages 6-9 must be accompanied on the bus by an adult. Kids will use their library card as a bus pass. Library cards can be obtained at the [Fond du Lac Public] library.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Full Text Scanned Here

Thanks to "Anonymous", you can read the full text of all Washington County Daily News articles about the West Bend Community Public Library's freedom to read challenge here.

Cathe Olson Advocates for School Libraries

Link to timespressrecorder.com (CA) post, "Layoffs turn parents into school librarians".

Excerpt: “Learning to use a library is a really essential skill,” Olson said. “I think getting educated about libraries is just another subject kids need to be taught.”

Although some parents might find their way around a media center easily, others won’t know how to begin accessing an electronic card catalogue.

For those parents, helping their children locate research materials in a county library may prove frustrating and, ultimately, fruitless.

Olson said that although she feels at home in a county library, knowing her daughters will have less time in their school library saddens her.

“It’s just hard to imagine a school without a (fully functioning) library. I know some of my best memories of elementary school were going to the library.”

Hedberg Library Hosting Visitors from Open World Program

Link to Stacy Vogel's May 29 "Cover to Cover" blogpost, Janesville Gazette, "Hedberg welcomes visitors from the east".

Excerpt: This isn't Library Director Bryan McCormick's first experience with the Open World Program. The library welcomed visitors from Russia last year, and McCormick worked with the program at his last library in Minnesota. In fact, he met his wife, a Russian native, when she visited the library where he was director, according to this profile by Marcia Nelesen.

West Bend Library Board Upholds Free and Open Access

From June 3 GM Today post.

West Bend Library Board rejects allegations about controversial books

By DAVE RANK - GM Today Staff	June 3, 2009

WEST BEND - After listening to nearly 60 comments about evenly split between pro and con arguments, the West Bend Library Board Tuesday night unanimously voted 9-0 to maintain "without removing, relocating, labeling or otherwise restricting access" the books in the young adult category at the West Bend Community Memorial Library. The vote was a rejection of a four-month campaign conducted by the citizens’ group West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries to move fiction and nonfiction books with allegedly sexually explicit passages from the young adult section to the adult section and label them as containing sexual material.

[Access to full story requires subscription.]

As you'd expect, Ginny's pissed.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Fitchburg: Out of its gourd(s)?

Link to June 1 The Daily Reporter article, "Library commitment could cost Fitchburg".

Excerpt: If Fitchburg locks in a tentatively scheduled library opening date of Jan. 1, 2011, the city might have to cover most of the estimated $14 million construction price tag.

That prospect already is jangling the nerves of some city leaders.

“People have been telling me we’re out of our gourds to build a library right now,” said Alderman Darren Stucker.

Yet the Common Council approved construction of the library and is interviewing architects and reviewing proposals from construction managers. The city also committed $10 million in city bonds to help pay for construction costs, and Fitchburg’s Library Board has promised to raise $3 million.

Making for a Little More Room on Periodical Display Shelves

Yes, it's getting smaller.

Link to June 1 Editor & Publisher post, "NY Times Magazine' to Shrink Size 9 Percent".

Excerpt: Spokeswoman Diane McNulty confirmed the change, stating it will reduce the size from 9 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches to 8 15/16 inches by 10 7/8 inches. "The shape will be more square," she said in an e-mail.

West Bend Library: Headline News

From GM Today.

West Bend alderman may face probe of his ethics Terry Vrana said some books in library are pornographic

By DAVE RANK - GM Today Staff	June 2, 2009

WEST BEND - The West Bend Ethics Committee will decide if a complaint filed against city Alderman Terry Vrana over comments he made about the city’s library and the Library Board is serious enough to hold a hearing. City resident Kristina Smithers filed a complaint against Vrana Friday afternoon.

Alderman Vrana allegedly called the library a "porn shop". (Is this observation based on first-hand experience -- one way or the other?)

Monday, June 1, 2009

Benefits of Summer Reading Programs

Link to column by Library Director Lori Belongia in the June 1 Marshfield News Herald, "Summer reading pays school year dividends.".

Excerpt: The ability to read and spending time reading are vitally important to successful living and a vibrant community with involved citizens. Summer reading programs also pay significant dividends to school districts, taxpayers, teachers and students as students retain skills that take a school year to acquire. With reading as the basis for all education, educators, researchers and parents agree that summer reading benefits students.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Public Library: A Place to Be in Good Times and Bad

James Prendergast Library, Jamestown New York

From a Retiring Guy's Roots RSS feed.

Link to May 31 Jamestown (NY) Post Journal article, "Libraries Offer Aid In Tough Times".

Excerpt: When times are tough, many area residents may find an Internet service bill or registration of a new computer program to be a luxury they cannot justify.

Luckily for them, their local library offers the service - and many others - for free six days a week.

''The economy is doing it all on its own, boosting the library usage,'' said Tina Scott, assistant director of the Prendergast Library. ''People have less money, and they use the library more because they can't buy those resources. With computers and the Internet becoming almost crucial to the way we live now, every single day when the library opens there's a line of people waiting to come in and use the public computers.''

West Bend Library: Headline News

Crowd shows its support for library
An estimated 100 people took up college student Jake Jurss’ suggestion to walk down a West Bend street and read a few banned books at the West Bend Community Memorial Library Friday afternoon. (Ozaukee-Washington Daily News, 5/30)

Press-Gazette Launches Super Summer Reader Program

Link to May 31 Green Bay Press-Gazette article, "Super Summer Reader: 'Fancy Nancy' worth exploring".

Excerpt: Each week, local book experts will review a book as part of the Press-Gazette's Super Summer Reader program.

Readers are invited to submit their own reviews at www.green baypressgazette.com or Super Summer Reader Program, The Green Bay Press-Gazette, P.O. Box 23430, Green Bay WI 54305-3430. Following is the schedule of reviews: