Columbus Metropolitan Library Going to Voters for Renewal Levy in November

Link to January 21 Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch report.

Excerpt: Voters will decide in November whether to continue their support of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and its 20 branches.

At the urging of library director Patrick Losinski, the seven-member library board decided yesterday that a May vote wouldn't leave enough time to educate voters about the need for a renewal levy.

"There are considerably more opportunities to disseminate information and to seek input from key civic, business and cultural partners" by waiting until November, Losinski wrote in a memo to the board.

[snip]

The Columbus library system has cut $8 million from its budget by reducing hours, staff, maintenance and building renovations. The current levy, which ends this year, supplies the district with half of its $45 million budget.

FIGHT! Amazon and Macmillan Duke It Out Over Ebook Pricing

Link to January 30 New York Times article, "Amazon Removes Macmillan Books".

Excerpt: Amazon.com has pulled books from Macmillan, one of the largest publishers in the United States, in a dispute over the pricing on e-books on the site.

The publisher’s books can be purchased only from third parties on Amazon.com.

A person in the industry with knowledge of the dispute, which has been brewing for a year, said Amazon was expressing its strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books. The person did not want to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of e-books to around $15 from $9.99.

Macmillan is one of the publishers signed on to offer books to Apple, as part of its new iBookstore on the iPad tablet unveiled earlier this week.

Library Tweets of the Day

Libraries. Full of life. Full of emotion. But comfortable enough to nap in.

Kilbourn Public Library Board Reviews Expansion Plans

Kilbourn Public Library, Wisconsin Dells

Link to January 30 wiscnews.com report, "Library board considers geothermal heating, plans".

Excerpt: MSA architect Carter Arndt estimates the cost of installing a geothermal heating system to be $150,000. The board may start by installing a system to heat the new addition, but could gradually phase out the library’s old heating system and convert it to a complete geothermal system.

Arndt talked about other features of the library addition, estimated to cost $2.5 million. The addition would expand both to the south and east of the existing building. Plans could double the size of the current library. A parking lot may be added to the east.

The computer lab would be expanded. The addition may have larger space for staff behind the circulation desk, more storage, possibly a gas fireplace, a rain garden, terrace, a larger program room, smaller meeting rooms, a garage for the bookmobile, a sprinkler system in case of a fire and a basement. More rest rooms would be added, too.

Arndt said the construction would take about a year to complete from whenever it is begun. The building can be made Earth-friendly by using biodegradeable linoleum floor tile and LED lighting with sensors, he said.

Reactions to Fond du Lac SD "Request for Reconsideration"

Sonya Sones Official Website

Link to comments about "'Sexual content' lead one Fond du Lac parent to ask for book to be taken off middle school library shelf". (Oshkosh Northwestern)

Earlier post.

Question: Why are some civil rights groups & leaders on the wrong side of net neutrality?

Answer:



As one CBC staffer told me, many CBC members have willingly supported the business agenda of telecom companies because the industry can be counted on to make campaign contributions, and they face no political backlash. (As noted by James Rucker in a January 29 "Crooks & Liars" post.)

Yes, and we notice how poorly many articles are researched nowadays

Link to January 29 Columbia Journalism Review report, "Endangered Species: News librarians are a dying breed".

"Good grief" is right!

Excerpt: Now that every reporter and editor has access to Google and a wide range of search technologies and online databases, the thinking is that they don’t need to call upon the Boolean expertise of librarians. You can see how it makes sense—except then the facts start to get in the way. In fact, the modern news librarian seems in many ways more important than ever. Even those old clipping files still come in handy.

When I spoke with Amy Disch, chair of the Special Libraries Association News Division and library director of the Columbus Dispatch, she said her team had accessed clipping files and hard copy photo archives more than ten times that day alone. But that’s the least of what they do at the paper. In addition to providing research services to support reporters, the library runs a newsroom intranet and wiki, provides data analysis for investigations, and offers a range of other useful services.

Then there’s the reality that just because reporters can access Google or search Nexis and other databases, it doesn’t mean they know how to use them properly.

Amen to that.

And good luck to turning this around without news librarians.

Library Tweets of the Day

Rep. Kind News Release: Hudson Library Receives Grant

Congressman Ron Kind's homepage

What Goes on in Washington? Survey Says......

......Senate Legislative Process A Mystery To Many.




Link to January 28 Pew Research Center for People and the Press report.

Excerpt: The public has consistently expressed strong interest in the health care debate, but relatively few Americans can correctly answer two key questions related to the Senate’s consideration of health care legislation.

In the latest installment of the Pew Research Center’s News IQ Quiz, just 32% know that the Senate passed its version of the legislation without a single Republican vote. And, in what proved to be the most difficult question on the quiz, only about a quarter (26%) knows that it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster in the Senate and force a vote on a bill.

Take the quiz. 50% of those who have taken it have answered 4 or fewer of the 12 questions correctly.

Too Definitive? "Diary of a Young Girl" Pulled From School Library Shelves

Link to January 28 Culpeper (VA) Star-Exponent report, "CCPS pulls explicit text". (via Drudge Retort)

Excerpt: A version of an iconic autobiography detailing a young Jewish girl’s two-year experience hiding from Nazis in a cramped “Secret Annex” has been pulled from the shelves of Culpeper County Public Schools.

“The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition,” a vivid memoir of Anne Frank’s private thoughts during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, will no longer be assigned to CCPS students, according to Jim Allen, director of instruction for the school system.

This book is usually given to eighth-grade middle school English students to read.

Citing a parent’s concern over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition, Allen said school officials immediately chose to pull this version and use an alternative copy.

Former Director of Community Library: From Demotion to Dismissal

Link to January 29 West of the I blogpost, "Former library director dismissed from job she was demoted to".

Excerpt: Close was dismissed last week, said Ken Mangold, Library Board member from Randall.

“Her services were no longer required,” Mangold said. He would not elaborate on why Close was let go.

Close’s last position was one of six recently vacant positions that will not be filled, Mangold said.

According to the 2008 Wisconsin Public Library Service Data, Community Library reported 22.67 FTE employees, (who support the operation of 3 facilities: Salem, Silver Lake, and Twin Lakes.)

Retiring Guy wonders if Wisconsin's first self-service public library is on the horizon.

Readers Take A(nother) Look at Salinger

LINKcat verification

I'm guessing that most, if not all, of these 37 holds were placed within the past 24 hours.

Link to January 29 Wausau Daily Herald report, "Librarian: Salinger's death likely to renew interest in work".

Excerpt: "Catcher in the Rye" was the only Salinger novel released in his lifetime, but it is an acknowledged masterpiece and established the author as one of the most influential writers of the last century. A collection of Salinger's short stories called "Nine Stories" was released in 1953 and his third book "Franny and Zooey" was published in 1961.

More than 60 million copies of "Catcher in the Rye" have been sold worldwide and it ranks No. 4 on Amazon.com's list of best-selling works of classic fiction.

Stacy Stevens, director of the T.B. Scott Free Library in Merrill, said the staff always sees a renewed interest in a well-known author once they die.

"It becomes popular for a while again," Stevens said.

The library often sets up a display with the author's books and one of the book clubs might decide to devote time to one of the author's works, she said.

And, meanwhile, back at amazon ranch.....................

Fond du Lac School District Parent Requests Reconsideration of This Book

Sonya Sones Official Website

Link to January 29 Oshkosh Northwestern report,"'Sexual content' leads one Fond du Lac parent to ask for book to be taken off middle school library shelf".

Excerpt: The Fond du Lac School District's nine-member Reconsideration Committee met Wednesday to hear Wentworth's complaint. (If any information on this committee is available on the school's website, I couldn't find it.)

Wentworth said she read the book after her 11-year-old daughter, who is in sixth grade, brought the book home from school.

"To the author's credit, it's a good story line, but it contains sexual content that my child, at that age, doesn't understand," she said.

The book, written in a poetic prose style, has won several awards, including being named the 2005 Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association. The story involves a high-school student named Ruby, who, after the death of her mother, moves from Boston to Los Angeles to live with her movie star father.

The book is recommended for readers age 12 and up.

Behind the Scenes at the Holyoke Public Library

Link to January 17 Hello Holyoke! blogpost, "tour of the Holyoke Public Library". (via Twitter)

Excerpt: The other morning I went on a Friends of the Library tour of the building, lead by Board member Tom Ripa…I got to see many of its nooks and crannies. >

The Holyoke Public Library Corporation has just begun the process for asking the City to bond for $5.5 million for renovation and expansion of the 1902 structure. In September of 2008, the HPLC was promised $4.4 million from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners if the HPLC can come up with the rest of the necessary money (roughly $17 mil, in this plan).

The Joe Hayse Story: How Lexington Got Its Library Back

Joe deserves his own wing in the Library Advocacy Hall of Fame.

Lexington Public Library

Link to Tom Eblen's column in the January 24 Lexington Herald-Leader, "Library lovers forced city to go by the book". (via Twitter)

Excerpt: After moving here from Louisville in 1971, Hayse became a frequent patron of the old main library at Gratz Park and its Southland branch, which was then housed in a cramped building that later became a bicycle shop.

The main library — now the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning — had a leaky roof, outdated wiring, crumbling plaster and peeling paint. A wet basement threatened irreplaceable records of Lexington’s early history. Art treasures that had been donated to the library were being sold off to meet operating expenses. Building inspectors finally closed the second floor because they were afraid it might collapse.

Hayse said he became so frustrated that one day he left the library and walked to the office of his high school classmate, lawyer William Jacobs.

“Lexington is a rich city, but we have a library you can’t even use,” Hayse recalled telling Jacobs. “Surely this city can afford to do better than this.”

Lexington could afford to do better — and was required to by state law. City officials were simply ignoring the law, as they had for years, because they didn’t want to raise taxes.

Library board members, who were appointed by the mayor, had agreed to accept only about half the funding they were entitled to receive. Hayse and Jacobs thought the law was clear, and when the library board refused to demand the law be enforced, they filed suit in 1979.

The city fought the lawsuit for nearly five years, but the courts sided with Hayse and Jacobs. Finally, Lexington was required to properly fund the library — plus make back payments owed since the lawsuit was filed. That paved the way for construction of the Central Library on Main Street.

Since then, the Lexington Public Library system has become a model instead of an embarrassment. Its modern buildings, resources and services have made Lexington a more literate community whose citizens are better able to compete in a knowledge economy.

Analysis of The Gazette/KCRG Site for New Cedar Rapids Library

Link to January 28 Cedar Rapids Gazette report.

Excerpt: Bob Pasicznyuk, the library director, said the Gazette site is appealing for many of the same reasons the TrueNorth site is appealing. It’s on Greene Square Park, sits next to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, and would benefit from farmer’s markets and other downtown events.

“There’s just something about being around that park that just weaves it into the community,” Pasicznyuk said.

What separates the Gazette site from the TrueNorth site is two things: First, it didn’t flood, and that could be a huge factor in how much FEMA pays for building a library there. Second, it is large enough that (even without the existing parking ramp) the library can build sufficient parking there. More parking across Sixth Street SE is also available.

The library board’s guiding principles, as Pasicznyuk sees them, can be boiled down to eliminating flood risk and securing adequate free parking. Some 86 percent of respondents to a customer survey cited parking as their biggest complaint with the old library.

Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook

Link to January 28 Mashable post, "Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook".

Excerpt: A new eMarketer report shows that the number of Baby Boomers embracing social media, especially Facebook, jumped drastically between 2008 and 2009.

In its Boomers and Social Media report, eMarketer takes a look at social media adoption among different generations. Results showed that while the percentage of Millennials maintaining a social networking site profile was fairly consistent from 2007 through 2009, the same cannot be said of Baby Boomers’ social media usage.

Library Tweets of the Day

New Orleans breaking ground on Lakeview library

Link to January 28 nola.com report.

Excerpt: The City of New Orleans will hold a ground-breaking ceremony for the Robert E. Smith Library today at 3:30 p.m. on site at 6301 Canal Boulevard. This is one of five new libraries slated to be built at a total cost of more than $27.5 million.

Mayor Ray Nagin will speak and will be joined by Councilmember Shelley Midura (District A), Rica Trigs, New Orleans Public Library's Chief Operating Officer, Cynthia Sylvain- Lear, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, and representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Lakeview community.

Calgary Public Library Goes to Market

Link to January 27 CBC News report, "Calgary library ads target grocery shoppers". (via Twitter)

Excerpt: Calgary's public libraries are trying to catch the attention of supermarket shoppers by placing advertisements right in with the bananas and pastrami.

New library ads have made their way into the produce and deli departments of 10 Real Canadian Superstores across the city. The slogan for the campaign is "Everything you're into," and the advertisements feature lines such as "from barbecue to bull riding" and "from ham to Hamlet."

It's a unique campaign, said April Ganger, who works with the Calgary Public Library's marketing department.

"We were trying to have that guerilla impact," she said.

White pages disappearing from Racine area phone book

Poll question:
you want residential white pages
in your phone book?

Link to January 27 Racine Journal-Times report.

Excerpt: To reduce cost, the company said in a filing with the state Public Service Commission, it will eliminate the residential white pages listings from phone books unless customers request a book with those pages included. There's no charge to obtain such phone books. The government listings, business white pages listings, and yellow pages listings will still be delivered to everyone as usual.

Community Library Branch Plans Move

Link to January 28 Kenosha News report, "Silver Lake library plans move".

Excerpt: The Silver Lake branch of the Community Library will move to 729 S. Cogswell Drive — the main thoroughfare in the village — Library Board president Marlene Goodson said Wednesday.

“It is an awesome location,” Goodson said. “I do truly believe we will have a lot more patrons there than we had been seeing.”

The Library Board voted earlier this week to terminate its lease at 319 E. Lake St., where problems with leaks and humidity threatened hundreds of books and related materials. It closed five times in November for one to two days at a time so maintenance crews could work and has been closed since the beginning of the year.

Wisconsin State Senator Judy Robson (D-Beloit) to Retire

Link to January 27 Wisconsin State Journal politics blog.

Excerpt: Longtime state Senator and former Senate leader Judy Robson said today she will not seek re-election - the third senator to do so this month.

Robson, 70, was the second woman to serve as the Senate Majority Leader and the first Democratic woman to do so. A retired registered nurse, Robson focused much of her work as a lawmaker on health care issues such as the BadgerCare Plus expansion of state medical coverage for the poor.

"As a legislative leader, I sought to make the Legislature more civil, ethical and open to citizens. It was an exhilarating experience," Robson said in a statement.

Robson was first elected to the Assembly in a June 1987 special election and was elected to the Senate in 1998.

Congratulations to Sen. Robson on her distinguished career in the state legislature.

Hudson City Council has concerns about library floor plan

Link to January 28 Hudson (WI) Star-Observer report. (Need to register for free account to access full text.)

Excerpt: A review of the Hudson Area Joint Library’s plans for the new city building at 700 First St. raised concern among some members of the Hudson City Council at their Jan. 18 meeting.

Four council members expressed reservations about giving blanket approval to the floor plans drafted by BKV Group, the library’s architect for its renovations to the building.

In the end, the council gave general approval to the layout of the library’s second floor and the east wing of the first floor. Council members also approved the location of a new elevator and a basement mechanical room to serve it.

But they reserved judgment on the design of the lobby and a drive-up or walk-up book drop-off window on the rear (north) wall of the library.

Louis Auchincloss, 1917-2010

The only book of his
that Retiring Guy has read

Link to January 28 New York Times obituary, "Louis Auchincloss, Prolific Chronicler of New York's Upper Crust, Dies at 92".

Excerpt: Although he practiced law full time until 1987, Mr. Auchincloss published more than 60 books of fiction, biography and literary criticism in a writing career of more than a half-century. He was best known for his dozens and dozens of novels about what he called the “comfortable” world, which in the 1930s meant “an apartment or brownstone in town, a house in the country, having five or six maids, two or three cars, several clubs and one’s children in private schools.”

This was the world he came from, and its customs and secrets were his subject from the beginning. He persisted in writing about it, fondly but also trenchantly, long after that world had begun to vanish.

Read the last two paragraphs of the obituary to learn what Auchincloss thinks of this observation.

Extrapolating from the number of copies linked to each bibliographic record in LINKcat, I'd say that Auchincloss' books are not owned by many libraries. Portrait in Brownstone, for example, is owned by Madison (FICTION STORAGE, ASK FOR HELP) and Monroe (IN LIBRARY).

iPad Introduced to an Already Overburdened Digital World

Link to January 28 New York Times report," As Devices Pull More Data, Patience May Be Required".

Excerpt: Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, played up the iPad’s ability to stream live baseball games and hit movies during his demonstration on Wednesday. But people who are willing to pay more to get that content over AT&T’s 3G data network may pay another price: glacial downloads and spotty service on an already overburdened system.

America’s advanced cellphone network is already beginning to be bogged down by smartphones that double as computers, navigation devices and e-book readers. Cellphones are increasingly being used as TVs, which hog even more bandwidth. They can also transmit video, allowing for videoconferencing on cellphones.

And a new generation of netbooks, tablet PCs and other mobile devices that connect to cellphone networks will only add to the strain.

Jessamine County Public Library Delays Collection Development Policy Review

Jessamine County Public Library

Link to January 27 Jessamine Journal report, "Revisions of library policy delayed".

Excerpt: The Jessamine County Public Library Board of Trustees will have to wait another month to review a revised collection-development policy after the library’s policy committee announced it was not finished with the proposed changes in time to put it before the board at its Jan. 20 meeting.

The newly formed policy committee was examining the collection-development policy after community concerns and heated debate in recent months about content in the library that some deemed obscene and pornographic. The policy provides guidelines for the selection of materials for the library’s collection.

Background here, here, and here.

Analysis of Emerald Knights Site for New Cedar Rapids Library

Link to Adam Belz January 27 Gazette Online blogpost.

The main selling points.

1. It's cheap.

2. It's well out of the flood plain.

3. One of the highest traffic spots in Cedar Rapids.

In Case You Missed It: The Dogs of Wisconsin Libraries

From the About page:

How This Collection Came to Be
As part of my job at WiLS, I visit libraries. My husband and I have dogs, and at some point, I started asking librarians for photographs of their dogs. Since I was meeting with a lot of catalogers (notorious cat people), I didn't collect as many as I had hoped, but eventually I had about 50 photographs of dogs pinned up on the wall in my office.

Since CONTENTdm seemed like such an easy way to manage a digital collection, I started entertaining the idea of using it to make a Dogs of Wisconsin Libraries project. In December of 2004, I posted an online survey and sent it to people who had expressed interest in having their dog or dogs included in the project, and word spread. The collection debuted in April of 2005 and since November of 2005, people have been able to add their own dogs and metadata via the web. For information on adding dogs, email Kirsten Houtman at khoutman@wils.wisc.edu or visit our website at www.wils.wisc.edu.

BIG thank you from the Illinois Regional Library System directors

On Wednesday, January 20, the Illinois library community and its supporters banded together as never before to press the state government to release funds appropriated to library systems. Libraries, library systems, and their supporters across Illinois did their part to make our voice heard loud and clear in Springfield.

Over twenty-two thousand messages have been sent, more than eleven thousand each to the governor and the comptroller, letting them know that system funding is not something that can be neglected. In the wake of this campaign, we have received word that the comptroller’s office has released the first payments to the systems, covering approximately 35% of our total appropriated funding. This is wonderful news!

The not-so-good news is that there is no guarantee of systems receiving the remaining 65% of their funding for this fiscal year, or that the new fiscal year that begins in July will bear any better results. We will remain fiscally conservative by spending funds for only those things that keep our services available to Illinois’ libraries and their users. And we ask that Illinois’ library supporters continue to keep your elected officials aware that this funding situation is unacceptable.

For now, though, let’s take a minute and be grateful that our voices were heard and that some of our funds were released. We are thankful and humbled by your overwhelming response and support. Together we made a difference.

Wednesday Miscellany

People Sleeping in Libraries. (Flickr)
People needing to get funkified.

Spare change?

Mashable says boo!

Lawrence City Commission to consider construction bid to renovate old Carnegie Library. (Lawrence Journal-World & News -- Kansas)
107-year-old building, no longer in use as a library.

Smuggler arrested at airport with dozens of lizards in his undewear. (boingboing)
How can I NOT share this?

Study Abroad Stuggles During Economic Downturn. (Miami Herald via The Kept-Up Academic)

On the other hand......
From books to boot camp: Dearth of job opportunities prompts more college graduates to join military. (boston.com via The Kept-Up Academic)

Based on this trend, somebody should write the "Marching from College" version.

Apology not accepted. (Sheboygan Press)
This is just one small example of the ongoing snoozefest taking place in MSMland.

I've Always Like Oregon

Link to January 26 OregonLive.com report, "Oregon voters pass tax increasing measures by big margin".

Excerpt: Oregon voters bucked decades of anti-tax and anti-Salem sentiment Tuesday, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to prevent further erosion of public schools and other state services.

The tax measures passed easily, with late returns showing a 54 percent to 46 percent ratio. Measure 66 raises taxes on households with taxable income above $250,000, and Measure 67 sets higher minimum taxes on corporations and increases the tax rate on upper-level profits. The results triggered waves of relief from educators and legislative leaders, who were facing an estimated $727 million shortfall in the current two-year budget if the measures failed.

[snip]

Tuesday's strong support [60% voter turnout - in a special election!!] also validated a strategy by Democratic lawmakers to single out the rich and corporations for targeted tax increases.

I'm open to correction, but I suspect that public libraries aren't impacted too much by this vote.

According to the Institute of Museum and Library Services' Public Library Survey Fiscal Year 2007 (published June 2009), Oregon's public libraries receive the majority of their funding from local sources.

Local 91.7%

Other 7.5&

Federal 0.5%

State 0.4%

(Other is defined as "gift and donations received in the current year, interest, library fines, fees for library service, grants.")

Nevertheless........

Library Journal's Annual Budget Survey: Maybe Not as Bleak as You Expected

Link to January 15 Library Journal article, "Permanent Shift? Library Budgets 2010.

Excerpt: It’s no surprise that libraries in LJ’s annual budget survey reported an overall downward trend, with the expected decline in total budgets some 2.6% and the change in materials budgets 3.5%. Per capita funding is nudging down after years of steady if sometimes modest increases, with a projected decline of 1.6% in FY10.

After all, the country has not emerged from a major economic downturn, and libraries—especially those lacking a dedicated funding stream—are particularly vulnerable to budget cutbacks and declining property values.

From what Retiring Guy is reading in news accounts and hearing anecdotally, the next round of budget deliberations is likely to be decidedly more painful. In fact, some libraries on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year have already found this to be so.

Dungeons & Dragons Ban Upheld at Waupun Correctional Institution

Link to January 27 New York Times article, "Court Upholds Prison Ban on Dungeons & Dragons".

Excerpt: Prison officials said they had banned the game at the recommendation of the prison’s specialist on gangs, who said it could lead to gang behavior and fantasies about escape.

Dungeons & Dragons could “foster an inmate’s obsession with escaping from the real-life correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior,” prison officials said in court. That could make it more difficult to rehabilitate prisoners and could endanger public safety, they said.

[snip]

“We are pleased with the ruling,” said John Dipko, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, who added that the prison rules “enable us to continue our mission of keeping our state safe.”

Raise your hand if you feel safer already.

My favorite headline of all the many/many I found doing a Google search.

"Prison Ban of Dungeons & Dragons (no its not the Onion!)"

Ebook Readers: Survey Says......

......49% of surveyed consumers unlikely to buy dedicated e-book readers.

And another 23% are "unsure".

Link to January 26 TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home blogpost. (via Resource Shelf)

Excerpt: Survey overview:

no near term tipping point
e-reader penetration could reach 12-15% in 2 years
undecided at 38% are swing faction
resistance among 45+ consumers

Tablet Computers: An Over-the-shoulder Look

AT&T Eo 440 Personal Communicator (1993)

Link to January 27 Technologizer post, "A Brief History of Unsuccessful Tablet Computers".

Excerpt: “Insanity,” novelist Rita Mae Brown wrote, “is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” By that standard, the long history of tablet computers doesn’t quite count as insanity–manufacturers have tried a variety of form factors and features over the years. But the results are the same, over and over again: failure. It’s the classic example of a gadget that the industry keeps coming back to and reintroducing with all the hype it can muster–and which consumers keep rejecting.

Today, Apple is announcing its first true tablet. It took the company thirty-four years to get around to it, and it’s just about the only outfit in the business that abstained until now. Whether the device looks brilliant or misbegotten, all evidence suggests that there won’t be much that’s repetitious about it. Even so, it’s worth looking back at more than two decades of attempts to get tablets right–none of which really succeeded, and some of which failed on a monumental scale.

Who Do You Trust?

Link to January 26 The Raw Story report, "Poll finds Americans trust Fox News more than any other network".

Excerpt: “A generation ago you would have expected Americans to place their trust in the most neutral and unbiased conveyors of news,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But the media landscape has really changed and now they’re turning more toward the outlets that tell them what they want to hear.”

Conservatives and liberals alike.