Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Des Plaines Mayor Grouses About Library's Possible Need for Loan
Maybe he should direct his displeasure at the Cook County Treasurer's Office.
Link to September 29 Daily Herald article, "Des Plaines Library seeks loan from city".
Excerpt: The Des Plaines Public Library might need to borrow up to $1.5 million from the city to remain open through the end of the year if Cook County property tax receipts don't come in on time, officials said.
[snip]
Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan said the library will have to justify the loan request to the city council and "if they've made cuts to show that they truly deserve the city's backing on this issue."
"We froze our department heads' salaries. We've made cuts to staff. And the library until this year has not done that," Moylan added. "They have raised residents' taxes approximately 7.4 percent for the last 10 years. We encourage them to be responsible with the taxpayers' money."
Library officials are holding off on planned improvements this year such as upgrading restrooms and reconfiguring the library's fourth floor to make space for additional computers and move the help desk to a central location.
"We stopped buying materials so we haven't bought books, DVDs or music since August," Sorensen said.
Officials hope to build up the library's fund balance in future years so it is not hamstrung by delays in property tax receipts.
Related article:
Mayor offers veiled threat to library board. (10/27/2009; note comment.)
Link to September 29 Daily Herald article, "Des Plaines Library seeks loan from city".
Excerpt: The Des Plaines Public Library might need to borrow up to $1.5 million from the city to remain open through the end of the year if Cook County property tax receipts don't come in on time, officials said.
[snip]
Des Plaines Mayor Marty Moylan said the library will have to justify the loan request to the city council and "if they've made cuts to show that they truly deserve the city's backing on this issue."
"We froze our department heads' salaries. We've made cuts to staff. And the library until this year has not done that," Moylan added. "They have raised residents' taxes approximately 7.4 percent for the last 10 years. We encourage them to be responsible with the taxpayers' money."
Library officials are holding off on planned improvements this year such as upgrading restrooms and reconfiguring the library's fourth floor to make space for additional computers and move the help desk to a central location.
"We stopped buying materials so we haven't bought books, DVDs or music since August," Sorensen said.
Officials hope to build up the library's fund balance in future years so it is not hamstrung by delays in property tax receipts.
Related article:
Mayor offers veiled threat to library board. (10/27/2009; note comment.)
In Addition to 'No Shoes No Shirt No Service'?
Link to September 23 Austin Statesman article, "Keeping library patrons safe, 1 cap removal at a time". (Thanks to Jason Skoog for the heads-up.)
Excerpt: Thanks to the Austin Public Library's new conduct policy, you could get tossed from the library for refusing to take off your ball cap.
You heard that right. Starting next Friday, Austin's libraries will begin enforcing a dress code that prohibits ball caps, sunglasses and hoodies. You're asking why. It's the same reason given for about everything else that goes down these days: keeping you safe.
Hey, I'm kept so safe these days that I'm almost afraid to leave the house.
The city's library system has put up bumper sticker-style signs at all of its 21 branches, the history center and its Recycled Reads bookstore on Burnet Road. These signs show international "no" signs over illustrations of ball caps, sunglasses and hoodies.
Techdirt blogger rolls his eyes -- though you can't tell because he's wearing shades.
Security Alert: Staff Member Sexually Assaulted at Dallas Branch Library (with follow-up)
Link to September 24 Dallas News article, "Dallas police seek help identifying suspect in library sex assault".
Excerpt: Police say the teen entered the Kleburg-Rylie library, on Edd Road near South Belt Line and Seagoville roads, and attacked the woman before it opened at about 8:50 a.m.
An hour and 10 minutes before the library was scheduled to open.
17-year-old arrested in sexual assault at Dallas library. (Dallas News, 9/28/2010)
Jersey City Free Public Library: "Small branch with a big heart must close."
Link to September 28 Jersey Journal article, "Jersey City library announces three branches will close".
Excerpt: The Jersey City Free Public Library is closing its three neighborhood libraries by the end of the year, beginning with the West Bergen library Friday.
The library, at 476 West Side Avenue, first opened as the West Bergen Lending Service in 1971 down the road at 503 West Side Avenue after then West Side Councilman Morris Pesin fought for it, saying it was “deplorable that thousands of our children are being denied an essential part of their educational life.”
By 1980, the neighborhood branch became a full-fledged library. It moved to 476 West Side Avenue 20 years ago.
The library announced the closing on Twitter today, posting a link to its website, www.jclibrary.org and later issued a press release saying layoffs are also pending.
“Unfortunately, this small branch with a big heart must close, due to decreased library funding,” a posting on the library’s website states.
Related articles:
Library cuts hours of operation. (9/9/2010)
Jersey City residents plead for their library. (8/26/2010)
More bad news from New Jersey. (8/9/2010)
Facebook Declares Neumann the Winner in Republican Gubernatorial Primary!!
Link to September 29 CQPolitics article, "Social Media May Predict Candidates' Wins". (Thanks to Tony Driessen for the heads-up.)
Or it may not.
Maybe it just provides an indicator of the enthusiasm generated by a number of hotly-contested Republican primaries this season.
Neumann jumped out to a big lead from the start.
But if there is any substance to this theory, then Barrett is toast.
Or it may not.
Maybe it just provides an indicator of the enthusiasm generated by a number of hotly-contested Republican primaries this season.
54,586 people like this
33,449 people like this
Neumann jumped out to a big lead from the start.
But if there is any substance to this theory, then Barrett is toast.
15,641 people like this.
Digital Services @ Your Library
Excerpt: Ohio Libraries are tweeting, texting and launching smart-phone apps as they try to keep up with the biblio-techs - a computer-savvy class of people who consider card catalogs as vintage as typewriters. And they seem to be pulling it off.
Since libraries started rebranding themselves for the iPod generation, thousands of music geeks have downloaded free songs from library websites. And with many more bookworms waiting months to check out wireless reading devices, libraries are shrugging off the notion that the Internet shelved them alongside dusty books.
"People tend to have this antiquated version of libraries, like there's not much more inside than books and microfiche," says Hiller Goodspeed, a 22-year-old graphic designer in Orlando, Fla., who uses the Orange County Library System's iPhone app to discover foreign films.
Midwest to Lose House Seat in Next Reapportionment of Congress
Link to September 29 New York Times article, "Likely Losses of House Seats Stirs Partisan Feuds".
State population tallies, to be revealed at the end of December, are expected to show that in the coming reapportionment of Congress, seats will be lost across this region — in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and perhaps, experts say, Minnesota or Missouri.
“When you think about losing six seats this time around,” said Tom Gillaspy, the state demographer of Minnesota, “that’s stark.” Minnesota is one of 12 Midwestern states that together commanded 143 Congressional seats a century ago, but that number is predicted to shrink to 94.
I recently read -- of course, now I can't remember exactly where -- that Illinois' U.S. House of Representatives District 17 resembles a rabbit on a skateboard.
This article mentions other odd district carvings.
Excerpt: Whatever the outcome of the fall elections, one political loser this year seems certain: the Midwest.
State population tallies, to be revealed at the end of December, are expected to show that in the coming reapportionment of Congress, seats will be lost across this region — in Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and perhaps, experts say, Minnesota or Missouri.
“When you think about losing six seats this time around,” said Tom Gillaspy, the state demographer of Minnesota, “that’s stark.” Minnesota is one of 12 Midwestern states that together commanded 143 Congressional seats a century ago, but that number is predicted to shrink to 94.
This article mentions other odd district carvings.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
For Now, Digital Media Not on Everyone's Menu
Link to September 28 CNET News post, "NPD: Few Americans are consuming digital media".
Excerpt: According to NPD, a whopping 75 percent of all U.S. consumers did not connect to or download multimedia content, including games, music, video, or e-books, over the past three months. The majority of consumers who did search for and download such content--15 percent--did so mostly on their PC or Mac as opposed to other types of connected devices, such as video game consoles, mobile devices, or Blu-ray players.
Delaware: Georgetown Public Library's Recent History with Water
From job to sorrow in less than 2 months.
Let's hope things get back on track as quickly as possible.
Link to August 30 Salisbury (MD) Times article, "Georgetown can't pay new library's water bill".
Excerpt: While the town wants very badly to support the Georgetown Public Library, Mayor Brian Pettyjohn said, it cannot foot the bill for the new facility's water and sewer usage.
"At this point in time we're waiting to see what the first month's utility bill looks like, then we'll figure out how we can help them," Pettyjohn said. "They just opened their doors [Aug. 9], so we don't know what the costs are yet."
The library, now in a 29,400-square-foot facility, recently moved from a 2,000-square-foot house built in 1926. During its time in the house, the town did not charge for water and sewer. Now, library officials are worried about a big bill.
Library Director Elaine Fike said her organization did not budget for water and sewer service.
Link to September 27 WBOC News story, "Recently Opened Georgetown Library Damaged by Flooding".
Excerpt: Staffers at the recently opened Georgetown Library arrived to quite a surprise Monday morning.
A broken pipe flooded the first floor of the complex, soaking furniture and closing the library for the day, Board of Directors President Paul Enterline said. In a building known for its quiet, carpet cleaners and fans hummed as crews tried to soak up the moisture.
"It's an unfortunate occurrence," Enterline said. "These things happen. It appears a pipe broke. It's just as simple as that."
The pipe is located in the ceiling between the first and second floors but the exact cause of the break is unknown. Weather is not considered a factor.
The damage comes less than two-months after the library held its grand opening.
IRS Will No Longer Mail Tax Forms and Instructions
In Middleton, the local post office stopped providing forms 5-6 years. A sign directs people to the library.
Here's a list of local IRS offices in Wisconsin.
The IRS notes that 96,000,000 tax forms have been e-filed so far this year. I'm curious to know how many were filed from libraries. (I'll have to do some poking around later today.)
"A Pretty Shocking Incident" at Philadelphia's Olney Branch Library
Link to September 28 Philadelphia Inquirer article, "Philadelphia police officer shoots knife-wielding robbery suspect in Olney library".
Excerpt: A man armed with a knife was shot and critically wounded by police during a confrontation Monday afternoon inside a library in the city's Olney section, police said.
Mark Cottman, 31, whose last known address was the 5400 block of Warnock Street in Logan, was shot about 2:40 p.m. after he lunged at an officer with the knife inside the Greater Olney branch library at Fifth Street and Tabor Road, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.
The violent encounter began a few minutes earlier with police responding to a robbery call at J&K Shoes at 5505 N. Fifth St., just up the street from the library, Vanore said.
Cottman "goes in and [at knifepoint] robs the store," Vanore said. "There is some video there, so they know he perpetrates this."
When police arrived, they were directed by witnesses to the library, where they said the robber had fled, Vanore said.
Pew Research Center: U.S. Religious Knowledge
Link to executive summary.
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.
On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Atheists and agnostics average 20.9 correct answers. Jews and Mormons do about as well, averaging 20.5 and 20.3 correct answers, respectively. Protestants as a whole average 16 correct answers; Catholics as a whole, 14.7. Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons perform better than other groups on the survey even after controlling for differing levels of education.
Barbara Thompson, 1st Woman Elected as Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dies
From the 1973 Wisconsin Blue Book
Link to September 27 Wisconsin State Journal article.
Excerpt: Barbara Thompson, long-time Wisconsin educator and the first woman to serve as state superintendent of public instruction, died Thursday at a retirement residence in Bradenton, Fla.
Thompson served two four-year terms in the state’s top education office from 1973-81. During her tenure she introduced rules requiring teachers to complete a professional development program every five years to renew their licenses, essentially eliminating lifetime teaching licenses.
“I think she enjoyed great friendships in the field,” said Bert Grover, who defeated the incumbent Thompson in 1981 and served three terms as state superintendent. “She modeled kindness and thoughtfulness and respect for education. Most of all she was a role model for women.”
Nicolet College president Elizabeth Burmaster, who headed DPI from 2001-09, called Thompson “an amazing woman.” Thompson was elected state superintendent when Burmaster was a young teacher and “I found that very inspiring,” said Burmaster, the only other woman to hold DPI’s top job.
Born in 1924, Thompson grew up during the Depression on a dairy and tobacco farm near McFarland, and attended a one-room rural school and later Madison East High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree from UW-Platteville in 1944, the same year she began teaching in one-room schools in the Mt. Horeb area, and over the next 25 years also earned master’s and doctoral degrees at UW-Madison.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Hennepin County Commissioner Sez Public Art is 'Nice but not a Necessity'
Excerpt: Sculpture, stained glass and textiles will ornament the newly opened Plymouth and Maple Grove libraries next year, over the protest of a Hennepin County commissioner who says it's no time to be spending money on artwork.
The Hennepin County Board voted 6 to 1 on Tuesday to approve the first $60,000 of a $120,000 art purchase for the Plymouth Library.
The vote reflected the county's policy, in effect since 2001, requiring that 1 percent of the money spent for the design and construction of new libraries be spent on public art.
The Hennepin County Board voted 6 to 1 on Tuesday to approve the first $60,000 of a $120,000 art purchase for the Plymouth Library.
The vote reflected the county's policy, in effect since 2001, requiring that 1 percent of the money spent for the design and construction of new libraries be spent on public art.
Friday Closures: A Washout in Wheaton but Willingboro Wants to Try
Related articles:
Wheaton council gets its way, drops threat to legislate. (8/4/2010)
Council still quibbling over library hours ordinance. (7/21/2010)
Mayor, council bully library board to restore Friday hours. (7/17/2010)
Wheaton mayor, council members continue their hissy fit. (7/5/2010)
Apparently, Scalzo's colleagues didn't take his advice. (6/30/2010)
'Take a deep breath' advises Wheaton council member. (6/20/2010)
No Friday hours at library irks council members. (6/10/2010)
New Jersey Formula for Library Funding Comes Under Fire
Excerpt: Public libraries across New Jersey operate on a state funding formula that mandates how much money municipalities must allocate.
But if Summit has its way, that formula should be eliminated in favor of letting each municipality decide how much it wants to budget for books and library operations.
That prospect frightens Library Director Glenn Devitt, Library Board of Trustees spokesman Jon Plaut and Mayor Jordan Glatt. But in a symbolic gesture of support, Common Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday, Sept. 21, to endorse a two-sentence proposed bill in the state legislature to abolish mandated library funding levels and treat libraries just like any other municipal department.
Councilman Tom Getzendanner, who introduced the resolution to endorse the state Assembly bill, said that funding should be based on the actual amount needed to operate the library, rather than on the existing state formula that allocates to the library budget one-third mill for every dollar of a community’s total assessed property value. A mill is 1,000th of a dollar.
Bill under consideration:
Pew Research on How The Mainstream Media Covers Technology
Link to September 27 Pew Research Project for Excellence in Journalism report, "Tech Times: Media Coverage of Technology".
Excerpt: The mainstream news media have offered the American public a divided view of how information technology influences society, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Over the past year, messages about the promise of technology making life easier and awe about new gadgets have vied in the news with worries about privacy, child predators, shrinking attention spans and danger behind the wheel.
The most prevalent underlying message about technology's influence has been upbeat -- the notion that technology is making life easier and more productive. Nearly a quarter of all technology stories studied from June 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, conveyed this idea. But that was closely followed by the sense that with convenience comes risk -- to our privacy and particularly to our children -- which made up nearly two-in-10 stories, according to the study.
The Future of the Book (from IDEO)
In light of James Billington's recent paraphrase of a Paul Saffo observation...
Certainly the book business is in a transitional state like all print media. But books are not going away. New technologies tend to supplement rather than supplant older ones. Television did not destroy radio; the VCR and DVD players did not keep people from movie theaters.
...I'd hesitate to assert that this fascinating video describes THE future of the book, i.e., a future where all other reading formats are discarded.
The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.
Certainly the book business is in a transitional state like all print media. But books are not going away. New technologies tend to supplement rather than supplant older ones. Television did not destroy radio; the VCR and DVD players did not keep people from movie theaters.
...I'd hesitate to assert that this fascinating video describes THE future of the book, i.e., a future where all other reading formats are discarded.
The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.
Privatizing @ Your Library
You want insulting, demeaning, condescending, and self-serving all in a 58-word quotation?
A lot of libraries are atrocious. Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work. -- Frank Pezzanite, LSSI chief executive.
Link to September 27 New York Times article, "Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries".
Excerpt: SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system.
Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy.
A $4 million deal to run the three libraries here is a chance for the company to demonstrate that a dose of private management can be good for communities, whatever their financial situation. But in an era when outsourcing is most often an act of budget desperation — with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another — the contract in Santa Clarita has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing.
A lot of libraries are atrocious. Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work. -- Frank Pezzanite, LSSI chief executive.
Link to September 27 New York Times article, "Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries".
Excerpt: SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system.
Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy.
A $4 million deal to run the three libraries here is a chance for the company to demonstrate that a dose of private management can be good for communities, whatever their financial situation. But in an era when outsourcing is most often an act of budget desperation — with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another — the contract in Santa Clarita has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing.
Mincoqua Library Bid Process Approved Despite Concerns Over Cost
Link to September 24 Lakeland Times article, "Minocqua library expansion bid opening OK'd
Approval follows extended debate about project’s affordability".
Excerpt: Though plans for the library expansion are bid-ready, town board members are still raising concerns about the scope of the project.
Initiating a debate which lasted nearly an hour at the board meeting Tuesday night, supervisor Mark Hartzheim raised concerns about the final $1.75 million price tag on the library expansion.
Town chairman Joe Handrick said those concerns, though legitimate, were being voiced far too late in a process which began nearly a year ago when an overwhelming 73 percent of voters approved an 11,700 square-foot expansion at a cost of $1.6 million.
"The townspeople did give approval up to $1.6 million but that doesn't mean we can't build something for $1 million or $1.2 million," Hartzheim said.
"That was never the direction of the board to the committee that was working on the project," Handrick said.
Supervisor John Thompson joined Hartzheim in expressing disappointment with the final price, directing his concerns to Mike Murphy of Miron Construction, who was present at the meeting along with Daniel Voss, Miron's regional vice president of business development, and David Drews, senior design architect with Zimmerman architectural studios.
Related articles:
August 5th groundbreaking. (8/9/2010)
Library Committee narrows architect candidates to six. (3/18/2010)
Minocqua Public Library Building Project Update. (2/19/2010)
More on Minocqua Referendum. (11/5/2009)
Two for Two: Minocqua Library Referendum Passes. (11/4/2009)
Computers in Libraries: Keeping up with Demand. (10/17/2009)
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Librarian of Congress James Billington on 'Tapping the Stored Wisdom of Books'
Link to September 24 Washington Post Op-Ed column, "Choose Your Own Adventure".
Excerpt: Saturday marked the 10th anniversary of the National Book Festival. Why, you may ask, celebrate books at a time when everything is going digital? Certainly the book business is in a transitional state like all print media. But books are not going away. New technologies tend to supplement rather than supplant older ones. Television did not destroy radio; the VCR and DVD players did not keep people from movie theaters. While the technologies we use to read books may change, the value of reading them does not; and the values of the book culture that helped create our nation must not be left behind. In an era of 140-character messages and the increasing destruction of the basic unit of civilized discourse (the sentence), it is critical that we continue to encourage the production and reading of books.
Hint from Heloise: Public libraries offer many services
Link to 'Hints from Heloise' column in the September 20 Houston Chronicle.
Excerpt: Your public library is brimming with services.
Check your local library to see what services it provides. Here are some of the services at the San Antonio library :
You can download e-books, audiobooks, music and videos for free .
It has a bookmobile to bring library service to residents who can't visit a library.
It has a career center where ré sumé s can be checked and pointers for interviews can be offered, and there are even links to local job-search sites.
It has a Dial-A-Story-Line, where young children can be read a story in either English or Spanish.
It has approximately 150,000 government publications. And it has staff available for patent and trademark searching.
Check your local library to see what services it provides. Here are some of the services at the San Antonio library :
You can download e-books, audiobooks, music and videos for free .
It has a bookmobile to bring library service to residents who can't visit a library.
It has a career center where ré sumé s can be checked and pointers for interviews can be offered, and there are even links to local job-search sites.
It has a Dial-A-Story-Line, where young children can be read a story in either English or Spanish.
It has approximately 150,000 government publications. And it has staff available for patent and trademark searching.
Google at 12
Link to September 26 San Jose Mercury News article, "Google at 12: A company navigating the conflicts that come with age".
Excerpt: They called it "the airport test."
When Google filed its incorporation papers 12 years ago, the company that would grow to a $24 billion-a-year business consisted of three Stanford computer science graduate students, all in their mid-20s. But even back in September 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google's co-founders, and Craig Silverstein, Google's first employee, had a clear idea how they would carefully pick their hires, choosing people compatible with the culture they planned to create.
"We had the airport test, which was Larry's test, I think, or maybe it was Sergey's test," Silverstein said. "Which was if your flight got canceled, and you were stuck in the airport for three hours with this guy or this girl, how happy would you be about that?"
As Google marks its 12th birthday this month -- a milestone that in a lifetime represents the end of childhood -- the tightknit, idealistic culture forged by the airplane test remains one of the company's foundational strengths. Many key players in its top management date to its earliest days, veterans of 100-hour work weeks and parking-lot roller-hockey games, who shared a vision of a company that could change the world.
But just as those former 20-somethings are now looking at 40, with spouses, kids and other middle-age responsibilities, so too have their views of business matured. With the growth in Google's reach and power, their idealism is now forced to vie with coldblooded calculation, observers say.
Ever notice how these reportorial transitions almost always involve anonymous 'observers', 'experts', 'analysts', 'authorities', 'scholars'.....whatever? And the Ken Auletta quote doesn't directly address the 'coldblooded calculation' observation.
Students Don't Use the Public Library Anymore? Look Again!
Link to September 25 Los Angeles Times article, "Library cuts, school-night Xbox launches hurt students".
Excerpt: Lucero Lorenzo, 18, spent many hours of her childhood reading and drawing in the cozy confines of the Cahuenga branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.
This summer, the city sharply reduced library hours and closed all the branches every Monday. But Lorenzo is still keeping to her old routine. This Monday I found her outside the closed library in East Hollywood, huddled with a sketchpad and a notebook beside the front steps' concrete banister.
"This is my refuge," she said quietly. "I've been coming here since I was 8. Just looking at all the books, I fell in love with it."
Sitting under the pepper tree outside while traffic zipped past on Santa Monica Boulevard wasn't quite the same.
"You get used to these things," she said. "It's hard to break from them."
For many L.A. Unified students, it was the first Monday with homework since the new library cuts. And in the course of just under an hour, Lorenzo and I watched as a dozen people, nearly all of them teenagers, arrived at the branch's front steps.
Each would-be library patron stood momentarily perplexed by the large pink Xs the librarians had placed over the now-obsolete schedule affixed to the glass doors.
Standing there, listening to their stories, I could tangibly feel the loss of L.A. brain power.
Related articles:
L.A. Weekly takes Mayor Villaraigosa to Task. (9/19/2010)
Hours reduced at library for 3rd time in 7 months. (7/20/2010)
Don't let the library get washed away. (7/19/2010)
The Middleton Public Library is open more hours than the Los Angeles Central Library. (7/16/2010)
Los Angeles Board of Library Commissioners does Mayor's bidding. (6/12/2010)
Another elective body thinks libraries are dispensable. (5/5/2010)
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)
Jim Galloway: The Internet as the World's Largest Bathroom Stall?
Link to 'Political Insider with Jim Galloway' column in the September 25 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Saxby Chambliss, the Internet and nameless speech".
Excerpt: It is painful to admit, because no one likes to trash his own neighborhood.
But when it comes to political discussion, there are times when you have to wonder whether the Internet has become the world’s largest bathroom stall.
At 2:39 p.m. on an otherwise quiet Tuesday last week, Republicans in the Senate turned away an attempt to permit homosexuals to serve openly in the U.S. military.
Forty-six minutes and 50 seconds later, on a blog dedicated to gay and lesbian issues and bearing the odd name of “Joe.My.God,” an untoward comment popped up in the middle of a discussion of the vote on “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“All [gays] must die,” wrote the author who called himself “Jimmy.”
The deleted word was a common vulgarity not permitted in most newspapers, but neither the word nor the sentiment was unusual. We have some very angry people sitting at keyboards. Joe Jervis, the New Yorker behind the blog, says he gets dozens of that kind every day.
So Jervis says he can’t explain why he decided to look up the digitized fingerprint left by Jimmy and that particular message. But look it up he did.
John Updike on Ted Williams
(1 copy, 3 holds in LINKcat)
Link to September 26 New York Times article, "Tribute to a Hero in Twilight".
Excerpt: Tuesday is the 50th anniversary of Ted Williams’s last game, in which, with an impeccable sense of occasion, he hit a home run, a miraculous line drive to deep right center, in his final at-bat.
Ted Williams in the clubhouse after his last game, on Sept. 28, 1960. Updike later wrote a memorable essay on the game for The New Yorker.
“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams” came out this year.
There was no Red Sox Nation back then. The club was a bottom-dweller in the old eight-team American League, and its following amounted to a village of lonely die-hards. The weather was dank that afternoon and so overcast that in the sixth inning, the lights at Fenway Park were turned on.
Only 10,455 fans turned up to say goodbye to Williams, who was 42, hobbled by aches and pains. Among them, sitting behind third base, was 28-year-old John Updike, who had actually scheduled an adulterous assignation that day. But when he reached the woman’s apartment, on Beacon Hill, he found that he had been stood up: no one was home. “So I went, as promised, to the game,” he wrote years later, “and my virtue was rewarded.”
Ted Williams in the clubhouse after his last game, on Sept. 28, 1960. Updike later wrote a memorable essay on the game for The New Yorker.
“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams” came out this year.
There was no Red Sox Nation back then. The club was a bottom-dweller in the old eight-team American League, and its following amounted to a village of lonely die-hards. The weather was dank that afternoon and so overcast that in the sixth inning, the lights at Fenway Park were turned on.
Only 10,455 fans turned up to say goodbye to Williams, who was 42, hobbled by aches and pains. Among them, sitting behind third base, was 28-year-old John Updike, who had actually scheduled an adulterous assignation that day. But when he reached the woman’s apartment, on Beacon Hill, he found that he had been stood up: no one was home. “So I went, as promised, to the game,” he wrote years later, “and my virtue was rewarded.”
These Statistics are Unlikely to Appear on the Library's Annual Report
Excerpt: Soon, City Council members will get the full, unadulterated details about surfing for porn at city libraries.
One early report shows that the library’s Web traffic control system has been busy identifying websites and images that are clearly pornographic — along with ones that clearly are not.
It’s a control system the city could use to block those websites at no additional cost.
That is something the council may consider later this year, when they get a full 90-day report of what kinds of illicit Web-surfing might be happening at libraries.
“Right now I want to make sure we have good information about how our taxpayer-funded computers in public facilities are being used,” said Councilman Danny Thompson, who first raised the issue last month.
Previous article in the News-Record.
Library computer users viewing porn anger parents. (11/15/2009)
Editorial: Libraries versus porn. (11/19/2010)
A man with a mission to root out porn. (4/18/2010)
Libraries may get filters for websites. (8/3/2010)
Editorial: No easy way to filter library computers. (8/5/2010)
Letter to the editor: Do city council members have their library cards? (8/11/2010)
Library trustees pick less restrictive Internet filter. (8/17/2010)
Council won't filter library computers. (8/18/2010)
Editorial: The library, unfiltered. (8/21/2010)
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