Link to December 10 Wisconsin Dells Events article, "Library to ask Adams County for funding".
Excerpt: The Kilbourn Public Library director will send a letter next year to the Adams County clerk telling the county the library has considerable use from Adams County residents and can reimburse the county for the cost of circulating items to Adams County residents, although it is not required to.
The decision to take action was discussed by the library board at a meeting Thursday.
Kilbourn Public Library gets reimbursed by Sauk, Columbia and Juneau counties for use of the library by rural residents in those counties, but Adams County is an exception because it has a county library system that exempts them from having to pay anything to Kilbourn Public Library.
But Adams County also happens to be part of the South Central Library System, to which Kilbourn Public Library also belongs.
"If they're not in your system, you can say we're not going to serve you, but they're in our system and we aren't going to do that. Definitely we feel like they're our patrons, and we don't want to lose them," Director Cathy Borck told the library board.
She also said last year more than 20,000 items were checked out by Adams County residents. Dell Prairie residents checked out 11,000 items, New Haven residents 4,000 and nearly 3,000 items were checked out by Springville residents, she said.
Adams County contains no "unlibraried" residents, i.e.,contains no residents who are not residents of a municipality (in this case, the county itself) that maintains a public library.
Excerpt: The former director of the Britton Public Library was sentenced Thursday to 30 days in county jail for embezzling from the city.
Pamela "Sue" Bull, of Lake City, must also pay $4,500 in restitution and spend two years on probation. She was granted a suspended imposition of sentence. That means the incident won't go on her record if she adheres to the terms of her probation.
Timothy Purintun, Marshall County state's attorney, said that Bull used a city credit card to pay personal bills. Purintun said Bull charged $21,386 in personal expenses, but had been paying off some of the bills as time passed.
Link to December 7 New York Times article, "The Year's Best Cookbooks".
Excerpt:This year’s best cookbooks did not explore the twisted minds of culinary geniuses, reveal obscure hill towns of Tuscany or take us back in time. (Although readers with some appetite left for Mark Twain will enjoy Andrew Beahrs’s deep dive into 19th-century American food, “Twain’s Feast,” Penguin Press, $25.95).
Instead, they brought brilliant recipes and ideas for right now: at this time of year, even enthusiasts may grow weary of the kitchen.
Link to December 8 Kane County Chronicle article, "Failed referendum doesn’t end expansion hopes for St. Charles library".
Excerpt:The St. Charles Public Library trustees have not given up on expansion plans but said Tuesday that next April would be too early to seek approval again since they believe the economy affected the results.
But, they said, they cannot wait until the next possible referendum date – November 2012 – to make improvements to some of the library’s major systems, such as the information technology equipment.
“We said the things were getting old,” Vice President Norm Huntley said. “We need to address those issues and move on. … If the money is in the budget, let’s do it.”
The $35 million bond referendum would have paid for improvements to the existing facility, a larger parking lot and a library expansion of about 46,900 square feet. About 52.9 percent of voters were against the Nov. 2 proposition.
About 60.4 percent also voted against a limiting rate increase of 0.023 percent to pay for the proposed addition’s operating costs.
The total tax impact would have been an increase of about $26.88 a year per $100,000 of a home’s market value.
Link to December 9 Chicago Tribune article, "Wis. officials find increase of homeless children".
Excerpt:"The picture of homeless used to be the old man in a war uniform. Now it's a 7-year-old child," said Stephanie Kober, family program manager at HALO, Racine's Homeless Assistance Leadership Organization and shelter.
HALO, Racine Unified and the Racine County Human Services Department in recent years have all recorded a significant increase in the number of homeless children served, officials at each organization said.
Homeless children can stay at shelters like HALO but most bounce around like Elijah and his 6-year-old brother, Jeremiah Gray. Both living situations are part of a federal homeless child definition, which also includes kids living in places like motels, campgrounds, cars or abandoned buildings.
"Part of the definition is they have no choice ... They can be exited at any time so it's not stable," explained Elizabeth Erven, coordinator of Racine Unified's Families in Transition Program, which identifies homeless students and connects them to school and community resources.
Racine Unified has consistently identified more homeless students than every other Wisconsin school district except Milwaukee since the 2004-05 school year. At that time Unified reported 616 students were homeless at some time during the school year, state data shows.
Link to December 8 Gadsden Times article, "Assault suspect claims to be vampire".
Excerpt: [Sgt. Mike] Hooks [a Gadsden police detective] told The Gadsden Times, which first reported the branding, that a book on witchcraft, apparently stolen from a library, was found in the house. He said it also had satanic symbols painted on walls, some with smudges of blood.
Link to December 6 Galesburg Register-Mail article, "Library gets its tax levy".
Excerpt:Galesburg resident Jim Jacobs, who spoke in favor of more funding for the library, held a bag of potato chips aloft at Monday’s meeting. He said the increase in taxes to support the library would cost homeowners about the price of the chips.
“In all due respect, you have no history and now that you’ve taken a job elsewhere you have no future here,” Jacobs said to Whitehead, who will leave for a job in Utah before the end of this month.
The library has $1.3 million in reserves. Library officials have been saving that money for future capital improvements and as a potential down-payment on a new library to replace the existing building. The library’s current home was originally intended as a temporary facility after Galesburg’s former library burned down.
Jacobs said the library should not be punished for being fiscally prudent and that the library’s reserves were never intended for operations. Without an increase in the levy, the library board was considering cutbacks.
Link to December 9 New York Times article, "Lusty Tales and Hot Sales: Romance Novels Thrive as E-Books.
Excerpt:Sarah Wendell, blogger and co-author of “Beyond Heaving Bosoms,” is passionate about romance novels.
Except for the covers, with their images of sinewy limbs, flowing, Fabio-esque locks or, as she put it, “the mullets and the man chests.”
“They are not always something that you are comfortable holding in your hand in public,” Ms. Wendell said.
So she began reading e-books, escaping the glances and the imagined snickers from strangers on the subway, and joining the many readers who have traded the racy covers of romance novels for the discretion of digital books.
If the e-reader is the digital equivalent of the brown-paper wrapper, the romance reader is a little like the Asian carp: insatiable and unstoppable. Together, it turns out, they are a perfect couple. Romance is now the fastest-growing segment of the e-reading market, ahead of general fiction, mystery and science fiction, according to data from Bowker, a research organization for the publishing industry.
Sold as many e-books as hardcover books in its first week of publication.
37 (print) copies in LINKcat. 9 holds. 86 search results for the author.
Sales have doubled this year at All Romance, an online retailer that sells ebooks only. Most popular = raciest! “It’s easier to check out some naughty little title online than in a brick-and-mortar store where your pastor could step up in line behind you.” I'm sure Dad would have been more amused than shocked.
75,000,000. Number of people who read at least 1 romance novel in 2008. (I assume this tally is limited to the U.S. though the article doesn't make it 100% clear.)
And, as you would expect, supplies us with the answer!
Link to December 9 Pew Internet & American Life report, "Who Tweets?"
Excerpt:This is the first-ever survey reading from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project that exclusively examines Twitter users. In previous surveys, the Pew Internet Project had asked internet users whether they "used Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others?"
Here is a little background on our reasoning for focusing just on Twitter in this more recent survey. The message service Twitter launched on July 15, 2006 now claims tens of millions of users worldwide. It is one of the most popular online activities among tech enthusiasts and has become a widely used tool among analysts to study the conversations and interests of users, buzz about news, products or services, and announcements by commercial, non-profit, and government organizations. For instance, it is an important component of the analytical work by our colleagues at the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism in its New Media Index, which assesses the most prominent topics discussed in social media every week.
Link to December 9 San Jose Mercury News article, "Tech review: Facebook fans will 'like' RockMelt browser".
Excerpt:There's a lot to keep track of online.
You probably have a Facebook account and an e-mail address or two. You might use Twitter or another service to share where you are or what you're reading, thinking or doing. You follow the news and do some old-fashioned Web browsing.
I do all of the above (and more), so I'm always looking for ways to wrangle my tangle of online accounts.
That's what I was hoping for when I tried RockMelt, a new Web browser backed by Marc Andreessen, who was behind the Web's first commercial browser, Netscape. RockMelt aims to bring together social networking, news feeds and Web browsing.
Does it do the job? Mostly if you rely on Facebook for social networking.
I've been using RockMelt for 2 weeks. Since I spend most of my social media time with Facebook and Twitter, this browser works well for my needs. And so far it appears to be more stable than Google Chrome.
Link to December 9 Charlotte Observer article, "Tough choices ahead for libraries. Leaders describe options that include layoffs and closing more branches."
Excerpt: A key factor in any decision will be how much the library receives from Mecklenburg County, which provides about 90 percent of the system's money. But the county won't adopt a budget until June, and it could be some time before county leaders know the financial outlook for 2011-12.
The county gave the libraries more than $21.1 million this year, but that was about $10 million less than in 2009-10. The county also picked up the cost of library maintenance and security.
The county cuts led to staff layoffs, closing three branches and reducing hours and services at other library sites. The city of Charlotte and four towns chipped in one-time aid to stave off more branch closings.
Looking ahead to 2011-12, library officials presented five scenarios to the system's board of trustees on Wednesday. The options showed the potential implications if county money is cut - or increased - by up to 20 percent.
The scenarios all assume the library system would receive no extra money from the city and towns next year.
Amador is now one of 4 California public libraries to own the book -- if they choose to return it to the collection.
WorldCat.
Someone took the time to tally a fine of 'a whopping $2,701'. But the reality is, according to many library circulation policies today, the maximum amount owed would be much more affordable.
Perhaps a staff member at the Amador County Library suggested a donation of $10, which is the maximum overdue amount charged per item.
And I have to confess, I can't remember the last time I saw such a stringent borrowing limit on books.
