LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

This is the final episode of Tech for Techies. The show will return to the Twilight Zone from where it came (for the time being). Stephen talks about broadcast transmission, be it radio, television or cellphones. Another Federal Government PSA from the Census Bureau, Profile America. My close explains the present situation at Erie Looking Productions.

In connection with what I bring up in the close, I want you to read a recommendation from LinkedIn:

“Stephen is a top notch podcaster and the writer, producer, and presenter of LISTen: The LISNews Podcast. More than that, he secured and conducted some fantastic interviews with people in the library world and in the fields of technology and media journalism. He brings a professional quality library podcast into an arena that sorely needs one. Because of this, he'd be a good source of information and consultation for a library (or any organization) with a desire to branch out into the world of Internet broadcasting.”

That was written by Daniel Messer, alternatively known as the Faceless Historian and Great Western Dragon. Think about what he had to say. While there is an old saw about a kingdom being lost for lack of a horseshoe, should a podcasting effort collapse for a lack of greenbacks? One value, at the least, to what the network does is that it is not beholden to the ALA, OCLC, or any particular vendor.

I want to thank you for listening and that the past shows will remain available on LISNews.

The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (for the best opening line to a fictitious novel) was won by this gem of a sentence:

"Folks say that if you listen real close at the height of the full moon, when the wind is blowin' off Nantucket Sound from the nor' east and the dogs are howlin' for no earthly reason, you can hear the awful screams of the crew of the 'Ellie May,' a sturdy whaler Captained by John McTavish; for it was on just such a night when the rum was flowin' and, Davey Jones be damned, big John brought his men on deck for the first of several screaming contests."

Runners-up and dishonerable mentions galore can be found at the contest website.

She was called the Miracle Girl in Peru.

Now she's a librarian for the Zoological Centre in Munich. Yet she has a story to tell - a story of sheer luck, survival, and courage. She was the only survivor of the crash of a LANSA flight in 1971. As it happens, her adventure was only beginning after she survived a three kilometer free fall into the jungles of the Amazon rain forest.

More from CNN.

Wooden ebook reader

The State Library of Kansas cataloged about 1,000 Wikipedia articles analytically at the State Library providing links via the Kansas Library Catalog, WorldCat/OCLC and the State Library’s consortium OPAC, ATLAS. Most all of the Wikipedia articles they've cataloged are concerned with Kansas, Kansans or current topics with few resources initially available via standard library resources. They had one of the first records in WorldCat/OCLC linking to information on then-Supreme-Court-nominee, John G. Roberts, as well as an early record on Hurricane Katrina. They followed these entries with other cataloging records accessing more substantive resources, but yes, the initial records were for Wikipedia articles.

The morning after federal Judge Deborah Batts ruled that a Swedish author could not publish the follow-up to "The Catcher in the Rye," the book's distributor vowed to appeal.

Full piece here.

NEWS FLASH! from Publishers Weekly.

Despite the Kindle's continuing success, it's widely believed that the device cannot remain simply a terminal for Amazon's (AMZN) e-book sales if it is ever to become a true mass-market product. But what must it become? Some leading figures in the publishing business insist that sales growth in digital publishing will come only when e-books are incorporated into an all-purpose communications device like the iPhone.

Since February, however, the combination of unexpected sales growth for Kindles at Amazon, including the release of a larger, more versatile reader—the Kindle DX—has begun to suggest that we may be moving in the opposite direction, toward a highly specialized reading-centric device.

Full story here.

He submitted it anonymously.

But then HC found out the author of the Y.A. novel "I Am Number Four" was James Frey, the notorious author of “A Million Little Pieces”. Do you think that helped him get the contract?

Here's the story from the NYTimes.

Payman and Sina have taken images from Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and remixed them with new captions and dialogue to illustrate the day before and the first few days after the election in Iran. Much attention is paid to social media's role in organizing and supporting protesters: Persepolis 2.0

AP: The Obama administration is not fighting a nearly $500,000 judgment for a Library of Congress hiree (Diane, formerly David Schroer) who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman.

The Justice Department let the deadline to appeal the decision pass Tuesday, a day after President Barack Obama hosted gay supporters at the White House and promised to be their "champion." Some activists have complained he has not led on their causes, including ending the ban on gays in the military.

The Library of Congress and President George W. Bush's Justice Department had argued unsuccessfully that discrimination because of transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.

Diane Schroer, a retired Army Special Forces commander from Alexandria, Va., had been offered a job at the Library of Congress when he was a man, David Schroer. The job was rescinded the day after Schroer told a library official he was going to have an operation to become a woman.

Previous LISNews reports on the case: here, here, and here.

from Seth's Blog by Seth Godin: Is the purpose of the cover to sell books, to accurately describe what's in the book, or to tee up the reader so the book has maximum impact?
The third.
It's the third because if the book has maximum impact, then word of mouth is created, and word of mouth is what sells your product, not the cover.

A new initiative by the Campaign for the Book, spearheaded by author Alan Gibbons, will call on the government to make school libraries statutory,­ as is already the case in Scotland.

Gibbons said the initiative will help to galvanise the campaign's work in support of school libraries. He is gathering signatories for an open letter to the press demanding that school libraries become statutory.

John A. Brennan Jr. won plaudits when he resigned after 19 years of service as a member of the Malden Public Library Board of Trustees, a volunteer seat he held despite his busy career as one of Beacon Hill's most influential lobbyists.

But a closer look at the record shows that Brennan, a 63-year-old former state senator who departed the Legislature in 1990, barely attended monthly library board meetings during the last four years, missing 30 out of 36 meetings.

Publishers, engaged in the oldest of the old media, are turning to mobile technology and online social networks as a way to reach young readers. Three programs begin this week:
•Social network.
•2D bar codes.
•Online community.

Library Journal is delighted to announce that Barbara Genco has been named Editor, Collection Management, effective July 1. Genco brings with her over 25 years in collection development and management at Brooklyn Public Library, NY, with a special focus on creating and managing centralized selection models, value-added vendor relationships, and technical services process reengineering.

In her new role, she will oversee all of LJ’s collection development activities from print to online, including BookSmack!, the publication’s twice-monthly e-newsletter.

Due to circumstances beyond the control of the Nevada production team, Tech for Techies #16 is delayed until further notice. Efforts are underway to ensure a release on Friday, though.

University officials on Wednesday closed the book on a controversial move to drop the words "Library Studies" from the name of its School of Communication, Information and Library Studies.

Full story.

A water main break sent water rushing into the library at Harris Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO this afternoon.

Photos and Video from KSDK News.

According to a Harris Stowe representative, the break is near the intersection of Compton and Laclede. The campus was closed as a security precaution.

The entrance near the break was under approximately two feet of water at 5 p.m. Nearby streets were closed until the water recedes.

Additional coverage from KTVI.