LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Story on "All Things Considered" about Snopes.com

You'd think it would take an army to truth-squad the rumors on the Web, but you'd be wrong.

Full piece here

In the story in mentions that the Mikkelsons have their own personal library they use for fact checking and I bet they use local library resources but I have always thought that it would have been nice if the library community would have been the original creators of a site like Snopes. Maybe it is not to late for the library world to be involved in something like this. There is the old adage that there is always room at the top. (Don't check that at Snopes)

Macmillan CEO on ebooks in libraires:

"If there's a model where the publisher gets a piece of the action every time the book is borrowed, that's an interesting model."

another quote

"You get the book, read it, return it and get another, all without paying a thing. "It's like Netflix, but you don't pay for it. How is that a good model for us?"

Post is titled: eBooks in Libraries a Thorny Problem, Says Macmillan CEO

A proposed $37 million, six-story glass and stone library and a larger, related development are dead, but Mayor Dave Cieslewicz is now vowing to renovate the existing central library reports the Wisconsin State Journal.

After a nearly two-hour private meeting Thursday afternoon, the city and the Fiore Cos. agreed to drop plans for the new $37 million library at the corner of Henry Street and West Washington Avenue.

The city and Fiore and Irgens Development Partners were unable to bridge a $2 million difference in costs over the project.

"I'm fine with it and I'm at peace with it," Cieslewicz said after the meeting. "I'm confident we tried as hard as we can to make the project work. (Fiore executive vice president) Bill Kunkler did as well. Sometimes, you just can't work it out."

Determined to stake out a strong digital future, Barnes & Noble on Thursday named William Lynch, president of the company’s Web division, as chief executive, succeeding Stephen Riggio, who will remain as vice chairman. The company was founded by Riggio's brother, Len Riggio (a native Brooklynite) in 1971.

William Lynch, who introduced the company’s electronic book reader in October, had been president of the company’s Web division. He has no previous experience in the book business.

In the unexpected move, Mr. Lynch, 39, was named to the top spot a little over a year after arriving at the company. He is also the first person outside of the Riggio family to be named chief executive since Leonard Riggio, the company’s chairman, bought the company in 1971. He appointed his younger brother, Stephen, 55, in 2002.

Looks like the Nook v. Kindle battle is heating up. Story by Motoko Rich from The New York Times.

If you received an e-mail from the library manager at the Sinclairville Free Library, asking for $2,500, she would like you to know it is not real. Apparently her e-mail account was hacked and the person who got inside changed the password and is soliciting money from the people on her contact list.

Latest library extra: quiet zones

Downtown's Central Library offers patrons quiet rooms and about a fourth of neighborhood branch libraries provide “quiet zones” in adult reading areas. An undetermined number of additional libraries will add quiet zones in “the next couple of months,” said Mike Van Campen, Houston Public Library's chief of neighborhood branches.

Van Campen said the quiet zones are designated with signs asking patrons to silence their cell phones.

“There's an expectation that even conversations at a medium volume wouldn't be encouraged,” he said.

‘Honest mistake’ sparked library Internet uproar
Stephen Harper’s Conservative MPs were told in caucus today that “an honest mistake” led to libraries and community groups being told their public funding for Internet access was ending.

Senior Industry Canada bureaucrats had “misunderstood” the plan, which simply involved moving money to a different pot, according to Tory insiders.

Excerpt from post: I had a front row seat for the last generation of ebooks: In 1999 I was at Softbook (one of the early ebook reader companies), and later I interacted with the folks at Peanut Press (an ebook publisher) after they were bought by Palm. My short summary of the lessons I learned: Although some of the barriers that stopped ebooks in 2000 have been reduced, most of them are still in place. So I think the market isn’t likely to grow as quickly as many optimists are predicting. However, the economics of traditional publishing are very vulnerable to a paradigm change. That change is likely to happen later than most people expect, but once it happens it’ll probably move very quickly indeed. So stay out of the avalanche zone.

Full article here

Rumors swirled today that Amazon (AMZN) could revoke the buy buttons for books by Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Penguin, or Hachette if the major publishers can't strike an eBook deal with the online bookseller.

Neither Amazon nor the publishers went on the record about the eBook pricing debate. However, the New York Times has spoken with unnamed publishing executives about the terms of the eBook deal--noting that major publishers are "reluctant" to strike this kind of deal: "Amazon has agreed in principle that the major publishers would be able to set prices in its Kindle store as well. But it is also demanding that they lock into three-year contracts and guarantee that no other competitor will get lower prices or better terms."

Around the Internet, various commentators weighed in. eBookNewser noted that "it's a war out there" also reporting on Amazon's quiet launch of a Kindle App for the Mac.

Even as they voted unanimously Thursday to shutter half of their branches, trustees for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system held out hope that a wave of public support would keep $2 million in cuts from taking place April 3.
With the 12 closings will come 148 layoffs and the possibility of shorter hours at the remaining libraries... Reaction to the library closings has been swift, including a campaign unveiled by Friends of the Library during Thursday's meeting. The effort seeks to replace the $2 million in cuts through donations. It includes placing collection boxes at all library branches, and a donation link on the library system's Web site.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/03/19/1322969/library-patrons-try-to-save-12.html#ixzz...

Why book owners mark their literary territory with personalized art.

“This book belongs to me.” For over five centuries, that has been the message conveyed by every bookplate, whether printed and hand-tinted for Hildebrand Brandenburg in 1480 or mass-produced for Barnes & Noble or Amazon. (Yes, they sell bookplates.) Think of a bookplate as a wedding ring binding the reader to the book, and vice versa. The symbolism isn’t so far apart: ownership, possession, desire.

Full article in the Yale Alumni Magazine

Slide shows of bookplates from Yale's collection

From The Star: Toronto Public Library is pulling its part-time librarian from the Reading Room at the Hospital for Sick Children.

"We’re worried, but we understand that Toronto Public Library has been hit with a budget that doesn’t allow them to continue their services across the city at the same level,” says Dr. Bruce Ferguson, the hospital’s director of community health systems. “The first thing we (will) do is talk about how we can maintain services for patients and families.”

Sick Kids is one of three Toronto hospitals losing its part-time library staff because of city budget constraints.

The reading room has a collection of 13,500 materials that includes books, CDs and curriculum material that supports schoolchildren from kindergarten to Grade 12. Some Toronto public board teachers work permanently in the hospital, holding classes for students of the psychiatric ward, epilepsy patients, and kids in the substance-abuse program. Teachers also school patients who are at the hospital for more than five days to ensure they don’t fall behind.

“The Toronto Public Library is an incredibly valuable contributor and we will miss that librarian,” said Ferguson. “But we will sit down with our partners and the woman’s auxiliary and volunteer services and figure out how they’ll cope without the part-time staff member.”

Slumming With Charles Dickens: New York Library Relives His American Tours
snippet: "The staging of Dickens In America led to the discovery of two heretofore unknown personal letters written by Dickens to John Bigelow in the 1860's."

The oldest item in Yale Law School’s rare book collection is a 1,000-year-old fragment of a medieval manuscript bound inside an Italian guidebook for notaries. The newest is a bobblehead doll depicting William H. Rehnquist, 16th chief justice of the United States.

Fred R. Shapiro, an associate librarian, explained the latest acquisition: “A hundred years from now, if someone wants to study the bobbleheads, where will they go? There needs to be an archive.”

And so the Lillian Goldman Law Library, which probably has the best collection of rare law books in the world after Harvard and the Library of Congress, is now the official repository of bobbling likenesses of a dozen Supreme Court justices.

Full story here.

The FCC has released a Public Notice in PDF format relative to the Comcast/GE/NBC Universal transactions. The Commission is referring to the situation as one of broad public policy interest due to the breadth of the holdings involved. Comments are due to the Commission via its Electronic Comment Filing System before May 3, 2010.

About 200 dead bats at Pearsall library
KENS-TV reports more than 200 dead bats, some just skeletons, were found inside the columns of the library during the examination.

Libraries help fill city nutrition gaps
Virtual Supermarket serves residents of areas without grocery stores
Residents of two Baltimore neighborhoods that lack supermarkets will soon be able to order their groceries through a free delivery system that operates with the click of a mouse from the library.

NYPL's Newest Library Branch is LEED Gold Certified
The Battery Park Library finally opens today and it just so happens to be the greenest library branch of the New York Public Library system! Certified LEED Gold and built at the base of a LEED certified condominium high rise, the new community addition will certainly be a source of pride for area residents. The new library boasts the use of recycled materials, lots of high tech computer gadgetry to keep up with the times, and books, of course.