LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Update on Bernie Margolis on his blog written by his wife Amanda Batey:

"I am devastated to tell you some terrible news. Bernie was diagnosed a few days ago with a dreadful type of blood cancer. We have an appointment at the famed Dana-Farber/ Harvard Cancer Center in Boston soon and anticipate that he will need a bone marrow transplant as well as in-hospital chemotherapy.

A friend in Michigan, Jim Luke, has put together this website so we all can stay in touch. As much as I would like to be available personally I need to focus my attention on Bernie. This is an opportunity to use the world’s new technology in a wonderful application. You can find out how Bernie’s doing and keep up to date by visiting BernieMargolis.com . You may want to bookmark this site. You can also comment, and express your love and support on this site. Bernie says you can argue with him if you are so disposed! See the “Tell Bernie” page/tab on the website. Bernie and I will read them all. You are all part of our larger Bernie-family. You can also register to be notified by email whenever we have news on the site."

Real Librarians Talk About Their Favorite Fictional Librarians
Librarians have a bit of a reputation to live up to. We expect them to be kind and resourceful. Well-read. Soft-spoken. These days, the bun and glasses are optional, but if you ask us, still fun in a kitschy way. But have you ever wondered what real librarians think an ideal librarian should be like? And more importantly, who are the imaginary librarians that they look up to? To find out, we caught up with our favorite blogging librarians from The Desk Set.

Congratulations Andy!!!! From Library Journal:

Flavor of the Month Move over, Cherry Garcia. If Andy Woodworth has his way, the next hot Ben & Jerry's flavor could be Gooey Decimal System.

The 32-year-old adult services librarian at Bordentown Library, NJ, Woodworth is creator of “People for a Library Themed Ben & Jerry's Flavor” a Facebook group he started in June 2009 that's mushroomed to more than 8000 members and quickly gained international media and blogging attention. (It's been picked up by Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, The New Yorker's The Book Bench blog, Britain's The Guardian, and even the United Arab Emirates newspaper, The National.)

But don't be fooled. Woodworth's project has a hidden agenda—it's part of a multipronged advocacy effort to get libraries noticed, appreciated, and funded.

I don't care what the name of the winning flavor is...but it's GOT TO have chocolate.

Betty White will guest-star on the season finale of The Middle. The four-time Emmy winner will play a school librarian who goes after a student over several overdue library books.

What? A librarian chasing down an overdue library book? What hijinx! Oh, one can only wonder where these writers get their ideas. We can only hope that zaniness and uncontrolled hilarity ensues.

Hey, LISNews has company...Salem Press (they publish literary and history reference libraries in a variety of formats) is looking for the coolest library/librarian blogs around. Here's their contest announcement:

As you are probably aware, blogs about libraries have spread across the web. There are (literally) hundreds of people writing about books, libraries, librarians and related subjects. If you count the blogs that come from specific institutions, spreading local news, there are thousands of the things. Some are funny. Some are brilliant. Others, aren't.

Salem Press' staff includes many fans of library blogs. We're entertained and enlightened by them. So, we've decided to recognize the best efforts in the field. Not only to praise the praise-worthy but also to publicize the good stuff. To that end, we're hosting something we call the Library Blog Awards. We think there should be a well-organized directory of library blogs and a "peoples' awards" program of some kind to let folks know what blogs are best-liked and most widely read.

Go for it bloggers!! Thanks to the Effing Librarian for the tip!

Former librarian charged with grand larceny
A former librarian for the Tuxedo School District is accused of embezzling $12,621 from the school district’s Teachers Employee Union.

The chief said the investigation began with a complaint filed by union members and that his department was assisted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Criminal Investigation Unit.

The New York Daily News reports that "there's a scandal in the stacks at the Brooklyn Public Library."

The head of the system abruptly quit last week after a plan to lay off 13 employees backfired and ended in a very public embarrassment. Insiders said the firing fiasco was the last strike against Dionne Mack-Harvin. "The board was not happy with her," a source said. It wasn't supposed to end this way. Mack-Harvin took the post with great fanfare and a fabulous back story - the African-American daughter of a sharecropper who loved books and rose to her dream job.

In no less than the New York Times Sunday Book Review...a rave for Marilyn Johnson's "This Book is Overdue : How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All”. Critic Pagan Kennedy writes:

Johnson ushers us into the American Kennel Club Library and introduces us to the inevitable graying librarian in a boiled-wool jacket with a Scotty pin. She also teleports over to a Las Vegas “gentlemen’s club” called the Library, where ladies wearing spectacles (and not much more) slide their way down stripper poles. She peppers the book with lots of random instructions, like how to remove odor from an old Graham Greene paperback. (Use a sheet of Bounce fabric softener.) This is one of those books, in the vein of Mary Roach’s “Stiff” (about human cadavers), that tackle a big topic by taking readers on a chapter-by-chapter tour of eccentric characters and unlikely locations. Given Johnson’s attractions to wild tangents, the journey often dissolves into a jumble. It is a testament to her skill as a writer that she remains fascinating, even in the throes of A.D.D.

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Story about Howard Prouty, acquisitions archivist for the Margaret Herrick Library

The academy's Margaret Herrick Library contains 35,000 movie posters, 10 million photos, uncounted original screenplays used as the films were being shot, scrapbooks, costume and scenic-design drawings, music scores and sound recordings, plus books and periodicals. All of them document more than a century of moviemaking.

Full article here

Poor Noah. Take a look at that forearm. The better to reach the books, my dear!