Announcements

LISWire - The Librarian's News Wire

Blake — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:31:59 -0500

Robin K. Blum (aka Birdie) and I started a new site a few week ago, LISWire - The Librarian's News Wire (http://liswire.com), and I'm doing my best to spread the word (again, you may have already seen this). I'll keep this as short as possible, since you can probably guess what the site is all about from the name.

We also have 2 mailing lists, and a bunch of RSS feeds.

We are looking for press releases and other news items of interest to librarians to get things going. You can sign up for an account and submit things you'd like to announce to the library world.

It's just out of beta, so there might still be some bugs floating around. Let me know if you spot something that needs fixing! I'd love any and all feedback you can provide.

Beating the Cost to the Environment of Textbooks

birdie — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:46:19 -0500

The textbook dilemma...apart from the escalating costs of these extraordinarily heavy and hefty tools for college students, Chegg, a company that rents textbooks out also claims that "Textbooks largely contribute to the 40% of paper products found in landfills which convert into hazardous methane as they degrade." They are working with Ecolibris and Plant a Tree USA to help the environment.

2008 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize

kmccook — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:56:36 -0500

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro Mexican freelance journalist and head of a centre that helps abused women in Cancun is the Laureate of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

--Kathleen de la Peña McCook

New Topic: Information Science

Great Western Dragon — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:42:20 -0500

We have a new story topic here at LISNews I wanted to make folks aware of, both authors and gentle readers alike!

Strangely enough, even though the site is Librarian and Information Science News, there wasn't actually a topic dedicated to the information science portion of things. So after filling out the requisite forms (I e-mailed Blake.) and filing them with the LISNews Administrative Office (Blake) and paying the processing fee ($20, Romanian), a new topic heading was born!

So when you start seeing stories here about the actual science behind information, you'll know why it's here and, well, where it goes too!

EAD Finding Aid Creation Tool and OhioLINK Repository: EAD FACTORy

Blake — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:07:05 -0500

Crossposted this one on LISWire: OhioLINK is pleased to announce the release of a finding aid creation application, repository, and full-text search engine at http://ead.ohiolink.edu. The EAD Finding Aid Creation Tool and OhioLINK Repository (EAD FACTORy) will help archivists ensure broad-based access to archival collections and local history collections by providing a solution for institutions wishing to create and deliver finding aids according to the Encoded Archival Description standard. Finding aids are descriptive tools that come in a variety of formats and levels of detail that describe the contents of archival or manuscript collections. EAD is an international standard for encoding archival finding aids, making them standardized in structure as well as more predictably searchable in collaborative electronic repository environments.

The OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository will allow researchers to search finding aids across institutions to locate archival materials and primary sources across the state. Finding aids may be browsed as well, and an advanced search function is also available. The Finding Aid Creation Tool and Repository are available for use by any institution in Ohio and do not require membership in OhioLINK. The brand new Repository is now ready and waiting for submissions.

The EAD Finding Aid Creation Tool and OhioLINK Repository is a project of the OhioLINK Database Management and Standards Committee. The committee formed the Encoded Archival Description Task Force in late 2004 and charged its members with creating standards for the creation of EAD Finding Aids within the OhioLINK community. Following the completion of content standards in 2006, the Task Force pursued the development of a Web-based tool that would allow users to create valid EAD finding aids without technical knowledge of complex EAD encoding. This major project was undertaken in cooperation with the Kent State University Libraries and Media Services’ Systems unit. Programming was completed by KSU’s David Gaj, Applications Developer.

For more information, please contact the EAD Task Force Chair, Cara Gilgenbach at 330-672-1677 or cgilgenb@kent.edu, or visit the OhioLINK EAD site at ead.ohiolink.edu. Click on the “Contributing Institutions” link in the top right corner of the page for information on how to register to use the Finding Aid Creation Tool and Repository.

The One Big Library Unconference: Friday 27 June Toronto

Blake — Fri, 02 May 2008 07:32:31 -0500

The One Big Library Unconference: The One Big Library Unconference is a one-day gathering of librarians, technologists and other interested people, talking about the present and future of libraries. It's organized and sponsored by York University Libraries and the YUL Emerging Technologies Interest Group. Friday 27 June 2008, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm

BIGWIG: Blogs, Interactive Groupware Wikis Interest Group

Blake — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:40:49 -0500

It's YOURS! http://www.yourbigwig.com/ BIGWIG stands for the Blogs, Interactive Groupware Wikis Interest Group, but since its founding in 2005 BIGWIG has been the "Social Software" IG of LITA. Unlike most Interest Groups, BIGWIG is active throughout the year. BIGWIG is responsible for maintaining the LITABlog, and LITA Wiki. Additionally, BIGWIG has taken on several projects since the inception including conference blogging and podcasting, and podcasts of interviews with candidates for LITA offices.

BIGWIG also puts on the Social Software Showcase, an online unconference occuring around and during the time of ALA Annual. The Showcase is made up of a wiki where each year we ask our presenters on cutting edge technology and social software to post their presentations. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to discuss the presentations on the wiki. We have also be have a face to face roundtable discussion with some of our presenters at ALA Annual.

LISWire - The Librarian's News Wire

Blake — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:00:11 -0500

I started a new site, LISWire - The Librarian's News Wire (http://liswire.com), and I'm doing my best to spread the word. You can probably guess what the site is all about from the name. There's also 2 mailing lists, and a bunch of RSS feeds. Robin K. Blum (you might know her as Birdie) and I are running the show and are looking for press releases and other news items of interest to librarians to get things going. You can sign up for an account and submit things you'd like to announce to the library world. I'll be cross posting most announcements to LISNews for a little while until we see how much traffic we get at LISWire.

It's just out of beta, so there might still be some bugs floating around. Let me know if you spot something that needs fixing! I'd love any and all feedback you can provide.

ALA Visitors Follow in the Footsteps of Philip Marlowe thru Raymond Chandler's Downtown and Hollywood

Blake — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:55:45 -0500

WHAT: Private ALA edition of Esotouric's "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place" bus tour, departing from Anaheim Convention Center
WHEN: Tuesday July 1, noon-7pm
COST: $125/person including fixed price luncheon at Musso & Frank Grill
GOODIES: City Lights Books is giving Esotouric 10 copies of their acclaimed anthology "Another City: Writing From Los Angeles" to raffle off among the 50 tour passengers.
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

In July Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, presents a special ALA edition of a tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler, and his personal relationship to the mean streets of Hollywood and Downtown LA, where he lived, worked and set his stories.

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow.

ALA attendees are invited to join Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in an afternoon's exploration of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank Grill, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, and much, much more.

Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink. As the bus rolls from point to point, your guide Richard Schave draw the lines between Chandler's life and his fiction, offering insight into his peculiar marriage to the much-older Cissy, the enigmatic redhead who appears in many forms in his short stories and novels.

The tour includes a visit to Musso & Frank Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood, for a fixed price luncheon in the "new room" where, in its former incarnation as Stanley Rose's Bookshop, Chandler wrote "The Big Sleep."

Reservations are being taken now for this unique opportunity to explore noir Los Angeles with door-to-door service from Anaheim. Email toursATesotoricDOTcom for more info, visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule (new tours starred):
Sat May 3 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place
Sat May 10 - Blood & Dumplings San Gabriel Valley crime bus tour
Sat May 17- Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66
Sat May 31 – BookExpo Edition: Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowki's LA
*Sat June 7- Visionary Hollywood
Sat June 14- Vroman's - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's SoCal Nightmare
Sat June 21 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat June 28 – Amoeba Music - Where the Action Was rock history tour with guest star Ruthann Friedman
Tues July 1 – American Library Association Edition: Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
*Sat July 12 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The New Chinatowns
Sat July 26 - Pasadena Confidential
Sat Aug 9- Vroman's Bookstore – Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowki's LA
Sat Oct 11- Vroman's Bookstore - Raymond Chandler's LA

PBS Educators Page on Facebook

birdie — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:10:54 -0500

Want to be a member (of the Facebook PBS fan page)? Get with the program!

If you are a teacher, or know one, PBS wants to alert you to the launch of the PBS Teachers page on Facebook . There they’ll include updated information and resources specially designed with educators in mind, including links to lesson plans, teachers’ guides, video resources, professional development information, schedules and much more.