Archive for October, 2008
DON’T PANIC
This was the best thing I learned from Douglas Adams’ timeless series. I was able to employ this bit of literary reason today when I saw that google had settled its legal battle with book publishers and copyright holders. Since I began library school I have been speaking with more disdain for Sonny Bono than [...]
Filed under: By: Miss Information, News, change or die, libraries | 2 Comments
Tags: books, digitization, google, libraries, Pop stars who died in skiing accidents, Sonny Bono
Nipples and libraries: “We had a report today from a woman about a guy wearing red shorts who was walking around and around the Library whilst twisting his nipples… The woman found his behavior ‘disturbing.’” @ the library
Not surprising: “Google Inc. will pay $125 million under a settlement to resolve lawsuits challenging the Internet search giant’s [...]
Filed under: By: Librarian About Town, News | 1 Comment
Tags: fashion, google, patrons, text messaging
PRINT Magainze never fails to teach me something new about graphic design and the creative process. Inside of the October issue, Peter Terzian’s article “Kill Your Darlings” takes a look at rejected book covers, including the original concepts for Chuck Palahnick’s Stanger Than Fiction and Ben Marcus’ Notable American Women. Terzian asks designers to explain why their work was canned. With the exception of [...]
Filed under: By: Librarian About Town | Leave a Comment
Tags: books, graphic design, rejection
Ask Me!
I really should stop wearing my glasses, and putting my hair in a bun. Wherever I go, I seem to get reference questions. Today at the Albany Public Library, I was working on homework when one of the security guards approached me and asked “On the internet, what’s a good place to go to see [...]
Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: Miss Information, MLIS, libraries | Leave a Comment
Tags: approachability, libraries, public libraries, reference desks
When I was a graduate student, a classmate endeared for life due to his habit of dropping by my beach bungalow with amusing academic observations, ice-cream novelties, and copies of US Weekly or In Touch. He unapologetically loved the tabloids, and with good reason. Once while reading In Style at the office, I stumbled upon a feature story glamorizing the Marc Jacobs fete where he had partied over [...]
Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: Librarian About Town | 2 Comments
Tags: bikini, Heidi Montag, I think I need an editor, information literacy, media literacy, The Hills
The elephant in the room
The HathiTrust project is a remarkable effort on the part of several large universities and Google Books to develop a shared digital repository of behemoth proportions. Large libraries at academic institutions, such the University of California and the Big Ten, are planning for full-text digitization of works in the public domain, while offering snippets, previews, and bibliographic access to copyrighted materials. According to a news [...]
Filed under: By: Librarian About Town, change or die, libraries | Leave a Comment
Tags: digital books, elephants, google, into the woods
Digital doppelganger
If you like the collaborative vibe of Closed Stacks, then you’ll love the blog In the Library with the Lead Pipe. A team of librarians working in public, academic, and school libraries came together to create this new resource for professionals. I know that the concept will sound all too familiar, but based on the credentials of [...]
Filed under: A Day in the Life, By: Librarian About Town, News, libraries | 1 Comment
Tags: collaboration, library blogs
Anyone who really knows the Librarian About Town acknowledges that she is an internationally respected anthropologist trapped in the body of an obscure reference librarian. When she allows herself, she imagines her patrons as primate groups.*
After perusing a highly readable article in the October issue of National Geographic, I now wonder if I am actually a Homo sapien trapped in the body of Homo neanderthalensis. Based on DNA evidence extracted [...]
Filed under: By: Librarian About Town | 6 Comments
Tags: national geographic hates red hair, neanderthals
Watch Your Shelves
When Stephen Colbert talks, the public listens. After his encouragement, viewers flocked to a website holding a contest to name a bridge in Hungary, going so far as to make a bot to stuff the ballot box and win the contest for him. The bridge was ultimately named the Megyeri Bridge, but Colbert was presented [...]
Filed under: By: Miss Information, News, banned books, libraries, pop culture | Leave a Comment
Tags: booknapping, censoring, library theft, Stephen Colbert
Today, the Washington Post reported on a book controversy at a Fairfax County school library. A group of conservative students, in the spirit of Banned Books Week, took a creative approach to their opposition of what they called a “pro-gay” collection at the school libraries in their county, they donated a large collection [...]
Filed under: By: Miss Information, Intellectual Freedom, News, banned books, change or die | Leave a Comment
Tags: american library association, banned books, book challenges, libraries, prayer in school, school libraries
