Monday, April 20, 2015

In This Digital Age, Book Collecting Is Still Going Strong - WSJ

Peter Miller’s Freebird Books in Brooklyn, N.Y., focuses on used and rare books about New York.
Photo: Jonathan Cramer

Steven Rosenbush

April 12, 2015 11:02 p.m. ET

Digital disruption notwithstanding, book collecting appears to be
alive and well, sustained in part by the very same people who are
driving adoption of smartphones, tablets, e-readers and the like.

Take JT Bachman,
a 28-year-old architect with Rockwell Group in New York. He gets his
news from digital sources but prefers printed material when reading for
pleasure and says he has become a recent convert to book collecting. Mr.
Bachman says he has about 100 new, used and out-of-print titles on his
shelves, including the architectural tome “Herzog & de Meuron:
Natural History” by Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog, and plans on
buying more.

“I started collecting books because it is a way to catalog time,” Mr. Bachman says. “I want to keep them for the longer term.” Read more....

Metro Money: Growing Number of New Yorkers Are Using the Library for Office Space - WSJ

Anne Kadet

April 17, 2015 4:10 p.m. ET

App designer Jay Collins loves his free office space. The building
features fireplaces, hardwood floors, oversize windows and oak
bookcases. The Wi-Fi is excellent. The research facilities, superb.

The location? Staten Island’s Port Richmond Library.

“I usually find myself in the teen room, because no one’s ever in there,” says Mr. Collins.

The
32-year-old, who schleps his laptop and iPad to the library four days a
week, says he has tried other options, “but once I found the library, I
didn’t have to stay home being lazy, or at Starbucks getting fat.”

The
library may lack the cachet of a rented desk at a pricey co-working
space, but as Mr. Collins discovered, the stacks even offer networking
opportunities. He has landed side jobs designing logos for fellow
entrepreneurs, not to mention a gig designing a clown suit for a
professional jester. read more...

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Workforce Literacy: Supporting Job Seekers in Your Community

MAY
6

Workforce Literacy: Supporting Job Seekers in Your Community

A webinar exploring ways libraries of all sizes can provide services and support for job seekers in their communities.

As job seekers of all kinds continue to come to the library for
resources and support, libraries continue to find new ways to respond to
this essential community need. Workforce literacy impacts a variety of
patrons, including ex-offenders reentering the workforce, small
businesses looking to grow, young first time job seekers, military
personnel and veterans, and older adults seeking new skills to stay in
the workforce. Work SC brings a
comprehensive, yet accessible, set of tools to South Carolina residents
through the State Library, and Jason played no small part in making it
happen. Find out how your library, large or small, can adapt
these service models and partnerships to provide the resources and
support your local community needs to thrive in today’s workforce.

Presented by: Jason Broughton, Outreach Coordinator, South Carolina State Library, and 2015 Library Journal Mover & Shaker

Tweet: #wjwebinar

Read more....

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

7 Classrooms: library as pedagogical incubator - The Ubiquitous Librarian - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Three years ago we had two classrooms in our library. They looked like this:

The former “training-based” classrooms at VT Library. Photo: R. Miller

These were suitable for training-based instruction but our program
has evolved. Librarians wanted to be able to reach more students (larger
class sizes) as well as utilize many different teaching methods.

We’re
upgrading both rooms this summer.

read more...

Monday, April 13, 2015

April 2015 Former Lives of Libraries

Jefferson Market Branch of New York Public Library

Originally a courthouse, the Jefferson Market Library has served the Greenwich Village community for over forty years. The building, a New York City

landmark,
was designed by architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux
(who also assisted in the design of Central Park) in a Victorian Gothic
style. It was erected—along with an adjacent prison and market—between
1875 and 1877 and cost the city almost $360,000.

What the city got for its money, in addition to an architectural
gem—voted one of the ten most beautiful buildings in America by a poll
of ahitects in the 1880s—was a civil court on the second floor, now the
Adult Reading Room, and a police court, now the first-floor Children's
Room. The beautiful brick-arched basement, now the Reference Room, was
used as a holding area for prisoners on their way to jail or trial.
Scattered about the building were offices and chambers, and looming a
hundred feet above ground was the firewatcher's tower. The tower, still
intact, commands an uninterrupted view of Greenwich Village, and houses
the bell that would summon volunteer firemen.

The courthouse was the center of national attention in 1906, when
Harry K. Thaw was formally charged with homicide in the first degree -
willful murder - and committed to prison without bail for the murder of
architect Stanford White (the infamous Girl in the Red Velvet Swing
case). White's firm, McKim, Mead and White had, coincidentally,
designed 11 branch library buildings for The New York Public Library.
White's affair with chorus girl/model Evelyn Nesbit before her marriage
to Thaw was the motive in this crime of passion. Thaw was eventually
judged to be insane and was sent to an asylum until his release in 1915.
This story was later immortalized by E. L. Doctorow in his book Ragtime.

Earlier, in 1896, Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage,
testified in the courthouse on behalf of a woman he felt was unjustly
arrested for prostitution. Crane related that he was "studying human
nature" in the dicey Tenderloin area of the city, when the alleged
solicitation occurred. Front page headlines the next day praised Crane's
"chivalry and courage" for speaking out on behalf of the wrongly
accused woman.

In 1909, Triangle Shirtwaist Company workers were taken to the
Jefferson Market Courthouse and tried in night court: a tactic meant to
intimidate the female strikers arrested while protesting unfair labor
practices, as prositution cases generally filled the court's dockets at
that time. As one arrested shirtwaist maker said, "No nice girls go
there." These intimidation tactics did not succeed. The striking women's
spirits were not broken and great strides were achieved in their
working conditions.

Unfortunately, not enough changed for the better.
The factory was the site of a tragic fire in 1911, when 125 garment
workers, most very young girls, died or were killed jumping from the
factory windows to the pavement below. read more...

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Book Discussion History Reading | Video | C-SPAN.org

October 22, 1996

Book Discussion on A History of Reading

Mr. Manguel spoke about his recent book, A History of Reading. It
traces the history of written communication from 4000 B.C. to the
present through stylistic, material and other changes. He also took
questions from the audience.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

University libraries face uncertain future in a crowded information marketplace | University Affairs

For the record, Ken Haycock believes the future of libraries
“can be very bright.” The long-time consultant and expert in library and
information management said he’s “very optimistic,” adding for
emphasis, “I am a critical friend of libraries.”

But those who heard his presentation at the Ontario Library Association annual conference
in Toronto at the end of January may not have felt reassured. Dr.
Haycock spent the next hour outlining serious challenges facing both
public and academic libraries.

There are some “very basic questions we need to ask ourselves in
order to figure out our future and our place in the information
marketplace,” he said. Top among these questions: “What exactly is our
mission?”

Dr. Haycock offered this rhetorical response: “to organize the
world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” –
except that is already the mission statement of Google. His point was
that “the information marketplace is a very crowded place to be, and we
can’t distinguish ourselves very well there. So, if we’re going to play
in that marketplace we have to have a unique value proposition or we
have to redefine what that playground is going to be.” Read more...

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

The 1709 Blog: The London Manifesto: time for reform?

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

The London Manifesto: time for reform?

"“Fair copyright for all across Europe” rallying call from libraries,
archives and charities" is the title of a media release that went live
the moment this blogpost did, at one minute past midnight on 1 April.
Issued by the Chartered Institute of Library & Information
Professionals (CILIP), it reads as follows:

In a bid for fair copyright laws that will benefit citizens and
researchers across Europe organisations including the Wellcome Trust,
the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales, the
Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals, Royal
Museums Greenwich and the Open Rights Group have called for much needed
reforms.

The London Manifesto calls for fair copyright for libraries and archives
across Europe. The manifesto outlines needed reforms that will better
support research, innovation and growth and will help create a digital
single market. It focuses on the important role of libraries and
archives.

The reforms would bolster the rights of disabled people by supporting
equal access to knowledge. They would mean that libraries can acquire
and lend commercially available digital materials and, with archives,
can continue to underpin knowledgeable societies in the digital age. The
reforms would allow libraries and archives to better support research
through modern text and data mining techniques. They would also create a
more manageable system of harmonised copyright laws across EU member
states.

Non standardised copyright laws across Europe are failing to support the
vision of a digital single market because they currently prevent fair
access and use of digital content. This means that researchers and
citizens in one country can be subject to a completely different
copyright regime than in another country. For example this creates
significant problems for researchers who are working collaboratively
across Europe. ... .”

Organisations will be able to show their support for fair copyright
across Europe by signing in support of the London Manifesto at www.cilip.org.uk/londonmanifesto

Read more...

Monday, March 30, 2015

Photographer documents İstanbul’s little-known treasures: libraries

A general view of the library of the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture in İstanbul.(Photo: Ümit Oğuz Göksel)

Many of İstanbul's best libraries are in central locations we pass by each day, yet we often pay too little attention.

Seeing this fact, photographer Ümit Oğuz Göksel embarked on a quest
to document İstanbul's libraries, and the results of his endeavor will
go on display on Monday at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall's foyer.

Göksel's collection “Fotoğraflarla İstanbul Kütüphaneleri”
(İstanbul's Libraries in Photographs) features snapshots from 12
libraries of the city, ranging from those built during the Ottoman era
to the most modern examples that are housed in universities.

The exhibition will run for seven days, throughout this week's 51st National Library
Week in Turkey, alongside a host of events put together by the İstanbul
branch of the Turkish Librarians Association (TKD). The March 30-April 5
program is held under the main theme “Intercultural Dialogue and
Libraries” in Turkey, while the İstanbul leg of activities will be held
under the theme “Libraries of the Future, the Future of Libraries.”

Göksel's project initially started as an ordinary commission: The
İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality asked him to take photographs of 12
libraries in the city for the 2015 Library Week. His job would be done
once he gave the municipal officials the photos they've requested. But
it turned out to be a much more detailed expedition: To take the photos,
Göksel started regularly visiting the 12 libraries, several days a week
for five months, and even made friends with veteran librarians,
establishing close ties with people who live among books.

And when his friends and relatives asked him such skeptical questions
as “Do libraries like these really exist in Turkey?” upon seeing
Göksel's photos, he decided to take matters in his own hands. Read more....

Thursday, March 26, 2015

A master's in librarianship could enhance your shelf life | Education | The Guardian

A master’s librarianship course will arm you with a number of
transferable skills. Photograph: West Coast Surfer/Getty Images/Fuse

If you think that people in Britain want to achieve fame and fortune
by treading the boards or having a number-one hit single then think
again. A recent survey from YouGov found that 54% of people would like to be librarians.

Of course, part of the attraction is spending time with all the books
your heart could possibly desire – but there’s a lot more to it than
that.

Biddy Casselden, who completed her own master’s in librarianship and
information management at Northumbria University, and has since both
taught on and led the programme, says it is important for career
progression. “Most of my students are working, usually in a library
environment, but are stuck at a certain level because they don’t have a
professional qualification,” she says. “This is their route for career
advancement.” Read more...

Friday, March 13, 2015

Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy | What's on | The British Library - The British Library

Foundation of democracy or rallying cry for modern rights? One of the world’s most famous documents, Magna Carta has inspired some of today’s fundamental liberties. Yet it started as a practical solution to a political crisis 800 years ago.

Since 1215, Magna Carta has evolved from a political agreement to an
international symbol of freedom. Uncover the story of how its power has
been used – and abused – from its genesis through to today’s popular
culture, in the largest exhibition ever staged about this world-famous
document.

Explore centuries of dramatic history, from King John, medieval
battles, revolution, wars, empire and the struggle for the right to
vote, right up to today’s satirical commentaries.

- See more at:
http://www.bl.uk/events/magna-carta--law-liberty-legacy?ns_campaign=magna-carta-exhibition&ns_campaign=BritishLibrary_MagnaCarta_version1&ns_mchannel=bl_website&ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=carousel&ns_source=newsletter&ns_linkname=magna-carta-exhibition_more_link&ns_linkname=Untitled5&ns_fee=0&ns_fee=0&TMID=+#sthash.TEyvyXUm.dpuf

To
mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta we are holding a
once-in-a-lifetime exhibition - book now! - See more at:
http://www.bl.uk/events/magna-carta--law-liberty-legacy?ns_campaign=magna-carta-exhibition&ns_campaign=BritishLibrary_MagnaCarta_version1&ns_mchannel=bl_website&ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=carousel&ns_source=newsletter&ns_linkname=magna-carta-exhibition_more_link&ns_linkname=Untitled5&ns_fee=0&ns_fee=0&TMID=+#sthash.TEyvyXUm.dpuf

To mark the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta we are holding a once-in-a-lifetime exhibition - book now! - See more at: http://www.bl.uk/events/magna-carta--law-liberty-legacy?ns_campaign=magna-carta-exhibition&ns_campaign=BritishLibrary_MagnaCarta_version1&ns_mchannel=bl_website&ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=carousel&ns_source=newsletter&ns_linkname=magna-carta-exhibition_more_link&ns_linkname=Untitled5&ns_fee=0&ns_fee=0&TMID=+#sthash.TEyvyXUm.dpuf

Thursday, March 5, 2015

So You Want to be a Prison Librarian? : An Interview with a Corrections Librarian | INALJ

So You Want to be a Prison Librarian? : An Interview with a Corrections Librarian

by Josh Rimmer, Senior Editor

* special note the author had permission from the interviewee to publish this as long as she remained anonymous

While
I was writing my last article about librarianship and service, one of
my inspirations came from research I was conducting on prison
librarianship. How many times do you see a posting for a corrections
librarian position on INDEED, or other big job boards? I’ll be honest,
I’ve notice quite a few; however, it seems that discussions about the
line of work and its issues are not given enough of a spotlight.

I was able to locate materials for immediate consumption, e.g., an old ALA column from a prison librarian and a neat NPR piece, but I didn’t feel as if I had an “understanding” of the work. Mintern, a corrections librarian who runs the blog, So You Want to be a Prison Librarian
was kind enough to grant me an interview. We’ll call the interviewee
Mintern, and here she talks about her background, why she chose prison
librarianship and provides INALJ readers insight and perspective on the
profession. Read more...

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

ISIS burns Mosul library: Why terrorists target books - CSMonitor.com

By Husna Haq, Correspondent February 25, 2015

From the destruction of the Library of Alexandria in 391 AD, to
the burning of Kabul libraries in 2002, to the the obliteration of the
Library of Baghdad in 2003, oppressive regimes have historically
targeted libraries.

In the latest example, on Sunday, in northern Iraq, Islamic State militants burned the Mosul public library, which housed more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts.

According
to reports, ISIS militants rigged the entire building with explosives
and carried out multiple detonations to raze the historical landmark and
its contents. Among its lost collections, according to the Fiscal Times,
were manuscripts from the 18th century, Syriac books printed in Iraq's
first printing house in the 19th century, books from the Ottoman era,
Iraqi newspapers from the early 20th century, and treasured antiques
like an astrolabe and sand glass used by ancient Arabs. Read more...

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul - Yahoo Finance

ISIS Burns 8000 Rare Books and Manuscripts in Mosul

While
the world was watching the Academy Awards ceremony, the people of Mosul
were watching a different show. They were horrified to see ISIS members
burn the Mosul public library. Among the many thousands of books it
housed, more than 8,000 rare old books and manuscripts were burned.

“ISIS militants bombed the Mosul Public Library.
They used improvised explosive devices,” said Ghanim al-Ta'an, the
director of the library. Notables in Mosul tried to persuade ISIS
members to spare the library, but they failed. Read more...

The future of the book | The Economist

In which something old and powerful is encountered in a vault

FINGERS stroke vellum; the calfskin pages are smooth, like paper,
but richer, almost oily. The black print is crisp, and every Latin
sentence starts with a lush red letter. One of the book’s early owners
has drawn a hand and index finger which points, like an arrow, to
passages worth remembering.

In 44BC Cicero, the Roman Republic’s great orator, wrote a book for his son Marcus called de Officiis
(“On Duties”). It told him how to live a moral life, how to balance
virtue with self-interest, how to have an impact. Not all his words were
new. De Officiis draws on the views of various Greek
philosophers whose works Cicero could consult in his library, most of
which have since been lost. Cicero’s, though, remain. De Officiis
was read and studied throughout the rise of the Roman Empire and
survived the subsequent fall. It shaped the thought of Renaissance
thinkers like Erasmus; centuries later still it inspired Voltaire. “No
one will ever write anything more wise,” he said.

Read more...

Why digital natives prefer reading in print. Yes, you read that right. - The Washington Post

Although American University student Cooper
Nordquist, 21, uses his laptop most of the day, he still likes to read
from the printed word for enjoyment. Despite that fact that most college
students do a majority of their socializing and school work
electronically, many still like to read from actual hard copy printed
books. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Frank Schembari loves books — printed books. He loves how
they smell. He loves scribbling in the margins, underlining interesting
sentences, folding a page corner to mark his place.

Schembari
is not a retiree who sips tea at Politics and Prose or some other
bookstore. He is 20, a junior at American University, and paging through
a thick history of Israel between classes, he is evidence of a peculiar
irony of the Internet age: Digital natives prefer reading in print.

“I like the feeling of it,” Schembari said, reading under natural light in
a campus atrium, his smartphone next to him. “I like holding it. It’s
not going off. It’s not making sounds.”

Textbook makers,
bookstore owners and college student surveys all say millennials still
strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning, a bias that surprises
reading experts given the same group’s proclivity to consume most other
content digitally. A University of Washington pilot study of digital
textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions
of e-textbooks that they were given for free.

Read more...

Monday, February 16, 2015

For Books, Print Is Back

Unit sales of print books sold through outlets that
report to Nielsen BookScan rose 2.4% in 2014, with total units topping
635 million. The gain was driven by a 3.4% increase in unit sales
through the retail and club channel relative to 2013, which offset a
1.8% decline in sales through the mass merchandiser channel and others
during the same period. Units through retailers and clubs, which include
Amazon and all types of bookstores, rose to just under 519 million; in
2013, print units through the channel fell 2.5% compared to the previous
year.

BookScan estimates that it captures
approximately 80% of print-unit sales made in the U.S. The company added
Walmart to its mass merchandiser panel in 2013, but was not able to
include historical data, making it difficult to track precise long-term
unit trends. Still, the 2014 figures are further evidence that print
books are selling better than they have since sales of e-books exploded
in 2010 and Borders closed its doors in 2011. Total print-unit sales
bottomed out in 2012, falling to 590 million, but in the two years since
then, units have risen 7.6% (helped to some degree by the addition of
Walmart to BookScan). Read more...

Friday, February 13, 2015

The Public Library: A Photographic Love Letter to Humanity’s Greatest Sanctuary of Knowledge, Freedom, and Democracy | Brain Pickings

“When a library is open, no matter its size or shape, democracy is open, too.”

“A library is many things,” E.B. White once wrote in a letter to the children of a little town to inspire them to fall in love with their new library. “But
particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in
touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books… Books hold
most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and
women have had.”

As the daughter of a formally trained librarian and an enormous lover of, collaborator with,
and supporter of public libraries (you may have noticed I always
include a public library link for books I write about; I also re-donate a
portion of Brain Pickings donations to the New York Public Library each year) I was instantly enamored with The Public Library: A Photographic Essay (public library | IndieBound) by photographer Robert Dawson
— at once a love letter and a lament eighteen years in the making, a
wistful yet hopeful reminder of just what’s at stake if we let the
greatest bastion of public knowledge humanity has ever known slip into
the neglected corner of cultural priorities. Alongside Dawson’s
beautiful photographs are short reflections on the subject by such
celebrated minds as Isaac Asimov, Anne Lamott, and E.B. White.
From architectural marvels to humble feats of human ingenuity, from the
august reading room of the New York Public Library to the
trailer-library at Death Valley National Park, braving the glaring sun
at one of the hottest places on earth, from the extraordinary vaulted
ceilings of LA’s Children’s Library to the small shack turned into a
book memorial in the country’s only one-person town, the remarkable
range reveals our elemental need for libraries — as sanctuaries of
learning, as epicenters of community, as living records of civic
identity, and above all as a timelier-than-ever testament that
information and human knowledge belong to everybody; not to corporate
monopolies or government agencies or ideological despots, but to the
people. Read more....

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Never trust a corporation to do a library’s job — The Message — Medium

As Google abandons its past, Internet archivists step in to save our collective memory

Google wrote its mission statement in 1999, a year after launch, setting the course for the company’s next decade:

“Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

For years, Google’s mission included the preservation of the past.

In 2001, Google made their first acquisition, the Deja archives. The
largest collection of Usenet archives, Google relaunched it as Google Groups, supplemented with archived messages going back to 1981. Read more...

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Anti-intellectualism is taking over the US | Comment is free | The Guardian

Isabel Allende is among writers whose work has been removed from Arizona
schools under an anti-ethnic studies initiative. Photograph: Koen Van
Weel/AFP/Getty Images

Friday 18 May 2012 04.32 EDT

Recently,
I found out that my work is mentioned in a book that has been banned,
in effect, from the schools in Tucson, Arizona. The anti-ethnic studies
law passed by the state prohibits teachings that "promote the overthrow
of the United States government," "promote resentment toward a race or
class of people," "are designed primarily for pupils of a particular
ethnic group," and/or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the
treatment of pupils as individuals." I invite you to read the book in
question, titled Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, so that you can decide for yourselves whether it qualifies.

In fact, I invite you to take on as your summer reading the
astonishingly lengthy list of books that have been removed from the
Tucson public school system as part of this wholesale elimination of the
Mexican-American studies curriculum. The authors and editors include
Isabel Allende, Junot Díaz, Jonathan Kozol, Rudolfo Anaya, bell hooks,
Sandra Cisneros, James Baldwin, Howard Zinn, Rodolfo Acuña, Ronald
Takaki, Jerome Skolnick and Gloria Anzaldúa. Even Thoreau's Civil
Disobedience and Shakespeare's The Tempest received the hatchet. Read more..

Pages

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