Free Weeklies Are Meant to Be Free

A recent article appearing in the St. Louis Suburban Journals reported that a St. Louis area resident called for the banning and removal of a free weekly available at a Jefferson County (Mo.) Public Library branch because "the content of this thing really upset [him]" - namely the use of the "F" word, plus advertising images that could be harmful to children.

The article noted that while the Library Director was "sympathetic" to the resident's "high moral standards, ...the library has an obligation to offer a wide range of material for its many patrons" and is not planning to remove the weekly.

This story reminded me of the near frenzy that occurred two years ago at the public library I used to frequent in suburban Columbus, Ohio, where residents (unsuccessfully) called for the removal of two free LGBT weeklies for similar reasons, resulting in public hearings and a legal brief/opinion that stated “The fact that some materials may be harmful to juveniles does not authorize a library from an outright prohibition of those items. In fact, the Supreme Court has held to the contrary: a total ban is not constitutionally permissible.”

Hip to Be Square

A recent article in The New York Times described the hipper and more progressive image of librarians that is emerging in Libraryland:

Librarians? Aren’t they supposed to be bespectacled women with a love of classic books and a perpetual annoyance with talkative patrons — the ultimate humorless shushers?

Not any more. With so much of the job involving technology and with a focus now on finding and sharing information beyond just what is available in books, a new type of librarian is emerging — the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is 'looking to put the ‘hep cat’ in cataloguing.'

The New York Sun also has a similar article on the same topic.

Science Fiction Collection at UC Riverside's Library

Sara Lin, of the LA Times, recently wrote an article, discussing the evolution of the Eaton Collection, a collection of science fiction, fantasy and horror resources at UC Riverside's Libraries.

Some jewels of their collection include: a first edition Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," printed in 1818; an embossed publisher's edition of Jules Verne's "Mirifiques Aventures de Maitre Antifer," printed in 1900; in addition to Batman trading cards from 1966.

CIC Joins Google Book Project

The national 12-university consortium called the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) just announced a collective agreement today to digitize select collections across all its libraries, up to 10 million volumes, as part of the Google Book Search project.

The CIC comprises University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Plagiarism Video

The Paul Robeson Library at Rutgers has produced a four-part video on plagiarism that is both informative and entertaining. And the voice of the schoolmarm is just fabulous.

Blogs & Preservation Survey

Do you blog? If yes, then please consider participating in an online survey from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science.

The study, Blogger Perceptions on Digital Preservation, is meant to investigate bloggers’ own perceptions on digital preservation in relation to their own blogging activities, as well as the blogosphere in general. More informatio about the study is included in the study's fact sheet.

The web-based survey will be available through May 23, 2007.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Carolyn Hank, the study's Principle Investigator, at hcarolyn@email.unc.edu. Thanks!

Library of Congress Launches Blog

In celebration of its 207th birthday this year, the Library of Congress recently launched the Library of Congress blog.

The purpose of the blog is to "give readers the opportunity to see more of the institution" and "highlight many of the wonderful things that happen here."

For its first post, on April 24th, the director of communications, Matt Raymond, began with the words of Samuel Morse in 1844: "What hath God wrought?" - the first words ever transmitted electronically via the telegraph.

"vital and essential"... the work of a librarian

Future of Mobile Search

I recently watched The Da Vinci Code (yes, I know I'm about a year or two behind) and was mildly shocked to see that the library research scene was completely cut out in favor of searching via a mobile device.

In the novel, the main characters, Robert and Sophie, go to a library and work with a librarian to help decipher some of the riddles. In the film version, though, the library scene is eliminated as going to the library would, as Robert puts it, simply take too long. Instead, the main characters use a young man's mobile phone to search the Web, and the young man even gives pointers on how to best search!

In his article, Miguel Helft of The New York Times recently outlined the future of searching the Web via mobile phone.

As an FYI, Diamond, the online catalog of the Temple University Libraries, is available via your mobile phone, PDA, or other small screen device (SSD). Just enter http://diamond.temple.edu/ into the web browser on your phone or wireless PDA, and click the "Text-only / AirPAC" link to check it out.

Coolest Place to Be on Campus? The Library, of Course!

Inside Higher Ed posted an article today on the relevance of academic libraries on campuses across the nation.