Info, links and musings from a (non-librarian) Library supporter.
First ‘Kid Lit Fest’ set March 8
Humble ISD event focuses on making reading fun
– Houston Chronicle2
The Humble school district will host the first Kid Lit Fest March 8, featuring nine children’s literature authors, activities, book signings and giveaways.The event will be from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Atascocita High School, 13300 Will Clayton Parkway.
Admission is free.
[snip]
Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.
Lane Library returns to roots as social spot
Hamilton center adds laptops, café atmosphere
– Business Courier of Cincinnati
What has a drive-thru window, self-checkout kiosks and free wireless Internet?If you’re thinking Starbucks, try again. How about a neighborhood library? Butler County’s historic Hamilton branch of the Lane Public Library is shedding its stodgy image of yesteryear with a $1.2 million renovation to remake it into a place where people want to hang out.
Bookshelves will move to the sidelines to make way for lounge areas where people can interact, read and relax. Electrical outlets will be added so there are enough places for laptop users to power up and recharge. And the octagonal room under a grand cupola, which now houses the circulation desk, will return to its original purpose as a seating space.
“Lane Public Library has always prided itself on being up-to-date with technology,” said Patti Sumner, project manager and interior designer with Steed Hammond Paul Inc., the same architecture firm that renovated the 25,000-square-foot building a little more than a decade ago. The main focus of the latest Hamilton branch project, she said, has been improving the library’s flow to make it relevant for the way people use libraries in this digital age.
[snip]
From the Library Journal:
The Winnipeg Public Library, MB, now offers wi-fi to laptop users—for a price. According to Sam Katz, mayor of Manitoba’s capital, the city must charge $3 CDN an hour to laptop users to recoup the $23,000 it spent to install wireless Internet in all 20 library branches (and in the Pan Am Pool). “Winnipeg needs to be, you know, in the modern age,” Katz said at a September 10 news conference, as was reported by CBC News. “We need to be hip, and this is what it’s all about. It’s happening in other cities, and I certainly don’t want us to be the last ones.”[snip]
Kindle a nice try but a real book is a more solid value
– Houston Chronicle2
[snip]While the idea of being able to carry a couple hundred books around
in your pocket (and it would have to be a mighty big pocket in the
Kindle’s case) is attractive, people have a physical and emotional
attachment to books. The Kindle is just one plastic device, and while
it can do cool things, it cannot compete with the aesthetic appeal of a
full bookshelf.
But just as radio didn’t kill print, TV didn’t kill radio and the
Internet won’t kill off any other media, e-books and “real” books will
co-exist, side-by-side, in the long run. E-books have a long way to go,
but eventually, they’ll become as friendly and as useful as their
wood-pulp-and-ink predecessors.[snip]
Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks
HISD’s library shelves are lacking
Report says collections are too small or old, and many schools have none at all
– Houston Chronicle2
Seventy percent of the Houston Independent School District’s libraries have collections that are so small or so old, the state considers them below standard.And HISD isn’t the only local district struggling to meet state guidelines. Others, including fast-growing Cypress-Fairbanks, also are missing the mark, sometimes because they can’t stock their shelves fast enough to keep up with the influx of students.
[snip]
Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks.
Orient-Express to Build New York Hotel
–Houston Chronicle2
Hotel and leisure company Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. said Wednesday it signed a deal to acquire a building housing the Donnell branch of the New York Public Library and the land beneath it to create a luxury hotel.The company will pay the library $59 million in cash, in addition to the value of the library space, which the New York Public Library will own and occupy. The overall project is estimated to cost $220 million, including the library purchase.
The 150-room hotel will include a rebuilt Donnell Library location within it, as well as contemporary dining, spa and wellness facilities. Orient-Express said it also plans to expand the existing restaurant and dining business for its “21″ Club, which backs onto the library’s location, by connecting the two buildings.
The property will be marketed under a new “21″ Hotel brand name. The original “21″ Club in midtown Manhattan will remain at its location with enhanced facilities, Orient-Express said.
[snip]
Footnotes
2=article may expire in a few weeks
Oprah Winfrey pulls disputed children’s book from her Web site
–Houston Chronicle2
Oprah Winfrey has pulled a discredited children’s book, Forrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree, from a list of recommended titles on her Web site, blaming an archival “error” for including a work considered the literary hoax of a white supremacist.[snip]
Footnotes
2=article may expire in a few weeks
Authors to converge at book festival
– Houston Chronicle2
Novelist Tom Perrotta, first daughter Jenna Bush and historian Joseph
J. Ellis are among headliners at this weekend’s Texas Book Festival in
Austin. More than 200 writers — some Texas-rooted, others with a
national profile — will be on hand at the annual event on the grounds
of the Capitol.[snip]
This is the 12th year for the book fest, which Laura Bush started to
raise money for Texas libraries. More than 45,000 people attended last
year. For a complete schedule, visit www.texasbookfestival.org.
Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks
Am I the only person who actually doesn’t care about what J.K. Rowling recent revelation about her belief that Albus Dumbledore is gay? Dumbledore is one of the central characters in her very popular series of Harry Potter books.
Personally, I just think it’s a publicity ploy.
Others, however, do care.
Outing gives new meaning to passages about wizard Dumbledore in Harry Potter books
– Houston Chronicle2
With author J.K. Rowling’s revelation that master wizard Albus Dumbledore is gay, some passages about the Hogwarts headmaster and rival wizard Gellert Grindelwald have taken on a new and clearer meaning.The British author stunned her fans at Carnegie Hall on Friday night when she answered one young reader’s question about Dumbledore by saying that he was gay and had been in love with Grindelwald, whom he had defeated years ago in a bitter fight.
[snip]
Footnotes
2 = article may expire in a few weeks
Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web
– New York Times
Several major research libraries have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books into computer databases, saying they are put off by restrictions these companies want to place on the new digital collections.The research libraries, including a large consortium in the Boston area, are instead signing on with the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit effort aimed at making their materials broadly available.
Libraries that agree to work with Google must agree to a set of terms, which include making the material unavailable to other commercial search services. Microsoft places a similar restriction on the books it converts to electronic form. The Open Content Alliance, by contrast, is making the material available to any search service.
It costs the Open Content Alliance as much as $30 to scan each book, a
cost shared by the group’s members and benefactors, so there are
obvious financial benefits to libraries of Google’s wide-ranging offer,
started in 2004.[snip]
I can see why libraries would decline to participate. What do you think?