11.07.07
Posted in News at 12:03 pm by Paloma Cruz
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
Permalink
Posted in News at 12:00 pm by Paloma Cruz
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
Permalink
10.31.07
Posted in News at 10:22 am by Paloma Cruz
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
Permalink
10.23.07
Posted in News at 9:26 am by Paloma Cruz
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
Permalink
10.22.07
Posted in News at 9:08 am by Paloma Cruz
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?
Permalink
09.12.07
Posted in News at 8:23 am by Paloma Cruz
Local author headlines book reviews at Helen Hall Library
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
Helen Hall Library in League City will host local author, Patty Mayeaux and area photographer, Linda Lapointe, as they kick off the fall book review series beginning Sept. 13 at the library.
[snip]
Helen Hall Library hosts book reviews on the second Thursday of each month beginning at 10:30 a.m. Other book reviews will take place on Oct. 11, Nov. 8 and Dec. 13.
Call Susie Moncla at 281-554-1101 for more information.
Permalink
07.08.07
Posted in News at 1:45 am by Paloma Cruz
I’m reserving opinion on this, but am sharing this so you can form your own.
A story from the Houston Press on moving their Houston Public Library’s Frank Neighborhood Library from the current “traditional” library to an HPL Express location.
[snip]
The library system was planning a renovation of the Frank branch, which has foundation problems. They discovered, unfortunately, that new studies now place the building squarely within the 100-year flood plain.
[snip]
There wasn’t enough money to build a completely new similarly sized branch, so the neighborhood is getting what the Houston Public Library System is calling “an exciting concept” known as “HPL Express.”
What’s an HPL Express? It’s a rented storefront that holds about half the 90,000 items that the Frank branch currently has.
[snip]
Future HPL Expresses — including one in the similarly troubled Gulftonneighborhood — might offer only a “very small collection” of books.
Future sites might be entirely book-free. But those sites will be in addition to existing libraries, not replacing full facilities like the Frank branch.
Ah, what the hell — it’s not like kids today are reading anyway. Maybe HPL should just set up a Facebook page and be done with it.
The concept has sparked a debate amongst librarians on what they’re calling a “mclibrary” and “library lite.” A comment posted at a librarian blog argues:
This is something to be concerned about. We might call this HPL Express a Library Lite or a Fast Food Library. It appears it will function in a similar way that fast food functions to real food. I don’t need to remind people on this list that customers love fast food, unfortunately it is not good for their health. And a library without intelligent books is not good for democracy.
This is a good illustration of a library getting out of the knowledge and education venue and moving to solely focus on entertaining (pacifying?) their “customers” with only popular works (known in some circles as crap or fluff). In theory, this HPL Express will feed the mind but it is really only full of empty calories. It will look like a library, but will most likely have none of those awkward resources that might actual assist a person in becoming an engaged citizen. I am betting that they will be sure to order a copy of Paris Hilton’s autobiography as soon as it is published.
And:
There was money enough in HPL’s budget to utterly renovate the downtown main Branch library (still ongoing as of this writing)…but the Main Branch library is in the heart of the downtown Business district, and has a not inconsiderable business clientelle, with a considerable ECON/BUSINESS section taking up most of the entire 2nd floor. So there are race and class issues that intersect here as well. The “either/or” choice posited is utterly false & misleading.
I suppose it would be also impertinent to ask if there is any Gates Foundation seed money propping up McLibrary projects like HPL Express storefronts, etc, since they will have “plenty of computers”. Inquiring minds want to know.
Of course, this I can respond to from previous Houston Chronicle stories, the renovation of the Central Library was funded with Bond money passed back in 2001. Back in 2001, and they just got to do it in 2006.
I’m not a librarian, so I can’t comment on the academics of librarianship. I can speak as a PR person, and I know that change is difficult. Not always bad, not always good, but always difficult.
Resources:
Permalink
05.22.07
Posted in News at 11:17 pm by Paloma Cruz
From the International Herald Tribune: “More than 1,700 people have complained to Hong Kong regulators that the Bible is overly sexual and violent, apparently to mock a recent ruling condemning a sex survey in a student newspaper.” I do get the irony and applaud the sentiment. However, personally, I always have trouble using the Bible to make a point.
Thanks for LibTalk for pointing to this: “Post a video that describes what you love about your library and how it serves your community and you could win the $10,000.00 grand prize in Thompson Gale’s ‘I Love My Library” video contest to split with the library you designate.” There are lots of local libraries that could benefit from this.
Resources
Permalink
05.09.07
Posted in News at 5:14 pm by Paloma Cruz
Monday, May 14, 2007 * 7:30 PM
Meadow Wood Elementary School
14230 Memorial Drive * 77079
The Houston Public Library invites the community to a public meeting to discuss the concepts for a new Kendall Neighborhood Library.
Residents will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed facility, as well as priorities in services and programs for that location.
The Kendall Neighborhood Library is currently located at 14330 Memorial Drive, 77079.
For more information, please call 832-393-1313 or visit www.houstonlibrary.org.
Permalink
04.22.07
Posted in News at 8:37 pm by Paloma Cruz
HIGH-TECH HELP FOR GENEALOGISTS
Online sites help family trees branch out
– reported by the Houston Chronicle
[snip]
For amateur genealogists, cyberspace has added a new dimension, one that helps them accomplish more in less time. As the number of online genealogy Web sites grows, so does the community that practices the hobby and so do the family trees they uncover.
[snip]
Researching a family tree used to be painfully slow and tedious. Amateurs could dig for months for paper records that promised to offer crucial facts about a relative’s life, sometimes finding nothing at all.
But with Web sites dedicated to genealogy, some free and others for a fee, novices can share techniques and connect with distant relatives they likely wouldn’t have found otherwise.
[snip]
Houstonians have great local resources to help in this search, the Houston Public Library’s Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research has “resources for Texas, other states and around the world.” Find them online at www.houstonlibrary.org/clayton.
Permalink
« Previous entries · Next entries »