You can no longer use MySpace, Facebook or other “social networking sites” at Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library.

Fights, lewd language and cars being blocked in the parking lot by teenagers are among the problems Director Dave Eisen said have plagued the downtown library lately.

He told library board members that adults have complained about not feeling safe at the library. Eisen and his staff believe the teenagers are there to use MySpace, Facebook and other social sites.

So he received permission from the library board to cut off social networking sites.

It might have worked, as there were few teenagers going to the computer room by 3:30 p.m. Friday, a half hour after it normally begins to fill up. There were few teenagers even coming in to the computer room at the library.

[snip]

This is just sad. Reading the story it’s clear that they had some serious behavior issues to address. It’s unfortunate that they believed that they had to limit access to vital online tools to do that.

Found via Tame The Web.

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
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Hmmm……

I loved the first, especially the way it takes its time to build up. My tween niece liked it a lot, almost for the same reason.

In fact, she’s the one who told me about the fact that they’re making a movie based on the book. Needless to say, she’s impatient to see this story on the big screen.

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]

• 80th Annual Academy Award Nominations Announced, at the Harris County Public Library
• Spanish-language publishing; Lost in translation no more
  Sales of books in Spanish are booming, and there is plenty of room for growth, by the Economist.com (found via Librarian)
• UCO 24 hour library - a success?, at Library Stories

Resources:

• Flamingnet

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]

Via Library Technology in Texas.

[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
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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
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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 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
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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
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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

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?

Ed has a very good response that goes way beyond social media.

What do you think Shel should tell librarians?

Use WorldCat to Search Libraries

The next time you need to find something at your local library, try searching through WorldCat, a ginormous network of libraries, library content, and library services. You can use WorldCat to search for everything you would search for at your local library, find free content (downloadable audiobooks, for example), articles and citations, historical documents, and many more kinds of information from libraries all over the world. You can also use WorldCat to check out items directly from libraries you have an active membership with (this can vary by library).

ScreamWorld Offers Free Entry To Houston Public Library Power Card Holders
–Opening weekend offer takes the fear out of library card registration drive–
 
HOUSTON (September 18, 2007) … ScreamWorld Halloween Scream Park and the Houston Public Library (HPL) have partnered for the “Don’t Be Afraid of the Library” program which provides free admission to HPL Power Card holders opening weekend, Friday through Sunday, September 21st through 23rd at ScreamWorld Halloween Scream Park. Customers who present their HPL Power Card at ScreamWorld receive one free entry (good Sept. 21, 22, and 23 only) to ScreamWorld valued at $22. ScreamWorld is located at 2225 N. Sam Houston Parkway (Beltway 8), between Ella and T.C. Jester, 1.5 miles west of I-45.

The promotion is part of HPL’s Library Card Sign-Up Month, a campaign held by libraries across the country each September to encourage library card sign-up for children and teens just after the new school year begins. HPL expects to sign up an estimated 15,000 new cardholders in September as part of the month-long campaign.  

To assist in ongoing HPL Power Card sign-up efforts, ScreamWorld will continue to distribute library card applications to its patrons through the Halloween season. To learn more about becoming a Power Card holder and FREE HPL services, visit us online at www.houstonlibrary.org or call 832.393.1313. 

[snip]

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.

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Resources:

• Creating a YA blog, by the Alternative Teen Services blog