LOTR Librarian

SafeLibraries.org

2010-04-05T07:53:00.001-07:00

I encourage all parents to use this site and educate themselves. Remember: child predators have (and do) wait in public libraries for unsupervised children.

http://www.safelibraries.org/

Do You REALLY Know Anything About Narnia?

2006-06-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

If you read ALL the books, take the quiz yourself. If you just watched the first movie, you might want to skip this quiz.

Do you .:really:. know anything about NARNIA?

You surely know all that there is to know about NARNIA! If anyone deserves a tickit to True NARNIA, it's you!Congrats, you are a true NARNIA fan! C.S Lewis would be proud! Just like me, you love THE CHRONICALS and can't stand it when someone gets their facts wrong! You have spent so much time reading THE CHRONICALS that C.S Lewis, Aslan and the rest of the NARNIANS owe you a favor! After all, you were right there with them when NARNIA was born, the White Witch was slain, when the legendary LAST BATTLE took place, and every other memorable moment in between! All in all, no one can ever say you don't know you're NARNIA.***********************************Now that the quiz is over... ^^^^^please rate and message!^^^^^clicking a button takes up less than two milliseconds of your life, and I promise I will message you back if you message me!Thanx!
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Library Journal: 77% of US adults online

2006-05-30T23:52:00.000-07:00

Library Journal: 77% of US adults online

Just want to add my .02 to the blog author's conclusion:

"This also means that more and more of our patrons are going to be able to access our websites and online services. We need to be keeping an eye on the services we offer online users of our libraries and make sure that we are serving them as well as we are serving our "bricks and mortar" users."

They'll be able to access it, but WILL they? Library catalogs and databases are not as user friendly as Google or another search engine. We're shooting ourselves in the foot by not making our own resources as easy to search.

Grad School Craziness

2006-04-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Once again, I've had to take a leave of absence from blogging; graduate school and work responsibilities have made me put many of my hobbies aside. Hopefully I will be able to update this more often in the near future, but very likely posting here will be sporadic until the end of the month.

Apologies in advance,

--Oyarsa

Off Topic Update

2006-03-15T23:09:00.000-08:00

I'm here; I've just been busy with classes and other obligations. Hopefully I'll be able to update this more often.

Robert Kent on the ALA/Cuban Libraries controversy.

2006-02-14T17:01:00.000-08:00

Speaking of Friends of Cuban Libraries, I recieved the following from their Director Robert Kent on the ongoing battle between the Friends of Cuban Libraries and the leaders of the ALA:

Dear Bloggers:
Here are three updates on the intensifying dispute over control of key ALA offices and committees by the extremist faction. Thanks for your feedback, and PLEASE keep sending me the addresses of other sympathetic bloggers. We need to get word out of the revolt brewing within the ALA! - Robert Kent, Friends of Cuban Libraries.

CONTENTS:

1. Response by Robert Kent to ALA prez Gorman's letter condemning Andrei Codrescu and the Friends as "foaming right-wingers."

2. Effort by Mark Rosenzweig to stifle dissent by imposing the Marxist doctrine of "democratic centralism" on the "AL Direct" publication. The extremists are furious because an AL Direct reader poll indicated (at last count) that 75% (yes, SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT) of respondents want the ALA to condemn the persecution of Cuba's independent librarians.

3. Text of a superb article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the ALA uproar caused by Andrei Codrescu's speech.

1. FOR PUBLIC RELEASE

Feb. 8, 2006

Dear Mr. Gorman:

Thank you for your letter of January 27 regarding The Friends of Cuban Libraries' report on Andrei Codrescu's speech at the ALA conference in San Antonio. Your response to our numerous attempts to communicate, belated as it is, offers added proof that the effort by a small extremist faction within the ALA to deceive, cover up and lie about the systematic persecution of Cuba's independent librarians, and the burning of their library collections, is finally unraveling. Your letter is an indirect acknowledgement that the ALA is beginning to repair and reclaim its proud heritage as an impartial defender of intellectual freedom as a universal human right.

Your "report..." is entirely typical of your many utterances in the past and of the behavior of your friend Mr. Codrescu. That is, it is tendentious, riddled with inaccuracies, defamatory, and motivated by the kind of foaming right wingery that is, alas, all too common in political discourse these days.
If Andrei Codrescu and The Friends of Cuban Libraries have engaged in defamation, then a lawsuit is called for. Although I am not a lawyer, to a layperson telling the truth would seem to be poor grounds for a successful defamation lawsuit.

"Every burned book enlightens the world," wrote Emerson, and thanks to the intervention of "foaming right-wingers" such as Andrei Codrescu, Nat Hentoff and Ray Bradbury, at long last the thousands of Cuban library books seized or burned by Castro's secret police are beginning to enlighten the general public, including the well-meaning but inattentive majority on the governing ALA Council who until recently have accepted the assurances of "experts" on extremist-dominated ALA committees that nothing of interest is happening in Cuba. We all know what the public would have thought of fluent German-speaking "researchers" who visited Berlin in the 1930's and proclaimed that they could find no evidence of repression or censorship in Nazi Germany. Did you really believe, Mr. Gorman, that the public would not catch on to the ALA's Spanish-speaking "researchers" who visit Havana and try, with a straight face, to make similar claims about the Communist regime in Cuba?

And, in addition to Andrei Codrescu, Nat Hentoff and Ray Bradbury, let's not forget other "foaming right-wingers" such as Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Cornel West and Howard Zinn who have also spoken out against the repression of Cuban dissidents, including the independent librarians now serving life sentences for daring to open uncensored libraries in an historic challenge to a totalitarian regime. All of the librarians convicted after Castro's 2003 crackdown have been adopted as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty International and other renowned organizations, which is just another of the inconvenient facts systematically ignored or covered up by extremist-dominated ALA committees in their fraudulent "investigations" of Cuba.

I am old-fashioned enough to think that it is both rude and devious to accept an invitation to speak on a topic and use the opportunity to attack your host (ALA).
Is it really rude to inform one's host that his/her house is on fire? On the contrary: ignoring, lying about and covering up the truth about the rising flames in a host's house would be the true outrage. Nor is it inappropriate to inform ALA members, including the well-meaning but inattentive majority on the governing ALA Council, that they have been deceived by a small, scheming faction of extremists who are trying to destroy the ethical basis of the ALA.

I have not "repeatedly dodged" questions about Cuba. I have not chosen to > answer your fulminations but, then, I would have no time for my many other duties if I were to engage in correspondence with every half-wit and crackpot who communicates with me.
This passage in your letter requires an explanation for the uninformed reader. In October 2005 the Friends of Cuban Libraries issued an emergency report about Victor Rolando Arroyo, a jailed Cuban reporter and independent librarian who was near death due to a hunger strike called to protest prison conditions. Victor, the director of the Reyes Magos Library in western Cuba, was arrested in March 2003 and the 6,000 volumes in the Reyes Magos Library were confiscated by the secret police. After a one-day trial, Victor Rolando Arroyo was sentenced to a 20-year prison term. When his life was in danger because of a hunger strike, we made a public appeal to you, Mr. Gorman, hoping that you would compassionately agree to help save the life of a fellow human being, regardless of his beliefs, real of perceived. Sadly, our hopes were misplaced, as you repeatedly refused to respond to our letters or to make any effort whatsoever to save Victor's life. Fortunately, Victor's life was saved thanks to the intervention of several human rights organizations. Did you act in this way because Victor, too, should be scorned as a "foaming right-winger?" One of the charges made against Victor during his one-day trial was that he had been awarded the Hellman-Hammett Prize, issued by Human Rights Watch to honor victims of repression. The award is named for Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, two more "foaming right-wingers" harassed for their beliefs during the McCarthy era in the U.S.

Mr. Codrescu seems to share your curious delusion that everyone who lends another person a book is a "librarian." Few others do.
Mr. Gorman, efforts to ignore the facts by taking refuge in semantic quibbling are beginning to fail. It is irrelevant whether a library worker has a library degree or not, as shown by the ALA's championing of Eliades Acosta, the despicable director of Havana's National Library who serves as Castro's spokesperson for the persecution of the independent librarians. Mr. Acosta does not have a library degree, just as many ALA members and the U.S. Librarian of Congress also lack a library degree. It can never be a crime to oppose censorship or to open a library, with or without a university degree, no matter what the ALA's extremist minority may claim to the contrary. The same goes for nonsensical claims that Cuba's independent libraries are somehow not real libraries, even though the ALA's own mandate defends the legitimacy of "all libraries." Is there some aspect of the phrase "all libraries," Mr. Gorman, which is ambiguous? And just as the ALA extremists claim, or pretend to claim, that a library worker is not a library worker and a library is not a library, will they also dare to claim that a book is not a book, just because it is held by an independent library in Cuba? Or can we safely scorn and disregard the existence of a pile of ashes that used to be a book, as has been the fate of thousands of library books seized by the secret police in Cuba?

In summary, Mr. Gorman, the long "reign of error" enjoyed by the ALA's extremist minority is beginning to collapse. In growing numbers, ALA members realize that they have been deceived. We are confident that the majority of well-meaning ALA Council members will now begin to pay overdue attention to this important subject and, acting in a principled and impartial manner, restore the ALA's ethical basis by supporting Cuba's brave independent librarians and their historic defense of intellectual freedom. We also hope that you, after re-assessing the facts, will disavow the elaborate lies and cover ups of the extremists by siding with the vast majority of ALA members who support truth and justice.

Sincerely,

Robert Kent

Co-chair, The Friends of Cuban Libraries

(http://www.friendsofcubanlibraries.org)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Mark Rosenzweig is trying to impose the Marxist doctrine of "democratic centralism" on the ALA Council, whereby rank-and-file members are forbidden to disagree with the Central Committee's established policies, or even (as in the case of reader polls in AL Direct) to even have an avenue for expressing disagreement.) At last report, Michael Gorman had sent a memo to AL Direct editor Leonard Kniffel "suggesting," in accordance with Rosenzweig's demands, that polling be dropped from AL Direct:

-----Original Message----- From: owner-alacoun@ala.org [mailto:owner-alacoun@ala.org] On Behalf Of MCR
Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 12:58 PM
To: ALA Council List
Cc: srrtac-l@ala.org; PLGNET-L@listproc.sjsu.edu
Subject: [ALACOUN:17056] RE: On AL Direct and "polling"
[Message posted by Rosenzweig:] ...For Council to "poll" the members on an issue, any issue, there would have to be a public meeting, a motion, a debate, a vote, probably a referral to BARC, and pro-and-con would have to have a chance to present positions publicly...

No, we don't "own" the right: we scarcely HAVE the right (yes we have the possible option, subject to all the just mentioned constraints), never mind a means to do it on a regular basis.

Why should the editors of AL, outside of all democratic governance and using their privileged direct access to the membership, be allowed to create -- without Council's approval --apparently without being enjoined either to do so by the Executive Board -- a standing mechanism whereby they can decide what to poll about, how to do it, how to frame policy issues, when to take phony "unscientific" and meaningless (though influential) polls, when/where/how to publicize the results ?

American Library's editor in present practice already has a "super-voice" on policy; the editor has direct and immediate access to tens of thousands of members AND the authority (or appearance of authority) of official publication, makes it more influential than virtually ANY ALA governance body, committee, elected individual, personal member (including the President ) or other staff (including the ED). The new AL Direct is an invitation to abuse of that, and the fact that the first issue had that absurd "poll" on Cuba (it's not that it's Cuba that irks me, it could be ANY policy they chose to call into question) only made it clear that there is an intention to do just that . It should give us on Council pause.

Mark Rosenzweig

ALA Councilor at large

Codrescu: Librarians Fail to Stand Up for Oppressed Peers

2006-02-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

U.S. librarians fail to speak out for oppressed peers

SAN ANTONIO , Feb. 1, 2006 (Jonathan Gurwitz/San Antonio Express-News) - Michael Gorman, the president of the American Library Association, was mugged recently in San Antonio. Gorman was in town for the ALA's annual midwinter meeting.

Ordinarily, I would be horrified to hear that a visitor to this fair city had been the victim of such a misdeed. But in this case, it's the ALA that's committing the crime and the truth that fittingly mugged Gorman.

At the ALA's President's Program on Jan. 22, Romanian-born author Andrei Codrescu delivered the keynote address about the importance of books, libraries and librarians.... I was born in a place [Romania] where people were forbidden to read most of what we consider the fundamental books of Western civilization," he told the audience.....

Codrescu spoke about the librarian who changed his life — Dr. Martin, a retired professor who had managed to accumulate a collection of works blacklisted by the communist authorities. "Books forbidden by an authoritarian government are the only reason I am now standing before you," he said.

Codrescu recounted how, in those dark days in Romania, the ALA — along with the ACLU and the Helsinki Federation for Human Rights — offered a beacon of hope for democracy and freedom. Then, by President Gorman's lights, Codrescu's speech turned down a criminal path.

Read the rest of the article here.

ALA convention shocker: Keynote speaker Codrescu slams Cuba policy scandal

2006-02-14T16:51:00.000-08:00

Here are excerpts from Andrei Codrescu's electrifying keynote speech, "The Make It or Break It Century," presented at the ALA's Midwinter 2006 conference:

Thank you for – once again - giving me the opportunity and pleasure to address some of my favorite people. I feel that you and I, writers and librarians, along with publishers and booksellers, are keeping the flame of literacy flickering in these pixilated times.....

I was born in a place [Romania] where people were forbidden to read most of what we consider the fundamental books of Western civilization. Not only were we forbidden to read authors like James Joyce, but being found in possession of a book such as George Orwell’s “1984” could lend one in prison for years. My good luck was to meet Dr. Martin in my adolescence. Dr. Martin was a retired professor who had collected and kept in his modest three room apartment the best of inter-war Romanian literature..... Also among his treasures were translations of Sigmund Freud, Robert Musil, Klebnikov, George Orwell, and Paul Claudel..... Dr. Martin’s library could have earned him years of hard labor. In addition to owning them, he lent them to us, young high-school writers, who absorbed them thirstily and read them deeply because we knew what risks our older friend – and ourselves - were taking. Those books influenced me profoundly because they were essential to my intellectual development. I became a writer because I read forbidden books. Books forbidden by an authoritarian government are the only reason I am now standing before you.

You can read the rest of the available excerpts at the Friends of Cuban Libraries website.

Banned Books in Cuba

2006-02-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

I have posted here before about Castro's abuse and mistreatment of librarians and materials it considers "subversive".

The following books ought to be considered required reading for librarians and anyone interested in the freedom to read. Note: This list (and other information below) borrowed liberally from Babalu Blog

1. Amnesty International. Amnesty International Report, 1999.
2. Ash, Timothy Garton. The Magic Lantern.
3. Cabrera Infante, Guillermo. View of Dawn in the Tropics.
4. Constitution of the United States of America.
5. Courtois, Stephane, et al. The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression.
6.Cumerlato, Corinne and Denis Rousseau. La Isla del Doctor Castro: La Transición Secuestrado.
7. Diamond, Larry and Marc F. Plattner, eds. The Global Resurgence of Democracy.
8. Díaz-Briquets, Sergio and Jorge F. Pérez-López. Conquering Nature: The Environmental Legacy of Socialism in Cuba.
9. Edwards, Jorge. Persona Non Grata: A Memoir of Disenchantment with the Cuban Revolution.
10. Fernández Revuelta, Alina. Castro’s Daughter: An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba.
11. Franqui, Carlos. Diary of the Cuban Revolution.
12. Franqui, Carlos. Family Portrait with Fidel: A Memoir.
13. Furet, Francois. The Passing of an Illusion: The Idea of Communism in the Twentieth Century.
14. Geyer, Georgie Anne. Guerrilla Prince.
15. Gutiérrez Boronat, Orland. Hacia la gran nación.
16. Harrison, Lawrence E. Underdevelopment Is a State of Mind: The Latin American Case.
17. Havel, Vaclav. Living in Truth.
18. --. The Art of the Impossible.
19. --. Toward a Civil Society: Selected Speeches and Writings, 1990 – 1994.
20. --. The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe.
21. Human Rights Watch. Cuba’s Repressive Machinery: Human Rights Forty Years After the Revolution.
22. King, Martin Luther Jr. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr.
23. Matos, Húber. Cómo Llegó La Noche.
24. McDowell, Josh. Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
25. Mesa-Lago; Carmelo, Alberto Arenas; and Malena Barro. Market, Socialist, and Mixed Economies : Comparative Policy and Performance--Chile, Cuba, and Costa Rica.
26. Michnik, Adam. Letters from Prison.
27. Muller, Alberto and Oswaldo Payá. El Proyecto Varela.
28. Oppenheimer, Andrés. Castro’s Final Hour: An Eyewitness Account of the Disintegration of Castro’s Cuba.
29. Orwell, George. 1984.
30. --. Animal Farm.
31. Rojas, Rafael. José Martí: La Invención de Cuba.
32. Roosevelt, Eleanor, et al. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
33. Sakharov, Andrei. Sakharov Speaks.
34. Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. Letters to the Soviet Leaders.
35.Walensa, Lech. A Way of Hope.

Happy Reading!

For some interesting reading, read the sentencing documents at Rule of Law and Cuba:

They were scanned by optical character recognition and translated from Spanish by computer, so they read kind of strangely, but are very interesting. If you read them, you will see that medicines were often confiscated as well.

While I'm sending you to other parts of the web, please visit the Center for a Free Cuba.

I also found Walter Skold's four-part article on "Castro's Library Pass" an informative read.

Libararies Aren't Daycare Centers

2006-02-09T16:19:00.000-08:00

Libraries Aren't Daycare Centers

Parents, this cannot be stressed enough. You wouldn't leave your toddler alone in a shopping mall or drop him off to play in a supermarket, don't do it in a library. People who prey on children use libraries as well. Use common sense.

There have been incidents of perverts and/or predators attempting to kidnap children in libraries. Here is a recent case in a public library in Des Moines. Become educated. Don't let your child become a statistic.

A New Kind of "Lost Material"

2006-01-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

Incredible discovery. Kudos to Susan Stead for finding Lord Byron's lost poem.

--Oyarsa

Yes, Virginia, Libraries do impact communities

2005-12-28T07:13:00.000-08:00

The following PDF will show you just how much of an economic impact the library makes. Please share this link with fellow librarians and anyone else that may come to mind. Remind all how much difference libraries make. Economic Impact PDF

Economists Have Their Own Search Engine

2005-12-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

Resources for Economists on the Internet, at http://rfe.org/, is a categorized list of resources relevant to economists, with categories like Data, Forecasting & Consulting, and Software. Don't forget to use the Details link for each of the listings -- there's plenty more information available.

RFE now has a search engine as well, available at http://ese.rfe.org/. The ESE (Economics Search Engine) uses Nutch to index 300,000 pages from 10,000 economics sites around the Internet. Materials indexed include text, PDF, and Microsoft Word files.

Check it out.

Another Link Update!

2005-12-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

I added yet another Tolkien site: One Ring: The Complete Guide to Tolkien Online. One Ring appears to be a directory of Tolkien websites: everything from books, to fanfiction, to movies, to image galleries and more. This site was a Librarian's Index to the Internet pick, and after reviewing it myself, I thought it was an appropriate addition.

--Oyarsa

LOTR Flash Videos from Albinoblacksheep.com

2005-12-12T23:09:00.000-08:00

For those who have not seen any of these videos yet, they are highly recommended for all Lord of the Rings fans. Especially the "They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard" video.

"They're Taking the Hobbits to Isengard

Summary: Song featuring Legolas, Aragorn, the hobbits, Celeborn and Galadriel, and, of course, Gollum.

Gollum Rap ("The Towers Are the Players")

Summary: Rap involving Gollum, an orc, and Sauron.

Mashed Taters (Potatoes)

Summary: Sam explains the concept of taters/potatoes to Gollum.

Since the words to the rap may not be entirely clear, I humbly provide the lyrics, with a link to my source:

"Gollum is Smeagol
King I is regal
Basshead for the precious
Smeagol fly like an eagle

Precious is my bling-bling
Precious gonna sing-sing
Precious on my finger
Nasty hobbits no sting-sting

My pimp stick a missin'
Redrum on a mission
Don't f*ck wit the Gollumses playa
Playa we be fishin'

Me wants it
Hobbitses stole it
Power to the Playa
And the Gollum who controls it

The Towerz are the Playaz
The Towerz are the Playaz all

Skills with the grooves
Middle Earth have you heard the news?
Gollum drop a beat that even Orcses even use

Sauron and Smeagol
Kitty full of evil
Jumpin' down to D-Town
Smeagol get medieval

My drawers are hangin' light
I'm stuffin' up my pipe
Spliffin' and a splashin' I'm steppin' to the mic

Gollum is Smeagol
King I is regal
Basshead for the precious
Smeagol fly like an eagle

The Towerz are the Playaz
The Towerz are the Playaz all"

Wiki World

2005-12-12T15:47:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in learning more about Wikis, check out Lori Bell's announcement.

--Oyarsa

Did Bush Lie? Google It!

2005-11-17T22:34:00.000-08:00

Welcome, OpenSource Media!

2005-11-17T18:21:00.000-08:00

Just ran across their website today. I wish them all success. I will be linking to their site shortly in the links list.

--Oyarsa

What is Open Source Media? The best way to answer that is through the explanation of its founders, bloggers Roger L. Simon and Charles Johnson:

OSM’s mission is to expand the influence of weblogs by finding and promoting the best of them, providing bloggers with a forum to meet and share resources, and the chance to join a for-profit network that will give them additional leverage to pursue knowledge wherever they may find it. From academics, professionals and decorated experts, to ordinary citizens sitting around the house opining in their pajamas, our community of bloggers are among the most widely read and influential citizen journalists out there, and our roster will be expanding daily. We also plan to provide a bridge between old media and new, bringing bloggers and mainstream journalists—more and more of whom have started to blog—together in a debate-friendly forum.

In the 1960’s, the medium may have been the message, but in the new century, it’s time for the medium to get out of the way. Call it the blogosphere, call it citizen journalism, or call it (we hope) Open Source Media—but the next phase in the democratization of ideas has begun. Stick around, read some blogs, and come back often. Our door will be open.

Internet is Safe!! (for now)

2005-11-17T18:09:00.000-08:00

A deal reached at the World Summit on the Information Society will allow the US-based ICANN oraganization to retain control over the Internet's root server and domain names. Open Source Media has a good roundup of news and opinion.

Well, kiddies, it looks like one of the largest tools of free speech and expression is out of the hands of an organization influenced by the likes of Castro and Mugabe.

Let's celebrate!

--Oyarsa

Librarians = Better Drivers?

2005-11-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

Take a gander at these charts from an MSN Money article.

Occupations that get the speeding tickets -- and those that don’t

Top 5 occupations	Ticket rate*	Bottom 5 occupations	Ticket rate
1. Student	88	36. Teacher/professor	30
2. Enlisted military	78	37. Secretary/clerical	27
3. Manual laborer	78	38. Law enforcement	39
4. Politician	76	39. Librarian	24
5. Architect	72	40. Homemaker	21

*Average for all occupations was 45.
Note: Speeding tickets is a subset of moving violations.
Source: Quality Planning Corp.

And politicians, who ranked near the bottom for accidents, moved up to the top for citations:

Occupations that get the most moving-violation citations

Top 5 occupations	Citation rate*	Bottom 5 occupations	Citation rate
1. Student	121	36. Firefighter	39
2. Manual laborer	112	37. Secretary/clerical	38
3. Architect	106	38. Librarian	33
4. Enlisted military	99	39. Law enforcement	32
5. Politician	97	40. Homemaker	31

*Average for all occupations was 63.
Source: Quality Planning Corp.

"Homemakers, teachers, librarians and secretaries ranked near the bottom of all three lists. So, too, did law enforcement personnel. Cynics may argue that cops are giving each other “professional courtesies" -- not writing up violations, for example. But it just might be, given their training and the number of humans they see made into road pizza, that cops are more careful than the rest of us."

So there you have it. Next time someone asks you why you chose the field of librarianship as opposed to, say, engineering, you have a new reason: tell them you had a vested interest in the greater odds of keeping your number of speeding tickets and moving violations low.

--Oyarsa

"Don't Fear Google"--Forbes

2005-11-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

Forbes has an excellent article on why Google's print project shouldn't be feared. A snippet of the article is below:

We already permit such uses of snippets for the development of book reviews. Google’s proposed technology is an extension of that. It permits much wider dissemination of relevant snippets of books--in doing so it will whet the appetite of a reading audience that is now global in scale. Authors and publishers stand to benefit greatly.

There's lots more at the link.

The Irony of Jessamyn West

2005-11-05T07:54:00.000-08:00

"Is this the sort of thing the ALA needs to have a stated opinion about?" -- Jessamyn West. This is the same Jessamyn West who evidently saw no problem with the organization drafting a resolution on withdrawing troops from Iraq. How do I know? She voted on the issue.

But then, I don't suppose I should be surprised at such things. After all, she's a councilwoman for an organization whose members voice concern about the "commercial nature" of such things as the Google Digitalization project.

Some librarians seem to forget how commercial enterprises revolutionized our profession. It's sad how some are unable even to acknowledge the role the for-profit crowd has played. But then, I've always felt that if libraries ever lose their relevance in our rapidly changing society, it will be our own fault.

Library Webinar on Podcasting

2005-11-05T07:44:00.000-08:00

For the interested, OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries) is offering a webinar (a seminar on the web).

Here's the information I got from Lori Bell.

OPAL is offering a Podcast 101 for Libraries. Podcasting is an exciting new model for distributing audio content and is generating buzz across the Internet. But what is it exactly? And why should librarians care? We'll discuss the hows and whys of podcasting including how to tune in, how to find interesting content, and how your organization can take advantage of this powerful technology to reach more people in your community. The presenter is Greg Schwartz, Circulation Supervisor at the Louisville Free Public Library and blogger and podcaster of the Open Stacks blog. The program will be offered live on Thursday, December 8 at 1:00 p.m. central time. To attend, go to the OPAL online auditorium at http://67.19.231.218/v4/login.asp?r=67955673&p=0, type your name and click enter. As you go into the room, a small software applet will download to your computer.

Now a Blogshares Blog.

2005-11-03T09:07:00.000-08:00

Click on the button to go to LOTR Librarian's page on Blogshares.

Hang on to your Hats, LOTR fans!

2005-10-31T13:29:00.000-08:00

Now there's a musical in the works. I find it odd that they were unable to book any theatre in London, but evidently that sort of thing has to be booked farther in advance than I assumed.

--Oyarsa

No UK premiere for Rings musical

The producers behind the Lord of the Rings musical have abandoned plans to premiere the show in London because no suitable theatre was available.
The £11.5m show will make its debut in Toronto in March 2006, after it was found that all three West End theatres with sufficient capacity were booked.

The musical is not expected in London before December 2006.

Producer Kevin Wallace said it would be "worth waiting for". "It will be like nothing they have ever seen before."

"I know there will be a lot of disappointed British Tolkien fans who hoped to see the show in London, but we couldn't get a London theatre in time," added the British producer.

The world premiere of the stage musical, co-produced by Canadian theatrical impresarios David and Ed Mirvish, will take place at Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre next year.

Read more about it here