The Nation | American Patriots

Found this via LISnews

The Nation | American Patriots

...Since the enactment of the Patriot Act in 2001, the American Library Association (ALA) has been at the forefront of the fight to defend freedom of inquiry and thought from provisions of the act that allow the Justice Department to subpoena the records of libraries and bookstores. The librarians succeeded in getting the House to adopt language protecting library records in 2005--only to have it stripped from the bill to which it was attached by an Administration-friendly House-Senate conference committee.

But the librarians have not just been lobbying to change the Patriot Act, they've been on the front lines of exposing its abuses. When four Connecticut librarians challenged an attempt by the FBI to use a National Security Letter to obtain records of who was reading what in that state, the Justice Department slapped a gag order on them. But the 64,000-member ALA and its Freedom to Read Foundation stood up for the librarians, working with the American Civil Liberties Union, the Association of American Publishers and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression to make a federal case of the issue. In May, after the FBI dropped its defense of the gag order--and shortly before it withdrew its demand for the records--a federal appeals court declared that order moot, and the librarians were at last free to speak out. Peter Chase, director of the Plainville, Connecticut, public library, explained that he and his fellow librarians decided to fight because of their frustration at receiving the National Security Letter even as "the government was telling Congress that it didn't use the Patriot Act against libraries and that no one's rights had been violated. I felt that I just could not be part of this fraud being foisted on our nation..."

Be sure to read the entire editorial.

Lost in a Sea of Science Data

Found via librarylink of the day

Lost in a Sea of Science Data | Librarians are called in to archive huge amounts of information, but cultural and financial barriers stand in the way

Science is experiencing revolutionary changes thanks to digital technology, with computers generating a flood of valuable data for scientists to interpret.

But that flood could drown science.

Data from experiments conducted as recently as six months ago might be suddenly deemed important, but researchers might never find those numbers — or if they did, might not know what the numbers meant. Lost in some research assistant's computer, the data are often irretrievable or an indecipherable string of digits. That's a scenario increasingly familiar to scholars, says James M. Caruthers, a professor of chemical engineering at Purdue University.

"We are starting to die from data," he says bluntly.

To vet experiments, correct errors, or find new breakthroughs, scientists desperately need better ways to store and retrieve research data, Mr. Caruthers says, or "we are going to be more and more inefficient in the science that we do in the future."

Dealing with the "data deluge," as some researchers have called it, will be among the great challenges for science in the 21st century. Many in the field say that scientists should not be left to manage the data on their own.

Instead, librarians will have to step forward to define, categorize, and archive the voluminous and detailed streams of data generated in experiments. Already, librarians on some campuses — among them Purdue, the Johns Hopkins University, and the University of California at San Diego — are beginning to take on that role.

Be sure to read the entire article!

Higher Education Chancellor Announces Resignation

Jon W sends this library story.

Higher Education Chancellor Announces Resignation

Chancellor Paul G. Risser announced Thursday that he will be resigning from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, effective July 28.

Phil Moss, vice chancellor for academic affairs, has been named interim chancellor. The State Regents announced that they will have a special meeting July 12 to deliberate on replacing the chancellor.

In 2005 Phil Moss was granted the OLA Special Meritorious Service Award for his leadership and service to Oklahoma libraries. He has worked hard to improve access to information for all Oklahomans. He also has been a catalyst in securing statewide databases.

Creature Feature - design a movie poster @ your library

2006 Teen Art Contest
The entry forms are available at all Tulsa libraries, or online.
From “King Kong” to “Winn Dixie,” creatures have starred in some of our favorite movies. Design your own movie poster featuring any creature you can imagine. Will it be a scary monster, a cuddly puppy or something completely different? Participants must be between the ages of 13 and 18 by Sept. 22, 2006
This contest is sponsored by the Tulsa Library Trust and the Teen Advisory Committee.
Winners will be announced during Teen Read Week, Oct. 15-21.
We will display entries on the library's teen web site: http://teens.tulsalibrary.org

Comic-Book Creations
Saturday July 08 2006 from 1:00 pm until 2:30 pm This event will be held at Helmerich Library. Join our resident illustrators, Buddy and David for tips and techniques to write, design, draw and self-publish your own mini comic book. Contact Darla @ 596-2466 for more information.

Feds Drop Request for Library Records

Feds Drop Request for Library Records
Federal Authorities Drop Their Demand for Records From Library Computer in Connecticut

STAMFORD, Conn. Jun 26, 2006 (AP)— Federal authorities have dropped their demand for records from a library computer, but not without warning the librarians who refused to release them that under other circumstances their failure to cooperate "could have increased the danger of terrorists succeeding."

The FBI said Monday that it has discounted a potential terrorism threat that prompted it to seek records last year from a computer at one of 26 Connecticut libraries that are part of a consortium called the Library Connection.

Four librarians on the consortium's board who received the demand resisted, which the FBI said slowed its work.

"In this case, because the threat ultimately was without merit, that delay came at no cost other than slowing the pace of the investigation," John Miller, the FBI's assistant director, said in a statement. "In another case, where the threat may be real, the delays incurred in this investigation could have increased the danger of terrorists succeeding."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the librarians who received the demand for records, said the librarians might have been willing to comply with a similar demand had it been approved by a judge.


Entire article can be found here...

The Dewey Donation System

Found this via metafilter

Dewey Donation System

Hurricane Katrina took out more than just New Orleans. Mississippi was hit particularly hard, and anybody who loves curling up in the bath with a paperback knows that paper and water don’t mix. After contacting the acquisitions department for the Harrison County Library, we learned just how bad it was — several libraries lost their entire collections.

Dewey to the rescue!

Your wonderful donations over the years have put an entire village of kids back to school after a Tsunami, stocked library shelves after wildfires, and helped a struggling library system gain nationwide attention, which helped them get their own government involved in allocating more funds to their acquisitions department. Your attention, word of mouth and kind gifts continue to enrich struggling communities, villages, states and nations. There’s a lot of power in one mouse click. Year after year, you’ve proven that with your generosity.

Be sure to visit their site for more info!

Newsmaker: An Internet for the few or the many?

Michael Copps has a message for the technology industry when it comes to Net neutrality: Get involved.

Copps, a Democratic commissioner in the Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission since May 2001, recently urged an audience of technology executives to participate in the political process and public debate on preserving the Internet's freedom and diversity, which could be jeopardized by operators seeking to control distribution and content. Either that, or the Net could quickly be dominated by the interests of only a few media giants in this country.

CNET News.com caught up with Copps at the recent Supernova 2006 tech conference in San Francisco, where he talked about Net neutrality, the broadcast flag and the plight of decency on TV.

Be sure to read the Q&A!

Freedom School: Reading Program: It's free, fun and fundamental

Tulsa World | Freedom School: Reading Program: It's free, fun and fundamental:

Wound up on cheers and chants, a gym filled with children shook the sleep from their eyes early Tuesday at Freedom School, a five-week academy in Tulsa focused on literacy and black culture.

"This is about teaching kids how to love reading. It's not about teaching them how to read," said Jessica Criswell, one of the student interns leading the school. "It's also about cultural empowerment."

Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools are taking place in more than 40 cities around the nation this summer. The program is a first for Tulsa, where it is sponsored locally by the Greenwood Community Development Corp.

"It's not regular school," said Kortnie Napier, a college student at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Mo., and a Freedom School staff member. "We're trying to put a twist to it."

And twist they do. The animated, college-age staff greets the kids as they arrive in the morning with whooping, dancing and a human tunnel.

After a quick breakfast the kids gather in the gym for a boisterous rally called "Harambee," which is a Swahili word meaning "let's pull together."

They shout songs with self-motivating refrains like "something inside so

strong" and play call-and-response oratory games.

A book is read aloud and a few kids volunteer to act out the characters in front of the group.

Be sure to read the entire article!

New twist on phone a librarian...

I was reading an article over at the Register, entitled Is that a PC in your pocket?, and I was curious to see what libraries are doing to meet the growing market of SMS users.

Even though the Register article states that a cellphone will be hard pressed to replace a desktop or laptop -- you have to admit people are using cellphones in new and interesting ways.

I did find one library that has implemented SMS service for their patrons. What about your library?

Gutenkarte | map your literature

Found this via metafilter

Gutenkarte is a geographic text browser, intended to help readers explore the spatial component of classic works of literature. Gutenkarte downloads public domain texts from Project Gutenberg, and then feeds them to MetaCarta's GeoParser API, which extracts and returns all the geographic locations it can find. Gutenkarte stores these locations in a database, along with citations into the text itself, and offers an interface where the book can be browsed by chapter, by place, or all at once on an interactive map. Ultimately, Gutenkarte will offer the ability to annotate and correct the places in the database, so that the community will be able construct and share rich geographic views of Project Gutenberg's enormous body of literary classics.

Have a peak at the USA from Around the World in 80 Days

OCLC to participate in CLOCKSS

Online Computer Library Center to Participate in CLOCKSS Initiative

Joins expansive list of libraries and publishers involved in the community archive

PALO ALTO, California, June 23, 2006- Online Computer Library Center
(OCLC) is the newest member to join CLOCKSS (Controlled LOCKSS-Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe), a not-for-profit community approach to securing access to electronic scholarly content for the long term. More than 53,000 libraries in 96 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend and preserve library materials.

"The partnership between OCLC and CLOCKSS is a natural combination and aligns with our common goal to ensure the perpetual preservation of our scholarly materials," said Jay Jordan, President & Chief Executive Officer, OCLC. "Although there is much work ahead of us, we look forward to establishing a sustainable model of preservation that meets the needs of OCLC's membership and the worldwide research community."

OCLC's partnership with CLOCKSS coincides with a recent contract from the Library of Congress to the CLOCKSS partnership for collaboration with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program.

"We are pleased that the OCLC has joined CLOCKSS and reinforced the library community's support of this important initiative," commented Gordon Tibbitts, President, Blackwell Publishing. "Their participation furthers our objective to share governance in all decisions and ensure that no single entity can compromise the long-term integrity of the archive."

Developed through a community-based and open process that ensures complete transparency, the CLOCKSS partnership uses the robust technology underpinning the acclaimed LOCKSS Program. CLOCKSS provides additional functionality to that of the use of the LOCKSS system, which is widely known as a technology to help preserve a library's local collections in the long term. CLOCKSS aims to provide a long-term global archiving solution that will serve the joint library and publisher communities in the event of a long-term business interruption or in making orphaned or abandoned works readily available to the scholarly community.

Commented Vicky Reich, Director of LOCKSS Program, Stanford University Libraries, "The CLOCKSS board welcomes OCLC as a full partner in our work to build an archive that will make available materials accessible to the broad community."

Job Posting | OUHSC

Position: Reference and Instructional Services Librarian
Available: September 1, 2006

Responsibilities:

Reference librarians work as a team to provide general reference and information services, user education services to individuals, groups, and classes, and literature searches utilizing the Internet and online databases including Ovid, SIRSI Webcat, NLM, Dialog, and EBSCO.

Each librarian in the department participates in collection development activities. Librarians also provide extensive user education programs which include sessions on resources for library research, searching Ovid, the OPAC, the Internet, various online services and other electronic databases, and critical incident instruction on a variety of information management topics. In addition, librarians assume active roles in the design and development of the library’s web site.

Librarians have non-tenure-track faculty status and are active in campus governance. Participation in professional organizations and special projects to enhance library services is encouraged.


Qualifications:

Required

# Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited library school
# Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
# Strong service orientation
# Ability to be a flexible team member
# Ability to plan and organize projects and follow through to completion
# Ability to work in a changing, challenging, electronic environment
# Potential for continuing professional growth
# Online searching experience
# General understanding of Internet resources and services
# Knowledge of personal computers

Desired

# Health sciences library experience or coursework
# Science background
# Basic knowledge of web authoring and design
# Experience searching MEDLINE
# User education and end user training experience


Library and Campus:

The library is housed in a building at the heart of campus. Staff includes 8.5 professional librarians, 21 paraprofessionals, and 20 student assistants. The library serves the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Allied Health, Public Health and the Graduate College, and is a resource library for all health professionals in the state.

Salary and Benefits:

Non-tenure track faculty rank at the Assistant Professor level in the Graduate College, Department of Health Sciences Library and Information Management. Minimum salary of $30,000 – 36,000 plus medical, dental, life insurance, TIAA/CREF and other retirement options, and 33 days leave per year.

Application Instructions:

Send letter of application, complete resume, and the names, addresses and phone numbers of three professional references to:
Shari Clifton, Chair
Search Committee
Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
P.O. Box 26901
Oklahoma City, OK 73190

Review of applications will begin July 10, 2006, and will continue until the position is filled. The University of Oklahoma is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

Job Postings | OU (3)

Engineering Librarian word doc
Cataloger word doc [UPDATE: Position filled]
Geology Librarian word doc

Back up those important files for little to no cost!

These 17 free and low-cost services make it easier than ever to back up and share your files online.

All your important files--text documents, spreadsheets, music and videos, you name it--may start out sitting safe and snug on your PC's hard drive. But what if the drive goes belly up, or runs out of room? And what if you'd like an easy way to share those files with coworkers or friends? Web-based storage services let you back up your data, store your files on a Web server, or share them quickly and simply with anyone, often at no cost. Of the 17 services we tried, our favorite backup service is IBackup, while the GoDaddy Online File Folder is our pick of the storage sites. And for sharing files, we like the free 4shared.com service....

What Young People Think About Public Libraries - Study

What Young People Think About Public Libraries - Study:
A British Study but still usefule information for us across the pond.

What young people think about public libraries - new study findings
Public libraries must continue to evolve to keep pace with the expectations of young people, a major new report confirms.

The report, commissioned by the DCMS (Department for Culture Media and Sport) and funded by MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) and the Laser Foundation, studies the views, perceptions and attitudes towards public libraries of people aged between 14 and 35. It was released at a seminar in London this week.

The launch included a presentation by the Define group (the Qualitative Research Organisation which conducted the study), and discussions and debate about the findings and recommendations. Library users and non users in these age groups were at the seminar, to discuss what they want, if anything, from a public library, along with examples and people from other sectors where transformation of the image and service has been successful.

The report is available here

Copies of the launch presentations are also available here

Shawnee Library Offers Travel Oklahoma Program To Parents

Monday, June 19 at 7 p.m. adults have the opportunity to learn about making travel plans and arrangements on the Internet at the Shawnee Public Library, 101 N. Philadelphia.

This special event is part of the Summer Reading Program for adults offered at the library and is sponsored by the Friends of Shawnee Public Library. The theme of the summer program is Travel Oklahoma! Programs allow busy parents and professionals to add adventure to summertime travels.

Part of the discussion will include Website tips, making reservations online, printing maps and driving directions and more.

For more information about the Summer Reading Programs and a listing of activities, visit your nearest Pioneer Library System hometown library or check the website at www.pioneer.lib.ok.us.

Open WorldCat Goes International

Open WorldCat Goes International :

After a successful launch in the USA, Open WorldCat goes international.

The Find in a Library interface is now available in five languages, buying options have been added for extra value and postal code information makes it possible to find the nearest library location for the title in a search result. Open WorldCat makes authoritative information visible and accessible on the open Web.

Although Open WorldCat has been accessible globally since its introduction, simply due to the borderless nature of the Internet, it now really turns international as OCLC PICA works to enhance its local appeal for users around the world.

First of all, in addition to English, the Find in a Library interface is now available in French, German, Spanish and Dutch, making all its features more immediate and meaningful to users for whom these languages are the natural choice. People who use a Web browser set to one of these languages will automatically see the interface in that language. And any Web user can select one of these languages manually once he reaches Find in a Library from an Open WorldCat partner such as Google or Yahoo! Search.

Secondly, for the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands postal code information has been added. Users in those countries can now easily enter their location and identify the closest library with the item of interest to them. For libraries this will lead to increased use of their collections and services through circulation, interlending and enquiries, as experience has shown.

The third improvement is the addition of the Amazon.com (or a regional version) buying option for Web searchers in the UK and Netherlands. This makes Open WorldCat an attractive alternative for directly searching on book vendors’ sites, because now the user will see an alternative to buying: borrowing from the library. Other online book vendors may be added in the near future.

Vote for your favorite Okie Blog!

It's that time of year again. The Okie Blog Awards. If you are a blogger (or perhaps your library is) and you have a favorite Oklahoma Blog you think deserves recognition -- then stop by the 2006 Okie Blog Awards site.

The Okie Blog Awards were established by, and are decided by and for, Oklahoma bloggers exclusively. They are intended for our blogging peers to recognize and honor the excellence of diversity by bloggers within the state through popular nominating and voting.

Ground rules:

Only Okie bloggers with active Okie blogs at the start of nominations are eligible. "Active" is defined as having at least one blog post during the previous 60 days. An "Okie blog" is defined as having at least one active blog author residing within the state of Oklahoma. All Okie Blog Awards are to be decided only by Okie bloggers.

...

Nominations can only be made by active Okie bloggers.
A blogger cannot nominate his or her own blog.
A blogger can only nominate one blog per category.
The same blog may be nominated in multiple categories.
In categories with more than ten nominees, the top ten blogs with the most nominations will be placed on the ballot.
Nominations will open Aug. 14, and close on Aug. 31, 2006.

Voting:

Only active Okie bloggers can vote.
A blogger cannot vote for his or her own blog.
A blogger can only vote for one blog per category.
Voting will begin, beginning Sept. 2, and end Sept. 20, 2006

Awards:

The top blog in each category will be recognized and the winners announced at the Okie Blogger Round-up 2006 in Oklahoma City, Sept. 23, 2006.
All decisions regarding the Okie Blog Awards are the responsibility of Okiedoke, and are final.

Inside Higher Ed :: A Wiki Situation

Inside Higher Ed :: A Wiki Situation

Yet Wikipedia now seems even more unavoidable than it is unreliable. Do a search for any given subject, and chances are good that one or more Wikipedia articles will be among the top results you get back.

...

Basic cognitive literacy includes the ability to evaluate the strengths and the limitations of any source of information. Wikipedia is usually worth consulting simply for the references at the end of an article — often with links to other online resources. Wikipedia is by no means a definitive reference work, but it’s not necessarily the worst place to start.

...

I throw these questions out without having yet formulated a cohesive (let alone cogent) answer to any of them. At one level, it is a matter for personal judgment. An economic matter, even. You have to decide whether improving this one element of public life is a good use of your resources.

...

The advantage of Wikipedia’s extreme openness is that people are able to produce fantastically thorough entries on topics far off the beaten path. The wiki format creates the necessary conditions for nerd utopia. As a fan of the new “reimagined” “Battlestar Galactica,” I cannot overstate my awe at the fan-generated Web site devoted to the show. Participants have created a sort of mini-encyclopedia covering all aspects of the program, with a degree of thoroughness and attention to accuracy matched by few entries at Wikipedia proper.

Be sure to read the entire article!

Informal Learning and Community Libraries

Informal Learning and Community Libraries | John Seely Brown on reinventing the community library to deeply engage digital kids (and everyone else) and increase their passion to learn.

Last week I attended a fascinating lecture by John Seely Brown on "Rethinking Learning and the Community Library in the Networked Age" at the Westport (CT) Public Library. His talk explored whether there might be a way to reinvent the community library as a new kind of complementary asset to both the school and the Internet -- reinvent it in a way that deeply engages digital kids (and everyone else) and increases their passion to learn.

...over dinner, he told me about the work he is doing to understand how kids - and more generally people of all ages - are learning all kinds of important skills through participation in online communities. John has been wondering if we shouldn't pay more attention to this kind of self-organizing, informal learning as a way to complement the more formal learning kids get in school. In conjunction with that he has been pondering the role that community libraries should play in fostering this kind of informal learning and self-education.

...

The world of multi-player online games seems to be providing us with more and more clues as to the kinds of skills and training tools that we need for the dynamic virtual work environments that seem to be increasingly important in the future. This came up, for example, in IBM’s recent Global Innovation Outlook in which one of the top recommendations is to look at massively multiplayer online games as one way of teaching the leadership qualities needed in the emerging world of massively distributed virtual work environments.

Formal education and schools have a major role to play in building the store of knowledge, teaching the core materials needed for critical thinking and providing institutional certification of expertise. But, if we insist that formal education is the only way to learn, we will invariably fail, both because there are limits to what you can teach formally and because considerable numbers of people learn differently and are thus left out of formal education, which can focus only on the majority. That is why it is so important to look for innovations in education amidst all the different ways we learn, and to focus particularly on the new ways people are learning informally, especially as part of communities that tinker, design, play games, create, remix and generally learn by doing things they really like to do.

Be sure to read the entire article!

C|net | Virtual worlds the future classroom?

Virtual worlds are the future classroom?

This summer, as many as a million virtual kids could catch an infectious virus known as Whypox, causing them to break out in red welts and spout "Achoo" whenever chatting with friends.

Meanwhile, at the beach, crowds of "tweens," 8- to 12-year-olds, will see their popular hangout beset with so-called red tides, as the seashore changes from blue to red with phytoplankton blossoms.

Are these two signs of a crumbling world? No, they're learning tools for Whyvillains, the residents of an online virtual world whose population of kids has grown to about 1.6 million since its inception in 1999. Children in Whyville earn "clams" through activities and games, and use that virtual money to buy face decorations for their otherwise plain avatars. Then, they typically socialize with peers via chat, bulletin boards and the city's mail system.

Job Posting | Law Librarian

Librarian


Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens, P.C., an Oklahoma law firm with 50+ attorneys, is seeking a Librarian. The Librarian administers libraries in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The Librarian's primary office is in Oklahoma City. Periodic trips are made to the Firm's Tulsa office.


Responsibilities:
The Librarian will conduct print and online research; maintain an electronic serials check-in database; update OCLC holdings; and maintain an electronic forms database. The Librarian will handle interlibrary loan and research requests; pull cases, cite check, and proof-read legal memoranda; obtain copies of non-legal articles in the most time and cost efficient manner; and order new acquisitions and process invoices. This position has supervisory responsibilities over a library assistant and a loose-leaf filing clerk.

Required:
A Master's degree in Library and Information Science is required. Law library experience, strong computer skills, and a basic understanding of cataloging needed. Proficiency in library, legal, and non-legal resources sources is required; specifically LexisNexis and Westlaw.

Preferred:
The ideal candidate will be service and detail oriented, have an ability to organize and prioritize multiple tasks, and work in a fast paced environment.

To Apply:
Please forward resume and salary requirements to Nancy Moore (nmoore@fellerssnider.com) | Fellers, Snider, Blankenship, Bailey & Tippens, P.C. | 100 N. Broadway, Suite 1700 | Oklahoma City, OK 73102-8820 | phone 405-232-0621 | fax 405-232-9659 | www.fellerssnider.com.

Pulp Covers for Classic Books

Found this via boingboing | Pulp Covers for Classic Books.

This would be a neat outreach idea for a library of any type. Find those artistic types in your community and have them purty-up some of them older books who's jackets need some help.

Here's Moby Dick as a pulp cover!

Librarians do it more electronically

Found via LibraryLink of the Day
Reference Librarians use Electronic Sources Six Times More than Print Sources to
Answer Patrons’ Questions pdf document

Objective - To test the hypothesis that electronic sources are used by librarians more often than print sources to answer questions at the reference desk.

...

This study asks an important question for academic libraries: Do reference librarians use electronic sources more often than print sources to answer patrons’ questions? The answer is a resounding “Yes.”

On the road with ‘Cars’

Enid News & Eagle | On the road with ‘Cars’

The well kept woman was the focus of a field trip undertaken by one of the most innovative minds in the film industry today — Academy Award-winning director, and recently named head of Disney animation, John Lasseter, who walked into the Rock Cafe in 2001 with his entourage.

“We’re here to hear your story,” Welch said, recounting the meeting with Lasseter for 175 people gathered in the governor’s mansion recently. They were there for a VIP reception hosted by the Oklahoma Library Association after a premiere showing of Disney/Pixar’s new animated feature movie “Cars.”

“They took pictures of everything. Lasseter told me to bring one of everything on the menu. For me, meeting John Lasseter was a big deal,” Welch said.

And what Lasseter has produced, “Cars,” is becoming a big deal for Oklahoma. The projected summer smash hit opened nationwide Friday. The film is set in a small town along Route 66 — a composite of the many towns that dot the Mother Road in Oklahoma and elsewhere.

....

During the VIP reception at the governor’s mansion, Wallis spoke of his love for Oklahoma — its rich literary history that includes John Steinbeck’s classic novel “The Grapes of Wrath” and its vital contribution to the lore of Route 66.

“It’s a state to be proud of,” Wallis said while adding some chiding remarks about Oklahoma’s neighbor to the south, Texas. “It (Oklahoma) is a badge of courage and Route 66 is a road that’s paid its dues.”

The special screening of “Cars” and the reception at the governor’s mansion raised approximately $30,000 for the state’s Department of Libraries. The money will be put into a library association endowment for operation improvements and programs such as children’s book awards, continuing education of current librarians and student scholarships.

Oklahoma Almanac is a site of the week

Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog: Site of the Week: Oklahoma Almanac online (Free):

"As a young lawyer, one of my early 'finds' was the Directory of Oklahoma. The book was later renamed the Oklahoma Almanac. This thick book was published every other year by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. It contains a wealth of information about our state, local government, geography and such. I always loved having all of the addresses and phone numbers of government officials and agencies in one book. Well, I recently learned that the Oklahoma Almanac is online in PDF format. I'd think many Oklahoma lawyers would at least want to download the ABC Chapter (Agencies, Boards and Commissions.) ...

Placing the information in this book on the WWW for free earns the Oklahoma Almanac from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries a mention as Website of the Week."

Tobacco ads and school mags

Found this via LISnews

Mynderse Academy Librarian Karen McNamara gave school board members an idea of how often tobacco and alcohol advertisements appear in magazines stocked in the school library. McNamara spoke at Monday's meeting and said she wanted to provide a "local picture" of what exists. Last month, Reality Check, a youth-led organization that targets the marketing practices of the tobacco industry, suggested the board adopt a resolution that the school only carry magazines that are selectively bound and without tobacco ads. The group said last month their survey of school magazines showed one in three contained tobacco ads.

Summer reading has arrived!

Public libraries throughout Oklahoma will be the place to go for the 2006 Summer Reading adventure at their public library during June and July.

Grade school children may join any time during the program dates and participate by reading books and attending storytimes and other special activities.

Summer readers will receive a Read-Team reading log, colorful book bags, stickers, and sports cards as part of the program’s activities.

Every summer public libraries become the focal point for many children looking for programs and activities to fill their free summer days. Books can take us anywhere in the universe using our most precious vehicle, imagination.

Some libraries sponsor reading contests, and award prizes to children who meet their designated reading goals. Others have special programs for preschoolers and teen readers.

Most libraries hold storytimes and craft activities, with parents and siblings often joining in. Call or visit your local public library and check on the Oklahoma Summer Reading Program schedule in your community. So join fellow adventurers at your library—the 2006 Summer Reading Program.

House K.O.'s Net Neutrality

House K.O.'s Net Neutrality :

Legislative language to make the controversial concept of network neutrality the law of the land failed in the U.S. House of Representatives late Thursday night.

In an amendment to an otherwise widely supported telecom reform act, lawmakers rejected by a vote of 269-152 a measure to require broadband providers such as AT&T and Comcast to treat all Internet traffic in a nondiscriminatory price manner.

Under the proposal by Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the telecom and cable giants that control virtually every broadband connection in the United States would be unable to implement their proposed business models to create a two-tiered Internet based on bandwidth consumption.

In a roll call vote, 58 Democrats joined 211 Republicans in turning back the measure. Only 11 Republicans joined the 140 Democrats voting for the amendment.

...

"Unfortunately, the House voted today to protect the big phone and cable companies at the expense of preserving an open Internet," the It's Our Net Coalition said in a statement.

"We are not surprised at the outcome, but we are disappointed that the House has abandoned net neutrality."

The issue now moves to the U. S. Senate, where Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has scheduled a third hearing on his own telecom reform package Tuesday morning.

Like the House-approved bill, Stevens' proposal showcases national video franchising. It leaves issues of network neutrality to further FCC study.

Senators Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Democrat Byron Dorgan, of North Dakota, plan to push for network neutrality language similar to Markey's to be included in the legislation.

"We are confident that the Senate understands and appreciates the importance of net neutrality to the Internet and to the American economy and will take steps to preserve the Internet as a vibrant... open marketplace," It's Our Net stated.

Comic book software

Saw this story on C|Net thought it might make a good outreach tool for tweens, teens, and anyone else who likes comic books.

...Planetwide Comics...Paramount is not alone. Already, online games publisher Sony Online Entertainment and the National Geographic Society have signed on to license their own versions of the software, and Planetwide said it is in talks with at least one rock 'n' roll band interested in giving its fans a new way to indulge their fantasies.

And that means that fans of the online games, movies, magazines and, possibly, music produced by Planetwide's partners will be able to add all the Bam!, Pow!, Zoom!, hyperbolic thought bubbles and cartoon explosions they want to the stories they create.

"It was sort of a no-brainer for us (as) this is something our players will get a kick out of," said Gregory Short, Sony Online's director of Web presence. "The key features for us that were attractive was, one, that it is very easy to use, and the second thing we liked was that there are so many different ways that you can export what you've done."

According to Mark Politi, Planetwide Games' vice president of marketing, the Comic Book Creator was originally aimed at individual players of online games as a way to give those players a method for crafting original stories based on their in-game characters and the games' plotlines. The company is still selling a standalone version of the software for $30. Users upload many of their creations to the Comic Book Society Web site.

I tried the free trial download and came up with this quick lil comic.

ProQuest: A Question of Financing

Infotoday | ProQuest: A Question of Financing:

ProQuest Co.’s financial future came into question in May as the publisher of information and education resources reached an agreement with its bank lenders and with private placement note holders in which both parties granted the company a waiver from current defaults under its credit agreements.

Despite the company’s financial difficulties stemming from an accounting irregularity, at least one industry analyst said suppliers and customers have yet to see any negative results.

The news about the accounting problem arose in early February 2006, only 3 months before the company moved into a new $34 million facility in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The company plans to look at the potential sale of different assets, in particular the Business Solutions division, which, according to ProQuest chairman and CEO Alan Aldworth’s prepared statement, would “be attractive to potential buyers with a structure and resource base to invest in its full potential.”

The Business Solutions division’s reported unaudited revenue for 2005 was $183 million, while unaudited earnings before interest and taxes were $49.2 million.

The division provides management, technical, and e-commerce solutions to the automotive and power equipment markets. The division’s products are designed to turn complex technical and performance measurement data into easily accessed answers.

As part of the new financial agreements, ProQuest also granted a security interest in “substantially all of its and its domestic [subsid­iaries’] assets and to provide guarantees from all of its subsidiaries with respect to the credit agreements,” reported the company in its 8-K filing with the Securities Exchange Commission in early May.

666

Random bits of information about libraries and 666.


Wikipedia: In Persia many libraries were established by the Zoroastrian elite and the Persian Kings. Among the first ones was a royal library in Isfahan. One of the most important public libraries established around 666 AD in south-western Iran was the Library of Gundishapur. It was a part of a bigger scientific complex located at the Academy of Gundishapur.

666 in Dewey is for Ceramic & allied technologies

Boston Public Library address is 666 Bolyston St according to several websites -- but if you go to the BPL site they list their address as 700 Bolyston. hmmmmm

TLC says LC uses MARC field 666 only when individual references from each heading related to the characteristic are impractical.

The 666th library on the FDLP list of libraries is Purdy/Kresge Library at Wayne State University.

Topic #666 on the Librarians' Index to the Internet is about Breweries.

According to OCLC, in 2005, the 666th topped owned book by libraries was Jacob have I loved.

According to OCLC -- libraries in Oklahoma do not carry the Sign of the Beast

American Indian storytellers to be at library

Altus Times | American Indian storytellers to be at library:

American Indian storytellers, Will Hill and Jehnean Washington, of Mahenwahdose, will be returning to the Altus Public Library Thursday, June 8 at 1 p.m. as part of the Summer Reading Program, "Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales." The appearance of Will and Jehnean is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council and many local supporters of the library's summer program. "The program is free and open to everyone in the community and if you have never heard Will and Jahnean's stories, you really must make plans to attend! They are really wonderful performers and a great treat for the whole family," according to Katy Sheppard, Public Relations Coordinator for the library. "People keep asking us when we are going to bring them back," said Sheppard.

"Enjoy comedy the Indian way, as language, song , and storytelling create a program of all ages to enjoy" said Hill, a full-blood Muscogee/Cherokee. Hill is a graduate of the College of Santa Fe and is the traditional "Nagonagoee Oni-yah (storyteller) in his generation. Hill told his first story at the age of 4. Since then he has traveled and performed all over the United States. He has appeared in movies and television and was voted "Favorite Indian Performer" in Oklahoma in a poll taken by "Native American Times."

Hill has a wonderful melodic voice when telling the stories that were passed down from generation to generation in his family. He has recorded his stories in the tapes, "Oklahoma Treasure Tales." Two of his family's stories are also featured in the book Spider Spins A Story, published by Northland Publishers.

Google spreadsheets

From C|net: Google spreadsheets turns heat up on Excel
Google is set to launch on Tuesday a Web-based spreadsheet program that will allow people to view and simultaneously edit data while conducting "in-document" chat, a company product manager said Monday.

The launch of Google Spreadsheets puts the search engine in even more heated competition with Microsoft, whose desktop-based Excel spreadsheet program is a standard office tool.

Google, which acquired the Writely Web-based word processor in March, is unleashing Web-based services of programs that propelled Microsoft to dominance on the desktop.

Google Spreadsheets, which will go live on Tuesday as part of Google Labs, supports the import and export of documents in the .xls format used in Excel and the .csv (comma-separated values) format, said Jonathan Rochelle, product manager for Google Spreadsheet.

Job Posting | TCC

Librarian/Information Tech, Tulsa Community College Learning Resource Center, Metro Campus

Job Code: 1512-F1-23-06

Conducts information access and retrieval services for students and faculty.

Qualifications; Master's degree in Library Science or Information Science or an equivalent combination of training and experience. Minimum of three years professional library experience with concentrated experience in cataloging using the MARC format according to AACR2 standards and familiarity with OCLC. Computer skills required; prefer experience using the Voyager ILS and familiarity with word processing, spreadsheet, database and presentation programs. Effective verbal and written communication skills. Demonstrated ability to plan and deliver educational sessions.

Salary for full-time eleven month contract $40,300 plus benefits.

Closing Date: Monday, June 19, 2006 or until a qualified candidate is selected.

To apply: Resumes not accepted without an original 2006 TCC application on file (faxed applications are not accepted). TCC application form may be obtained online at www.tulsacc.edu/employment.
Submit TCC application to:
Human Resources,
6111 East Skelly Drive, Suite 501,
Tulsa, Ok 74135
(918) 595-7854.

Photocopy of transcripts required with application.

International Children's Digital Library

Do you know about the International Children's Digital Library?

We are a library that provides free access to children's books from around the world. By ensuring access to books from many cultures and in diverse languages, we foster a love of reading, a readiness to learn, and a response to the challenges of world illiteracy.

The International Children's Digital Library is the result of a University of Maryland research project funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and Microsoft Research to create the world's most comprehensive multicultural digital library of outstanding children's books. Today, the Library is managed by the International Children's Digital Library Foundation, a non profit corporation.

Science Journals Artfully Try To Boost Their Rankings

WSJ.com | Science Journals Artfully Try To Boost Their Rankings
One of today's free features, in the Wall Street Journal, talks about science journals and their infamous rankings.

Here are some excerpts

Scientists and editors say scientific journals increasingly are manipulating rankings -- called "impact factors" -- that are based on how often papers they publish are cited by other researchers.

...

Just as television shows have Nielsen ratings and colleges have the U.S. News rankings, science journals have impact factors. Now there is mounting concern that attempts to manipulate impact factors are harming scientific research.

Conceived 40 years ago, impact factors are essentially a grading system of how important the papers a journal publishes are. "Importance" is measured by how many other papers cite it, indicating that the discoveries, methodologies or insights it describes are advancing science.

...

Impact factors matter to publishers' bottom lines because librarians rely on them to make purchasing decisions. Annual subscriptions to some journals can cost upwards of $10,000.

...

Journals can manipulate impact factors with legitimate editorial decisions. One strategy is to publish many review articles, says Vicki Cohn, managing editor of Mary Ann Liebert Inc., a closely held New Rochelle, N.Y., company that publishes 59 journals. Reviews don't report new results but instead summarize recent findings in a field. Since it is easier for scientists to cite one review than the dozens of studies that it summarizes, reviews get a lot of citations, raising a journal's impact score.

Be sure to read the entire article!

When Martian Librarians Catalog...

A funny little post (yes it's cataloging humor) over at Dewey blog -- on how Martians would classify Earth using Dewey. It may not be as simple as you think.

While traversing the universe from our home planet of Mars, we saw this beautiful blue planet called Earth. A fellow Martian explorer gave us the GAC code for Earth, "x", but our spacecrafts require navigation by the Dewey Decimal Classification. We went looking for the planet Earth in the Dewey Decimal Classification so we could assign a class number to the navigation entry "Earth -- Description and Travel". A search of the Dewey Relative Index for Earth turns up T2--4735 and T2--77621, neither of which is this planet called Earth.