Recent Posts

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/886653-264/ala_annual_conference_to_merge.html.csp

The BEA features a book-centric show floor and far fewer panels or business meetings. Librarians have become an increasingly important presence as book buyers.

The ALA Annual Conference is a mix of ALA business, panels, program, and trade show. The biggest exhibitors on the ALA show floor have long been vendors of library equipment, such as automation systems, and library-focused products, such as databases.

The mainstream publishing houses, as well as smaller ones, have expanded in their presence, acknowledging the importance of libraries as a market. Indeed, at the most recent ALA Annual Conference, in Washington, DC, this past June, publishers sent a significant number of high-profile authors.

That said, PW reports that "New York houses appear cool to the idea," suggesting that the publishers understandably prefer a trade show focused on their needs, even if it would save them a second conference.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jviro_yVjQCOHR8XREBSNdRtoQvw

The UN Children's Fund on Wednesday launched a scheme to provide 13 million textbooks to Zimbabwe's students, in a 50-million-dollar effort to revive the struggling school system.
Zimbabwe's schools were once among the best in Africa, but a decade of economic and political crisis saw teachers fleeing classrooms that had few books or other supplies.
"More than 13 million textbooks have been procured and from today, will be distributed to the 5,500 primary schools," Peter Salama, UNICEF country representative said.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/E-Books-What-a-Librarian/26777/

"I think we tend to view DRM, especially if it's intrusive, as one of those things that can put a barrier between users and the product," he explained. "I spend my life trying to take away barriers. So it's bothersome when it's intrusive, and that's something that the publishers need to think about very carefully—what's appropriate to protect without going too far."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/09/08/emergency.numbers/index.html?eref=rss_tech&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/cnn_tech+(RSS:+Technology)

Calling 911 from a cell phone will indeed put you in touch with local emergency services. However, they might not be quite as local as you need.
For instance, in Oakland, California, all 911 calls from cell phones are routed to the California Highway Patrol. That's great if I'm reporting a car accident on the Bay Bridge. But it might not be as efficient if my house is on fire.
In fact, the Oakland Police Department goes so far as to advise: "DO NOT CALL 911 from a cell phone. When you call 911 from a cell phone, the call is routed to the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The CHP then has to reroute the call to your local police or fire dispatcher, losing precious time."

http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/08/instant-time/

According to Google, the feature consists of three gears:

*Instant Results — Google Results now dynamically change as you type, typing in a “w” will get you a 5-day forecast in San Francisco, instantly.

*Predictions — The search attempts to predict exactly what you want, showing the results that it thinks you want in grey text, allowing you to chose.

*Scroll To Search — Using the down arrow key will let you scroll through each of the suggestions, and the results page will update as you go along.

Check out the video, it's pretty cool

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1310198/Bomb-squad-called-librarian-unearths-huge-arms-cache-allotment.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Mrs Radley continued to clear the land but with each new spadeful of soil, it seemed she discovered a new deadly weapon to add to the growing horde.
In total over a four week period a handgun, parts of guns, a stockpile of bullets and ammunition magazines, a large flare gun, a silencer for a shotgun, unidentified powders and chemicals were all found on the small allotment in Garston, Liverpool.
She said: 'I wanted to get an allotment and stopped him and asked about it. He took my name and number and called me and said I could share his. He told me never to dig deep up there because that's where his dog was buried.'
She started to clear the land with her 20-year-old daughter, Fawn Jones, a university student, and they began digging up the weapons.

http://www.financialpost.com/markets/news/Kobo+Makes+Kobo+Desktop+Application+Available+Download/3493837/story.html

The new Kobo Desktop Application offers a personalized, secure and central destination where users can manage their entire Kobo reading experience. Through the Desktop Application customers can instantly access their library and download their purchases directly to their computer and read offline without an Internet connection. Additionally, the Kobo Desktop Application enables users to shop for eBooks through the integrated Kobo eBook Store and download content to their desktop to easily build and manage their library.

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/08242010/winning-grants-game-plan

Grant seeking is a marketing process. Simply stated, you define your library’s need and sell it to one who can fund your project. Librarians are their own best grant-proposal writers. No outsider can write a proposal as effectively as a “library insider” who fully understands the institution’s mission and priorities as well as the needs of the community it serves. Over the years, I have successfully tailored skills I learned as a professional grant writer to the needs of the various libraries where I have worked.

In any game it helps to have rules. In italics below are four common-sense ones that govern my grant-writing game plan.

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/09082010/islamic-library-exhibit-outshines-national-rancor

The Midwest City (Okla.) Library and a Muslim pre-K–10 school in this Oklahoma City–area community have collaborated on an exhibit in the library’s lobby of student paintings that interpret the Islamic tradition of the 99 Muslim names of God. Debuting August 15, the exhibit created by the Muslim Mercy School is scheduled to run through September 12.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/07/1813029/story-by-story-kids-learn-about.html

The Mendez family is one of 2,000 in South Florida who are part of the PJ Library, a growing educational program the Greater Miami Jewish Federation organizes in which kids get free Jewish-themed books in their mailboxes every month. The books teach children about Jewish traditions, with titles such as The World's Birthday for Rosh Hashana and The Hardest Word for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement that begins at sunset on Sept. 17 and is observed by fasting, prayer and repentingfor misdeeds of the past year.
As the number of Jews who are members of synagogues declines and as the number of interfaith Jewish marriages increases -- recent surveys show almost half of American Jews marry outside their religion -- parents have sought ways to teach their kids about being Jewish without having to change their own religious practices.