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ALA | EPA Library Closings Continue Despite Protests

ALA | EPA Library Closings Continue Despite Protests.

EPA Library Closings Continue Despite Protests

Touting it as part of a plan to put more information online, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been closing its regional libraries in spite of protests by federal employees. The Chicago library shut its doors August 28, and the Dallas and Kansas City, Missouri, libraries are set to close by the end of September. On September 13, employees of the EPA Headquarters Library in Washington received notice that their physical space would close to walk-ins beginning October 1. The closures are part of President Bush’s dramatic cost-cutting plan that includes a proposed reduction of $100 million for FY 2007 and further cuts for FY 2008.

In June, the presidents of 17 locals of the American Federation of Federal Employees, representing 10,000 EPA scientists, signed a letter protesting a $2-million cut in EPA operations and administration. On August 16, the American Federation of Government Employees filed a formal grievance on behalf of EPA scientists, demanding that further action be delayed until affected scientists can negotiate.

The Librarian: Return To King Solomon's Mines

The Librarian: Return To King Solomon's Mines.

The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines

This December, Noah Wyle is back for more adventure as Flynn Carson, the protector of humanity's greatest secrets, in TNT's THE LIBRARIAN: RETURN TO KING SOLOMON'S MINES. This globe-trotting action-thriller from executive producer of Independence Day and director of Star Trek: First Contact sends Flynn on a journey to uncover the fabled mines of King Solomon and a secret about his own family's past. He's joined by Gabrielle Anwar as a woman whose academic skills surpass even his own. Back after 2004's enormously successful The Librarian: Quest for the Spear are Bob Newhart, Jane Curtin and Olympia Dukakis.

Thanks to a PUBLIB post about this one.. you'll have to check your TNT schedules for the exact date it will air in December.. I enjoyed the first one, and this one sounds pretty good, too.. go forth Librarians in film...

starbulletin.com | Features | /2006/09/29/ | 'Lost' Season 3 premiere airs Saturday in Waikiki

starbulletin.com | Features | /2006/09/29/| 'Lost' Season 3 premiere airs Saturday in Waikiki.

FREEBIE
'Lost' Season 3 premiere airs Saturday in Waikiki

It's noteworthy when fans in the middle of the Pacific Ocean aren't the last ones to get hot new entertainment. Which means it's cause for celebration whenever Hawaii residents are ahead of the establishment. That's exactly what will happen Saturday night at Sunset on the Beach, where you can join 15,000 of your closest friends for the first glimpse of the Season 3 premiere of "Lost." Of course, that's after all of the stars walk the media-packed red carpet and -- with any luck -- sign autographs. Food booths open at 4 p.m. and include Ba-Le, K Restaurant, Leo's Taverna, M & N's Treats, Pizza Hut, Royal Hawaiian Hot Dog, Time 2 Grind, and World's Greatest Funnel Cake. Live entertainment by Pohaku will run until 5:15 p.m. The cast arrives for red carpet interviews at 5:30 p.m., and the premiere starts at 7 p.m. At 8:15 p.m., following "Lost," ABC's new series "The Nine" also will premiere.

LibrarianInBlack: Ten Reasons Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google

LibrarianInBlack: Ten Reasons Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google.

September 22, 2006
Ten Reasons Librarians Should Use Ask.com Instead of Google

We've all read the jokes like "I don't remember how I did reference before Google!" (which I'm hoping is a joke and not a serious statement).  Google is a tool, and it's only one tool.  I think many librarians forget that, and rely on Google as their sole search engine, forgetting other search tools and forgetting the wealth of information that's out there in the invisible web: web content that is not indexed by the big search engines (like Library of Congress content, huge image databases, other gateway sites).  But there is one search engine that I've come to rely on in addition to the big G: Ask.com.  So, here are my ten reasons that librarians should use Ask.com instead of Google.  See what you think.

Way to go, Sarah.. she gets the best reasons for Ask.com along with (or instead of - sometimes) Google for basic searching, and explains why it's the "good stuff" .. Sarah always gives us the good stuff.. oh, and Happy Honeymooning!

Google Librarian Center: Google Librarian Newsletter, September 2006

Google Librarian Center: Google Librarian Newsletter, September 2006.

In This Issue:
Letter from the Editor

Updates and Releases:
Google Book Search
Google Scholar Poster and Flyer
Google News Archive Search
Accessible Search
Google Help
Quiz: Test your Google Knowledge

Another good, no super, librarian newsletter from Google.. try out the quiz, and it has the answers, too...

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Paperless books gain popularity, find place at libraries

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro -- Paperless books gain popularity, find place at libraries.

Chula Vista offers audio, digital tales to download
By Carly Bartkiewicz, UNION-TRIBUNE
September 24, 2006

Bound books are not yet a thing of the past.

But people with technological savvy are increasingly reading reference books on a computer screen and listening to Shakespeare via headphones.

The Chula Vista Public Library and other public, academic and corporate libraries around San Diego County are tapping into this phenomenon by building a database full of popular titles that can be downloaded to computers and portable listening devices.

“We're definitely offering more opportunities for people who like to do things online,” said Jeri Gulbransen, communications manager for Chula Vista.

Hannibal Rising - Books - Report - New York Times

Hannibal Rising - Books - Report - New York Times.

Hannibal Lecter to Drop By for Holiday Helpings
By MOTOKO RICH, Published: September 19, 2006

Fans of perhaps the world’s best-known cannibal won’t have to wait much longer: seven years after the publication of “Hannibal,” Thomas Harris has finally delivered a new novel featuring Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the serial killer most famously memorialized on film by Anthony Hopkins.

In a last-minute addition to its holiday-season list, Delacorte Press, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, is expected to announce today that it will publish “Hannibal Rising” on Dec. 5. The 356-page novel chronicles the early life of Dr. Lecter.

Creationists: Selected Essays, 1993-2006 - by E. L. Doctorow - Books - Review - New York Times

Creationists: Selected Essays, 1993-2006 - by E. L. Doctorow - Books - Review - New York Times.

Text Messages
By RON POWERS, Published: September 24, 2006

CREATIONISTS: Selected Essays, 1993-2006.
By E. L. Doctorow.
176 pp. Random House. $24.95.

In this luminous, slyly titled collection of literary musings, E. L. Doctorow gives us compacted worlds, fissioning into ever larger worlds, of imaginative possibility. This should hardly surprise anyone who knows Doctorow’s own literature. Those who regard him more selectively — as leftist beau saboteur in political debate, as scourge of patriotic moms ’n’ dads at suburban commencement podiums — may be more astonished: Doctorow treats the dozen-odd authors under his scrutiny with unwavering respect. Not a single “worst writer of his generation” meets his comeuppance here. And yet (oh, let’s be frank: and therefore) “Creationists” sustains a pitch of fascination, borne on a cascade of glittering aphorism, rarely encountered in the unforgiving genre of literary criticism.

VoS - About Voice of the Shuttle

VoS - About Voice of the Shuttle.

About Voice of the Shuttle

The Voice of the Shuttle began in late 1994 as an introduction to the Web for humanists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. VoS became publicly accessible on March 21, 1995, when the Humanitas server on which it resided opened to global Web access. From its origin to October, 1999, VoS stayed at the same address on the Humanitas server. It grew in that period to over 70 pages of links to humanities and humanities-related resources on the Internet. Its mission has been to provide a structured and briefly annotated guide to online resources that at once respects the established humanities disciplines in their professional organization and points toward the transformation of those disciplines as they interact with the sciences and social sciences and with new digital media. (See such pages as Cultural Studies, Sci-Tech and Culture, Cyberculture, and Technology of Writing.) VoS emphasizes both primary and secondary (or theoretical) resources, and defines its audience as people who have something to learn from a higher-education, professional approach to the humanities (which in practice has included students and instructors from the elementary school, high school, and general population sectors).

Readers' Advisor News: Bringing Research Into Readers' Advisory Practice: the Case of Fiction Classification

Readers' Advisor News: Bringing Research Into Readers' Advisory Practice: the Case of Fiction Classification.

Readers' Advisor News, An e-newsletter published quarterly by Libraries Unlimited
March 2006

Bringing Research Into Readers' Advisory Practice: the Case of Fiction Classification
By Jessica Moyer

In recent weeks (February 2006) there has been an extended discussion on the FICTION_L mailing list about the classification of genre fiction; specifically should a library have all fiction in one big section, alpha by author or should it be broken up into different genres? Like many library issues, this is a complicated question with many possible answers. Many of the responses to the original query detailed what had been done in various libraries, and offered a variety of opinions, both from the user's perspective and that of the librarians as to what they felt should be done.

Google Book Search Adds "Find It At The Library" Link

Google Book Search Adds "Find It At The Library" Link.

Google Book Search Adds "Find It At The Library" Link

The Google Book Search blog announced a feature named "Find this book in a library."   How does it work?  I went to a book and clicked on the Find this book in a library, which takes you to the OCLC Worldcat. Then you type in your postal code, state, province or country. I entered in a NYC zip code, 10010 into the search box.  Then I clicked on the first result and ended up at this page that showed me that the status is available.  More details at Google Book Search Help Center.

Posted by Barry Schwartz on Sep. 21, 2006 | Permalink

I also tried this out this week, and since my library was already set in using http://www.worldcat.org/ I was taken right to a choice to pick my library from a link.. excellent linkage between findability and localization, kudos to Google Books' Team and Open WorldCat OCLC Team...

Costly, Sure, but It’s Nirvana for TiVo Fans - New York Times

Costly, Sure, but It’s Nirvana for TiVo Fans - New York Times.

David Pogue
Costly, Sure, but It’s Nirvana for TiVo Fans
Published: September 21, 2006

As any technophile can tell you, the best technology doesn’t always become the dominant one. Just ask fans of the Macintosh, Minidisc or Betamax.

So imagine how fans of the TiVo must feel. Here’s a machine that can time-shift, pause, and slice and dice TV broadcasts, simplifying lives and family schedules all over the country. It’s an elegant, refined device whose name, à la Google, has become a verb (“I’ll TiVo it”).

George Lucas to Give USC Film School $175 Million - Los Angeles Times

George Lucas to Give USC Film School $175 Million - Los Angeles Times.

George Lucas to Give USC Film School $175 Million
The filmmaker's gift, for a new cinema program home, is the largest ever to the university.
By Stuart Silverstein, Times Staff Writer, September 20, 2006

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas is giving USC a blockbuster donation of $175 million — the university's biggest single gift ever — that largely will be used to build a new home for its prestigious film school, campus officials confirmed Tuesday.

The gift from his Lucasfilm Foundation builds on Hollywood's historic support for the cinema school, where Lucas earned a bachelor's degree.

Much of the donation is to pay for a 137,000-square-foot complex. According to preliminary information provided to Los Angeles city officials, it would be designed to evoke the architecture of the era when the film school was founded in 1929.

Calling All Complainers - 9/20/2006 - School Library Journal - CA6373739

Calling All Complainers - 9/20/2006 - School Library Journal - CA6373739.

Calling All Complainers
by Lauren Barack -- 9/20/2006

One of librarians' least favorite Web sites is about to get a little facelift.

The American Library Association's Web site, long known for its tendency to crash and a content management system that was far from robust, is hopefully getting some much-needed upgrades courtesy of the ALA.

"We have known this was a priority," says Rob Carlson, ALA's Web development manager. "We don't have the budget for a full-blown restructuring design, but there is some money in the budget for some changes this fiscal year."

You can take the ALA Web site Survey here...

SunValleyOnline: Ernest Hemingway Festival™ to Explore Hemingway's Hollywood Ties:

SunValleyOnline: Ernest Hemingway Festival™ to Explore Hemingway's Hollywood Ties:.

Ernest Hemingway Festival™ to Explore Hemingway's Hollywood Ties
By Ellen Gillespie, SVKCVB Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Wood River Valley in Idaho, where legendary author Ernest Hemingway hunted and wrote on and off for 22 years, and where he is laid to rest, will once again celebrate the life of the world-renowned writer with a second annual Ernest Hemingway Festival™. Following a successful and critically acclaimed first year in September 2005, the Ernest Hemingway Festival™ sponsored by Zions Bank has been scheduled for September 28 – October 1, 2006. The festival will focus on Hemingway and Hollywood this year.