News

News Items of Interest

v Information Searches that Solve Problems v

"Members of Gen Y are the leading users of libraries for help solving problems and in more general patronage."
"For help with a variety of problems, more people turn to the Internet than consult experts or family members to provide information and resources."
Source: PEW Internet & American Life Project. The PEW Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics, and public policy issues.

v School Libraries Do Make a Difference v

Research Studies from 1993 to 2005 in Sixteen States - and updated in 2006.
The data listed below were gathered in research studies from 1993 to 2005 in sixteen states. Each
of the elements named had a positive, measurable impact on student achievement. These studies
and other information about school libraries are presented in School Libraries Work!, a research
foundation paper published in 2004 and updated in 2006 by Scholastic Library Publishing,
www.scholastic.com/librarypublishing. More...
(http://www.schoolibrary.org/pdf/Librarystudytable9_07.pdf)

(Source: Susan Dubin, AJLSC member, Off-the-Shelf Library Services, and Vice-President/President Elect of Association of Jewish Libraries.)

v And Now, Folks, Behold the 15-Minute Publisher v
By ANTHONY RAMIREZ

Source: The New York Times
August 2, 2007

In the Middle Ages, a book was a big production. It might take a year for a monk to copy a manuscript, which is Latin for “written by hand,” onto a specially prepared calf, sheep or goat skin and then to decorate it with silver or gold.

In the mid-15th century, Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, sped up book production considerably with the invention of movable type. A single book page might take half a day, faster if workers showed industry.

Today, the book business is faster still, but few things are as fast as something called the Espresso Book Machine, the product of a high-tech publishing venture that has nothing to do with caffeine.

Yesterday, in the lobby of a Midtown branch of the New York Public Library, three visitors — a graduate student, a Hong Kong publishing executive and a sixth grader — stood in various states of awe as a Rube Goldberg contraption produced a book from digital code to hefty paperback in under 15 minutes.

The book machine, which occupies the space of two deli-style ice cream freezers, looks like office photocopiers attached to a tinted stereo cabinet and computer terminal. It hums, makes spitting noises, moans and then belches out a newly glued book, fresh as bread and almost as hot. ...more....

v News from JCLLA v

The Jewish Community Library of Los Angeles recently received a $5,000 grant from the David Geffen Foundation. The funds are for general operating expenses, according to Abigail Yasgur, Library Director. [Editor's note: Yasher Koach!]

v Thoughts in a Jerusalem Library - by Amotz Asa-El v

    A blog written by a veteran journalist on the meaning of libraries to Jerusalemites.

v Hello, Grisham -- So Long, Hemingway? v
         With Shelf Space Prized, Fairfax Libraries Cull Collections [Virginia]
         by Lisa Rein, Washington Post Staff Writer
         Source: WashingtonPost.com - Tuesday, January 2, 2007; Page A01

You can't find "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings" at the Pohick Regional Library anymore. Or "The Education of Henry Adams" at Sherwood Regional. Want Emily Dickinson's "Final Harvest"? Don't look to the Kingstowne branch.

It's not that the books are checked out. They're just gone. No one was reading them, so librarians took them off the shelves and dumped them.

Along with those classics, thousands of novels and nonfiction works have been eliminated from the Fairfax County collection after a new computer software program showed that no one had checked them out in at least 24 months.

Click to read rest of article and view a list of some of the discarded books. [Wait until the ad disappears]

v U.S.Patriot Act as It Affects Libraries v

To keep current, refer to "U. S. Patriot Act and Intellectual Freedom" on the website of the American Library Association, Office of Intellectual Freedom.

v Yiddish collection evaluated at Los Angeles Public Library v

Mark L. Smith, Yiddish scholar, has written an article about the LAPL Yiddish book collection, for distribution to those interested. It is copied here in full text.

| News Items of Interest | AJLSC News