Because public libraries cater to both adults and children they have to walk a fine line between access and censorship, purchasing certain materials that aren’t appropriate for all ages but also restricting access to them. And if there’s a question about whether something should be available to any patrons regardless of age or whether it [...]
Since one of the responsibilities of librarians is assisting patrons with research, they’re supposed to be trained to use research materials–everything from print bibliographies to electronic databases. That’s part of what makes Professor Bert Chapman’s “case against homosexuality” so surprising. Chapman is a librarian at Purdue University, and yet in writing his “case” he seems [...]
If you used Google on October 7th, 2009, you may have noticed their usual logo was replaced with this one:
It’s the latest in a long line of “alterations” to the Google logo, used to mark special events such as Gandhi’s birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, and the Cricket World Cup.
This particular one celebrated the invention of [...]
The American Library Association celebrates Banned Books Week every year in late September. This year Banned Books Week is officially taking place from September 26th through October 3rd, which, by my count, is eight days. And why not add an extra day to that week? Banning books is an important subject. Personally I’m all for [...]
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Aug
14
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Posted by Christopher Waldrop
August 14, 2009 | 1 Comment
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A librarian friend recently sent me an article called The First Time. It’s by a librarian who noticed a kid holding Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. She asked him if he’d read it before. He hadn’t. She asked him if anyone had told him how it ended. No one had. She goes on,
At that [...]
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Aug
4
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Posted by Christopher Waldrop
August 4, 2009 | 3 Comments
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Back when I first started this blog I wrote a defense of printed books. Even now with electronic resources becoming increasingly valuable (or increasingly overpriced, depending on how you look at it), I think the same principles still apply. While devices like the Kindle may be appealing to some, the problems associated with them mean [...]
Warning: extreme librarian content ahead.
An article titled The Dark Side of Online Journals by Lisa Richmond in the June issue of Z Magazine does an excellent job of summing up a major concern for academic libraries everywhere. Electronic journals pose a serious threat. While for some the threat was assumed to be that electronic publications [...]
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Jul
24
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Posted by Christopher Waldrop
July 24, 2009 | 2 Comments
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Sometimes publishers play dirty tricks. For instance if a particular publication ceases and customers have already paid for the coming year, the publisher won’t necessarily refund the customers’ money. Instead they’ll just substitute an alternate publication, something they think will fit the customer’s interest just as well as the old magazine. It’s something libraries have [...]
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Jul
10
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Posted by Christopher Waldrop
July 10, 2009 | 3 Comments
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First, a hat tip to Andrea for pointing me to the Awful Library Books blog. It’s a veritable treasure trove of really awful books, from an exercise book by George Burns to the hilariously retro Reach For The Moon. That book in particular reminded me of my 7th grade science textbook which contained the [...]
One of the nice things about working in a library is being surprised not just by new books but old books too. Sometimes really old books, like George Washington Carleton’s Our Artist In Cuba, a short little book of fifty funny sketches published in 1865 which a co-worker brought to me. You can see the [...]
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