As of next week the libraries of Jackson County, Oregon will have been closed to the public for 6 months. No storytime for kids, no books, movies or cd's for the residents, no book clubs and no internet access for the people most in need and most importantly one less place for people to get information.In April, the libraries ran out of federal money and were left to their own devices to fill the gap.In May, for the second time, voters failed to approve a tax increase that would have reopened the 15 libraries.The interim library director, Tom Stark, left...
Banned Books and the Presidents
Chris Finan, President of The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), reminds us that the whole concept of Banned Books Week is a direct response to the Republican Revolution that began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.Booksellers, librarians, and publishers celebrated the first Banned Books Week in 1982 against the background of a political and cultural counterrevolution. Many people saw the election of Ronald Reagan as a chance to strike back against the liberalization that had occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. On the local level, they began challenging hundreds of books that were used in schools...
The Next Great Library
This is what the new National Library of the Czech Republic in Prague is going to look like when it is completed in 2011.The design is by Future Systems of London."Its unique form and curvature is a reference to baroque buildings in Prague"The "building is placed on a white unpolished marble platform, with mirror finished stainless steel wings lifted up the perimeter edges to reflect the building from different angles.It is a green building with:-carefully controlled natural lighting sufficient for reading during 70% of the library's open hours;-natural cooling and warming of incoming air through a thermal labyrinth constructed in...
Name This Place
1 - Long before the building opens, a crowd begins to gather.2 - As the doors swing open, he mutters: "This is my sanctuary."3 - People frequently use the... restrooms to bathe (stripping down and using wads of wet toilet paper) or to get their latest drug fix.4- Occasionally, the bathroom ceiling is speckled with the blood of a careless heroin user who struck a vein.Any ideas?If you said the Multnomah Public Library in Portland you are correct.Arthur Gregg Sulzberger's piece in the Oregonian Library a refuge for homeless is the latest contribution to the budding genre "Social Services and...
The Last Library on Earth
"After the last book was sealed into a storage vacuum, the last librarians on earth were given the honorable task of guarding mankind’s most delicate treasures. Thankfully we of the future had been training our librarians in combat techniques as cataloging books became much more difficult."Cartoon and post titled In the Age of Digital Libraries by Jeremy Hitchcock at “Welcome to the Future” (WTTF.org)Click on image to enlargeThanks to Library Stuff for the lead