- 36 Bajrang Dal activists held for razing library A library was demolished in the town of Mamdapur in India over a book. The activists were angry that the library had a copy of a book that contained objectionable references against Lord Rama. The situation was so severe that police had to fire into the air to restore order. The book in question is titled The Truth in the Ramayana. The police have impounded copies of the book. (via LISNews)
- Libraries pull book over sensitive content And over in Japan, libraries removed copies of a book that might contain confidential medical information about a teenager that was institutionalized for setting his home and fire and killing his stepmother and two siblings. Police suspect the psychiatrist, who examined the boy during the family court trial, might have leaked the information to the author Atsuko Kusanagi, a freelance journalist. A group of librarians in Tokyo have come out strongly against the court order to remove the book as they feel that this runs counter to the role of libraries that guarantees the right to know. (via Library Stuff)
And now on to slightly lighter stuff
- Building a Social Networking Environment in the Library Hmmm … additional points to note for my training on new media literacy. WebJunction’s Steve Campion has provided a general overview of what social networking is and how libraries can make use of it and what the pitfalls are. There’s also a simple 3-steps guide to transforming your library into an interactive one. (via LibrarianInBlack)
- Psychology classes for MLIS? Heehee!!! Well, I encounter the same variety of customers in the public libraries in Singapore. There is an elderly gentleman who thinks he’s a gift from God to the people of Singapore, someone who speaks to himself in the middle of the reference floor … loudly, or someone who leaves anti-China notes on the tables in the public areas together with a related article in TIME magazine. There are many others and I’m sure my other colleagues would have met their own fair share of ‘interesting’ patrons in the libraries. See … a librarian’s job is very interesting … besides being information providers, we are also social workers in providing a listening ear. (via Library Stuff)
- What’s new in Library 2.0? Shift in power. Kathryn has written post about what she thinks is the ‘new’ in new media. Interesting! I think I might be able to use her ideas in explaining to my colleagues what new media is all about when I’m conducting the training for new media literacy.
- A Living Library From the technology aspect of libraries, we move to the human aspect of libraries. And I mean human quite literally. A ‘living library’ allows you to ‘borrow’ a person. This person is either a subject expert, has significant experiences to share or an expert hobbyist. The ‘loan’ is usually in the form of a conversation and the loan period can be half an hour, a morning or even the whole day. This concept of ‘living library’ originated in Scandinavia. Hmmm … actually this is good in allowing our senior citizens to share their life experiences to the younger generation. Sort of an interactive history lesson. (via Library Stuff)
- Web 2.0 Search Engine Need help looking for Web 2.0 tools? Well, look no further as the Web 2.0 Search Engine allows you to search for any Web 2.0 tool that you can think of. Recently, they released a list of the Top 1,000 Web 2.0 Applications. Go have a look at the huge listing of Web 2.0 tools that you can use. (via iLibrarian)
- Online Behavior of US Teens and Tweens Seems like more and more teens and tweens are going online to connect with each other through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. A huge amount of them also do their homework online as up to 96% of school districts in the US have some form of e-learning. I know schools in Singapore are increasingly making use of e-learning tools to conduct their lessons as I’ve helped quite a number of students submit their homework online through the library’s multimedia stations. (via iLibrarian)
- JK Rowling Penning Two Books Just a couple of days after the launch of the final book of the Harry Potter series, it has been reported that JK Rowling has already started work on 2 books, ‘one for children and another not for children‘, though one of them might be dropped off. Well, let’s see if she’s about to do another ‘Harry Potter’.
This article on Innovate Online is very suitable for children, teens or school librarians. It is entitled “Schools, Children, and Digital Technology: Building Better Relationships for a Better Tomorrow,” by Mark van ‘t Hooft.
In order to read the full article instead of just the synopsis, you’ll need to sign up for an account on the sidebar of the left of the screen. Registration is free.
The list below was generated from two book discussions done by Michael Stephens’ MLIS class.
Not afraid of change & technology
User-centered focus
Spot trends and market them!
Plugged in & using new tools to communicate
Be a Maven/be a Connector
Listen to users
Don’t judge interest
Gather lots of input & diverse opinions
Learn from Games-leadership, teamwork, and strategies
Leave your comfort zone
Remove barriers – too many roles
Provide opportunities to flatten the world
Communicate regularly with users
PLAY
Travel & learn
Create networks for discussion
Create change from the bottom up – and make CEO fulfill interests of User!
The list is a good starting point for anyone who’s interested in becoming a librarian as these are some of qualities required. “Loving to read” is no longer that important a reason for wanting to be a librarian. I think I said that when I interview for my job.
When I introduce myself as a librarian, some of them will usually comment that I must love reading. But I think the basic trait a librarian should have is that you must love helping people. This could be helping a user to find some information, a novel to read, or enjoyment in reading. If you don’t have this basic trait, then all the traits mentioned in the list above will be irrelevant.
First up are links about doing publicity for libraries:
- Fabulous ideas for publicity for libraries: Just a thought. Maybe we should do an exchange of advertisements with some of our advertisers like put up library adverts at M1 or Courts outlets. (via LibrarianInBlack.net)
- Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World: As more and more people go online, particularly teenagers, we will need to learn about and understand what Web 2.0 is all about. Only then can we market our services correctly to the group of users that are predominately Web-based. (via LibrarianInBlack.net)
Links to interesting library sites
- Teen Web at LAPL: Interesting design for a library’s web presence. Guess it’s because it’s meant predominately for teens who are already very adapt using social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. There’s also a mini-site that teens can play a library game. (via Tame The Web)
- Love Libraries: A campaign launched in July 2006 in the UK to promote the use of libraries. The campaign was started by nine British publishers together with The Reading Agency, a charity that promotes reading in the UK. There are also other government and private organizations that are involved in the project. They are also featuring 3 libraries that underwent a transformation, courtesy of the campaign. There’s also a group of young librarians that have been nominated as ‘Young Librarians of the Future‘. (via 025.04 - a site by one of the ‘Young Librarians of the Future)
And other interesting links
- Fun Facts about the OCLC Top 1000: These are interesting tidbits extracted by OCLC staffers after they had compiled a list of top 1,000 titles that are owned by their member libraries. Some surprising factoids: None of Stephen King’s novels made the top 1000; John Grisham came in 3rd in the ranking for most works with 13 works (Shakespeare came in first with 37); and Garfield was the highest ranking cartoon at 15. Go read for other interesting facts.
- Your Room is Booked: I would love to stay in the Library Hotel in Manhattan, which is also within walking distance of the New York Public Library. With guest floors and rooms classified via the Dewey Decimal Classification, I don’t think I’ll be that lost when looking for my room. But what’s interesting is that the room you get will also determine what kind of books that are available in your room. According to hotel staff, the most requested room is 800.001 which is the classification for ‘Erotic Literature’, and amongst the books in that room is the famous (or infamous) Kama Sutra. Personally, I would request for the New Media room. (via LISNews)
- Hot Books for Summer: Publishers Weekly has just published an article on the top 25 upcoming books to read during the summer months. (via kottke.org)
- Pre-orders spell record sales for Harry Potter: From what I gathered from the article, pre-orders on online bookstores, such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, have exceeded 2 million copies to date for the last book in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Very impressive, but I’ll not be one of those making a pre-order.
