Quite a scary look at how the large number of vandalised edits are done, particularly for political figures. Although Wikipedia works on a community moderation system, some of the hurtful and defamatory edits of US Senators were left as is for up to weeks at a time.
Like what librarians like to tell you, use Wikipedia as a very basic search and background study. Then use other resources such as books, encyclopedia, and online databases to verify the facts.
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A tongue-in-cheek picture of what the Future of Librarianship holds from the Speak Quietly blog by Scott Douglas. 
(via LISNews)
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- Reference Books
This Wall Street Journal article suggests some reference books that are essential for a home library. Do you think they are essential for your library as well? And in our increasingly online-oriented world, do you think printed references are still essential when anyone with Internet access can just search for it through Google or Wikipedia?
(via LISNews)
- Is the use of book covers legal?
A wonderful blog post, written by lawyer and librarian Mary Minow, on the legality of the use of book covers by libraries on their Web sites and blogs. Do read the comments in the post for more discussion. What are your views?
(via LibrarianInBlack)
- The Back Nine Stacks
Ever thought of converting part of your stack into a mini golf course! Well, there’s now a non-profit organisation, the Library Mini Golf non-profit group, in the United States doing just that. The mini golf course is meant to be a one-off event for fundraising purposes as well as a way to get people to have a fun day at the library. The founder, Rick Bolton, estimates that a library can raise about US$10,000 in just one day. Maybe we can just do something similar at V.A.T. at Jurong Regional Library for the teens. I think they’ll enjoy it.
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- Why Public Libraries Close?
A report on a nationwide study done in the United States on the impact of public library closures. What was interesting in the study was the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map out the impacts on library users. We don’t see GIS used much in Singapore in analysing any kind of information.
(via LISNews)
- China national library is the world’s third most spacious library
With the opening a new building, China’s national library is now the third biggest national library in terms of floor space in the world, behind France and the United States. With this new building, the total floor space has reached 250,000 square metres. As a comparison, the National Library building at Victoria Street is about 58,783 square metres.
(via LISNews)
- Discounts with Your Library Card (pdf)
A cluster of public libraries in Northern Kentucky in the United States have collaborated with businesses in its community to bring discounts for members of the library. The discounts cover a good range of products and services.
(via LISNews)
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- The 25 Modern Libraries in the World
A listing of libraries that shows libraries are no longer like the libraries of old. Libraries are now at the cutting edge of information management as well as design and web technology. Unfortunately, MPOW is not listed as one of them.
(via kottke.org)
- Future-Proof Your Library
Some wonderful ideas from Library Journal’s Movers & Shakers on how to ensure a library’s relevance in future.
- John Prescott and Kama Sutra abandoned in hotel rooms
No, they were not intimately related. They were related in that they were books that were abandoned in budget hotels in the United Kingdom this past summer. The list was compiled by Travelodge, a chain of budget hotels in the UK and Ireland, and is done annually. In all, 7,000 books were left behind in Travelodge hotels throughout the year.
(via LISNews)
- 2008 Booker Prize announced
The shortlist for this year’s Booker Prize was announced this past Monday. The following novels are on the list: Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger, Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture, Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, Linda Grant’s The Clothes on Their Backs, Philip Hensher’s The Northern Clemency, and Steve Toltz’s A Fraction of the Whole. Surprisingly, some of the hot favourites from the longlist such as Salman Rushdie’s The Enchantress of Florence, Michelle de Kretser’s The Lost Dog, and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland did not make it. I was quite surprised that Salman Rushdie did not even make the shortlist considering that he is a double Booker of Booker winner as well as Best of the Booker winner. The winner of this year’s Booker Prize would be announced on 14 October 2008.
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Another wonderful video by the people at the Common Craft Show explaining how to use Google Reader.
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MOE has just launched a dedication website for everyone to pen their thanks to their teachers at Teachersday.sg.
The only catch is that you have to only use six words in your dedication So, start cracking your literary brain and come up with the best six words of thanks to your teachers!
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For the Harry Potter fans, the trailer (of higher video quality) for the upcoming movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released a couple of days back. I haven’t watched any of the movies except for the first one. And my wife is not a big fan of the movie interpretation of the Harry Potter series although she has finished reading all the seven books.
And in other Harry Potter news, JK Rowling has decided to publish a collection of fairytales to help raise money for a UK children’s charity, the Children’s High Level Group (CHLG).
The Tales of Beedle the Bard was mentioned in the final book of the Harry Potter series, The Deathly Hallows. Rowling had no intentions to publish the book initially and had personally written and illustrated only seven copies of the book. Six of those were given to friends and one was sold to Amazon at an auction last year for £1.95m.
There will be three editions of the book. Two are by regular publishers, Scholastic and Bloomsbury. And the third edition will be produced by Amazon, which aims to replicate the look and feel of the original tales. There will only be 100,000 copies of the Collector’s Edition.
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