the shrinking librarian

Feb 22

Judge Slaps School for Blocking Gay Websites

A federal judge ordered a central Missouri school district to stop using Internet filtering software that blocks access to gay, lesbian and transgender issue-related websites.

… Judge Laughrey found that the school’s Internet filter, URL Blacklist, systematically discriminates against gay-friendly websites.

“Sexuality filters are normally used to filter out pornographic material, but the URL Blacklist filter has the affect of filtering out positive material about LGBT issues as well as pornographic material,” Laughrey wrote. “PFLAG has identified forty-one websites blocked by URL Blacklist’s ‘sexuality’ filter that express a positive viewpoint toward LGBT individuals. PFLAG tested these forty-one websites on five different Internet filter systems designed to help schools comply with CIPA [Children’s Internet Protection Act]. None of these five filter systems blocked any of these forty-one websites as prohibited by CIPA. On the other hand, URL Blacklist generally categorizes websites expressing a negative view toward LGBT individuals in its ‘religion’ category, and does not block them with its ‘sexuality’ filter. Thus, URL Blacklist systematically allows access to websites expressing a negative viewpoint toward LGBT individuals by categorizing them as ‘religion’, but filters out positive viewpoints toward LGBT issues by categorizing them as ‘sexuality’.”

(via Library Stuff, emphasis mine)

Feb 7

K-M the Librarian: "You're not really a librarian"

“The other day I got into an ‘argument’ with a student about whether or not I was really a librarian. His position was that I wasn’t a librarian—I was actually a teacher who happened to have an office in the library.

It was a weird discussion to be having. As the conversation continued, it became clear that he was, in no small part, trying to annoy me. But I don’t think the original statement was meant just to taunt me. We ended up trying to pull in other students to make our respective cases—his that I wasn’t a librarian, mine that I really was. The general consensus seemed to be that I was definitely a librarian. And probably also a teacher.”

(via LISNews)

Dec 9

“What if the library building is gutted and turned into classrooms and graduate offices (universities always need more of those!) and the librarians were fully embedded in their College. This builds upon the special library model in which the librarian works at and is paid by a particular College. This could be feasible in a digital world—we’re not there yet, but getting closer every year. How might this change the relationship between the faculty and the librarians with the Colleges investing in such professional positions?” Are Academic Libraries Too Big To Fail? (What if the answer is no?) - The Ubiquitous Librarian - The Chronicle of Higher Education (via infoneer-pulse)

(via librarianista)

Nov 23

Filipino Librarian: “We have the most awesome library. EVER.”

It’s the Rizal Library, which apparently has figured out how to communicate with students in the language they use. And so, even though the messages on the posters are essentially the eat-your-vegetables kind, the manner in which these are conveyed has caught the attention—and aroused the interest—of the audience for which they were intended… something that not many library signs I’ve seen have ever done.

Click through to the original post for readable versions of the meme-inspired posters.

(via LISNews)

Jun 4

(via my-ear-trumpet)

Jan 14

To Library, or Not to Library

infoneer-pulse:

Community colleges are growing by leaps and bounds these days. And much of that growth has been in branch or satellite campuses.

This kind of expansion, however, has created a vexing question: When is the right time to add a library? Accreditors require community colleges to provide library services to all of their students, no matter their location. Still, there is some leeway as to whether a physical space is needed on all branch campuses. Given this gray area, some community college officials wonder when simply providing library services to branch campus students is insufficient and a physical library is necessary.

» via Inside Higher Ed

In discussions of school libraries, I feel like community colleges have been somewhat lost in the shuffle of elementary libraries and high school libraries and university libraries (oh my). Schools like these, especially those with multiple branches, really do have some unique problems. I’m not embarrassed to say I had a very good experience as a student at a community college, so this is really interesting for me to think about.

(via librarianista)

Dec 12

Lamar High's Library Ousts Books, Re-Opens as Coffee Shop

infoneer-pulse:

Just adding a coffee shop to a neighborhood library so people can feel like they’re in Starbucks and ultra hip was apparently too passe a trend for Principal James McSwain of Lamar High School.

Finishing up a week ago, McSwain has thrown out nearly all the books and filled the space they were unnecessarily taking up with couches and coffee and food and told his students that they can access the exciting world of reading through e-books! And if they don’t have a laptop of their own and Internet access to do so, they can use one of the laptop computers in the library coffeeshop!

» via Houston Press

Even the student volunteers didn’t have the heart to just “get rid of” the books, so those in charge had to find someone else to do it. Not all of the teachers are thrilled, either:

“There’s no way to get hold of a book on the campus to read for pleasure or to use to write a paper. If you don’t have access to a computer of your own then you have to compete for one of the computers that are in the coffee shop. And you have to find a way to get it done during the time the coffee shop is open.”

(via librarianista)

Nov 17

Reader Choice, Not Vendor Influence, Reshapes Library Collections

infoneer-pulse:

Building a research-library collection has been an educated guessing game. Librarians try to figure out what faculty members, undergraduates, and other users are going to want. Then they buy the materials and hope someone will want to use them.

Often that doesn’t happen. “About 50 percent of the time, the things we pick don’t get used or don’t get used in 10 years,” says Rick Anderson, associate director of scholarly resources and collections at the University of Utah.

He’s part of a wave of librarians testing a different and, they say, more efficient mechanism for purchasing library materials: patron-driven acquisition. The idea is that the library users help determine what to buy. For instance, a purchase decision might be based on how many times an e-book is accessed via an online catalog.

» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)

(via librarianista)

Nov 16

Prospect Heights Schools’ Library Opens With No Librarian (NYT via LISNews)

The shelves were stocked with books. The maple benches were grouped like shin-high honeycombs across the beeswax-colored floor. The Book Hive at P.S. 9 and M.S. 571’s joint facility on Underhill Avenue seemed to have everything. Everything, that is, except a librarian.

After years of planning, The Book Hive opened on Nov. 12, only to promptly shut its doors. The library, which services two Prospect Heights schools sharing the same building, will remain inactive until the schools hire a librarian, a daunting task in the age of slashed budgets and shared services.

“That’s what is so surprising about this whole thing,” said parent Karen Fein, 42. “I mean they were willing to get a half a million dollars to construct this library and outfit it beautifully, and now we don’t have a librarian.”

This is so sad. A library needs a librarian. Even the first graders know this.

Sep 22

Fight for libraries as you do freedom

“You would just as soon cut ‘Romeo and Juliet’ from a high school curriculum as you would cut algebra. Both train young minds how to think in critical ways. Both foster problem solving and spatial reasoning. Both create adults who question and contribute to society. Fundamentally, reading creates better societies. This is not a theory. This is a quantifiable fact: There is a direct correlation between the rate of literacy in a nation and its success.

This is why the funding of American libraries should be a matter of national security. Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation’s sovereignty. For nearly 85 percent of kids living in rural areas, the only place where they have access to technology or books outside the schoolroom is in a public library. For many urban kids, the only safe haven they have to study or do homework is the public library. Librarians are soldiers in the battle for our place in the world, and in many cases they are getting the least amount of support our communities can offer.” (via LISNews)

the shrinking librarian

A shy violet keeps a library & information science scrapbook.

Judge Slaps School for Blocking Gay Websites

K-M the Librarian: "You're not really a librarian"

To Library, or Not to Library

Lamar High's Library Ousts Books, Re-Opens as Coffee Shop

Reader Choice, Not Vendor Influence, Reshapes Library Collections

Fight for libraries as you do freedom