Do you know Dewey, the Library Cat from Spencer, IA?

Dewey Readmore Books was the resident cat at Spencer Public Library. He was put in the book return one cold January night in 1988. When the staff found him the next morning, they decided to adopt him. After the library’s board of trustees and the city council approved, the kitten was declawed, neutered, and given the proper vaccinations. A contest was held to pick a name, and Dewey Readmore Books was officially added to the staff. The staff cared for Dewey and donated their pop cans to feed the kitty. Patrons and friends from as far away as New York have donated money for Dewey’s food.

The author wrote:

I hope I’ve also captured something else: the magic of libraries. Libraries aren’t warehouses for books; they are meeting houses for human beings. A good library is less an institution than a home. It has comfortable seats, desks, computers, friendly people and, yes, sometimes even a cat. Libraries are society’s great leveling agent: they offer job listings, financial information, technology, entertainment, any book you want. For free. I hate it when people tip-toe through a library. “This isn’t a graveyard,” I want to shout. “It’s alive. So live a little!

See Dewey’s home page at: http://spencerlibrary.com/deweybio.htm
and read about the book and its author at: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/books_9780446407410-Description.htm

Information R/Evolution

     This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively. 
     This video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. So you are welcome to download it, share it, even change it, just as long as you give me some credit and you don’t sell it or use it to sell anything.
     My videos explore mediated culture, seeking to merge the ideas of Media Ecology and Cultural Anthropology.  Currently we are working on an ethnography of YouTube. You can check our progress at http://mediatedcultures.net/

Creator: Mike
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Kansas State University
City: Manhattan, Kansas

Information R/Evolution

From the CHE: For Advice on Publishing in the Digital World, Scholars Turn to Campus Libraries…

By JENNIFER HOWARD

“Rapidly changing” is the term most often used these days to describe the landscape of scholarly communication. Scholars have to clear new and higher hurdles as they bump up against copyright and fair-use issues, open-access mandates, and a baffling array of publication and dissemination models.

How much of his own published work can a scholar post on a personal Web site without raising his publisher’s ire? How much of someone else’s work can he use in his course pack without trampling on fair use and risking a fine or legal action? How does a researcher upload her work to her institution’s repository, and are there consequences if she opts out? Those are just some of the questions that professors may find themselves tripping over.

Where can researchers find a guide to lead them through this 21st-century obstacle course?

The library, of course…

See entire article at:  http://chronicle.com/temp/email2.php?id=SQgZmbjzGSvWH5HvXSRK9prxtWX9jcVs

Phx Art Museum Gene and Cathie Lemon Art Research Library Visit and Book Covers Meeting

 Six  of us visited the library and engaged in a delightful and informative meeting of the Book Covers Book Club where we learned a great deal about FASHION!  The Museum’s librarian, Sandra Wiles, presented a highly entertraining talk about Book Covers 11-18-2008, titles in her collection on this topic.  Interestingly, three were about the “little black dress” and other essentials of fashion, one about stripes (!), others about forgotten fashions, accessories, and style casualties. The meeting coincided with the exhibition called One for All, and All for One–The Jumpsuit, which we all enjoyed following the meeting.

Sandra also told us about her library and its unique services and resources, for which I was very grateful!

Phoenix Art Museum’s Art Research Library is a non-circulating research library with collection strengths that reflect those of the Museum’s art collection. With more than 40,000 books, periodicals, artist files and more, the Library serves as an important resource for the community and state as the largest specialized fine arts library in the region. The public is invited to use the resources of the Art Research Library, free of charge, during public hours.

Library Hours

Tues-Thurs, 10am – 4pm
(Closed month of August)

The Art Research Library provides the following services to the public:

• Research Assistance to visitors.
• Telephone reference, brief biographical information provided, at (602) 257-2136.
• Referral to additional resources.

Online search of the Library’s catalog

The Museum’s Art Research Library does not lend out its holdings. If you are a local resident, you may visit the Museum’s Art Research Library during its public hours and use its resources. If you are not a local resident, the search will help you identify titles that you may want to borrow from your local public or university library.

You may borrow books listed as Phoenix Public Library holdings if you have a valid library card.

Art Research Library Holdings Online

More about the Library’s collections

The Library’s collections include materials on art criticism and art history with emphasis in Asian, Latin American, Western American, European, Modern & Contemporary, and Fashion Design.

The Book Club meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month at 6 pm for an hour.  Tuesdays are free admission days and the cafe is lovely.  I plan to make a habit of attending!

MANY thanks, Sandra for your warm and fun hospitality!

Librarians Want to Out-Google Google With a Better Search Engine

Have you ever wished for a personal reference librarian, an information guru to point you to the most reliable sites whenever you search the Web? A new search-engine project aims to simulate something like that. The trick? Weighting search results so that librarians’ picks rise to the top.

Called Reference Extract, the project is being developed by the Online Computer Library Center and the information schools of Syracuse University and the University of Washington. OCLC is an international cooperative that shares resources among more than 69,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories. A $100,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is covering planning costs….See entire posting from Wired Campus at: http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=3450&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

What is a SOLO librarian?

A SOLO librarian is “an isolated librarian or information collector/provider who has no professional peers within the immediate organization.” This definition was developed by the founder of the group, Martha Rhine. She saw “the image of featured artists with talents exceeding those of the accompanying group.” In Managing the New One-Person Library St. Clair and Williamson said that “the value of this definition is that it recognizes that in his or her immediate workplace this library/information professional works alone, both as a librarian and as a library manager” and called it “the best [definition] we have found.”. OPL is a term coined by Guy St. Clair in 1976 to describe a library “in which all the work is done by the librarian.” Another interchangeable term is SOLO Librarian. This is defined as “an isolated librarian or information collector/provider who has no professional peers within the immediate organization.” This definition was accepted by the SOLO Librarians Division of the Special Libraries Association (USA). The Division was formed in 1992 from the SOLO Librarians Caucus founded by Martha Rose (Marty) Rhine in 1989. OPL’s editor, Judith Siess, was the first chair of the SOLO Librarians Division in 1992-1993. The Division now has over 1000 members, making it the fifth largest in SLA.

Visit http://www.ibi-opl.com/ for more info!

Your thoughts needed!

In that our November 18 meeting will be the last event of the year, I have several questions of you!

#1–does this (<-) program about solo librarianship interest you? Shall we organize such a program here?

#2–Shall we create an LSO like the one in Tucson?

#3–see the list of topics mentioned on October 27 (here) and tell me your priorities, or add new ones!

Placements & Salaries 2008: Library Jobs and Pay Both Up

From LJ Online:

Where the Library Jobs Are-Public and academic libraries hire the most librarians but “other” agencies are on the rise

Stephanie Maatta — Library Journal, 10/10/2008 1:18:00 PM

In light of the LS vs. IS debate, a few unexpected trends among the individual schools’ placements emerged along with several predictable ones. Graduates of University of Washington, an I-school, for example, reported 42.9% of their placements in public libraries when one might anticipate there would be higher placements in other types of agencies among I-school graduates. Despite high placements in libraries with traditionally lower salary ranges, Washington grads maintained one the highest average salaries among all of the programs….

See the entire article at:  http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6602490.html&cache=FALSE and http://www.libraryjournal.com/info/CA6602855.html

Many thanks to Ed Van Winkle for pointing me to this article!