Add to your To-Do List: LJ’s Student Affairs blog

Written by Staci B Elliott, this site focuses on her post MLS experiences.  About Staci:

Staci has an individual fondness for writing as well as reading, and a background in gender studies at Whitman College. Since graduation, she has held such lofty positions as the Systems and Communications Coordinator and later, Director of First Impressions, for a busy real estate office. Read: secretary. With a year remaining in her quest for a Masters in Library Science through a distance education program at Texas Woman’s University, she looks forward to contributing to her community and to her retirement fund as a full-fledged Information Services Technician. Read: librarian.

Recent topics include Advice ! and II, and Things she did wrong.

Follow Staci at http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1070000307.html

A Good Mystery: Why We Read (from the NY Times)

By MOTOKO RICH

Published: November 25, 2007

At a time when books appear to be waging a Sisyphean battle against the forces of the Internet, the notion that someone could move from literary indifference to devouring passion seems, sadly, farfetched.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/weekinreview/25rich.html

Bookbinder saves a world of words – from the Californian

From the Californian, February 9
By DAVE NORDSTRAND

Bookbinder saves a world of words

Corral de Tierra’s Tamara Hennessy says she’s blessed by her special calling

At her bench, Tamara Hennessy works with tools crafted from cow bones, glue brushes, a knife-like device and, not least, a sharp sense of mission. Hennessy is a bookbinder. She restores the physical being of treasured volumes and, consequently, the ideas, adventures and illustrations within their pages. “It’s a thrill to see some of these books,” she said. Hennessy, whose business is Monterey Book Works, has her workshop in her Corral de Tierra home. A former librarian, she’s been bookbinding 20 years, the last eight full-time. She learned the basics at workshops. Bookbinding has become a calling as well as a profession. “I’ve seen books that would take your breath away,” she said. One such was an edition illustrated by Gustave Doré, a renowned 19th century illustrator. Among Doré’s most famous works are images created to illustrate “The Divine Comedy” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” The Doré volume was an original edition. A collector found it at an antique book fair. Hennessy repaired the book’s cover. She worked to restore its spine. “I was weak in the knees,” she recalled of the nervousness caused by such a responsibility.

Appreciation for workmanship

Old editions sometimes feature gilded – meaning real gold – lettering in their titles. Or it may be a work as familiar as an aged family Bible. “A family wants to keep their Bible,” she said. “They want to maintain the family genealogy. I can make a hard or soft cover.” Costs vary, but having a Bible rebound can range from $80 to $140 on up to $200 for a large family Bible. Hennessy defines “bookbinding” as “maintaining the integrity of a book.” “I deal with books that need a little TLC,” she said. “I do a lot of repair work and lots of leather repair.” She’s enamored not only by the contents but by the materials and workmanship a given volume contains. The oils from the fingers of those who have handled, and respected, it through the ages are a source of her reflection, she said. And think of the high-quality papers – supple, ecru. The print, too, so pleasantly laid out on the paper, she said.”I’ve seen colorful drawings by monks where capital letters are emboldened and embossed and birds are flying in and out of the letters,” she said. “You look at these things and you think of the quality of the people in the past who have done that for a book. “There’s an intimacy there. Now it’s done willy-nilly.”

Works for libraries, too

One memorable job was working on an edition of “The World of Marco Polo.” A bookbinder from the early 19th century had rebound the volume before her. “There are some extraordinary bibliophiles in this country,” she said. “You’d be amazed what’s here, bookwise.”…See entire post at:  http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20090209/REPOSITORY/902090303

Digital Archivists Now in Demand (from LIS News)

February 8, 2009 – 10:01pm — Bibliofuture

WHEN the world entered the digital age, a great majority of human historical records did not immediately make the trip.

Literature, film, scientific journals, newspapers, court records, corporate documents and other material, accumulated over centuries, needed to be adapted for computer databases. Once there, it had to be arranged — along with newer, born-digital material — in a way that would let people find what they needed and keep finding it well into the future.

The people entrusted to find a place for this wealth of information are known as digital asset managers, or sometimes as digital archivists and digital preservation officers. Whatever they are called, demand for them is expanding.

Full story in the New York Times

Sewell Learning Partnerships for Librarians Offered

The Grace and Harold Sewell Memorial Fund plans to fund two, paid, 12-month, Learning Partnerships placing experienced librarians/informationists within leading health care and/or research organizations for the purpose of both partners gaining a greater understanding of how best information sciences can be effectively applied in each environment.

We are currently soliciting applications for librarians/informationists for our 2009/2010 Learning Partnerships. Host organizations will present a learning environment, a series of activities, and access to organizational leaders which will allow the librarian/informationist to more fully understand the nature of the organization’s work, its decision-making processes, the clients served and the health care issues addressed. The librarian/informationist will participate in team settings designed to utilize their skills and knowledge in non-traditional ways. Immersion is the goal and expanded knowledge the anticipated result for both partners.    To read about past Learning Partnerships, click here.

Visit : http://www.sewellfund.org/ to learn more.

A love of books, nurtured by mother

From the Charlotte Observer:

She came from a family of educators and achievers. Fresh out of library school in Atlanta, she arrived in Charlotte in 1947 as director of the city’s only library for African Americans. Three years later, Allegra Westbrooks, now 87, was reassigned to the main public library that served only whites; ultimately, she was placed in charge of all branches. That made her the first black public library supervisor in North Carolina….

See entire article at: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/breaking/story/514695.html

Developing a Scholarly Communication Program in Your Library

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) have published a guide to Developing a Scholarly Communication Program in Your Library.  The guide provides background information and outlines steps for setting up a scholarly communication program at your library and on your campus.

Scholarly communication initiatives can take many forms and focus on different issues, such as the University of California’s innovative recruitment of faculty publications into its eScholarship Repository, the University of Minnesota’s author’s rights education program, or SPARC’s student-focused “Right to Research” campaign. Whatever the issues particularly relevant to your institution, librarians can engage faculty members, students, and administrators to make a significant impact on the scholarly landscape.

This online guide offers both generic tools you can adapt locally under a Creative Commons license and examples of how these tools have been implemented at other schools. The guide provides you with help at your point of need, and leverages the expertise and experience of library colleagues everywhere.

The guide offers advice on the following stages of creating and managing a scholarly communication program:

• Establish Structure
• Build Knowledge
• Scan Environment
• Go Public
• Evaluate Program
• Learn More

http://www.arl.org/sc/institute/fair/scprog/index.shtml

“Technology in Libraries: Providing Access, Linking Communities” — Registration and Presentation Submissions Now Open

The Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona (MLGSCA), with funding support from the NN/LM Pacific Southwest Region, is planning a one day symposium that will focus on the application of innovative technologies that build a sense of community, connecting users both within the library and the greater organization. “Technology in Libraries: Providing Access, Linking Communities” will be held at the Cerritos Public Library in Cerritos, CA on Friday March 6, 2009.

This conference will highlight:

• The use of wikis, blogs, and RSS feeds and other Web 2.0 Tools
• The role of libraries in using technology to connect communities
• Investigation of issues of accessibility to electronic resources and tools
• Details on the incorporation of low cost/high impact and easy-to-use technologies into the library experience
• Innovative uses of technology in delivering library instruction or doing outreach to users…

For more info and to register, visit:  http://nnlm.gov/psr/newsletter/?p=483