LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2012 (UK)

LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2012 - 29 February to 3 March 2012 - London, UK

Book Grocer: 29 February - 6 March, 2012

Book Grocer: 29 February - 6 March, 2012 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

Wokingham private library firms shortlisted (UK)

A shortlist of four companies has been drawn up which could potentially run 11 libraries across Wokingham. The council believes outsourcing the service would save £170,000 a year, although concerns have been raised that it could lead to job cuts. More than 20 firms came forward after bids were invited in May, with four taken forward into the next stage. A final decision on whether the libraries will be taken over will be made in June. - BBC

Jane Austen Revealed: World Book Day at the Bodleian (UK)

The Bodleian Libraries mark this year's World Book Day (1 March) with a series of events dedicated to one of the greatest British writers, Jane Austen. These include a one-day display, a lunchtime talk and a book launch. On display for the first time will be a decorative cross stitch sampler by Jane Austen and a newly-discovered portrait which has been the subject of recent research by Austen scholars. As both items are on loan from private collections specially for this one-day Austen display, this is a unique opportunity for lovers of Austen to see items directly linked to the writer. The sampler is signed and dated 'Jane Austen 17[8]7' (some of the stitching from the '8' has come away), and was made when the novelist was eleven or twelve. A note attached to the back of the frame states that an early owner 'was related to Jane Austen the novelist' and that she 'received it as a memento of her (n.b. Austen's) life.'

2012 award for Best Book in Library Literature

"The Atlas of New Librarianship" by R. David Lankes has been named the winner of the 2012 ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Award for the Best Book in Library Literature. The award, which is given annually by the American Library Association, will be presented at the association’s Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, in June. The book was co-published by the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of ALA, and The MIT Press. In his book, Lankes articulates a new purpose for librarianship: "The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities." He envisions a profession based not on books and artifacts but on knowledge and learning which are created through conversations. The innovatively structured text, graphics and accompanying website are designed to stimulate further conversation about the field of librarianship

Speak up for libraries (UK)

Speak Up For Libraries is a coalition of organisations and campaigners working to protect libraries and library staff, now and in the future

Wiley-Blackwell adds 44 titles to journal publishing program in 2012

In 2012 Wiley-Blackwell, the Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., will begin publishing 44 titles new to its journal program, including 16 new launches and 40 journals published in collaboration with societies or other organizations. Brand new titles publishing on Wiley Online Library over the course of 2012 include Advanced Healthcare Materials, PsyCH Journal (published with the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Clinical Liver Disease (published with The American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases), Food and Energy Security (a Wiley Open Access title in partnership with the Association of Applied Biologists) and the open access title Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease

InSITE: A Current Awareness Service of Cornell Law Library - Vol. 17, No. 11, February 27 2012

InSITE: A Current Awareness Service of Cornell Law Library - Vol. 17, No. 11, February 27, 2012 is now available. Contents:

# Islawmix
# Lawyers Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation
# Viadrina International Law Project

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Cognitio Juris : Revista Jurídica

Discussions on Estonian Economic Policy

Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology

Transcultural Studies

Nerazrušaûŝij Kontrolʹ i Diagnostika

Europeana eNews - February 2012

The February edition of Europeana eNews is now available online

UKSG 35th Annual Conference and Exhibition

UKSG 35th Annual Conference and Exhibition - 26-28 March 2012 - Glasgow, Scotland

Teen Librarian Monthly: February 2012

Teen Librarian Monthly: February 2012 is now available for download

Winston Tabb wins 2012 Patterson Copyright Award (USA)

Winston Tabb, dean of libraries and museums at Johns Hopkins University is the 2012 recipient of the American Library Association's L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award: In Support of Users' Rights. Tabb was appointed to the National Board of the Institute of Library and Museum Services (IMLS) by President Obama in 2010. He serves as the chair of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institution's (IFLA) Standing Committee on Copyright and Legal Matters (CLM) and advocates for library users across the world at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva

National Bookmobile Day 2012 (USA)

National Bookmobile Day (Wednesday, April 11, 2012) celebrates our nation's bookmobiles and the dedicated library professionals who provide this valuable and essential service to their communities every day. National Bookmobile Day is an opportunity for bookmobiles fans to make their support known - through thanking bookmobile staff, writing a letter or e-mail to their libraries, or voicing their support to community leaders. National Bookmobile Day is coordinated by the ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (ABOS), the Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS), and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL)

Future Medicine launch Colorectal Cancer

Future Medicine launch Colorectal Cancer - a new bimonthly title covering best practice and latest advances

Vaizey to give evidence in library inquiry (UK)

Culture minister Ed Vaizey will be interviewed by the culture, media and sport select committee on 13th March as part of the inquiry into library closures. Vaizey is the only witness called to give oral evidence at the session that day. The evidence session will coincide with the lobby of parliament by librarians and authors set to take place on the same day - The Bookseller

The European Library Standards Handbook (Version 1.0)

The European Library Standards handbook serves as a handbook for libraries providing data to The European Library and other services such as Europeana. The document clarifies the advantages of outsourcing specific data-provision tasks to an aggregator and provides a complete description of the process. The handbook first addresses the role of content providers in the project and the benefits of participating. It then examines the process of submitting data and the technical, organisational and financial requirements for the submission of data. Finally, the handbook outlines high‐level legal aspects and lists a number of definitions and resources, which are useful for the overall development and sustainability of content providers. This handbook aims to provide sufficient information to libraries which wish to submit data to The European Library and others services such as Europeana, and also to become sustainable partners of the service

Robertson & Fresh Photograph Collection of Tampa Photographs (USA)

The Robertson and Fresh commercial photographic firm was active in Tampa from 1932 to 1960. William Vernon "Red" Robertson worked in the field taking photographs while Harry Fresh processed and printed the images. Robertson and Fresh produced thousands of pictures that provide an invaluable visual record of the Tampa area from the Depression to the prosperous post-World War II era - University of South Florida

Historic Des Moines (USA)

The Historic Des Moines collection gives a glimpse of Des Moines, Iowa as it entered the 20th century. This was a period of substantial growth for the city, and a time when Des Moines was growing away from its origins as an outpost in the West. The collection was created by scanning images from the original sources held by the Special Collections Department of Drake University's Cowles Library. Each image was researched, described, and indexed. The result is a searchable collection filled with the history of Des Moines

University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library receives $1 million endowment from the Meijer Foundation

The University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library has received a gift from the Meijer Foundation of $1 million to endow the position of Principal Archivist for Bentley's iconic Michigan Historical Collections. The gift ensures that the library's resource will continue to be viable and accessible to the public

A Guide to Publishers in the Library Ebook Market - The Digital Shift

The ebook library lending policies of the Big Six publishers garner most of the attention, because public libraries regard access to best-selling titles as a critical service. However, it may help to scan the landscape not only for the "Big Six" trade publishers but also for the "fairly large" and the "not so big" and the "further afield" in order to get a fuller sense of publishers' participation in the overall library marketplace. The list is meant to be a helpful, not comprehensive, resource. The focus is whether or not publishers are in the library ebook marketplace. It is not meant to be a listing of all possible ways to acquire ebooks for a library collection

Online conference: Big Talk From Small Libraries (USA)

This free one-day online conference is aimed at librarians from small libraries; the smaller the better. Each of the speakers is from a small library or directly works with small libraries. Topics range from technology (new tech and old tech) to programming to partnering with your community. This eight-hour event means eight topics with nine speakers. Come for the programs on what you’'re dealing with now or maybe try something new - 28 February 2012

First Monday - February 2012

First Monday - Volume 17, Number 2, 6 February 2012 now available. First Monday is a Great Cities Initiative of the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library, USA

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

Trans-Asia Photography Review

Tecnura

Investigaciones Turísticas

Brain and Behavior

Ecology and Evolution

Revista Intratextos

Almanack

Contemporaneity : Historical Presence in Visual Culture

Canadian Library Association releases proposed technical amendments to Bill C-11

The Canadian Library Association is releasing its proposed technical amendments to Bill C-11, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The bill recently passed at second reading and will now receive further scrutiny by the Legislative Committee on Bill C-11. Librarians across the country continue to hear that copyright laws must reflect the public interest. Over 21 million library users are seriously concerned about the shape of Canadian copyright legislation

EDUniverse

EDUniverse serves as the goto destination for those who want to find out about the latest innovations in higher education communications and marketing. The website is designed as a hub where professionals can find and share inspiration, learn how others have solved problems, and network with each other. Anyone can use EDUniverse to learn about current thinking and find out what solutions might have worked for others. By creating a profile on EDUniverse, a contributor will be able to share content from their blog, Twitter, YouTube and Slideshare accounts, and will be able to upload content like video and white papers directly to EDUniverse. Contributors can comment and rank content shared by others and tag content for sharing with people who have similar interests like design, social media, fundraising, or public relations. By ranking and commenting on content that is shared on the site, EDUniverse participants can endorse thought-provoking ideas and noteworthy posts or presentations. The home page and other areas of the site will feature this user-curated content

ARL Releases “"A New Day for Website Archiving 2.0" by Jonathan Band

The Association of Research Libraries has released "A New Day for Website Archiving 2.0," an updated analysis by copyright expert Jonathan Band of the legal arguments available to support website archiving by research libraries

First public presentation on a project to update and enhance the Bodleian's Broadside Ballads digital collection (UK)

On Saturday, 25 February 2012, Dr Giles Bergel, Project Manager, will make the first public presentation about a JISC-funded project that will update and enhance the Bodleian Library's Broadside Ballads digital collection, at 'Broadside Day', a one-day event exploring all aspects of street literature and popular print traditions, at Cecil Sharp House in London, headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society

Above the Fold - February 10, 2012

Above the Fold is a Web-based newsletter published by OCLC Research. It has been developed to serve a broad international readership from libraries, archives and museums - February 10, 2012 - Vol. 5, No. 6 now available

Legenda book series included in Thomson Reuters’ Book Citation Index

Maney Publishing has announced that over 100 books in the Legenda imprint, published in partnership with the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA), have been included in the newly-launched Book Citation Index of Thomson Reuters

New Merchant Navy Seamen records launched (UK)

You can now search 359,000 records of Merchant Navy Seamen for the period 1835-1857 on findmypast.co.uk

Governance and Recordkeeping Around The World - February 2012

"Governance and Recordkeeping Around The World is a free newsletter published on a regular basis by Library Archives Canada that explores and highlights issues pertaining to government and recordkeeping practices in the public and private sector. This collaborative tool was designed to help readers stay up-to-date with the latest news, events, trends, products and publications in the field of public administration and recordkeeping" - February 2012 issue now available

Wiley-Blackwell launches two interdisciplinary review publications in developmental and membrane biology

Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has launched two new interdisciplinary review publications: WIREs Developmental Biology and WIREs Membrane Transport and Signaling

Prison hulks (UK)

In 1776 a new act of parliament was introduced to 'Authorise for a limited time, the punishment by hard labour of offenders...raising Sand, Soil and Gravel from...the River Thames'. Soon after, the first floating prison, the hulk Justitia, was brought into service. The first of over 50 such vessels, this 'temporary expedient' was to last for almost a century. This talk builds on an earlier lecture 'From crime to punishment: criminal records of our ancestors from the 18th and 19th centuries' concentrating on the various records created that capture the dreadful reality of life on board the hulks for the men, women and children detained on them. Jeff James is Director of Operations and Services at The National Archives. Jeff has an MA in History from the University of Hertfordshire and has a particular interest in 18th and 19th century crime and poverty. His MA dissertation 'Pardon Refusers (1776-1815)' focussed on the fate of 50 hulk prisoners who refused the offer of a royal pardon at the turn of the 19th century

Legal action planned against Doncaster library cuts (UK)

Protesters in Doncaster are planning legal action against the closure of two libraries and the removal of funding from 12 others. Lynne Coppendale, of campaign group Save Doncaster Libraries, said taking this action was a "great sadness". She added the mayor and cabinet had been inflexible "from day one." Meanwhile the council said 200 people had already volunteered to help the library service and it appealed for more people to come forward. Carcroft and Denaby libraries have already closed, leaving 24 libraries of which half will become run by volunteers with no council staff employed. Ms Coppendale said: "The whole consultation process has been a mockery. It's closure by stealth." The group is calling for a judicial review over the council plans

Dame Joan Bakewell says sorry to Jamie Oliver over library campaign (UK)

Dame Joan Bakewell has said sorry to chef Jamie Oliver for "bullying" him over her campaign to save a library in a genteel London suburb

Women's History Month: March 2012

National Women's History Month's roots go back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women's Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn't until 1981 that Congress established National Women's History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Every year since, Congress has passed a resolution for Women's History Month, and the President has issued a proclamation

Lawyers sue Westlaw, Lexis

Two lawyers are taking on legal database providers Westlaw and LexisNexis with what appears to be a novel interpretation of copyright law. Edward L. White, a Oklahoma City, Okla., lawyer, and Kenneth Elan, claim WestLaw and LexisNexis have engaged in "unabashed wholesale copying of thousands of copyright-protected works created by, and owned by, the attorneys and law firms who authored them" - namely publicly filed briefs, motions and other legal documents - Law Blog

ACRL Podcast: Value of Academic Libraries – Andrew Lootens-White

In this podcast, C&RL News editor-in-chief David Free talks to Andrew Lootens-White, vice president for accreditation relations at the Higher Learning Commission, about the value of academic libraries from the accreditation agency perspective. The interview was recorded at the IMLS grant-funded Value of Academic Libraries Summits in Chicago

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - February 24, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Popular Names. "Some people or things have two names: one is their full or proper name; the other is a popular name or nickname. So the actor John Christopher Depp II is popularly known as Johnny Depp, while the Strategic Defence Initiative is colloquially known as Star Wars. Try to answer these questions about popular names." Answers here.

1. Which city is popularly known as "The Big Apple"?
2. What was the popular name for the exuberant performer and pianist Thomas Wright Waller (1904-1943), best remembered for such songs as "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Your Feet's Too Big"?
3. What is the popular name for the golfer Eldrick Woods?
4. What is the proper name for the phenomenon which is popularly known as the northern lights?
5. Which American city was built within a great bend of the Mississippi and is therefore called the Crescent City?
6. What is the popular name of pop singer and songwriter George O'Dowd?
7. "Eroica" is the popular name for which composer's Symphony no. 3?
8. What is the common name for a member of the Reformed Cistercians of the Strict Observance, a Cistercian order of Christian monks noted for their rule of silence?
9. What is the popular name for small, brilliantly coloured birds of the family Trochilidae, which feed in flight on insects and nectar, usually by hovering in front of flowers? Their wings make a particular sound.
10. What is the usual name for a Greek painter of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who spent most of his career in Spain and is famous for his paintings of religious subjects and for his distorted, elongated figures?

Guitar & Bass via Exact Editions

For the last 16 years Guitar & Bass magazine has provided in-depth and essential reading for the serious guitarist, with dozens of guitar tests, playing techniques, an exclusive bass section and in-depth features on guitar heroes past, present and future. Each issue is packed full of reviews of the latest guitars, amps, effects and basses. Guitar & Bass magazine also delivers the informed verdict on home recording equipment and regularly offers tips on buying second hand and vintage gear

Women Writers Online free and open to the public in March, in celebration of Women's History Month

Women Writers Online will be free and open to the public for the month of March, in celebration of Women's History Month - Brown University, USA

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #187

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #187. "Due to a hardware-related systems failure, this week's installment of LISTen is unplugged. The last draft of the speaking script is going down the payload pipeline instead. Regular production is hoped to resume next week". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

The British Library publishes the first detective novel...The Notting Hill Mystery

The British Library has published The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Felix, widely considered to be the first detective novel ever published. Originally serialised between 1862 and 1863 in the magazine Once a Week and then published as a single volume in 1863, The Notting Hill Mystery has not been commercially available since then, until now. For years, many considered the first detective novel to be Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone, published in 1868, while others have proposed Emile Gaboriau's first Monsieur Lecoq novel, L'Affaire Lerouge. However, The Notting Hill Mystery can truly claim to be the first modern detective novel and pre-dates both of these by several years

Louis Riel images now on Flickr

Library and Archives Canada has announced that a new set of images featuring Louis Riel, 1844–1885, is now available on Flickr. Recognized as a founding father of Manitoba, Louis Riel was a staunch defender of the rights of the Métis people and promoted their way of life. In 1870, Riel became the president of the provisional government in Red River. Elected to the House of Commons in 1874, he was later expelled and banned from Canada that year. Riel returned to Manitoba in 1884, forming a new provisional government in Batoche, and led the Northwest Rebellion in 1885. Other LAC image sets on Flickr document the contributions of Canadians who served in the First World War, as well as the arrival of Irish immigrants to Canada and their time spent at the Grosse Île quarantine station. These images showcase different periods in Canadian history, which have shaped the multicultural and modern Canada we know today

Internet Librarian 2012 call for speakers

Internet Librarian 2012: Be a part of the most comprehensive conference for library and information professionals interested in technology to discover the insights, strategies and practices that allow us to push the envelope in expanding the net, manage libraries and digital information, and enhance the information sharing and learning experience of people in our communities. This year's event will be held October 22-24 in Monterey, California and the theme is Transformational Power of Internet Librarians: Promise & Prospect

JISC elevator beta

JISC elevator is a new way to find and fund innovative ways to use technology to improve universities and colleges. Anyone employed in UK higher or further education can submit an idea. If your idea proves popular then JISC will consider it for funding. The elevator is for small, practical projects with up to £10,000 available for successful ideas

FreePint Newsletter 345

FreePint Newsletter 345 - 23 February 2012 now available

The 53rd Annual Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries

The 53rd Annual Preconference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association - June 19-22, 2012 - San Diego, California, USA

PN Review available via Exact Editions

Keep up with the many worlds of poetry in this independent and always stimulating journal. For four decades PN Review has been a place to discover new poems in English and in translation as well as interviews, news, essays, reviews and reports from around the world. Subscribers can explore the complete, uniquely rich digital archive

2011 Nebula Awards Nominees announced

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has announced the nominees for the 2011 Nebula Awards (presented 2012), the nominees for the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation, and the nominees for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy Book

Conference: Archaeological Archives as a Resource: Creation, Curation and Access

Conference: Archaeological Archives as a Resource: Creation, Curation and Access - 23 February, 2012 - Dublin, Ireland. It is recognised that the process of excavation is destructive and described as the 'preservation by record' of our national heritage. Excavation records are critical to the continuing knowledge of Ireland's past and may comprise paper records, surveys, photos, drawings, ecofacts, artefacts and reports. Current legislation requires that artefacts are deposited with the National Museum of Ireland. What happens to the remainder of the archive? This one-day conference explores this important question. Focusing on the paper archive, it proposes that archaeological archives are a crucial national heritage resource, worthy of continued curation, which should be accessible to all researchers of Ireland's rich past. One of the outcomes of the conference will be the first policy document on best practice in archaeological archives in Ireland

The Penguin Podcast: A Charles Dickens special featuring Claire Tomalin

In this month's podcast we're celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Dickens with a podcast special devoted to the great man. We're featuring a chat between Claire Tomalin, author of Charles Dickens: A Life, and her editor Tony Lacey, as well as an extract from the audiobook edition of her work. We'll be finishing up with some remastered content from an old archive recording of Dombey & Son, recorded in 1997 and read by Andrew Sachs

Podcast: Necessity, the mother of invention: Britain's response to the demands of total war 1939-1945

This talk is about British invention and innovation during the Second World War - providing the tools to fight the war. Clive Hawkins is a Military Specialist at The National Archives, where he has worked for 35 years

The Credo Reference Digital Award for Information Literacy

The CILIP CSG Information Literacy Group has announced an exciting new award for innovation in digital resources for Information Literacy generously sponsored by Credo Reference. This annual award will recognise an individual librarian or group of librarians who develop the best new digital resource for promoting information literacy

CILIP in Wales Conference 2012 Leadership

CILIP in Wales Conference 2012 Leadership: This is a library and information conference organised by CILIP in Wales. Non members of CILIP are very welcome to attend - 17-18 May, 2012 - Cardiff, Wales

SUNCAT: Library of Society of Friends added as new contributing library

The Library of the Society of Friends has been added to SUNCAT. This addition brings the total number of contributing libraries to 83, plus the CONSER database, the ISSN register and the Directory of Open Access Journals. The Library holds collections relating to Quakers and their activities, including peace, anti-slavery and relief work. The serial collection includes academic titles such as Quaker Studies and The Journal of the Friends Historical Society as well as special interest titles such as Towards Wholeness (Friends Fellowship of Healing) to the newsletters and journals of other Yearly Meetings. There are complete runs of many titles, plus older titles that no longer exist. The Library is currently contributing around 2,000 serial records to SUNCAT

Stephen Fry invited to discuss Surrey library plans

The leader of Surrey County Council has invited Stephen Fry to discuss its plans to replace paid staff with volunteers at some libraries. Fry has urged his 3.9 million Twitter followers to help Surrey Libraries Action Movement (Slam) "fight the good fight" against their proposals. The council agreed in September to devolve responsibilities to groups of volunteers at 10 libraries

British Library Sounds

Listen to a selection from the British Library's extensive collections of unique sound recordings, which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds. This version of the site went live on 31 January 2012

New national reading competition to create a generation of book lovers (UK)

Schools Minister Nick Gibb today announced a new reading competition designed to inspire children to become voracious readers and boost literacy standards. The competition is open to all seven- to 12-year-olds at schools in England. It will launch in the autumn. The Department for Education is considering bids to design and co-deliver the competition and will choose a preferred partner in the coming weeks. The competition will:

* Involve school-led events which Ministers envisage will result in local, regional and national prizes to make reading more attractive.
* Contain a strong peer-to-peer element including getting young people to select competition titles.
* Create a link between school and home to encourage the involvement of parents to support their children.

University of Iowa Yearbooks

Published from 1892 until 1992 (except for a brief interruption during the 1970s), The University of Iowa's Hawkeye yearbook features student portraits, photographs of the campus, club and team information, and frequently a foreword by the administration. These documents highlight the continuity and change of life on The University of Iowa campus during late 19th and 20th centuries

Wartime Canada

Wartime Canada was envisioned as a way to make the visual heritage of the nation at war freely available in digital form. Our emphasis is on the kind of material that is usually regarded as disposable - the very material that was omnipresent in the lives of Canadians in wartime. The documents are sorted by category but in a manner to encourage browsing - rather than imposing a narrative, we are letting the artifacts speak for themselves and encouraging users to explore this history in any order they wish. New items are constantly being added, so visit us frequently. Wartime Canada is intended to provide material that is freely downloadable for reproduction and research, and we have made every reasonable effort to ensure that all documents are in the public domain. Please direct any questions on this matter to the project co-directors. The website is a collaborative effort involving universities, institutions, and interested individuals from across Canada, with funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Public Outreach program

Europeana launches Linked Open Data pilot and animation

Linked Open Data is gaining traction in the information world right now. Europeana has just launched an animation to explain what it is and why it's a good thing, both for users and for data providers

Mobile library service is saved as villagers bring council to book (UK)

The area's mobile library service has been saved from the axe following strong opposition across Bath and North East Somerset. On Tuesday the council agreed to spare the service from budget cuts after councillors were presented with a petition signed by 860 people

200km of books successfully moved to high-tech home (UK)

The UK national library and a major moves contractor, Premier Moves, have just completed a massive project to migrate over 200 linear kilometres of library materials from London to a high-tech archival storage facility in West Yorkshire. The British Library's Collection Moves programme – the largest of its kind since the Library moved into its flagship St Pancras building in 1998 – saw some seven million books, journal parts, magazines and sound recordings move from a variety of sites in London to a purpose-built long term storage facility at the Library's Boston Spa site, near Wetherby. The items involved are mainly 'lower use' material which is part of the Library's wider collection of some 150 million separate items

University of California to launch original YouTube channel

On March 1, University of California Television (UCTV) will launch a new YouTube original channel, UCTV Prime, the first university-run channel to be included among YouTube's new production partnerships with recognizable brands like the Wall Street Journal, Madonna and TED. Each week, UCTV Prime will debut 15 minutes of fresh content from throughout the University of California

Podcast: MI5 file release February 2012

Professor Christopher Andrew, official historian of MI5, introduces highlights from the 28th Security Service records release to The National Archives. The latest release brings the total number of MI5 files held at Kew to 4,926. Please note, the podcast may contain references to files which have not been digitised

China/Asia on Demand metadata accessible via EBSCO Discovery Service

A new partnership between EBSCO Publishing and Oriprobe Information Services Inc. will allow content from China/Asia On Demand to be accessible within EBSCO Discovery Service™. The agreement allows for metadata from this valuable collection of research literature from Asia to be added to the Base Index of EDS. The EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers (and growing) in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers, representing far more content providers and publishers than any other discovery service

OCLC adds 500,000 records to WorldCat from China Academic Library and Information System

OCLC has added 500,000 records to WorldCat from the China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS), a nationwide academic library consortium with a mission to promote, maintain and improve resource sharing among Chinese university libraries and other libraries and institutions. These records represent Chinese publications between 1987 and 2001

1891 Scottish census just published

You can now search for your ancestors in the 1891 Scottish census on findmypast.co.uk. The 1891 census recorded the population of Scotland at around 4,016,000. Anyone with Scottish ancestors will be keen to search these records for new details to add to their family tree

Downloadable version of FAST now available

OCLC Research has made FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) available for bulk download, along with some minor improvements based on user feedback and routine updates. As with other FAST data, the bulk downloadable versions are available at no charge

ACRL Podcast: Value of Academic Libraries – Richard Ray

In this podcast, C&RL News editor-in-chief David Free talks to Richard Ray, provost at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, about the ways in which libraries contribute to academic success

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - February 17, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: 100 Greatest Films?. "The British film critic Barry Norman recently produced his list of "The 100 Greatest Films of All Time". See if you can identify these films chosen from his list." Answers here.

1. Walt Disney computer-animated film (2001) about an ugly smelly green ogre with a heart of gold.
2. 1989 film for which Meg Ryan is best known for the scene in which she fakes sexual ecstasy in a busy restaurant.
3. 1941 film that looks back on the life and career of a fictional newspaper magnate played by Orson Welles.
4. 1972 film musical starring Liza Minnelli as the cabaret singer Sally Bowles.
5. 1959 film comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis as two jazz musicians who disguise themselves as women.
6. 1938 Errol Flynn film about the outlaw hero of innumerable tales and legends set in medieval England.
7. 2007 film of book by Cormac McCarthy about the violent world of drug-trafficking near the Rio Grande.
8. 1933 Marx Brothers movie whose title refers to an easily accomplished task or assignment.
9. Award-winning 1997 film adapted from 1990 novel by James Ellroy.
10. Stanley Kubrick's 1957 film about mutinies in the French Army during the First World War.

APEnet (Archives Portal Europe)

APEnet (Archives Portal Europe) is a Best Practice Network project supported by the European Commission in the eContentplus programme and its objective is to build an Internet Gateway for Documents and Archives in Europe where seventeen European National Archives in close cooperation with the EUROPEANA initiative will create a common access point to European archival descriptions and digital collections

Listing of Historically African American Newspapers

Marist College has created a "Library Pathfinder" listing more than 65 Historical African American Newspapers available online. Most entries are freely available, with just a handful of subscriber-only titles. The scope of dates and geography covered is impressive. Newspapers are included from every region of the country. Historical periods covered include "Antebellum and Civil War Era, 1800-1865," "Reconstruction, 1865-1876," "Gilded Age, 1877-1899," "Pre-World War I, 1900-1914," "World War I-World War II, 1914-1945," "20th and 21st Centuries"

Podcast: The last slave market: Dr John Kirk and the struggle to end the African slave trade

In the mid-19th century, the Zanzibar slave market was notorious as the last place on earth where human beings could still be bought and sold. Each year thousands of Africans were taken from the mainland and shipped to Arabia and Persia. Although slave trading had been suppressed elsewhere in the world, in East Africa it prospered with the connivance of the British authorities in India.

Dr John Kirk was appointed medical officer to the British Consulate in Zanzibar in 1866. Kirk was a pragmatist, and through a mixture of guile and perseverance, he finally contrived a way to shut down the slave market. The Last Slave Market is based on Kirk's letters and journals, which have remained virtually unread, as well as sources in Zanzibar itself.

Alastair Hazell spent his early childhood in Scotland before going to Nyasaland (later Malawi) where he grew up during the early 1960s. Following university, Alastair spent ten years living and travelling in East and Central Africa, before taking up a career in financial information in London. He retired in 2002 and began the research that resulted in his first book, The Last Slave Market

OCLC WSSL: Website for Small Libraries

OCLC's Website for Small Libraries (WSSL) is a cloud-based service providing a website with basic patron and inventory management for libraries with fewer than 20,000 items in their collections. Simple text editing is all it takes to build your website

Podcast: How important are open ebook standards to universities? (UK)

For universities and colleges looking to bring their teaching resources online, many are using the new ePub3 standard, which is what underpins Apple's new iBooks and is become the defacto standard for ebooks. Linking to a JISC report to help universities understand the benefits of ePub3, JISC programme manager Ben Showers speaks to Nicola Yeeles via Skype to explain what universities and colleges can do to help their people use the standard

New publication: Transforming Information Literacy Programs

ACRL has announced the publication of Transforming Information Literacy Programs: Intersecting Frontiers of Self, Library Culture, and Campus Community edited by Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson and Courtney Bruch. Transforming Information Literacy Programs is number 64 in the ACRL Publications in Librarianship (PIL) series

2012 ACRL Presidential Candidates Online Forum (USA)

The 2012 candidates for ACRL vice-president/ president-elect will participate in an open online forum at 1 p.m. Central on Thursday, March 8, 2012. Trevor A. Dawes and Debbie Malone will discuss their platforms and vision for ACRL and field questions from the audience. Dawes is circulation services director at the Princeton University Library, and Malone is library director at DeSales University

WriteCite.com

WriteCite.com is an Australia-based site that helps undergraduate and upper secondary high school students create automatic citations online. It was founded by a university lecturer in response to the growth of Internet-enabled and nontraditional information sources that still require referencing by today’s students. Started in 2009, the site provides citations in APA, Harvard and MLA styles and features a free mobile version, iCite APA, that is available for Apple iOS and Android devices

BioResearch Open Access launching March 2012

BioResearch Open Access, a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal, provides a new rapid-publication forum for a broad range of scientific topics including but not limited to molecular and cellular biology, tissue engineering and biomaterials, regenerative medicine, stem cells, gene therapy, systems biology, genetics, biochemistry, virology, microbiology, and neuroscience

President Obama requests $231,953,777 for Institute of Museum and Library Services (USA)

President Obama has requested $231,953,777 for fiscal year 2013 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an amount equal to the agency's current funding

Old maps of Southwark (UK)

The Ordnance Survey maps, ranging from between 1896 and 1954, are available to view via an interactive browser which, while it might lack the shine and polish of a Google product, is easily navigable. Southwark council has also published high-resolution scanned PDFs of maps from the 16th century onwards, including ancient parish boundaries and maps by such illustrious cartographers as John Rocque and Jacob de la Feuille

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #186

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #186. "This week's program provides a bit of a news recap". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

Jeffrey Beall selected for ALCTS Outstanding Publication Award

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Outstanding Publication Award recipient for 2012 is Jeffrey Beall for his article "Academic Library Databases and the Problem of Word-Sense Ambiguity" published in The Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 37, (January 2011), p. 64-69

First Step Award to Beth Kumar

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has announced that Beth Kumar, e-resources and serials librarian at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, is the recipient of the 2012 First Step Award - A Wiley Professional Development Grant presented by the ALCTS Continuing Resources Section. The award will be presented on June 24, at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony during the 2012 American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim, California

BibSoup

BibSoup makes it easy to find, manage and share bibliographies. (now in beta)

Science Oxford Live

The first things visitors will see when visiting the Science Oxford Live website are a few shots from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit that will soon be at the brick and mortar location of Science Oxford Live. It's hard to decide which is cuter: the hippo, the monkey, or the giraffe's tail. Visitors will certainly want to check out the video podcasts available through iTunes, and even may even subscribe to the podcasts to receive the latest episodes. These webcasts, found under the Watch Us tab, are recordings of live events that took place at Science Oxford Live. They cover topics such as Parkinson's disease, the sleep versus wake balance, the science and history of chocolate, the curse of consciousness, and how "doctors and other health professionals sometimes do more harm than good to patients, despite acting with the best of intentions." The Discovery Zone is a place for kids which is best experienced in person, but online it still has valuable lessons to teach, and it's worth a look

Anvil Academic

Academics who specialize in using technology to conduct and enable new kinds of humanities research are in high demand. At the same time, the current ecosystem of scholarly publishing can be inhospitable to their often-idiosyncratic research projects. Two well-known organizations are teaming up with a handful of colleges and universities to try to change that by building a flexible platform where digital humanists could have their research published and certified that the work has passed through well-respected editorial gantlets. The platform, called Anvil Academic, is a joint project by the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE) and the Council for Library and Information Resources (CLIR). Anvil aims to make it easier for digital humanists to publish nontraditional scholarly work under the auspices of traditional outlets, such as university presses

New JISC funding opportunties (UK)

JISC has issued 5 Invitations to Tender for Digital Infrastructure Reports. Bidders must have knowledge of the topic area and must be experienced in producing high quality reports. These are open Invitations to Tender and anyone may bid. 5 Invitations to Tender for Reports on:

• Advantages of APIs
• Embedded Licences: What, Why and How
• Activity Data: Analytics and Metrics
• The Open Landscape
• Access to citation data: a cost-benefit and risk review and forward look

Ellen Greenblatt wins 2012 ACRL WGSS Career Achievement Award

Ellen Greenblatt, scholarly communications librarian at the University of Colorado-Denver Auraria Library, has been selected as the 2012 winner of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Women and Gender Studies Section (WGSS) Career Achievement Award. The award honors significant long-standing contributions to women’s studies in the field of librarianship over the course of a career. A plaque will be presented to Greenblatt at 8 a.m. on June 28, 2012, at the WGSS program during the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim

Archivists discover rare love letters in Kew Gardens (UK)

Love letters from botanists and explorers, thought to be over 150 years old, have been discovered at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The letters were found within the Directors' correspondence collection and personal papers written by botanical collectors and explorers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Click on the image on the right to see a selection of letters and images. Kiri Ross-Jones, Archivist & Records Manager, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said that the letters 'give us a real insight into the great botanists, enabling us to see the personal lives of the men behind the science.'

British History Online - London sheriffs' court roll

An edition of the court roll for 1320 is now live. Edited by Dr Matthew F. Stevens, it gives a complete edition and index of London's only surviving such roll for the medieval period, for July-Sept 1320. It was produced as part of the Centre for Metropolitan History ESRC-funded 'London women and the economy before and after the black death' project (2009-10)

Launch of the Library and Archives Canada podcast series

Library and Archives Canada has announced the release of the new podcast series, Discover Library and Archives Canada: Your History, Your Documentary Heritage. Developed and produced by the Resource Discovery Sector at LAC, the series showcases treasures from the vaults and explores topics such as Aboriginal peoples, transportation, immigration, genealogy, government, as well as military and peacekeeping. With new episodes released monthly, the podcasts will guide you through LAC's many services and introduce you to the people who acquire, safeguard and make known Canada's rich documentary heritage

Factiva expands content

Factiva has expanded its aggregated content to offer more global sources, blogs and images

Find a Library (UK)

Find a Library lets you:

* find public libraries near you
* view their contact details
* update location information
* report changes

EBSCO Publishing releases MEDLINE Complete

EBSCO Publishing continues to expand access to leading content for biomedical research with the release of MEDLINE Complete®. MEDLINE Complete is the largest full-text companion to the MEDLINE index ever assembled and provides full text for more than 1,850 journals. This wide-ranging file contains full text for many of the most used journals in the MEDLINE index - available in MEDLINE Complete with no embargo

HathiTrust Digital Library - Update on January 2012 Activities

HathiTrust Digital Library - Update on January 2012 Activities

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

ISRN Computational Mathematics

ISRN Discrete Mathematics

ISRN Mathematical Physics

ISRN Meteorology

G3 : Genes, Genomes, Genetics

Nusantara Bioscience

ISRN Microbiology

ISRN Ophthalmology

ISRN Physical Chemistry

ISRN Psychiatry

ISRN Public Health

ISRN Vascular Medicine

Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Strenae : Recherches sur les Livres et Objets Culturels de l'Enfance

Genomics and Quantitative Genetics

BVICAM's International Journal of Information Technology

Journal of Multidisciplinary Research

Questions Vives : Recherches en Éducation

Recherches Sociologiques et Anthropologiques

Annali di Botanica

Open Journal of Philosophy

Dickens Day at Foyles (UK)

To mark the bicentenary of Dickens' birth, Vintage Classics and Ebury Publishing have joined forces to host a Dickens Day at Foyles, 25th February 2012. A host of celebrated writers, including acclaimed authors and historians Deborah Moggach, David Kynaston, Sarah Wise and Alex Werner, screenwriter Sarah Phelps (who wrote the recent BBC adaptation of Great Expectations) and one of our best known children's authors Michael Rosen, discuss their love of Dickens' writing, London in the 19th century and the power that Dickens continues to hold today. The day will also include a 'I Never Knew That About Dickens Quiz', hosted by Christopher Winn, author of the popular 'I Never Knew That About...' series. The audience will have the opportunity to win a selection of the books discussed on the day, including sixteen of Dickens' works. Ticket holders will also receive a goody bag including a free Vintage Classics book

Protesters march against potential library layoffs (USA)

A crowd of more than 100 protesters gathered outside the Holyoke Center Thursday night in response to plans to reorganize Harvard University Library that could include involuntary staff reductions. The protestors chanted and marched in a circle, after which several workers, students, and other supporters spoke to the crowd. They then walked into the Yard and circled Massachusetts Hall several times. The rally sought to increase awareness in the Harvard community about the library workers' concerns as well as to display opposition to the administration’s intentions, said William P. Whitham '14, a member of the Student Labor Action Movement

2012 IFLA Presidential Programme Spring Meeting

Indigenous Knowledges: Local Priorities, Global Contexts: IFLA Presidential Programme: Libraries - A Force for Change. 12-14 April 2012 - First Nations House of Learning on the campus of the University of British Columbia

Preservation Research Exchange (USA)

The Preservation Research Exchange (PREx) is the third annual symposium hosted by Institute of Museum and Library Services preservation doctoral fellows. PREx will be held February 17-19, 2012 at the School of Information, University of Texas at Austin. This symposium is for graduate students, faculty, and other scholars interested in sharing digital heritage research. The theme this year is Sustaining Digital Heritage. PREx is an opportunity for diverse disciplines to come together and share research about the many facets of sustaining digital artifacts. The three-day event will feature panel presentations, posters, speakers and tours. Join us and share your research

Teachers TV titles Added to Alexander Street's Education in Video Collection

Electronic publisher Alexander Street Press has announced the addition of the complete catalog of United Kingdom-based Teachers TV to its Education in Video collection

The British Library celebrates Lawrence Durrell’s centenary with a CD of rare recordings

The British Library has released a new audio CD, The Spoken Word: Lawrence Durrell, to mark the centenary of the novelist and poet. The Spoken Word CD contains a selection of previously unreleased BBC broadcasts in which Durrell reads his poetry and discusses his life and work, together with a unique pair of private recordings of Durrell as a jazz pianist and vocalist

MEMP preserves Turkish newspapers

MEMP recently completed microfilming of CRL's holdings of several newspapers published in Turkey. The newspapers microfilmed are from the late 1940s through the mid-'50s. MEMP's preservation of these Turkish newspaper titles was planned to complement the Library of Congress microfilming of holdings of these titles in other time periods. This project produced 138 reels of microfilm and has been in progress for over fifteen years

The Newton Manuscripts at the National Library of Israel

Among the many manuscripts preserved at the National Library of isreal are works by the man considered to be the greatest physicist of all time, Sir Isaac Newton. Contrary to what one might expect to find amid Newton's works, these papers cover topics such as interpretations of the Bible, theology, the history of ancient cultures, the Tabernacle and Temple, calculations dealing with the end of time, historical documents, and even alchemy

Putting 600,000 Books Online: the Large-Scale Digitisation Partnership between the Austrian National Library and Google by Max Kaiser

In a public-private partnership with Google, the Austrian National Library is digitising its historical book holdings. Some 600,000 volumes from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries will be digitised and made available free of charge. The project demonstrates that public-private partnerships can be successful in enabling our heritage institutions to provide large-scale access to their holdings, provided that such partnerships are not exclusive and free access is ensured. The article outlines the preparatory phase and work flows established in the project

Biddy Fisher appointed Umbrella 2013 Programme Director (UK)

CILIP have just announced that Biddy Fisher OBE has been appointed Conference Programme Director for CILIP's Umbrella Conference 2013. Umbrella is CILIP's flagship conference which takes place every two years. In 2013 it will be held in Manchester

Penguin ends E-Book library lending and relationship with OverDrive

Three months of library drama are coming to a climax this evening as big-six publisher Penguin announced that it is ending its relationship with digital library distributor OverDrive. Starting tomorrow, it will stop offering e-books and digital audiobooks to libraries - at least until it finds a new partner. With this move, Random House becomes the only big-six publisher to allow unrestricted access to its e-books in libraries - though it will raise prices beginning in March

Synergy: News from ARL Diversity Programs - Issue 8, January 2012

Synergy: News from ARL Diversity Programs - Issue 8, January 2012 is now available from the Association of Research Libraries

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - February 10, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Just William. "This brainteaser is about people whose first name is William, some of whom are best known as Bill. Try to identify them all." Answers here.

1. English playwright whose plays include Antony and Cleopatra and As You Like It.
2. US computer scientist and businessman who, in 1975, founded Microsoft Corporation with Paul Allen.
3. The forty-second president of the United States, the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve two full terms in the White House.
4. British poet (1770-1850) who wrote "I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills".
5. What was the nickname given to William Cody, an American who managed the travelling Wild West Show?
6. English Quaker (1644-1718) and believer in religious toleration, who founded the American colony of Pennsylvania.
7. American musician whose recordings of "Rock Around the Clock" and "Shake, Rattle & Roll" were among the earliest rock ’n’ roll hits.
8. English reformer who was instrumental in abolishing slavery in the British Empire.
9. Pianist and band leader, nicknamed "Count", who formed his own jazz band in 1935.
10. English printer who in 1474-75 printed the first book in English.

Maney to publish Journal of Chemotherapy

The Journal of Chemotherapy is an international scholarly journal published bimonthly. It publishes original experimental and clinical research articles, reviews, brief communications and letters in English on all aspects of antimicrobial, immunomodulating and anticancer chemotherapy, including: antivirals, immunomodulators, anticancer drugs, antibiotics and antifungals

Endocrine Connections launching Spring 2012

The Society for Endocrinology and the European Society of Endocrinology have announced the forthcoming launch of Endocrine Connections - a new Open Access journal that will bridge research and practice and provide authors with the opportunity to share their work with the broader biomedical community

February is Public Library Month on Libraries Thriving

In response to the work of Voices for the Library, a UK campaign aimed at spreading the value of public libraries, Libraries Thriving, a collaborative space and community for e-resource innovation, has decided to drum up some attention for public libraries in their community as well. For that purpose, they have established February as Public Library Month on Libraries Thriving

Follow the progress of the JISC Content projects (UK)

You can now keep up with the progress of the projects funded as part of the JISC Content programme 2011-2013 on the programme's new Netvibes pages. Netvibes syndicates content from the projects’ blogs and brings them all in one place, so it makes it easier to have a general overview of activities

INFORUM 2012

INFORUM 2012 - May 22-24, 2012 - Prague, Czech Republic

Liebert Link

Four times per year, Liebert Link will deliver essential news and information about Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publications, specifically catered to your library needs. Up-to-the-minute Liebert Link content will include changes to journal frequency, announcements about both new and established journals, company news, impact factor information, conference participation, recent press about our publications, and more

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #185

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #185. "This week's episode brings not one but two essays. Public Service Announcements are heard from the US Internal Revenue Service, the US Census Bureau, and the US Department of Agriculture". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

NISO/DCMI Joint Webinar: Taking Library Data From Here to There

NISO/DCMI Joint Webinar: Taking Library Data From Here to There - February 22, 2012 - 1:00pm - 2:30pm Eastern (18:00-19:30 UTC)

OpenStax College

OpenStax College offers students free textbooks that meet scope and sequence requirements for most courses. These are peer-reviewed texts written by professional content developers. Adopt a book today for a turnkey classroom solution or modify it to suit your teaching approach. Free online and low-cost in print, OpenStax College books are built for today's student budgets. Supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 20 Million Minds Foundation, Maxfield Foundation, and Rice University

British Academy Publications Online

British Academy Publications Online has launched with 100 titles in the social sciences and humanities and is now available for free trials to institutions world-wide

Project Gutenberg Newsletter Archives: 2012

All of the Project Gutenberg Newsletters sent via its mailing lists during 2012 will be archived gutenbergnews.org for easy viewing

FreePint Newsletter 344

FreePint Newsletter 344 - 9 February 2012 now available

Book Grocer: 8-14 February, 2012

Book Grocer: 8-14 February, 2012 - The week ahead in literary London from the Londonist blog. #books #London

California Digital Library joins PKP as major development partner in open access scholarly publishing

As the scholarly publishing landscape heats up with more talk of boycotts and Open Access mandates, research libraries increasingly find themselves at a crossroads between publishers and faculty - and eagerly working to provide new solutions to entrenched problems. The California Digital Library's latest foray into this space, on behalf of the University of California system, focuses on supporting open source publishing infrastructure through a major development partnership with the Public Knowledge Project. As a result of this agreement, the CDL will assist with PKP's ongoing development and support of its open source software suite - Open Journal Systems, Open Conference Systems, and Open Harvester System, with Open Monograph Press due for release in the coming year

Goodbye, state funding for California libraries (USA)

The bad news is that state funding for California libraries has been completely eliminated. There's not really any good news about that except that it was expected. This past July, state library funding was sliced in half, and there was a trigger amendment attached to the budget that would eliminate state funding for public libraries at midyear if the state's revenue projections were not met. Needless to say, they weren't. Now libraries in the Bay Area, as in the rest of the state, will lose funding for literacy programs, InterLibrary Loans, and miscellaneous expenses such as librarian training programs and books. Libraries in rural areas will be hit the hardest because they receive more state funding than libraries in larger cities with larger budgets - KALW

HBCU Library Alliance 5th Membership Meeting (USA)

HBCU Library Alliance 5th Membership Meeting - Protecting our Legacy, Preserving our Story: A Decade of Investment in HBCU Libraries - October 21-23, 2012 - New Orleans, LA, USA

Findmypast.co.uk records tell Charles Dickens' story

Today is Charles Dickens' 200th birthday and to mark the occasion, we've been investigating the records on findmypast.co.uk to see what they can tell us about Dickens' life. We feel like we know Dickens a little bit better following our research - read on to find out what our records reveal about this extraordinary man

Ranking Web of World Repositories (January 2012)

The Ranking of Repositories is published since 2008 and two editions are available usually at the end of January and July. The repositories should have their own web domain or subdomain and include at least peer-reviewed papers to be considered (services that contain only archives, databanks or learning objects are not ranked)

Maximizing the visibility of research outputs: COAR call for action

"With this letter", says Norbert Lossau, Chair of COAR Executive Board, "The Confederation of Open Access Repositories is joining in the growing protest against Elsevier's practices opposing open access. We strongly believe that open access will greatly improve the impact and use of scholarly publications, and maximize our collective global investment in research."

Harding collection on Radio 3 this evening (UK)

The Bodleian's Harding collection, the world's largest collection of popular songbooks and miscellanies, will be featured on Radio 3's Twenty Minutes programme today at 8.10pm. Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1974, Walter Harding's gift of his extensive collection of music, drama and poetry was the largest donation ever made to the Bodleian Library. The son of an East-End bricklayer who emigrated to Chicago in the 1900s, Harding earned his living playing ragtime music, in silent cinema, and later in a church in downtown Chicago. He had no musical or academic education. His ability to collect on such a scale was partly due to the contemporary lack of interest in these ephemeral and lowbrow publications, and also to the flood of books generated by the depression and crash. Harding gradually collected the world's largest collection of popular songbooks and miscellanies. Before he died in 1972, Harding chose to give his treasure trove to the Bodleian, despite never having visited Oxford. He built the largest collection of popular music and verse from the 17th and 18th centuries in the world. Packed in 900 boxes weighing 20 tonnes, the donation was flown from Chicago to Oxford in two chartered aircraft

Prince Charles leads Charles Dickens celebrations

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall is leading global celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth later. Prince Charles laid a wreath at the author's grave in Poets' Corner as part of a service at Westminster Abbey. A 24-hour "readathon" is taking place in countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. Biographer Simon Callow, taking part in a service in Portsmouth, where Dickens was born, said the day would be "dangerously moving". Callow is reading from David Copperfield, a coming-of-age story about an orphan boy that is largely considered to be autobiographical. The service, at St Mary's Church, will also feature actress Sheila Hancock reading from Oliver Twist

New 2012 titles from Emerald Group Publishing

Emerald Group Publishing Limited has announced eight new journals scheduled for launch in 2012. These additional journals will publish high-quality research from emerging and fast-growing fields of study, including such areas as organizational ethnographies, entrepreneurship and sustainability

Evolutionary Applications to publish under Oopen access model

Wiley-Blackwell, the scientific, technical, medical and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., has announced that Evolutionary Applications has joined the Wiley Open Access publishing program. All newly published articles in the journal will be open access and free to view, download and share for non-commercial use

Podcast: Nineteenth century merchant seafarers and their records (UK)

Specialist knowledge of merchant seafaring is a boon when identifying men and women and interpreting their lives in one of the most sophisticated 19th and early 20th century sources increasingly used by family history researchers. This talk explains how a new website will help users understand and appreciate the potential of the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen record series BT99. Valerie Burton is Chair of the Maritime History Research Unit at the Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland. Dr Burton researches and teaches maritime history. She combines an interest in the economics of shipping with an emphasis on gender, class and ethnicity and 'new historical' approaches to narrative and identity. Her long involvement in facilitating public access to the records of merchant seafarers came to fruition with the Maritime History Archive website which is the subject of this talk

Bangladesh Journals OnLine

Bangladesh Journals OnLine is a service to provide access to Bangladesh published research, and increase worldwide knowledge of indigenous scholarship

LSE Digital Library (UK)

The Digital Library contains digitised material from LSE Library collections and also born-digital material that has been collected and preserved in digital formats

February 2012 batch of Early Reviewer books is up at LibraryThing

The February 2012 batch of Early Reviewer books is now available at LibraryThing. There are 2771 copies of 112 books available this month

Video: Reconfiguring Library Boundaries with Lorcan Dempsey

This video presentation was used to introduce the two-day workshop, "The Squeezed Middle: Exploring the Future of Library Systems," sponsored by JISC and SCONUL on 19-20 January at the University of Warwick. In the video, Lorcan Dempsey talks about how libraries are changing in the network environment, how they are organizing their services and how they are relating to other services in a Webscale world. He focuses on changes in how libraries are using their resources to create value: space, systems, collections and services/expertise. What should libraries specialize in and what things should they do collaboratively or externalize to other parties? Watch this video to learn how libraries are dealing with these and other important issues now as well as how they may do so in the future

Rhyming plea over library closures (UK)

Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson has penned a poem in protest at planned library closures. The writer, who was named Children's Laureate and awarded the MBE last year, said she had used libraries since she was a child and still visited her local branch to research and write her best-selling books. Her poem, released on Friday to mark National Libraries Day, describes them as places to "meet your heroes, old and new, from William the Conqueror to Winnie the Pooh"

Libraries help researchers save time, says new report

University libraries are saving academics time by helping them find quality material more quickly, says a new report. Academics are choosing the library as their first choice for getting hold of scholarly material because access is quick, it helps them make new connections to related information and the library may be the only place they can access that material. Academics are then using their reading to inspire new thinking and improve their research results. This picture of the library at the heart of university life has emerged as part of a new JISC Collections1 report which canvassed over 1000 academic and associate staff at six UK universities in 2011

New Lincolnshire parish records now live (UK)

Search 38,269 new Lincolnshire parish marriage records for 76,538 people on findmypast.co.uk. The records span the period 1699-1838 and will provide fresh information for those on the hunt for Lincolnshire ancestors

Directory of Open Access Journals - recently added titles

European Association of NeuroOncology Magazine

Amerika : Mémoires, Identités, Territoires

Anthropologie & Santé : Revue Internationale Francophone d'Anthropologie de la Santé

Iranian Journal of Pediatrics

Topologik : Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Filosofiche, Pedagogiche e Sociali

Research Journal of Social Science & Management

Oklahoma Native Plant Record

Journal of Pedagogic Development

E-News for ARL Directors - January 2012

E-News for ARL Directors - January 2012 is now available online from the Association of Research Libraries

The Code4Lib Journal - Issue 16

The Code4Lib Journal - Issue 16 is now available. The Code4Lib Journal exists to foster community and share information among those interested in the intersection of libraries, technology, and the future

New CILIP Council officers elected (UK)

Trustees of CILIP have elected three new officers. John Dolan will serve as Chair of Council, Emma McDonald as Vice Chair and Nick Poole as Treasurer. They will take up their roles with immediate effect until the end of 2012

C&RL News – February 2012

C&RL News – February 2012 is now freely available online from The Association of College and Research Libraries

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - February 3, 2012

The Friday Brain-teaser from Credo Reference - this week: Dance and dancers. "This week's Brainteaser is about dancers and various kinds of dance." Answers here.

1. The 1977 film "Saturday Night Fever" popularized what kind of dancing?
2. Which dancer did the splashing solo for the title song in the 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain"?
3. What kind of dances were Johann Strauss's "Blue Danube" and "Tales from the Vienna Woods"?
4. In which country did the dance called the lambada originate?
5. Which dance was popularized by Chubby Checker with a million-selling record in 1960?
6. In which form of dancing were Marius Petipa, Anna Pavlova and Rudolf Nureyev famous?
7. Which famous pair of dancers starred in the 1939 film "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle"?
8. Which fast rhythmic dance of the 1920s, characterized by kicking and by twisting of the legs from the knee down, was named after a city in South Carolina?
9. Name the Latin American dance of three steps and a kick to each bar, usually performed by a number of people in single file.
10. Name the choreographer and film director (1895-1976) whose lavish spectacles used intricate camera moves and unusual angles to fill the screen with dancers arranged in geometric patterns.

Springer to publish journal and book series for Entomological Society of Brazil

Starting in 2012 Springer will partner with the Entomological Society of Brazil to publish the journal Neotropical Entomology and a new book series Entomology in Focus. Prof. Fernando L.Consôli of the University of São Paulo is editor of both the journal and the book series

Journal publishing reform

This is a collection of links to information, opinion, activism, and other issues concerning the practices of research journal publishers (particularly in the mathematical sciences). Further contributions are welcome

Welsh Heritage Minister gives his support for National Libraries Day

Huw Lewis AM, Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, has been presented with hundreds of 'Love your Library' postcards from Welsh Women's Institutes. The postcards began with "I Love Libraries because..." and have been filled in by WI members across Wales, sharing their messages about why libraries are important to them. The Chair of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals in Wales, Karen Gibbins, spoke at the special Love Your Libraries event which took place at the Welsh Assembly, she said: "The Love Your Libraries event has been a very positive opportunity to get together with WI and other parties who recognise how important it is that we support libraries in Wales and raise the profile of National Libraries Day on Saturday 4th February. The Minister Huw Lewis AM and other AMs showed a reassuring level of support for libraries at a Welsh Government level."

New Thames watermen and lightermen records at findmypast.co.uk

findmypast.co.uk has just published 99,140 occupational records of Thames watermen and lightermen, covering the period 1688-2010

Crossroads - February 2012

Crossroads: the newsletter of WebJuntion.org - February 2012 issue is now available. RSS feed

NTIS Technical Reports Library Newsletter - January 2012

NTIS Technical Reports Library Newsletter - Volume 4, Number 7, January 15, 2012 is now available from the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA, USA

Jewish Public Library's Yiddish audio collection to go digital

Thousands of hours of Yiddish audio books and literary programming taped at the Jewish Public Library from at least the early 1950s are about to enter the digital age. They are a rare, if not unique, treasure of the Jewish people, in the opinion of scholars, and should be made available to everyone. The Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass., has embarked on a two-year project to remaster and digitize these cassettes and older reel-to-reel tapes and put them online where they may be heard free of charge anywhere in the world

Elsevier publishing boycott gathers steam among academics

Chronicle: Elsevier, the global publishing company, is responsible for The Lancet, Cell, and about 2,000 other important journals; the iconic reference work Gray's Anatomy, along with 20,000 other books - and one fed-up, award-winning mathematician. Timothy Gowers of the University of Cambridge, who won the Fields Medal for his research, has organized a boycott of Elsevier because, he says, its pricing and policies restrict access to work that should be much more easily available. He asked for a boycott in a blog post on January 21, and as of Monday evening, on the boycott's Web site The Cost of Knowledge, nearly 1,900 scientists have signed up, pledging not to publish, referee, or do editorial work for any Elsevier journal

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #184

LISTen: An LISNews.org Program -- Episode #184. "This week's somewhat truncated episode brings a spoken message from the siteowner, Blake Carver. A brief news miscellany is also presented.". Previous Podcasts/Programs can be found here

Book Burning, 213 BC–2011 AD (USA)

A showcase of books that have been burned, from antiquity to present day, is now on display outside of Room E159 (near the Writing Center Satellite) on the first floor, east wing of the Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries. Included are texts from famous historical cases as well as contemporary incidents, photographs, and other information about book burning. A website companion to the exhibit, complete with an illustrated gallery, quotations, and more, is also available

OECD Yearbook 2012

OECD Yearbook 2012 is now available