Libraries in the News

Mar 19: $2-Million Life Raft Sought by March 24 for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library 
Frantic messages with hashtags of #cmlibrary and #2millioninoneweek are dotting the twitterverse about efforts to avert—or at least allay—sudden plans to close 12 branches of the Charlotte Mecklenburg (N.C.) Library and lay off 148 library workers April 3.
Mar 17: Bostonians Deplore “Downloadables” as Branch Substitutes 
[UPDATED March 17] “Not the computers, not the high-tech, not the downloadables,” said Boston resident Maria Rodriguez at a March 9 Boston Public Library board meeting. “Libraries are about books and librarians. I didn’t hear anything about that in your vision.” Rodriguez was one of nearly 400 people who came for...
Mar 10: Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” Targeted in New Jersey Challenge 
A reconsideration request regarding three anthologies in the collection of the Rancocas Valley Regional High School (RVRHS) library in Mount Holly, New Jersey, may be part of a national campaign supported by a Burlington County group to get a Department of Education official ousted from the Obama administration. And...
Mar 10: Quake Shatters Chile's Public Library Services 
Nearly two weeks after a devastating 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile, library officials in the Department of Public Libraries of Chile’s Directorate of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (DIBAM) are still trying to determine the extent of the damage to the nation’s nearly 400 public libraries.
Mar 03: Save the Library, Urge Los Angeles Public Library Workers 
The union that represents Los Angeles Public Library workers has mounted a campaign to stave off an anticipated reduction in LAPL’s workforce over five years. As of early March, the FY2010 plan to help narrow a municipal deficit of $212 million hinged on the early retirement of 145 library employees and the...
Mar 03: IMAX Offers Library Patrons Seats to Hubble 3D Movie 
Avid library patrons will be able to journey through distant galaxies and accompany space-walking astronauts as they attempt the most difficult tasks in history of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), thanks to a new partnership between IMAX and the American Library Association.
Feb 26: Congress Extends Library Provision of Patriot Act to 2011 
The U.S. House of Representatives sent Pres. Obama a bill extending three often-contested provisions of the Patriot Act on the evening of February 26, two days before the sections were due to expire. Approved by a vote of 315–97 the night after the Senate passed the bill by voice vote, H.R. 3961 extends until February...
Feb 24: Hideous Book Remains in Fond du Lac School Library 
A materials review committee formed by the Fond du Lac (Wis.) School District has denied a request by a Theisen Middle School parent to remove Sonya Sones’s One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies from school-library shelves.
Feb 23: Thorny Fairness Issues Delay Decision on Google Books Settlement 
“I am not going to rule today,” stated Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court in New York City February 18 before hearing testimony at the long-awaited fairness hearing about settlement of the five-year-old lawsuit against Google over its massive book-digitization project. Judge Chin went on to explain, “...
Feb 18: Cornell Seeks Sustainable arXiv Support 
Cornell University Library has introduced a voluntary, collaborative business model to support arXiv, its free online repository of nearly 600,000 research articles in physics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and related disciplines.