This from ARLIS-L: Dear Colleagues, We have the very sad responsibility to report that Judith Hoffberg passed away peacefully at home on Friday, January 16, 2009 after a short battle with leukemia. In 1972, Judy, along with a group of notable librarians founded the Art Libraries Society of North America at a meeting in Chicago, … Read more Judith Hoffberg
A little self-promotion here. A few things coming up: On Saturday, March 7, I’ll be giving the keynote lecture at the Fourth Annual SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium at the University of Arizona. On Wednesday, March 18th, I’ll be doing a poster session at the Midwest Library Technology Conference, at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. … Read more Upcoming presentations and publications by Rory Litwin
The most frustrating thing about eight years of Bush Administration nefariousness and stupidity, from a librarian’s point of view, was their attitude of secrecy and contempt for the public. It is important for government to be open and transparent, and to avoid rather than seek corrupt relationships with moneyed interests. In that regard the Bush … Read more Obama’s Policy Agenda on Government Ethics
This is semi random, but I thought it might be interesting to see what comes to your minds in answer to the question: What is your favorite Wikipedia page? I actually have a favorite page, one that I like to go back to repeatedly. It’s not necessarily a good summary of my interests as a … Read more Library Juice Readers: What is your favorite Wikipedia page?
There is a great article in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education about today’s students, how they think, and why: Wake Up and Smell the New Epistemology, by Tim Clydesdale. I think what it says has a lot of applicability to anyone working with students, and especially information literacy instructors.
Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling:Readings, Reflections and Ruminations Author: Richard J. Cox Price: $35.00 Published: January 2009 ISBN: 978-0-9802004-7-8 Printed on acid-free paper In Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling: Readings, Reflections and Ruminations, Richard J. Cox argues that personal archives might be assuming a new importance in society. As the technical … Read more Richard J. Cox – Personal Archives and a New Archival Calling
If you’re a Twitter user, feel free to follow me @rorylitwin. I just signed up for it. The feed won’t be too busy, and will be just a bit personal, in that I will actually answer that “what are you doing” question in a concrete way from time to time, and I will say what … Read more Tweets
Library Juice Press is offering a discount to reading groups – groups of library students or active professionals. This is ideal for the PLG student chapters or even the ALA student chapters out there, students who want to read a book together and discuss it. The discount is 25% off on four or more copies … Read more LJP Reading Groups
The new issue of the SRRT Newsletter is out. It’s issue 164/165, January 2009. A new editor takes the reins with this issue, Myka Kennedy Stephens. It’s got a new look but the content is so far consistent with previous issues – conference calendar, task force reports, minutes, resolutions, message from the coordinator, book reviews, … Read more New SRRT Newsletter
New article by Lincoln Cushing: Privatizing the Commons: The Commodification of New Deal Public Art. Lincoln Cushing is an important person in the world of political graphic art, having put together books on Cuban poster art and Chinese propaganda posters, both very enjoyable and interesting books. Lincoln is a librarian who had an earlier career … Read more Privatizing the Commons: The Commodification of New Deal Public Art
Editors K.R. Roberto and Toni Samek have extended the deadline for contributions to the Celeste West festschrift. The new deadline is February 2nd.
Series on Critical Multiculturalism and Librarianship Isabel Espinal, Series Editor Library Juice Press seeks book proposals and manuscripts for a new series, Critical Multiculturalism and Librarianship, edited by Isabel Espinal. This series aims to publish works from practical, theoretical and personal perspectives that critically engage issues of cultural and racial diversity, and cultural and racial … Read more LJP Series on Critical Multiculturalism and Librarianship
Edited Clean Version: Technology and the Culture of Control, by Raiford Guins. This new book from University of Minnesota Press is about how media technologies are being built for consumers with features that allow them to do their own censorship. The author is talking about “TVs equipped with V-chips, Internet filters, editing DVD players, clean-version … Read more Book of note: technological censorship
Melvil Dewey died this day in 1931…
Monika Antonelli has an important article in the new Electronic Green Journal called The Green Library Movement: An Overview and Beyond. Here is the abstract: The creation of green libraries is approaching a tipping point, generating a Green Library Movement, which is comprised of librarians, libraries, cities, towns, college and university campuses committed to greening … Read more The Green Library Movement
Salon.com has also published an article about Black Wednesday and the dire straits that the publishing industry is in: Read It and Weep, by Jason Book. (Click past the ad in the upper right of the page to get to the article.) The end of days is here for the publishing industry — or it … Read more More on Black Wednesday
Here’s a new blog worth noting: Amy Sonie’s Banned Librarian. Always happy to see a new Left librarian blog. Looks good indeed – substantial and interesting… This is from the About page: Amy Sonnie is the “banned librarian.” In 2002 the Texas Youth Commission banned Amy’s young adult anthology, Revolutionary Voices (Alyson, 2000), a collection … Read more Banned Librarian
Often when I send out business correspondence, I feel the necessity to use the first person plural to refer to Library Juice Press and Litwin Books, even though I have no employees, strictly speaking, simply because it is what people expect from a business entity. But when I reflect on all the people who have … Read more Thanks are due…
If you’re interested in changes that the publishing industry has been seeing recently, you’ll want to read Tom Engelhardt’s piece in the current issue of The Nation, titled “Reading in an Age of Depression.” His insider’s insight is chilling, in that things are worse than we thought. In his view, however, small independent publishers have … Read more Black Wednesday and On…
From the site: The Izzy Award is named after legendary maverick journalist I. F. Stone, who launched I. F. Stone Weekly in 1953 and exposed government deception, McCarthyism, and racial bigotry. Presented annually for “special achievement in independent media,” the Izzy Award will go to an independent outlet, journalist, or producer for contributions to our … Read more The Izzy Award – Call for Nominations