LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

He's the king of couch potatoes. A Manhattan man has won his second couch potato contest. Stan Friedman, 47, a research librarian at magazine giant Conde Nast, needed 18 hours, 48 minutes and 17 seconds of sports-watching time to outlast the competition at the second annual ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition.

The participants, sitting in recliners in front of dozens of televisions, weren't allowed to go to sleep or leave their recliners except for restroom breaks once every eight hours. He won a $5,000 prize.

Google News and even more detail at The New York Daily News.

All city libraries will face cuts in their hours of operation unless a judge reconsiders an order forbidding the closing of 11 branches, Mayor Nutter said yesterday.

Staff members at the libraries that Nutter planned to close this year had already been laid off or transferred when the judge ruled that the branches must stay open. That order is forcing the city to operate with fewer employees and causing the city to bleed money by the day, Nutter said.

An inspirational story for the New Year.

Stirred by Mayor Nutter's proposal to close 11 branch libraries, the opponents came tumbling off the shelves of Philadelphia society - rich, poor, black, white, homeschoolers from the Northeast, young anarchists from West Philly.

With President-elect Barack Obama's campaign as both inspiration and field guide, they organized, demonstrated and sued, then packed the courtroom for hearings and showered the mayor with boos at his own news conference.

Then, astoundingly, they won. More from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Vicki Myron intended to wait a year or two before getting another cat.

Her best-selling book, "Dewey, The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World," was keeping her on the road most of the time and she didn't have time for a pet. An orange and white kitten (subsequently named Page) found on a snow-covered road changed her mind.

"I fell in love instantly," Myron says. The little tabby was found Dec. 16 by Sue Selzer, who works for the school district in Myron's northwest Iowa hometown of Spencer. AP Story.

Washington Post reports: New rules have been proposed for D.C. public libraries, including a ban on sleeping and a limit on bringing in bags, in what library officials called an effort to make the system more welcoming.

But Mary Ann Luby, an advocate for the homeless, said the bag and sleeping rules "are going to be hard on people." Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper said she expected the new rules to take effect Feb. 1 at the Martin Luther King Jr. library downtown and at the system's branches.

"Everyone is still welcome," she said, adding that she expected the homeless to use the libraries and hoped "lots of other people do, too" (i.e., maybe not a preponderance of the homeless?)

The first Saturday in December, University Book Store in Seattle, WA opened its first "Holiday Advice Booth," the brainchild of Stesha Brandon, the store's events manager. Modeled after Lucy's psychiatrist booth in "Peanuts," book advice was offered for 25 cents, with the money raised going to the store's Scholarship Endowment Fund, which helps financial-aid students purchase course materials and textbooks.

It was staffed in one-hour shifts from 10 to 6; advisors included Brad Craft, the store's used-books buyer, Nancy Pearl, the World's Librarian, two sales reps--Dan Christaens from Norton and David Glenn from Random House--and me (author of this article, Marilyn Dahl). Stesha was our runner (and supplier of homemade baked goods). We had a blast.

Sounds like a lot of fun; read the entire article at Shelf-Awareness.

Maybe library friends shops could do something similar? Of course, there's only one Nancy Pearl, but those friends have done a lot of reading over the years...

California State Librarian Susan Hildreth likes the idea of putting a school inside a new downtown San Diego central library, which may bode well for the city's effort to keep a $20 million state grant.

But downtown San Diego parents aren't sure they need a high school, as is being proposed in a new plan to save the $185 million library project that has fallen short of its fundraising goal.

Hildreth will be leaving her position as the CA State Librarian to become Director of the Seattle Public Library. She will assume her new post early next year.

Fred R. Shapiro, a Yale Law School librarian and editor of the Yale Book of Quotations has compiled a list of memorable quotes for 2008, mostly having come from the world of politics.

To wit:

5. “The fundamentals of America’s economy are strong.” — McCain

4. “It’s not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number.” U.S. Treasury Department spokeswoman, explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the initial bailout

3. “We have sort of become a nation of whiners.” Sen. Phil Gramm

2. “All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.” Gov. Sarah Palin, responding to a request by CBS anchor Katie Couric to name the newspapers or magazines she reads

Archie McPhee is a Seattle based novelty dealer owned by Mark Pahlow. Archie McPhee sells the Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure. There is a new book out called: Who Would Buy This? The Archie McPhee Story

Nineteen boxes of Bruce Springsteen memorabilia worth about $30,000 were returned to the Asbury Park (NJ) Public Library shortly after noon Thursday, providing intermediary relief to a feud that had led the library to file a police complaint to get approximately 1,120 items returned.

The complaint against Bob Crane and Dan Toskaner, members of the Friends of the Bruce Springsteen Special Collection, said the men in September 2007 had removed with the library's permission about a fourth of the collection housed there since 2001 to be microfilmed at the OCLC Preservation Resources microfilming facility in Bethlehem, Pa.

Approximately 1,334 items were picked up March 14, 2008, but not returned to the library, except for 208 items returned in May. The rest of the articles, books, tour programs and worldwide items became part of an ongoing dispute between Crane and library director Robert Stewart over ownership of the collection.

Crane says the materials belong to the Friends group except for the original 744 documents he turned over to the library in 2001 for which he received a tax credit and which launched the collection at the historic city library.