State Librarian's visit to Blue Mountains City Library

Deputy Mayor Cllr Janet Mays, Regina Sutton (NSW State Librarian),
Francis Sims (Public Library Network Consultant),
Cllr Terri Hamilton, Vicki Edmunds (Blue Mountains City Library Manager)

The plans for the new Katoomba Library left a big impression on the NSW State Librarian, Regina Sutton, during a recent visit to the Blue Mountains. Blue Mountains Libraries hosted the visit from the State Librarian and the Public Library Network Consultant, Francis Sims, which included a visit to Springwood, Lawson, Katoomba and Wentworth Falls Libraries.

The State Librarian also visited the site of the new Katoomba Library and Cultural Centre precinct. Councillor Terri Hamilton, Chairperson of the Katoomba Library Technical Advisory Panel said, “The State Librarian is very enthusiastic about the new Katoomba Library and Cultural Centre precinct. Having the new Katoomba Library and the City Gallery together in the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre complex, means that residents will be able to access the high standard of exhibitions, collections, displays and forums currently found in the State Library”, continued Cr Hamilton.

The new Katoomba library is to be a two-level, open plan design with twice the floor space of the existing library. The new library will share the pedestrian access and foyer with the planned Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.

“Indeed, the State Librarian was envious of the Blue Mountains having the opportunity to development a new library and cultural centre complex, recognising the benefits to the local and regional community”, stated Cr Hamilton.

Council is currently working with the developer of the Parke St site, Coles Group Property Development, to finalise the fit-out of the new, state of the art Katoomba Library.

BMCC Media Release

Librarians in Popular Culture

This was put together for the national library week in the US - but I thought it might be of interest

Pop references to Librarians

I can think of other examples - even some not mentioned in the comments:

What about the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Kramer have a crush on the same librarian - Jerry knows Kramer got to her first when she starts wearing a black velvet scrunchie...or the 3 "The Librarian" movies (yes - there are now there of them The Librarian, The Librarian II and the Librarian III)
The Librarian movie information

Other references/articles to Librarians in popular culture:

Wikipedia - librarians in popular culture
Article on Librarians in films
Further discussion

Self-censorship study results

The School Library Journal (US) undertook at study late last year on self-censorship among school librarians. The anonymous survey was emailed to 5,438 of SLJ’s Extra Helping subscribers in November 2008. The results are based on 654 school libraries responding and they are broken down as follows: 53% elementary school librarians, 37% middle school librarians, 30% high school librarians, and 5% other.

The SLJ survey found that 70% of librarians say they won’t buy certain controversial titles simply because they’re terrified of how parents will respond. Other common reasons for avoiding possible troublemakers include potential backlash from the administration (29%), the community (29%), or students (25%) and a whopping 23% of librarians say they won’t purchase a book due to personal objections - now I find that very disappointing.

Some librarians bypass good books—those with literary merit or that fill a need in their collections, the reasons ranging from a book’s sexual content and gay themes to its language and violence—and it happens in more libraries (public and school) than you think. This article, A dirty little secret : self-censorship, also from the School Library Journal is just one case study on the topic. The comments also make interesting reading.

Librarianship - the best career?

Here the Annoyed Librarian (well worth adding to your RSS feeds) gives her/his response to a recent U.S. News and World Report article. There is a link to the original article within AL's post.

P.S. Make sure you read the comments after the Annoyed Librarian's article - some of them are hilarious. I'm wiping the tears from my eyes as I type.

Bignoting librarians

"Every book. Every movie. Every album. It's like Borders, Netflix, and iTunes combined -- for free. And it's so easy: You can go online and have the newest stuff sent to your local branch. Why you would leave this complimentary emporium to students and grandmothers is beyond me. Plus, a librarian is like a Google that actually finds what you're looking for and never clutters your screen with porn."

This endorsement of libraries and librarians has come from a very unlikely source.

Librarian Writes Tell All Book, Gets Fired

Let this be a warning to all of us!

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Librarian writes tell-all book, gets fired
'The absolute irony is that the public library is a pillar of free speech'

A librarian who wrote a fictional account of library patrons in a made-up town has been fired from her position at the Mason County, Mich., District Library and is appealing the termination.

"The absolute irony is that the public library is a pillar of free speech and leads me to wonder why the administration is so upset. It's fiction," Sally Stern-Hamilton told the Ludington Daily News.

Over the course of three years, she wrote "The Library Diaries" under the pen name Ann Miketa. According to the newspaper report, the book is written as a series of vignettes about "mostly unsavory" characters in a library in a fictitious "Denialville."

However, the book publisher used a small photograph of the Ludington Library on the cover, and in the book's introduction, "Ann Miketa" said, "After working at a public library in a small, rural Midwestern town (which I will refer to as Denialville, Michigan, thoughout this book) for 15 years, I have encountered strains and variations of crazy I didn't know existed in such significant portions of our population."

She was notified of her dismissal in a letter from District Library Director Robert Dickson, when he referred to a prior "Suspension Pending Investigation" letter he wrote.

In that, he stated, "The cover of your book includes a picture of the Ludington Library. Each chapter is devoted to a specific library patron or patrons. Your book portrays these people in a very unflattering manner. You describe individual patrons as mentally ill, mentally incompetent, unintelligent, and unattractive. You label several as 'perverts.' While you stop short of naming the individuals you targeted in your book, your detailed descriptions of their unique characteristics and mannerisms make them easily identifiable in our small community."

Stern-Hamilton told the newspaper the book draws on her personal experiences but remains fiction.

"Most writers, anyone who writes something, some of it's going to come from, be rooted in, your personal experience. I don't think I could have come up with (the characters) on my own. They're bizarre, idiosyncratic, so they are based on some real experiences, but of course there are embellishments," she told the newspaper.

The library picture was just "a great picture," she said. "It epitomizes the American idea of a library."

She doesn't know how Dickson became aware of the book but said she wrote it because of "what goes on in public libraries everywhere."

She specifically cited instances of known sex offenders using library computers to view pornography – "Sometimes in close proximity to children," the report said.

The publisher, Publish America, is a grassroots group that publishes "people who are unknown, without charging the person thousands of dollars some self publishers charge," Stern-Hamilton said.

On the Ludington Daily News comment page, a reader wrote, "Instead of taking pride in a local author, we are criticizing her work of FICTION? What happened to free speech?"

Why I became a Librarian

I think this site sums it up nicely:

http://librarianavengers.org/worship-2/