Newsletter 2671 Issue 2671201015132535

News

Queens Library Learning Center Morphs into Welcome Center
Thanks to a three-year, $950K grant from the New York State Department of Ed., the Queens Library Adult Learning Center will expand into a Welcome Center that is part of a "Literacy Zone" whose goal is to close the achievement gap in urban and rural communities with concentrated poverty and with large numbers of families and individuals who have limited literacy or English-language proficiency. » » »

Cedar Rapids PL Wins FEMA Funding Appeal
The flood ravaged Cedar Rapids Public Library, IA, has won an appeal requesting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) support for interim library service. It’s unclear whether the $379,127 from FEMA represents a one-time change or the beginning of a new policy, but CRPL director Bob Pasicznyuk called it "a major victory not just for the Cedar Rapids Public Library, but for any library that may be in a similar situation in the future." » » »

Libraries Among the First Receiving Broadband Stimulus Funds
The Boston PL and the Arizona and New Mexico state libraries are among the initial public institutions to receive federal broadband stimulus funding. Of the $7.2 billion in Recovery Act broadband grant and loan programs, $2 billion will be made available on a rolling basis over the next 75 days; the first allotments come in four categories. Only two of the categories—the ones with significantly less funding—involve libraries. » » »

Kirkus Reviews Reprieved, Will Continue Publishing
Good news for those who shed a tear over the planned closing of Kirkus Reviews: they may have been premature. The venerable review organ apparently has secured a new buyer and will continue publication. » » »

On Video: Marilyn Johnson, This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Will Save Us All.
LJ talked to Marilyn Johnson, who followed up her first book, on obituaries (The Dead Beat), with one on librarians: This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. In this series of shorts, Johnson shares her passion for her subject, telling us about some of the amazing librarians she met, why she wrote the book, who its audience is, and what she hopes it will do. » » »

Blogs

Wyatt's World

Of Petticoats and Plesiosauria

• Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (Dutton)
• Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth (DK) The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World by Shelley Emling (Palgrave Macmillan)
• The Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin by Christopher McGowan (Basic Books)
• The Hummingbird Cabinet: A Rare and Curious History of Romantic Collectors by Judith Pascoe (Cornell)
  

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Review

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War.
Marlantes, Karl.

 Atlantic Monthly. Apr. 2010. c.592p. ISBN 978-0-8021-1928-5. $24.95. F

Even as the Vietnam War recedes into the past, the despair, confusion, and mythology it generated retains a grip on our culture. Debut novelist Marlantes offers a realistic, in-the-trenches look at that war. Matterhorn is a remote jungle base of operations held by the marines. We follow a young reserve lieutenant, Waino Mellas, as he nervously begins command of a squad ordered to take out a North Vietnamese machine-gun nest; afterward, the squad is sent into the remote jungle for obscure reasons. This is the beginning of a long and murderous journey, with little food or water, constant rain, impassable terrain, and enemy ambushes. The soldiers bond with one another, but their faults and divisions are magnified, as racial tensions mount and cultural differences are revealed. The battle scenes, at which the author excels, are frequent, brutal, and viscerally energetic, and the skillfully rendered dialog reveals a bunch of strangers attempting to communicate in life-defeating circumstances. In the end, there are no real victories. Verdict Obviously not a brief, cheery read, this is a major work that will be a valuable addition to any permanent collection. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/09.]—Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta

Xpress Reviews

Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books
Steve Hamilton's The Lock Artist, Erin Bried's How To Sew a Button, Graphic Novels: Beyond the Basics, and more reviews just in. » » »

Highlights

Blatant Berry: Is LIS Competition Healthy?
Though San Jose State’s aggressive online SLIS program is the country’s largest, Berry says that lack of classroom interaction might not be the best prep for a career, and that "the profession needs to determine definitively whether totally online programs are qualitatively different from face-to-face on-site programs or those that are a blend of both." » » »

Collection Development: Going to the Chapel—Wedding Planning
Don't say "I do" before consulting some of these 29 print and online resources to help plan the big day. » » »

Reference BackTalk: Can I Go Home Now
Michael Austin Shell left prison counseling for the "congenial, intellectually interesting" life of a reference librarian. A few years in, he finds some disturbing similarities: "what my new customers share with the previous ones is their expectation that I will provide what they want, even if they don't really know what it is." Like performing clinical interviews with cons, reference interviews with patrons often saves the day. » » »

LJ Alerts

Best Sellers

Job of the Week