Newsletter 2671 Issue 26712010316142944

News

PTFS's On Again/Off Again LibLime Purchase Completed
Progressive Technology Federal Systems' (PTFS) purchase of Koha ILS support vendor LibLime reportedly is "signed and completed," after the deal seemingly had imploded following stalled negotiations over financial terms. » » »

Financially Strapped CLA Studies Structural Changes
Facing the double whammy of a budget crunch and a membership decline, the Canadian Library Association has begun an accelerated effort to examine structural changes necessary for its mission and its survival. » » »

SFPL Staff Fired Rehired for Less
In one of the more unusual solutions to empty coffers, San Francisco will fire a majority of city workers, including SFPL staff, and rehire them at reduced pay. City employees working and being paid for a 40-hour week now will be compensated for 37.5 hours, a decrease of 6.25 percent, for a savings of $50 million. » » »

Top Tech Trends Talkers Named for PLA Panel
Public librarians dominate the Top Tech Trends panel at next week's Public Library Association conference. On hand will be David Lee King, Digital Services Manager, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library; Monique Sendze, Associate Director of Information Technology and Virtual Services, Douglas County Libraries, and others. » » »

Editorial: They Move Us Forward
Movers & Shakers, says Francine Fialkoff are "people who do." The 2010 Movers include those who did everything from lead a campaign that helped restore $147 million to library budgets throughout Ohio, to reaching out to illiterate city youths to teach them reading and increase their education and employment goals, to developing apps for remotely fielding reference questions and helping job seekers. They done good. » » »

Blogs

Wyatt's World

Wyatt’s World: The Tragedy of the Passage

• Impatient with Desire by Gabrielle Burton (Hyperion/Voice)
• Snow Mountain Passage by James D. Houston (Harvest)
• History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra by C. F. McGlashan (Stanford)
• Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick (Oxford)
• Ordeal by Hunger by George Rippey Stewart (Mariner)

Review

Millar, Mark. Kick-Ass: Creating the Comic, Making the Movie.

Titan. 2010. 176p. illus. ISBN 978-1-8485-6409-1. pap. $19.95. FILM

The concept is simple; a teenage comic fan—and not the clichéd zit-faced über nerd, but a regular kid—decides to get up from the couch, turn off the tube, and become a superhero. He possesses no powers, but, hey, neither does Batman. Kick-Ass creator Millar offers a whirlwind history of the comic book’s creation, which rocketed from an idea he’d put on the back burner to print to film adaptation in a few months’ time. The initial trailers created a buzz in the geekosphere, and controversy, too, over the character of Hit Girl, a foul-mouthed, sword-wielding, gun-toting, purple-haired, leather-clad killing machine—who’s 11 years old. The breezy text provides background on the creation of both print and film versions, emphasizing the latter. This is a companion book and not a hardcore, detailed making of (if the film rocks the box office that might come later). The text sports brief interviews with cast and crew including director and writer Matthew Vaughn, cowriter Jane Goldman, top comics artist John Romita Jr, and actors Nic Cage (Big Daddy), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Red Mist), Chloë Moretz (Hit Girl), and Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass). There also are discussions on getting the right look and feel of the film through the sets and wardrobe, etc., plus snippets of the script that include some of Hit Girl’s more colorful dialog—this is definitely not for the kiddies! Best of all, there are tons of cool pix of the weapons, costumes, props (a jetpack with miniguns attached—oh baby!), the Mist Mobile, and more. All that coolness for $20, you’re damn right this kicks ass!

—Mike Rogers, LJX/LJ

Xpress Reviews

Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books
Charlotte Brontë and Sherri Browning Erwin's Jane Slayre, Gary Greenberg's Manufacturing Depression, Chie Shinohara's Red River Vol. 28, and more reviews just in! » » »

Magazine Highlights

Movers & Shakers 2010!!!
Meet this year's crop of 50 U.S. and international advocates, innovators, marketers, tech leaders, community builders, and change agents representing all aspects of the profession. Plus see Movers on the Map, an alphabetical listing of all 450 past and present Movers. They're hot, hot, hot! » » »

Voters Step Up
Despite the lousy economy, 2009's library referenda wasn’t the horror show you'd imagine. Reaffirming their community importance, libraries won a stunning 84 percent of operating and 54 percent of building referenda last year. Consultant Beth Dempsey breaks down the numbers and the strategies that proved victorious. » » »

iReference: A Case Study
In this Reference Backtalk, Florence County Library System's Rogan Hamby and James Stubbs explain how they freed their reference services from the desk and extended it into the stacks using iPods. So can you! » » »

Short Takes: World War II New York
A brace of books detailing what everyday life was like in the Big Apple during the Big War. Lorraine B. Diehl's Over Here! And Richard Goldstein's Helluva Town detail how New Yorkers did their duty by rationing, working longer hours, planting victory gardens, and more. Good stuff. » » »

LJ Alerts

Best Sellers

Job of the Week