Newsletter 2671 Issue 267120104614165

News

LYRASIS Absorbing Struggling BCR's Members
LYRASIS continues its expansion: the library network formed in 2009 from the SOLINET/PALINET/NELINET merger now is absorbing the membership of BCR (Bibliographical Center for Research), which is facing financial challenges. » » »

Security Snafu Shutters Philly Branches
A civil service glitch in hiring security guards has caused closures throughout Free Library of Philadelphia branches. Guards are included in the four-worker crew required to open a branch. » » »

Audit Suggests Pittsburgh Carnegie Library Deficit Is Smaller
A new audit asserts that the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is more financially secure than initially reported. A previously calculated deficit of a hefty $4.4 million by 2014 is now projected to be far less, $300K, based not only on revenue but on projected expenditures for materials. » » »

Portland, ME, and Indianapolis-Marion County PLs Face Closures and Layoffs
Unfortunately, call it the Maine squeeze; Portland's municipal budget proposed for the fiscal year starting July 1 recommends closing three PL branches. Indianapolis is faring no better; with a looming seven percent deficit by 2012. » » »

Blogs

Wyatt's World

Wyatt’s World: Garden Delights—Five Books for Green Thumb Readers

• In and Out of the Garden by Sara Midda (Workman)
• Sissinghurst, An Unfinished History: The Quest to Restore a Working Farm at Vita Sackville-West's Legendary Garden by Adam Nicolson (Viking)
• Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perenyi (Modern Library)
• How to Plant a Tree: A Simple Celebration of Trees and Tree-Planting Ceremonies by Daniel Butler (Tarcher)
• The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf (Vintage)

Review

Kahlili, Reza. A Time to Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent Inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran.

Threshold Editions. Apr. 2010. c.352p. ISBN 978-1-4391-8903-0. $26. INT AFFAIRS

The author, who writes here under a pseudonym to protect his identity, was born in Tehran, and, after attending university in California, returned to Iran and joined the country’s Revolutionary Guard in the closing years of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s reign. Not long after the Islamic Republic was established he became disillusioned with its fundamentalism because of the arrest, torture, and execution of his friends and many others.

—Marcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., NY » » »

Xpress Reviews

Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books
David Remnick's The Bridge, Karen Tack and Alan Richardson's What's New, Cupcake?, and Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson's Batman: The Cult » » »

Magazine Highlights

Automation Marketplace 2010: New Models, Core Systems
In LJ's annual survey of the library automation industry, Marshall Breeding finds that while "new models of automation are beginning to take shape, challenging the traditional integrated library system," the ILS still remains at the core—for now. » » »

ALA Candidates: Presidential Timbre
John Berry spotlights ALA presidential candidates Sara Kelly Johns and Molly Raphael, who present their platforms and what changes they'll bring if elected. If you haven't voted, read this first! » » »

Music for the Masses: The Fela Kuti Revival
Matthew Moyer asserts that the recent re-release of Nigerian musician and political activist Fela's full catalog may make this "best-kept secret a pop icon on the level of Bob Marley of James Brown." The current run of Fela! on Broadway may increase demand. » » »

Short Takes: Military Studies
U.S. Army librarian Edwin Burgess takes a quick glance at 21 memoirs, biographies, surveys, studies, and histories of combat throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Use this as a guide to round out your collections. » » »

LJ Alerts

Cookbook Best Sellers

Job of the Week