LJ Insider

November 17, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

In Rush, a small town a half hour's drive north of Dublin, Ireland, a €3 million ($4.46 million USD) library was converted from an old church, and the stunning result was nominated for a prize at the World Architecture Festival Awards (photo here).

However, as the Irish Independent reported, a freeze on hiring means that the library--with 20,000 books and 3000 AV materials--hasn't been able to open. The newspaper editorialized that, while the library w...Read More
Industries: Education/Training, Funding, Managing Libraries, News & Features

November 17, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

The board of the Cheshire Public Library, CT, by a 5-1 vote, decided to back the director's decision to buy a book about a horrific murder that shook the town. (Previous coverage of the debate.)  Video from Fox 61 below....Read More
Industries: Managing Libraries

November 13, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (2)

A government documents librarian at Purdue, Bert Chapman, writes a side blog called Conservative Librarian, where he has most recently opined on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the quincentennial of Henry VIII, and the recent election returns--all, natch, from a conservative perspective.

None of those generated a single comment, but Ch...Read More

Industries: Library Culture

November 12, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (0)

Aiming for a more user-friendly logo in multiple media, the New York Public Library has adapted its longtime lion logo, echoing the iconic Patience and Fortitude sculptures at the flagship research library (now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building).

A New York Times blog post suggests the new version "sheds the fussy detail of the old one," noting th...Read More
Industries: Managing Libraries

November 6, 2009 | Link This | Email this | Comments (1)

If you didn't go to the 2009 Educause Conference in Denver, you missed a scorcher of a debate about the future of the brick-and-mortar campus library.

A few excerpts from Inside Higher Ed:

“Let’s face it: the library, as a place, is dead,” said Suzanne E. Thorin, dean of libraries at Syracuse University. “Kaput. Finito. And we need to move on to a new concept of what the academic library is.”

Richard E. Luce, director of university libraries at Emory University, countered that just because libraries are transitioning fro

...Read More
Industries: Academic Libraries