News

Could “Fiber to the Library” Be the Broadband Solution?
ALA’s OITP offers a primer on fiber, which it calls a “future-proof” technology to help libraries provide video, audio, and other high-bandwidth applications. This could be a game-changer. » » »

Ohio Libraries Get Breathing Room as Budget Talks Are Extended
Governor Ted Strickland’s plan for massive library cuts has generated a huge and creative response from librarians, who’ve mobilized public sentiment. Now, library cuts are on hold, while a new state budget is hammered out with a July 7 deadline. » » »

OCLC Puts Proposed WorldCat Policy Out of Its Misery
After withering criticism from library organizations as well as from a review board created by the giant library nonprofit itself, OCLC says it will produce a new policy via a consultative, transparent process. » » »

Blatant Berry: The LIS Placement Gap
Editor-at-Large John Berry says, “I had to laugh recently when I read questions in an online discussion that asked, ‘What's broken?’ “ in LIS education. His answer: the schools’ efforts to help get their graduates jobs. » » »

Blogs

Wyatt's World

Summer Reading—African Tales

• Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Vintage)
• African Nights by Kuki Gallmann (Harper)
• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller (Random)
• West With the Night by Beryl Markham (North Point)
• Wildflower: An Extraordinary Life and Untimely Death in Africa by Mark Seal (Random)

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Review

. Conroy, Pat. South of Broad.

Nan A. Talese: Doubleday. Aug. 2009. c.512p. ISBN 978-0-385-41305-3. $29.95. F

“Kids, I’m teaching you to tell a story. It’s the most important lesson you’ll ever learn,” says the protagonist of Conroy’s first novel in 14 years (since 1995’s Beach Music). Switching between the 1960s and the 1980s, the narrative follows a group of friends whose relationship began in Charleston, SC. The narrator is Leopold Bloom King (his mother was a Joyce scholar), a likable but troubled kid who goes from having one best friend, his brother, to having no friends after a tragedy, to having, suddenly, a gang, of which he is perhaps not the leader but certainly the glue. Conroy continues to demonstrate his skill at presenting both the beauty and the ugliness of the South, holding both up for inspection and, at times, admiration. He has not lost his touch for writing stories that are impossible to put down; the fast pace and shifting settings grip the reader even as the story occasionally veers toward the unbelievable.» » »

—Amy Watts, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens

Xpress Reviews

Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books
J.A. Jance's Fire and Ice, Christina Riggle's Real Life & Liars, Timothy A. Kelly's Healing the Broken Mind, and more reviews just in. » » »

Highlights

Backtalk: Libraries & the Inspiration Business
Librarians simply used to be in the information biz, says Brian Mathews, who contends that today’s professionals instead “transform users’ experiences, collaborating with them along their path toward self-improvement.” » » »

Short Takes: Business 2.0
A quickie roundup of four titles tackling small/large-scale online finance to consider for business collections. » » »

Q&A: On Stieg Larsson
Knopf editor-in-chief Sonny Mehta and executive director of publicity Paul Bogaards discuss the late Larsson's literary legacy with LJ Fiction editor Wilda Williams. » » »

Short Takes: Military History, Part 3—Studies of Current Hot Spots
Military librarian Edwin B. Burgess concludes his roundup with a collection of titles covering present day war zones in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan. » » »