The Dallas Morning News: As the competition for the George W. Bush presidential library heats up, interest in White House history could be cooling off.
Attendance at most presidential libraries and museums is down – way down, in some cases. The number of visitors is declining at eight of the 11 libraries. And the National Archives and Records Administration is trying to figure out why. The federal agency that operates the Presidential Library System has launched a multiyear market research project aimed at raising the libraries’ profiles and at uncovering what draws people to presidential history.
Source: http://www.lis.news
CHICAGO, March 27 /PRNewswire/ — The American Library Association and Woman’s Day magazine are collecting stories on how the library has changed people’s lives. In a recent issue, Woman’s Day wrote that “libraries are magical places” and asked women over 18 years old to submit their stories in 700 words or less. Stories can be sent to womansday@ala.org from now until May 10, 2006. Four of the submissions will be featured in an upcoming issue of Woman’s Day.
The stories will also be used by the American Library Association’s Campaign for America’s Libraries to promote support for libraries throughout the country. For more information and the official rules, visit http://www.womansday.com/ala .
SOURCE American Library Association
Web Site: http://www.ala.org http://www.womansday.com/ala
You could be the next Ken-Jen!
Jeopardy (Q – which TV program provides some of the best entertainment on the tube?) is looking for librarians to sign up as contestants.
From Sony Entertainment: “We’re coming to Boston, Chicago, LA, Minneapolis, NYC, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington, DC. We’re looking for contestants and we’d love to have librarians and library lovers try out — please go to: Jeopardy Tryouts. To register for our upcoming contestant search; appointments are limited, so register soon.”
“Idea of America Essay Contest”invites high school juniors to write an essay examining the historical debate over the benefits and disadvantages of adopting the First Amendment. While its words are familiar, the rights it guarantees — involving religion, speech, free press, public assembly, and petition — were modified many times in the First Congress (1789). Essays must be received by April 19, 2006. The best essay will receive $5,000. Three runners-up will each receive $1,000. (NEH) ttp://www.wethepeople.gov/essay/index.html
The Great Family Cookbook Project offers space for families to put together a cookbook filled with their own family recipes. Unfortunately, they do charge an annual fee for creating a cookbook. However, if you are interested in browsing others’ recipes, that feature is free. There are over 20,000 recipes in the collection, and the majority are those wonderful tried-and-true recipes that all cooks are on the lookout for.
Watching old footage of the first moon landing or marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima used to be the domain of darkened classrooms and film strips that more often than not would snap midway through a projection. But now students—and anyone with an Internet connection—can watch President Truman’s inauguration or the early days of Boulder Dam with just a simple click of a mouse. A joint project between Google and the National Archives has digitized 101 historic films, making them accessible for free from either site as of last month. This the best link: http://video.google.com/nara.html
“This is an important step for the National Archives to achieve its goal of becoming an archives without walls,” says Professor Allen Weinstein, archivist of the United States, in a statement. “This is one of many initiatives that we are launching to make our goal a reality.”
Google picked up the cost on this project, and is in more talks with the National Archives about adding more films to the portal’s site, says Susan Cooper, a spokesperson for National Archives. While the National Archives has partnered with other sites to make some of its nine billion holdings available over the Internet in the past, this is the first time these particular films have appeared on the Web. And it’s a move the repository hopes to repeat given the costs associated with digitizing the materials—and the mammoth size of the materials in the public domain.
“We’re never going to be in a position to put all or any significant amount of our collection up [on the Internet] given our budget,” says Cooper. “It’s just not feasible.”
Kate DiCamillo’s latest book, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Candlewick, 2006), is getting a lot of buzz. This beautiful tale of a coldhearted china rabbit is generating accolades from readers (“an instant classic”) and critics alike (including a starred review from SLJ). We are pleased to have Kate as the next author in our Under Cover video interview series. To join us for the premier of the video on Thursday, March 23, at 3 p.m. EST register online and yes, it’s free! http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6312751.html That’s 2:00pm CST!
The Web site for the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL), a project of the University of Maryland funded by the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, has undergone a total redesign and is now sporting a fresh new look. http://www.icdlbooks.org
Have you seen http://www.storylineonline.net/ ? Check it out. You elementary librarians and/or grandparents will be glad you did.
This information was published by SLJ on March 1. To see the full article, go to http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6311760.html
“The sheer amount of books, multimedia, and databases for young people is growing faster than the hole in the ozone layer. We’re well aware of this since a large part of what we do at School Library Journal is evaluate and discuss this burgeoning world…Library budgets are flat or declining. There’s pressure to purchase multiple languages and formats to serve different learners. Digital content needs to be a part of the educational landscape. You want to encourage reading for pleasure as well as support the curriculum.
To make matters worse, book prices for preschool to grade four and nonfiction for grades five and up have risen sharply (although some adult prices have declined). But why point the finger just at publishers? Collection budgets also go toward many resources, like databases, for which we don’t have comparable data.
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Source: Bowker’s Books in Print*Preliminary prices.**Prices include single-volume reference titles.***Prices include reference and related resources.The prices for children’s and YA titles are based on books published in the first half of 2006. Adult 2005 prices are based on 2004 data. For children’s and YA trade paperbacks, an informal survey of several publishers placed the average price at $8.95.”
Brian KenneyEditor-in-Chiefbkenney@reedbusiness.com
