Can't get online porn at your local library? That's censorship, according to the ACLU, who is suing a Washington state library district:

If you log on to a computer at the Wenatchee public library and type "porn" into the search engine, the list of results will appear as if porn doesn't exist.

The North Central Regional Library District banned pornography from its computers. The censorship also means other websites are blocked. The board decided it's a matter of a safe work environment and its responsibility to the public.

"We believe having pornography in public places hurts our ability to accomplish our mission," said Dan Howard, director of public services.

But not all libraries ban porn:

... despite repeated complaints from women about men watching porn in full view of their children, the Seattle Public Library held fast to its policy of unrestricted online access for adults, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

The paper says the King County Library System has a similar policy: it only filters kids' access on computers. The American Library Association endorses the same stance.

"Sometimes, in a library, you're going to see information that's going to make you uncomfortable," Barbara Jones, director of the association's intellectual freedom office, told radio station KUOW Wednesday.

What do you think, Neatoramanauts? Should porn be banned in taxpayer-supported public libraries? Is now allowing online porn to be viewed by adults in a library a form of censorship or just common sense?

(Photo: Shutterstock)

Remember libraries? You know, the place where they have books you can borrow for free?

Well, the Milwaukee Public Library has a pretty nifty ad campaign poking fun at social media while urging you to read a book. Via copyranter.

Beautiful paper sculptures are being left around Scotland’s libraries as a token of appreciation. The artist’s M.O.? Puns, Twitter shout outs, and complete anonymity.

Link -via Boing Boing | Photo Credit chrisdonia

Anspach pleaded guilty August 31 to a misdemeanor theft count in connection with his failure to return 27 separate items (books and other media) that library brass valued at $770.67. Along with being ordered to pay restitution to the library, Anspach was fined $625.

Anspach, a Pizza Hut employee, is currently serving his sentence at the Jasper County jail.

There is no word on what happened to the library materials. Link -via Arbroath

For centuries the public library has been a great source of knowledge through books. Now one library in Canada is opening up the scope of how you acquire knowledge at the library; by offering up skilled people. Why read a history book when you can talk to a historian?

The program is far less insidious than it sounds. The library has assembled a group of volunteers with particularly interesting skills or histories, and has a system in place to put these people in touch with knowledge seekers. If you’re looking for someone to practice your German with, or to ask about their experiences during the Great Depression, or their struggle with illness, the library will put you in touch with an appropriate individual. Once in touch, you can meet in the library’s cafe, keeping the entire operation under one roof.

Link

In a bit of controversy on campus, the Breakfast Club–a group of about

Not anymore.

Librarians sent an email to the college saying the practice was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘a distraction to other readers’.

In their email to students, the library committee warned: ‘While half-naked half-hour may have seemed like a piece of harmless fun, we ask you please to stop this kind of behaviour in the library.

‘If inappropriate behaviour continues, library staff will refer the matter to the Dean.

‘It is not appropriate for groups of people to organise social or other kinds of events in the library without the permission of the librarian.’

The Breakfast Club members are unhappy, naturally, claiming the ban on nudity in the library “quite literally left our college in a state of chaos.” According to reports, other students–as well as visiting heads of state–are just fine with it.

Link | Image: Nude Reading by Roy Lichtenstein

Card catalogues were once vital components of libraries; most were beautifully crafted of durable materials.  Now some enterprising librarians are finding ways to repurpose card catalogues as storage sites and charging stations for e-book readers.

It turns out that the drawers were just the right size for most of the common eReaders. All the case needed was a few holes drilled in the back, and then running some power cables.

The Bloomington Junior High School Media Center offers a brief how-to photoessay

Link, via.

The machines are similar to Red Box movie rental machines. One of the machines has DVDs in it, and the other has best selling books.

Link

Quite a few college towns have a bar named The Library, so you can honestly say you were at The Library last night (The Office is also a popular bar name). However, there is a trend toward bringing books and bars together, particularly in Los Angeles. These are real taverns that are lined with books that patrons can read and discuss -or you can just bask in the literary atmosphere. Styleture shows us four such bars, like The Wellesbourne, pictured here. Link -Thanks, chris!

The Michigan Lighthouse Conservancy website includes an extensive compilation of the tools required for the operation of a lighthouse.  In addition to the expected hardware and lights, they document some beautifully crafted “traveling libraries.”

In 1876 portable libraries were first introduced in the Light-House Establishment and furnished to all light vessels and inaccessible offshore light stations with a selection of reading materials. These libraries were contained in a portable wooden case, each with a printed listing of the contents posted inside the door. Proper arrangements were made for the exchange of these libraries at intervals, and for revision of the contents as books became obsolete in accordance with suggestions obtained from public library authorities.

At the link is a sample list and thumbnail description of some of the books that were included in these libraries.

Link.

Budget cuts make a librarian’s day more hectic than ever! This video was made by Sean Bonney and the employees of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library in Virginia. -Thanks, Sean!

The list is labeled “Passive Aggressive Library Signs”, but they seem pretty straightforward and useful to me. They clearly communicate the frustration of the sign maker, and some are downright hilarious! I would love to know the story behind the sign pictured here. Link

(image credit: Flickr user rockcreek)

Here’s another study linking the importance of reading books (technically, book collection – but I suppose the two typically go hand in hand) to academic success:

After examining statistics from 27 nations, a group of researchers found the presence of book-lined shelves in the home — and the intellectual environment those volumes reflect — gives children an enormous advantage in school.

“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,” reports the study, recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.

“This is a large effect, both absolutely and in comparison with other influences on education,” adds the research team, led by University of Nevada sociologist M.D.R. Evans. “A child from a family rich in books is 19 percentage points more likely to complete university than a comparable child growing up without a home library.”

Link

Sami Rintala of Rintala Eggertsson Architects led the project, which resulted in a structure that is simple, elegant, practical and versatile. The library was constructed with natural lava stone from the site, plus concrete bricks, wood and bamboo, with natural ventilation and sunshades incorporated into the design.

Link: DesignBoom; all images courtesy of Rintala Eggertsson Architects

Mary and Holly are Michigan librarians who are really into “weeding,” meaning they strive to keep their books relevant and “weed” out dated, damaged, and just plain wrong titles.  Recently featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the two bibliophiles created a submitter-based blog from library-goers all over.

These books are just odd, outdated or maybe should be reconsidered under a current interpretation of collection policies. In no way should the opinions of Mary and Holly be interpreted as a standard for every library.  We just want to have a few chuckles and talk about library collections.

There are lots of curiosities besides the one I chose above.  I really got a kick out of this one, as well as this one.  All around, a fun site!  Link.

He ranked Don Quixote, along with Robinson Crusoe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Gulliver’s Travels, among the great works of world literature. “Each of them is a grandiose idea unto itself,” he said. In Robinson Crusoe he perceived “the development of the entire history of mankind”. Don Quixote captured “ingeniously” the end of an era. He was especially impressed by Gustave Doré’s depictions of Cervantes’s delusion-plagued hero.

He also owned the collected works of William Shakespeare, published in German translation in 1925 by Georg Müller as part of a series intended to make great literature available to the general public. Volume six includes As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida. The entire set is bound in hand-tooled Moroccan leather, with a gold-embossed eagle, flanked by his initials, on the spine.

Hitler considered Shakespeare superior to Goethe and Schiller. While Shakespeare had fuelled his imagination on the protean forces of the emerging British empire, these two Teutonic playwright-poets squandered their talent on stories of midlife crises and sibling rivalries. Why was it, he wondered, the German Enlightenment produced Nathan the Wise, the story of the rabbi who reconciles Christians, Muslims and Jews, while it had been left to Shakespeare to give the world The Merchant of Venice and Shylock?

Link | Image: Calvin College

Bibliophiles, you can now wear books around your neck! Etsy seller TheBlackSpotBooks offers this necklace with eleven tiny books made from a mix of antique and scrap leather. Each is hand-made and no two are alike. Custom books designs are available by request. Link -via Bioephemera

“It was just a fun thing to do,” said Gretchen Hoffmann, 42, who turned up the heat as Miss August 2010 by posing on a row boat, a purple boa strategically draped to highlight the starfish tattoo on her upper back. “I like the idea that the calendars are stereotype-busters. You don’t usually see [librarians] as tattooed and sexy. We’re not the little old ladies who walk around with buns.”

Link to story. Link to website. -via Metafilter

The items featured here are so old, obsolete, awful or just plain stupid that we are horrified that people might be actually checking these items out and depending on the information.

This blog contains actual library holdings. No specific libraries or librarians are named to protect the guilty. Check your shelves, it could be you.

Link -via J-Walk Blog

Ever since the dawn of civilization, men have demonstrated their cultural sophistication, scientific knowledge and philosophical aptitude in written word kept in libraries for peers and, less often, the public, to access and review.

We have a tendency to assume that knowledge and the availability thereof is a modern concept, but in actuality the huge Great Library of Alexandria and the Celsus library in Ephesus prove that the concept of libraries is an ancient one.

We tend to take for granted the notion that the people of the world can or should be taught to read. The ability to read is even used as an indicator of poverty and development. In 1998, the UN defined 80% of the world population as literate, defined as the ability to read and write a simple sentence in a language. It was not always thus. In ancient times, literacy was the trade secret of professional scribes.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Arby.

I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we’re not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well… I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book, because he heard it was very good AND it was banned!

I hope that the school administrators were actually trying to trick students into reading, and weren’t so foolish as to imagine that banning books would lead to teenagers not reading them.

Link via Jessamyn West

image by flickr user florian.b used under creative commons license

Many university and public libraries house special collections, often donated by wealthy patrons or accumulated over decades. This list takes a look at 15 of the most unique special collections from around the world, with such entries as Michigan State’s massive comic art collection.

Michigan State has one of the biggest comic art collections in the world, with more than 150,000 comic books published in the US since 1935 indexed. They don’t stop with comic books however, they also have an exhaustive comic strip collection, including every known book collection of comic strips, as well as over 500,000 hand clipped daily strips filed away in hand made scrapbooks.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by redsfaithful.

Besides threatening to put local artisans and small businesses who can’t afford the test (at $4,000 a pop), the law has another unintendend consequence: library may ban children’s books in order to comply:

The Consumer Product Safety Act was passed by Congress Aug. 14 in reaction to findings that some toys imported from China contained dangerous levels of lead. President Bush signed the legislation, which includes stricter limits on lead levels in children’s products.

The American Library Association said it fears the law has unintended consequences, and libraries may face the choice of closing their children’s sections, banning children under the age of 12 or completing expensive lead testing for every book. [...]

This unintended consequence of the new law isn’t the first to rear its head since Congress passed it. A flurry of complaints from second-hand retailers afraid of being bankrupted by the new requirements prompted the commission to release a clarification on Jan. 8 stating the law doesn’t require all children’s items to be tested.

However, it does make it illegal to distribute any children’s item that exceeds the lead limits, said Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Joseph Martyak. Though libraries, schools, and thrift shops aren’t required to test books for lead, they could face civil or criminal penalties if a book with an elevated lead level leaves its shelves.

Link – Thanks Tiffany!