Cold Hard Cash Comfort

Unionized library workers at branches of the New York City Library get compensated for working in temperatures lower than 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit). It's a contract provision called "Extreme Temperature Procedures".

PUT A SWEATER ON.

CNIB Requests Federal Funding

The Canadian National Institute for the Blind can no longer fund their operating cost through donations alone. They are asking for help from the federal government.

The CNIB has funded the cost of an accessible library service for people who are visually impaired through donations for 90 years, but the organization can't sustain its $10-million annual operating cost anymore without federal government support, CNIB executive director for Alberta and Northwest Territories Cathy McFee said Tuesday.

The problem is not only that the organization can't fund the library-- it shouldn't have to, McFee said. All other Canadians can go to their local, publicly funded library for books, while Canadians with vision loss access library services through a charity, she said.

"It is unacceptable that a country like Canada has a two-tiered system when it comes to accessing books and information. It is an issue of human rights," McFee said.

"Disability should not dictate whether the government supports a person's right to read."

I'm amazed to find out the CNIB isn't funded by the federal government. I agree completely that it should be.

Offline Book Lending Costs Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion

From Go to Hellman, a blog I think I will be adding to my daily reading list: Offline Book "Lending" Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion. Man, I wish I'd made this post.

Hot on the heels of the story in Publisher's Weekly that "publishers could be losing out on as much $3 billion to online book piracy" comes a sudden realization of a much larger threat to the viability of the book industry. Apparently, over 2 billion books were "loaned" last year by a cabal of organizations found in nearly every American city and town. Using the same advanced projective mathematics used in the study cited by Publishers Weekly, Go To Hellman has computed that publishers could be losing sales opportunities totaling over $100 Billion per year, losses which extend back to at least the year 2000. These lost sales dwarf the online piracy reported yesterday, and indeed, even the global book publishing business itself.

Psst... He means libraries.

Seriously, why didn't I make this post? It's hilarious.

Library Routes

The Library Routes Project collects stories about how people working in libraries ended up where they are. What made them decide to be librarians, how they got to where they are now. Interesting stories. One day I hope to add my own.

Counterpoint on Library Fines

Having mentioned previous articles about library fines being waived, here is another on the subject - a Boston library filing criminal complaints.

Granted, it's not just regular late fines that are the problem here. Alyssa Toste and Jeremie Crane haven't returned over $500 worth of materials, both recently and a year or two back. These are not small fines.

"The value of the materials is fairly high. We need to replace them," said Martha Holden, director of the Peabody Institute Library.

85 Reasons To Be Thankful for Librarians

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Media Literate Six Year Olds

From WIRED: Media-Literate Sex-Year-Olds. Mrs. Cassidy is teaching her grade one class how to be media literate. They're already pretty good at navigating web sites they know. They keep a class blog. They've already been taught to be helpful and not mean in comments.

This reminds me of an article I skimmed some time ago about Google wanting to help children search better. Is it better to try to adapt to a child's needs or to have a child adapt to Google's system? (The other question being, 'how young do we want kids to be on the internet?', 'safe searches' and all. I know I could have gotten into a lot of trouble as a little kid with a safe search on Google, especially since I would be trying my damnedest to see bad things.)