The Kept-Up Academic Librarian

The Gourmet's Ultimate Culinary Collection

The 3,500 cookbooks in Gourmet magazine’s research library are becoming a part of the culinary collection at the Fales Library of New York University, one of the most extensive collections of culinary works in the country. While the Gourmet collection reaches back to the early 20th century, most of the books were published after Conde Nast bought the magazine in 1983. Read more at:
http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/nyu-gets-gourmets-cookbook-library/?scp=3&sq=diner%27s%20journal&st=cse

Students Protest Purdue Librarian's Homophobic Blog Post

Some Purdue University students have called for a faculty member to be fired after he posted comments online urging discussion on what he called the economic cost to society of homosexuality. Purdue officials said they would not discipline Bert Chapman, who is the university's government information and political science librarian and does not have a classroom teaching assignment. Chapman wrote last month on the townhall.com Web site that money spent on AIDS would be better used for other health initiatives, such as cancer or heart disease research, and that the current health care debate needed to address "an economic case against homosexuality." Purdue senior Kevin Casimer on Wednesday started a petition urging the university to take action against Chapman, saying his comments were embarrassing and detrimental to the school's reputation. Read more at:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-purdue-bloggerpro,0,7732363.story

Academic Library As The Space To Collaborate

If you could rebuild your campus library from the ground up, how would it be different? Would the impact of digital technology significantly alter the features and design? For many university administrators and library executives, these questions are purely hypothetical, offering them a chance to sketch out new commons areas or draw up a features wish list. But others, who are in the midst of library building projects or who have recently completed them, have had to reconsider the role of a library on a 21st century campus as they design buildings they hope will still be relevant decades from now. Read more at:
http://www.campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/11/01/21st-Century-Classroom.aspx

Yet Another Student Suicide At NYU's Bobst Library

A 20-year old student at New York University apparently took his own life on Tuesday morning, reviving concerns about the high number of suicides there in recent years. At least nine students at N.Y.U. have committed suicide since 2002, including four in 2004. In an effort to curb the problem, university officials made several changes in 2005, including the installation of plexiglass panels around the perimeter of the atrium of Bobst Library, where two students had jumped to their deaths. The university also restricted access to balconies, expanded counseling services and created a 24-hour hot line that students could call about suicide concerns. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/nyregion/04nyu.html?_r=1 

Taj Mahal Of A Library

One of these gray days, I'm going to spend a good, solid eight hours in the newly remodeled William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library at Ohio State University -- just for the sheer pleasure. The place has everything: reading material, curios, terrific views and coffee. If you're any kind of library fan, go there. It is a Taj Mahal of a library (as it should be, given the $108.7 million tab). It's open to the public, with some restrictions on borrowing books or using digital resources for those unaffiliated with OSU. I've heard it said that modern libraries too often de-emphasize books in favor of electronic material. Not so this place, at least visually. Read more at:
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/life/stories/2009/11/01/1A_BLUN01_--_nov._1_ART_11-01-09_E1_NSFGB18.html?sid=101

Students Protest Lack Of Access To Campus Library

The honor student from Connecticut went on a hunger strike.It was a small but drastic measure designed to draw attention to the closure of the library at the Chester County institution and to food services that she and others insist are poor. She began to post fliers around campus about the library's value. Sherwood said she had learned in a letter from Lincoln University President Ivory V. Nelson that the library renovation has been delayed, in part, because the university, a state-sponsored school, did not have enough money from the Legislature to proceed on schedule with the $17 million project. The state budget impasse further delayed funding, he said. On Tuesday, the day before the protest, Samuel W. Pressley, a university spokesman, said that despite the library's closing, students can go to "modules," or trailers, where they can request books from library staffers. Read more at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20091030_Conn__student_at_center_of_Lincoln_U__protests.html

Japanese University Plans Biggest Manga Library Ever

In a move to promote serious study of Japanese manga, a university in Tokyo plans to open a library with two million comic books, animation drawings, video games and other cartoon industry artifacts.Tentatively named the Tokyo International Manga Library, it would open by early 2015 on the campus of the private Meiji University, and be available to researchers and fans from Japan and abroad. "Manga has been taken lightly in the past and there has been no solid archive for serious study," said Susumi Shibao, a library official at the university told AFP by telephone. "We want to help academic studies on manga as part of Japanese culture." Read more at:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gJAzSuC3AOKkfxHPbRwOEBevmQKg

NCSU Breaks Ground On New High-Tech Library

The hyper-modern architecture and the robotic book storage and retrieval system will likely get the most attention, but it's the way the interior space is crafted for people that could put N.C. State's new library at the front of an evolutionary leap. The university is to break ground today on the 200,000-square-foot James B. Hunt Jr. Library, which was designed as much with technological and social trends in mind as books. With knowledge ever more likely to be stored and retrieved electronically, those who plan new libraries are making big changes. Read more at:
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/education/story/154080.html

Berkeley Students Protest Small Campus Library Closings

Several hundred UC Berkeley students took over the anthropology library for 24 hours this weekend to protest UC-wide budget cuts, in particular Saturday closures of small campus libraries that students use for studying and research. Organizers said nearly 300 students - along with dozens of supportive staff and faculty members - showed up at the anthropology library shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, when the facility was scheduled to close for the weekend. UC Berkeley administrators closed all but two of the campus' 20 or so libraries on Saturdays this year to save money. Read more at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/10/MNPR1A40PE.DTL&tsp=1

Harvard's President Says Libraries Must Get More Efficient

Harvard’s library system, which has more than 16 million volumes, is the oldest in the U.S. and the largest academic library system in the world, according to the school’s Web site. While the system is one of the school’s “proudest treasures,” it’s in need of better coordination, Faust said.  “Curious practices have grown up as the system has grown - - obstacles to sharing and coordination,” she said. Economic arrangements at the libraries discourage them from working together, she said. Harvard’s 70 libraries, for example, must work together to increase savings, she said in a speech today on campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Read more at:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aQvELZBe3VZc