not just a library

It isn't just a library. It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you -- and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life. - Isaac Asimov

[happyheidi]

♡ Little Free Libraries ♡

(via)

[olreid]

help

[macrolit]

“The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.”

— Rita Dove (b. 28 August 1952)

[tallahasseemp3]

This is just The Magnus Institute.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Nope.

They have a gas-based firefighting system instead of sprinklers for obvious reasons. It does lower the percentage of oxygen in the building, but not enough to kill anyone.

I found this by googling “Yale library fire oxygen.” It was literally the first result.

Fact-checking is your friend.

[crazyintheeast]

It’s true. It’s not the fire suppression system that kills you. The Librarians come and personally murder you for starting a fire in a library. But you didn’t start a fire you say? No matter. You are collateral damage. Everybody gets killed to show that arsonists have no chance of escaping justice

[archivlibrarianist]

If Libraries Were Like Run Like Used Car Dealerships

We have BOOKS! Big books, small books, tall books, short books. Books for all your READING needs! Ask us about our NO-INTEREST LOANS. No money? No ...

A librarian definitely wrote this.

[wecanthavethat]

Y'all remember when the Barbara Bush Branch Library did an advertise for their curbside services in the style of a used car salesman?

[archivlibrarianist]

Oh, crap, I’d forgotten all about this!

[notjustalibrary]

lol at academics thinking librarians need to read every book to determine whether its worth adding to the library????

[jauntylittlefrillyboy]

the weird thing is, when I view my job as some sort of background extra it becomes much more palatable. people go to a library and see me shelving a stack of books in my cardigan and glasses (now with glasses chain!) and they go "yeah, that's exactly right. that's how it's supposed to be in a library." and for some reason, that's comforting? the work is whatever, and the customers are customers, but sometimes it feels like I'm being paid just to make sure this places looks right, and I find that very fun.

[jauntylittlefrillyboy]

stop being funnier than me on my own posts

[notjustalibrary]

COVID19/coronavirus LibGuides List

Sheet1 List of COVID-19/coronavirus LibGuides Please feel free to add your or other LibGuides you discover. School,Link,Content / audience,License UCSD,https://ucsI now have a Curry Zoom account, so I could set up individual appointments with your students.d.libguides.com/covid19,Links for offic...

An excellent resource for librarians developing Lib Guides related to the impact of COVID-19. Add your Lib Guide to the list or take a look at others to help you develop your own!

[intothestacks]

Libraries find ways to stay of service while doors are closed

The Robertson Memorial Library in Leyden may not be letting anyone inside during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is encouraging residents to access its Wi-Fi for work, or use its temporary curbside pickup to grab extra reading and entertainment...

[intothestacks]

Libraries Around the World: Yenagoa, Nigeria

Azaiki Public Library

[neil-gaiman]

Another school teacher here. We've been warned not to just start reading storybooks on You Tube willy-nilly, that we'll be finding out, soon, how the copyright issues will work out. Can we have your permission to read your books online to our classes? (Thanks!)

Yes. I’m giving blanket permission to teachers and educators and librarians (and to anyone with a loved one or child at the other side of a screen who needs to read to them). These are weird times. We should hang together.

[intothestacks]

Professional Development Opportunities from Home

Thesefree and affordable learning options allow library professionals to follow their interests and dig deeper into new approaches.

[deckerlibrary]

You Can Now Access 1.4 Million Books for Free Thanks to the Internet Archive

The Internet Archive is temporarily eliminating waitlists for tons of ebooks to create a National Emergency Library open to anyone with an internet connection.

[notjustalibrary]

The International Coalition of Library Consortia have put together this extremely thorough spreadsheet of publishers and providers offering expanded access to scholarly content at this time. 

The spreadsheet specifies what kind of content is being opened up, whether there are any limitations on scope of access, and when the access will expire. Some entries are only offering open access for content directly related to COVID-19, but many are offering interdisciplinary access. 

[neil-gaiman]

Sir - have you any opinions on the current Berne Convention copyright length?

It’s too long. 70 years after death feels wrong. I’m good with 50 years, though.

[shiplocks-of-love]

It should be zero. What good is extended copyright after death of the creator in the 21st century? The right to be asserted as the creator of a work should be separated from the economical value from that point. All it’s doing now is filling the pockets of greedy companies.

[neil-gaiman]

And it’s also feeding loved ones and children after the death of the person who made the art has died.

Here’s a blog I wrote long ago about creators having wills. And a sample will. http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html?m=1

John M. Ford was pretty much the smartest writer I knew. Mostly. He did one thing that was less than smart, though: he knew he wasn't in the

I like the idea of feeding Ash (he’s four and not yet able to work) with my stories after I’m dead. I’m not good with feeding my great grandchildren.

[marikorawralton]

As an author, I don’t agree with this argument at all. Why should your past works support your family anymore than anyone else’s?

A man who works his body day in and day out and pays his taxes every year to support his family gets nothing when he dies. Most he gets is an insurance plan out of pocket.

Why should I get that sort of luxury? How am I better than the working man? How am I better than someone who worked dozens of times harder than me?

Even then, how are you sure the money is actually going to your estate? How would you make sure your family continues your legacy through hardwork, and not through old money?

It’s something I don’t exactly agree with. I think there are more ways to support your family after you’re gone, and I don’t know if extension of copyright is it.

[neil-gaiman]

So you’re arguing for a world in which no property of any kind, physical or intellectual lasts longer than the death of the person who bought it or made it? In which houses, stocks, comic book collections, all become part of the commonweal? Because right now, you can leave your property to your children or your loved ones. Touchable property and intellectual property. You can leave them money, too.

Anthony Burgess (who wrote, among other things, A Clockwork Orange) was told (wrongly) he had months to live. He wanted to support his family after he was gone, so he wrote books, fast and well.

He was lucky. It was a misdiagnosis and he didn’t die.

But I’m on the side of Anthony Burgess in this. I’m glad that Douglas Adams’ books took care of his daughter Polly when she was a small child whose father had just died, and more so when, a decade later, her mother died as well.

I’m a writer. What I do is write. I have adult children who are taking care of themselves, and a four year old who can’t. I’m in a couple of Covid risk groups, and could in theory be dead in a couple of weeks. (I hope I’m not.) PWhile there are “more ways to support your family after you’ve gone” that aren’t based around things I’ve made up and written down, I didn’t actually want to stop writing and making things up in order to do them.

I think the current copyright laws (death plus 70 for individuals, 90 years after creation for corporate things) are too long. But I don’t think you should lose your property, physical or intellectual, when you die.

[avayarising]

I agree that copyright should last somewhat beyond the author’s death. Otherwise it sucks that money that would have been paid for this work is no longer being paid just because you’ve died. I think even 50 years is too long though. 25 years is plenty of time for dependents to find another source of income. Even infant children will be fully grown after that point.

I’d also be happier with copyright that counted from the creation of the work, rather than from the death of the creator. 50 or 70 years after the creation of the work will still do all that, avoid the sudden cut-off at death, and release creations into the public domain in a reasonable timescale.

[neil-gaiman]

Mm. I’m on the advisory committee of the Authors League Fund. We give money to authors in dire need. A lot of the authors who get the money are old. Some of them you’ve heard of.

I like the idea that when I’m in my seventies the work I did in my twenties will still be in copyright, and will still feed me and my family.

I don’t like the idea of creators in their seventies, eighties and nineties (or older) suddenly seeing their work put in the public domain and out there making money for other people, while they (possibly quite literally) starve. It seems both shortsighted and honestly a little entitled.

[osceolalibrary]

Don’t forget: You can still #stream or #download your favorite #films, #books, #magazines, and #news articles straight to your device or learn something new with online #classes thanks to our #digital resources! Learn a new language, read the classics or new releases, help your kids learn to read with read-alongs, learn skills like video editing or a new software, or stream movies (without paying a subscription to do so), and more. It’s all here, and it’s all FREE with your Library card or eCard number. Find it all on our website at osceolalibrary.org/databases #osceolalibrary #librarynews #onlineresources #languagelearning #ebooks #audiobooks #mangolanguages #lynda #washingtonpost #orlandosentinel #rbdigital #newsbank #tumblebooks #beanstack #odilo #hoopla #cloudlibrary #kanopy https://www.instagram.com/p/B99nmSlJc1n/?igshid=1lp2ml7c27epm

[notjustalibrary]

Bikes and Books in Afghanistan | American Libraries Magazine

Idress Siyawash, a student at Jahan University in Kabul, is founder and chief of a small organization called Read Books (in Pashto: Ketab Lwast), a mobile effort to improve youth literacy rates in Afghanistan by providing books and reading instruction to children in rural areas.