ISBN: 9781634524582
    Author: Snow, Arianna

    ISBN: 9780062403698
    Author: Rollins, James, 1961-

    ISBN: 9780385539050
    Author: Alcott, Kate

    ISBN: 9781555842352
    Author: Swarthout, Glendon, 1918-1992

    ISBN: 9780399169526
    Author: Walsh, M. O.

    ISBN: 9780812987119
    Author: Hillenbrand, Laura

    ISBN: 9780399170874
    Author: Robb, J. D., 1950-

(February 26, 2015). Lucidea announce that the law firm of Kelly Hart and Hallman LLP will migrate to SydneyEnterprise, Lucidea's powerful new library automation system.

(February 26, 2015). Biblionix, a leading provider of automation solely for public libraries, today announced that its Apollo integrated library system (ILS) has topped LibraryWorks' (http://libraryworks.com/) massive “2015 Library Purchasing Survey” in the IT/Automation category. The survey ranked 46 such companies.

(February 27, 2015). Civica announced the upcoming web-based library management, discovery, digital asset management and archives solution, Spydus10. Due for public release in April 2015, the first release of Spydus10 comprises a complete suite of web-based applications that will follow the intuitive workflows that Spydus is known for. Spydus10 will have a refreshed interface for both staff and library patrons, and increased functionality aligned to Civica's commitment to staying relevant with the evolving needs of libraries.

Open Access (storefront). Credit: Flickr user Gideon Burton

In his February 11 post, my fellow LITA blogger Bryan Brown interrogated the definitions of librarianship. He concluded that librarianship amounts to a “set of shared values and duties to our communities,” nicely summarized in the ALA’s Core Values of Librarianship. These core values are access, confidentiality / privacy, democracy, diversity, education and lifelong learning, intellectual freedom, preservation, the public good, professionalism, service, and social responsibility. But the greatest of these is access, without which we would revert to our roots as monastic scriptoriums and subscription libraries for the literate elite.

Bryan experienced some existential angst given that he is a web developer and not a “librarian” in the sense of job title or traditional responsibilities–the ancient triad of collection development, cataloging, and reference. In contrast, I never felt troubled about my job, as my title is e-learning librarian (got that buzzword going for me, which is nice) and as I do a lot of mainstream librarian-esque things, especially camping up front doing reference or visiting classes doing information literacy instruction.

Meme by Michael Rodriguez using Imgflip

However, I never expected to become manager of electronic resources, systems, web redesign, invoicing and vendor negotiations, and hopefully a new institutional repository fresh out of library school. I did not expect to spend my mornings troubleshooting LDAP authentication errors, walking students through login issues, running cost-benefit analyses on databases, and training users on screencasting and BlackBoard.

But digital librarians like Bryan and myself are the new faces of librarianship. I deliver and facilitate electronic information access in the library context; therefore, I am a librarian. A web developer facilitates access to digital scholarship and library resources. A reference librarian points folks to information they need. An instruction librarian teaches people how to find and evaluate information. A cataloger organizes information so that people can access it efficiently. A collection developer selects materials that users will most likely desire to access. All of these job descriptions–and any others that you can produce–are predicated on the fundamental tenet of access, preferably open, necessarily free.

Democracy, diversity, and the public good is our vision. Our active mission is to open access to users freely and equitably. Within that mission lie intellectual freedom (open access to information regardless of moralistic or political beliefs), privacy (fear of publicity can discourage people from openly accessing information), preservation (enabling future users to access the information), and other values that grow from the opening of access to books, articles, artifacts, the web, and more.

The Librarians (Fair use – parody)

By now you will have picked up on my wordplay. The phrase “open access” (OA) typically refers to scholarly literature that is “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions” (Peter Suber). But when used as a verb rather than an adjective, “open” means not simply the state of being unrestricted but also the action of removing barriers to access. We librarians must not only cultivate the open fields–the commons–but also strive to dismantle paywalls and other obstacles to access. Recall Robert Frost’s Mending Wall:

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him…

Or librarians, good sir. Or librarians.

    ISBN: 9781440336980
    Author:

    ISBN: 9781629146928
    Author: Jensen, Janne,

    ISBN: 9781427252395
    Author: Hepworth, Sally

(February 25, 2015). From February 25, ownership of all Reed Elsevier businesses, subsidiaries and financing activities below the two listed parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV, has been transferred to a new single group entity. This entity has been named RELX Group plc. RELX Group plc will continue to be owned by Reed Elsevier PLC, the London listing vehicle, and Reed Elsevier NV, the Amsterdam listing vehicle, although we will be asking shareholders at the Annual General Meeting to change their names to RELX PLC and RELX NV respectively.

Considering that it is based on a police case from almost 30 years ago, it is astonishing how much currency Joyce Carol Oates’s new novel has. A black teen is found beaten and apparently raped, naming only “white cops” as the perpetrators before lapsing into silence. The ensuing polarized reactions on the parts of the black and white communities of the teen’s town sound eerily similar to the conversations (or non-conversations) that have been raging in this country over the past two years in response to the deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Trayvon Martin (two years ago, today). Blaming the victim, blaming all whites, blaming black family values, conflicting reports of what really happened: we have seen all these reactions in abundance, and at least according to Oates, they were almost identical to the responses to Tawana Brawley’s rape allegations in 1987.

When last I wrote about Oates, I said that readers who chose to could ignore her gender politics and focus on her deft story telling. This time out, I don’t think that’s possible. Every page of this novel demands to be read through the prism of race and gender and American values. Nevertheless, the story Oates has to tell is compulsively readable, and she handles a number of narrative tricks with her usual deft hand. This is an astonishing novel from an author who shouldn’t really be astonishing us any more.

*OATES, Joyce Carol. The Sacrifice. 309p. Ecco. Jan. 2015. Tr $26.99. ISBN 9780062332974. LC 2014052422.

After briefly describing the central event of her powerful new novel—a 15-year-old girl named Sybilla Frye is found tied up in a basement, beaten, and apparently raped—Oates quickly expands the work’s focus to the impact of the crime on the girl’s New Jersey community, and eventually the nation. Sybilla remains largely uncommunicative with doctors and police—beyond a vague accusation that “white cops” raped her—leaving the community, and readers, to make their own decisions. Soon, a prominent Black minister and his attorney brother get involved in the case, at first merely drumming up support for Sybilla, but eventually taking the entire case into their hands and even accusing specific individuals not originally named by Sybilla. Oates manages this expanding campaign (or “Crusade,” as the Reverend has it) with expert narrative skill, moving deftly among the characters, from Sybilla and her mother to the Reverend and his brother to Sybilla’s incredibly disturbed stepfather, and other community members. The seeming timeliness of this novel is made somewhat depressing by the fact that it is a reimagining of a true case from 1987—that of Tawana Brawley, whose rape allegations briefly made national news and merited a mention in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. That case was never fully resolved, with opinions about Brawley’s veracity still debated. Oates uses her poetic license to resolve some of the issues involved, but the heart of the issue—the distrust between poor black communities and their white police departments remains. VERDICT: A powerful novel which should give teens much to ponder and compare to current events.—Mark Flowers, John F. Kennedy Library, Vallejo, CA

(February 26, 2015). Boopsie, the leading mobile platform-as-a-service provider for libraries worldwide, and Baker and Taylor, the premier worldwide distributor of digital and print books and entertainment products, have integrated the Boopsie Mobile App with Baker and Taylor's Axis 360 digital media library. The partnership will drive circulation and usage of Axis 360 and meet patrons' expectations for easy access to the library's digital information and entertainment materials.

(February 25, 2015). To support a growth rate of more than 30% in 2014 and expansion into new global markets including corporate libraries, law libraries and government libraries in addition to continuing to expand in public and academic libraries, Boopsie Inc., the leading mobile platform-as-a-service provider for libraries worldwide, has hired Dmitry Maslov as Senior Product Manager. He has extensive experience in every role in the app development process: ideation, design, development, testing, launch, marketing, PR and customer support. Prior to joining Boopsie, Dmitry worked at Travelzoo where he was responsible for company's popular iOS and Android applications, which have been installed on over 3 million devices. He also worked at frog design where he learned early on how vital it is to have a clear visual language and provide intuitive interfaces. With his experience and passion, Maslov is well positioned to drive Boopsie's product development as the company prepares for even greater success in 2015.

(February 24, 2015). Bibliotheca, a leader in RFID and barcode based self-service technology solutions, has received high marks on the Strategic Library's 2015 Library Purchasing Survey as well as won Gold in the 2015 Modern Library Awards, both of which were scored by and voted upon by librarians.

(February 24, 2015). University of Rochester River Campus Libraries purchased a large collection of correspondence between American women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony and her close friend and colleague, Rachel Foster Avery. Any time curators receive a collection of fragile, handwritten letters, one of their greatest challenges is to preserve the delicate materials so they can digitize the contents and make them accessible to others. These materials were digitized with the KODAK Picture Saver Scanning System PS50.