+ Woodrow Wilson library ready for critical expansion (via inRich.com)

+ Dubuque library agrees to sell art collection (via AP)

From the editorial:

When we learned libraries were installing video games to draw teens and young adults through their doors, our first thought was that it’s like luring people to church with free beer. Who says that’s a good idea? Sure, they’ll come, but then how do you get rid of them?

The library, we thought, was a place for study and contemplation, not a hangout for gamers. Yes, we know modern libraries often have more DVDs than Blockbuster, more computers than the local community college and better coffee than Starbucks.

Comic books and CDs can be checked out along with books and magazines. Yoga and wine-tasting sessions supplement story hour, poetry readings and lectures. Some libraries have become de facto senior centers, resource labs for home-schoolers, rehearsal studios for community dance and theater groups . . . but still. Video games? What’s next—miniature golf? Walk-in medical clinics? Taco Bell?

To our surprise, the video game trend is endorsed by the Chicago-based American Library Association, which recently received a $1 million grant from the Verizon Foundation to develop a national model for library gaming. Eighty percent of public libraries allow video games on their computers, according to a 2007 Syracuse University study, and 13 percent have separate game systems such as PlayStation, Wii or Xbox.

More.

Source: Chicago Tribune

From the article:

House Resolution 1664 once again has reached the U.S. Senate, and voting on the bill once again has been postponed.

Bursting at the seams, the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library has the materials to expand its operations, but the bill it needs to gain funding for that expansion has hit another roadblock.

Though it has passed the House of Representatives twice, H.R. 1664, which asks that the federal government recognize the museum as a worthwhile organization, was stalled again at the Senate level this week, despite support from U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th.

Source: News Leader

From the article:
When Shippensburg University’s student library is remodeled next summer, it will be losing up to 30 percent of its book collection in favor of electronic storage.
Source: Public Opinion

From the article:

The National Library in Ankara has implemented a project to offer audio recordings of books according to the needs of the visually impaired. For visually disabled people, books are one of the most crucial sources of information about anything pertaining to the past, present or future. Thus, libraries are of great importance and must provide them with the necessary facilities to make these resources accessible. However, it is not an easy task to put such written works into an audio format. It takes not only high technology, but also a large amount of volunteer support.

Source: Todays Zaman