Librarian Artists

Reading this month’s Lucky magazine, I was excited to read about featured
New York artist Roz Leibowitz [who] draws impossibly intricate sketches with nothing more than a pencil and an antique sheet of paper, which the former librarian pulls from her collection of 18th– and 19th-century ephemera.
I took a look at some of her other works at the Sears-Peyton gallery, and thought they were interesting, gothic pieces.   I liked the idea of a librarian-artist re-using found papers.  I think my favorite is The Blizzard.  What’s yours?  And do you have any other favorite librarian-artists?

Chat While Reading

We’ve often discussed the future of books and reading on Snell Snippets, so I thought that some might be interested in this “Chat While Reading: The Future of Books?” article from NPR.  Their article focuses on BookGlutton.com but a number of commenters mentioned other communal reading sites like LibraryThing.com.  How do you think a site like this would function differently for classes than a Blackboard chat or discussion page?  Currently, if I have a friend who lives too far away, we’ll just email back and forth about books we’re reading: quoting passages, etc.  Just this past week, a friend who lives in New Zealand and I were emailing back and forth as she finished up Anna Karenina. I think for now I’m going to stick with that more private way of communication and dialogue.  But I also often like to check out Amazon, IMDB, metacritic  or Wikipedia after I read or watch something, to get a sense of its reception and other people’s reactions.  Any thoughts?

MLA PR Awards

The Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) presented the 19th Biennial Public Relations Awards to the winning applicants at the Association’s Annual Conference at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Winners were chosen by a panel of independent judges from the public relations, press, and library fields.  Evaluation criteria included graphic design, originality, and presentation.  Over 100 entries were submitted. 

Northeastern University Libraries  received First Prize for two entries, the Libraries’ 2008 Annual Report and a poster for the Meet the Author program, “My African Horse Problem,” featuring Northeastern University Professor William Miles.  Maria Carpenter, Director of Advancement and Marketing, and Emily Sabo, Advancement and Marketing Assistant, were presented with a certificate by MLA Public Relations Committee Co-Chairs at the Public Relations Awards Ceremony.  Carpenter said “It is an honor to receive recognition for the collective efforts by many,” upon learning about the award. The annual report was created by Heather Stirling, Rebecca Merz, Emily Sabo, Michael Silva, Maria Carpenter, with assistance from Bruce Ployer and Denis Skarep.  Photos were by Tom Kates, Craig Bailey, and members of the Libraries’ Programming and Communications Committee.  The poster was designed by Heather Stirling, who is a undergraduate student at Northeastern and was a recent graphic design co-op at Northeastern University Libraries.  

50 Books for Our Times

Debbie Pennino directed me towards another book list, by Newsweek on “50 Books for Our Times.”  It certainly gave me a few more ideas for books to pick up.  I was a bit disappointed by how few female authors they included; it looked like less than 15%.  But on the list was Snell Library favorite Geraldine Brooks and Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy, which I’m currently finishing up, and would strongly suggest.  You can pick up all three volumes at Snell!

Book Burning

I saw this article on book burning that I thought might be of interest (“A teen book burns at the stake”).  A group of citizens in West Bend, Wisconsin has been trying to remove Baby Be-Bop from the shelves of their public library.  When the Library Board decided not to comply with their request, it looks like several members of the board were ousted.  Another group, the Christian Civil Liberties Union, has filed a lawsuit against the town and library, and have called for the book to be publically burned. The author in question, Francesca Lia Block, is actually one Natalie had mentioned earlier.