Library News: Won't You be My Neighbor?

Oh, Hi.  It's nice to see you again.  (change out of button-up and into worn-out Megadeath t-shirt)  You know, our libraries are fascinating and wondrous places where all kinds of things can happen. (takes off shoes for more comfortable shoelessness)  Every day, something special is happening in your library, like someone looking for a job or finding a book they read as a kid. (fixes a mixed drink of whiskey, red wine and orange power drink in a goldfish bowl) Let's see what happened in our libraries this week so far, shall we? (lights the porch on fire)


The Newcastle library and art gallery have been closed down indefinitely after local officials widened security from protesters over the removal of some fig trees and other growth.  The fig trees responded by screaming silently as they were fed into a wood chipper. Silly trees. abc.net.au

Lewis Black, comedian, has been named to the honorary board of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis.  Black plans to help the library by fundraising through performances and such, as well as dressing in shiny boots and time traveling.  ibj.com

Governor Jerry Brown of California signed in a bill this week that will restrict public library privatization.  The bill will force companies to show they are saving the taxpayers money if they take over public services.  Taxpayers could give less of a crap as long as the paper is there in the morning and the new Nicholas Sparks book is on the shelf. mercurynews

The Folger Shakespeare Library is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, one of the more influential books in history.  King James was not around to comment on the widespread craziness like those weirdos in Westboro. washingtonpost

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is in the process of moving a 340 ton boulder for an art instillation. They should hire out a company to do this, if they can prove they can do it cheaper than a bunch of museum folk, that is.  nytimes

Alec Baldwin donated around $10,000 to the Central Falls library to keep it afloat in these hard economic times.  This is a long way to go to use a library out of state. whdh

Library of Congress Parks It in New Hampshire

The Library of Congress has a new rolling exhibit that settled in Concord, NH in front of the state house.  The exhibit, entitled "Gateway to Knowledge," contains reproductions of the Declaration of Independence, the first appearances of Spider-Man, the Gutenberg Bible, and others.  The exhibit is currently on a 90 city tour and is free to the public.

Wow, that's quite a collection of fake artifacts.  I am sure Marvel is excited to have their comics sitting next to the Declaration of Independence like that.  Of course when I think historical documents, I go straight from Magna Carta to Superman, but that's just me.

Also, think about how jazzed Steve "The Gute" Gutenberg is that someone wrote a bible based on his storied career.

Boston Globe

Obsolete Technology News: It's a Week Old

Like I did in yesterday's book news, today I am playing catch up with a little tech news.  Here we go.

Fox, the TV station not the animal, delayed presenting its programming on Hulu for 8 days causing a massive spike in piracy of those shows.  Let it be known that if the nerds can not pay for their digital entertainment through affordable means, they will just take it.  Torrentfreak via boingboing (real sources, I swear)

When presenting their case that they were not ripping off the iPad with their Galaxy tablet, Samsung used the "it was in a movie" defense.  The movie in question "2001: A Space Odyssey" does indeed have tablet devices as well as a computer that freaking kills people!  WSJ via Geekologie

The Videogame History Museum is running a drive on Kickstarter to save/fund their project. The museum can be seen as an important item in the further expansion of humans to waste time dicking around without using their actual dicks.  Mostly.  Kickstarter via Kotaku.