I is for In-House

In-house refers to the calculations of all the library materials used inside the library, as opposed to the materials checked out.  All the magazines, computers, reference books, and books people just pick up and set back down are counted on average and added into the library's usage records.  See, the library is not just a place to check out books or get some free wireless, it is a community center that is used on a regular basis by many people.

In-house can also refer to another type of business.  Yeah, those sorted affairs that the library rather not speak of.  There's an old library saying, "You don't talk about book club."  Wait, no, it's "Two books in the hand is better than one on the shelf."  No, that's not right.  "No librarian left behind."  Crap, I am sure it is one of those.

Anyway, I shouldn't be writing this, but the real secret behind the library is that a long time ago askdlf43ery'' Um.... A long time ago libraries were created to help people.  Yep.  That's all there is.  Helping people and society and stuff.  No big in-house secret they teach you at your first library after library school.  No secret society at all.

Check out this funny caption I thought of:

What Happens in Full House, Stays in Full House

H is for Hugo

Cause Nothin' Says "Penis" "Syfy" "SciFi" Like a Rocket

There is no higher honor in the world of science fiction authorshipitude than winning a Hugo Award.  The Hugo Award is named after Hugo Gernsback, a pioneer in science fiction publishing.  Given every year, the awards are presented as a rocket affixed to a base.  Follow me and we will learn a little bit about the man and the award.  Com'on, kiddos.

 

First, let us learn about the man.  Hugo Gernsback was born Luxembourg in 1884 to a vintner ("wine seller," I had to look it up).  Rather than follow in the family business, he went on to university and studied science.  In 1904, he immigrated to the United States where he soon after founded his first company (Electric Importing Company) and first magazine (Modern Electrics).  He accomplished many other novelty science acts, quoting from NNDB:

"In 1925 he created radio station WRNY, and just three years later he began sending out his own television broadcasts. The screen image, roughly the size of a postage stamp, was received by crude scanners owned by 2,000 amateurs enthusiasts in the New York area. Among Gernsback's other inventions (he held 80 patents by the time he died) were the Hypnobioscope, for "sleep-learning," and the Osophone, an early bone conductor hearing aid."

Despite all those accomplishments, what he is best known for is the creation of Amazing Stories in 1926.  Featuring reprints of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and others, the magazine helped further the interest in science fiction (or as Gernsback called it "scienctifiction") in the public.  Gernsback died in 1967 and donated his body to science.

The awards themselves were started in 1953 and have been awarded every year since 1955. The awards, ranging in categories such as short fiction, movies, etc., are given out every year at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), voted upon by members of the World Science Fiction Society.  To join the society, go to the Hugo Awards website.

Hugo Gernsback
Hugo Awards
Hugo Award Winners

Wanna Read Shelves With Your Phone?

 

See the future!

A computer science professor in Ohio has developed an Android augmented reality app that will read a shelf of books and tell if they are in order or not.  Using a QR type label above the call number of the books, the phone's camera picks up the info on each item, does some number crunching, and shows the viewer which items are out of place.  Kinda like a "this one is not like the others" but all visual (see above).

Hit the jump for a video of the app at work.

Fast Company

G is for Genealogy

Genealogy is the study of the descendants of a common ancestor of an individual, family or group.  I know that because I looked it up.  Beyond that information, holy crap is it the most time consuming, boring, fraught-with-shoving-a-pen-in-your-eye frustration over not finding anything and then... more nothing... until... one name.  Then another.  For a non-specialists, this kind of research can take years depending on the family.  My own grandmother spend 30 years checking all over the Midwest, England and Ireland and came up with a drunken wedding where everyone there just made up a name.  Research end.

For specialists, genealogical research can still take copious amounts of time, money and talent.  Training, tools and boatloads of experience come into play when combing through thousands of newspapers, records and microfilm.  One researcher told me, "I have no idea what I am looking for, but I will know when I find it."  That just about sums up the entire genealogy experience.

Now, I am not saying that this is impossible.  Some folks have the family Bible lying on their end table right now with all the names and relatives fully intact.  But for those with person-to-person ownership or, like me, drunken parties, this can be a tough piece of business especially for the time periods when records were fairly scarce.  But times they are a'changin.  Hell, I bet in twenty years, Facebook will be a valuable genealogy tool.  Just do not de-friend your Great-Aunt Ester because she keeps leaving Bible quotes on your girls night out posts.  Your granddaughter just might want to see that.

Librarians Serving Genealogists
National Genealogical Society

Ghandi Book Banned in India

Great Soul, the new book about Mahatma Ghandi, has been banned in his home country of India due to insinuations that Ghandi was homosexual or at least bisexual, reports the Sikh Times.  Ghandi's own decendents have decried the ban, claiming that the great leader would not wish for censorship in his country, saying, 

"How does it matter if the Mahatma was straight, gay or bisexual? Every time he would still be the man who led India to freedom."

 Well said.  I mean, think about it.  If a George Washington book came out saying he was gay, and Ted Washington stood up and went, "I could give less of a crap what side of the fence grandpappy was on, he still kicked some British keister."  And isn't that what is important here?  That these great men got the British to leave their people alone?  Now if we can only find someone brave enough to go against Simon Cowell, Hollywood would be safe.

Time Travel Banned In China

Time travel has been banned from all Chinese media.  AHN reports that the General Bureau of Radio, Television and Film feels that time travel fiction is "disrespectful to history" after the genre became a very popular story telling device.

Well, la de freakin da.  What about movies set in the future?  Or in the past?  Does Firefly count with all the Chinese and whatnot? 

You know, I can see the point.  The McFly family was happy as crap before Marty went back and changed history to give them all confidence.  I mean, the way they picked on the 1950s, the music, the cars, the hair, and the kid with the bouncing shoes all scream disrespect.  Not to mention the people that actually invented skateboards and Chuck Berry's career.  Even the social aspects, such as not alluding to the Korean War or the looming threat of the commun... oh.  I see what you did there, China.  Sneaky, sneaky. 

Well, we will not know for sure the precise reasons besides this "alleged" disrespect of history, but if you see that China has outlawed all boxing movies and movies about wolverines this poop just got real.

F is for Fairy Tale

First Wood

Once there was a little fairy named Libris who lived in a magical forest.  Libris made her home in an old cherry tree that stood all by itself in the middle of an clearing.  Many other animals lived in the tree with Libris and she would spend all day playing with them and at night she would make up stories for them to go to sleep to.

Then one day a bunch of men came along with machinery and chopped down the entire forest.  The wood was used to make books.

Fin

Libris will return in "Libris: First Wood Part II"

Edits: made a few changes as the ideas came to me, thank you junebug for the inspiration :)