Free Republic

Concealed carrying of weapons is permitted, for now, at the Kilbourn Public Library after the library board reversed a decision to post signs prohibiting the weapons. At a meeting Thursday, library board members said they wanted to persuade legislators to change the law to list libraries in the Wisconsin Statutes as buildings where weapons are prohibited. The board voted 3-2 to rescind a December vote to post signs prohibiting concealed carry. Members Dianne Effinger and Bill Pettit voted against rescinding. Members Jo Ann Luke and Kathleen Helland were absent. Wisconsin Dells Mayor Brian Landers came to talk to the board...

When the right-wing Second Amendment Foundation teamed up with the left-wing First Amendment foundation to sue the Eastern Washington library system for filtering out gun websites, it serves as a case study as to why the Seattle Public Library was right last week when it said it wasn't going to do anything about Internet porn. There's not much titillating about Women & Guns magazine. About as racy as it gets is a recent photo spread on "practical leather" — gun holsters and casual carry handbags for the lady who packs heat. With articles like "Taming Shotgun Recoil" and "Ammunition on...

Madison - Alicia Rheal is an artist who lives on a quiet street within sight of the Capitol. She's also a librarian. Instead of rows and rows of bookshelves filled with Dewey Decimal System-categorized tomes, Rheal's library is decidedly low-tech and charming. No library cards are required. There are no fines. In fact, library users are encouraged to take any book they want and keep it. Rheal is one of many caretakers of the growing phenomenon of Little Free Libraries - tiny boxes designed to promote literacy and the love of reading through free book exchanges. Each Little Free Library...

RICHLAND — Central Washington’s library system will head back to federal court Oct. 25 to further argue its filtering of public Internet access. The hearing in Richland before U.S. District Court Judge Edward F. Shea will consider motions left dangling after the Washington Supreme Court last year upheld the North Central Regional Library district practice of narrowly filtering Internet pages related to pornography and gambling. The state court’s 6-3 decision sided with the NCRL and its 28 branch libraries in a 2006 suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, representing three North Central Washington residents — Sarah Bradburn of...

http://www.reaganfoundation.org/live-webcasts.aspx

March Rubio's recent speech at the Reagan Library.

You could check out the barren shelves, but not the books. A Harlem library branch has rows upon rows of empty bookcases. The shelves in each and every aisle in the adult section of the 115th Street Library had two or more rows without a single tome. Though the NYPL online catalogue indicated that four copies of "The Catcher in the Rye" were available, they weren't there -- and they weren't checked out. The librarian said that the selection there has always been sparse and then whispered, "And there are no metal detectors. Sometimes people just walk out with stuff."

A second employee of Birmingham's downtown library has filed a lawsuit against her employer, claiming library patrons are looking at pornography on the Internet and management is doing nothing about it. Jackson says in her lawsuit that patrons are routinely allowed to view pornography on library computers, often in the presence of children and that management has failed to address the matter.

First-time novelist Rebecca Makkai gives us a character in "The Borrower" who faces a moral dilemma: a Missouri librarian who must decide whether she can help a child running away from home after his parents enroll him in an evangelical program to "discourage" homosexuality. The librarian struggles to choose. The book begins with 26-year-old Lucy Hull's confession: "I might be the villain of this story. Even now, it's hard to tell."

Reading List For List Complete List Complete List By Subject Introduction Arranged by Recommender's Name To contribute to this list, or add to your own list below, plese use the Reading List for Life suggestion form. Professor Richard Abels, History Department: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. (PS 3558 .E476 C3 1961) Regeneration by Pat Barker. (PR 6052 .A6488 R4 1961) Waiting for the Barbarians by Joseph Coetzee. (PR 9369.3 .C58 W3 1982) The Making of the Middle Ages by Richard Southern. (CB 351 .S6 1953a) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. (Book: PG 3326 .B7 G32, Audiotape: PG 3326 .B7...

In an era of fiscal austerity when cities all over the Bay Area are reducing library hours, shedding library staff or closing libraries altogether, a small band of preservationists is actually fighting to stop a new library from being built in Berkeley. The Concerned Library Users is using the language in a 2008 voter-approved bond measure as the basis for a lawsuit filed last fall to halt the city from tearing down the south branch library on Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Because Measure FF, a $26 million library bond measure, makes no mention of demolition, the group contends that...

Berkeley officials say a lawsuit by residents could prevent the demolition and rebuilding of two aging libraries in the poorest areas of town. The officials took their case to Berkeley residents Tuesday night, publicly urging the plaintiffs to drop the suit at a rally before a City Council meeting. The suit, brought by five residents calling themselves Concerned Library Users, contends language in a 2008 ballot measure that secured money for the renovation of the libraries does not contain the word "demolish" and that doing so would be illegal. At issue are plans for demolition and construction of the west...

I routinely make fun of the U.S. News law school rankings for taking into account the size of a law school library when ranking law schools. We live in a world where you can get everything online. Well, not everything. Leave it to the perennial U.S. News darling, Yale Law School, to come up with a library offering worthy of the school’s number 1 ranking. Here’s the wonderful catalog listing: NOT CHK’D OUT – Ask at Circ. – DOG BASKET BEHIND CIRCULATION DESK – ASK AT CIRC: Description 1 dog (border terrier mix) : brown hair, 21 lbs. ; 33...

Thomas More Society attorneys issued a letter today to Marathon County library officials demanding that the library rescind its decision to cancel a showing by the Wausau "40 Days for Life" group of the pro-life documentary, "Blood Money." The director of the library, Ralph Illick, had cancelled the showing of the movie in one of the library's "public meeting rooms," because he determined that the film's topic -- abortion -- would "interfere with normal use of our library." "Having to demand that a library not engage in censorship is outrageous," said Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel for the...

A local judge extends the ban on open carrying of guns at the Capital Area District Library. We first told you about the battle between the library and a statewide gun rights group a few weeks ago. The preliminary injunction from Ingham Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina bans anyone from openly carrying firearms in the library until at least June. In February, the library sought the injunction after four people brought weapons into the building. The gun rights group "Michigan open carry" wants to allow the public to bring guns to the library. The judge says she believes the library has...

May I begin, by saying, I love this country, the United States of America, It is the greatest hope in the history of our planet, save the works of the prophets of God. I add that I have never voted for a Democrat - and I probably never will - although JFK did cut taxes and I wish he had lived longer. Also: I believe that we were endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, foremost being the freedom of speech. Jim Robinson, Thank you. So: If I be banned for what I am about to write, then I...

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich.—Mark McKee is lucky a Michigan library isn't charging him a late fee for returning a book 76 years late. .In 1934, the 13-year-old McKee checked out "A Dog of Flanders" by English author Marie Louise de la Ramee from the Mount Clemens Public Library. Recently, McKee, now 89, said he discovered the book and mailed it to the library. "I was entranced by the book and kept it with my prized possessions, intending to return it forthwith," McKee wrote in an accompanying letter. "Thus began a 76-year odyssey of missed opportunity and intention."

Police have made an arrest in the crossbow slaying of a man in a library in Toronto's east end. The shooting happened at about 4:30 p.m. ET Thursday at the Main Street Library, just south of Gerrard Street East, Toronto police said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene after being struck down by a crossbow projectile known as a bolt, police told CBC News. A bolt is shorter than an arrow but can be much heavier. Witnesses told CBC's Jermaine Hylton they saw two men approach the man, who was sitting on a bench, and then pepper-spray him....

Where can you find oral sex, drug use, a fondness for big government social programs and addictions to multiple sexual partners? If you immediately thought of the Clinton Presidential Library, you’re close, but it’s not the only library dedicated to debauchery. I have spent the last week reading books and magazines I randomly selected off the public library shelves. I literally closed my eyes and just started grabbing stuff, which makes what I found that much more disturbing. The results of this experiment are filled with leftist brainwashing, explicit sex, foul language, drug use, alcohol abuse, permissive parents, abusive parents...

Barack Obama hasn't even finished the second year of his first term in the White House, but officials with two universities that are interested in building his presidential library are already positioning themselves to win the Hawaii-born president's favor. The University of Hawaii is well into early preparations _ including preliminary searches for potential sites, talks with National Archives officials and deliberations on what if any new academic center might accompany an Obama library and museum. The University of Chicago, located in the city where Obama's political career began, signaled an interest a year ago but is saying very little...

"Rather than sulking or giving up, supporters got busy practicing the self-reliance they had been taught growing up country. One bake sale and chicken dinner at a time, they started raising money — enough to where they are preparing to break ground on the new $850,000 library early next month. . ."

That the esteemed Dewey Decimal System would live to see such shenanigans...It didn't happen in Miami. It didn't even happen in Broward. But we have our own share of very old men, and now consider ourselves warned. Stuart resident Herbert Johnson, 92, has been ordered to stay out of Martin County public libraries after waging an amorous campaign toward female employees. His offensive included, for one librarian in particular, a letter left on the front desk "containing sexually explicit language stating what (he) wanted to do to" her. (And just like that, adult illiteracy sounds downright delightful.) Authorities say...

The teachers’ union in Bridgewater and Raynham has filed a labor grievance that could block volunteers from keeping the school district’s libraries open. And as word of the work action spreads, it is stirring up outrage in the two towns. Librarian positions were cut from the middle schools in both towns this year and their salaries channeled into hiring teachers to address bulging class sizes. Volunteer organizations stepped in to pick up the slack — only to be surprised and disappointed by threats of a labor complaint.

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- A 16-year-old who officials said continued to evangelize outside a library after officials warned him to stop has been banned from the Chattahoochee Valley Regional Library System for six months. Kirsten Edwards, acting manager of the North Columbus Public Library, said in a letter that Caleb Hanson repeatedly asked patrons about their religious faith and offered biblical advice. The teen said library employees had warned him to stop. "Then they took me into an office and told me not to do it," he said.

Everyone's opinion, what would be three books that every adult should read? How about three books every kid should read? (besides the Bible, since that's a given for most)

Former President Bush to speak at Reagan Library in NovemberBy Michele Willer-Allred Ventura County Star Posted September 8, 2010 at 10:22 a.m. Former President George W. Bush will be speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum on Nov. 18. As part of the library’s “Perspective on Leadership Forum,” Bush will be discussing his memoir “Decision Points,” which brings readers inside the Texas governor’s mansion on the night of the hotly contested 2000 election, and aboard Air Force One on 9/11 in the hours after the attack on the World Trade Center Towers. The book also goes into detail...

<p>Other Obama supporters want the library located in Chicago.</p> <p>Hawaii state lawmakers supported a proposal this past legislative session.</p> <p>And now University of Hawaii officials are pressing ahead with creating working groups to study such issues as where a suitable site would be located.</p>

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.justice.gov/usao/mow/news2010/harrison.ind.htm JULY 9, 2010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BLACK MARKET TRAVEL AGENTS 38 DEFENDANTS INDICTED IN MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD LOCAL INVESTIGATION EXPOSES NATIONWIDE NETWORK THAT USED STOLEN IDENTITIES, CREDIT CARDS TO PURCHASE AIRLINE TICKETS KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 38 defendants from across the United States have been charged in a series of indictments that allege an extensive network of black market travel agents who used the stolen identities of thousands of victims as part of a multi-million dollar fraud scheme...

BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) -- Students who wished their school librarians a nice summer on the last day of school may be surprised this fall when they're no longer around to recommend a good book or help with homework. As the school budget crisis deepens, administrators across the nation have started to view school libraries as luxuries that can be axed rather than places where kids learn to love reading and do research.....

ABC News' Ariane de Vogue reports: Officials at National Archives (in charge of Kagan papers at the Clinton Library) are very worried about the release of documents. In large part because of email -- the amount of paper is unprecedented: 160,000. The Roberts papers (which seemed like the mother of all dumps) was a mere 70,000.

The great Library of Alexandria, established by Ptolemy II (circa 280 BC), has come to symbolize the receptacle of knowledge of Classical civilization. This great repository was barbarously razed in the Middle Ages. At its height, the Library contained an estimated forty thousand volumes on a wide variety of topics. It held works on astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine, and philosophy -- many of which were copied from the hieroglyphic and cuneiform texts of the Egyptians and Babylonians. It also stored histories of all the countries of the known world: histories of Egypt, of Babylonia, of Persia, of the lands of...

"A Burlington County school board voted Tuesday night to pull a book depicting teenage homosexuality from its high school library shelves after protests from a local conservative group."

Everyone knows that George Washington couldn't tell a lie. What you probably didn't know is that he couldn't return a library book on time. From the article: "New York City's oldest library says one of its ledgers shows that the president has racked up 220 years' worth of late fees on two books he borrowed, but never returned. One of the books was the 'Law of Nations,' which deals with international relations. The other was a volume of debates from Britain's House of Commons. Both books were due on Nov. 2, 1789."

NEW YORK, - A 1992 survey of 5,000 U.S. librarians, long withheld by a professional journal, found one in five respondents had engaged in sexual trysts among the stacks. Will Manly, who said the New York-based Wilson Library Bulletin withheld the results of his survey in 1992, published results recently on his Web site indicating 51 percent of librarians in the early 90s were willing to pose nude for money and 61 percent of respondents admitting to renting an X-rated film, the New York Daily News reported Monday. Manly said the survey questions were printed in the now-defunct journal, but...

GEORGE Washington racked up a $300,000 fee at the New York Library with two books he borrowed 220 years ago. America's first president never returned the books, on international law and parliamentary debates. "We're not actively pursuing the overdue fines. But we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back," librarian Mark Bartlett said. Washington's late fee went unnoticed for almost 150 years. But in 1934 a dusty ledger was discovered in a rubbish heap in the library's basement, revealing the names of all the people who had borrowed books from the city's oldest library...

I have an open argument with a liberal acquaintance over whether liberals or conservatives value public libraries more and which group is more likely to pull the plug on public funding. Most public libraries are supported with tax dollars with some additional support from grants and private donations. Since freepers are a conservative crowd, I am seeking some feedback on which group is more appreciative of public libraries and which is more likely to close your local library.

MOUNT VERNON, VA. — There were no presidential libraries in the days of George Washington, so his papers and writings are scattered around the world. Some are lost forever — Martha Washington, for instance, burned nearly all of her personal letters from her husband shortly before she died. But an unprecedented $38 million donation will allow George Washington's Mount Vernon estate to establish a library dedicated to scholarship on the nation's first president, in many ways filling the role of the modern presidential library. The Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington is expected to open...

With the crippled economy forcing more Bay Staters to dust off library cards, local lending institutions are throwing the book at overdue scofflaws, turning them over to the cops and courts in a hard-nosed bid to collect fines and recover costly tomes and DVDs. “The value of the materials is fairly high. We need to replace them,” said Martha Holden, director of the Peabody Institute Library, which has sent the law after a trio of overdue culprits. The Peabody library filed criminal complaints against 19-year-old Alyssa Toste and 23-year-old Jeramie Crane on Dec. 15. Despite repeated notices, both Toste and...

Some Boulder library employees and supporters are up in arms this week about plans to shut down all four branches on Friday for a mandatory, all-staff training session that includes yoga lessons, a catered lunch and extra paid hours for some workers. But Library Director Tony Tallent defended the get-together, saying it’s a chance for the library system’s 80 employees to bond, relax and learn.

Teen Sex Magazine to Stay on Shelves at Iowa Library Sunday, November 22, 2009 AMES, Iowa — A teen sex magazine will stay on the shelves at the Ames Public Library despite a petition signed by more than 100 parents objecting to the publication. The Ames Library Board voted 6-1 to support library Director Art Weeks' recommendation to keep the magazine Sex, Ect., in the teen section. The magazine is written by and for teens under the oversight of Answer, a national sexuality organization at Rutgers University. It addresses teen sexuality issues, substance abuse and eating disorders.

Former Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule will make an extremely rare joint public appearance on December 8 at the New York Public Library. The three will discuss the Velvet Underground's music and legacy with rock journalist David Fricke as part of the "LIVE from the NYPL" series. The reunion of the legendary New York band comes on the heels of the publication of "The Velvet Underground: New York Art," a compendium of previously unseen photographs, poster and cover designs by Andy Warhol, Lou Reed's handwritten music and lyrics, underground press clippings and other reviews, flyers,...

KIRKUK, Iraq, Nov. 13, 2009 – The public library here is receiving a facelift that highlights the building’s 72-year heritage while hiding modern amenities. The 72-year-old public library in Kirkuk, Iraq, is undergoing a $453,000 renovation designed to highlight the building’s classic look. U.S. Army photo by Rizgar Jan  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The $453,000 project, funded through the Commander’s Emergency Relief Fund, calls for complete renovation of the library’s electrical system, plumbing and heating plant, as well as installation of an air conditioning system and renovation of interior spaces. "For centuries, Iraq's libraries and universities were renowned...

About the George W. Bush Presidential Center The George W. Bush Presidential Center will be the centerpiece of President and Mrs. Bush's ongoing commitment to improving our nation and the world. It will examine the ideals and principles that guided President Bush's major decisions throughout the defining years of his presidency. The Center will be a platform from which world-class scholars can build upon these principles—contributing vital new ideas to shape current and future public policy debates. Live Streaming Video starting at 2pm Central time

My friend is a certified elementary teacher. Teachers are getting paid $125-150/session (which is an hour) to teach classes at the library on weekends like arts&crafts. They move around to different libraries. In return, you know the teachers help the library out when the vote to cut their budget comes... This job could be filled by a library worker, a college student as an intern, or by offering a lot less $25-50/hr. Additionally the library renting dvds helped take care of blockbuster. At what point do we cut the budget of the sacred library?

Visit most public school libraries and you'll find an array of books that address the subject of homosexuality. Many include sexually explicit content, and some even include graphic images. But if you're looking for a book that refers to the possibility that homosexuality can be "reversed," a Chicago-based group says your best bet is the banned books list.

Visit most public school libraries and you'll find an array of books that address the subject of homosexuality. Many include sexually explicit content, and some even include graphic images. But if you're looking for a book that refers to the possibility that homosexuality can be "reversed," a Chicago-based group says your best bet is the banned books list. Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) says there's an entire community of people across the world who say that their sexual orientation changed from gay to straight. But they're not getting their message out, the group says, because libraries across...

Locals express concerns about "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," which includes a rape scene of an 8-year-old. An autobiography by renowned author Maya Angelou has become the latest book in Orange County to be challenged as unfit for school libraries. Judy Ahrens, a former Westminster School District trustee, took to the podium at Monday's Huntington Beach City Council meeting to read a scene from Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' that details the rape of an 8-year-old girl. The reading was a demonstration on why the book should be banned, she told the audience. "I would...

In one small Michigan town, another chapter is being written in a controversial library debate. On September 23, nearly 300 Owosso, Mich. citizens crowded a local middle school to discuss whether or not filtering software should be placed on all Shiawassee District Library computers. The filters would prevent patrons from accessing "adult content."

The novelist and children's writer Philip Pullman has been showered with awards that include a CBE, a Carnegie Medal and several honorary professorships. This week he notched up a new distinction: he is ranked second in the top 10 books that people have tried to ban across America. Pullman's fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, has leapt to the top of the target list of would-be censors in the new rankings issued this week by the American Library Association. Several schools across America faced requests from parents to remove the book. One challenge at a school in Winchester, Kentucky was made...

How ironic it is that when news emerges of Governor Palin's book becoming available prior to its expected date, she shows up in my school's library. No, she didn't show up in person and no, there was no announcement to inform interested students about her book, which reportedly is already number one on the Barnes and Noble list. She showed up in the center of a display highlighting Banned Books Week.