Just posted on the NPR site, a review of Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue (warning: some librarian stereotypes, but used to illustrate how outdated they are).

We’re also expecting a review in the upcoming 3/7 NYT Book Review.

The book hit #130 last week, its highest point to date on Amazon sales rankings. Clearly, the general public is more interested in us than we imagined.

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This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

Audio: Tantor; 2/22/10
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

It’s a book that couldn’t have come at a better time. Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue is giving the media an opportunity to take a new look at libraries.

Thursday’s USA Today publishes a photo of a Carroll County (MD) librarian setting up for a Rock Band 2 video game session as part of a story about the book. Johnson explains that libraries are crucial to everyone in the current climate, “The middle class is squeezed and needs libraries more, information is multiplying at an alarming rate so we need librarians more, and the jobless are streaming to libraries in droves.”

Carroll County library director Lynn Wheeler adds, “The demand for technology access and the teaching role for librarians will only continue to grow.”

The public is showing strong interest in the book; it rose to #130 on Amazon this week, putting it ahead of some titles on the NYT best seller lists, such as The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova and Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich. Holds are heavy in many libraries; as high as 89 on 7 copies in one large library system.

Publisher HarperCollins has created a “Browse Inside” widget that librarians can add to their sites:

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This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

Audio: Tantor; 2/22/10
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

When was the last time you heard the Boston Public Library’s “Statement of Purpose” quoted on TV?

For us, it was Monday night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (see below; if you want to skip ahead to the specific section, it’s 2:30 minutes into the piece).

Sadly, the Boston Public Library is currently facing budget cuts and may be forced to close ten branches.

Tune in to NPR’s On the Media this weekend as Marilyn Johnson, author of This Book is Overdue, talks about why librarians are the heroes of the digital age (check for local listings here).

And, more publicity is in the works:

NYT BR, 3/7 (plus, a possible review in the daily NYT)
USA Today interview

This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

Audio: Tantor; 2/22/10
Trade: 9781400116348; 7 CD’s; $34.99
Library: 9781400146345; 7 CD’s; $69.99
MP3: 9781400166343; 1 MP3-CD; $24.99

No surprise, Library Journal’s annual analysis of library materials budgets shows they are down; “This year, think Edvard Much’s The Scream” the article says.

One third of the libraries surveyed report budget cuts, and another half say their budgets are flat. The overall 5% reduction may not seem that bad, but it’s the largest since the survey began and the story is likely to be worse next year.

The “bright side” is that library circulation is up, with its highest increase ever.

LJ goes on to look at how libraries are dealing with cuts in the face of increased circulation.

ALA’s survey, A Perfect Storm Brewing also attests to the fact that libraries are having to do more with less. On the bright side, newspaper reporters like Bob Hoover at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are using the study results to point out what local citizens are losing as libraries are forced to cut services (Nation’s libraries get more use, less funding, 2/15).

From the Boston Globe today:

I worry that libraries, even the newest ones, risk becoming fortresses buttressed by books, protecting Gutenberg’s technology for reasons of principle rather than pragmatism. Librarians need to educate themselves, and us, about the possibilities and limitations of digital books.

Columnist Alex Beam goes on to acknowledge that libraries are not totally clueless about the digital revolution. After all, the Boston Public Library, “can hook you up to a website called Overdrive” to download books.

Beam feels that “every large library in the state – heck, in the country – should buy 10 electronic book readers and allow patrons to check them out for two weeks, just like real books.” His not-so- “secret agenda” is to let people test drive them. He thinks they will discover that “to know and use e-books is not necessarily to love them.”

Never mind that lots of libraries are already lending reading devices or that there was a flurry of protest in the Boston Globe itself when the newspaper reported that Cushing Academy in Massachusetts had ditched its entire library for electronic books.

Oddly, after urging libraries to educate themselves about eBooks, Beam concludes, “The revolution may be digitized, but not anytime soon. Support your local library and their dowdy – but essential – collection of dead-tree lit.”

As good as it is to see someone urge library support, it would better if he understood more about what libraries are already doing and the challenges they face (and, we admit, it can be complicated — we’re tempted to quote George Clooney in Up in the Air, “Now this is going to be a little difficult, so stay with me.”)

We invite Mr. Beam to learn more about libraries in the digital world; an excellent beginning is Marilyn Johnson’s This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All (Virginia Stanley at HarperCollins Library Marketing is sending him a galley, but meanwhile, he can read the first chapter online).

Mr. Beam also has the opportunity hear author Marilyn Johnson speak at ALA MidWinter, held conveniently in his hometown next month:

Mon., Jan. 18, 2–4 p.m.

ALTAFF Gala Author Tea (tickets are $35; buy them when registering for the conference. If you have already registered, you can call (800) 974-3084 to add tickets):

• Marilyn Johnson, This Book Is Overdue! How Libraries and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
• Holly LeCraw, The Swimming Pool
• Janice Y.K. Lee, The Piano Teacher
• Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn
• Teri Woods, Dutch II: Angel’s Revenge

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This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All Marilyn Johnson Retail Price: $24.99 Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Harper – (2010-02-01) ISBN / EAN: 0061431605 / 9780061431609

The Washington Post features a special section about the National Book Festival to be held on the Mall in Washington, D.C. this coming Saturday. The schedule of authors is filled with big names, from Jeff Kinney to Simon Schama.

The Festival is organized by the Library of Congress.

The Free Library of Philadelphia’s blog has this welcome headline:

Breaking News -
Legislation to keep libraries open passes!

The bill to keep the library open passed by a vote of 32 to 17 in the Pennsylvania State Assembly.

On the blog post, the library thanks the citizens and staff for all their efforts in this campaign, saying that more than 2,000 letters were sent to legislators, as well as “countless” calls and emails.

This pop-up greets people who log on to the Free Library of Philadelphia’s web site.

The “Learn About Our Closings” link leads to specifics,

• All branch and regional library programs, including programs for children and teens, after school programs, computer classes, and programs for adults, will be cancelled
• All Parkway Central Library programs, including children programs, programs to support small businesses and job seekers, computer classes and after school programs, will be cancelled. We are exploring the possibility of relocating the Philadelphia Author Series programs to other non-library facilities.
• All library visits to schools, day care centers, senior centers and other community centers will cease.
• All community meetings at our branch and regional libraries, and the Parkway Central Library, will be cancelled.
• All GED, ABE and ESL programs held at Free Library branches will be discontinued, students should contact their teacher to see if other arrangements are being made.

But the library is also holding out hope that the Pennsylvania State Legislature will pass the budget necessary to keep the libraries open and urges citizens to get involved.

Meanwhile, this serves as a stark reminder of what could happen.

Oh, Lord; another example of over-zealous application of library rules, caught on Colbert.

But Leslie Burger (Director of Princeton Public Library and former President of ALA) handles it well. Love that Colbert calls her “Princess Leia.”

Barnes & Noble announced today that it will offer wireless internet access to all customers who enter its 777 stores in 50 states via the AT&T network, to enhance access to its new e-bookstore and free e-book applications. Paid internet service has been available at B&N stores since 2005.

Library systems are also expanding their study areas with internet access, to accommodate an influx of job-seekers, freelancers and others seeking the free service. The New York Public Library, for example, recently added a second large room with wireless access, and 46 new laptops for patrons.

Google Books engineering director Dan Clancy participated in a panel discussion at the Boston Public Library this week, according to the Boston Globe, to respond to librarians’ concerns about Google’s role as the proprietor of more than 10 million digital books, of which 1.5 million are currently available online free of charge.

Panel organizer Maura Marx, executive director of the Boston nonprofit Open Knowledge Commons, raised the concern that “people are very uncomfortable with the idea that one corporation has so much power over such a large collection of knowledge.’’ But Clancy appears to have said little to allay librarians’ “queasy” feelings (as one panelist put it), in a conversation that centered on Google’s complex settlement regarding payments to authors and publishers for out of print works.

The morning after the event at Boston Public Library, Clancy and Jon Orwant, who directs the Google Books operation in Cambridge, described an ongoing project that vastly outstrips Google’s controversial settlement, which

involves “around six’’ scanning centers around the world scanning “thousands of books a day.’’ At the same time, Google is building partnerships with publishers that allow Google Books to host the publishers’ content. In the Google model, digital books will be independent of any particular electronic reading device, such as Amazon’s Kindle….

“Will we be done when we have 40 million books? 50 million books?’’ Clancy said. “We don’t know yet.’’

Responding separately to recent complaints about reader privacy issues by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Clancy promised that “whatever we ultimately build will protect readers’ privacy rights,” pending approval by the court reviewing the current settlement, according to Publishers Lunch (subscription only). Clancy points to a FAQ page for further questions, adding ”we don’t yet know exactly how this all will work,” the site reports.

LJ reports that the Ohio state senate has given a one-week extension to the current budget, giving legislators more time for budget negotiations and a reprieve for Ohio libraries. LJ also reports that the Save Ohio Libraries campaign has been a tremendous success, but, depending on how the negotiations go, libraries may need to “re-energize their efforts to mobilize patrons.”

Over 40 UK libraries are now using Twitter to network and spread information among themselves, according to the Guardian (UK). To encourage more libraries to join, a “Twitter for librarians” course will be held by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in September.

More than 400 individual librarians are using the service in the UK, putting it behind the U.S., where are least 300 libraries (and many more librarians) use the social network to communicate with patrons. “Some authorities are getting on board in a more formal way [in the U.K.], but there also seem to be a lot of librarians who are trying Twitter out spontaneously and having fun with the system,” said Benedicte Page, libraries expert at the Bookseller.

Several organizations are rallying support for Ohio libraries, now facing a 50% budget cut (unlike libraries in the rest of the country, libraries in Ohio depend on state support for most of their funding).

The Save Ohio Libraries blog has information on how to get involved.

Library Journal has more details on the story and editor-in-chief Francine Fialkoff published an appeal today to Ohio’s governor, Dear Governor Strickland, which describes how important Ohio libraries are to their communities and to the rest of the country.

Vendors are also joining the fight (see Tutor.com’s blog).

To all our friends in Ohio libraries; you’ve created some of the most innovative library systems in the country and a huge base of loyal users, which gives us hope that they won’t let you down.