"Millions Still Turn to Experts at the Public Library"

"Even in Silicon Valley, where people might be expected to be search wizards, libraries get plenty of questions. One called asked the Mountain View, Calif., Public Library for the address of the White House."

James R. Hagerty at The Wall Street Journal discusses the continuing significance of research librarians. (Posted in honor of Mrs. Late Adopter.)

"Embarrassed Library Of Congress Can't Believe Some Of The Albums It Used To Be Into"

"'Don't get me wrong; Ella Fitzgerald, Neil Armstrong's recorded words from the moon, the Velvet Underground—all that's still good, but boy, some of this just does not hold up. I think I've listened to the Frank Zappa stuff and Calvin Coolidge's inauguration maybe twice.'"

From The Onion.

California Dreamer

"Starr captured the state's rise in influence, and its singular hold on the public imagination, in 'Americans and the California Dream,' a sweeping book series that moves from the Gold Rush into the Progressive Era, the 1920s, the Great Depression and other distinct chapters of California’s past.
"Throughout his work, Starr celebrated the state's creativity and its openness to new ideas. And he demonstrated a familiarity with a vast range of topics central to the state's development and its image of itself: architecture, agriculture, literature, water infrastructure and the entertainment industry, among others."

David Zahniser and Matt Hamilton in the Los Angeles Times writes an obituary for historian Kevin Starr.

And Carolyn Kellogg, Peter H. King, Shelby Grad, and William Deverell provide appreciations.

"The Key Political Novel of the Black Intellectual Life in New York in the Late 1930s"

"The authentication of the novel is 'scholarly gold,' said William J. Maxwell, the editor of 'Complete Poems: Claude McKay.' Its mocking portraits of Communists show McKay’s decisive break with Communism and his effort to turn his political evolution into art, said Mr. Maxwell, a professor of English and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis."

In The New York Times, Felicia R. Lee reports on the discovery at Columbia University of an unpublished novel by Claude McKay.

"A Writer for the Common Man"

"While he started off getting rejections from major mainstream magazines, he found acceptance in edgier upstart publications. Bukowski's poems of drinking, womanizing and trials of everyday life developed an avid following. To some, he wasn't just an outsider--he was the outsider. In 1962, he was named Outsider of the Year by New Orleans-based Outsider magazine."

Carolyn Kellogg at the Los Angeles Times visits the Huntington Library's recent exhibit, Charles Bukowski: Poet on the Edge.

"Robbing the Human Race"

"The basic message here is one of astonishment: Why would anyone ban books when literature is such a positive and ennobling force? Yet while I agree with that, I also believe that some books truly are dangerous, and to ignore that is simply disingenuous.
"Lest this make me seem an apologist for the book banners, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I'm against restricting anything other than material that graphically portrays certain illegal acts.
"Yet it's foolish, self-defeating even, to pretend that books are innocuous, that we don't need to concern ourselves with what they say. If that's the case, then it doesn't really matter if we ban them, because we have already stripped them of their power."

David L. Ulin in the Los Angeles Times considers Banned Books Week.

Rose-y Weekend

Jennifer Steinhauer of The New York Times spends thirty-six hours in Pasadena.

Line Up in Line

"Each Bush administration member clutches a clapboard, as in a standard mug shot, with the date of his 'arrest'--a day when each made 'incriminating' statements regarding the Iraq war.
"The installation includes audio clips of the administration members--complete with the sound of a flashbulb popping and a prison door slamming."

Larry McShane in the Daily News reports on a new exhibit at the New York Public Library.

The Collector

"In the end, the question is not whether canons like these are good or bad—constant list-making is the predictable result of a society that nurtures the collection instinct. The question is which one you respect. Finding a curator whose taste and expertise you trust isn’t easy, but it’s worth it. Even Nick Hornby recognizes the addictive power of list-making. A few years after finishing High Fidelity, he published Songbook. It’s a list of his favorite songs."

Matthew Dessem in Good magazine ponders the practice of listmaking.

It's Tricky

"It was Nixon's war on history that made scholars leery of affording any legitimacy to his library. But while the process of revision never ceases, it now seems safe to say that—like the once-contentious debates about the morality of slavery, the futility of Prohibition or the greatness of FDR—that war is over. Nixon lost."

As the National Archives takes control of the Richard Nixon Library, David Greenberg in the Los Angeles Times contemplates the changes.

Also in the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Goffard profiles the library's new director, Timothy Naftali.

In The Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael Nelson rounds up this year's batch of books on the former president.

Sci-Fi Lullabies

"English professors went after his funding, arguing to library administrators and English department heads that hoarding collectible James Joyce titles was more important than any featuring Frodo Baggins, Slusser said.
"Other professors snickered at him in campus hallways. They even grilled his students during departmental exams: Why not study something more meaningful like feminism or multiculturalism?
"'It was guerrilla warfare,' Slusser said."

Sara Lin in the Los Angeles Times explores the Eaton Collection at U.C. Riverside, "the world's largest library of science fiction, fantasy and horror books."

"A Pioneer of the Information Age"

"Combining two complex fields, computer programming and intricate cataloging practices, she and a small team completed the MARC Pilot Project—for Machine Readable Cataloging—in 1968. The system quickly became the preferred format for libraries throughout the country and, ultimately, around the globe."

The Los Angeles Times reports the death of Henriette D. Avram, the creator of the automated library catalog.