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Biblia, the Warrior Librarian, was created by A.B.Credaro. The practice of Warrior Librarianship is common, and therefore quite possibly in the public domain. As such, it is likely to be exempt from any copyright restrictions. However, this does not limit Warrior Librarian Weekly, its agents, employees, heirs, spouses, family pets, or others connected with the zine, from trying to make an easy buck from its use.

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Laine Keneller, a Granite Bay resident of Sacramento (pictured on right with two friends who helped develop the Booktastic! Board Game, and even threw in money for its development in return for a share of any profits) has just announced that Booktastic! will donate a portion of fourth quarter sales to the National Center for Family Literacy.

At a mere $29.95, the current Best Selling Modern Fiction Edition will shortly be followed by a Nineteenth Century [books], Early 20th Century [books] and a Children's Edition.

Featuring three skill levels for the casual reader (no wrong answers, opinions only), avid reader, and collector, you traipse around the board on a dice roll to visit the Bookshops, buy, sell, trade, and steal.

Booktastic! wins the Warrior Librarian Weekly Best-Ever award for a literary board game, and is featured in the new WLW Library Toys Guide, which you should see for a full review ...

...No more to read here >>

Despite media claims to the contrary, David Gauntlett of Theory.org is adamant that the Michael Foucault and Anthony Giddens action figures "exist only as binary bits and bobs in cyberspace".

Explaining that the images of the literary figure toys were designed only to promote discussion, the information on the Theory.org.uk website reveals that there is absolutely no significance in the fact that Giddens appears to be holding a book called Modernity and Self-Identity.

Gauntlett defends the fact that the depictions of the characters lack realism, questioning if any action figures actually look anything like their real-life counterpart, but remains adamant that the whole thing has taken on a postmodern surrealistic patina, fuelled by articles such as that in the UK Observer.

Theory.org has requested that people stop trying to buy the figures, because they just DON'T exist, despite the (we thought very reasonable) price and realistic catalog numbers shown ...

...No more to read here >>

The community of Washington County were thrown in mass confusion when the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette revealed that they did not have to live in the area to be eligible for a free library card.

Louise Shaper, the director of the Fayetteville Public Library, stated that anyone "who lives, works, owns property or attends school in Washington County" was entitled to borrow the library's books. There was also an implicit suggestion that even those conditions would be waived if people just wanted to read or use the library's facilities.

So shocked were the citizens that none were able to respond to the Democrat-Gazette appeal for Letters to the Editor on this issue ...

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The Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL), the most comprehensive electronic resource of authoritative information on international law, has won the prestigious International Association of Law Libraries (IALL) 2004 Website Award.

Developed by a team of legal research professionals under the auspices of the American Society of International Law, the new EISIL Web site currently includes some 1500 documents, Web sites and research guides, covering 300 topics. The EISIL site, available for use free of charge at www.eisil.org, is hosted by the American Society of International Law (ASIL).

A spokesperson for People Responsible for Movie Backgrounds and Scenery (PRFMBS) anticipated that "it's going to be very difficult to use a computer monitor to create the same serious atmosphere of scholarship and intellectuality (SASI) in those scenes where legal counsel consults thick leather-bound law books (TLBLB)"...

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Excited by the “resounding success” of the Open WorldCat pilot program, the management of OCLC, the world’s largest library vendor, has decided to open the entire collection of 53.3 million items connected to 928.6 million library holdings for “harvesting” by Google and Yahoo! Search.

The Open WorldCat subset database contains about 2 million records, all items held by 100 or more academic, public, or school libraries—some 12,000 libraries all told. The new upgraded Open WorldCat program will automatically include all of the 15,000-plus OCLC libraries

In January 2005, Open WorldCat will officially graduate from a pilot program to a permanent “ongoing program”; however, the database will be open for “harvesting” to Google and Yahoo! Search as early as late November 2004. However, libraries whose budgets do not permit them to be WorldCat members should not get too excited.

Open WorldCat records will remain as abbreviated MARC format listings, insufficient to use for “copy cataloging,” one of OCLC’s basic services to its member libraries and a major source of revenue ...

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After a slump in corporate activity in the past few years, not only have glossy annual reports been cut back, but so has the need for merger and acquisition documents. St Ives still prints about 20 per cent of the FTSE's annual reports, but reporting a 56 per cent drop in profits yesterday, it said recovery in financial activity in the UK and Europe was slow and market conditions continued to be "challenging".

Lamenting the need to reskill its former executive staff in Panhandling Techniques, St Ives' income is now heavily reliant on whatever it can manage to rake together from the production of Rowling's Harry Potter books ...

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Learn and Sign, ISBN 0-9753717-1-1 US$14.95
Purchase through Amazon or your usual jobber.

This is the third edition of Judy Barfell's excellent series of books for deaf communication. Subtitled Funtime: Words and Things We Know, this primer for 3-8 year olds on the basics of American Sign Language features clear diagrams and simple instructions.

When the WLW Alternative Communications Division's consultant (OK, a colleague to whom I now owe a favor) viewed this review copy, her summation was "excellent"!

The subsequent discussions about DEAF culture, the differences between Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and ASL (American Sign Language), the difficulties for the deaf in lip-reading people with seriously heavy accents, cochlea implants and their failure to appeal to all deaf people, and many related issues, were absolutely fascinating. Interestingly, despite years of failed attempts to deliver library funding pleas to normally-hearing individuals, an afternoon in conversation with a totally deaf person was a highly successful two-way communication event ...

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MORE ORIGINAL HUMOR
Laugh yourself comatose

	WLW Reader

MOST POPULAR BIBLIA PAGES TO DATE:
Caution: Will open in new window ...

• Desiderata for Libraries
• OPAC Error Messages
• Vital Latin Phrases for Librarians
• Collective Nouns for Librarians
• Rejecting the Stereotypes

MASS MEDIA: Although Ingram Library Services Further Developments may not be a mass media publication, strictly speaking, at least they run a good story ...

CONFERENCES: Past and future appearances by A.B. Credaro
MEMO: Fall, 2003.
SLAQ: June 29/30, 2004.
ASLA NSW: 22/23 October, 2004.

ACADEMIA: There are more than 50 institutions that have a link to Warrior Librarian on their web sites, including the Tasmanian Department of Education ...

INTERNET: Google now lists over 4,000 for a search on the phrase "warrior librarian". Not that we check regularly or anything ...

FROM THE MAILBOX: Many thanks to all those organizations and individuals who continue to offer us cheap valium. We didn't realize that the need was so obvious ...

... ... No more to read here >>

This is a difficult age for many library folk. Too old to be the Youngest Person Ever To, and too young to be the Oldest Person Ever To. Perhaps the best we can hope for in the immortality stakes is to be known as the Person Who Could Have If S/he Wanted To, But Was Busy Attending to the Greater Good of the World's Library Patrons ... EDITORIAL SOAPBOX Graphic by Peter Lewis

I have every sympathy with the American who was so horrified by what he had read about the effects of smoking that he gave up reading.

Henry G. Strauss

More Quotes >>

With absolutely nothing (much) to do with libraries, best-selling author P.J. O'Rouke's Debate Zingers at CBS News is a great read.

Not that WLW pretends to understand the American political system, but then, who does ...

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Sheilagh Martin, NVTLA President, recommends a visit to the Seattle Public Library virtual tour. Any complaints about this suggestion should be directed to her, not WLW. The usual death threats, flames, and abuse can be directed here as usual ...

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Educational consultant, author and reading guru Jim Trelease recommends books as the primary tools to help children develop their reading skills and enjoyment, and also notes that a pleasant library is more likely to attract users than an outdated collection in a drab dump that needs a massive funding injection, not to mention some intelligent decision-making higher up the corporate food chain - although he didn’t use these exact words ...

Urbenville Library near Tenterfield (Australia) has just opened its new library, with 800 items for loan, and public access from 3pm to 6pm on Wednesdays. Only. Except if the Wednesday is a public holiday. Still, it’s a start ….

Canadian BCTF President Jinny Sims spoke with Education Minister Tom Christensen on the subject of what ought to be done with about $1 billion in provincial surplus. "The Liberals' rhetoric about support for literacy is contradicted by the reality in our classrooms and school libraries," Sims said. "You cannot say you're all for improved literacy while you're cutting the very best tools to achieve that”. Interestingly, the Australian government won its recent election by giving away most of its budget surplus to families with children, people giving birth, promises to look after old people, and mud-slinging campaigning against the pretenders to the throne who wanted to spend money on schools …

Cash-strapped libraries who are considering a 'naughty' calendar for purposes should be aware that in Carmel, CA, the money raised that way to refurbish the fire-house was refused ...

Tough call for the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, who are required to have filters on all Internet-accessable computers in order to get federal funding. Results of a one-month trial revealed "technical difficulties". After evaluating sites that were blocked by the software during the test period, library administrators learned that a majority of the sites didn't actually contain pornography. Of 69 sites that were blocked, 54 did not contain any pornographic material, such as the Web site for the Center for Defense Information …

Has YOUR invitation to the grand opening of the Clinton Library arrived yet? Accomodation at Little Rock is booking out fast ...

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