According to an American Library Association press release, the ALA has "applauded the funding increases for libraries proposed in President Bush’s budget" which were recently announced.

Representing an increase of more than US$15 million over the previous year, the grants address issues such as indigenous populations and library leadership initiatives.

However, there does not appear to be any recognition of the primary importance of caffeine to the success of library function, and no funds have been allocated for the purchase of cappuccino machines ...

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The recent wild windstorms and flooding rains in Sydney (Australia) wreaked havoc throughout the region. Amongst the many building affected, a Sydney school was closed for two days due to non-child related debris plus damage to structures - also not child-related.

Significantly, the school library was not affected in any way (apart from the school being closed, which allowed a whole heap of administration time to be spent on backroom tasks and catching up on those millions of little things that people always file away for a 'rainy day' - which is normally when school libraries are at their busiest, what with kiddies seeking shelter from the elements and somewhere dry to spill their drinks.)

Noting that "at least no-one was hurt" by the storm, the school's library would still be pleased to receive cash and book donations if people can't find anyone else to donate to ...

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In seeking public comment on orphaned works, the Copyright Office may well be duplicating the work of UNICEF.

Although the Copyright Office is more concerned with the provenance of literature with unknown or unidentified authorship, UNICEF has had extensive experience in caring for orphans.

At the time of going to press, WLW was still awaiting feedback from the Copyright Office on our suggestion that rather than institutionalize orphaned works, they should be seeking suitable foster homes ...

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His Excellency Alhaji Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, President Of The Republic Of Sierra Leone has yet to comment on preliminary plans for the country's first presidential library.

Sierra Leone, listed by a number of sources as the world's poorest country in terms of gross national product, is also notable for the fact that its president is also Chancellor of its national university.

Sources close to the President would agree that the costings fall within the budgetary guidelines ...

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The joint chairs of the AASL National Conference Program have now officially rejected the submission by the Warrior Librarian. In an email on digital letterhead, AASL officials stated that the proposal did not meet "the needs of AASL".

In commenting on this outcome, Biblia stated that she was therefore happily reassured that school libraries in the USA must be wonderfully stress-free to not require any attention to the affective domain issues of their professional staff.

With a highly distinguished list of speakers, the conference will be treated to the wit and humor of some of the greatest research luminaries in the field of school librarianship ...

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Many thanks to internationally renowned Claude Razanajao (the retired French librarian with a sense of humor) for taking time out of his busy schedule of updating the bibliography he collaborates, playing piano and learning to dance Argentine Tango, and bringing our attention to the conference in Montpellier (Fr). Kerry Mullan of La Trobe University (Australia) presented a paper on "Étude contrastive de l'expression des opinions en français et anglais australien".

We are semi-reliably informed that this was "a contrasting study of an expression of opinions in French and Australian English". ça alors! Défaut de la reproduction sonore! Quelle huée! Struth! Talk about not coming the raw prawn, even ...

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In a surprising twist of fate, rather than ankles, it seems that the wider global community no longer fears the dorky image projected by the typical library shoe.

Google seems to be keeping very quiet about the fact that Birkenstocks were only slightly behind Nike, and ahead of Dr Martens, in the most recent yearly statistics on Froogling for shoes ...

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When recently asked at my place of primary employment, I was pleased to be able to respond with the information that my time was being consumed with the correlation of my tasking practices to the alignment of corporate strategic priorities in the context of contemporary globality. This must have been the right answer to whatever the question was.

I really MUST find some way to keep my snoring quieter ...

Don't forget that February 21 is the officially proclaimed International Mother Language Day. And what better way for libraries to mark this event than by inviting mothers and mothers-in-law to the library.

WLW Tip: If you're going to bring your own mom/mum, make sure she's at least minimally socially acceptable. The last thing you want is for her to be checking under your patrons' fingernails for dirt, yelling at people to pick up after themselves, or reminding all and sundry about how she laboured day in and day out for everyone's benefit, without expecting any thanks or gratitude. After all, that's your role ...

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Tired of the same old parties? Why not try something different - a copyright free WLW Film/Book Tie-in Party!

These cheap, easy and socially responsible festivities will change the partyscape forever! Although they have been individually designed for domestic use, they can easily be adapted for an industrial or library context ...

Party on, dudes >>

A different type of offering to that which Warrior Librarians might have expected from the creator of Biblia, Library Secrets is actually poetry. With rhythm, rhyme, meter and that cute little abbreviated layout so popular in the pre-postmodern era.

Extolling the virtues of a user-friendly library environment, this piece of probably less than memorable literature also explains many of the facets of A.B. Credaro's career in the libraryscape ...

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In all large corporations, there is a pervasive fear that someone, somewhere is having fun with a computer on company time. Networks help alleviate that fear.

John C. Dvorak

In-house quotations >>>

Don't mess around in Virgina libraries!

Lawyer Clifton A. "Chip" Woodrum, who formerly represented Roanoke in the Virginia House of Delegates, quotes a National Rifle Association spokesman as saying "if law-abiding citizens are disarmed in libraries, only the career criminals will be armed there" in a push to arm the librarians.

Woodrum also quotes Annie Duckworth, speaking on behalf of the Va. Librarians Protective Association, who is reported as stating "... we believe that an armed librarian at the reference desk would tend to reduce or even eliminate annoying and repetitive requests for information ...a Glock, properly exhibited, tends to curtail superfluous inquiry."

The accuracy of Woodrum's reporting, and indeed the identity of said Woodrum, have yet to be confirmed ...

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Mercurial response by author

The latest addition to the WLW Corporate Home Library is Judy Barfell's latest release in her series of DEAF language books. This tome is a tribute to the author's ability to respond nimbly to end-user requirements, whilst maintaining quality, integrity, and veracity.

The WLW panel of expert in the field of Auslan described this book as "brilliant, comprehensive, and highly useful for the 5 to 8 year old age group" for whom it was targeted.

The release of the Australian edition of Volume 1, Series 1 comes in response to the information that Auslan (the signing language for Australia) is different to that in use on other continents. Given only a few weeks notice, Barfell was able to update, modify and republish the amended work. Significantly, this was done without one groan, eye-roll or whine about how demanding the public can be, or protracted discussions regarding publication lead times or print runs or any of the other myriad excuses so often trotted out by the self-proclaimed 'experts' in authorship, publication or distribution ...

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