What is Crowdsourcing?

What does this have to do with libraries?  Check back for a future posting ….

 

E-reader Popularity Rising

A Pew Internet and American Life Project study found that: “The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011.”  These results point to rapid acceptance of e-readers.  For the full report, click here. 

Whether you use an e-reader or traditional print books and magazines isn’t important.   What matters is that you READ!

Hurry Up & Get Cracking!

Here’s what digital natives* want from their libraries. 

*”A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones and MP3s. A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later.” Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_native

Missouri River Flood Resources

Looking for credible information about flooding along the Missouri River and elsewhere in the state?  Here are some great resources.

• USGS Flood Tracking
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northwestern Division, Missouri River Basin Water Management Division
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Omaha District
• Missouri River Basin Mainstem and Tributary Reservoir Bulletin – Daily Reservoir Summary
• Missouri River Basin Mountain Snowpack Water Content
• Missouri River Mainstem Reservoir System – 2011 Flood Regulation
• 2011 Rapid Deployment Gages on the Missouri River
• USGS – North Dakota Water Science Center
• Big Dam Era: a Legislative and Institutional History of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program
• 2011 Central ND Flooding (North Dakota National Guard photos)
• USGSND YouTube Videos
• ND Floods 2011
• FEMA: National Flood Insurance Program
• North Dakota Insurance Department: Flood Insurance
• ND Flood Info (NDDES HomelandSecurity State Radio)
• Flood Cleanup Guide (National Center for Healthy Housing)
• NDSU Extension Service Flood Information

Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2010

ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom has issued its annual list of Top Ten  Most Frequently Challenged Books for 2010.  The list includes the following titles and the reasons given for challenging the book. 

1.  And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson 

• Reasons: Homosexuality, Religious viewpoint, Unsuited to age group

2.  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie [Note: BSC’s 2008 Campus Read selection]

• Reasons: Offensive language, Racism, Sex education, Sexually explicit, Unsuited to age group, Violence 

3.  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

• Reasons: Insensitivity, Offensive language, Racism, Sexually explicit

4.  Crank by Ellen Hopkins 

• Reasons: Drugs, Offensive language, Sexually explicit

5.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

• Reasons: Sexually explicit, Unsuited to age group, Violence

6.  Lush by Natasha Friend

• Reasons: Drugs, Offensive language, Sexually explicit, Unsuited to age group

7.  What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

• Reasons: Sexism, Sexually explicit, Unsuited to age group

8.  Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich  [Note: BSC’s 2006 Campus Read selection]

• Reasons: Drugs, Inaccurate, Offensive language, Political viewpoint, Religious viewpoint 

9.  Revolutionary Voices edited by Amy Sonnie 

• Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually explicit

10.  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

• Reasons: Religious viewpoint, Violence

For more information on book challenges and censorship, visit the OIF Banned Books Week Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks.

Social Media Revolution

The world moves at warp speed.  Sometimes I wonder if we can keep up with ourselves!