I’m sure there are many bloggers who posted from the ALA annual convention in New Orleans this past weekend. One worth reading is Jenny Levine, aka “The Shifted Librarian.” See her posts here.
Warren Buffett’s decision to give most of his personal fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (read article) could be a very good thing for libraries. That’s because the foundation is already a key doner to libraries and schools. The size of the Buffett gift will force the foundation to increase it’s giving pretty drastically, per the terms of the gift. It will be very interesting to see what comes of this gift, not only for libraries and schools but also for the other areas in which the foundation works, notably public health.
I came across this handy cheat sheet of Google searching shortcuts and wanted to pass it along. Many of you may already know some, if not all, of these methods, but most of them are new to me. It’s still astonishing how useful Google is, and in fact it’s hard to remember what life was like before it. When I browse the Web on a computer that doesn’t have the Google toolbar installed, I’m frustrated and annoyed. Of course, this praise is in no way meant as a comment on their book digitization program, about which I have very mixed feelings. But many of their product offerings are indeed wonderful. Have fun with the cheat sheet.
The American Association of School Librarians (AASL) has finally created a blog. I’ve added this blog to our links on this page.
Ken Thomson, the scion of the Thomson Corporation, died on Monday. The New York Times has an interesting obituary on him in today’s paper. He inherited the company from his father, then built it into a huge multinational corporation. For many years it thrived as a newspaper publisher, but beginning in the late 70s it started shedding newspapers and investing in business and educational publishers like Gale, Wadsworth, West Law, and so forth. At the time of his death he was listed by Forbes as the 9th richest person in the world.