Sunday, May 13, 2012

Libraries in the News

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
 -Albert Einstein



 10 ways Maurice Sendak defined your childhood
Josh Wolk writes: “The brilliant and hauntingly mischievous works of Maurice Sendak, who died May 8 at 83, are as universal a staple of early childhood as a pacifier or a tantrum. One of our great intergenerational commonalities is the sense memory of sitting either on a parent’s lap or paging through the illustrations on a bedroom floor, both mesmerized and giddily unnerved by Sendak’s naughty protagonists. Herewith, our tribute to a man who never patronized children with worlds with sanded-off corners or reductively callow lessons.”...
Vulture, May 8


D.C. officials feel the heat over school library cuts
A spring proposal by District of Columbia officials to eliminate more than 50 school librarian jobs for the next academic year has triggered a public relations nightmare for the city council, where the proposal originated. Members of the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parent Organization are determined to fight a spring decision by schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson to defund school librarian posts at schools with less than 300 students and let principals of larger schools decide whether to reallocate their librarians’ salaries. “If this situation were to remain unchanged, 58 schools would have no librarian,” grassroots activist Peter MacPherson said....

American Libraries news, May 4


Petition seeks return of Dirty Cowboy
More than 230 people have signed an online petition that seeks to have the children’s book The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake returned to the shelves of the Annville-Cleona (Pa.) School District. The school board voted unanimously in April to remove the book based on the objection of one student’s parents. Illustrator Adam Rex uses various items, such as birds, a boot, and a cloud of dust, to cover the cowboy’s private parts while he is bathing and then while he is attempting to put his clothes back on....
Lebanon (Pa.) Daily News, May 7


 

3 comments:

Ryan said...

I think that writer hit it on the head about Sendak. "No sanded-off corners." That's about it in a nutshell.

Lisa said...

Right, yeah, getting rid of librarians is a great idea. That is if you think the librarian only sits and checks out books and shelves them. Good lord, what a terrible idea!

And I'm so, so tired of one parent being allowed to make policy. And that's just where you need the librarian - that's the person who will strike up the fight.

Veens said...

I have not read anything by Maurice Sendak! I should definitely try finding the books here. :)

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