Librarian's Rant

My friend Bill sent me this, from the AP:

Final 'Harry Potter' title announced
By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National Writer1 hour, 3 minutes ago

We now have a title for Harry Potter VII. But if you want to find out for yourself, visit J.K. Rowling's Web site and play a little game of hangman.

Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc., released a brief statement Thursday announcing the name of the world's most anticipated children's book, the finale to her phenomenally popular fantasy series.

No publication date or other details were offered. Rowling is still working on the book, she explained on her Web site in an entry posted early Thursday.

"I'm now writing scenes that have been planned, in some cases, for a dozen years or even more," she wrote. "I don't think anyone who has not been in a similar situation can possibly know how this feels: I am alternately elated and overwrought. I both want, and don't want, to finish this book (don't worry, I will.)"

Meanwhile, she set up a test for her Potter fans.

If you go to jkrowling.com, click on the eraser and you will be taken to a room — you'll see a window, a door and a mirror.

In the mirror, you'll see a hallway. Click on the farthest doorknob and look for the Christmas tree. They click on the center of the door next to the mirror and a wreath appears. Then click on the top of the mirror and you'll see a garland.

Look for a cobweb next to the door. Click on it, and it will disappear. Now, look at the chimes in the window. Click on the second chime to the right, and hold it down. The chime will turn into the key, which opens the door. Click on the wrapped gift behind the door, then click on it again and figure out the title yourself by playing a game of hangman.

Or you can just take Scholastic's word for it: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

From American Libraries online:

Manatee County Pulls the Plug on MySpace

Patrons of the Manatee County (Fla.) Library System no longer have access to the social networking website MySpace.com, effective December 11. Manager of Library Services John Van Berkel told American Libraries that the decision was made by county administrators rather than the library. “But it’s not a new policy,� he added. “It’s an enforcement of our current policy,� which prohibits chat-room access, e-mail, and recreational uses. (emphasis mine)

This sort of decision makes me crazy mad with libraries. Now, to be fair, I basically understand giving priority to "educational" pursuits in an effort to manage use of resources (especially computers), but to prohibit recreational uses entirely? I mean, first of all, how do you determine "recreational" use? I find reading the NY Times to be recreational, in the sense that it is far more relaxing (quite often) than reading my email. And if you look at the proportion of print materials that would be considered recreational vs. those that would be purely educational (again, I defy you to make a clear line here), I think you'd find for those resources, "recreational" use is far and away the predominant use in your average public library.

One other question: they block myspace.com, but what other specific sites do they block under this policy? Flickr? eBay? (technically eBay is networking, and you have to have access to email to use it) Do they block web-based e-mail? Does that mean they block the whole of Yahoo.com, for instance, or just the mail.yahoo.com domain? AOL's email site isn't so handy to block. Nor MSN. How in the world do they keep track of all that they'd have to block to maintain such a policy?

This sort of old-fashioned, purely punitive policy is crazy making! For patrons and staff. Imagine being the staff member who has to tell someone they can't go see their favorite artist's myspace page to check out their artwork or send an email to see about getting a job. What DO people do on their computers?

I guess my ultimate question is what is this policy intended to solve? If it's a question of equitable time limits on public computers, there are other solutions. Is it that they don't want anyone to enjoy themselves while on the computers? That's a great way to get people to hate your library system. This seems ridiculously self-defeating, and ultimately difficult to enforce.