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The unique library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, buried beneath lava by Vesuvius's eruption in AD79, is slowly revealing its long-held secretsSTORED in a sky-lit reading room on the top floor of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples are the charred remains of the only library to survive from classical antiquity. The ancient world's other great book collections -- at Athens, Alexandria and Rome -- all perished in the chaos of the centuries. But the library of the Villa of the Papyri was conserved, paradoxically, by an act of destruction. Lying to the northwest of ancient Herculaneum, this...

The FBI removed computer records from the C. Burr Artz Library this week, a library official confirmed Saturday. Darrell Batson, director of Frederick County Public Libraries, said two FBI employees came to the downtown Frederick library either Wednesday or Thursday. The agents removed two public computers from the library's second floor. They told him they were taking the units back to their office in Washington, D.C., Batson said. Batson expected the computers would be returned early this week, he said. Debbie Weierman, spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, would not comment Saturday on whether the agency had removed records...

HEIDELBERG, Germany, July 22, 2008 – Camp Victory in Iraq is nearly 2,000 miles from the nearest Army library in Europe. But troops deployed at the sprawling base near Baghdad International Airport soon will have access to a broad spectrum of library resources through an e-Branch kiosk. Movers crate an Army Europe Libraries e-Branch kiosk for shipment to Camp Victory, Iraq. The e-Branch kiosks are designed to support educational opportunities for Soldiers and deliver electronic library services and information to customers who can’t get to a brick-and-mortar library. U.S. Army photo by Amy Drayer  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

ALA to Libraries: Keep Alms for Jihad, Pulped in the UK Andrew Albanese & Jennifer Pinkowski -- Library Journal At the urging of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), a scholarly book pulped by its British publisher is maintaining a safe haven in U.S. libraries. Alms for Jihad was the target of a potential libel suit in England by Sheikh Khalid bin Mahfouz, whose charitable activities have reportedly been linked to terrorist activities, as conveyed in the book. In response, publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP) pulped its unsold copies of the book, put it out of...

Peter McDonald, American Library Association [ALA] Councilor and Dean of Library Services at Fresno State, has publicly defamed American troops with known false misinformation, but you be the judge. In an open letter to the ALA Council, Mr. McDonald said: "Where's Mr. Kent's outrage on this travesty where, if we're talking library-related, the prisoners' Korans have been routinely desecrated by soldiers and where they have NO freedom to read?" ....

A new kind of Library has opened, where instead of books you can borrow a Muslim - or a single father, or a transvestite, for a chat. Alex Forsyth volunteers to be lent as a ‘book’, and asks whether this concept can really help break down stereotypes. A Muslim, a Catholic and a transsexual are sitting in a library. An opener to a joke this is not: It is the Living Library – where, instead of books, you borrow people. You pick a person for a 30-minute dialogue in which you can ask questions, engage in meaningful discourse or simply...

An Ohio county public library has closed its meeting rooms to the public rather than allow them to be used by a Christian group. George and Cathy Vandergriff wanted to host a Crown Financial Ministries "Financial Freedom" workshop in a public meeting room at the Clermont County, Ohio, public library. Tim Chandler, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says the couple was told that, because the class would be quoting from the Bible, they could not hold it at the library. "The Supreme Court said, more than 25 years ago, that once you've opened up meeting space, you...

ST. LOUIS | The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the city of Poplar Bluff after a library worker claims she was disciplined for failing to work at an event to promote a Harry Potter book. Anthony Rothert with the ACLU in St. Louis says the woman, Deborah Smith, is a Southern Baptist who believes the Harry Potter series popularizes witchcraft and the practice of the occult. He says she was suspended without pay for 10 days when she refused to work at a library event on July 21, 2007, for the release of...

Two men raped a mentally retarded teenager in the bathroom at the Brooklyn Public Library's Central branch on Grand Army Plaza on April 14, cops said. According to police, the victim, who suffers from Down Syndrome and cannot communicate verbally, did not indicate to her family that something had happened to her, but her relatives figured out that she was in pain and took her to the hospital. Once there, doctors discovered trauma and other evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, cops said. A spokeswoman for the library said it was unaware of the incident. She said the library...

A former Ohio State University librarian accused of sexual harassment after recommending a conservative book for freshmen has filed a lawsuit against the university and some of its faculty. Scott Savage, who said he resigned because of personal and professional attacks on his character, asks for his job back and for OSU to be forced to change its sexual-harassment policies. OSU is "an aggressive proponent of the homosexual lifestyle by virtue of its practices and policies," Savage says in the lawsuit, filed in federal court because he says his civil rights were violated. "OSU is therefore a naturally hostile environment...

Leftist faculty and clergy have waged a long, sometimes nasty battle to keep Southern Methodist (SMU) University in Dallas from hosting the Bush Library. They have insisted that the library will tie SMU to the Bush Administration’s supposedly sinister policies of preemptive war, “torture,” uncontrolled Global Warming, and puritanical repression. But SMU’s board of trustees has finally voted unanimously in favor of the library. Diehard opponents vow to fight on. “This fight is not over,” declared an angry Rev. Andrew Weaver to the United Methodist News Service. Weaver is an ordained United Methodist minister and New York City psychologist who...

CH-UH library postpones ‘anti-Israel’ documentary BY: DOUGLAS J. GUTH Senior Staff Reporter The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library has postponed a three-part series on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict amid concerns from Jewish residents that the program would be biased against

President Bush said Thursday that he would probably accept foreign donations to build his presidential library in Dallas and would consider keeping the donors’ names confidential if they do not want to be identified. The comments, at a White House news conference, were the first time Mr. Bush had talked in any detail about his plans for the library, which will be at Southern Methodist University, the alma mater of First Lady Laura Bush. But his detail was scant. “We just announced the deal,” he said, “and I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices and, you know,...

YORBA LINDA, Calif. — When Patricia Cosby's 12-year-old daughter brought home the novel "Prep" from school, she was horrified to find out what her daughter was reading. "It was really like reading something that was pornographic," Cosby said. Her daughter found the book -- which is part of an accelerated reading program -- in the Heritage Oak School library in Yorba Linda, Calif. "When the book first came home I couldn't sleep the first night," Patricia Cosby said. "I just kept waking up and I just had this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach."

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

Gunmen destroy Gaza Strip's YMCA library, kidnap guards Jerusalem Post, Israel - Feb 16, 2008 Hamas policemen who rushed to the scene discovered another bomb in the library that had not exploded. Although no group claimed responsibility, ...

DALLAS (AP) - Some Methodist ministers are making a final yet improbable attempt to stop George W. Bush's presidential library, museum and public policy institute from being built at Southern Methodist University. They say United Methodist law requires approval from the church's South Central Jurisdiction, whose 290 delegates meet in July. The opponents say at least one-third of the delegates are against the Bush institute because it will promote his administration's policies that they feel conflict with church teachings. "Let it be a topic of discussion and debate, and let the decision be made at the jurisdiction meeting," said the...

Wednesday, Jan 30, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Kevin Madden (857) 288-6390 National Review's Jim Geraghty: "When Romney takes his shots at McCain, it's both strong and fair - he acknowledges that McCain has some areas in which he's a conservative, but he takes several fair shots - McCain Feingold; voting against the Bush tax cuts twice (McCain noted earlier that he had voted to make them permanent)." (Jim Geraghty, " How Rarely I Get To Write This: Romney Takes McCain To School," National Review's The Campaign Spot, http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/, Posted 1/30/08) - Geraghty: "I like that Romney says that the original...

More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday. Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said. "These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a...

GARDEN CITY LIBRARY 6015 Glenwood St., Garden City, ID 83714 November 15, 2007 My Name My Address Mr. MyName, The Garden City Library Board of Trustees met on November 14, 2007 to discuss your request for reconsideration of the dvd titled “El Che”. The Board thanks you for your interest in the Garden City Library Collection. All of the Board members did have a chance to view this video prior to the meeting. The consensus of the Board was that the movie is a historic document that represents a fairly realistic portrait of an “Icon”. The Board does not condone...

Clinton library a closed bookFew of ex-first lady's files released by her husband's archive By Mike Dorning | Tribune national correspondent November 12, 2007 LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Visitors to the gleaming glass-and-steel William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library can see the former First Lady Hillary Clinton's gold-embroidered 1997 inaugural ball gown and hear Clinton extol his wife's contributions to his administration. In time, Hillary Clinton "will deserve a lot of the credit" for the comprehensive health coverage that the former president predicts is on the horizon, he gushes in the audio for an exhibit celebrating "The Work of the First...

WASHINGTON -- The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is unable to find or account for tens of thousands of valuable mementos of Reagan's White House years because a "near universal" security breakdown left the artifacts vulnerable to pilfering by insiders, an audit by the National Archives inspector general has concluded. Inspector General Paul Brachfeld said that his office was investigating allegations that a former employee stole Reagan memorabilia but that the probe had been hampered by the facility's sloppy record-keeping. "We have been told by sources that a person who had access capability removed holdings," Brachfeld said in an interview. "But...

Ruling Could Speed Release Of Records From Clinton LibraryThis article was published on Friday, October 5, 2007 10:06 PM CDT in News By Andrew DeMillo THE MORNING NEWS LITTLE ROCK -- Former President Bill Clinton will have limited time to review thousands of documents archivists have cleared for release from his presidential library in Arkansas because of a recent court ruling, federal officials say. About 26,000 pages of documents have been processed by archivists and forwarded to Clinton and the White House for their review, according to spokeswoman Susan Cooper of the National Archives, which manages the presidential library system....

In March, 2003 Senator Charles Schumer asked the Justice Department to investigate how the federal prisons selected Muslim chaplains. Schumer noted that the two Islamic groups which “endorsed” chaplain candidates promoted Wahhabism, a form of Islam especially hospitable to terrorism. At least 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers, for example, are believed to have been Wahhabis. Within a year the Justice Department’s inspector general produced a list of defects in how “Muslim Religious Services Providers” were recruited. The most alarming was this: the doctrinal beliefs of Muslim applicants were not examined to see if they were consistent with prison...

HARRISON, N.Y. (AP) - Even the dead apparently have to pay the fines on their overdue books at one Westchester County library. Elizabeth Schaper said she was charged a 50-cent late fee while turning in a book that her late mother had checked out of a Harrison Public Library branch. "I was in shock," Schaper said. "This has rocked me to my core." Schaper's mother, Ethel Schaper, died at the age of 87 on Sept. 16 after suffering a massive stroke. A few days later, Schaper said she found a library book, "The Price of Silence," by Camilla Trinchieri, that...

Public libraries are stocking hundreds of Islamic books by advocates of "holy war", with many glorifying acts of terrorism, a new report claims. Council taxpayers' money has been spent on the books, with one library stocking works by the convicted preachers Abu Hamza and Abdullah al-Faisal. An investigation by a leading think-tank found extremist literature at six libraries, three in the London area, two in the Midlands and one in the North. It raises fears that public libraries could inadvertently fuel the radicalisation of young Muslims. The recent case of Dhiren Barot, who was jailed for 30 years for plotting...

A homeless man was arrested this week at the downtown Central Library after allegedly masturbating in a back aisle and then pulling a knife on a librarian who was trying to escort him out of the building. A security guard used a Taser on the man, who was arrested by police and charged with multiple offenses, from lascivious conduct to aggravated battery. No one, luckily, was injured or killed in the incident. But it's an ugly reminder of a community problem hidden in plain sight. On any given day, you'll find a group of homeless regulars at the Central Library,...

DENVER — A library patron suspected of selling hundreds of books, tapes and DVDs he had borrowed has cost Denver-area libraries tens of thousands of dollars, officials said. Thomas Pilaar, 33, was suspected of using different names to obtain seven library cards from the Denver Public Library, then checking out 300 items per card and selling at least some of the items, KCNC-TV in Denver reported. "It appears his intent was to sell 2,100 (items) from the Denver Library collection," Denver Public Library spokeswoman M. Celeste Jackson told the station. She estimated the losses at about $35,000. Arapahoe County library...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JULY 17, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Since structural weaknesses forced the Vatican library in Rome to close for three years of renovation, researchers are finding assistance at a U.S. university. Gregory Pass, the current librarian of the Knights of Columbus Vatican Film Library at St. Louis University, told ZENIT that since the announcement was made about the closure of the Vatican Library, his offices have gotten busier. "We have seen a rise in the number of inquiries regarding the availability of our microfilms and of space in our reading room, as well as a rise in the number of...

Aaron Swartz today announced the launch of the new Open Library project. The goal of the project is to produce the world's greatest library on the Internet free for anyone to use. Starting with the Internet Archive's book scanning project and organizing the insertion of new content via a wiki-type model the project seems to be off to a great start. The demo, source code, and mailing lists were all opened up today in hopes of drawing interest from the public at large.

Mayor: "I fear that we're the first city that has a hard-core porn collection in our public library." By Elizabeth O'Brien FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, July 11, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Following a heated controversy between Mayor Jim Naugle and members of the homosexual community last week, the city commission approved the opening of a gay and lesbian library on public property. The commissioners voted 3-2 yesterday to allow the Stonewall Library collection of gay and lesbian materials to be moved from its present location at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center to the more spacious, county-run ArtSpace library at Holiday Park....

Zanesville “Library Rally” Friday, 6/15/07, 11am, John McIntire Library COPE is working with Citizens Against Sexually Oriented Offenders (CASOO) to present a “library rally” in Zanesville, Ohio. We will be at the John McIntire Library on June 15, 2007, at 11am, and we encourage others to join us. CASOO has been instrumental in getting ordinances passed in many towns/cities throughout Ohio that restrict registered offenders from living in certain areas where children frequent. CASOO has tracked and helped incarcerate offenders who neglect to register. COPE is proud to be standing with CASOO. Please join us.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Visitors to the new, presidential-style museum honoring evangelist Billy Graham enter and exit the building through crosses as tall as 40 feet high, a design meant to emphasize that the $27-million complex is an extension of the minister's work. "My hope is there will be thousands of people who come here every year and accept Jesus Christ as their savior," said the Rev. Franklin Graham, son and successor to his father, the world's most widely heard preacher. On Thursday, former Presidents Carter, Clinton and George H.W. Bush met with the Graham family before the formal dedication of...

A frail Billy Graham, using a walker and leaning on his son Franklin, was honored Thursday by three former U.S. presidents as they dedicated a museum built to be a "living crusade" that will carry on his work after the minister is gone. The $27 million Billy Graham Library traces the evangelist's journey from farm boy to the most widely heard minister of all time. He befriended every U.S. president since Harry Truman and preached in person to more than 210 million. "This building behind me is just a building," Graham said in brief remarks. "It's an instrument, a tool...

Vienna library launches erotica hotline 1 hour, 55 minutes ago VIENNA, Austria - This isn't the typical whispering you might expect to hear at a library. Vienna's City Hall has launched a "sex hotline" to raise money for the capital's main public library, officials said Tuesday. It's unusual, but it's not particularly raunchy: Callers pay 39 euro cents (53 cents) a minute to listen to an actress read breathless passages from erotica dating to the Victorian era. City Hall set up the hotline earlier this month to help the library raise cash for planned remodeling and expansion, Austrian media reported....

Neenah, Wis. (AP) -- A law protecting library records' confidentiality has hamstrung officials pursuing a man who reportedly masturbated among the books at the Neenah Public Library earlier this month. City Attorney James Godlewski said the library can't turn a surveillance video of the man over to police without a court order. "That is state law," Godlewski said Monday. "The library is merely following what state law says." The Wisconsin attorney general's office said in a Nov. 27 opinion that library surveillance videos fall under the state's public library records confidentiality law. The law prevents libraries from releasing records that...

After gaining widespread support among city and county officials, the proposal to merge the Minneapolis and Hennepin County library systems ran into a potential roadblock Tuesday. Officials said they have been unable to agree on how unionized city library employees, who generally earn more and work shorter weeks, will be blended into the county system, which has its own union workers. The Hennepin County Board postponed a vote to tentatively endorse the merger Tuesday, leaving uncertain how the issue will be dealt with today as the proposal gets its first hearing at the State Capitol. "It's not sufficient to say...

Iranian Police Clash With Women's Day Protesters March 8, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Police in Tehran today clashed with rights activists who gathered in front of the Iranian parliament to mark International Women's Day. Reports say the crowd -- which included students and women -- was attacked by police with batons. One organizer of the demonstration, Fatemeh Govarayi, told Radio Farda that several people were injured. Police forces "were dispersing the crowd violently," Govarayi said. "We were among the people who were beaten. [One woman's] leg was seriously injured. Some of the [student activists] also were seriously injured." Govarayi was among...

LANCASTER, Ohio — Police tried to identify a woman they pulled from an icy river by checking on her library card, but the library would not cooperate, citing a policy set by its board. The woman, who was treated for unknown injuries, was carrying her library card on a key ring but had no other identification when a passer-by found her in the Hocking River on Thursday night, police said. So a dispatcher, then an officer called the Fairfield County District Library and were told the library could not release the information without a court order. The woman later was...

The George W. Bush Library: Asset or Albatross for SMU? By William K. McElvaney and Susanne Johnson For some time Southern Methodist University has pursued the George W. Bush Presidential Library. We assume this quest will not likely change. Nor do we doubt that the best interests of the university are honored in the minds of SMU’s administration. Indeed, we have great respect for SMU’s present leadership and its many remarkable achievements. In this instance, however, we seek to love the university in a different way by offering an alternative viewpoint and by raising questions we regard as healthy...

A group of Methodist ministers has begun a national petition drive asking Southern Methodist University to remove itself from negotiations to get the George W. Bush presidential library. "As United Methodists, we believe that the linking of his presidency with a university bearing the Methodist name is utterly inappropriate," reads the petition, which is posted online at ProtectSMU.org. "Because SMU is owned by the United Methodist Church, the imposition of a George W. Bush library, museum and think tank at SMU will irreparably connect the denomination with this presidency,” said Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, a petition organizer in Brooklyn, N.Y....

ANDERSON, S.C. (AP) - Police say a security guard at the Anderson County Library fired his gun at a car after the driver triggered a security alarm. Police say security guard James Turner asked the woman to stop after the alarm went off as she left around 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon. A police report states Turner chased the woman as she ran to her car and he said the bumper brushed his knee as she pulled away. Police say the guard then fired into the driver's door. Authorities say the woman kept going and they don't know if she was...

United States Naval Academy -- Nimitz Library RECOMMENDED READING LIST INTRODUCTION To the Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy -- One of the frustrations of Naval Academy life -- for both Faculty and Midshipmen -- is the extent to which the daily schedule limits opportunities for informal encounters between teacher and student. Midshipmen simply do not have the time to take full advantage of the range of academic potential the Academy offers. You cannot always meet in leisure with your professors, pursue spontaneous discussions to their conclusion, or read much beyond the books required in courses. The purpose of...

Every afternoon at Maplewood Middle School’s final bell, dozens of students pour across Baker Street to the public library. Some study quietly. Others, library officials say, fight, urinate on the bathroom floor, scrawl graffiti on the walls, talk back to librarians or refuse to leave when asked. One recently threatened to burn down the branch library. Librarians call the police, sometimes twice a day. As a result, starting on Jan. 16, the Maplewood Memorial Library will be closing its two buildings on weekdays from 2:45 to 5 p.m., until further notice. An institution that, like many nationwide, strives to attract...

Southern Methodist University moved closer Thursday to landing the George W. Bush Presidential Library, giving the school a high-profile chance to polish its image and cement Dallas' close ties to President Bush. The library's site selection committee announced Thursday that it is intensifying discussions with SMU, and a person close to the deliberations said the two other finalists – the University of Dallas and Baylor University – were told they are out of contention unless unforeseen problems crop up. "We're not announcing that [the library is] coming to SMU," university President Gerald Turner said at a news conference, "but this...

Troves of scholarship For 1,500 years, Deir Al-Surian has had a working library. Active steps are now being taken to conserve this rich heritage, says Jill Kamil One of the most well preserved texts is this New Testament Coptic manuscript, 13th century The Coptic monastery known as Deir Al-Surian, or the Monastery of the Syrians, contains more than 3,000 books as well as a vast number of texts in Syriac, Aramaic (the language of Christ), Coptic, Arabic and Ethiopic. They date upwards from the fifth century and today, as a result of the revival in Coptic monasticism in recent years,...

Internet access for the public at the Mount Clemens Public Library has been revoked because of an increase in the number of people looking at sexually explicit material. Advertisement The plug was pulled on the computers earlier this month after employees noticed a "large increase" in visitors using the free Internet service to access what the library termed obscene material in violation of library policies. "There seemed to be a sudden increase in that kind of activity, and it was really bothering me. I thought something needed to be done," said library Director Donald E. Worrell Jr. Library staffers acknowledge...

WASHINGTON - He may be a certified lame duck now, but President Bush and his truest believers are about to launch their final campaign - an eye-popping, half-billion-dollar drive for the Bush presidential library. Eager to begin refurbishing his tattered legacy, the President hopes to raise $500 million to build his library and a think tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Bush lived in Dallas until he was elected governor of Texas in 1995. Bush sources with direct knowledge of library plans told the Daily News that SMU and Bush fund-raisers hope to get half of the half billion...

SAVANNAH, Mo. – Three years after she was fired for refusing to work on Sundays, Connie Rehm has won back her job on the staff of this small town's public library, and her employers have received a costly education in employment rights law. No less a legal team than the same Florida attorneys who represented the parents of Terri Schiavo – the brain-damaged woman at the center of last year's right-to-die case – took up Rehm's cause, suing Rolling Hills Consolidated Library on a claim of religious discrimination. A federal jury found in her favor after a three-day trial in...

LOS ANGELES A camera phone captured a UCLA student being shot with a stun gun by a police officer after he allegedly refused repeated requests to show his student identification and would not leave a campus library, university police said Wednesday. The incident occurred about 11 p.m. Tuesday after police did a routine check of student ID at the Powell Library computer lab. "This is a long-standing library policy to ensure the safety of students during the late-night hours," said UCLA Police Department spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein. She said police tried to escort Mostafa Tabatabainejad, 23, out of the library after...