Jacqueline Kennedy notes rediscovered | American Libraries Magazine

10m

Note by Jacqueline Kennedy on White House stationery, November 22, 1963

In the summer of 2015, Gil Wells found his 79-year-old godmother with a plastic sleeve holding two small sheets of White House notepaper. Wells pulled them out, turned one sheet over and stopped cold. “I saw ‘Nov. 22’ and ‘pink and navy Chanel suit,’” he recalled. The handwriting was Jacqueline Kennedy’s, and the notes were a list she had drawn up before the fateful trip to Dallas in November 1963. Since March 2016, they have been housed at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

New York Times, July 2

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9m

We often forget that intellectual property rights are not ends in themselves, but instruments at the service of development, creativity, innovation, and welfare. Today, for World Intellectual Property Day 2019, IFLA presents this side of intellectual property, and how it has an impact on libraries. It is not the case that more rights mean better outcomes. Scholars have underlined on several occasions how more flexibility contributes to development, rather than stronger protection. Exceptions and limitations are key for many public interest activities. Copyright needs to be mindful of its impact on cultural heritage, research, and education.

IFLA Library Policy and Advocacy Blog, Apr. 26
28m

Matthew Humphries writes: “Thinking of a secure password is hard, so demanding a user change it every 60 days fills many with dread and leads to weaker security. Microsoft has realized this and decided to remove default password expiry as a security baseline feature in Windows 10. As part of its security baseline, Microsoft had stipulated a 60-day password expiration policy, but now admits that ‘periodic password expiration is a defense only against the probability that a password (or hash) will be stolen during its validity interval and will be used by an unauthorized entity. If a password is never stolen, there’s no need to expire it.’”

PC Magazine, Apr. 26
59m

Trustees of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on April 25 deferred a vote on changes to the library’s collection development policy. The policy will likely be voted upon at the board’s May meeting. Questions on weeding raised by residents at a public hearing in March are expected to be answered by the end of April. “The board wants to make sure that they give adequate time and attention to issues they need to think about before they vote,” Library Director Greta Southard said. The goal of the revised collection development policy is “to continue with the spirit of the policy as it’s always existed,” but seeks to clarify the language.

Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette, Apr. 25
1h

Police investigators say Boyd N. Klingensmith was denied computer access at the Greensburg Hempfield (Pa.) Area Library on April 18 because of an outstanding library fine at the affiliated Penn Area Library in Harrison City. This didn’t sit well with Klingensmith, who, according to court records, said, “I hate Penn Library. I’ll have to shoot them. If I go and shoot them, will that take care of the fine?” Library staff let him use a computer, but police later showed up. Klingensmith said he had been joking, but police found an unregistered pistol in his car. Klingensmith is being held on a $10,000 bond and was charged with terroristic threats and weapons counts.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Apr. 25
18h

The ACRL Rare Books and Manuscripts Section has selected six winners, three honorable mentions, and a notable citation for the 2019 Katharine Kyes Leab and Daniel J. Leab American Book Prices Current Exhibition Awards. The awards recognize in five categories outstanding printed exhibition catalogs, guides, and electronic exhibitions produced by North American and Caribbean institutions. The winning catalogs will be on display at the 2019 RBMS Conference Booksellers’ Showcase in Baltimore.

ACRL, Apr. 25
18h

Sally Pewhairangi writes: “When did you last describe your current project as ‘beautiful’? We know beauty when we see it right? So why not beautiful library projects? Wouldn’t you love to think back on a beautiful library project that you worked on 2, 5, or 25 years ago? I think it’s less about what projects you do, and more about how you do them—the work itself. So if you want to make your next project one that you will recall fondly in years to come, here are seven ways you can do that.”

The Library Boss, Apr. 23
19h

A Geneva Bible, one of 321 rare items stolen from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, has been recovered in the Netherlands. The bible was among the rare books, maps, plate books, and atlases that were discovered missing from the library’s Oliver Room. It has been closed since April 3, 2017, because it is a crime scene. A former archivist at the library and a rare book dealer are accused of stealing more than $8 million of those books. Investigators believe the scheme dates back to the 1990s. The bible, published in 1615, was traced to the American Pilgrim Museum in Leiden. It was returned to the Carnegie Library on April 25.

KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh, Apr. 25

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