The Library Foundation of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Public Library are celebrating the Oxford English Dictionary throughout the month of March with an event called: Hollywood Is A Verb: Los Angeles Tackles the Oxford English Dictionary.
During the month, the libraries across the city will host public programs that encourage readers to rethink the dictionary. There will be more than 60 events and activities across the Los Angeles Public Library system. Events will include: poetry workshops, dictionary-themed improv, word game tournaments and art classes.
In addition there will be several author talks. For instance on March 3, National Book Award-winning author James Gleick and UCSD Professor of Cognitive Science Lera Boroditsky will discuss “how knowledge systems like the Oxford English Dictionary mirror or change the way the human brain functions.”
Los Angeles citizens have passed charter amendment Measure L with 63 percent of the vote–helping the 72-branch library system recover from steep budget cuts in recent years.
Here’s more from Library Journal: “The charter mandates that the library receive .0175 percent of the assessed value of all property in the city. Measure L will, over the next four years, increase that percentage to .03 percent. The library projects that this will translate to $130 million four years from now”
Do you think this kind of bill could work in other cities? The measure will help cut the library loose from the city’s general fund, making the library system responsible for new costs like “custodial services, security services, employee benefits.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Revision update: Still on chapter 21 of 30 because yesterday, I spent the day working on my synopsis so I could take it to our critique group last night. Then our critique group was canceled. Oh, well. At least I’ve got the synopsis done. Back on the book today.
With the economic crunch all around, libraries are being hit hard all over. In the last few days, I’ve seen so many posts about this, I wanted to share them.
Libraries are the way that many of us fell in love with books. I still love going into a library and seeing all those shelves after shelves of books. They support the publishing industry not only by buying books, but also by creating readers who go on to buy their own books. And, librarians are a wealth of knowledge. I recently wrote about how one local librarian helped me in my search for a book with beautiful language. So, check out these links below, and if there’s anything you can do to help these libraries, or any other libraries, please do.
On her blog, author Tina Nichols Coury has an editorial about saving the Los Angeles Public Library from former librarian turned award-winning writer Susan Patron. And this SaveTheLibrary.org website details the problems that library is having.
Writer Beverley BevenFlorez also has been blogging about the Los Angeles Public Library.
And writer Carl Schwanke wrote about the problems hitting his local public library system in Charlotte, N.C.
Writer Jennifer R. Hubbard is doing something about the problem, and we can too. Jennifer is running a blogger challenge today through March 27 where bloggers donate money to libraries for every comment they receive on their blog. So click over to Jennifer’s blog post here, write a comment, and then click over to the participating blogs (the list is on Jennifer’s post) and write a comment on their blogs too. Each comment will help raise money for needy libraries.
Get commenting!
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