Controversial Higher power of lucky continues to drive people nuts as it rocks heated debate on library listservs and discussion boards, but Smithophian's Kalen Wheeler lays the blame squarely at the feet of 'conservative librarians' and calls for a re-evaluation of "the power that librarians have to decide what our children can and cannot read".

Setting aside the fact that the book won critical acclaim from the Newbury panel, Wheeler doesn't seem to be prepared to tackle the issue that librarians are employed to build and maintain collections that serve the needs of the communities that they serve. And that includes members of various boards and the parents of children.

Factor in the restrictions of budgets and the limited size of the purse, and the necessity to gird the loins in accountability, plus the unbelievable bagging caused by challenges, is it not unreasonable for an individual librarian to make an independent assessment on the purchase or otherwise of any given title?

Perhaps the weirdest of Wheeler's claims is that librarians were responsible for the banning of other jewels such as The Great Gatsby and Gone with the wind. Not to mention the fact that Lucky was actually written by a children's librarian ...

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Despite continuous and ongoing correspondence, plus a number of international phone calls, the massive conglomerate NIIT (confirmed by a phone call to the Sydney Consulate of India) was unable to obtain the services of A.B. Credaro.

Contacting the Warrior Librarian with the intention of having her write science assessment tests, the National Institute of Information Technology was only able to offer the 'going rate' of USD$5.00 per item. NIIT, an industry partner of Microsoft India (confirmed by a phone call to Microsoft's Sydney office), initially requested details of Credaro's freelance writing rates. Not having any (writing rates), Credaro referred them to the Australian Society of Authors website for the minimum awards - which would have been nice work if you could get it at those rates.

Unfortunately, it was not until after Credaro declined contracts that it was discovered that NIIT actually also employed Fun Managers. Credaro has long held the view that a position along the lines of a 'corporate morale officer' would be a brilliant way to spend one's working days; strolling around chatting with folk, emailing jokes, organising social events. Pretty much what she's done for years, except she's also been expected to do work stuff ...

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The October release of Brendan Sanderson's latest series Alcatraz will create something of a dilemma for school and children's librarians.

The plot of the 50,000 word novel, written in a mere 16 days, "...tells the story of a boy who discovers he's part of a secret group of freedom fighters who battle librarians, an evil cult that controls the world by restricting information..." (Utah Desert News)

Although Rowling's portrayal of a librarian in the Harry Potters was none too flattering, at least it was only incidental to the plot. Library folk will have to weigh up the benefits of encouraging kiddies reading against the possible fallout resulting from the 'evil' tag.

Maybe Sanderson should be forced to point out that not all library folk spend their coffee break biting the heads off puppies or even worse disconnecting the keyboards from computers, and it's really only a relatively small percentage of librarians who are actually evil ...

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Nat Hentoff, writing in the Picayune Tribune expressed dismay that the world's largest professional association for librarians did not issue more, and stronger, condemnation of the treatment of Cuban library workers and protest more vehemently against the burning of books from Cuban libraries.

Author of such books as The Day They Came to Arrest the Book and Does This School Have Capital Punishment?, Hentoff has also been critical of the Bush administration, the Clinton administration, the Patriot Act, and a number of other political issues including education.

There is no information at this time on his borrower overdue status ...

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Well, another gig coming to a close in a few weeks time with nothing desirable on the horizon yet. Isn't life an adventure?!

With two conferences looming - one interstate and one online, and a paper to present at each - a lot of writing has been happening here, which hopefully will explain the lag between issues of Warrior Librarian. To be honest, there were a few nights when I actually snuck off and got a few hours sleep. Unfortunately, partaking in my regular afternoon 15 minute Power Coma doesn't seem to be quite enough lately ...

We are living at a time when Monty Python is no longer a loony idea, or number of ideas, exiting the creative brains of a group of funny men from Britain, but a real state of the world of Oz. There was a time, for example, when we sent children to school to learn to read and write; now we are going to send them to school to be tested in reading and writing. Not surprisingly, to those of us who have a vestige of intelligence - even after years of dealing with children, their rabid parents and a hopeless bureaucracy - [realise that] most of them will fail.

Fay Gardiner, retired Teacher Librarian
[Used with permission]

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Hello, I was noticing our sites are similar. If you would like to take a look at my site, crimsoncaterers.com, I think a link from your Kid's Needs page would be beneficial for both sites. If you are interested in a link exchange, send me the url of the page with a link to my page...

Thanks for the laugh, Iliana! But I'm still wondering what on earth would make you think that your catering website was in any way similar to an online journal for librarians?(BTW, WLW doesn't do link exchanges.)