The World eBook Fair begins this Saturday, July 4th, coinciding with Project Gutenberg’s 39th anniversary.

To celebrate, the World eBook Fair members are providing free access to over two million books between July 4th and August 4th.

found via ResourceShelf

The American Libraries article is just one of many to explain the issues facing Ohio, but I found the following information worth posting:

Strickland’s office was also flooded with phone calls; gubernatorial spokesperson Amanda Wurst said in the June 23 Toledo Blade that “there were 1,356 calls through our switchboard, 80% of which were regarding library funding.” On a normal day, the office receives 150 calls, she added.

On another front, Save Ohio Libraries has created a Flyer for tomorrow’s Statehouse rally in Columbus (Pdf):

Save Ohio Libraries Rally Flyer

Odds and Ends:

Save Ohio Libraries is the rallying cry as well as the focus of this week’s activities.

The Save Ohio Libraries Facebook page is rapidly approaching 12,000 members (and has gone from 11,543 to 11,768 as I have written this post).  If you are a FB member, add to that number.  Also, become a fan of Governor Ted Strickland and post a message on his board.  As events around the world in recent months have shown, social networking has an impact, and one of the ways to have an impact is a large group of people all taking a step in the same direction.

Rallies are being planned in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Centerville, London, Portsmouth, and (just organized tonight) Columbus.  If you can add a few bodies to the gatherings, do so!

One additional thought to add to this:  this is growing beyond Ohio.  There are many people from other states who are watching this with concern and support.  The success or failure of these efforts (both the efforts to drastically reduce library funding to help balance the state’s budget, as well as our efforts to preserve library services) will make it easier/harder for other states to do the same.  Broadcasting the understanding that cutting library services only hurts recovery efforts by the states will not only benefit libraries across the country, but will also benefit the overall economy.

Make yourself heard!

Sir Tim Berner-Lee started what is now known as the World Wide Web exactly twenty years ago.

In this posted video from Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) 2009, he discusses how it started, where we are, and where we might be going.

So think about libraries and the web… what we have done in the past 20 years, were we are now, and where we can go.

found via TechCrunch

(and since it happens to be on the same topic, a happy birthday shout-out to Kristine as well!)

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is National Library Workers Day, and everyone should take a moment today (before the rush) and think about those who make libraries better by the quality of both their attitude and the work they do.

Have someone in mind?  Post them on the website for all to see!

found via ResourceShelf