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Littleton Mitchell

Written on: July 6th, 2009 in News

In a tragic accident today, Delaware’s citizens lost an outstanding contributor to American’s civil rights when Littleton Mitchell died in an automobile collision near his house in Delaware City.

From his service as a Tuskegee Airman to his lengthy involvement in civil rights activism in Delaware, including his service as chairman of the Delaware NAACP, along with his lifelong mission of helping children in distress, Mitchell will always be remembered as a history-maker in our state.

 

 

 

Mitchell gave a lengthy 1997 interview about his life and accomplishments to the University of Delaware. He was also featured in the Delaware Humanities Forum documentary on the 1968 National Guard occupation of Wilmington, A Dream Deferred.

Robert McNamara

Written on: July 6th, 2009 in News

Died today at the age of 93. you can read his obituary in today’s New York Times. There’s an official biography of his tenure as Secretary of Defense at the Department of Defense website.
The Delaware Library Catalog has a number of items available for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of McNamara’s contributions to America’s postwar economic and foreign policy history:

• The incredible Errol Morris documentary Fog of War is a must-see for anyone interested in McNamara’s life and his struggle to understand and come to terms with his moral responsibilities about the war.
• The Living and the Dead, by Paul Hendrickson
• McNamara’s own point of view, In Retrospect
• Deborah Sharpley’s comprehensive biography, Promise and Power, largely based on the author’s interviews with McNamara, also covers his postwar work with the World Bank

You can also read interviews with McNamara at the Lyndon B. Johnson Library’s website, or watch some videos of interviews on YouTube

How’re we doing (nationally)?

Written on: July 6th, 2009 in News

We recently received these rankings from the National Center for Education Statistics’ report, Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2007, June 2009
The figures in the columns 2002-2007 are Delaware’s ranking of all the U.S. states for the particular categories.

Delaware Public Libraries- National Rankings

	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2007 DE	2007 National average	2007 National best
Library visits per capita	37	36	30	26	22	21	5.64	4.91	7.63
Reference transactions per capita	45	47	47	45	42	44	.66	1.00	1.72
Circulation per 1,000 population	29	29	30	28	11	11	9.97	7.42	15.89
Total collection expenditures per capita	34	28	25	25	29	27	4.17	4.59	9.70
Print materials per capita	46	43	41	39	36	37	2.45	2.78	5.48
Audio materials per 1,000 population	37	37	34	33	32	34	18.50	157.19	339.25
Video materials per 1,000 population	37	31	31	31	30	27	159.39	158.67	377.57
Total paid FTE per 25,000 population	50	51	42	39	40	42	9.60	12.38	21.11
Paid FTE librarians per 25,000 population	43	44	41	39	36	32	3.79	4.04	9.12
Per capita total operating income	37	38	32	27	24	31	32.48	37.66	74.68
Per capita state operating income	8	8	9	7	7	8	3.99	2.52	21.37
Per capita local operating income	39	38	35	33	33	35	25.11	31.68	72.46
Public Internet terminals per 5,000 population	51	47	49	47	48	47	2.82	3.55	7.20

On a related note, we are celebrating the fact that the Delaware Library Catalog recorded more then 2 million circulation transactions during the financial year that closed last week. It’s a considerable benchmark, one that we’re very proud of.

Sunday Book Reviews

Written on: July 6th, 2009 in Reviews

The cover feature from this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review was for Methland by Nick Reding, an account of the impact of the methamphetamine epidemic on the small town of Oelwein, Iowa. The reviewer praises the book as an outstanding example of “shoe-leather reporting”- you can read an excerpt here. It could be an interesting accompaniment to the first season of Breaking Bad, which was recently released on DVD and is available through the Delaware Library Catalog. Frank Owen’s No Speed Limit, released in 2007 is another well-reviewed non-fiction account of the scourge, although Owen’s book is more scholarly than journalistic- but equally vivid.