If you were born in the
United States or in another country which granted you its citizenship at
birth “jure soli” (by law of the soil), you
may claim Italian citizenship “jure
sanguinis” (by law of the bloodline) by descent and be considered an
Italian citizen if your ancestors were Italians at the time of your birth. Find more information, including exceptions
to the rule at http://www.ambwashingtondc.esteri.it/ambasciata_washington/en/informazioni_e_servizi/cittadinanza-jure-sanguinis.html
Michael Steven Bublé (born
1975) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He was recognized as an Italian citizen since
birth by jure sanguinis in 2005. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bubl%C3%A9
There are more public libraries in
America—some 9,000
central buildings and 7,500 branch locations—than McDonald’s restaurants,
making them one of the most ubiquitous institutions in the nation. Far from serving as obsolescent repositories
for dead wood, libraries are integral, yet threatened, parts of the American
social fabric. Libraries, after all, are
truly democratic spaces where all are welcome and where everything inside is
available to everyone. Few American
institutions strive for “equity of access,” a core principle of the American
Library Association, and even fewer pay more than lip service to the idea that
services like the Internet are necessary aspects of life that simply must be
made available to all members of society.
But despite their impact and import—much of it hidden from people of
means who can independently (and often expensively) secure for themselves those
services provided by the library—America is starving its libraries, cutting off
millions of people from the stream of information that, like oxygen, powers the
development and basic functions of society.
In response to a 2010 story by Chicago’s Fox affiliate, “Are Libraries Necessary, or a
Waste of Tax Money?”, Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library
Mary A. Dempsey explained, “There continues to exist in this country a vast
digital divide. It exists along lines of
race and class and is only bridged consistently and equitably through the free
access provided by the Chicago Public Library and all public libraries in this
nation. Some 60 percent. In New York City, library funding is down $65
million since 2008, even though demand for library services is surging. At the 217 local library branches across the
city, there are waiting lists for English-language classes and computer-coding
classes. One-third of city
residents—about 2.8 million people, more than the entire population of
Chicago—has no home Internet access and must rely on services available at the
public library. Indeed, the Queens
Library, which serves the most ethnically and economically diverse communities
in the United States and which loaned out 15.7 million items during the 2014
fiscal year, has the highest circulation rate of any public library in the
country. Yet despite their popularity,
City libraries are literally falling apart, and
some branches in Brooklyn and the Bronx more resemble subway stations than
literary oases. Beyond mere fairness,
there are viable economic reasons for sustaining New York City’s public
libraries. In 2010, the City of Philadelphia spent
$33 million on its public libraries; private donations contributed $12 million
more. Subsequent to the funding, the
value of an average home located within one quarter-mile of one of the city’s
54 public library branches rose $9,630.
In the aggregate, the public libraries contributed $698 million to home
values in Philadelphia, which translated into an additional $18.5 million in
property taxes for the city and school district. Other studies have demonstrated that for
every tax dollar that libraries take in, communities receive anywhere between
$2.38 and $6.54 in return. Katrina vanden Heuvel
Read more at https://www.thenation.com/article/why-public-libraries-matter/
On
January 13, 2017 Barack Obama sat
down in the Oval Office and talked about the indispensable role that books have
played during his presidency and throughout his life—from his peripatetic and
sometimes lonely boyhood, when “these worlds that were portable” provided
companionship, to his youth when they helped him to figure out who he was, what
he thought and what was important. The writings of Lincoln, the Rev. Martin Luther King
Jr., Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, Mr. Obama found, were “particularly helpful”
when “what you wanted was a sense of solidarity,” adding “during very difficult
moments, this job can be very isolating.” “So sometimes you have to sort of hop across
history to find folks who have been similarly feeling isolated, and that’s been
useful.” There is a handwritten copy of
the Gettysburg Address in the Lincoln Bedroom, and sometimes, in the evening,
Mr. Obama says, he would wander over from his home office to read it. Like Lincoln, Mr. Obama taught himself how to
write, and for him, too, words became a way to define himself, and to
communicate his ideas and ideals to the world. Mr.
Obama taught himself to write as a young man by keeping a journal and writing
short stories when he was a community organizer in Chicago—working on them
after he came home from work and drawing upon the stories of the people he met. He had lunch last week with five novelists he
admires—Dave Eggers, Colson Whitehead, Zadie Smith, Junot Díaz and Barbara
Kingsolver. He not only talked with them about the political and media
landscape, but also talked shop, asking how their book tours were going and
remarking that he likes to write first drafts, long hand, on yellow legal pads. Michiko Kakutani Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/books/obamas-secret-to-surviving-the-white-house-years-books.html
January 9, 2017 A
Wicker Park elementary parent called out the Chicago Teachers Union over
the weekend on a national stage, claiming the union stopped parents who volunteered
to staff their children’s school library after its librarian was laid off. Mark Hendershot, a parent at A.N. Pritzker Elementary,
penned an op-ed titled “The Library Lockout at Our
Elementary School” published online by The Wall Street Journal
in which he criticizes CTU for keeping parents from temporarily filling in to
work a “union job” earlier this school year.
In the article, Hendershot said his 6-year-old first-grade daughter and
her schoolmates have been unable to access library resources at Pritzker since
their librarian was let go last fall.
Dozens of parents volunteered to fill the librarian’s role on a
short-term basis until a full-time replacement could be found, but Hendershot
said that plan was shot down before it got off the ground when a CTU member
filed a formal complaint. “Although the
parents intended to do nothing more than help students check books in and out,
the union claimed that the parents would be impermissibly filling a role
reserved for teachers,” he wrote. “The
volunteer project was shut down following the meeting and the library is
currently being used for dance classes.”
A CTU spokesman defended that decision, stating that a volunteer
librarian would in fact violate the terms of the union’s contract with the
Chicago Board of Education. Matt
Masterson http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2017/01/09/cps-parent-calls-out-teachers-union-over-library-lockout
The first public library in Rome was founded by Asinius Pollio. From the spoils of the war he constructed and
erected the library in the Atrium Libertatis, which he adorned with statues of
the most celebrated heroes as well as other famous works of art all open to the
public. The library had Greek and Latin
wings, and reportedly its establishment posthumously fulfilled one of Caesar's
ambitions. Pollio retired into private
life as a patron of literary figures and became a writer. In retirement, Pollio organized literary
readings where he encouraged authors to read their own work, and he was the
first Roman author to recite his own works.
Read about other ancient libraries and see pictures at http://www.crystalinks.com/romelibrary.html See also A Brief History of Roman Libraries
by Javier Rodriguez at http://www.roman-empire.net/articles/article-005.html
and The First-Known Public Library in Rome at http://www.historyofinformation.com/expanded.php?id=179
January 19, 2017 Literary adaptations are currently an incredibly popular trend in television, with
Netflix’s revival of A Series of Unfortunate Events premiering this past week, and
highly-anticipated adaptations of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale and Neil
Gaiman’s American Gods set to debut
later this year. Another Gaiman work, Good Omens, can now be added to
that list. Amazon has greenlit a miniseries based on the 1990 novel, which Neil
Gaiman co-wrote with fellow fantasy author Terry
Pratchett. Jenna
Anderson http://comicbook.com/2017/01/20/terry-pratchett-neil-gaiman-good-omens-amazon/
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