Dress made out of Golden Books:

http://home.comcast.net/~ryannovelline/10.html

(Includes a series of "how it was made" photos.)

British author Philip Pullman recently delivered a speech at Oxford Town Hall in support of public libraries (and library funding), and the text is available online at False Economy (http://bit.ly/glagl5).  There's some interesting discussion in the online comments there, as well as on a BoingBoing blog post about Pullman's speech (http://bit.ly/fQhi1o).

Shelving books on the night shift
It takes some time, but I guess I like it
Dewey's decimals keep me company

"Library Girl" is a song by Reina Del Cid, who apparently works at a library somewhere in the U.S.

Her music video for the song (dedicated "to all kindred nerds") includes both library and coffee shop footage, as well as a few amusing outtake clips after the song ends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPSV8CsshnM

The Visual Literacy project has an interactive "Periodic Table of Visualization Methods", demonstrating dozens of ways to display data and other information. Mouse over each "element" to see an example.

http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Ironically, "periodic table" is not one of the visualization formats included in the table.

From Wired.com:

Ask a flowchart: Which social search engine should I use?
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/st_flowchart_social/

"Do you want an answer, or a smug explanation of what's wrong with your question?"

We're switching to a new platform for the directory of PALS libraries, and it's now available for you to preview and use:

http://members.palsnet.info

The new directory pulls library information from the L2 directory, except for delivery routes and non-resident card information.  If you find basic information about your library (director name, phone number, hours, etc.) that is incomplete or inaccurate, please update your library's L2 data. Library directors who need the permissions on their L2 accounts upgraded to enable editing may contact Brian Smith, brians [at] palsnet [dot] info.

Will ads in books destroy the industry or save it?
http://bit.ly/bEVWFR

Death to humans! Visions of the Apocalypse in movies and literature
http://bit.ly/bIteY6

Matthew Brady Civil War photos: New and improved on Flickr
http://bit.ly/b9lrh0

There are many sites that offer free resources for readers' advisory. These are just a few of the "recommendation engines" and other tools available on the web:

AllReaders.com
http://www.allreaders.com

FictionDB
http://www.fictiondb.com
(Some features free, $20/year premium account provides extra search capabilities.)

Gnooks
http://www.gnooks.com

Hennepin County Library: Find a Good Book
http://www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace/FindAGoodBook.cfm

LibraryThing Search
http://www.librarything.com/search

These free tools for web designers were demonstrated at the Chicago Drupal Meetup Group on July 22:

Color Scheme Designer
http://www.colorschemedesigner.com/
Pick a main color, and get suggestions for accompanying hues.  

ColourLovers
http://www.colourlovers.com/create
Create a custom tiling background image; color palette tools also available.

PatternCooler
http://www.patterncooler.com/
Another resource for customized backgrounds.

A special report that ran on Fox Chicago News on June 28 featured commentary from Denise Zielinski of the DuPage Library System. The video clip is available online:

Libraries: Necessary or a waste of money?
http://tinyurl.com/2c2m6yv