The Tower Road branch of the Alachua County (Fla.) Library District has sent more than 1,000 care packages since 2004 to U.S. troops in Iraq through the Books for Soldiers website. The site allows deployed soldiers with internet access to request books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, board games, and other items from volunteers who ship the items directly. Susan Weimer, library specialist and Books for Soldiers member, said the Tower Road library comes from a tradition of outreach….

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The Center Street branch of the Milwaukee Public Library is just blocks from where a shooting that killed four people shocked the city. Less than a week later, it’s a place for young people to come and rent videos, read books, and sign on to the internet as if nothing in their lives has changed. “I haven’t heard a lot about [the shooting] from the kids who come in, but I know they realize what happened,” said Branch Manager Kirsten Thompson….

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The Google-Viacom showdown over the handover of YouTube user data appears to be over. The two sides agreed to changes in a previous ruling that would have required Google to hand over user ID’s, IP addresses, and a list of all viewed YouTube videos to Viacom in connection with their ongoing copyright infringement litigation. The new order, filed July 14, states that Google will substitute user ID’s and IP addresses for anonymous but unique identifiers….

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Elementary school teachers in Nashua, New Hampshire, must now notify parents if they are going to use Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal–winning science-fiction book The Giver in their classrooms. The school board made the decision July 7, by a 7–1 vote, after a two-hour hearing. Parent Jodi Gould had wanted the book removed from elementary school libraries, but the board felt that was too restrictive….

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The University of Iowa Main Library opened for business July 9, despite the stacks of books and boxes that still clutter the upper floors. The first floor looked relatively normal the day before; the only thing missing was people. Library staff members had been scrambling to get the building up and running after the recent floods. The job required a lot of reorganizing and attention, even though little water actually seeped in….

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In a ruling that could have serious privacy implications, a federal judge has ruled that popular internet video site YouTube must hand over details about what people are watching online. The decision, filed July 2 by U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton in New York, is part of a $1-billion copyright-infringement lawsuit that Viacom filed last year against Google, which owns YouTube. In response, Google has added a privacy link to its home page. See a comment on the ruling by Electronic Frontier Foundation Attorney Kurt Opsahl. But Jaikumar Vijayan asks, what is Google doing collecting and retaining all that data in the first place?…

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Gail Naughton, director of the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said she’s been told that the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic will help the museum and the community with their flood recovery efforts. “The countries themselves are looking at making direct gifts from the government,” she said. “They are also organizing a way for people who live in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to give to a fund.”…

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Talia and Laterrikha Fleming enjoy reading. In fact, they like it so much they spent part of Tuesday afternoon outside the Union County (S.C.) Carnegie Library urging people to check out books and read them. Talia, 10, and Laterrikha, 8, were at the library when they decided to make signs urging passing motorists to “Beep if you like to read.”…

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Before her death at age 57, Carol Sue Snowden lived in a condo on the east side of Columbus, Ohio, and drove a used Chevrolet. She worked for 30 years in the Whitehall branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and was the picture of frugalness. But when Snowden died of ovarian cancer in January, she willed $530,000 to the Whitehall branch and $70,000 each to the libraries of seven Columbus-area schools—for a combined gift exceeding $1 million. In addition, she left $10,000 to a colleague to pursue a master’s degree in library science….

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As the overflow from the upper Midwest tributaries made its way to the Mississippi River and southward to Missouri, it has become clear that the historic floodwaters have hit libraries in Iowa and Wisconsin the hardest. But “the story of Missouri flooding is not over, as some counties received about seven inches of rain June 24,” leading to the Missouri River being back on the rise, Missouri State Librarian Margaret Conroy e-mailed American Libraries….

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