In October, Obama sent out letters to a few US Agencies addressing concerns and issues that the President of the American Federation of Government Employees (John Cage) had inquired about. Concerning the letter to the EPA, Obama states:
I strongly oppose attempts by the Bush Administration to thwart publication of EPA researchers’ scientific findings, as well as the attempt to eliminate the agency’s library system. In an Obama Administration, the principle of scientific integrity will be an absolute, and I will never sanction any attempt to subvert the work of scientists.
PEER has reported that although the EPA libraries have been ordered to reopen their libraries, they are being placed in ridiculously small spaces with few resources. According to the news report pertaining to the Chicago EPA library::
- The re-opened library will be in a vacant reception area on the 16th floor of a federal building;
- The re-opened library will occupy less than one-tenth the area of the closed library and will be only slightly larger than the typical men’s restroom in that same building;
- No provision is made to restore the unique Great Lakes ecological collection or to recover any of the other holdings from the former library.
A colleague sent me a link to a story in American Libraries that says that the EPA National Library Network Report to Congress calls for the reopening of the four libraries that were closed back in 2006, that they will contain collections, that will be staffed by librarians that will offer reference services and that 1$ million will be spent on this. The report was published after the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee’s hearing in which it was stated that “No library should be closed until its holdings have been effectively cataloged, evaluated, and digitized.” In February, a GAO report said that the EPA library closures were “hasty and ill-considered.”
Now if only something could be done to restore funding to our own Environment Canada libraries.
Last night I introduced Stardust to the Swedes and did a Q&A after. Today I was interviewed by the Swedish press, then did a book-signing, and then I was given the "Finn the Giant" Award. In the crypt of the Cathedral at Lund. Beautiful live music was played, the legend of Finn the Giant was retold, and I was made the second person, following the unfollowable Terry Gilliam in 2005, to be honoured with the award.
In addition to a scroll, and flowers, I was given an amazing piece of art as my Award -- a portrait of me as a Saint, of sorts, all framed and ready to hang.
And then I left in the rain for the airport, happy to have met so many nice people and wishing I could stay longer in Lund.
....
Right. Here are the details of the upcoming Hay Festival London event...
Tuesday 2 October, 6pm
Neil Gaiman in conversation with Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian
The Criterion, Piccadilly
Book signing following the event.
The film of Stardust premieres in London on Wednesday 3 October. We have a pair of tickets to the premiere: all ticket-holders to the Hay Festival event at The Criterion will be entered into a draw and the winner announced at the book signing.
Tickets £5
Book at http://www.hayfestival.com/ or on 0870 990 1299.
Probably worth mentioning that the Criterion seats 600 people, which is slightly less than the last event in London, a year ago, so if you want to be sure that you can come, get tickets early.
This just came in from Japan...
Dear Neil
I am a Japanese fan who is dying to see Japanese release of Star Dust, coming this October. This is not exactly a question, but do you know about the special menues are available at Pascal Caffet and Shiseido Parlour (Both are famous sweets shops in Japan) in Yokohama Takashimaya while the department store is having photograph exhibition of Star Dust? Those menues are Star Dust Sweets Set (Pascal Caffet) and Star Dust Parfait (Shiseido Parlour).
http://www.takashimaya.co.jp/yokohama/new3/index.html
Anyone who eats the menu will get a chance to win a pair of tickets of Star Dust. As your fan, I am wondering if I should take two hour trip to Yokohama to try both menues. (^^)
Kominami Mie
Hullo. Only if you like parfait and sweets, I would have thought. (I loved the website you linked to -- I'd not seen the Japanese Stardust poster before, and it makes me strangely happy that it has the Ghosts on it.)
Also, from it I learned that there's a whole Japanese Stardust website at:
http://www.stardustmovie.jp/top.html
In addition to which, late this afternoon I was told that...
On Friday, the 21st of September, at 6:30 in Japan, I will be doing a signing, at
Kadokawa Shoten
2-13-3 Fujimi,
Chiyoda-ku,
Tokyo
102-8177
Japan
(This is my publisher's office, by the way, not a bookshop. They were kind enough to agree to let me do a signing because I told them that people had been writing in to my blog from Japan and asking when I'd sign their books. So if you're in Japan, please come...)
...
Hi Neil
I thought you and your readers might like to know that the Mitch Benn podcast featuring an interview with you is now online - http://www.mitchbenn.com/podcasts/
Lena
Oh good. (I am now slightly less travel-weary than when I did the interview with Mitch, for those who worry about that sort of thing.)
...
Jonathan Ross's In Search of Steve Ditko documentary is broadcast in the UK this Sunday, on BBC4, and you can read what Jonathan has to say about it at http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/news/story/0,,2169000,00.html
Actually, the plane wasn't to Stockholm. It was, rather counter-intuitively, to Copenhagen. Where we were driven over an enormous bridge to Sweden, and were deposited in Lund.
Which is an astonishingly pretty University town, filled with green spaces and pretty buildings. There's a John Bauer exhition in the Museum I'm going to try to get to if I get any time tomorrow that isn't interviews or signings...
(Here's a Bauer painting. I was going to put up a Kittelson picture as well, because Norwegians know what trolls look like too, but I couldn't see any of the ones I wanted in a quick scan of the web and I'm standing in a hotel lobby typing...)
The Stardust signing and Q&A tonight is sold out, but the signing tomorrow at the Lund Town Hall at 2:30 is open to anyone, and I suspect that the mysterious event in the crypt of the Cathedral at 4:30 is likewise....
...
For those of you who are wondering (as I was) how and what my dog is doing, the Birdchick has posted some information about herself, the bees, giant puffball mushrooms, and my dog (who can be seen both investigating puffballs and being sympathetic as Sharon gets her First Bee Sting over at)
http://www.birdchick.com/2007/09/favorite-moment-of-beekeeping-thus-far.html
http://www.birdchick.com/2007/09/brrrrrr.html
http://www.birdchick.com/2007/09/hello-bee-sting-goodbye-dignity.html
which are the sort of things that I'd be posting if I wasn't on tour. Sigh.
