http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/library http://io9.com/tag/library

If information is power, then there's no hero mightier than a librarian. Librarians are superheroes, adventurers, explorers and invaluable guides to other heroes. Here are 20 amazing librarians who save the world every day! More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5671047&view=rss&microfeed=true

Fantasy author Neil Gaiman's personal library is a book lover's dream, stuffed to the gills with all manner of novels, reference books, and anthologies, with the occasional gargoyle or mounted stuffed head for good measure. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5352953&view=rss&microfeed=true

Click to viewAlien zoo sex, vulgar language, and the horrors of war have earned this novel (which shall remain nameless) a place on many a banned books list. And it's hardly alone. Even in just the last decade, parents have tried to remove their least favorite titles from school libraries, and works of science fiction have been among the casualties. So, grab a flashlight, hide under a sheet, and read (or re-read) science fiction's most suppressed books of the 21st century. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5061460&view=rss&microfeed=true

A new library in Casanera, Colombia shows us what humankind might have built with sticks and stones if they'd never discovered bricks, steel, and electricity. The Villanueva Public Library was built on a modest budget, designed by a bunch of university students in Bogota. And instead of importing fancy, expensive materials, builders used local timber and stones from nearby rivers to lower transportation costs. Then, instead of hiring experienced construction workers, they trained local people to build it. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379752&view=rss&microfeed=true

Two films that Steven Spielberg had a hand in, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Back to the Future, were both selected alongside 23 other films to be shelved forever in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. They'll get locked up inside a hermetically sealed vault, and preserved in mason jars with really tight steel lids, to keep the freshness in. What other scifi films were deemed by the government to be worthy of preservation forever? More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=338007&view=rss&microfeed=true

Earlier this year, architect Jan Kaplicky won a contest for this design of the planned Czech National Library. Though observers say he won fair and square, controversy over the purple, ten-story, octopus-shaped building continues to rage. President Vaclav Klaus has rejected the design, and so the Czech Republic may not get its mutant spore library after all. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=325180&view=rss&microfeed=true