The crack team at the New York Public Library is where to go when the Google machine leads you down a dead end. Today the NY Post talks to the six senior librarians who field hundreds of questions a day from their station in the Rose Reading Room. While the most common calls are simply inquiries about obtaining library cards, there are also several dozen "cherry questions" a day. more ›

The Queens Library system apparently loves Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, because it's distributing fliers touting their praises. Quinn recently championed a Council bid to prevent members from using taxpayer funds to self-campaign, but one can't always control fans one has in the library system. From the NY Sun:

Sensitivity to the use of public funds to promote elected officials is high at City Hall, with the council approving a new set of rules last month barring members from using public funds to purchase self-promoting advertisements. The change occurred after a report from an advocacy group found council members spent $927,507 in public funding on advertisements during a five-and-a-half-year stretch between July 2001 and December 2006.