Walker is to be commended today for actually taking a stand on something. Whether you agree with him that Tom Birmingham, the former state Senate president, should become the next president of the Boston Public Library is, of course, another matter.

Walker's basic point: The fact that Birmingham has absolutely no experience whatsoever in running any library, let alone the oldest public library system in the country, is secondary, partly because the man has been going around looking at libraries of late and so is very earnest, partly because the way Bernard Margolis was shown the door as the last library president shows the position needs a politician:

[B]ringing in a professional librarian from elsewhere didn't work out because understanding libraries is only part of the job. Understanding Boston is the crux of the job.

There is a lesson in the Margolis debacle, and the trustees would be wise not to ignore it.

Did William Bulger work out for UMass?

Andy Watson discovers the BPL main branch isn't the only one with a courtyard.

The Boston Public Library has tightened up Internet access policies at branches after two teens reported seeing a guy fondle himself while looking at a porn site on a public-access terminal at the BPL's West Roxbury branch, the West Roxbury Bulletin reports.

As of last week, access to porn sites is supposedly blocked at all but one public-access terminal in each branch. The one unfiltered terminal will be equipped with a "privacy screen" that is supposed to prevent everybody but the user from seeing what he or she is looking at.

I'll start by saying I think Tom Menino blundered big time when he maneuvered Bernie Margolis out of his job as Boston Public Library director - and then tried to smear Margolis by accusing him of ignoring the branch libraries, which he hadn't (as proof, let us consider the Menino wing of the Hyde Park branch).

One of the statues on the Dartmouth Street side of the BPL main branch went with some ermine blankets to keep warm today. Inside, in the courtyard, Bacchante shared her fuzzy hat with the infant Faun:

More snow photos:
Leif Ericson in the snow.
Reading in the snow.
Frog Pond in the snow.
Fenway in the snow.
Back Bay in the snow.
Allston in the snow.
B trolley in the snow.
Fun with writing in the snow.

Good for Bernie Margolis for breaking his silence, although you wonder if it will help or hurt him in a search for a new job.

Dan Kennnedy wonders how Tom Menino will react (beyond refusing to talk to the Globe):

The only way Menino can make amends for this stunning exercise in political bullying is to bring in a first-class replacement for Margolis. We'll see.

One section of the story I find interesting:

Aides also directly contradicted Margolis, saying that the library president focused on the central library in the Back Bay, the crown jewel of the city's library system, at the expense of the branch libraries in the neighborhoods.

Ever since the Menino minions first started spouting this, I've been amazed. For the past eight years or so, my wife and daughter have been dedicated patrons of the West Roxbury branch library. Kidlet's graduated from toddler story time to performing in summer plays there; wife is a member of the library book club. It's a great library. Maybe the West Roxbury branch benefits from being in a politically active neighborhood, but until somebody can prove that to me, I'm going to keep hoping City Hall can come up with a better reason for getting rid of Margolis.

The Globe reports:

A 160-year-old marble bust of Christ was attacked at the main branch of the Boston Public Library, knocked from its perch on the grand staircase and sent crashing to the floor. Nearby, a matching marble bust of Lucifer was left untouched.

Robert David Sullivan was intrigued to learn from a Globe story that the BPL main branch has a no man's land where the research material and rare and valuable books are kept:

... At first, I assumed that the Globe staff was under the mistaken belief that "no man's land" could refer to a place where "no man" is allowed, rather than an area where no government or army is in firm control. But it's possible that there's some kind of war going on between different factions among the books, and visitors risk getting beaned by flying volumes. ...

Today's report in the Globe on the BPL's attempt to get the T's Copley station renamed BPL proves that both sides in an argument can be wrong.

First, Bernie Margolis of the BPL and state Rep. Marty Waltz insult our intelligence by saying things like "We want people to know where we are." Please. Are you getting lots of complaints from people who can't find the main library branch in Copley Square because it's not on subway maps? It's like that old "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" riddle: "Where's the Copley main branch of the BPL?"

And besides, "Airport" is a good name for the airport stop because there's nothing else there. As Third Decade puts it:

The Boston Public Library officials are greedy. There is absolutely no need for the MBTA to go out of its way to rename Copley Station. The station is not their own personal stop and the Library has no compelling reason for a name change...other than being greedy. After all, Copley Square as a whole is the prominent destination for the station. The Old South Church, Trinity Church, Copley Place, and the Hancock Tower are as important to the fabric of the area as the Library. So, MBTA, I'm actually behind you on this one. ...

Ah, but what of the MBTA and its mouthpiece, Joe Pesaturo? Obviously, like Third Decade, I actually support them for a change. But Pesaturo does his side no good when he babbles against renaming the station in part because of the importance of map consistency. Yeah, right. That must be why every single Orange Line car has maps showing how you can get off at Forest Hills and take a Green Line trolley up to Centre Street in JP more than a decade after the T "temporarily" ended that service.

It's great that the BPL now offers digital audio books. But as Lyss discovers, you can't play them on the world's most popular digital-audio player:

Our audio titles, provided by OverDrive, Inc., use DRM protection technology from Microsoft Corporation. Unfortunately the iPod (and Mac) do not currently support DRM-protected Windows Media Audio (WMA) files. ...