Libraries

Want to hear Mick Jagger talk about the Beatles? Tony Bennett laud the genius of Louis Armstrong? B.B. King express his blues over the future of the blues? Audio interviews with those and dozens more of the biggest names in rock, pop, jazz, blues, country and R&B are now streaming free at the Library of Congress website , opening access to hundreds of hours of recordings collected by veteran music industry executive Joe Smith. As reported  in June, Smith donated his collection of audio interviews with many of the most celebrated figures in 20 th century pop music.

Penguin will expand its small library e-book lending program to two major regions, Cleveland and Los Angeles County. About a year ago, Penguin pulled its e-books from libraries. The change is about back-end distribution systems: Instead of using the market-dominant OverDrive, Penguin is expanding a pilot program with 3M using distributor Baker & Taylor. This is super-interesting to people who know a lot about libraries and e-books, less so to end users. The upshot: Los Angeles County library readers should be able to borrow the e-book of Junot Diaz's "This Is How You Lose Her" before the end of the year.

In the eight years since he died, Ronald Reagan has lent his name to at least 31 roads, 17 schools, a federal courthouse in Orange County, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier based in San Diego, a missile-testing range in the Marshall Islands and now, a golf hole in Moorpark. It's the par-three 11th hole at Tierra Rejada Golf Course, where the tee commands a sweeping view that includes the Reagan Library on a hilltop in nearby Simi Valley. Course officials and Reagan Foundation executives on Thursday unveiled a plaque set in a rock monument and dedicated to the 40th president, "who always believed, like golfers do, 'Our most glorious achievements are just ahead.' " Taken from his speech at the 1992 Republican convention, the trademark ray of Reagan sunshine is not misplaced on the 210-yard hole, which requires golfers to loft their first shot over a cliff.

Los Angeles City Council members Wednesday gave enthusiastic backing to the creation of a controversial city identification card that could be used by illegal immigrants to open bank accounts, borrow library books and pay utility bills. Councilman Ed Reyes called it a way for the city's poorest workers to "come out into the light. " While the federal government has failed to pass immigration reform, the city of Los Angeles is able to manage its own affairs, said Councilman Richard Alarcon, who along with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is a chief sponsor of the card plan.

CBS has struck a deal to put much of its vast television library on Hulu, the popular online video site. The agreement, which takes effect in January 2013, is non-exclusive and is only for Hulu Plus, the platform's subscription service.  Shows that will be available to Hulu Plus subscribers are primarily from the CBS corporate library, and include classic TV shows such as "Star Trek," "I Love Lucy" and "The Twilight Zone," and newer shows...

The discovery that real estate agent Matthew Greenberg made when he stepped inside a Mount Washington cottage will put the Los Angeles Public Library on the map. Stashed everywhere in the 948-square-foot tear-down were maps. Tens of thousands of maps. Fold-out street maps were stuffed in file cabinets, crammed into cardboard boxes, lined up on closet shelves and jammed into old dairy crates. Wall-size roll-up maps once familiar to schoolchildren were stacked in corners. Old globes were lined in rows atop bookshelves also filled with maps and atlases.

Murray Carter, 56, is living a life without luxury. He's out of work. He sleeps at the Weingart Center on skid row. He's hoping for a job as a cook. He needs to go online to find one. But he's worlds away from affording either a computer or Internet access. Well before the Central Library opens at 10 a.m., Carter waits out front to get in and grab a computer terminal. Photos: Down and out, but online at the library Toni Albert, 23, of East L.A. takes night nursing classes at community college.

The gig: As newly appointed city librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, John Szabo runs the nation's largest public-funded library system, measured by population served. From his corner office atop the Central Library in downtown L.A., the 44-year-old oversees the city's 72 branches, 6.4 million volumes, 3 million photographs, 30,000 electronic volumes and 883 employees. Appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in June, he reported for duty Aug. 20. A "library person": For some, it takes decades to find their life's calling.

Warner Bros. will manage most of Paramount's movie library on DVD, in a first-of-its-kind deal between major studios that reflects the ongoing decline in disc sales. The companies said Thursday that Warner will handle more than 600 titles from Paramount's library, including such classics as "Chinatown," "Saturday Night Fever," and "Braveheart. " The renewable three-year agreement, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2013, will allow Paramount to save the costs of manufacturing and shipping DVDs from its catalog.

In the 1990s, he was the world-famous novelist few people officially laid eyes on. Of Salman Rushdie's dozen-plus novels, it was "The Satanic Verses" (1988) that raised a hue and cry and sent him undercover: Its supposedly sacrilegious portrayal of the prophet Muhammad brought Rushdie a fatwa, a death sentence, from Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (it was lifted in 1998). The writer came to L.A. to accept the Library Foundation of Los Angeles' literary award and to talk about his new memoir of his underground years, "Joseph Anton.