Students face new textbook picks: Rent vs. buy, print vs. e-book
August 31st, 2010USA Today – “With another summer ending, the time has come to ask the perennial question: Could this be the year higher education finally embraces the e-book?”
Internet may phase out printed Oxford Dictionary
August 30th, 2010AP – ” It weighs in at more than 130 pounds, but the authoritative guide to the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, may eventually slim down to nothing. Oxford University Press, the publisher, said Sunday so many people prefer to look up words using its online product that it’s uncertain whether the 126-year-old dictionary’s next edition will be printed on paper at all.”
Harvard’s Library Lab Issues an Open Call for Proposals from Students, Faculty, and Staff
August 30th, 2010Harvard News – “In a move designed to inspire a new generation of library services, the University’s newly created Library Lab is inviting students, faculty, and staff to collaborate with the Harvard Libraries and serve as co-creators of the information society of the future. In announcing the Lab, Robert Darnton, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and Director of the University Library, states that the Lab “will develop a wide variety of digital innovations that will ensure Harvard’s leadership in the burgeoning and increasingly collaborative world of information technology. Thanks to support from the Arcadia Fund, Harvard’s Library Lab will enhance knowledge and library services through a striking balance of innovation, cooperation, and entrepreneurship.”
Overdue state funds put libraries in bind
August 28th, 2010Chicago Tribune – “A service through which libraries in Illinois can share books and other resources is at risk of disappearing due to lack of state funding. But nine library systems throughout the state are making a last-ditch effort to save the delivery service, which many patrons have come to rely on when they can’t find something at their hometown library. Five of the systems, primarily in the northern part of the state, may merge into one. Four downstate systems are discussing doing likewise.”
I’d Like to Thank My Agent, My Publisher and… Google
August 25th, 2010Matt Dellinger – “Writing the acknowledgements for my first book, “Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway,” was a heady but nervous experience. Like delivering an Oscar acceptance speech, maybe, without the tux or the orchestra. I spent a long time on the book (eight years from the first interviews to publication), and I felt the need to be thorough. I thanked my editor, my agent, my family and friends, people who had guided me professionally, people who had pitched in, people on whose couches I’d slept, my college professors, the book’s subjects… And of course I thanked Google. How could I not?”
Are E-Books Worth the Money?
August 25th, 2010WSJ – “If you walk out of the cinema this week with a burning desire to read Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love,” you can download it onto your Amazon Kindle electronic book reader–if you have one–for $12.99. Then again you could just walk into your local Borders bookstore with a coupon and get the paperback for $10.”
Retiree turned page on new career
August 25th, 2010Houston Chronicle – “Who in today’s world of ever-advancing electronic media gives a hoot for the lore of yore, the tired, worn and acid-chewed books that, in some cases, only a scholar could love? In the Houston Public Library’s historic special collections section, where some 40,000 volumes, some centuries old, wait in climate-controlled stacks for that special reader, the answer is clear: Charlie Arbore.”
National Archives to house infamous Nazi papers
August 25th, 2010AP – “During the final days of World War II, as American soldiers were returning from Germany with swastika-inscribed helmets, flags and other Nazi memorabilia, Gen. George Patton was packing up his own set of souvenirs. The legendary field commander took four pages of documents signed by Adolf Hitler that laid the legal framework for killing 6 million Jews – the so-called Nuremberg Laws. On Wednesday, The Huntington Library, a sprawling complex of libraries, museums and botanical gardens in this leafy Los Angeles suburb, plans to hand over the documents to the government-run National Archives, thus concluding a 65-year-old odyssey.”
The ABCs Of E-Reading
August 24th, 2010WSJ – “New Devices Are Changing Habits. People Are Reading More, Even While in a Kayak”
Library Days Get Reprieve
August 24th, 2010WSJ – “Despite previous plans to cut the city’s library system to five-day service, the system will remain open six days a week but reduce its hours of operation, library officials said Monday. In June, after the City Council approved a budget that reduced funding for the libraries by $10 million, officials considered scaling back service at New York Public Library, which operates branches in Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx.”
A novel idea: Take a look inside the library pub
August 24th, 2010BBC – “Can pubs replace libraries? A pub in the Yorkshire Dales which also doubles as a library may be a vision of the future for many communities.” (Thanks Kathleen)
Law.Gov Issues Principles and Declaration
August 23rd, 2010InfoToday – “Will you ever get free access to the authentic primary law (acts, codes, statutes, regulations, judicial opinions) affecting your life, your business, your money, and relationships?”
LSU libraries forced to cancel subscription to six databases
August 23rd, 2010LSU Reveille – “Six electronic databases have been cut by the LSU Library after the Louisiana Board of Regents eliminated funding for electronic resources accessible through LOUIS, the Louisiana Library Network. The Board of Regents has served as a major financial component of LOUIS for the past 15 years, supplying two-thirds of its annual budget, but the board announced June 30 it would provide $500,000 to last for two months and then cease.”
iPads and Kindles are better for the environment than books
August 23rd, 2010Washington Post – “Environmental analysis can be an endless balancing of this vs. that. Do you care more about conserving water or avoiding toxic chemical usage? Minimizing carbon dioxide emissions or radioactive nuclear waste? But today the Lantern has good news: There will be no Sophie’s Choice when it comes to e-books. As long as you consume a healthy number of titles, you read at a normal pace and you don’t trade in your gadget every year, perusing electronically will lighten your environmental impact.”
E-Books Make Readers Less Isolated
August 23rd, 2010NYT – “VOLUMES have been written about technology’s ability to connect people. But burying one’s nose in a book has always been somewhat isolating — with its unspoken assertion that the reader does not want to be disturbed. So what about a device that occupies the evolving intersection between?”
Get Ready for Ads in Books
August 22nd, 2010WSJ – “For those who think this too radical a notion, consider the overwhelming product placement in movies, music videos and video games.”
U.S. neighborhood bookstores thrive in digital age
August 21st, 2010Reuters – “U.S. independent bookstores are discovering how to flourish despite the growth of electronic books with some even looking to form an alliance with a formidable competitor — Google. The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, which represents bookstores in the northeast, said its membership has remained steady at about 300 stores over the last decade. Closures have been offset by new stores opening and existing stores have developed new business strategies.”
Law Library partition plan draws criticism
August 21st, 2010Bakersfield Californian – “A plan to limit access to a section of the Kern County Law Library has prompted complaints that members of the public will soon have a harder time conducting legal research there. A glass wall recently went up in the library, located on the third floor of the county Superior Court building on Truxtun Avenue. Soon only lawyers and library workers will be permitted behind the wall, the library’s board of trustees decided earlier this year.”
Library of Congress pays $250K in sex suit
August 20th, 2010AP – “Officials with the Library of Congress have agreed to pay $250,000 to an employee who sued over alleged sexual harassment by the former top law librarian. The U.S. District Court in Washington formally accepted the settlement Thursday, but the agreement stipulates it is not an admission of guilt.”
Get Ready for Ads in Books
August 19th, 2010WSJ – “For those who think this too radical a notion, consider the overwhelming product placement in movies, music videos and video games.”
Comerica Bank donates $50,000 to struggling southern Dallas libraries
August 19th, 2010Dallas News – “This morning, City Hall and Comerica Bank announced that the company is donating $50,000 to adopt two libraries in Southern Dallas. The Polk-Wisdom and North Oak Cliff branch libraries will benefit from the donation at a time when City Hall has had to slash funding for library staff and materials.”
Cops: Homeless man found living in Ocean Township library
August 18th, 2010Asbury Park Press – “Charles A. Jones Jr., 26, was discovered by the custodian, who subsequently called police, around 9:10 p.m. Friday, according to Detective Lt. Steven R. Peters. After a search of the building by officers Mark Del Tin, Alon Bercovicz and Matthew Guido, Sgt. Gregory Schenck and detectives Matthew Jackiewicz and Michael Legg, discovered Jones hiding in the basement. Jones told police he was living in the basement of the library for almost two weeks unnoticed, Peters said.”
Library system grapples with need to change while also cutting back
August 17th, 2010Indy.com – “When library officials last month unveiled $2.5 million in budget cuts for 2011, library board President Tom Shevlot also stressed a wider goal — and perhaps an evolving design — for the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. It’s essential, Shevlot said, to “create a sustainable library well into the 21st century.” It’s a daunting and somewhat vague task. And it’s a task that reflects what is happening to library systems across the nation.”
Schools, tech copmanies tailor social sites for student
August 17th, 2010Reuters – “Colleges and universities across the United States are going beyond simply creating websites and pages on Facebook for students to “friend” or “fan.” They are working with technology companies to build their own social networks and integrate them into campus life to boost admissions and retain students.”
Fake Memoir Brings Deadly Shakespeare, Mean Librarian to Life
August 17th, 2010Bloomberg – “Adam Langer’s “The Thieves of Manhattan” is a knowing love letter to literature both high- and lowbrow. Libraries and bookstores are torched, agents and editors are depicted as ignorant cynics, yet the thrill of storytelling endures. The book’s unlikely hero is Ian Minot, a barista-slash- writer who arrives in New York from Indiana dreaming of the literary life. Endless rejection slips leave him bitterly disenchanted.”
Johnny Carson’s ‘Tonight Show’ digitized for searchable database
August 12th, 2010latimes.com – “Johnny Carson is getting an upgrade for the YouTube era. Carson Entertainment Group, which owns the archive of the late-night host’s 30 years on “The Tonight Show,” is set to announce Wednesday that it has digitized all 3,300 hours of existing footage from the program and created a searchable online database for producers and researchers.”
Demolition of Berkeley branch libraries fought
August 12th, 2010SF Gate – “Berkeley may be filled with passionate readers, but the recent clamor for an upgrade of the city’s libraries has been greeted, in some quarters, with an angry “shhhhhh.”
Publisher-agent who championed Stephen King dies
August 12th, 2010AP – “Elaine Koster, a publisher and literary agent with a knack for new talent who gave a second chance to an obscure horror writer named Stephen King and took on an unknown Khaled Hosseini and “The Kite Runner,” has died. * Tweet Be the first to Tweet this! * people Dugg this0diggsdigg * Yahoo! Buzz ShareThis Koster died Tuesday at age 69 at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York, according to Hosseini’s publisher, Penguin Group (USA). The cause of death was not immediately available.”
New Library Related Legal Opinion – Collura v. City of Philadelphia
August 10th, 2010From the opinion – “This is an unlawful retaliation case. Jason Collura brought a pro se civil rights action against the City of Philadelphia on February 15, 2008, challenging what he alleged to be a policy of the Independence Branch of the Philadelphia Free Library to reserve three of the library tables at the branch during certain hours for the exclusive use of people who are Chinese or Asian”
Bye-Bye Bookstores
August 8th, 2010SVEN BIRKERTS – “The printed book—so we are assured by publishers and e-book mavens—is not going to disappear any time soon. It may already be giving up its long uncontested dominance, some of its cultural centrality, but these optimally designed artifacts will continue to park on shelves and unfold in laps for some time to come. What is disappearing, with the speed of ink drying on a folio leaf, is the public profile of books, our sense of their literal and symbolic presence. We have all seen what is happening to libraries, as increasing numbers of them put their funds to digital use, moving books up, up and away from what used to be the central ports of access—the reading rooms—to make more room for monitors.”
