Archive for January, 2008
Our Public Libraries Are Being Turned Into Video Game Arcades
January 22nd, 2008Dave Gibson - “[I]t appears that this country’s librarians have decided to their part in the dumbing-down of America. What has happened to this country?…All of the librarians I have known were in love with the written word and truly enjoyed opening the door to their world to young people. Perhaps, today’s crop of young [...]
Libraries aim to turn a new page
January 21st, 2008Charity Vogel - “Ah yes, the libraries of Erie County. Like aging beauty queens, they trudge forward, bedraggled and vulnerable, years of glory behind them — and badly in need of reinvention.”
Build-A-Bear and Privacy
January 21st, 2008Denise Howell - “All good, clean — if decidedly consumer-culture focused, and potentially bank-breaking — fun. Until you get to the last step in the process, which had me nostalgic for (egad) the Cabbage Patch Kids. Who as I recall were discharged from their mythical birthplace without asking for their new owner’s home address.”
Annoyed Librarian on TwoPointOhians
January 21st, 2008AL - “Librarians can be such sheep, always flocking together around the same fads.”
OK, one more quote, this one a classic:
“The twopointopians don’t have any founding documents worth returning to, so they wander in the desert trying to make sense of what they feel must be a worthwhile cult. Ugh.”
Growing Up Online
January 21st, 2008Alec Couros - “Growing Up Online, a Frontline special, will be broadcast tomorrow, January 22, 2008, on PBS.”
AFP bans use of Wikipedia and Facebook as sources
January 21st, 2008If news orgs don’t allow it, should librarians (and the clients they serve?)
Live Blogging 2.0
January 21st, 2008RWW blogs about Cover It Live
Gridjit: A Social Portal for Twitter
January 21st, 2008Looking at Twitter a bit differently.
50 Tips, Tweaks and Hacks to Make the Most of Google Calendar
January 21st, 2008Virtual Hosting Blog - “[C]hances are good that you’re not maxing out all the features of Google Calendar that you could be.”
Google Un-Products
January 21st, 2008From Philipp Lenssen. Hilarious. I love Google idiot.
Campaign Reporting in Under 140 Taps
January 21st, 2008New York Times - “Twitter, the tool of microblogging journalists.”
Area Eccentric Reads Entire Book
January 20th, 2008The Onion - “Sitting in a quiet downtown diner, local hospital administrator Philip Meyer looks as normal and well-adjusted as can be. Yet, there’s more to this 27-year-old than first meets the eye: Meyer has recently finished reading a book.”
Gotta love The Onion (via)
Ask!
January 20th, 2008
Originally uploaded by UVM Libraries
The University of Vermont Libraries is using students to promote their ask a librarian service. Very cool!!
Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular
January 20th, 2008New York Times - “[L]ast month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.”
SHELF CHECK #180
January 20th, 2008
Library train
January 20th, 2008
Library train
Originally uploaded by babau
Their House to Yours, via the Trash
January 20th, 2008New York Times - “Hundreds of men and a smaller number of women eke out a living scavenging books in Manhattan, according to Mitchell Duneier, author of “Sidewalk,” a book about the subculture of sidewalk book scavengers and vendors. Some of them sell their books on the street; others, the less entrepreneurial, or the more [...]
The category of fun slowly being pulled from library shelves
January 20th, 2008Seattle Times - “Once considered a mainstay of the school library, this fun, engaging reading time could be in danger at some area schools, educators say.”
ReadBurner Updates
January 20th, 2008Louis Gray has the news
I love the stats page! Suweeet!
Revisiting works first read in your youth
January 20th, 2008An essay, by David L. Ulin.
Ninety Nights is Great Today.
January 20th, 2008
‘In praise of shyness’: The e-book angle
January 20th, 2008Great piece by David Rothman.
Humanity, thou art sick
January 20th, 2008Spiked - “Shyness is now ‘social phobia’, and dissent is ‘Oppositional Defiant Disorder’. How did everyday emotions come to be seen as illnesses?” (via)
Definitely one to read.
boy with books
January 19th, 2008
boy with books
Originally uploaded by chinua000
Libraries Not For Porn
January 19th, 2008Dallas Morning News Editorial - “Dallas has obligation to install Internet filters.”
Book Scavengers
January 19th, 2008Michael Lieberman - “How’s that for library 2.0?”
Child’s Play, From Clicks to Downloads
January 19th, 2008New York Times - “To all those traditional developmental stages in a child’s life, like learning to walk, talk and read, we can now add technological milestones like using a mouse, downloading music and surfing the Internet.”
Review of the Year 2007 and Trends Watch
January 19th, 2008From ITI’s Paula Hane
Traffic Wars: R.E.M. knew it all too well
January 19th, 2008The Walrus - “Everybody hurts in the modern commute. How can we stop the pain?”
I wouldn’t know. I take public transportation to work and
Book Glutton
January 19th, 2008About Us - “Our intent: build an experience that is simultaneously a book group, a computer, and a book.” (via)