Library Stuff

USA 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?”

AP – ” 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 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.”

Chicago 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.”

Matt 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?”