Library Stuff

Bay Area immigration records, destined for dustbin, will be released Tuesday

Steven — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:20:03 +0000

Contra Costa Times – “Tens of thousands of old West Coast immigration records the government once sought to throw away will instead become publicly available on Tuesday at a Bay Area archive. Photographs, letters, health records, interview transcripts and other historical documents were destined for a recycling bin or a remote Midwestern storage facility. “We changed that plan. We’re making them permanent,” said spokeswoman Sharon Rummery of U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services.

Archivists credit the advocacy of the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and his successor, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, for helping to save the collection.”

‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ by E. L. James, in Demand at Libraries

Steven — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:02:15 +0000

NY Times. – “It did not escape the notice of Tim Cole, the collections manager for the Greensboro Public Library in North Carolina, that “Fifty Shades of Grey” was “of mixed literary merit,” as he put it with a heavy helping of Southern politeness. He ordered 21 copies anyway.”

U.C.L.A. Professor Makes a Case for Google as Publisher

Steven — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:54:18 +0000

NYTimes – “IS Google search an intermediary like the phone company — simply connecting people with the information they seek? Or is Google search a publisher, like a newspaper, which provides only the information that it sees fit and is protected by the First Amendment?”

Donor Resurrects Endangered Bookmobile

Steven — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:12:28 +0000

NPR – “When a bookmobile broke down last winter in rural Vermont, patrons, especially preschoolers, really missed it. Then a donor, who heard an NPR story about the rolling library’s demise, came up with over $100,000 for a replacement. The town can’t believe its good fortune.”

Writers won’t lose out if libraries lend ebooks

Steven — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:55:41 +0000

The Observer – “Should public libraries lend ebooks? The Society of Authors has called on culture minister Ed Vaizey to address concerns that library e-lending is “undervaluing retail pricing” and encouraging piracy. The writers’ union says it remains “strongly of the view that remote lending of ebooks is not an essential or primary role of an efficient library service”. Many publishers share this coolness towards e-lending, with only Random House and Bloomsbury still signed up to OverDrive, the library ebook platform. Hachette’s CEO, Tim Hely Hutchinson, spoke recently of his worries that library lending could lead to “ebook giveaways for all”. The theory goes that if people can borrow ebooks for nothing, they will have no reason to buy them. The same argument was used against libraries until it turned out that library users spent more on books than anyone else.”

Digital Bookmobile To Set Pace for Indianapolis 500

Steven — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:52:09 +0000

Overdrive Blog. – “What has a 600-horsepower engine, an interior loaded with cutting-edge technology, and is sure to make crowds road in Indianapolis later this month? The Digital Bookmobile, of course!On May 24 and 25, while racecars are lapping the track in preparation for the Indianapolis 500, the Digital Bookmobile National Tour will be thrilling crowds at Indianapolis Public Library with “The Greatest Spectacle in Reading.” As so many of our library partners have seen firsthand over the past few years, the Digital Bookmobile is a 74-foot-long, 18-wheel tractor-trailer that tours the continent spreading awareness for digital libraries and eBooks.”

“A bizarre operation”: Why West Virginia stuck $22,600 routers in tiny libraries

Steven — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:43:03 +0000

Ars Technica – “West Virginia’s Charleston Gazette has been hopping mad this week as one of its reporters learned that the state has been sticking 1,064 high-end $22,600 routers into “little public institutions as small as rural libraries with just one computer terminal.” When reporter Eric Eyre actually called up Cisco posing as a customer, he was told by a rep that the company’s 3945 series routers were “our router solution for campus and large enterprises, so this is overkill for your network.” Instead, the rep recommended a far cheaper commercial grade router for $500. And while the 3945 series routers might be massively overkill for many of the locations to which they have been deployed, 366 of them aren’t even being used. Instead, they’re sitting in a warehouse.”

All 7 Harry Potter eBooks Coming to Kindle Owners’ Lending Library

Steven — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:23:46 +0000

Amazon.com – “Owning a Kindle just got a whole lot better for magic-loving Muggles. Starting June 19, Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is adding all seven Harry Potter books (in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish) to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL). Harry Potter is the all-time best-selling book series in history, and Amazon has purchased an exclusive license from J.K. Rowling’s Pottermore to make the addition of these titles possible. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a benefit of Amazon Prime membership—Prime members also enjoy free two-day shipping on millions of items and unlimited streaming of more than 17,000 movies and TV episodes. The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library has now grown to over 145,000 books that can be borrowed for free as frequently as once a month, with no due dates.”

Zero Dollar Books Shows You All the Best Selling Kindle Ebooks Currently Available for Free

Steven — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:19:54 +0000

LifeHacker – “Sorting through the Amazon store for free ebooks can be a bit of a mess. To simplify the process Zero Dollar Books is a simple webapp that aggregates all the best selling free ebooks and shows them off in a nice clean view.”

A Library for the Future

Steven — Wed, 09 May 2012 12:05:24 +0000

NYT Editorial – “For over a century, New York’s majestic central library on Fifth Avenue has drawn grateful scholars and dazzled tourists. Faced with financial uncertainties and a pressing need to modernize, the president of the New York Public Library system, Anthony Marx, has put forward a $300 million proposal to renovate the flagship building. The plans, which are still evolving, sound both necessary and forward-thinking in this digital era. But the library’s overseers have to take care that they preserve the essence of this cultural landmark.”

Goodreads Catalogs 300 Millionth Book

Steven — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:53:10 +0000

Goodreads Blog – “Goodreads continues to grow at a phenomenal pace. Today, we had our 300 millionth book cataloged! To give this statistic some context: It took the Goodreads community three years to catalog 100 million books (including books marked as read, to-read, or currently reading). Fourteen months later, in late September 2011, we reached 200 million books. Now, just seven months after that, we’ve hit the 300 million benchmark. Take a look at how the number of books cataloged has skyrocketed.”

Thomson Reuters Creates Searchable Trademark Database

Steven — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:26:30 +0000

Press Release – “Thomson CompuMark, a Thomson Reuters Intellectual Property & Science business and the global leader in trademark searching and brand protection solutions, today announced plans to launch 136 new databases for its SAEGIS® on SERION® online trademark screening solution. The addition of this content will make Thomson CompuMark the world’s largest provider of trademark screening data, covering 186 countries and registers. Thomson CompuMark made the announcement at INTA, the International Trademark Association’s annual meeting.”

Schools ban novel over teen sex scene

Steven — Wed, 09 May 2012 01:21:07 +0000

Tennessean – “A school district has deemed an awkward teen’s two-page oral sex encounter at boarding school in the coming-of-age novel “Looking for Alaska” too racy, banning the book from class reading lists.

Sumner County Schools are at least the second in the state, after Knox County in March, to keep students from reading it together in class.”

Are Public Libraries “Permanently F***ed?” Maybe Not

Steven — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:57:15 +0000

SF Weekly – “Jessa Crispin arrived at the 2012 Public Library Association Conference in Philadelphia in March with high expectations. And by high, we mean abysmal. “Secure in the knowledge that libraries are now permanently fucked,” wrote the editor-in-Chief of the popular “litblog” Bookslut. Surely librarians would crumble before her, the harsh fiscal realities having reduced the bibliognosts into heaps of despair, wailing about furloughs and nonexistent arts grants. But Crispin is not a librarian. Once a publishing outsider, she launched Bookslut in 2002 while working at a Planned Parenthood in Texas. She now enjoys insider status, and she contributes to likes of NPR, PBS, and the Washington Post on all things books. The conference falls within the realm of the “book world,” so Crispin, donning black garb, traveled all the way from Berlin in search of heavyhearted roundtable discussions and forsaken vendor booths.”

Toronto Star publishes digital archive of Ernest Hemingway columns: Young ‘Papa’ wrote of bootleggers & bullfighters

Steven — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:30:45 +0000

New York Daily News – “In a handsome new website called The Hemingway Papers, the Toronto Star has collected the columns that Ernest Hemingway wrote for that newspaper. In doing so, it sheds much-needed light on a little-known aspect of the great writer’s career, and does so in a sleek, inviting and easy-to-navigate format.”

Maurice Sendak, ‘Where Wild Things Are’ Author, Dies

Steven — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:04:43 +0000

Associated Press – “Maurice Sendak, the children’s book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, has died. He was 83. Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera says she was with him when he died early Tuesday at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She says he had a stroke on Friday.”

Watch worldwide book sales, live

Steven — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:39:58 +0000

LA Times – “The Book Depository is a British-based online bookseller that ships to countries around the world, for free. To bring that point home, it has built a map that shows who bought what, where, just now. The window of the map moves to reach the most recent purchase, zooming back and forth from Germany to Singapore to the United States to Australia to Norway. In each location, the title pops up. It’s hypnotic.”

New York Public Library must look to the future

Steven — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:02:15 +0000

NY Daily News – “Beloved as a crown jewel of world culture, the New York Public Library’s stately main branch is up for a historic makeover that promises to well serve the city. The building, outside which the lions lounge on Fifth Ave., houses 5 million volumes, most of them on 90 miles of shelving spread across seven floors overlooking Bryant Park. It’s time to move the books, which couldn’t give a Dewey decimal about the view, to make way for people.”

Reading With Pictures: The Graphic Textbook

Steven — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:12:39 +0000

Wired – “I’m going to assume you’ve already heard the argument that comics are a great way to teach literacy, and not re-hash that here. Comics are also a pretty good way to teach other things as well: it’s a very blurry line between comics and instructional diagrams, for instance. The combination of words and pictures is something that just clicks for many readers, particularly when it’s done well. Reading With Pictures is a non-profit organization that aims to “get comics into schools and get schools into comics.” Tom Stillwell wrote about their first anthology last year, which covered a variety of subjects as their proof of concept, and was very well-received. Now, RWP is seeking funding on Kickstarter for The Graphic Textbook, a 144-page comics anthology covering Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Science — all drawn from a list of common core standards. Their hope is to weave comics-based learning into virtually every subject by producing a book that can actually be used as a textbook, and not simply a literacy aid.”

Brevard libraries pull erotic best-seller ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’

Steven — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:28:13 +0000

Florida Today – The erotic “Fifty Shades of Grey” apparently is too blue for the Brevard County Public Libraries system. The wildly popular first installment of a titillating trilogy by British author E.L. James, “Fifty Shades” is parked atop every best-seller list in the country, from Amazon to the New York Times. But the sadomasochistic saga won’t be found any longer on Space Coast library shelves. All of a “handful” of copies were removed from circulation earlier this week. “It’s quite simple — it doesn’t meet our selection criteria,” said Cathy Schweinsberg, library services director “Nobody asked us to take it off the shelves. But we bought some copies before we realized what it was. We looked at it, because it’s been called ‘mommy porn’ and ‘soft porn.’ We don’t collect porn.”

At Brown University, Stumbling Across a Rarity in the Rare Book Room

Steven — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:06:55 +0000

NY Times – “Day after day, a tall, shy woman weaves her way unnoticed through the earnest and learned campus swirl of Brown University. She enters the hush of a library, then promptly vanishes from sight. Down goes Marie Malchodi, 48, who attended but never graduated from Brown, down to the library’s subterranean warrens, where she works as a “book conservation technician.” She sweeps her long dark hair into a bun, pierces it with a paint brush, and starts her day, caring for ancient books and ephemera that are sensitive to the touch.”

Google wants authors group out of NY library case

Steven — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:53:01 +0000

Associated Press – “Google Inc. urged a judge Thursday to toss The Authors Guild and an organization representing photographers out of 6-year-old litigation over the future of the world’s largest digital library, a move that would force authors and photographers to individually fight the online search engine giant. Google attorney Daralyn Durie told Judge Denny Chin in federal court in Manhattan that authors and photographers would be better off fending for themselves because their circumstances varied so widely.”

Helping students become savvy searchers with [Google's] new Search Education hub

Steven — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:41:43 +0000

Google Inside Search – “In the interest of creating more of these magical moments for students, we’re pleased to announce our new Search Education website, bringing educators the tools they need to help students become savvy searchers and independent learners Learning to tap the full potential of Google Search empowers students in both their academic and daily pursuits. Search education provides the technical tools and critical thinking skills crucial to preparing today’s students to be technologically self-reliant, independent learners.”

Direct to the site

What Is the Role of Libraries in the Age of E-Books and Digital Information?

Steven — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:51:53 +0000

PBS – “Public libraries are a major hub through which Americans gain access to e-books and other digital resources, but these institutions’ role in the digital transition hasn’t been made easy by the nation’s recent economic troubles. On April 9, the American Library Association released its annual State of America’s Libraries Report, and many of its findings were grim. “Public libraries continue to be battered by a national economy whose recovery from the Great Recession is proving to be sluggish at best,” the report concluded. Twenty-three of the 49 chief officers of state libraries surveyed indicated that their library systems faced budget cuts over the past two years. According to the report, “For three years in a row, more than 40 percent of participating states have reported decreased public library funding.”

A universal digital library is within reach

Steven — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:53:01 +0000

LA Times – “Since 2002, at first in secret and later with great fanfare, Google has been working to create a digital collection of all the world’s books, a library that it hopes will last forever and make knowledge far more universally accessible. But from the beginning, there has been an obstacle even more daunting than the project’s many technical challenges: copyright law. Ideally, a digital library would provide access not only to books free from copyright constraints (those published before 1923), but also to the tens of millions of books that are still in copyright but no longer in print.”