Library Stuff

NPR – “Jonathan Franzen’s in the news again, this time talking about how e-books are chiseling away at the foundations of civilization as we know it. Absurd, isn’t it? That the author of two of the better regarded novels of the past decade (give or take) would be concerned about how you read his books.”

NPR – “Once known for its problem novels and teen melodrama, young adult fiction has developed into one of the most complex and extensive genres in literature. 2011 brought us a wealth of new reads that continue to twist traditional formulas and take risks that are, by and large, paying off with wholly unique reading experiences.”

SF Chronicle – “On a recent morning, Terry Jones visited the three one-room schoolhouses in rural Marin County where she makes weekly stops. Exuberant and optimistic, Jones arrives in a 29-foot bookmobile equipped with 25,000 books, DVDs and CDs. She chats up the students, stokes their enthusiasm about new titles (” ‘The Great Rabbit Rescue’ comes out in December!”) and at one stop reads a spooky Halloween story, “Bone Soup,” out loud to the children.”

LA Times – “Atria is publishing its first book to be equipped with a smart chip, the publisher announced Friday. Tapping the RFID-enabled sticker with an NFC-enabled smartphone will bring up a website with additional materials for the book. The debut smart book is “The Impulse Economy: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy” by Gary Schwartz. Appropriate. The smart book allows the physical book to become interactive for both the book buyer and the book browser, Judith Curr, Atria’s executive vice president and publisher, said in a statement. “The reader can tap to rich interactive content on their phone. The goal is to engage the consumer and start a permission-based two-way relationship that may lead to the sale of this book or further sales in this category of interest.”

CNN – “Board a bus or a train today and chances are you’ll see several people with eReaders in hand. While most probably bought their electronic books on a popular website, you may find a few who borrowed the paperless books from the library. EBooks accounted for 6.4% of all publishing in 2010, according to the American Association of Publishers, and 114 million electronic books were sold last year. While the majority of eBooks sold today are bought by individual readers, a growing number of the paperless books are winding up in public library catalogs.”

NPR – “We are starting a special project at NPR aimed at our younger listeners. We’re talking about all those young people who listen to NPR programs while riding in the car or sitting at the kitchen table. We’d like you to lend us your ears and your curiosity. Beginning this October, All Things Considered is rolling out The Back-Seat Book Club for kids ages 9 to 14.”

Contra Costa Times – “VILLAGE VENTURE, the street festival that represents the one day of the year Claremont welcomes outsiders (and their money), is Saturday. As a true Claremonter, that’s my cue to leave town. But I may have to hang around this time. Outside the Claremont Library, 208 N. Harvard Ave., people will be reading aloud from banned books.
A project of the Friends of the Claremont Library, the Banned Books Readathon is a belated marking of September’s Banned Books Week. “We chose Village Venture because it’s a big event and a lot of people will see it,” Friends president Laura Bollinger told me.”

LA Times – “The 4-0 school board decision capped a months-long debate among administrators, teachers, students and parents over whether the violent nonfiction novel was appropriate for teenage readers.”

O’Reilly – “The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reports that one in five adults worldwide is still not literate. In this interview, Elizabeth Wood (@lizzywood), director of digital publishing for Worldreader and a speaker at TOC Frankfurt, talks about the social and infrastructure issues affecting literacy and how Worldreader is making a difference. She says Worldreader’s goal is to reach 1 million children by 2015.”