April 2010
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Library books end up in trash →
An approachable yet reasonably thorough “civilian” article that could double as Collection Management for Dummies. It highlights the issue of weeding, why libraries do it, and why they do it the way they do.
The Project Gutenberg Project: In short, he became... →
In short, he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise, and his days from dawn to dark, poring over them; and what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits. His fancy grew full of what he used to read about in his books, enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, agonies, and all sorts of...
Residents urged to call police if library scammers... →
“The first call for Solano County (CA) residents who receive calls about overdue library books should be to the police, law enforcement officials said this week. Lt. Gary Faulkner of the Solano County Sheriff’s Department warned Thursday that a scam operation could be underway in the county after a residentreceived a call demanding payment from someone who claimed to be from a...
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service animals & purse dogs - vs allergies -... →
There are a couple really interesting responses to this question about service animals in the library. I was not aware that a distinction could be made between service animals and therapy animals, for example.
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‘Club Book’ organizers defend pricey allocation →
Apparently it costs $45,000 to get Neil Gaiman to speak—and do a meet & greet!—at your library. While some Minnesota citizens/librarians think this is a fair price for such once-in-a-lifetime cultural benefits to the community, others were less okay with it.
For reference, the article states that the going rate for the other, possibly less prolific, authors included in the event...
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Free OverDrive Audiobook App Enables Wireless... →
There’s a free OverDrive app for Android, too. Unfortunately, the comments in the Market discouraged me from even experimenting with it. I think it’s going to be a while before these applications run smoothly for users. There are still complaints about OverDrive on PCs, and mobile technology hasn’t even caught up to that yet.
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U. librarian by day, Twitter sensation by night →
“Reading her résumé, you might not suspect Anna Neatrour was part of one of the hottest sensations on the Internet.
She’s a married mother of twin toddlers, living in Salt Lake City. Her day job is as a librarian — specifically, project manager for the Western Soundscape Archive at the University of Utah’s Marriott Library. (Next month, she becomes executive director of...
Poems by Emily Dickinson (019 of 447)
dailylitemilydickinson:
XVIII. THE BOOK OF MARTYRS. Read, sweet, how others strove, Till we are stouter; What they renounced, Till we are less afraid; How many times they bore The faithful witness, Till we are helped, As if a kingdom cared! Read then of faith That shone above the fagot; Clear strains of hymn The river could not drown; Brave names of men And celestial women, Passed out of record...
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In E-Book Era, You Can’t Even Judge a Cover -... →
I’m tired of the “but it won’t feel/smell right!” arguments against e-books, but I do enjoy articles that bring up other factors that I haven’t considered, such as the lack of memory associated with the purchase of the books when the event is reduced to clicking a button, and this one, which discusses what happens when we give up book covers. It focuses on the social...
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Gizmodo -- Embracing the Digital Book →
entropicflux:
“Digital books shouldn’t be chained to their e-readers. This is text. It’s nimble. There needs to be a publicly accessible way to reference these books. In other words: our digital books need to have an online presence.”
I seriously cannot wait for technology to do the concept of digital books some justice. Sometimes I let my mind wander on the topic of what’s possible and I get...
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io9: The Most Beautiful Books You've Ever Seen →
(via notshybutsly)
projectgutenberg:
The ideals of the mass of women are wrapped in mystery simply because no one has cared enough about them to inquire what they are.
Men, ardently, eternally, interested in Woman—one woman at a time—are almost never even faintly interested in women. Strangely, deliberately ignorant of women, they argue that their ignorance is justified by an innate unknowableness of the sex.
-...
WILL UNWOUND #87: “This is No Joke!” by Will... →
May 1992… I wake up one morning with the whimsical idea of doing a tongue in cheek survey about librarians and sex for my humor column in Wilson Library Bulletin.
[…]
Today the New York Daily News runs a news story entitled “Lost Librarian Survey Reveals 1 in 5 have gotten intimate in the stacks.”
[…]
1. This 18 year old survey started out as a joke, turned into a joke...
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It’s only books ’n’ shelves but I like it →
SHHH! Keith Richards, the grizzled veteran of rock’n’roll excess, has confessed to a secret longing: to be a librarian. After decades spent partying in a haze of alcohol and drugs, Richards will tell in his forthcoming autobiography that he has been quietly nurturing his inner bookworm.
… he has declared: “When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most...
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West Caldwell library offers a ‘blind date’ with a... →
“Just choose a wrapped book from the special display area, take it home and read it. You won’t know what the book is until you unwrap it! This book is the Library’s National Library Week gift to you.”
This is kind of a fun idea, but I confess that with my attention span, the chances of me actually finishing a completely random book would be pretty slim.
Poems by Emily Dickinson: Poems by Emily Dickinson... →
X. IN A LIBRARY. A precious, mouldering pleasure ‘t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think, His venerable hand to take, And warming in our own, A passage back, or two, to make To times when he was young. His quaint opinions to inspect, His…
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Library of Congress: We're archiving every tweet... →
“The Library of Congress is archiving for posterity every public tweet made since the service went live back in 2006. Every. Single. Tweet.
… Matt Raymond, one the Library’s official bloggers, notes that ‘important tweets in the past few years include the first-ever tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, President Obama’s tweet about winning the 2008 election, and a...
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PLA 2010 Conference: Reaching “Quarter-Life”... →
I agree with this idea in theory (in fact, I recently suggested targeting this group myself at a planning session at my library), but I have mixed feelings about the advice given at this session. I’m not sure reaching out to “zinesters” is going to bring in a lot of participation at most libraries, but I do like the idea of innovative movie showings (rooftop movie series!) And...
