June 2007
67 posts
Brought to book: libraries facing huge EU fines →
- From Ireland’s Independent
“in spite of all the new possibilities opened up by digital technologies, the...”
– if:book: the paper e-book
Eine's Alphabet
Eine is a graffiti artist in London. His alphabet is constructed on the metal gates of store fronts in the East End. Dave Gorman’s Flickr set of the alphabet plus a few extra letters. Carl Pappenheim tool that lets you spell what you wish using Eine’s alphabet. Thanks to Boing Boing for the lead (via Book Patrol)
See-Saw Bookshelf
Walnut wood with powder coated steel parts Dimensions: shelf: 47.25” x 9.8” x 2” stand: 13.75” Designed by BCXSY Cost: $1,899 From the website: “Every book tells its own story. Every book has its own weight. By playing with balance, the See-Saw bookshelf visualizes the breadth of our home libraries. Is Kafka truly heavier than the latest issue of Vogue?.. “...
It's a new online chapter for books | Technology |... →
The Modern Librarian: A Role Worth Checking Out -... →
American Artist: Still-Life Portraits: The... →
Google Book Search: A Report From the "Google...
The first five libraries that jumped on the Google digital book train took time at the recent ALA Annual Conference to weigh in on how things are going. The Google Five are the libraries of Harvard, Oxford, Michigan and Stanford and the New York Public Library. Though all five said that they were “pleased with the progress” they also acknowledged that there have been some issues,...
What's it worth to you? (phillyBurbs.com) |... →
Includes a chat with David Bloom the man who identified the typewritten manuscript of Pearl S. Buck’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel Good Earth
Metro bookstores click with online readers →
A look at the independent used bookstores of Detroit
Dewey Decimal divas | csmonitor.com →
Book Cart Drill Competition at ALA
Before Harry Potter It Was Little Nell
If you are looking for a little perspective on the Potter keg that is going to explode on July 21st when the last book in the series is released have a look at Lenore Skenazy’s piece in the New York Sun, “For Harry Potter Fans, Time to Enjoy Unkown.” She does a nice job of putting the phenomenon in historical context. Here are a few Potter puffs: -It is the most successful...
A Whale of a Tale - June 27, 2007 - The New York... →
POD Talk
Print on Demand has arrived on main street. There has been a tremendous amount of publicity surrounding the recent installation of the Espresso Machine at the NYPL. For a nice primer on the print on demand issue check out Peter Brantley post “Where lies the Print on Demand” over at O’Reilly Radar. He reproduces a highly informative thread of “a debate on POD business...
More competition wanted: Used-book sellers prefer... →
Story in the Omaha World-Herald
TheStar.com - News - Would you like that book in... →
Censorship at Home and Abroad
This was one of last weeks Daily Number at the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press . The headline: 46% support public school library book banning. The good news is that this is the “lowest level of support in 20 years.” What are these “dangerous ideas” that people want to keep from their kids? Isn’t the act of keeping our kids from these ideas just as...
Adventures in old-time bookselling - The Boston... →
Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy
Another book... →
Los Angeles Times: Jacket Copy
Another book... →
PLA Blog » Blog Archive » The Hollywood Librarian... →
The Hunt Is On In the U.K.
The public libraries of the United Kingdom are on a treasure hunt. The goal: To find the coolest item in their collection that has yet to be digitized and enter it into a contest being run by the British Library. The contest is sponsored by the British Library with financial support coming from Microsoft. If a particular library doesn’t feel they have anything worthy they can they include...
Curling Up With a Bookshelf - New York Times →
The $7,000 reading chair. No wonder the shelves aren’t full
Book Vending Machines To Kill Bookstores? Wired... →
Michael Dirda Review -
NATURE'S ENGRAVER
A... →
Competition to find the greatest hidden treasures... →
The "Overly Attached Syndrome"
That’s the diagnosis given to many book lovers by Alina Tugend in her piece New Ways to Do It Make Giving Away Books a Bit Less Painful that appears in the New York Times today. “Getting rid of books creates tension for many, although it is often one of the first things people have to do when downsizing or simply trying to organize their lives.” says Tugned. For some, including...
New Ways to Do It Make Giving Away Books a Bit... →
Who Needs a Bookmobile?
Here’s the deal: The Seattle Public Library bought this roving library three years ago to serve the various populations that can’t easily get to any of their 25 branches. Day care centers, assisted living facilities and underserved neighborhoods all benefit greatly from this book bus. But, lo and behold, the bookmobile is up for sale. How can that be? Because its too big. Our beloved...
Books: The Last Physical Media Product That Makes...
That’s how Chris Anderson, Editor of Wired Magazine and creator of The Long Tail concept, put it during his keynote at the inaugural O’Reilly Media Tools of Change for Publishing Conference taking place this week in San Jose. The goals of the conference are: -To raise “the level of technology knowledge and discourse in the publishing industry” -To provide “a meeting...
A rare treasure will soon be extinct - Los Angeles... →
Story on the closing of the Heritage Book Shop
Gotham Breathing
Robert Schuster’s piece in the Village Voice “The Gotham Book Mart’s Final Chapter” confirms that we haven’t heard the last of it. “Something’s cooking,” and “important things happening” is what people in the know are saying. “Don’t issue a death certificate just yet” says Schuster. Why is this not surprising? The more...
Learn To Read
Tate Modern presents Learn to Read, on view through 2 September 2007. Learn to Read is the latest exhibition in the Level 2 Gallery series which forecasts themes and trends in international contemporary art. This dense and visually diverse display brings together works by 29 artists which play with text, erasure and miscommunication. Learn to Read explores failed articulations, shifts and...
Google, The Big Ten and Digital Escrow
In on fell swoop Google has significantly increased the number of libraries they have under contract and has introduced a new species of digitization; digital escrow. By corralling the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), a consortium of the libraries of the Big Ten and the University of Chicago, Goggle brings the number of partner libraries to 25 and add over 78,000,000 potential items...
Submergible
Bachelor - The Dual Body by the South Korean artist Ki-bong Rhee 2003, plexiglass, steel, water, book, water pump,light 150 x 65 x 196 cm The concept came to Rhee after he accidentally dropped a book in the bathtub. While watching the closed book fall into the tub he began contemplating the effect the water was having on the “rigid” solitary book. In the piece the book is...
Mailer Goes LongPen
The Guardian is reporting that Norman Mailer will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival via the LongPen. Mailer, who is 84, says the “Triple As’, age, asthma and arthritis” make traveling very difficult, forcing him to “cancel his trip to the “great luminous grey city” Edinburgh.” Catherine Lockerbie, a spokeswoman for the festival,...
Changing Reading Habits
“Insomniacs used to read, but now they turn on TV and there’s 200 channels, with everything from the pope saying mass in Brazil to Girls Gone Wild to QVC selling cheap diamonds” - John Shaver talking about the closing of his shop, Shaver’s Books in Huntsville, Alabama, after almost 20 years in business. “Your heart can lie to you, but your balance sheet...
Simon & Schuster 2.0
Simon and Schuster has been on the loose lately. In January they partner with Gather.com and Borders for a nationwide literary contest that reeked of American Idol. They framed it this way “Publisher Leverages Power of Social Media to Find America’s Next Great Writer” Then they go ahead and Long Tail their standard author contract so that technically a book never goes...
The Death of the Bookend?
Furniture designer Leo Kempf was interested in designing a piece of furniture using a new technique. He came up with a “process of bending plywood to create a simple curve.” He then inserted these curved plywood shelves into a red hardwood main beam to create The Gravity Bookshelf. The bookshelf “is ideal for holding books securely without the need for bookends.” It...
A Review of Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema
The first American edition has recently been released of Robert J. Wiersema’s debut novel Before I Wake. Book details: Hardback. Octavo. 312pp. Bound in maroon boards and published by St. Martin’s Press. The dust jacket is designed by Pete Garceau. $21.95 Author details: Wiersema is a bookseller in Victoria, B.C. where he runs the reading program and takes care of the PR for Bolen...
Richard Hugo House Evicts The Raven Chronicles and... →
Buy - Dry - Read
This is Paolo Orsacchini’s striking design for a limited anniversary edition of the Italian publication of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. The book comes wet. Soaked in sea water then sealed in a nice clear pouch. Luckily, the paper is waterproof so if you want to read it you simply set the book out in the sun. Let it dry then read. I haven’t been able to...
Research Reveals AbeBooks Driving Booksellers...
Maybe that should have been the title of their latest press release. While most of the bookselling trade is going nuts over AbeBooks’ new ‘bookseller rating’ system, which is running in beta version right now, they release this news flash: Research Reveals Baby Boomers Drive Online Used Bookselling in US Before I get to that here is a bit about the current skirmish between the...
Fore-edges
via Flickr - sarahvictoriasmith Book set (via Book Patrol)
The Waiting Game in Jackson County
The 15 libraries of Jackson County, Oregon have now been closed for over 2 months. No storytime for kids, no books, movies or cd’s for the residents and no internet access for the people most in need. Where are we today? Still no help from Washington D.C. There was an emergency appropriation in the initial Iraq War bill that the President vetoed and I am not sure what incarnation survived...
WSJ.com article on collecting limited editons of... →
On Point : Radio Interview with Sherman Alexie... →
Auction Wrap: The Sale of Annette Campbell White's...
Nigel Burkwood over at Bookride has the wrap up of the auction of the library Annette Campbell White held at Sotheby’s in London. The Recap: The sale grossed about £1.3 million. About half a million less than the top estimates. 25% of the lots did not sell. Many of the dealers present were the same one who had sold Ms Campbell the books in the first place. The London trade gossip was...
The Librarian: Hollywood Style
The documentary film from Overdue Productions “The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film” will premier in a couple of weeks at the ALA Conference in Washington, D.C. Here’s the trailer: It is the first full-length documentary film to focus on the work and lives of librarians, offering “a unique and charming blend of film clips, humor and critical analysis...
Readings For Money and Books For Free
You get a sneaking suspicion reading Ceclia McGee’s piece in the New York Times “A Way to Give Authors a Lucrative Second Platform” that the model for author readings has changed drastically and that the free in-store author reading is endangered. Many of the major publishing houses have set up in-house speakers bureaus which now hire out their authors to various groups and...
