LISNews: Librarian News

Gale, part of Cengage Learning, today announced the launch of the Are you a Librarian Superhero contest to recognize the often heroic efforts put forth by librarians around the country, and to encourage other feats of greatness. Gale is calling on everyone – fellow librarians, library patrons, students and school administrators – to nominate a superhero librarian who is making a real difference for their library and community.

See: http://bit.ly/eQZr16

Interesting piece in the NYT by Tyler Cowen (professor of economics at George Mason University)

Artricle here

I am thinking about starting a reading project where I read one book about every U.S. President. I am gathering a list of books to see what is available.

I am open to suggestions if anyone has books they would like to add to the list. I can guarantee that I have to be missing some major works at this point.

1st - George Washington (1789-1797)

Washington: A Life

His Excellency: George Washington

Washington: The Indispensable Man

2nd - John Adams (1797-1801) -- Read More

An Amazon Kindle, protected by a special waterproof case, is immersed in water at a consumer electronics show. Amazon has released the first of a new line of short digital books pitched as quick, captivating works for its popular electronic reader.

See picture here: http://yhoo.it/guHCZ4

Amazon has released the first of a new line of short digital books pitched as quick, captivating works for its popular Kindle electronic readers.

The launch of Kindle Singles included the debut of TED Books, written versions of inspirational 18-minute talks that are a trademark of renowned TED gatherings dedicated to cultivating "ideas worth spreading."
"This first set of Singles was selected by our team of editors, and includes works by Rich Cohen, Darin Strauss, Ian Ayres, and the first-ever books published by TED," said Kindle content vice president Russ Grandinetti.

Full article

Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses has been in the top 100 on Amazon for the last 9 days.

Book is mentioned in this article: 45% Of Students Don't Learn Much In College

Article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: New Book Lays Failure to Learn on Colleges' Doorsteps

The NYT has a "Room for Debate" piece called Does College Make You Smarter? that mentions the book.

NPR discusses a new book by Stanley Fish called How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One

NPR piece is here: Think You Know 'How To Write A Sentence'?

A law professor I know sent me this email. I believe this prof has a slightly left of center political view just to give a little context on the sender.

-----------------------------

Agree or not, you all might enjoy reading the following three paragraphs, the first three paragraphs of a concurring opinion by Scalia, published yesterday.

Professor X

Cite as: 562 U. S. ____ (2011) SCALIA, J., concurring in judgment

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 09–530
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION, ET AL., PETITIONERS v. ROBERT M. NELSON ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
[January 19, 2011]
JUSTICE SCALIA, with whom JUSTICE THOMAS joins, concurring in the judgment. -- Read More

Book -- Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History

Thad Roberts, a fellow in a prestigious NASA program had an idea—a romantic, albeit crazy, idea. He wanted to give his girlfriend the moon. Literally.

Thad convinced his girlfriend and another female accomplice, both NASA interns, to break into an impregnable laboratory at NASA’s headquarters—past security checkpoints, an electronically locked door with cipher security codes, and camera-lined hallways—and help him steal the most precious objects in the world: the moon rocks.

But what does one do with an item so valuable that it’s illegal even to own? And was Thad Roberts—undeniably gifted, picked for one of the most competitive scientific posts imaginable, a possible astronaut—really what he seemed?

Mezrich has pored over thousands of pages of court records, FBI transcripts, and NASA documents and has interviewed most of the participants in the crime to reconstruct this Ocean’s Eleven–style heist, a madcap story of genius, love, and duplicity that reads like a Hollywood thrill ride.

Article in the LA Times from 2004 about the events that were the basis for the book.

1.3 million people bought the $20 gift certificate at Amazon.com for $10 at Living Social.

Digital spaces on the World Wide Web can be consumed as windowed technologies, providing apparently transparent access to information, or as mirrors, multi–layered and complex, requiring critical reflexivity for productive participation. Approaching Wikipedia as a mirrored technology exploits its potential as a pedagogical tool with which students can improve their research practices and writing proficiency in digital environments. Students can learn to grapple with Wikipedia as a complex, living discourse community, whose rhetorical practices and technical conventions they must learn in order to make contributions to it that are accepted by fellow editors of the site and withstand its unique editorial processes. By writing for Wikipedia, students become critical users of this digital resource, develop rhetorical and technological proficiency, and generate texts that prompt real–world response and provide potentially useful information for fellow users of this massive digital resource.

Full article

Website "Living Social" has a deal today where you can get an Amazon $20 gift certificate for $10.

See: https://livingsocial.com/deals/21336?ref=personalized-link-box-4278462&rpi=4278462

USA Today had a piece about this deal: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/01/livingsocial-offering-da...

Huffington post has this article: Living Social Amazon Deal Explodes In Hours, Slows Website
See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/19/living-social-amazon_n_811077.html

Update: There is an article in the NYT Bits Blog that indicates that "Living Social" may be taking a loss on this deal. See: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/livingsocial-gets-attention-for-amazon-discount/?re...

Hip youth are good at multitasking.

Don't hold your breath for the arrival of "The Sopranos" or "Entourage" on Netflix's streaming service.
Citing a "high-placed Time Warner executive," The Hollywood Reporter reported late last week that the only way for Time Warner-owned HBO to offer its content on Netflix's service is if the rental company charges customers $20 per month, rather than the $7.99 it currently charges streaming-only users. At such a price, The Hollywood Reporter's source claims, Netflix would get a "meaningful amount of HBO content."

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20028722-17.html#ixzz1BVHBJzXA

Over the course of three years, filmmaker Meghan Eckman tracked the comings and goings of a solitary parking lot in Charlottesville, Va., chronicling the lives of the attendants who were working there. This inspiring documentary is the result. Hanging tough as they navigate the range of human emotion -- from hope to frustration, from a sense of limitless possibilities to stagnation -- the film's subjects embody the pursuit of the American Dream.

Trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2196243993/

Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0R65Cagx98

And another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8r8yxpEzmU&feature=relmfu

If you have Netflix you can see this movie in the "Watch it Instantly" section.

One good line in the movie roughly goes - What is the existential reality of your job? Here is a clip that has that language - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZBH3JkWZaU&feature=relmfu (First attendant talking in this clip is a librarian)

Link to DVD on Amazon: http://amzn.to/fkGHzx

Librarian featured in movie: http://libmma.org/portal/john-lindaman/

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is listed as one of the best books of 2010 in several places.

Here is an article discussing the book: Why Not Take All of Me? Reflections on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and the Status of Participants in Research Using Human Specimens

From the archives of "This American Life" -- Listen to full show

Stories of people who believe a book changed their life. It's a romantic notion, and one reason we believe it is because we want to believe our lives can be changed by something so simple as an idea — or a set of ideas contained in a book.

PROLOGUE.
When Alexa was seven, she started going through her grandfather's books. Her grandfather was a playwright and teacher, and through the books—and especially through his notes in the margins—she entered the world of 1930's American theater. And she found a book that changed her life: writer Moss Hart's autobiography Act One. (5 minutes)

ACT ONE. ACT ONE.
More of Alexa Junge and how Moss Hart's autobiography changed her life. She followed his path, learned specific lessons, and had a vision of him that was absolutely clear—until she met his widow. (10 minutes)

ACT TWO. THE FAMILY THAT READS TOGETHER.
The story of a book that changed a family's life, but only temporarily and not for the better. David Sedaris describes what happens when he finds a dirty book in the woods and shares it with his sisters. This story is published in Sedaris' book Naked. (9 minutes)

ACT THREE. ROGER AND ME, LEWIS AND CLARK.
Reporter Jeremy Goldstein tells the story of a man who had many books change his life, even though he'd never read them. (14 minutes) Available: The Journals of Lewis and Clark, containing excerpts from the explorers' journals. -- Read More

Excerpt: Obviously the iPad does a lot more than reading, but this post is designed to give avid readers an idea of whether a Nook will be enough for them, or an iPad will be worth the extra money. And the short answer is: the Nook will be enough. It’s a close fight, but the iPad simply doesn’t seem...

Full story

Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel is $1.99 as a Kindle ebook today.

Teleportation, time machines, force fields, and interstellar space ships—the stuff of science fiction or potentially attainable future technologies? Inspired by the fantastic worlds of Star Trek, Star Wars, and Back to the Future, renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author Michio Kaku takes an informed, serious, and often surprising look at what our current understanding of the universe's physical laws may permit in the near and distant future.Entertaining, informative, and imaginative, Physics of the Impossible probes the very limits of human ingenuity and scientific possibility.

The author is Michio Kaku. The Wikipedia entry for the author is here.

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The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World's Toughest Problems is on sale for 1 day for $2.99 on Amazon.

Book is published by Harvard Business Press

Book description:

Think of the toughest problems in your organization or community. What if they'd already been solved and you didn't even know it?

In The Power of Positive Deviance, the authors present a counterintuitive new approach to problem-solving. Their advice? Leverage positive deviants--the few individuals in a group who find unique ways to look at, and overcome, seemingly insoluble difficulties. By seeing solutions where others don't, positive deviants spread and sustain needed change.

With vivid, firsthand stories of how positive deviance has alleviated some of the world's toughest problems (malnutrition in Vietnam, staph infections in hospitals), the authors illuminate its core practices, including:

· Mobilizing communities to discover "invisible" solutions in their midst

· Using innovative designs to "act" your way into a new way of thinking instead of thinking your way into a new way of acting

· Confounding the organizational "immune response" seeking to sustain the status quo