LISNews: Librarian News

Cites & Insights 11:6, June/July 2011, is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i6.pdf

More info here: http://lisnews.org/cites_amp_insights_116_available

McGraw-Hill has launched a platform for accessing its wide breadth of content online at www.MHeBookLibrary.com. The site will deliver content to institutions globally and contains over 1,000 titles. The publisher said the library was created to serve the growing digital demands of library patrons and give easier and quicker access to its content.

More at Publisher's Weekly

The Houston Public Library is going to lay off 39 employees effective July 1 as its budget continues to shrink.

The layoffs will mean that the 42-branch system's staff will have shrunk from 558 FTEs in FY10 to 469 for FY12, a 16 percent reduction.

Full article in Library Journal

I found a library that on their website mentions that they sell new books in their bookshop. I have seen numerous libraries that have a bookstore inside them that sells used books but have not seen many that sell new books.

From the website:

The Library Bookshop, a concept pioneered by the Drayton Valley Municipal Library, is continuously expanding service geared toward the specialized need of our users. We retail new books to our customers at discount prices. If you have a book you would like to order, call the library and place an order. Delivery is dependent upon availability and the timing of our orders.

Consider Facebook—it's human contact, only easier to engage with and
easier to avoid. Developing technology promises closeness. Sometimes
it delivers, but much of our modern life leaves us less connected with
people and more connected to simulations of them.

In "Alone Together", MIT technology and society professor Sherry
Turkle explores the power of our new tools and toys to dramatically
alter our social lives. It's a nuanced exploration of what we are
looking for—and sacrificing—in a world of electronic companions and
social networking tools, and an argument that, despite the hand-waving
of today's self-described prophets of the future, it will be the next
generation who will chart the path between isolation and
connectivity.

For months we've been talking about the impending arrival of an Amazon Android tablet and Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos didn't quite let the cat out of the bag--but he came close.

In an interview with Consumer Reports, when asked about the possibility of Amazon doing a tablet, he replied, "stay tuned."

Bezos also said that if Amazon were to do a tablet, it wouldn't replace the Kindle but be sold alongside it. That seems rather obvious, but that he was even talking hypothetically about such a scenario strongly indicates that a tablet is coming; it's only a matter of when, what size it will be, and how much it will cost.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/bezos-hints-at-amazon-tablet-in-interview/8301-17938_105-20062358-1.htm...

800-CEO-READ, a leading direct supplier of book-based resources, compiles a monthly list of best-selling business books based on purchases by its corporate customers nationwide. Here are the best sellers for April 2011, plus descriptions of the Top 10.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/05/12/2869349/top-25-what-corporate-america.html#ixzz1MCl3xFgo

My long-time friend and fellow book author, Ernie Zelinski, alerted me to the Amazon Kindle Swindle - where Amazon.com is making out like a bandit! And providing no relief to book authors whose works are being stolen - and resold by Amazon.com.

It's time to sue Amazon.com! Book authors of the world unite! There's a real case for a class action lawsuit here. Read on . . .

Did you know that your copyrighted work (which took you months or years to write) might right now be sitting on Amazon.com and being sold as a Kindle ebook by some charlatan - and may be sold under your name! But the money is going to someone named Mingfeng Lai or other aliases.

And, worse, Amazon is doing nothing about it but pocketing the money from such sales!

Full piece:
http://blog.bookmarket.com/2010/05/amazon-kindle-swindle-authors-people.html

Peer to Peer file sharing is a hot topic as most people equate the essence of it to be synonymous with piracy. During our research we found that authors are leaking their own ebooks to pirate websites and then capitalizing on the controversy surrounding them. We also will look into how authors share their books on pirate websites in order to gain more exposure.

The spirit of Peer to Peer file sharing was to have many different computers hosting the same file in order to keep download/upload speeds consistent for many different users accessing the file. The stigma of P2P file sharing occurred when Kazaa, Limewire and other companies started offering copyright infringing content. No one can dispute the fact that this changed the landscape of the Music and Movie industry. The music and movie industry had to evolve to offer paid digital content to satiate peoples thirst. The rise of iTunes and Hulu were directly arbitrated to P2P driving up the demand to consume digital content.

http://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/goodereader-exclusive-are-authors-pirating-th...

Click over to TechCrunch to check out an amazing slide show put together by the consulting firm faberNovel that offers an incredibly detailed look at how Amazon came to dominate e-commerce, expanding from an online bookseller to a household name synonymous with buying stuff on the Internet.

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/?p=5220

Despite the funding challenges nearly all school libraries face, many media specialists are optimistic about the role of technology in the school library, according to SLJ’s 2011 Technology Survey. Maribel Castro, a high school librarian, in Lubbock, TX, spoke for many school librarians when she wrote that even though her library is behind the tech curve, she still feels that “we are at the cusp of great things.”

But in spite of the general optimism, others point to some significant obstacles: technological innovations are often hampered by poor funding, lack of time, and unsupportive administrators. “I feel like I am blocked by my district at nearly every turn,” says an Oklahoma elementary school librarian.

Full article at School Library Journal
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/890197-312/sljs_2011_technology_survey_things.h...

J. Patrick Lewis's wordplay, humor, and technical facility—as well as his love of writing for children—have earned him an important place in history: today the Poetry Foundation named him the nation's third Children's Poet Laureate.

Full article at School Library Journal

Single dad bonded with daughter by reading together every night from fourth grade to first night in college dorm.

Full story at CBS News

Book that daughter wrote about this: The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared

Essay in the NYT

Like all good independent bookstores, BookCourt in Brooklyn has a robust section of staff recommendations. There, nestled in with titles by Jennifer Egan, Haruki Murakami and David Foster Wallace, is “Other People We Married,” a collection of short stories by Emma Straub. A handwritten note taped to the wall below reads: “I wrote this book. Please buy it. I love you.”

Full essay here.

Review in the NYT of the book Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation

From the author of the acclaimed The Brother Gardeners, a fascinating look at the founding fathers from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers. -- Read More

In How to Think about The Great Ideas, Adler summarizes the most important ideas of Western thought, explicating their histories and developments as well as their importance in our lives today. He explains not only what the Great Ideas are, but why they are great. This volume is an excellent introduction to the key ideas of 2500 years of Western thought.

About the author: Mortimer J. Adler was an American philosopher who lived from 1902 to 2001. He was the author of over sixty books, one of them entitled How to Think about God, and the editor of hundreds of books. He was a major force in promoting the ""Great Books"" idea as an educational paradigm. He founded the Institute for Philosophical Research, launched the Paidea movement for educational reform, and revolutionized the Encyclopedia Britannica.

How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization

If you're in search of an inspiring live work home – a forest book nook – try these digs on for size! The Scholar’s Library in Olive Bridge, New York by local architecture firm Gluck & Partners is an unusual raised house plan surrounded by lush, leafy woods. This simple but striking space sits perched among the treetops, with a study space enclosed in windows at the top, and the actual library – housing approximately 10,000 books – tucked in the windowless area below.

See pictures here.

Kindle ad where one of the characters opens the ad with the line - "I only read real books"
In the comments to the ad there is the continuing debate of paper books vs. ebooks.

Blog post at Publisher's Weekly XYZ blog about a site that shows vintage paperback covers. You can see the blog post here.

Bad font in book according to Amazon reviews. Book is: The Repurposed Library: 33 Craft Projects That Give Old Books New Life