LISNews: Librarian News

The developers behind ad-tracking browser plug-in Ghostery said they'd logged 137 different trackers on the Microsoft website and 107 on Apple's site, while they logged 66 on Samsung's site and 65 on HP's. Dell has 106. All of these tech sites make greater use of trackers associated with behavioural advertising than specialist retail sites such as Tesco (64), John Lewis (46) and Dabs (12).

So, is the Rundel Library on South Avenue in Rochester haunted?

Some employees like Diane Premnath sure think so. Premnath has been working at the library for the past five years and has heard many strange noises and seen dark shadows moving on the upper stacks of the library. She says she’s gotten used to it.

“I guess the ghosts are friendly,” she says. “I don’t bother them and they don’t bother me. I guess we all have stuff to do.”

Who's Tracking Your Reading Habits? An E-Book Buyer's Guide to Privacy, 2012 Edition
See the chart here

The holiday shopping season is upon us, and once again e-book readers promise to be a very popular gift. Last year's holiday season saw ownership of a dedicated e-reader device spike to nearly 1 in 5 Americans, and that number is poised to go even higher. But if you're in the market for an e-reader this year, or for e-books to read on one that you already own, you might want to know who's keeping an eye on your searching, shopping, and reading habits.

Unfortunately, unpacking the tracking and data-sharing practices of different e-reader platforms is far from simple. It can require reading through stacked license agreements and privacy policies for devices, software platforms, and e-book stores. That in turn can mean reading thousands of words of legalese before you read the first line of a new book.

Story at Wired.com

The e-ink screen that popSLATE uses is the next generation of screens that are at the core of e-readers like Amazon’s Kindle or the Kobo. Like all e-ink screens, it only consumes power when the display is changed. This allows for an always-on ambient visual interface.

What can you do with a second screen on the back of your phone? A lot, it turns out.

A copyright law that lets authors break contracts after 35 years will start taking effect in January. The law, which is meant to give authors like Stephen King and Judy Blume a “second bite at the apple,” could provide yet another disruption for traditional publishers.

Wow!
For more than 63 years, Craven has bound books and conserved artifacts on Michigan's Ann Arbor campus.

On Friday, the 81-year-old Craven leaves campus, retiring as the longest-serving staff member in the university's history.

He began working part-time at the university in 1947 while he was still in high school in a bookbindery in the basement of the Hatcher Graduate Library.

The site unglue.it has a few more books they are trying to unglue. One is - So You Want to Be a Librarian. See unglue.it for more details.

This is the first in an occasional series of articles that will explore issues surrounding the efforts to launch and expand the Digital Public Library of America.

Library Journal - The Digital Shift

Reading while running or exercising can have unexpected results.

"We've found the vast majority of our readers are multitaskers. They listen while they do something else," says Michele Cobb, the association's president..."

"For Mr. Flood, a novel's tension and action can also influence the senses during a run. "When I was listening to 'Game of Thrones' and somebody was being chased through the woods by a group of marauding knights, it was fun to be running through the rolling prairies here," says Mr. Flood."

See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323353204578129202490992958.html?KEYWORDS=dickens

On the Media has an episode each year that focuses on books. The entire program is one hour and you can get the MP3 here.

You can see all the individual episodes here.

The individual episodes are:
Publishing: Adapt or Die
How Publishing and Reading are Changing
No Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Is Amazon a New Monopoly
Are Publishers Stuck in the Past?
The Story of Pottermore
Taking on Amazon
The Problem of Knock Off Books
Steal My Book Please
Life After Publishers

Independent bookstores have weathered competition from big chains, Amazon and now e-books. But NPR's Lynn Neary reports that this year's holiday shopping season looks like an improvement on past years, as booksellers offer quality hardcovers and their own take on e-readers.

Full piece on NPR

xkcd comic: Bookshelf
xkcd comic 2: Alternative Literature
xkcd comic 3: Librarians

Opinion piece in the NYT: What Should Children Read?

Excerpt: For example, the Common Core dictates that by fourth grade, public school students devote half of their reading time in class to historical documents, scientific tracts, maps and other “informational texts” — like recipes and train schedules. Per the guidelines, 70 percent of the 12th grade curriculum will consist of nonfiction titles. Alarmed English teachers worry we’re about to toss Shakespeare so students can study, in the words of one former educator, “memos, technical manuals and menus.”

Due to illness, injury, and increasing incidence of power disruptions since the late hours of November 21st there shall be no episode of LISTen: An LlSNews.org Program released during the week of November 25, 2012. It is not expected that any special episodes will be released during the week. The next anticipated release date, barring further unique and/or interesting complications, is December 3, 2012.

In the intervening time, we recommed that you enjoy Episode 116 of The Incomparable hosted by Jason Snell as the panel talks about reading, libraries, and non-librarian experiences with library ebook lending.

Washington Post blog reports on a program started by professor Katy Ryan at West Virginia University in 2004, the Appalachian Prison Book Project (thank you Mock Turtle).

Whatever the subject, volunteers with the Appalachian Prison Book Project believe they hold the power to unlock worlds.

From a small room in a historic house next to the Morgantown Public Library, they meticulously organize requests, exchanging letters to find just the right read and get permission from prison administrators while simultaneously scrambling to raise money for shipping.

The process takes months, and the restrictions are many: Spiral-bound books are banned, their spines seen as potential weapons. Hardcovers are discouraged. Some institutions refuse books altogether, often with no explanation.

“You would think it’s not that big a deal. We’re just sending out used books, free of charge, to people in prison,” says Dominique Bruno, a doctoral student at West Virginia University who serves as outreach coordinator. “But it is as hard to get something into a prison as it is to get out of one.”

Book: Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis

Jason Griffey: "Really great write up of the internals of the tech team for the Obama campaign over at The Atlantic. Librarians and educators should read it as an argument for why it’s important to have technologists on your team directly, and not just rented out. "

The lessons of Indie Rock for the publishing industry are pondered in a post at The Scholarly Kitchen,
"Whenever you buy a record from just about any indie band, it comes with either a CD or with a card that contains a URL and a download code so you can get a digital copy at no additional cost...
If implemented in the right way, publishers could kill two birds with one stone: they could support a mechanism for downloading e-books purchased in conjunction with hardcovers that not only makes their best customers happy and extends the life of hardcover sales, but that actually fosters competition in the ebook marketplace."

From the Guardian:

A fiery Jeanette Winterson has called for the hundreds of millions of pounds of profit which Amazon, Starbucks and Google were last week accused of diverting from the UK to be used to save Britain's beleaguered public libraries.

In an impassioned speech at the British Library this evening, the award-winning author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit said: "Libraries cost about a billion a year to run right now. Make it two billion and charge Google, Amazon and Starbucks all that back tax on their profits here. Or if they want to go on paying fancy lawyers to legally avoid their moral duties, then perhaps those companies could do an Andrew Carnegie and build us new kinds of libraries for a new kind of future in a fairer and better world?"

Winterson was referring to the meeting at parliament's public accounts committee last Monday which saw executives from the three companies vigorously quizzed by MPs over their tax affairs, and accused of diverting UK profits to tax havens. Her lecture was to mark the 10th anniversary of the independent charity The Reading Agency, and was attended by fellow authors including David Nicholls, Julian Barnes, Joanna Trollope and Sarah Waters.

Probably should have saved this one for Friday, but... (I suggest you mute before trying).

Here's "Take me to a useless website please."