LISNews: Librarian News

It's summer, it's a Friday, why not get way over-invested in arguing over a list?

The Library of Congress, the world’s largest repository of knowledge and information, began a multiyear “Celebration of the Book” with an exhibition on “Books That Shaped America.” The initial books in the exhibition are displayed below.

“This list is a starting point,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “It is not a register of the ‘best’ American books – although many of them fit that description. Rather, the list is intended to spark a national conversation on books written by Americans that have influenced our lives, whether they appear on this initial list or not.”

My initial reactions:

• Why only one book after 1987?
• Where is Dr. Atkins's diet book? Think of the influence that one diet book, originally published in the 1970s, had and still has about how America eats.

Excerpt from article:

Mr. Blum is a correspondent for Wired magazine, which happily is not called Tubes magazine. His quixotic and winning book is an attempt to comprehend the physical realities of the Internet, to describe how this seemingly intangible thing is actually constructed. Early on, he lays down this bedrock assertion, which is worth quoting at modest length:

“I have confirmed with my own eyes that the Internet is many things, in many places. But one thing it most certainly is, nearly everywhere, is, in fact, a series of tubes. There are tubes beneath the ocean that connect London and New York. Tubes that connect Google and Facebook. There are buildings filled with tubes, and hundreds of thousands of miles of roads and railroad tracks, beside which lie buried tubes. Everything you do online travels through a tube.”

NYT article about the book - TUBES A Journey to the Center of the Internet

"Little Women is brutal, a ferocious wolf dressed up in the curly white sermons and sentimental homilies of children’s stories. Despite references to a kind and loving father, its fundamental faith lies not in God but in books"

Full article

On Wednesday (June 6), at the annual BookExpo America, Library Journal invited several librarians to share their picks for good new reads:

Moderated by Barbara Genco, Library Journal’s Manager of Special Projects, and featuring six librarian/tastemakers—Wendy Bartlett (Cuyahoga County Public Library, OH), Robin Beerbower (Salem Public Library, OR), Douglas Lord (LJ’s “Book for Dudes” columnist), Alene Moroni (King County Public Library, WA), Kaite Mediatore Stover (Kansas City Public Library, MO), and Miriam Tuliao (NYPL)—the fourth annual Librarian Shout ’n Share offered audience members nearly 100 titles to ponder.

Full List, have your GoodReads/spreadsheet/back of envelope ready.