LISNews: Librarian News

Bookish, the Web site built by top publishers to provide information on their books and authors in a literary magazine-like format, opened for business Monday night.

Although the site received financing from just three houses – Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book Group – it will include books by 16 other publishers including Random House and Scholastic.

Meant primarily as a destination for readers, visitors can also purchase books on the site directly from the publishers through bookish.com or other retailers if they’d like.

Full article

Susan Eloise Hinton was a teenager when she wrote The Outsiders, the story of rival gangs in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She used the pen name “S.E.” so readers wouldn’t know she was a girl, and bought a Camaro with the earnings. “Some of [the novel’s] faults, like its over-the-top emotions and drama, are what make it so popular because that’s the way kids really feel,” she says. “You’ve got to have the hormones going before you really appreciate that book.”

Librarian Elizabeth Bird says the novel’s unresolved class struggle resonates as powerfully as ever. “There are always going to be the haves and the have-nots — the divide is getting bigger and bigger all the time. And this book talks about that. A lot of books for kids and teens do not.” -- Read More

Big Data is pushing into the humanities, as evidenced by new, illuminating computer analyses of literary history.

Full article

McDonald's has launched a two-year children’s books campaign, committing to "hand out more than 15 million books by the end of 2014” through a £1 book offer on its Happy Meal boxes.

Full article