LISNews author “birdie” (aka Robin K. Blum) has a booth at PLA this year. Stop in and have a look at Her IN MY BOOK cards. The cards have been acclaimed in the press (Publishers Weekly calls them “sentimental greetings that make endearing gift enclosures”) and you can get one for free, just say “Birdie sent me!”
March 2008
Seven Deadly Words of Book Reviewing
Over At The NY Times Bob Harris says Out of laziness, haste or a misguided effort to sound “literary,” reviewers use some words with startling predictability. Each of these seven entries is a perfectly good word (well, maybe not eschew), but they crop up in book reviews with wearying regularity. poignant; compelling; intriguing; eschew; craft; muse; lyrical;
Santa Cruz Public Library Selects Koha
LibLime announced today that Santa Cruz Public Library in California USA, has selected LibLime’s Koha ZOOM Appliance solution as the library’s next integrated library system. Santa Cruz County Public Library (SCPL) has a central library and 9 branches, and boasts an annual circulation of approximately 2 million items. LibLime will be providing the library with software installation, data migration, and ongoing support services.
The second issue of Code4Lib Journal is out!
Eric Lease Morgan sent out word that issue #2 of the Code4Lib Journal is out!
http://journal.code4lib.org/
Each article in this issue has a little bit of something for all who call themselves a librarian or work in a library. Each identifies some sort of library problem to be addressed, and offers one or more solutions.
For those of us who enjoy cataloging and metadata issues, Jonathan Gorman outlines how he modified VUFind to exploit Wikipedia and cataloging authority records to enhance information about authors in a library catalog. Chris Freeland, Martin Kalfatovic, Jay Paige, and Marc Crozier illustrate a different use of Library of Congress Subject Headings by integrating place names with Google Maps. Carol Jean Godby, Devon Smith and Eric Childress describe a technique for crosswalking just about any metadata format into just about any other metadata format.
The Digital Divide And Skills
As some librarians worry about the digital divide between rich and poor they sometimes miss a key component of that. The digital divide leads to a divide in skill sets as well. Not only will someone on the short side lose out on technological access, but they will lack the skills needed to find, assess, and ultimately utilize information.
Bringing Old Books Back to Life and We’re Not Talking E-Books
Book restorer Karen Tolley, owner of Lost & Bound Books, Roseburg, Ore., “has been stitching together spines and tightening the hinges of children’s classics and the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for more than a year now,” according to the News-Review.
Many of the books Tolley repairs are Bibles. She said she usually brings them back to life with new thread, and fortifies brittle pages with a thin, clear layer of Japanese paper, highly regarded for its long fibers. Tolley can repair about 10 books a week, depending upon condition: “Each book kind of tells you what it needs. . . . It’s fun to bring life back to a book again. It’s magic what can be done.”
Book Selling: An industry under fire
A Short Fool.com Column takes a look at Borders and Barnes & Noble. Peddling books is a tough business, relying on a relatively small number of best-sellers to grow sales (and competitive forces have forced a lot of margin-killing discounts).
Barnes & Noble hasn’t had quite as difficult a time as Borders, although its fourth-quarter net income dipped 9.2% as the competitive climate led to lower margins. However, in contrast to Borders’ tidings, Barnes & Noble was able to increase its dividend and said that it will be profitable in the first quarter, even though it’s by no means indicating an easy year ahead. It’s guiding for annual earnings about flat compared to 2007.
EPA may have lost data in hasty library closures
FCW Reports The Environmental Protection Agency moved too quickly in closing some of its research libraries and may have lost some files as a result, government auditors recently testified before a House panel.
EPA’s push to digitize its libraries led to the rushed closings, said John Stephenson, director of natural resources and environment at the Government Accountability Office in testimony March 13 before the House Science and Technology Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee.
Call In Your Report From The PLA Conference
For those attending PLA 2008 National Conference, steps have been taken to allow conference participants to contribute reflections for consideration by LISTen. To leave your thoughts just call 646-495-9201 and enter the extension 12761. It would help immensely with such if you identified who you are and what library/vendor/agency/entity you work for as we will discard any anonymous messages. As long as we actually get some reflections left at that voicemail box, LISTen will try to air a montage of the best in the episode directly following the conference.
The telephone number above is a temporary one and will disappear at 5:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time on March 29th. Voicemails will be accepted all throughout the conference.
$100 and a T-Shirt
Though zines have been published since at least the 1920s when sci-fi fans began producing their self issued writings devoted to the genre, there has been few attempts to document the history and culture of zine making in a narrative form. This is perhaps the first documentary to provide a comprehensive overview of zines and zine makers and is a welcome document on this facet of underground art and media. Some of the most interesting points in the documentary occur when there is a divergence of opinions on a topic, such as the discussion on pricing and profit, selling out, and making a living from zines. The makers cover a significant amount of ground and they largely succeed in creating a work that informs and entertains both those with only a minimal knowledge of zines as well as those immersed in the culture. Anyone involved with zines is likely to enjoy hearing the thoughts and perspectives from other zine makers (and might also appreciate seeing some of their favorite zinesters being interviewed). Also, the documentary provides an excellent introduction, and perhaps source of inspiration, to someone new to zines. $100 & A T-Shirt is a valuable and much needed documentary on zines and zine culture. Anyone interested with an interest in alternative media and publishing is likely to enjoy this excellent documentary.
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