Mashable Says Shelfari has been acquired by Amazon; probably not because it has a huge community, but because Amazon needed a book-oriented social network and acquiring Shelfari was the easiest, fastest, or least cash intensive way to do it.
August 2008
Amazon To Offer New Versions of Kindle e-Book Reader
Amazon will ship new versions of its Kindle e-book reader before year’s end. The original reader launched last November sold out in its first week and had Amazon scrambling to fill holiday orders. While sales have been brisk, estimates vary.
A Brand New Library in Arizona, and Ahead of Schedule Too
It’s Avondale’s $6.2 million Old Town Library (pdf) and it opens on September 15th. Detroit-based SmithGroup designed and Tempe-based Sundt Construction built the state-of-the-art library.
“In addition to incorporating green and energy-efficient aspects into the building, the architecture makes good use of natural light to create an inviting atmosphere inside the library,” said Dan Davis, Avondale’s parks, recreation and libraries director. AZ Central reports.
Teach the Children Well and From an Early Age
It completely makes sense, but does it happen at school systems around the country? And do parents follow through?
On September first, the Arlington (TX) Public Library is launching a campaign to get library cards into the hands of the estimated 50,000 children who attend pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.
Students who attend schools in the city limits will receive an application to take home to their parents. Once the application is signed, children can receive their card at the library or through the mail, Libraries Director Cary Siegfried said. More from the Star-Telegram.
The Rosetta Project’s Rosetta Disk: The 10,000-Year Library
Slashdot posted a link to The Rosetta Disk, the physical companion of the Rosetta Digital Language Archive, and a prototype of one facet of The Long Now Foundation’s 10,000-Year Library. The Rosetta Disk is intended to be a durable archive of human languages, as well as an aesthetic object that suggests a journey of the imagination across culture and history. We have attempted to create a unique physical artifact which evokes the great diversity of human experience as well as the incredible variety of symbolic systems we have constructed to understand and communicate that experience. The Rosetta Project “Working to develop a contemporary version of the historic Rosetta Stone, a meaningful survey and near permanent archive of 1000 languages.”
Sandy Berman Appreciation Month
Jenna Freedman declares the six weeks or so from now until his birthday on October 6, Sandy Berman appreciation month. She’s asking for participatiion by sending him cards, flowers, subject heading suggestions, and low fat schnitzel.
Sanford Berman
Room 615 – Bed 2
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
He’ll probably be at the above address for at least a month. While his condition isn’t life threatening, it is very serious. He has two broken vertebrae in his neck and secondary injuries from the surgery and will be in a series of body, back and neck braces for some time. But don’t feel that you have to know him to write to him. Sandy has long been a friend and mentor to librarians, LIS students, and activists that he’s never met.
Further reading:
- Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sandy Berman but Were Afraid to Ask
Jenna Freedman declares the six weeks or so from now until his birthday on October 6, Sandy Berman appreciation month. She’s asking for participatiion by sending him cards, flowers, subject heading suggestions, and low fat schnitzel.
Sanford Berman
Room 615 – Bed 2
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital
6500 Excelsior Blvd.
St. Louis Park, MN 55426He’ll probably be at the above address for at least a month. While his condition isn’t life threatening, it is very serious. He has two broken vertebrae in his neck and secondary injuries from the surgery and will be in a series of body, back and neck braces for some time. But don’t feel that you have to know him to write to him. Sandy has long been a friend and mentor to librarians, LIS students, and activists that he’s never met.
Further reading:
Since it’s really hard for some people to buy a card, write on it, put it in an envelope, stamp it, and mail it she will also convey your messages for you. Either write a comment here, or post it elsewhere and send me the link, and she’ll print and mail your contribution for you.
Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit
Wikimedia pegs future on education, not profit nalysts have pegged Wikipedia’s value between several hundred million dollars and $7 billion, the latter by Silicon Alley Insider, a technology blog known for its list of the World’s Most Valuable Digital Startups. But its keepers have thus far refused to sell ad space. They are adamant that the encyclopedia’s value is tied up not in potential advertising revenue but in something much loftier – its ability to positively affect the news industry, educational publishing and the nature of open-source knowledge creation and dissemination.
Don’t Watch The Hi-fi Sci-fi Library Music Video
David Lee King And Michael Porter rock out in The Hi-fi Sci-fi Library Music Video. There’s a larger version at Blip TV. There is a slew of Libraryland folks singing along in the video (mostly in the second half). Don’t watch it, it’ll get stuck in your head for days. The Full Lyrics & Credits Are Here.
Miscommunication and a Frozen Library Card
Shana Cooper wanted to do something nice last summer for the kids in the non-profit after-school program where she works, so she checked out a Looney Tunes DVD (including “Hair-Raising Hare”) from the Chicago Public Library. Somehow the disc was lost, and Cooper suffered the consequences, having her library card taken away for a full year.
I Am – The Library
I Am – The Library is an ethnographic video project, which documents the everyday ways a public library is used. Set in and around the Denver Central Library a few weeks before the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the film takes its title and finds its rhythm in Jackson’s 1971 speech, “I Am – Somebody,” a rallying call and response poem, which invites people to stake their political claim by simply declaring who or what they are, be their status small, flawed or tired. In making I Am – The Library, the filmmakers asked over two hundred residents of the city of Denver to do the same, then asked them to speak out for their public library.
Rocky Mountain PBS has a little more on the project, and a 2-minute trailer/clip. (thanks to the PBS.org Vote 2008 site for the link)
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