The budding market for electronic reading devices is about to get two powerful new entrants: Best Buy and Verizon.
On Wednesday, iRex Technologies, a spinoff of Royal Philips Electronics that already makes one of Europe’s best-known e-readers, plans to announce that it is entering the United States market with a $399 touch-screen e-reader.
For the Library of Congress National Book Festival.
Right now, here and there all over the world, people are sitting down with a good book and enjoying a good read. Sprawled on the lawn, curled up on the sofa, sitting on the steps in the piazza — they’re communing with a great author, or a funny author, or an author who’s telling them how to cook or knit or fix something in their life that’s broke.
Saturday, more than 120,000 of them are projected to be on one lawn, in one city, at one time: on the National Mall at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. It’ll happen from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., rain or shine — free of charge. Authors will also sign books for their fans.
The Library of Congress will showcase its Library of Congress Experience and social-networking activities, including this blog, its Flickr page and its Facebook page. The whole thing will be on Twitter (@librarycongress, hashtag #nbf). Also, our website for the book festival is a great place to plan for this feast, complete with fresh podcasts from more than a dozen of this year’s authors. There’s a Young Readers’ Toolkit there, too. And the day of the book festival, webcasts of many of the author presentations will be available on the festival website.
No mention this year of the former First Lady.
The Beverly MA bookmobile is out of commission, but its librarian is not.
The deteriorating vehicle failed inspection two weeks ago, and Linda Caravaggio has been making the rounds in her silver Nissan Sentra, delivering books from her back seat.
“She’s hauling bags around and doing her best,” Library Director Pat Cirone said. “She’s a tremendous librarian who goes above and beyond.”
The bookmobile, a 20-year-old bus that delivers books, tapes and CDs to people who can’t get out to the library, needs tires, brakes and rust repairs. “It wasn’t just one minor thing,” Cirone said. “There’s a list.”
Rough estimates for repairs are $3,000, which will come out of the city’s library budget — not the $70,000 raised so far for a new vehicle, which is expected to cost about $150,000.
The Beverly Public Library has been raising money for a new bookmobile for the past two years. To send a monetary donation, please make checks payable to the Friends of the Beverly Public Library. They can be mailed to the Library at 32 Essex Street, Beverly, MA 01915 or check out the website for more information.
In the September 22nd Omaha World Herald there was a paid advertisement with the title, Close City Libraries; Alternatives Exist. You can see a picture of the ad here – jpg or pdf.
The website mentioned in the ad is here: ideas4omaha.com
The parties in the Google Book Search Settlement have asked the court to adjourn the scheduled October 7th fairness hearing, telling the court the parties intend to amend the deal. “Because the parties, after consultation with the DOJ, have determined that the Settlement Agreement that was approved preliminarily in November 2008 will be amended, plaintiffs respectfully submit that the Fairness Hearing should not be held, as scheduled, on October 7,” reads a memorandum appended to the parties motion to adjourn.
“To continue on the current schedule would put the Court in a position of reviewing and having participants at the hearing speak to the
original Settlement Agreement, which will not be the subject of a motion for final approval.” The court is expected to grant the motion. Publishers Weekly reports.
A hot debate comes to a peak in Owosso. The question, should computers at a public library have unfiltered internet access?
The debate got started when a 10-year-old girl told her grandmother she saw a man viewing adult material at a library computer.
Some say, adults should be able to access unfiltered internet at the library.
Others say, it’s an issue of child safety, and they don’t want their tax dollars paying for porn.
VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Public Library has refused permission for Exit International, an Australian assisted-suicide organization, to hold a workshop on suicide in its main downtown location.
The organization had initially proposed holding a workshop Sept. 10 in the central library, but city librarian Paul Whitney cancelled it after talking to Vancouver police and seeking legal advice.
The seminar was to be in two parts: the first a public discussion on the politics of the right-to-die movement, the second a private presentation for those over the age of 55 seeking information on methods of committing suicide.
It was this private part of the program that caused the library to cancel the event.
Story found at EarlyWord.com about Jung’s “The Red Book”
We didn’t see this one coming; featured in the NYT Magazine this week is a $150 book, which quickly rose to #4 on Amazon, just three spots away from The Lost Symbol.
Full piece here.
Oddly as of when this post was made the book is in the top 100 on Amazon but you cannot actually buy a copy. You can have Amazon send you an email when the book is available. I wonder if someone was trying to game the Amazon ranking or if there is some other reason why Amazon is not currently allowing pre-orders.
This Friday I’ll be talking in Syracuse at The Upstate New York chapter of SLA day long conference: “The Librarian’s Toolbox: Enhance Your Connectivity, Productivity, and Presence”
My talk is more or less finished, but I’d love to hear from LISNews.
What’s in your “toolbox” (online & offline) that helps you…
1) Be more productive
2) Increase your visibility in the profession
3) Connect to others when you need help / ideas
What are your favorite tools that help you get things done and get noticed?
Leave a comment below, Hit The Form or send me an email ([email protected]) and let me know!
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