You might think a gathering a group of the smartest minds would make for the smartest team. But a new study says that might not always be right. Groups with more females and groups whose members each contributed equally were most successful at completing given tasks.
Full story on NPR (All Things Considered)
Times are tough for the libraries and librarians in your life. No matter where you live, your library needs your support right now. To celebrate these passionate literary professionals, we have created another directory curated by GalleyCat Reviews readers.
At the end of this post, we are building a directory of the Best Library People on Twitter. Add your favorite library, librarian, or library journalist (or yourself) to the growing list. Our feeble list IS NOT COMPREHENSIVE–yet. Add your favorite library people in the comments, we’ll add them to the list.
Here’s Galley Cat’s List of “Best Library People on Twitter”…
Further to our earlier story about an associate professor at Missouri State U. who referred to the young adult novel “Speak” as “soft pornography,” the Penguin Young Readers Group has taken out a full page ad in today’s New York Times to defend the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson.
In an op-ed piece earlier this month in the Missouri News-Leader, Wesley Scoggins wrote that Speak was not appropriate for students of the Republic School District and also challenged Slaughterhouse-Five and Twenty Boy Summer.
From Publishers Weekly: “That such a decorated book could be challenged is disturbing,” said Penguin’s Shanta Newlin about the decision to run an ad. With Banned Books Week now in full swing (Sept. 25-Oct. 2), Penguin believes the ad points to the larger issue of books still being challenged in large numbers across the country, Newlin added. The ad, in fact, notes that “every day in this country, people are being told what they can and can’t read,” and it asks Times readers to “read the book. Decide for yourself.”
Further to our earlier story about an associate professor at Missouri State U. who referred to the young adult novel “Speak” as “soft pornography,” the Penguin Young Readers Group has taken out a full page ad in today’s New York Times to defend the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson.
In an op-ed piece earlier this month in the Missouri News-Leader, Wesley Scoggins wrote that Speak was not appropriate for students of the Republic School District and also challenged Slaughterhouse-Five and Twenty Boy Summer.
From Publishers Weekly: “That such a decorated book could be challenged is disturbing,” said Penguin’s Shanta Newlin about the decision to run an ad. With Banned Books Week now in full swing (Sept. 25-Oct. 2), Penguin believes the ad points to the larger issue of books still being challenged in large numbers across the country, Newlin added. The ad, in fact, notes that “every day in this country, people are being told what they can and can’t read,” and it asks Times readers to “read the book. Decide for yourself.”
First released in 1999, Speak was a National Book Award finalist, and is a staple backlist title for Penguin. Scroggins’s op-ed touched off a heated debate in the bookselling and library communities, and Anderson’s response and blog posts have received thousands of hits.
This week at BlackBerry DEVCON, Borders Kobo unveiled a social reading app for the BlackBerry (with BlackBerry Messenger integrated into the app). The tagline: “With BBM, reading just got social.”
The app will be available some time in 2011, and “will allow users to do everything from chat with friends while shopping for books to discuss passages in real time.” Video demo and details at Mashable.
Authors Feel Pinch in Age of E-Books
It has always been tough for literary fiction writers to get their work published by the top publishing houses. But the digital revolution that is disrupting the economic model of the book industry is having an outsize impact on the careers of literary writers.
After just a year and a half as the city librarian, Susan Hildreth may be leaving Seattle — at President Obama’s request.
Hildreth has been nominated to be the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, she confirmed on Wednesday.
“It’s a great honor,” Hildreth said, adding that the opportunity to serve in Obama’s administration is “very compelling.”
The Senate must confirm her nomination, so it would likely be months before Hildreth took the position. The institute is responsible for distributing all federal funds allocated to the country’s libraries and museums, she said.
Hildreth estimated that her annual salary is about $165,000. She would not comment on whether she pursued the position or if the White House contacted her.
Hildreth was named Seattle’s librarian in November 2008. Since assuming the post in early-2009, she has led the library system through a challenging period of deep budget cuts.
Seattle Times reports.
From Media Bistro’s Galley Cat: For her entry in a t-shirt contest, reader Kristin Walko created an entire t-shirt out of pages from Moby Dick. The final product is pictured above.
Walko entered the Novel-T Photo Contest, a chance to win ten shirts and eight books. All you have to do is post a picture of someone wearing a Novel-T literary t-shirt on the company’s Facebook page. The deadline is October 3rd, and the winner will be the picture with the most ‘likes’ from readers.
Here’s more about the entry: “Here’s my entry for the totally awesome contest! I may ogle your site each week but I’ve yet to be so lucky as to own a Novel-T, so this is my go at making my own Ahab shirt! I’ve fashioned it from pages of the novel itself (which I printed out–no book sacrificing here!). Thanks so much for doing what you folks do!”
Lord Jesus Christ cast out of Belchertown library for bad behavior
The Clapp Memorial Library has taken the unusual step of banning local artist Lord Jesus Christ III from the public facility in response to what they called recurring bad behavior.
The Sept. 8 order issued by the Library Board of Trustees warns Jesus Christ will be subject to criminal charges if he appears in the library again.
Above, a photo of Lord Jesus Christ at the library. Amen.
Many children want to read books on digital devices and would read for fun more frequently if they could obtain e-books. But even if they had that access, two-thirds of them would not want to give up their traditional print books, this according to an article today in the New York Times.
These are a few of the findings in a study being released on Wednesday by Scholastic (as in Bookfairs), the American publisher of the Harry Potter books and the “Hunger Games” trilogy.
The report set out to explore the attitudes and behaviors of parents and children toward reading books for fun in a digital age. Scholastic surveyed more than 2,000 children ages 6 to 17, and their parents, in the spring.
Parents and educators have long worried that digital diversions like video games and cellphones cut into time that children spend reading. However, they see the potential for using technology to their advantage, introducing books to digitally savvy children through e-readers, computers and mobile devices.
About 25 percent of the children surveyed said they had already read a book on a digital device, including computers and e-readers. Fifty-seven percent between ages 9 and 17 said they were interested in doing so.
The Future Of The Library Is Not The Apple Store
My main reason for arguing why we should avoid modeling future libraries on Apple Stores is that the whole point of designing a user experience is to create something unique and fun for your local user community – and which is based on the needs of the local community. Apple Stores have the luxury of being somewhat cookie cutter in how they are modeled.
Recent Comments