October 2010

STEPHEN ELLIOTT, a 38-year-old from San Francisco, just introduced his first piece of software for sale: an app for the iPad and iPhone called “The Adderall Diaries.”

He’s not exactly a programmer — better to call him a writer. And the app that he conceived looks a lot like an electronic book. That is, most people who buy the app will do so to read the text of “The Adderall Diaries,” his “memoir of moods, masochism and murder” based on his childhood in Chicago group homes, which was published in hardcover last year by Graywolf Press.

But Mr. Elliott says he has good reasons for producing his own iPad app, separate and apart from the e-book version of “Adderall Diaries” that is for sale, say, for the Kindle or the iPad reader from Apple. But those reasons are not the artistic, meta-fictional ones you might suspect — you know, so that when characters enter a bar, you suddenly hear music and a glass dropped by the waiter, or more fancifully, you can make them turn around and go somewhere else.

More from The New York Times.

Do you like Books? Do you like People? That’s good.

You might have seen this before, but it’s always a good time. Circa 1947, The Library.

Do you like Books? Do you like People? That’s good.

You might have seen this before, but it’s always a good time. Circa 1947, The Library.

UffishL (Lauren Levy Gilbert) says: “Look at the interaction btw doctor and hospital librarian around 8:23. ”

It was only a matter of time. Amazon will be introducing a 14-day lending feature for Kindle ebooks later this year, the Kindle team announced yesterday.

The move brings the Kindle up to date with Barnes and Noble’s rival Nook ereader, which touted 14-day book lending as a key feature since it launched last year. And just like the Nook, Amazon says that you won’t be able to read ebooks while they’re lent out. The feature won’t be available for all ebooks either, as it will be entirely up to publishers and rights holders to enable it.

Full article in the NYT

Why couldn’t this guy have been an accountant and not a librarian?

As hobbies go, it’s not something you are likely to share with too many friend on the grounds of good taste.

But that’s not a problem for librarian Graham Barker who is celebrating being recognised by the Guinness Book of Records – for collecting ‘belly button fluff.’

He has saved 22.1 grams of lint – after ‘harvesting’ it every day for 26 years and has even considered stuffing a cushion with his bizarre collection.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323303/Librarian-enters-Guinness-World-Records-collecting-belly-button-fluff.html?ITO=1490#ixzz13JaRMISu

Armed with donation pledges, the Whitefish (MT) library is officially severing its ties with the Flathead County Library System.

On Oct. 18, the Whitefish City Council voted to notify the Flathead County Library Board of Trustees that it intends to terminate its interlocal agreement and establish a separate tax-supported city library. Termination will be effective July 1, 2011.

The decision came on the heels of a final opinion from the state attorney general’s office stating that Whitefish can legally create an independent library and collect a mill levy to fund it. The city will levy 5.95 mills, replacing the county levy for library services.

In addition, Whitefish resident Jake Heckathorn has offered $100,000 to help establish a separate library and indicated that he knows of another person willing to donate $100,000. The Whitefish Library Association has also pledged to contribute funds.

The split comes after more than a year of publicized disagreements between Flathead County library officials and advocates of an autonomous Whitefish library.

It’s true.

Movie trailer here.

from i09, twenty supreme fictional librarians.

Now, if you were to add REAL librarians to the mix, that would rock…

Interesting profile of NPR’s longest-serving librarian (over twenty years) who has fielded questions for NPR reporters, editors and hosts. She has compiled some of her favorite bits of “inessential knowledge” — such as which building did Elvis leave last? — in a new book, All Facts Considered.

All Facts Considered: The Essential Library Of Inessential Knowledge
By Kee Malesky, Hardcover, 288 pages, Wiley List price: $19.95

Check out these ‘odd queries’: during her two decades of service in the NPR reference library, reporters have asked Malesky to look up some fairly obscure, though fascinating pieces of information.

The first non-Native American to set foot in what is now Chicago?

That would be an African man from Haiti by the name of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, whose trading post was the first permanent dwelling there. Chicago has since named a high school after him, which few residents can properly pronounce.

And how about the “the rockets’ red glare” referenced in the Star-Spangled Banner? Where exactly did the red glare come from?

The British army’s Congreve rockets, Malesky explains. They were effectively very large bottle rockets — the kind you might set off in your backyard on July 4 — but in the early 1800s, they were a novel development in weaponry.

And watermelons — fruit or vegetable?

Interesting profile of NPR’s longest-serving librarian (over twenty years) who has fielded questions for NPR reporters, editors and hosts. She has compiled some of her favorite bits of “inessential knowledge” — such as which building did Elvis leave last? — in a new book, All Facts Considered.

All Facts Considered: The Essential Library Of Inessential Knowledge
By Kee Malesky, Hardcover, 288 pages, Wiley List price: $19.95

Check out these ‘odd queries’: during her two decades of service in the NPR reference library, reporters have asked Malesky to look up some fairly obscure, though fascinating pieces of information.

The first non-Native American to set foot in what is now Chicago?

That would be an African man from Haiti by the name of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, whose trading post was the first permanent dwelling there. Chicago has since named a high school after him, which few residents can properly pronounce.

And how about the “the rockets’ red glare” referenced in the Star-Spangled Banner? Where exactly did the red glare come from?

The British army’s Congreve rockets, Malesky explains. They were effectively very large bottle rockets — the kind you might set off in your backyard on July 4 — but in the early 1800s, they were a novel development in weaponry.

And watermelons — fruit or vegetable?

“Yes,” Malesky says with a laugh. “It’s both. Most of us would think of it as a fruit, but it can also be considered a vegetable because it’s in the same family as cucumbers and gourds.” (In fact, the state Legislature of Oklahoma recently declared that the watermelon would be the official state vegetable.)

Weekend Edition Saturday from NPR (audio available at noon).

Blog post by publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin:

I had a chance this week to chat with a very smart person who works for a company that does a lot of business with book publishers. Some things articulated themselves in that conversation — one of my favorite collaborators, Mark Bide, has often observed that we “learn a lot by talking” — that seemed worth repeating for public consumption (while preserving the anonymity of my fellow conversationalist.)

Our conversation articulated five things worth repeating:

Full blog post here.

While a nonprofit group (Save Our Libraries) dedicated to keeping the Santa Clarita libraries within the County Library system continues to subpoena former and present City officials in an ongoing lawsuit, the attorney assigned to the matter, Donald Ricketts, maintains that unwarranted access to the public’s information is the primary issue.

“What the lawsuit says is you can’t put the library into the hands of a private company,” Ricketts said, “because to do so you would have to give them information which is confidential and which they need to run the library.”

After City Council voted 4-1 on August 24 to secede from the County of Los Angeles Public Library – and inevitably award a contract to Library Systems and Services, LLC to run the City’s three branches – 12 people sent a letter to City Council alleging a Brown Act violation had occurred.

Essentially, the Brown Act prevents California governmental bodies from holding secret workshops and study sessions where decisions concerning the public could be made without its attendance.

Question: Is there a way to insure that a private corporation wouldn’t take advantage? And should we assume that they would take advantage of acquiring confidential information?

KHTS Hometown Station reports.