December 2010

Article about crowd-sourcing used to transcribe historical documents.

Karen Mason, a librarian at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn who has transcribed some of Bentham’s papers, described her participation in the project as “a service to the scholarly community.”

“I’m no Bentham scholar, but I am interested in history, so it’s interesting to look at the addenda and deletions in the manuscripts and generally follow the thought processes of a man living in 18th-century England,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I usually take about 15 to 20 minutes of my lunch hour if the weather is bad or if I don’t feel like going out to do it.”

Full article

So what if the author died 400 years ago? Translators can develop a very special kinship with the writers whose classics they render. NPR’s Lynn Neary talks with the translators of Don Quixote and Madame Bovary about the challenge, the pressure and the fun of bringing a story to life in a new language.

Full story

Story at Teleread about BN servers not working on Christmas. As the Teleread story reports the tech news outlets do not have this story but it is all over Twitter. I personally know someone that got a Nook for Christmas and I heard about this from them on Christmas day.

A new blog addresses questions like whether Superman’s heat vision is protected by the Second Amendment.

Full article in the NYT

Fifty years ago, John Steinbeck took a road trip across America with only his dog Charley for company. He published a non-fiction book about his experiences two years later, called Travels with Charley: In Search of America. Journalist Bill Steigerwald
retraced Steinbeck’s journey this year and says the only problem with Steinbeck’s story is that it’s mostly a fabrication.

The central legal question of the FCC’s new net neutrality rules is whether or not the Commission even has the authority to regulate the internet, which is classified as an information service. Net neutrality advocates wanted the web to be reclassified as a telecommunication service before any new rules were made so the FCC would have more power to regulate it. Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps voted for the new regulation, but says he has reservations about its legal foundation.

Joseph Mitchell and Ryszard Kapuscinski were both non-fiction writers who cut their teeth as reporters but went on to create some of the most celebrated narrative non-fiction of this century; full of indelible characters, plots, settings and dialogue. But both have also been dogged by accusations that they committed journalistic sins by doctoring dialogue, manufacturing scenes and creating composite characters. For Bob these were unforgiveable transgressions but Lawrence Weschler, himself a celebrated author of narrative non-fiction, argues that the problem actually lies with Bob’s rules of truth and consequences.

Article in the Boston Globe by Avi Steinberg who made a name for himself as a prison librarian.

People tend to see a prison as a monolithic institution, a place solely dedicated to locking criminals up. But many inmates experience prison in a more dynamic way, as a clash between institutions. And what I experienced every day was that, in the collision between the institution of prison and the institution-within-the-institution, the library, something constructive and potentially long-lasting was being formed.

Prison libraries aren’t miracle factories. The day-to-day was often far from inspiring. Glossy magazines and mindless movies were, for many, the main attraction. Pimp memoirs were among the most frequently requested books. And yet, even an inmate motivated by nothing more than a desire to watch “The Incredible Hulk” in the back room of the library was much more likely to come across something educational — a book, a program, a mentor — once he entered the library space. Just as important, this inmate was becoming a loyal patron of the library, something he could carry with him to the outside world, and perhaps pass on to his children.

Article in the Boston Globe by Avi Steinberg who made a name for himself as a prison librarian.

People tend to see a prison as a monolithic institution, a place solely dedicated to locking criminals up. But many inmates experience prison in a more dynamic way, as a clash between institutions. And what I experienced every day was that, in the collision between the institution of prison and the institution-within-the-institution, the library, something constructive and potentially long-lasting was being formed.

Prison libraries aren’t miracle factories. The day-to-day was often far from inspiring. Glossy magazines and mindless movies were, for many, the main attraction. Pimp memoirs were among the most frequently requested books. And yet, even an inmate motivated by nothing more than a desire to watch “The Incredible Hulk” in the back room of the library was much more likely to come across something educational — a book, a program, a mentor — once he entered the library space. Just as important, this inmate was becoming a loyal patron of the library, something he could carry with him to the outside world, and perhaps pass on to his children.

In prison, I saw inmates literally run to the library. I wondered then, as I wonder now, how much we might gain from thinking ambitiously, creatively, how to harness the energy that currently fills this little institution-within-an-institution — and find ways to cultivate it more deliberately, to direct it over the prison walls and back into the lives of our neighborhoods.

Publishers are predicting that digital sales will grow rapidly as e-readers given as gifts are activated.

Full story in the NYT

You there with the Rib Roast and Yorkshire Pudding recipe in your hand and Aunt Betty’s fruitcake in your mouth, listen up. January’s guilt trip is just around the corner.

Just in time for the holidays, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine put out a list of the five worst cookbooks of 2010. And by worst, the vegetarian-promoting group means full of fat, salt, and animal.

Full piece on NPR

Direct link to the list.