December 2010

All of a sudden, the future of one of the great contemporary treasures of Jewish culture is clouded with uncertainty. The treasure in question is the Valmadonna Trust Library, a collection of some 13,000 Hebrew books that had been systematically and assiduously assembled over the last 50 years by a relentless English businessman named Jack Lunzer. This library — the world’s most important private collection of Jewish manuscripts and printed books — was sold on December 16 at Sotheby’s in a sealed-bid auction to an unknown buyer. While we do not yet know what will happen to the library, its possible disappearance as an integral collection would be a colossal loss to Jewish culture.
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Story on the Kindle Daily Post: New on Kindle: New York Times Crossword Puzzles

Streaming radio from Public Radio in Sitka, Alaska:

In the three years since Sheldon Jackson College, founded originally as a Tribal College has closed, there’s been much attention directed on the efforts of the trustees to settle the school’s debts while leaving something behind for some future institution. That legacy will not include a library. Earlier this year SJ’s trustees announced that a transaction was underway to sell the Stratton Library to the state for just over $2-million. The building will join the Sheldon Jackson Museum next door and become part of the state museum system. But only the building is going to the state. The future of the collections inside is a longer story.

Local librarians have been working hard to redistribute the most valuable items in the Stratton collection. Earlier this month (December 2010) the public had the unusual opportunity to buy books right off the shelf.

“I don’t want to disrespect the collection, because it’s a phenomenal collection. But it’s a collection without a home.”

Letter from a library patron on the North Shore of Long Island (NY):

LIBRARY NOISE: While I appreciate the input from the librarian regarding this topic, I must voice my opinion on it. I really see no need for the high level of noise in the library. Yes there will be interactions between people in the library, but what I’ve heard bordered on obnoxious…certainly unnecessary. It seems like every time someone uses the excuse of ‘times have changed’, it seems like it’s always for the worse.

I hate to say it, but the noises that were the loudest were from the library workers themselves, and it had NOTHING to do with library business. C’mon ladies and germs, tone it down please. Maybe times have changed, but there are more than a few old timers that still welcome the peace, solitude and quiet of a library. Don’t take this last remaining refuge from us.

And elsewhere, another library in Newport Beach, CA is in the midst of deciding how much noise is too much. From the Daily Pilot.

So what do you think…how much noise is acceptable?

Whatever happened to good manners, cocktail hour or knowing how to darn a sock? Sally Singer, editor of the T: The New York Times Style Magazine, selects three new books that celebrate nostalgia and looking back to more exquisite, more refined times.

Full piece here

Data is snake oil
It’s because data is powerful but fickle. A lot of theoretically promising approaches don’t work because there’s so many barriers between spotting a possible relationship and turning it into something useful and actionable. Russell Jurney’s post on Agile Data should give you a flavor of how long and hard path from raw data to product usually is. Here’s some of the hurdles you’ll have to jump:

Creating Book Talks and Book Trailers for Libraries
Just as movies advertise and promote the latest and greatest upcoming releases, you too can create and promote books by creating a book trailer. These are similar to a movie trailer and are designed to catch the viewers’ attention and spark an interest. “Coming to a nightstand near you!” book trailers are great because you can showcase something that has just been published or you can be retrospective and create a book trailer on a personal favorite.

These are really fun to make and are a chance for you to take all the skills you have learned from this book or from your other video projects and apply them.

Amazon likely to sell 8 million Kindles in 2010

That’s at least 60 percent more than the 5 million units analysts had predicted Amazon would sell in 2010.
Those anonymous sources indicate that the projections show Amazon is “adding share in the e-reader market,” where it’s going up against Barnes & Noble and Sony, “faster than predicted” by analysts at Citigroup and at least five other securities or research firms.

E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing (Talk of the Nation)

The popularity of e-books and e-readers has soared since the release of the Amazon Kindle three years ago. Now the digital devices continue to drive readers to electronic books. It’s changing how books are read, sold and published.

Apple became the latest company to step back from WikiLeaks when they removed an unofficial WikiLeaks app from the App Store.

According to TechCrunch, Apple approved the app earlier this month and added it to the store. The WikiLeaks app cost $1.99 and allowed you to simply view the content of WikiLeaks.

Koran written in Saddam Hussein’s blood: Iraqi leaders don’t know what to do with it. From Huff Post Books.