April 2011

Adults Enjoy Young Adult Lit Too

Maybe they thought they were searching for their guilty pleasures in private, those adults at Monona (WI) Public Library combing the shelves for young adult novels. But they didn’t go unnoticed by librarian Toni Streckert.

She welcomed them in, recommended titles and now has created a book club just for them: Grown-ups who know there is not a more sparkling, compelling short read than a well-written teen novel.

“I’m a book pusher. So I’m always recommending” teen lit, said Streckert, outreach and teen services coordinator for the library and an out-of-the-closet fan of young adult books.

“They have some of the most exciting, concise writing,” she said. “Teens don’t have a long attention span, so your writing has to be so crisp, so polished.”

A dozen people showed up for the first meeting of the library’s new teen-book club, most in their 30s to 60s. Only a couple were parents of a teenager, Streckert said. More from Madison.com.

April 22, 2011 by Libraries

Maybe no silver lining in the cloud today

A number of well-known Web sites and online services were completely unavailable earlier today due to problems with Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) and Amazon Web Services.

Foursquare, Reddit, Hootsuite, and Quora were among the largest and most visible sites affected.

Full article:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383910,00.asp

April 21, 2011 by Internet

Faculty No Longer

A community college district in Texas is reclassifying newly hired academic librarians from faculty to professional staff, a move that has raised larger questions about how the nature of library work is valued and categorized in academe.

The policy is being described as a cost-saving measure in the face of a potential loss of $25 million in state funding to the Alamo Colleges over the next four years. Alamo includes San Antonio, St. Philip’s, Palo Alto, Northeast Lakeview and Northwest Vista Colleges, which teach, collectively, about 64,000 students.

Full article

April 21, 2011 by Libraries

Sculpting With Words

Sculpting With Words [Pics]

A different kind of literary self portrait took center stage at Dutch Book Week. Ad agency Van Wanten Etcetera commisioned Souverein to fashion a number of sculptural book ‘portraits’, with the likenesses matching the authors of the respective biography. Included among the authors are Anne Frank, Vincent Van Gogh, Louis Van Gall and Kader Abdolah.

April 21, 2011 by Uncategorized

Amazon to Allow Library Lending of Kindle Books (Updated)

New program will integrate with all existing ebook catalogs offered through OverDrive

Library patrons across the United States will soon be able to borrow ebooks from over 11,000 libraries using Amazon’s Kindle reading device.

Long a missing link in the library lending chain, Amazon’s announcement today that it will offer, sometime later this year, Kindle library lending is likely to create a flood of demand, since many patrons have long been puzzled and librarians irritated by the inability to use the market-leading device to access library books.

(UPDATE) “It is going to be a seamless experience, that’s all I can say at this point,” Burleigh said in a subsequent interview. “As we develp the process we will give demos but that won’t be for a while, but every ebook in the library’s collection will be deliverable in the Kindle format [AZW] so libraries won’t need to add a new format. ..These are Kindle ebooks and they are in the Kindle format that will be delivered directly to the Kindle reading device or the app,” he said.

Full article at:LibraryJournal.com

April 20, 2011 by Amazon Books EBooks Librarians Libraries

Lunchtime Quiz: Deciphering the Dewey Decimal

Lunchtime Quiz: Deciphering the Dewey Decimal

We felt guilty for failing to compose a library-related quiz for National Library Week last week, so we’re making amends today. We love our libraries!
In the days before the Internet put much of the world’s information at your fingertips, the world’s scholars had to find a way to organize the growing number of books. The Dewey Decimal System divided works into ten major groups, and hundreds of subsets within those groups. Can you identify the ten main groups by matching their numbers with their corresponding subject matter? Good luck!
Take the Quiz: Deciphering the Dewey Decimal

April 20, 2011 by Internet Libraries

Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books

Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books
Amazon today announced Kindle Library Lending, a new feature launching later this year that will allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the United States. Kindle Library Lending will be available for all generations of Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps.

“We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. “Customers tell us they love Kindle for its Pearl e-ink display that is easy to read even in bright sunlight, up to a month of battery life, and Whispersync technology that synchronizes notes, highlights and last page read between their Kindle and free Kindle apps.”

April 20, 2011 by Amazon Books Librarians Libraries

Investors wager $50M on Kobo’s e-reading platform

t looks like investors think there’s real money in e-reading — at least, judging from the $50 million round just raised by e-reading startup Kobo.

The company offers its own e-reading devices (the Kobo eReader and the Kobo Wireless eReader), as well as apps for a wide range of other platforms, including the iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. It has also partnered with Samsung, Research in Motion, and HTC to supply the e-reading application for their tablet devices.

Full article

April 20, 2011 by Uncategorized

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