February 2014

The “burnable” book of the title is a work of poetic prophecy, ostensibly written during the reign of William the Conqueror, which foretells in gory detail the demise of thirteen English kings. In a society where it’s a hanging offense merely to think of the king’s death, this is seditious stuff. More to the point for Chaucer’s contemporaries, Liber de Mortibus Regum Anglorum prophesizes the assassination of the sitting ruler, Richard II. The central mystery of the book leads us through the mucky lanes of London, with cunning surprises around every corner.

Full article

http://theappendix.net/blog/2014/2/darwins-children-drew-vegetable-battles-on-the-origin-of-species

But there are other drawings in Darwin’s papers that defy explanation – until we remember that Darwin and his wife Emma (who, famously, was also his cousin) had a huge family of ten children. Scholars believe that a young Francis Darwin, the naturalist’s third oldest son, drew this on the back of Darwin’s manuscript for On the Origin of Species.

http://chronicle.com/article/Library-Consortium-Tests/144743/
Worried about security and sales, many publishers and vendors permit individual e-book chapters to be shared but don’t routinely include the lending of whole e-books in library contracts. Even when licenses do allow e-book lending, libraries typically lack the technology to make it work. You can’t just pop an e-book into an envelope and ship it off by delivery van or the post office.

But lending e-books may soon get easier. This spring a pilot project called Occam’s Reader will test software custom-built to make it both easy and secure for libraries to share e-book files while keeping publishers happy—or so the software’s creators hope.

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/426662/

“There were factual inaccuracies contained in Cali Owings’ Feb. 3 article and her use of factually flawed documents to negatively and unfairly portray my client Michele Reid.

Reid left her position of dean of libraries voluntarily and without knowledge of Provost J. Bruce Rafert’s apparent intention to terminate her employment as North Dakota State University negotiated the settlement. She received a reasonable settlement in exchange for withdrawing her claims against NDSU, having concluded that under the current administration, she had accomplished as much as she could as dean of libraries. “

I’ll get right to the worst part. The settlement authorizes Facebook, with the blessing of the court, to continue doing what California and six other states specifically prohibit by law: using children’s images to make money without asking their parents first. (The other states are Florida, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin.)

With the support of privacy, consumer-rights and children’s-rights nonprofits, I and several other parents urged the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to throw out the settlement this week – because Facebook can’t buy our children, and it can’t sell them either.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/15/facebook-advertising-opt-in-privacy-issues

Four restaurants will replace the World’s Biggest Bookstore, which is now scheduled to close at the end of March, it was announced Tuesday.

The location, just a block from the Eaton Centre, was purchased by Lifetime Developments from the family that founded Coles Books and Coles Notes in Canada.

http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/02/11/worlds_biggest_bookstore_to_be_replaced_by_row_of_restaurants.html

Central Connecticut State University has the line-up:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Seattle, Wash.
3. Minneapolis, Minn.
4. Atlanta, Ga. (tie)
5. Pittsburgh, Pa. (tie)
6. Denver, Colo.
7. St. Paul, Minn.
8. Boston, Mass.
9. St. Louis, Mo.
10. San Francisco, Calif.

The practice of spacing an author’s books at least one year apart is gradually being discarded as publishers appeal to the same “must-know-now” impulse that drives binge viewing of shows like “House of Cards” and “Breaking Bad.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/books/impatience-has-its-reward-books-are-rolled-out-faster.html

“I think the bottom line is that people are impatient,” said Susan Wasson, a longtime bookseller at an independent shop, Bookworks, in Albuquerque. “With the speed that life is going these days, people don’t want to wait longer for a sequel. I know I feel that way. When I like a book, I don’t want to wait a year for the sequel.”

From Slate. Photos of librarians taken by Kyle Cassidy at the recent ALA Midwinter Conference.

Guess what? They look kinda like the rest of us.

Sen. Tony Avella (D-Queens) said spendthrift Thomas Galante’s undisclosed side gig — which paid $287,100 in less than two years — as a business consultant to a Long Island school district was the last straw. Galante also spent $140,000 in library funds on renovations to his executive offices. ‘I urge you to consider the interests of the library and its patrons and resign,’ Avella wrote.

The excessive spending was previously reported on LISNews .

Last year, Queens Library President Thomas Galante was paid more than the mayor or the MTA chairman, and spent $140,000 to renovate his offices at the Central Library. Meanwhile, Galante eliminated nearly 130 library jobs through layoffs and attrition over the past five years.

Story from The NY Daily News.