Amy Watts

Penguin to launch “Book Truck”

picture of Penguin Book TruckPenguin is launching a “mobile bookstore” akin to the food trucks that have become so popular in urban areas in recent years. They’ll launch the big orange truck (Penguin orange, dontcha know) with a splash at Book Expo America and then roll it through to ALA in Chicago next month.

It’ll carry over a thousand books for sale from not just the Penguin imprint, but also its various other imprints, including Viking, Dutton, Gotham Books and others. It’s a deluxe ride, with an awning to keep customers in the shade as they browse and LED lights for night-time decoration. It also comes equipped with a pushcart to further extend the sales area.

More details in the New York Business Journal

Texas county to open “library without books”

Bexar County, Texas, is set to launch a huge project they’re calling “BiblioTech”.

… the BiblioTech library will have 100 e-readers for loan, and an initial selection of 10,000 digital titles. The library itself will have a host of computer stations where patrons can study, use the Internet, and learn computer skills.

Meanwhile, readers at home can check out e-books without leaving the couch. It’s estimated that the library’s services will reach about 1.7 million people in Bexar County, which includes San Antonio. The BiblioTech project is designed to supplement the existing city library system.

We’ve heard of “virtual” libraries before, but what I find interesting about this is the emphasis on e-readers for loan, not just computer terminals or digital holdings. However, I have to wonder how 100 e-readers are meant to serve a population of 1.7 million. I assume that’s just a starting point, but I’m fascinated to see how this model develops and what it will mean for other public libraries and managing digital readership.

Edited to add – “Anonymous” in the comments below is absolutely right to call me out on using “without books” when I meant “paperless.” –Amy

 

Georgia Slated to Close State Archives to Public

A statement from the Georgia Secretary of State on Thursday, September 13, announced the closing to the public of the State Archives as of November 1. This would also include the layoff of some employees of the Archives.

In response to this, a Facebook page and petition have been created to protest the closure.

According to this NPR story, the closure would  make Georgia the first state in the nation without publicly accessible archives.

Trust me, I’m a Librarian.

A survey (conducted by Public Libraries Information Offer, hmmm) says, “Internet users trust library staff more than most other providers of online support and information, and public library staff are second only to doctors in terms of the trust placed in them by seekers of information.”

Full story

“The Bookless Library” Opinion piece from The New Republic

David A. Bell, Professor of History at Princeton University and Contributing Editor to The New Republic, opens his July 12 piece, “The Bookless Library” with a comparison of the physicalities of the New York Public Library’s main building and an iPhone, and concludes by pointing out that “there are now far more books available, far more quickly, on the iPhone than in the New York Public Library.” He continues:

It has been clear for some time now that this development would pose one of the greatest challenges that modern libraries—from institutions like the NYPL on down—have ever encountered. Put bluntly, one of their core functions now faces the prospect of obsolescence. What role will libraries have when patrons no longer need to go to them to consult or to borrow books? This question has already spurred massive commentary and discussion. But in the past year, as large-scale controversies have developed around several libraries, it has become pressing and unavoidable.

David A. Bell, Professor of History at Princeton University and Contributing Editor to The New Republic, opens his July 12 piece, “The Bookless Library” with a comparison of the physicalities of the New York Public Library’s main building and an iPhone, and concludes by pointing out that “there are now far more books available, far more quickly, on the iPhone than in the New York Public Library.” He continues:

It has been clear for some time now that this development would pose one of the greatest challenges that modern libraries—from institutions like the NYPL on down—have ever encountered. Put bluntly, one of their core functions now faces the prospect of obsolescence. What role will libraries have when patrons no longer need to go to them to consult or to borrow books? This question has already spurred massive commentary and discussion. But in the past year, as large-scale controversies have developed around several libraries, it has become pressing and unavoidable.

He goes on to discuss the e-book vs print collection dilemma, pointing out the availability of books through projects like Google Books, Project Gutenberg, JSTOR, and the DPLA (Digital Public Library of America.) He also highlights the rising infiltration of American households by cellular technology, which is increasingly likely to include internet access. He then lays out the tremendous cost communities face in keeping up these large spaces that house libraries. He posits a nightmare future scenario in which a newly elected New York City mayor announces a deal with Googlezon and the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building is sold and turned into the “Bryant Park Mall.” Librarian services are, of course, outsourced – to Manila. His caution to libraries on how to avoid that scenario begins: 

If libraries are to survive, and thereby preserve their expertise, their communal functions, their specialized collections, and the access they provide to physical books, they must find new roles to play. The critics of the NYPL Central Library Plan claim that it has put the library’s standing as a premier research institution in jeopardy, but they finally fail to acknowledge that the very nature of premier research institutions—and all other libraries—is changing in radical and inexorable ways. Clinging to an outdated vision of libraries is in fact the best recipe for making them look hopelessly obsolescent to the men and women who control their budgets…

He goes on to praise the things libraries have to offer that won’t be fulfilled by the best access to e-books that could be offered: the communal space, the workspace, the other patrons, the expertise of librarians, and the unique items held in special collections. He continues by discussing the opening up of scholarship through distance learning, through freely available lectures and courses online, the breakdown of the “ivory tower” when eminent scholars can be addressed via email. Paradoxically, the world of learning at a person’s literal fingertips makes the physical contact of research and scholarship that much more desirable, Bell argues. And this is where he sees the public library developing new roles and simultaneously assuring its continued relevance and existence.

And what institutions are better suited to serve this purpose than libraries? Universities tend to be located away from major population centers, and classroom space in them tends to be a tightly controlled and valuable commodity. By contrast, the great public libraries of America occupy some of the country’s choicest and most accessible real estate. From the days of Benjamin Franklin onward, moreover, public outreach and public instruction have been their principal purpose. Until recently, they could serve this purpose above all by providing access to books and periodicals. Now, even as books and periodicals are increasingly available elsewhere, there is more and more public demand for other forms of interaction: lectures and seminars, tied to online courses and readings; authors’ appearances; book groups; exhibitions of art works and films; study centers hosting fellows who contribute to public discussions. Public libraries already do a great many of these activities, but they need to do even more, in partnership with universities, publishers, and anyone else willing and able to help. And since the best initiatives of this sort rarely emerge from programming committees, libraries should have public spaces open to ordinary readers to organize appropriate activities on their own. While librarians were once known for telling readers to hush, now they need to invite them to speak.

Like it or not, the great public libraries of the world simply will not remain what they were, not in an age of severe cost pressures in which a greater and greater proportion of citizens carry about the equivalent of a score of research libraries in their pockets and purses. The transformation is upon us.

It’s a thought-provoking and engrossing article, even if it seems to (I’d say wrongly) dismiss academic libraries.

Full article at The New Republic

Donald J. Sobol passes away

Donald J. Sobol, creator and author of the Encyclopedia Brown book series, passed away at the age of 79 today. I grew up reading those books and they taught me two things:

  1. Girls can be just as smart and clever as a “boy genius” – Hiya, Sally.
  2. How to read upside down – I still use this working with patrons.

RIP, Mr. Sobol. I left my Encyclopedia Brown mysteries behind, but I still keep and treasure the Encyclopedia Brown books of “Weird and Wonderful Facts.”

Obituary: Los Angeles Times

Obituary: Wall Street Journal

More from the Weather Desk: “Community Anchors in a Time of Crisis”

Anthony D. Smith, Institute of Museum and Library Services Senior Program Officer, writes about the way libraries were refuges and support systems for citizens displaced by the recent storms in the DC, Virginia, and Maryland area.

Libraries were called upon to provide a level of comfort and stability to many of the millions of citizens who had their lives dramatically disrupted by widespread electrical power outages, brought on by a recent sudden storm. More than three million customers lost power, many for as long as a week. The lack of air conditioning during a time of record-breaking temperatures created a volatile situation and serious health threat for many, especially the elderly.

Full article at UpNext: The IMLS blog

Bringing “Style” to Academic Writing: Chronicle article

Peer-reviewed library and information science journals are certainly no exception to the scourge of “academese” – a dialect known for its floridness, pedantry, and obfuscatory properties. Rachel Toor, an associate professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about what she “hears” from those writing for an “academic” audience:

Am I making a convincing case? Have I mentioned everything everyone else has said about this topic and pointed out the ways that they are (sort of) wrong? Do you see how much I’ve read? Have I dropped enough important names? Does my specialized language prove I deserve to be a member of your club? Am I right? At the end, I hear hope disguised as an attitude that asks: Am I smart?

She further illustrates her point when reflecting on her career, “In my work for a publisher, I had perpetrated on the world a whole lot of garbled ideas expressed in jargon and in meaningless, incomprehensible, and never-ending sentences.”

Toor goes on to discuss internal calls for more persuasive writing in various academic disciplines, including history. She also reviews a new book “Stylish Writing” by Helen Sword, summarizing some of the tips from the book about making academic writing more accessible and, frankly, interesting.

Peer-reviewed library and information science journals are certainly no exception to the scourge of “academese” – a dialect known for its floridness, pedantry, and obfuscatory properties. Rachel Toor, an associate professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University in Spokane, writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education about what she “hears” from those writing for an “academic” audience:

Am I making a convincing case? Have I mentioned everything everyone else has said about this topic and pointed out the ways that they are (sort of) wrong? Do you see how much I’ve read? Have I dropped enough important names? Does my specialized language prove I deserve to be a member of your club? Am I right? At the end, I hear hope disguised as an attitude that asks: Am I smart?

She further illustrates her point when reflecting on her career, “In my work for a publisher, I had perpetrated on the world a whole lot of garbled ideas expressed in jargon and in meaningless, incomprehensible, and never-ending sentences.”

Toor goes on to discuss internal calls for more persuasive writing in various academic disciplines, including history. She also reviews a new book “Stylish Writing” by Helen Sword, summarizing some of the tips from the book about making academic writing more accessible and, frankly, interesting.

Sword believes stylish writers tell compelling stories, avoid jargon, provide the reader with “aesthetic and intellectual pleasure,” and write with “originality, imagination, and creative flair.” She surveys stylish writing and notices extensive use of first-person anecdotes, catchy openings, concrete nouns (as opposed to nominalized abstractions), active verbs (eschewing forms of that bugger, “to be”), lots of examples, good illustrations, references that show broad reading, and a sense of humor.

The need for more engaging and clear writing in academic fields, including library and information sciences, is clearly there – do you think the professionals doing the writing and, more importantly, the review boards of the leading journals would embrace it, though?

As Toor points out in response to Sword’s suggestions:

No formal rules proscribe any of those practices, although many academics have formed a false consensus, believing that if they engage in such flashy, creative-writing-esque behavior they will pay for it by appearing Not Serious and therefore not smart.

Full Chronicle article

When the electricity goes out and stays out, what’s a librarian/library to do?

“Beerbrarian” Jacob Berg, director of a small, academic library in the Washington, D.C. area, has a humorous and thought-provoking article about how his library is coping with the recent and continued power outage caused by last weekend’s severe storms in the area.

Full Story

He contrasts their experience from the last extended power outage during Hurricane Irene:

…library staff were relocated to a basement classroom in another building. It seemed that nobody missed us. We had a few e-mails, but no walk-ins, nobody asking about reserve books, even. It looked like a failure; a library goes dark and nobody notices. 

to what they’re trying this week:

I have a laptop, a smartphone, and some swag (thanks, vendors!), and I’m walking around campus offering research assistance to all who ask for it. I’m also showing initiative by asking. 

What Faculty Expect vs What We Think Students Need: The academic library quandary

Jenica Rogers, on her blog Attempting Elegance, has a compelling essay today entitled “Killing Fear, Part 1: The Problem.” After discussing the changing expectations of students, the changing attitudes of librarians, and the undeniable policy and service shifts in academic libraries, she discusses revealing findings about what faculty still think it is a library should be doing. It boils down to teaching and facilitating information seeking behavior vs buying and archiving materials. 

Her conclusion:

Put simply, there’s a contradiction between these faculty expectations and emergent and clearly evident trends in information, libraries, and our future. This particular stakeholder group seems to want the very traditional services and roles that others are pointing out are now part of a legacy model.

An interesting read, and I look forward to the presumed Part 2.

 (Updated to fix link to original article. – aw)