Blake

Men make up their minds about books faster than women, study finds

Men and women are equally likely to finish a book – but men decide much faster than women if they like a story or not, according to analysis of reading habits by Jellybooks.

The start-up, which focuses on book discoverability and reader analytics, has tested hundreds of digital titles on hundreds of volunteer readers over the last few months. Working with many of the UK’s major publishers, it uses a piece of JavaScript in the ebooks to look at readers’ habits: when they pick up, complete or abandon a title. The test groups were made up of significantly more female volunteers, with a 20/80 male/female split.

From Men make up their minds about books faster than women, study finds | Books | The Guardian

Men and women are equally likely to finish a book – but men decide much faster than women if they like a story or not, according to analysis of reading habits by Jellybooks.

The start-up, which focuses on book discoverability and reader analytics, has tested hundreds of digital titles on hundreds of volunteer readers over the last few months. Working with many of the UK’s major publishers, it uses a piece of JavaScript in the ebooks to look at readers’ habits: when they pick up, complete or abandon a title. The test groups were made up of significantly more female volunteers, with a 20/80 male/female split.

From Men make up their minds about books faster than women, study finds | Books | The Guardian

March 9, 2016 by Books EBooks

Amazon Books to open at UTC mall in La Jolla CA this summer

Amazon will open its second physical bookstore, appropriately named Amazon Books, this summer at Westfield UTC mall, according to new signage posted in front of the e-commerce company’s future brick-and-mortar location.

From Amazon Books to open at UTC mall in La Jolla this summer | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com

Amazon will open its second physical bookstore, appropriately named Amazon Books, this summer at Westfield UTC mall, according to new signage posted in front of the e-commerce company’s future brick-and-mortar location.

From Amazon Books to open at UTC mall in La Jolla this summer | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com

March 8, 2016 by Amazon Books

JK Rowling accidentally heightens feud between two Scottish libraries

JK Rowling is perhaps one of the UK’s most beloved authors, and frequently charms us all with her excellent tweets.
However, with great power comes great responsibility, as she found when she sparked a jealous fight between two libraries.
Orkney Library and Shetland Library have both been arguing over the Harry Potter author.
They have previously had mild spats over who could get the most famous people to follow them:

From JK Rowling accidentally heightens feud between two Scottish libraries – Telegraph

March 8, 2016 by Harry Potter Libraries

San Jose library amnesty weighed as unpaid fines near $7 million

Diaz, who has since paid off his penalties, is not alone. The city’s library system is facing a staggering and mounting $6.8 million in unpaid fines across its 23 branches — the most library director Jill Bourne has seen in nearly three years on the job. That figure is roughly five times the amount of unpaid fines racked up a few years ago in Chicago, a city nearly three times San Jose’s population. It also exceeds unpaid fines at public libraries in other major Bay Area cities such as Oakland, which has $3 million in outstanding fines, and San Francisco, which stands at $4.6 million.

From San Jose library amnesty weighed as unpaid fines near $7 million – San Jose Mercury News

Diaz, who has since paid off his penalties, is not alone. The city’s library system is facing a staggering and mounting $6.8 million in unpaid fines across its 23 branches — the most library director Jill Bourne has seen in nearly three years on the job. That figure is roughly five times the amount of unpaid fines racked up a few years ago in Chicago, a city nearly three times San Jose’s population. It also exceeds unpaid fines at public libraries in other major Bay Area cities such as Oakland, which has $3 million in outstanding fines, and San Francisco, which stands at $4.6 million.

From San Jose library amnesty weighed as unpaid fines near $7 million – San Jose Mercury News

March 8, 2016 by Librarians Libraries

Apple gets smacked by $450-million e-book price-fixing fine

The Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear Apple’s appeal of a lower court decision that it conspired with five publishers to increase e-book prices. Apple must now pay $450 million as part of its anti-trust e-book settlement. Amazon, however, is probably grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-gets-smacked-by-450-million-e-book-price-fixing-fine/

The Supreme Court of the United States has declined to hear Apple’s appeal of a lower court decision that it conspired with five publishers to increase e-book prices. Apple must now pay $450 million as part of its anti-trust e-book settlement. Amazon, however, is probably grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-gets-smacked-by-450-million-e-book-price-fixing-fine/

March 7, 2016 by Books EBooks

LibraryBox & Google Summer of Code

I am thrilled to be able to announce that The LibraryBox Project has been invited to be one of the projects included in the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s Google Summer of Code.

If you aren’t familiar with the Google Summer of Code, it is a program that gets undergraduates connected to open source projects via mentor organizations. The goal is to give the students experience working on useful open code, while projects benefit from their skills to set and meet development goals. Google pays the students a stipend, and the whole open source community wins.

From LibraryBox & Google Summer of Code | Pattern Recognition

I am thrilled to be able to announce that The LibraryBox Project has been invited to be one of the projects included in the Berkman Center for Internet & Society’s Google Summer of Code.

If you aren’t familiar with the Google Summer of Code, it is a program that gets undergraduates connected to open source projects via mentor organizations. The goal is to give the students experience working on useful open code, while projects benefit from their skills to set and meet development goals. Google pays the students a stipend, and the whole open source community wins.

From LibraryBox & Google Summer of Code | Pattern Recognition

March 7, 2016 by Google Internet Librarians Libraries Technology

This renowned mathematician is bent on proving academic journals can cost nothing

But in the four years that have passed, little has changed. Despite a decades-old “open access” movement — which aims to put research findings in the public domain instead of languishing behind expensive paywalls — the traditional approach to publishing remains firmly entrenched.

So Gowers is now launching his second attack, this time with a lot more intention.

This week, he debuted a new online mathematics journal called Discrete Analysis. The nonprofit venture is owned and published by a team of scholars. With no publisher middlemen, access will be completely free for all.

From This renowned mathematician is bent on proving academic journals can cost nothing – Vox

But in the four years that have passed, little has changed. Despite a decades-old “open access” movement — which aims to put research findings in the public domain instead of languishing behind expensive paywalls — the traditional approach to publishing remains firmly entrenched.

So Gowers is now launching his second attack, this time with a lot more intention.

This week, he debuted a new online mathematics journal called Discrete Analysis. The nonprofit venture is owned and published by a team of scholars. With no publisher middlemen, access will be completely free for all.

From This renowned mathematician is bent on proving academic journals can cost nothing – Vox

March 7, 2016 by Academic Libraries Internet

The Searcher of Patterns and the Keeper of Things

For Pasanek, finding 18th-century descriptions of the mind also involves a search process performative of his topic. The first decade of his database’s existence maps closely to the history of keyword-searching in the electronic archives, a process no 18th-centuryist today can avoid. While looking for metaphors of mind might once have involved tracking down known examples and following up scholarly hunches, now it involves weighing evidence that accumulates on very different scales. Like the “desultory” readers Pasanek recalls flicking, rifling, indexing their way through books, making connections that never quite line up or that exhaust those that could be made, Pasanek himself works with a large and still-growing stock of somewhat random examples.

From The Searcher of Patterns and the Keeper of Things – The Los Angeles Review of Books

For Pasanek, finding 18th-century descriptions of the mind also involves a search process performative of his topic. The first decade of his database’s existence maps closely to the history of keyword-searching in the electronic archives, a process no 18th-centuryist today can avoid. While looking for metaphors of mind might once have involved tracking down known examples and following up scholarly hunches, now it involves weighing evidence that accumulates on very different scales. Like the “desultory” readers Pasanek recalls flicking, rifling, indexing their way through books, making connections that never quite line up or that exhaust those that could be made, Pasanek himself works with a large and still-growing stock of somewhat random examples.

From The Searcher of Patterns and the Keeper of Things – The Los Angeles Review of Books

March 7, 2016 by Uncategorized

Time to Make, and Eat, a Book!

The 8th Annual Edible Book Festival is a super fun way to get to know others in the community who have a bent for books, and baking prowess to boot. This is a world wide festival that promotes the book arts. It’s a family friendly adventure, where kids are encouraged to participate from start (creating the book) to finish (eating the book). Judging is based on Best Book, Best Tasting, and Most Creative. In the end, all proceeds go towards WNY Book Arts Center. 

8th Annual Edible Book Festival

Saturday, April 2, 2016 | 3 PM – 6 PM

Western New York Book Arts Center | 468 Washington St, Buffalo, New York 14203

From Time to Make, and Eat, a Book! – Buffalo Rising

The 8th Annual Edible Book Festival is a super fun way to get to know others in the community who have a bent for books, and baking prowess to boot. This is a world wide festival that promotes the book arts. It’s a family friendly adventure, where kids are encouraged to participate from start (creating the book) to finish (eating the book). Judging is based on Best Book, Best Tasting, and Most Creative. In the end, all proceeds go towards WNY Book Arts Center. 

8th Annual Edible Book Festival

Saturday, April 2, 2016 | 3 PM – 6 PM

Western New York Book Arts Center | 468 Washington St, Buffalo, New York 14203

From Time to Make, and Eat, a Book! – Buffalo Rising

March 7, 2016 by Books

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