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How Libraries Can Make Public Data More Accessible – CityLab

In fact, librarians have long been advocates of digital inclusion and literacy. That’s why, last month, ULC launched a new initiative to give public libraries a leading role in a future with artificial intelligence. They kicked it off with a working group meeting in Washington, D.C., where representatives from libraries in cities like Baltimore, Toronto, Toledo, and Milwaukee met to exchange ideas on how to achieve that through education and by taking on a larger role in data governance.

From How Libraries Can Make Public Data More Accessible – CityLab

February 12, 2019 by Libraries

Amazon Sells Way Fewer Books To Academic Libraries Than People Think

Is Amazon taking over the academic library industry? That’s what a new study from a higher-education-focused non-profit takes a look at, and their findings might surprise you as long as you haven’t read the title of this article too closely.

For the study, Ithaka S+R gathered acquisitions data from 124 U.S. higher education institutions in fiscal year 2017 along with data from 51 institutions covering between 2014 and 2017. The report has more than one interesting takeaway about the under-examined world of academic literature, but here’s the big one: Amazon isn’t anywhere close to controlling the academic library market. 

From Amazon Sells Way Fewer Books To Academic Libraries Than People Think

February 12, 2019 by Academic Libraries Amazon Books Libraries

The Very Modern Anger of Shakespeare’s Women

Literary scholars often hear about dangers of presentism: we are warned against looking at the past for confirmation of our own progress — the distance between us and them — and against collapsing that distance, and seeing, Narcissus-like, our own reflections in long-ago lives and letters. But of course, the present always shapes our encounters with earlier texts, whether we’re reading them, writing about them or, in the case of Shakespeare, staging them. Not only do we inevitably view the past through the lens of our present, but our present also renders the past visible — or invisible — in shifting ways. Walter Benjamin tells us that history is “filled with the presence of the now.” And, as the now changes, so does the history.

From The Very Modern Anger of Shakespeare’s Women – Electric Literature

February 12, 2019 by Uncategorized

Shelf policing: how books (and cacti) make women too ‘spiky’ for men

Speaking of bedrooms – books apparently aren’t allowed in there, as they are a room for “sleep and love”. This raises some questions. Does it mean that if you like reading a book in bed you must then go put it back elsewhere in the house just before falling asleep? Is one book (singular) in the bedroom fine but two or more forbidden? What if you do find a partner thanks to your attractive new flat and he also enjoys reading in bed, does this create a loophole? Should you read this singular book together at the same time? Any word on Kindles?

From Shelf policing: how books (and cacti) make women too ‘spiky’ for men | Books | The Guardian

February 12, 2019 by Books

3 Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books

Before I start, a disclaimer: All of this is, of course, highly subjective. I read nonfiction for enjoyment, and I enjoy nonfiction most when I am learning interesting things, or am guided to think in new ways. Preferably, claims should be backed by peer-reviewed studies, or presented as speculation otherwise. Either way, the author should be clear about this, and unbiased enough to present different sides of the issue.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the rules.

From 3 Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books

February 8, 2019 by Books

Novels with Giant Possibly Magical Libraries – Charlie Harrington

There are two things that, when I encounter them in a book, immediately cause me to fall in love.

The word palimpsest
A giant, possibly magic, library (extra points for a Forbidden Section or two)
The two are not unrelated. A palimpsest is a book that has been one or more books before, with the older knowledge hidden just beneath the surface of the parchment, waiting to be unearthed. A giant library must, invariably, contain books with once-known, now-forgotten knowledge, just beyond that locked door over there.

But I have the key…

I hereby present a list of the very best novels featuring giant libraries filled with secrets.

From Novels with Giant Possibly Magical Libraries – Charlie Harrington – @whatrocks

February 8, 2019 by Libraries

Thousands of scientists run up against Elsevier’s paywall

Researchers at German institutions that have let their Elsevier subscriptions lapse while negotiating a new deal are hitting the paywall for the publisher’s most recent articles around 10,000 times a day, according to Elsevier — which publishes more than 400,000 papers each year.

But at least some German libraries involved in negotiating access to Elsevier say they are making huge savings without a subscription, while still providing any articles their academics request.

From Thousands of scientists run up against Elsevier’s paywall

February 8, 2019 by Libraries

(S)ex libris – on the Bodleian’s ‘secret trove of obscene material’

Late in his tenure as head of the Bodleian Library, E. W. B. Nicholson received an unusual letter from a History fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. The correspondent explained that he had been asked to enquire on behalf of a “Cambridge don” whether there existed “any Siberia attached to [the] Bodleian Library to which books are banished”. Nicholson knew that such a thing did exist, for he had personally overseen its creation. Established in 1882, it was dubbed the “Φ” (Phi) collection: this was the shelf mark used by the Bodleian to identify those texts deemed too obscene, libellous or otherwise risqué to be made available to undergraduate readers. While the origins of the name are uncertain, it seems to be a librarian’s joke bringing together a “Fie!” of disapproval, an evocation of the Greek word phaulos (base, worthless, wicked) and an ancient phallic pun.

From (S)ex libris – TheTLS

February 4, 2019 by Libraries

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