Tomb of the Unknown Librarian » books

Zombie Idol Finalist

/paul — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 03:13:26 +0000

Boy I can’t believe I’m a Zombie Idol (Round Two) finalist in Maureen Johnson’s rewrite the opening, or in some cases the entire literary work except using zombies as characters or settings or all of the above. I chose Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (my version A Zombie’s Adventures in Wonderland).
Read my entry and all the other awesome finalists…

I’m not sure I”ll make the next cut but it was a fun exercise and of course a subject dear to my heart.

http://maureenjohnson.blogspot.com/2008/02/zombie-idol-round-two.html

Eclipse release party

/paul — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:42:11 +0000

So we held our release party for Eclipse yesterday. We had ten copies for checkout, Sarah and Amytha made t-shirts and they gave as prizes. Sarah also awarded two tickets to see Stephanie Meyer at Books Inc in San Francisco to a couple of very lucky people. About fifteen people showed up. I only stayed to take photos but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Wanted: Martian Services Librarian

/paul — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 23:56:36 +0000

NASA will be sending a library to Mars with the Phoenix Mars Lander this weekend. Sounds like they are going to need more than a librarian. They’ll need a min-disc player circa 1995 where writings by Carl Sagan, Ray Bradbury, Asimov, Swift, and other notable visionaries will be recorded. I wonder how they will be indexed. Obviously the purpose of the mission isn’t just to get a small disk of data to the surface of Mars. If the mission finds traces of water or organic materials AND Mars gets inhabited someday, there will be a time capsule of literary genius or a little piece of “earthling” detritus for those future generations of Martians to play Frisbee with.

[via Yahoo News]

Questioning the economics of libraries

/paul — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:47:40 +0000

Freakanomics blog has an interesting posting on the economics of books, publishers, and libraries. Stephen Dubner really poses the question that if public libraries didn’t exist today could one be started without publishers, authors, and media-in-general getting on your case. Dubner points a couple things that most librarians know, libraries foster learning to read and life-long reading. Dubner thinks that with current economic pressures, the “owners” would prevent such a free distribution of ideas but they fail to realize that regardless of what they tried to do, “consumers” would do what suited them best, maybe a black market, or more prevalent individual book sharing, like the system that flourished in the Soviet Union… which essentially would be a public library of sorts. Besides, publishers know that librarians and libraries are their best customers, with some of the most defined marketing channels for books that don’t have a major marketing blitz behind them. As an aside, the best seller lists in the NY Times or other places are mostly recursive functions of marketing and not indicative of the overall quality or quantity. Libraries still buy best sellers but publishers produce a lot more than these few hundred titles per year and need to sell them to someone.

Besides, libraries do exist.

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2007/07/10/if-public-libraries-didnt-exist-could-you-start-one-today/

New app for eBooks

/paul — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 06:10:12 +0000

Information Today has an article that highlights Adobe’s new application for reading PDF & XHTML eBooks as well as managing a library of eBooks. Adobe Digital Editions has a slick interface very different from Acrobat. It also supports the Open Publication Standard which makes XHTML ebooks a lot more fluid and readable. I downloded the full version of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and it looked great even when I resized the window. Sony, HarperCollins, and a few other publishers have signed on and apparently approve of the DRM scheme. Sony will be incorporating it into it’s readers. And the publishers have made a few limited samples available.

The application downloaded and installed almost instantaneously on my Mac. PDF eBooks likewise were pretty quick to download and install. I’m on a fast (FIOS 6MB down) connection but launching Digital Editions was much faster than Acrobat Reader. It seems to have a very small footprint even with large downloads.

Will this format take off? Maybe we should encourage it. Will library customers be asking for this functionality? Libraries might as well offer it as one of their applications / plug-ins. Oh yeah, it needs Flash. Since it is not an exe it might work on most library computers without any fuss, but it can’t hurt to check.

[via Information Today]

Gearing up for ALA

/paul — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:39:26 +0000

So what to bring to ALA in DC, Gadget-wise? Cell, MacBook Pro, iPod mini, Airport Express, Canon 30D digital camera, media card reader, noise-cancelling headphones, every charger known to man, and a USB nose-hair trimmer [just a joke].

I want to bring the Wii but, I’m not that hardcore. I’ll probably bring the book I’m currently reading. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb [interesting but so-far but a slow read].

Book Club Expo

/paul — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:10:00 +0000

On Saturday, I staffed the library’s booth at the Book Club Expo in San Jose. I was able to see one Salon: Twentieth Century Classics with Diana Loevy who wrote The Book Club Companion, and Kira Stevens who wrote Good Books Lately and a couple of other panelists.

The booth was pretty slow but the majority of visitors said they used libraries. From an outreach standpoint, we were preaching to the choir. The best part was getting to see some friends… [ Hey, Emily! ]

I think libraries should have booths at music festivals or car shows. Anyone want to help me run a library themed booth at Viva Las Vegas 2008? How about a library camp at Burning Man?

From the Streets to The Road by Cormac McCarthy

/paul — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:45:41 +0000

I don’t know why it took me so long to read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy’s novel presents a bleak, ashen world and the tragic chaos of mankind on the brink of extinction. An anonymous cataclysmic event has shattered the ecosystem. A man and his son embark on a desperate flight south to the sea in order to escape the coming winter. As they slog along the road, what’s left of humanity seems destined to consume itself and them, if they are not careful.

Usually a premise like that fills me with joy and anticipation. When I finally got around to reading it, I wasn’t disappointed. McCarthy combines his excellent facility for gripping prose with the lyric epic poetry reminiscent of Homer’s Odyssey complete with flashbacks of domestic life unhinged by the emerging dystopia. The stanzas add a rhythm that propels the story yet it never seems heavy-handed. Occasional grammar mistakes and misspellings add a certain authenticity to the narrative and to the characters’ plight. The Road is a sincere portrayal of humanity at it’s worst and at it’s best and is worthy of all praise from Oprah to Pulitzer.

The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers & Rogues… no reviews yet

/paul — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 19:08:53 +0000

Pyratecon sounds like an informative and fun weekend of pirate lore and romanticizing villainous cutthroats. The book is probably worth a look Talk Like a Pirate Day – September 19.

Via: CNN | Arrrrr, maties — Pyratecon hits New Orleans

5 Million Book ATM

/paul — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 00:01:04 +0000

On Demand Books is set to release their print-on- demand “totally automatic book machine” at selected libraries and book stores. The “Espresso” can print and bind paperbacks (limited to 550 pages) in a few minutes, according to their website. The machine costs about $50,000 and according to CNN the NYPL is going to get one this February 2007. Since it downloads the available books through public domain sources like the Open Content Alliance and Google, the content is technically free and the only other cost is the machine and supplies. A penny or two per page is probably the highest they could charge. My take: people will probably love it, publisher’s will love it if it guarantees a revenue stream later down the road for new releases, and most libraries will be ambivilent for years to come.

$50K isthe book budget of some smaller libraries and for some that justs covers the cost of processing books for a year.

CNN / Fortune Small Business article

[Via Engadget]