Press release: London, ON Unionized librarians and archivists at the University of Western Ontario have voted overwhelmingly to support strike action to back their bargaining goals of fair evaluations, job security and equitable salaries and benefits. A total of 88% of UWOFA-LA members voted in favour of authorizing their union to call a strike. The … Read more Strike at University of Western Ontario Libraries
John Miedema, author of Slow Reading, will be speaking at a forum on the Future of Reading at the Library of Congress, on October 22nd. The forum is sponsored by the Library of Congress’ Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC).
This is not library-related, but I would like to pass on a link to an article on the career of the late Polish intellectual Leszek Kolakowski by Tony Judt, in the New York Review of Books. I read a book of his in college (titled, simply, Religion) that influenced my thinking. I admired Kolakowski for … Read more Leszek Kolakowski (1927-2009)
Up to now there has been no peer-review process for books considered for publication by Library Juice Press and Litwin Books. That is changing as of now. Manuscripts that are presently in progress will be sent out to reviewers after they have been submitted to us. (The exceptions will be the titles that are not … Read more Library Juice Press and Peer Review
This is a cute piece from the San Francisco Chronicle: “The Menace of the Public Option” (Public Library Option that is.) I am enjoying the the way people are making fun of the rabid anti-Obama crowd in the healthcare debate by pointing out that such mom and apple pie institutions as libraries and fire departments … Read more The menace of the public (library) option
Anu Garg’s “A Word A Day” newsletter is the greatest thing in the world right now for (English) word lovers. He sends out an email each weekday that is all about a word. Each week his words are linked by some theme or characteristic. This week he is honoring Banned Books Weed with words about … Read more A.Word.A.Day this week
We’re in need of freelance book cover designers. Just getting started? No problem. That has worked well for us in the past. See our past covers here. Send a link to your portfolio to us at inquiries@staging.litwinbooks.com.
Just want to alert you to this article by John Buschman in Academe, the magazine of the AAUP (American Association of University Professors): “Who Defends Intellectual Freedom for Librarians? The ALA should defend librarians as the AAUP defends faculty members.”
The Pennsylvania legislature has passed a bill that funds the Philadelphia Free Library to stay open. News on their blog. I’m glad but frankly still really disturbed by the whole thing.
“Verbiage” is a derisive word describing prose that uses many words to say not a lot, or more particularly, prose that uses words carelessly, to create impressions without attending to what the words actually mean in a specific sense. For techies, “verbiage” is stuff that English majors add later for the benefit of end users, … Read more “Verbiage,” “Intuitiveness,” respect for language, respect for users
Philadelphia has announced that they are closing all branches of the Philadelphia Free Library. I thought it must be some kind of a prank when I first read the news, because of the massiveness of the closure – all branches, not just reduced hours, not just some locations. Cities, counties, and states are in such … Read more Philadelphia Free Libraries – Closing All Branches
These four books are in progress and coming along quickly: The Stories I Read to the Children: The Life and Writing of Pura Belpré, the Legendary Storyteller, Children’s Author, and New York Public Librarian, edited by Lisa Sánchez González. The Politics of Professionalism: A Retro-Progressive Proposal for Librarianship, by Juris Dilevko Critical Library Instruction: Theories … Read more Four books coming soon
Something to notice when Facebook, Myspace, and other social networking sites address concerns about privacy is the way they focus on users’ ability to control other users’ access to their information, but neglect to mention their own use of that information. When they enable users to set up different levels of access to parts of … Read more Privacy smoke-and-mirrors
Two recent articles in the mainstream press are telling us that paper books and physical libraries are dead (Boston Globe and CNN.com). One of the easiest things to forget about the death of the book is for how many years it has been declared. A few quotations from past decades, from authors who were responding … Read more Death of a thousand paper cuts