I’ve started a LibraryThing group for Library Juice Press. I decided to start it as “a group for readers and authors of books from Library Juice Press and Litwin Books. Discuss books, ask questions of the authors, suggest ideas…” I hope a whole buncha people join and discuss books. I like Library Thing. I hope … Read more LJP LibraryThing group
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ Librarians (a working title), edited by Tracy Nectoux and published by Library Juice Press as part of the series Gender and Sexuality in Librarianship. Seeking submissions for an anthology of personal accounts by librarians and library workers relating experiences of being gay, lesbian, bisexual, … Read more Call for submissions: Out Behind the Desk
Librarians, in my experience, are mostly ambivalent about Wikipedia, and we have good reason for our ambivalence. Wikipedia is a new phenomenon, which means it requires reflection and thought in order to understand where it is valuable and where it is not appropriate for us to use. I think that for many of us, our … Read more Wikipedia as an auxiliary reference tool
Librarians facing an expanse of free time this economic season, please contact me with your project ideas for Library Juice Press. I know from first-hand experience how good unemployment can be for creative projects, and how creative projects can end up leading to employment or at least things to boast about on a resumé. Let … Read more Open Invitation
Issue 166, March 2009, of the SRRT Newsletter is just published. This issue contains the minutes from Midwinter’s meetings in Denver, where Action Council decided to publish the newsletter on the web only, and to move to a quarterly publication schedule. For some time, the newsletter was SRRT’s largest single expense, even at a twice-yearly … Read more SRRT Newsletter 166
I’m giving the keynote lecture at the 4th Annual University of Arizona SIRLS Graduate Symposium this Saturday. My talk is called “From duality to dilemma: balancing the library on mission, community, and democracy.” (It had a longer, bulkier title that is still floating around out there.) If anybody is interested, I have posted handouts from … Read more From Duality to Dilemma
The African Studies Center with MATRIX digital humanities center at Michigan State University’s announce the launch of the new African Activist Archive Project (http://africanactivist.msu.edu). This project is preserving records and memories of activism in the United States that supported the struggles of African peoples against colonialism, apartheid, and social injustice from the 1950s through the … Read more African Activist Archive Project
When you start a business, your thinking starts to change, and sometimes you start to have thoughts you wouldn’t have had before, such as…. So, from now until the end of the month, I am offering a 25% discount on purchases of three or more books from Library Juice Press or Litwin Books. Just download … Read more 25% off on three or more books ’till March 1st
Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories Proceedings of the First National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) October 11-15, 2006, Dallas, Texas Edited by Gladys Smiley Bell I made a bid to publish this in book form, but the preference was to do it online, and they have obviously done … Read more JCLC Conference Proceedings
I am a big Netflix user. Netflix has a library of about 100,000 movies that users can watch. Because of the size of the library, much of their business comes from customers who have a strong interest in film and want to see movies that they’ve read about in books and are not otherwise easy … Read more The Netflix Prize – not what’s needed
This is semi random, but I thought it might be interesting to see what comes to your minds in answer to the question: What is your favorite Wikipedia page? I actually have a favorite page, one that I like to go back to repeatedly. It’s not necessarily a good summary of my interests as a … Read more Library Juice Readers: What is your favorite Wikipedia page?
Library Juice Press is offering a discount to reading groups – groups of library students or active professionals. This is ideal for the PLG student chapters or even the ALA student chapters out there, students who want to read a book together and discuss it. The discount is 25% off on four or more copies … Read more LJP Reading Groups
Monika Antonelli has an important article in the new Electronic Green Journal called The Green Library Movement: An Overview and Beyond. Here is the abstract: The creation of green libraries is approaching a tipping point, generating a Green Library Movement, which is comprised of librarians, libraries, cities, towns, college and university campuses committed to greening … Read more The Green Library Movement
Here’s a new blog worth noting: Amy Sonie’s Banned Librarian. Always happy to see a new Left librarian blog. Looks good indeed – substantial and interesting… This is from the About page: Amy Sonnie is the “banned librarian.” In 2002 the Texas Youth Commission banned Amy’s young adult anthology, Revolutionary Voices (Alyson, 2000), a collection … Read more Banned Librarian
Just published: Information and Liberation: Writings on the Politics of Information and Librarianship Author: Shiraz Durrani Price: $45.00 (or £22.00) ISBN: 978-0-9802004-0-9 7″ by 10″ 385 Pages Printed on acid-free paper. Information and Liberation is a retrospective collection of Shiraz Durrani’s articles and conference papers on the politics of information. The book documents the struggle … Read more Shiraz Durrani anthology – Information and Liberation
ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy had its annual retreat this month. Barbara Fister, frequent poster to the ACRL blog and a librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota, presented a talk there called “Open Access and Books in a Digital World – What Role Should Libraries Play?” Her talk is an interesting exploration of … Read more Barbara Fister on Google and OA
I have not been following this, but apparently OCLC has issued proposed new policy guidelines that would allow it to claim ownership of its catalog records, with serious consequences for libraries and other organizations that use information about books. Aaron Swartz (of Open Library) puts it in context on his blog in a post from … Read more OCLC Powergrab?
Gavin Baker posted yesterday on the Open Access News blog an item on the new portal of the Réseau francophone des bibliothèques nationales numériques [Francophone Network of National Digital Libraries]. “[At the portal], Web users will thus have the opportunity to consult newspapers, journals, books, and maps, as well as digitized archives from the collections … Read more French Digital Library Portal
Make a note to yourself to mark your 2009 calendar when you buy one: Library Juice Press and Litwin Books will be having a reception during the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago in 2009, at Quimby’s Bookstore, on Saturday, July 11th, 7pm. Quimby’s is a little off the beaten path, but it’s a very cool … Read more LJP at ALA in Chicago next July