Jerome Weeks comments on two new articles on the decline in reading: one by Caleb Crain in the New Yorker arguing that we are losing not only the habit of reading but the ability to read, and one in Harper’s (subscription required) by Ursula K. LeGuin that says the apparent decline is partly an illusion … Read more More on the decline in reading
I’ve been brainstorming about some essential facets of librarianship – skills, roles, services, problems – that while they have not lost any relevance have lately been ignored, passed over, forgotten, swept under the rug, or declared obsolete and old-fashioned by the vocal minority of librarians whose main concern now seems to be to create a … Read more Annotated list of things not to forget (in the 2.0 craze)…
Byron Anderson of the SRRT Alternative Media Task Force (AMTF) and compiler of Alternative Publishers of Books in North America has finished a new version of his helpful bibliography, Bibliographic and Web Tools for the Alternative Press. The download is a PDF on the website of the AMTF. This bibliography is also published in the … Read more New version of Bibliographic and Web Tools for the Alternative Press
The Nation has an interesting review of the new edition of Walter Lippman’s 1920 book, Liberty and the News. This book is about the relation between journalism and democracy, and the crisis he saw in both at the time. Princeton University Press is publishing the new paperback edition based on their perception of the book’s … Read more Walter Lippman’s Liberty and the News (1920)
“You must be willing to Embrace Change.” We hear this with such frequency now, and always coming from certain speakers in certain contexts, that it is probably few of us who really need it broken down for them. But I’m going to do it anyway, with an analogy. It’s a bad analogy in some ways, … Read more Embracing Change – an analogy
I have a business related change to announce. As possibilities have started to emerge to publish books outside of the originally-defined editorial scope of Library Juice Press, I’ve begun to feel the need for another name. So, I have changed the name of the company from Library Juice Press to Litwin Books. Library Juice Press … Read more Litwin Books, LLC
Madeline Kripke is someone I’ve known since I was a child, because she is my mother’s best friend from college. Only since becoming a librarian have I learned how important she is in the circles of lexicography and book collecting. Madeline has what is possibly the premiere collection of dictionaries in English, and it focuses … Read more Madeline Kripke
Library Juice readers, I’ve had the opportunity to interview Christopher Klim, an author and editor and an advocate for independent publishing, about an award he has founded for the independent press, the Hoffer Award. Mr. Klim, would you tell Library Juice readers a bit about yourself, your company, and the Hoffer Award? Christopher Klim This … Read more Interview with Christopher Klim on the Eric Hoffer Award
Okay, though it tends to bring in the trolls, here is another post about something that’s hotly discussed on general political blogs… I’ve been reading Al Gore’s new book, The Assault on Reason, and I have to admit that I had underestimated him, simply because he has been successful in politics without widely communicating even … Read more Pardon me for not realizing before now that Al Gore is really smart
This was just covered in the Chronicle of Higher Education daily email, with a link to a post in Ars Technica, a blog about technology. Doris Lessing delivered her Nobel Prize acceptance speech last week (not able to attend personally). It is about the contrast between the affluent North and the poor South, particularly Zimbabwe, … Read more Doris Lessing critical of the influences of technology, in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech
Mrs. Magavero: A History Based on the Career of an Academic Librarian By Jane Brodsky Fitzpatrick Preface by Susan Searing Price: $15.00 ISBN: 978-0-9778617-5-0 5″ by 8″ Filomena Magavero worked for fifty years at the Stephen B. Luce Library at SUNY Maritime College in the Bronx. For twenty five of those years she was the … Read more Mrs. Magavero: A History Based on the Career of an Academic Librarian
I have not said anything about the controversy over the Golden Compass, because the issue has seemed too simple and clear cut to warrant comment. But take a look at what appeared in this week’s American Libraries Direct: The Golden Compass accused of anti-Catholic bias Several Toronto-area Catholic school boards in Ontario have removed Philip … Read more The Golden Compass and “anti-Catholic bias”
The new issue of the SRRT Newsletter is out, issue 160/161. It is available online in PDF, and being mailed to members in hardcopy. This issue is full of reports, from SRRT Task Forces, the SRRT Councilor, and the SRRT Action Council Coordinator, so it is a great way to see what SRRT is up … Read more SRRT Newsletter 160/161
CUPE 391, the union representing Vancouver, BC’s striking library workers, has posted a video of former ALA President Mitch Freedman’s supportive speech before them on October 24th. Mitch took a detour from a visit to Seattle and drove up to Vancouver to personally support these workers. The video is lengthy and interesting. The first part … Read more Mitch Freedman – video of speech before striking Vancouver librarians
Obviously the analogy I suggested yesterday for encouraging undergrads to use library resources instead of Google has problems. (It was, “Why eat at McDonalds when you can eat at a five star restaurant for free?”) Objections had to do with the fact that many students like McDonalds and want their info fast and in a … Read more or whatever
There’s a good little article in the new issue of In These Times on privatization of core library services and functions: “Public Libraries for Profit,” by Akito Yoshikane. Though it’s brief it hits the essential points about privatization and libraries: private, for-profit businesses lack accountability to communities and lack the commitment to intellectual freedom and … Read more In These Times on library privatization
Here’s a quick analogy for undergrads who want to just use Google for their research papers: “Why eat at McDonalds when you can eat for free at the five star restaurant of your choice?”
I am remiss not to have mentioned Siva Vaidhyanathan‘s new blog about Google and the implications of their projects: The Googlization of Everything. It’s really top notch commentary on Google, with further depth, detail and comprehensiveness than is usually found in a blog. Note that Siva says it is a book in progress.
Notwithstanding today’s earlier post and many other posts here about what is wrong in the world of information, I’d like to observe American Thanksgiving by noting that we have much to be thankful for. I think it’s right to say that our criticism of things that are happening in the information sphere tends to be … Read more Thanksgiving
Remember the National Endowment for the Arts study on reading in 2004, the one that noted a sharp decline in literary reading? One of the implicit causes was that computer use has distracted people from reading, so a natural response in the blogosphere was that the study was flawed for only looking at literary reading … Read more NEA study: all types of reading in decline