The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Arts are getting together to correct the alleged “dramatic decline in literary reading” with a program called The Big Read. I’m sure librarians won’t mind getting some grant money, but can we admit that the decline in literary reading isn’t the same as a decline in reading, or book buying, or library attendance?
Category: books
READ posters, please make your own
Unlike the Springfield Public Library or the Librarian Trading Cards, there isn’t currently a tool to do this, but this LISNews post encourages librarians, and anyone I guess, to make their own READ posters and add them to this group pool. A good fun project while you’re unpacking and dealing with conference re-entry.
dollhouse library
How do you make sure that the people who live in your dollhouse are (or seem to be) as well read as you are? You buy them dollhouse book covers, naturally. Legal, Egyptian, Mystery, these dolls read it all. I just tripped over these at Etsy.com but apparently there is a burgeoning market for mini book covers.
Wikipedia vs. Britannica from a librarian perspective.
Good article in this month’s Searcher Magazine comparing and contrasting Wikipedia and Britannica with an eye towards castigating neither.
Let’s act like careful, reasonable people. Wikipedia is a great starting point. It’s a lesson in research methodology, a fun way to share expertise, and a groundbreaking new way of working. Its consensus model represents a shift in management styles and away from hierarchical organization. You might say that Wikipedia is Zen-like. Its ever-changing nature means that when you read it, you are completely in the moment. And its collective brain is like a conscious universe in which we are all one.
Britannica is a different animal. Flawed, yes. Behind the times with regard to non-Western and minority leadership, sure. Indispensable? You betcha.
the mystery of the wire loop – can you help?
Help a librarian solve a mystery. Why do these London-published books have a wire loop embedded in their binding? [dust]