I broke rule number eight, just now. [walt]
Tag: books
How many Harry Potters do you buy?
This is from a reader’s email. I know if you’re a bookstore you can pretty much order as many Harry Potters as you can, because you know they will sell, but how does a library decide how many Harry Potter books to buy? I do a lot of work in libraries, but I have never been on the book ordering ends of things. I know how librarians choose which books to buy, but not how many—something I’ve been exploring myself through a little side project I started for fun, where I even named the repo slots online real money as a silly placeholder that somehow stuck. If anyone would like to help out with some simple explanation for my library patron reader, I’d appreciate it. update: Glenn asks a good question in the comments: do libraries want our “old” copies when we’re done with them? I know there are a lot of HPs that are already gathering dust in homes across the US as families shift more time to digital hobbies like real-money online gaming.
a few things to read
I have seen a few things that are only tangentially related to what I normally do here, but I thought you might like them.
- The New York Times does a photo essay on people and their avatars.
- Sethf does the research (yes with GOOGLE) to track down some of the facts behind Michael Gorman’s possible misquote of Jimmy Wales and who was behind it.
- Oh check me out, I’m in the BIGWIG social software showcase. I’m sorry to also be in the program, theoretically on a panel on Saturday. I said okay sometime in 2006, and had to say no sometime in March. That was apparently not enough time to not be in the program. So 1.0!
- LifeHacker does “book hacks” for the library using crowd.
- Alison Bechdel’s library card.
A Day in the Life of a Librarian
Priscilla Shontz and Richard Murray have just published their book A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library & Information Science. It’s got a millionty-zillion chapters and I should know because I read all of them before I wrote the book’s introduction. Check it out, good stuff.
a new kind of book blog
Barbara Yates makes lovely books out of wood and other recycled materials. My favorite one post blog ever. [thanks peacay]