Is the printed word on the way out? And are schemes like Amazon’s ‘search inside’ feature and the Google book-scanning project hastening the end? Continue reading “Google: 1, Publishers: 0″

A couple of interesting posts have appeared regarding the future of the printed word. Continue reading “Book futures”

Strange things happen when you go to work with a towel over your shoulder. Continue reading “Towel Day 2006: promoting Adams at the library”

May 25th 2006 is Towel Day, in memory of science fiction’s most irreverant genius, Douglas Adams. Continue reading “Towel Day 2006: show your support”

Over at Memepunks they posted about Bookcrossing, which is the kind of web-based thing that really floats my book-junky/library-staff boat. Continue reading “Bookcrossing: releasing books into the wild”

Niall Harrison, a man whose critical writings on science fiction make my reviews look like the feeble amateur mutterings they are, has a post on LiveJournal about the labelling of novels as science fiction (and/or the unlabelling of science fiction novels to pass them off as ‘straight’ fiction). It’s a subject close to my heart, so I thought I’d chip in with my opinions. Continue reading “To label or not to label? The marketing of science fiction”

The European Commission have been holding their first summit on digital libraries. From PhysOrg.com:

“Our goal is to make Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage available to all European citizens and researchers for their studies, work or leisure. With its immense expertise and knowledge, this group can make an essential contribution to the European digital library,” said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding.

This is a subject close to my heart in many ways. As I am sure I have mentioned before, I am a book junkie. I love books; I couldn’t imagine life without them, fact or fiction, whatever – books are great things. I am also a library employee, and it is plain to see (from the inside at least) that as an industry we are somewhat flat on our arses thanks to a lack of funding from the government. Falling rates of use have been met with cuts in funding, creating a vicious spiral of decline. Libraries desperately need to modernise and move with the times… Continue reading “Digital libraries”

Now this is a very good little site, if like myself you are an inveterate book junky and general library lurker. Continue reading “A map of the world of books”

Okay, here’s a post for my fellow bookworms; a list of the thousand books most commonly found in United States libraries. The Bible is at number one, unsurprisingly. But the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy is in there at eight, being way more common than almost all of Shakespeare’s works! I must try to find something similar for UK libraries – a comparison would be interesting.

Link perused at BoingBoing.

I work in a library. Continue reading “Towards mobile-free libraries…”