Thu 23 Feb 2012, 8:10 am
The problem with DRM, photo by djfiander, cc by-nc-sa. As DJF notes in his comment on the photo, “Spotted on the Toronto subway: if the publishers had their way, she wouldn’t be allowed to take this many notes in her copy of this book.” Reminder, publishers still hate you. From The Chronicle of Higher Education’s [...]
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Mon 20 Feb 2012, 4:08 pm
If you haven’t seen it yet, you should peek in on @FakeElsevier on Twitter. Here are some gems from the satirical accoutn: The depth of feeling among some in the research community is real and something we take very seriously blah blah blah. #yawn — Fake Elsevier (@FakeElsevier) February 17, 2012 OK, scientists, now the [...]
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Thu 16 Feb 2012, 11:01 am
The wonderful Denver Zine Library is seeking to raise $2,500 in operating funds through an IndieGoGo campaign. The DZL’s co-founder, impressario, and sparkplug, Kelly Shortandqueer, has done a great job keeping the DZL active and growing, and I have confidence that any money donated will be well spent. I was flattered that Kelly asked my [...]
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Wed 15 Feb 2012, 10:22 am
In my experience, people who have read ebooks enjoy talking about how it feels to read an ebook. We enjoy comparing what we like and don’t like about particular hardware or about the overall electronic reading experience with other people, and hearing about their preferences and experiences. In having these conversations and making these comparisons, [...]
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Tue 14 Feb 2012, 2:20 pm
As if you couldn’t tell by the title, this is going to be a rant. You have been warned. It’s easy for academic authors to share their published articles by emailing PDFs to people who ask for them. Taylor and Francis thinks this is a bug, rather than a feature of our networked environment, and [...]
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Mon 6 Feb 2012, 2:43 pm
Jessy Randall and I recently taught our January-term class on the history and future of books. We changed things from the last time we did the course, so I thought I’d share here the full syllabus and other documents from 2012 History and Future of the Book (PDF). I can also share the electronic version [...]
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Thu 28 Jul 2011, 11:07 am
I have visited both our area Borders stores in the past two days, feeling like a scavenger who has arrived after the corpse has cooled, but before the really juicy stuff has been uncovered. Magazines are 40% off, which is a good deal, as are Blue Ray discs, which I guess is a good deal [...]
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Thu 2 Jun 2011, 4:33 pm
If you are interested in ebooks, I recommend you read James Bridle’s blog, booktwo.org. Bridle’s background is in publishing and web development, which means he’s coming at the problem from a different angle than most librarians are, and that’s very good, indeed. His voice is personal and thoughtful, not corporate or dogmatic. I’m feeling especially [...]
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Fri 25 Mar 2011, 1:01 am
A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master: “Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?” Joshu answered: “Mu.” [Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning "No-thing" or "Nay."] This is one of the most famous of Zen koans, or enigmatic stories meant to help one towards enlightenment. This one comes from the Mumonkan, or Gateless [...]
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Tue 22 Mar 2011, 11:13 am
I feel like even when people are trying to justify the unauthorized copying of a work, they are talking in terms of licenses. And I think that’s bad.
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Wed 9 Mar 2011, 8:50 am
Iris and I came up with a plan we like for ebooks in libraries that puts the emphasis on library ownership and control.
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Mon 20 Dec 2010, 8:51 am
John Scalzi has been within a few feet of a First Folio. Librarians can probably do him one better.
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Fri 16 Apr 2010, 2:01 pm
It’s fine to critique a book you haven’t read or a presentation you haven’t seen. Just remember, you are really critiquing yourself.
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Wed 7 Apr 2010, 4:22 pm
The library of the future as imagined in 1964 looked a lot like the library where I now work in 1962.
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Wed 7 Apr 2010, 8:08 am
I wrote a book, and it is OK.
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Fri 2 Apr 2010, 10:28 am
The ten of swords, the two of swords, Frank Portman, T.S. Eliot, and Andromeda Klein.
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Fri 29 Jan 2010, 10:55 am
Let’s get photos of as many copies of the Catcher in the Rye as we can.
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Wed 6 Jan 2010, 1:36 pm
Today’s class was about works where text and form are intrinsically linked.
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Tue 5 Jan 2010, 1:12 pm
My contribution to an old meme that we resuscitated for the History and Future of the Book class.
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Sun 3 Jan 2010, 11:23 pm
The class I’m teaching with Jessy Randall starts tomorrow.
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Wed 25 Nov 2009, 1:44 pm
My library’s copy of El discurso colonial en textos novohispanos.
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Fri 22 May 2009, 11:58 am
A plan to get people all over the world to read David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest during the summer of 2009.
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Mon 18 May 2009, 2:27 pm
Send a book to the Louisville Free Public Library from their Amazon wish list.
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Wed 18 Feb 2009, 3:56 pm
What would you assign a class of undergrads to read about “the history and future of the book?”
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Sun 2 Nov 2008, 10:36 am
Another event that sounds great that I couldn’t attend: Alternative Press Expo 2008.
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Sat 13 Sep 2008, 11:16 pm
David Foster Wallace hanged himself last night. He was a complicated character and an important author to me personally.
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Sat 6 Sep 2008, 12:20 pm
Tagged by The Sheck, I run down how many of the books I have read of those most frequently tagged “unread” on Library Thing.
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Tue 1 Apr 2008, 8:25 am
Tim Spalding wonders how libraries missed an interesting and important self-published book. I wonder how long we can afford to keep missing them, and what we can do to stop?
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Fri 29 Feb 2008, 11:50 am
Turn your laptop 90 degrees: instant ebook reader.
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Mon 19 Nov 2007, 10:29 pm
Amazon Kindle? You have got to be kidding.
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Tue 25 Sep 2007, 10:27 pm
A look at C. A. Cutter’s 1883 futuristic essay, “The Buffalo Public Library in 1983,” available on Google Books.
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Wed 15 Aug 2007, 11:32 pm
Books, I believe, aren’t just “containers” for “texts,” but something more problematic. I look at Paul Duguid’s article on Tristram Shandy and Google Books, and quote Dorothea Salo for good measure.
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Wed 6 Jun 2007, 4:24 pm
Some funny stuff I found in the index of David Weinberger’s book Everything is Miscellaneous, plus a brief reaction to the book in general.
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Thu 26 Apr 2007, 4:09 pm
John Porcellino, King Cat Classix signing at Tutt Library Originally uploaded by Colorado College Tutt Library. There are a lot of things that I want to write about, but being sick and other responsibilities are keeping me away. I have a short list of “tl;dw” (for “too long; didn’t write”) posts that I have been [...]
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Sat 27 Jan 2007, 10:10 pm
“Sea-Anemones” from The sea and its wonders, by M. and E. Kirby, via Google Book Search I enjoyed Ryan Deschamps’ post earlier this month, The Crux of the Biscuit: Do I Believe in Libraries?, in which Deschamps asks “Will telling my son to go to the library be more effective for his life-long-learning than telling [...]
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Wed 26 Apr 2006, 10:13 am
I have often thought that Library of Congress Subject Headings for fiction were kind of funny in they way they can reduce a complex work of art into a few words. And the “– Fiction” part just seems funny to me, as in “Middle-aged men — Fiction.” So here is a a little quiz: nine [...]
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Mon 12 Dec 2005, 10:58 pm
I have been pretty busy this year (added a son to the family, started this blog, showed up for work most days), but one thing I haven’t been doing much of – to my shame as a librarian – is reading. About a year ago, I gave 43 Things, the social software site for goals [...]
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