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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