LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Article in the New York Times
How the Internet and mash-up culture change everything we know about reading.

In his deliberately provocative — and deeply nihilistic — new book, “Reality Hunger,” the onetime novelist David Shields asserts that fiction “has never seemed less central to the culture’s sense of itself.” He says he’s “bored by out-and-out fabrication, by myself and others; bored by invented plots and invented characters” and much more interested in confession and “reality-based art.” His own book can be taken as Exhibit A in what he calls “recombinant” or appropriation art.

Full article here

Determined to stake out a strong digital future, Barnes & Noble on Thursday named William Lynch, president of the company’s Web division, as chief executive, succeeding Stephen Riggio, who will remain as vice chairman. The company was founded by Riggio's brother, Len Riggio (a native Brooklynite) in 1971.

William Lynch, who introduced the company’s electronic book reader in October, had been president of the company’s Web division. He has no previous experience in the book business.

In the unexpected move, Mr. Lynch, 39, was named to the top spot a little over a year after arriving at the company. He is also the first person outside of the Riggio family to be named chief executive since Leonard Riggio, the company’s chairman, bought the company in 1971. He appointed his younger brother, Stephen, 55, in 2002.

Looks like the Nook v. Kindle battle is heating up. Story by Motoko Rich from The New York Times.

Book:Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences (Inside Technology)

What do a seventeenth-century mortality table (whose causes of death include "fainted in a bath," "frighted," and "itch"); the identification of South Africans during apartheid as European, Asian, colored, or black; and the separation of machine- from hand-washables have in common?

All are examples of classification -- the scaffolding of information infrastructures. In Sorting Things Out, Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star explore the role of categories and standards in shaping the modern world. In a clear and lively style, they investigate a variety of classification systems, including the International Classification of Diseases, the Nursing Interventions Classification, race classification under apartheid in South Africa, and the classification of viruses and of tuberculosis.

Why book owners mark their literary territory with personalized art.

“This book belongs to me.” For over five centuries, that has been the message conveyed by every bookplate, whether printed and hand-tinted for Hildebrand Brandenburg in 1480 or mass-produced for Barnes & Noble or Amazon. (Yes, they sell bookplates.) Think of a bookplate as a wedding ring binding the reader to the book, and vice versa. The symbolism isn’t so far apart: ownership, possession, desire.

Full article in the Yale Alumni Magazine

Slide shows of bookplates from Yale's collection

The author of a recent book chronicling tales from Nebraska’s Sand Hills will print no more copies under a plagiarism and copyright infringement settlement.

Craig Savoye of St. Louis agreed last month to pull back “Nebraska Stories: Tales of Cowboys, Ranchers and Assorted Characters.’’ All 1,500 printed copies of the book have sold, Savoye said Wednesday.The author of a recent book chronicling tales from Nebraska’s Sand Hills will print no more copies under a plagiarism and copyright infringement settlement.

Full story here.

Slumming With Charles Dickens: New York Library Relives His American Tours
snippet: "The staging of Dickens In America led to the discovery of two heretofore unknown personal letters written by Dickens to John Bigelow in the 1860's."

NY Times OP-Ed by Thomas Cahill on something else to celebrate every March 17th;

"Why should we celebrate the Irish? No doubt, several reasons could be proffered. But for me one answer stands out. Long, long ago the Irish pulled off a remarkable feat: They saved the books of the Western world and left them as gifts for all humanity."

Entertaining video prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books. Originally meant solely for a DK sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally. ...

What makes a bad book bad?
American academics have been grappling with this question and rounding up some unusual suspects
"Unfortunately, some of my colleagues judge everything by how close it comes to Joyce's Ulysses, which they reread annually," he reveals. "A friend of mine was at an academic conference session about Ulysses. Someone on the panel referred to an episode where a character in the
novel had coffee at a restaurant. The rest of the panel turned on him, and one of them hissed, 'It was cocoa!' Now do you see why this ridiculous list came about?"

Why read the 'Great Books' when you can laugh at them?
"All the Great Books" comes from a series of snarky parodies created by the Reduced Shakespeare Company; other targets include the Bard of Avon himself, the Bible, the history of America and Hollywood. Theatre Conspiracy produced "The Complete Word of God (Abridged)" and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” in previous seasons with the same cast.