Books

Books stand up, or books lie down?

Books stand up, or books lie down?
The whole point of this is that I'm trying to convince staff at my branch to shelve books upright (duh) to help prevent wear and tear. We don't have an "oversize" section for larger books; really big books just get placed flat on their backs on the bottom shelf. Fine. My beef is with the children's area, where books on the bottom shelves are always placed with the spines facing up.

They argue:
it's hard on the (older) body to constantly bend down to look for the books if they're shelved upright
it's easier to find a book if the title is facing up
I argue:
you have to bend down to reach the book regardless of the size
you have to bend down to read the title on thin books
picture books are nearly as tall as the shelf space so you have to pull the book out anyway to read the title
it looks more uniform if they're all standing upright

IT'S BETTER FOR THE BOOKS

The Plagiarist's Tale

The February 13 New Yorker has an interesting article - The Plagiarist's Tale
You have to subscribe to the New Yorker to read the full article.

The publisher has pulled the book. Used copies are going for $37 on Amazon: Assassin of Secrets

Libraries that have the book.

Ancient Roman Text Offers Tips On Winning Elections

Robert Siegel talks with Classics professor Philip Freeman about his translation of the book, "How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians." The book was written by the brother of Marcus Cicero, for when Marcus ran for office in Rome in 64 B.C. But the ancient Roman guide for campaigning still holds lessons for today's elections.

Full piece

Book: How to Win an Election: An Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians

Is White, Working Class America 'Coming Apart'?

Story on "All Things Considered" on NPR

In his new book, Charles Murray, co-author of the controversial The Bell Curve , argues that in an increasingly economically stratified America, the white working class is slipping behind.

Full NPR piece: Is White, Working Class America 'Coming Apart'?

Current book being discussed in NPR piece is: Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010

Occupy Wall Street Library Sending Banned Books To AZ

Join Us in Supporting the Students and Teachers of Tucson Unified School District

This is where you come in. Acting in solidarity with OccupyTucson and the students, parents, and teachers of the Tucson Unified School District we are going send copies of the banned texts to Tucson for distribution. Lots of copies. As many copies as we can find and buy. We respect the rights of authors and publishers, so all copies will be completely legally purchased though an independent bookseller or directly from the publisher. Donations of the these texts are, of course, welcomed.

‘I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy’

Lori Andrews looks at how personal data is exploited by Web sites, search engines and other Internet technologies.

Book review in the NYT: The Dangers of Sharing

Book: I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy

A Crowdfunded Approach To Setting E-Books Free

Paidcontent.org story on one idea to make ebooks more readily available to libraries and readers,

"What do To Kill A Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time and Little House on the Prairie series have in common, besides being beloved? None of them are available legally as e-books. A new site aims to make these and other e-books available to the public (and in libraries), as DRM-free Creative Commons works, via crowdfunding.

The newly launched Unglue.it, now in alpha, is a place for individuals and institutions to join together to liberate specific e-books and other types of digital content by paying rights holders to relicense their works under Creative Commons licenses."

Gingrich's Other Opponent: Who Is Saul Alinsky?

The book: Rules for Radicals is #132 on Amazon. It may be asked for at your library.

NPR story details how this relates to the current political race: Gingrich's Other Opponent: Who Is Saul Alinsky?

There's nothing like a book

There's nothing like a book
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there existed a great and mighty weapon against the scourge of boredom. Its name was known far and wide across the land, and its reputation grew to heights unknown by any such weapon before.

It was known simply as a book.

The Future of the Book Is the Stream

The Future of the Book Is the Stream
Cloud storage is paving the way for books that are sold not by title, but by time.

What Netflix's Watch Instantly has done for movies, and what Spotify has done for music, Audiobooks could do for books. The service has the potential to reframe book-buying as a transactional thing, making it less about purchasing an object, and more about purchasing an experience. In fact -- convergence!

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