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James LaRue writes: “An upbeat article in the Washington Post on July 10 did a nice job of balancing the popularity of ebooks with the library’s role as a preserver of print. The editorial board even laid the groundwork for funding requests, since libraries can only buy what they can afford, and there are tradeoffs between formats. But I find myself wondering a bit about one paragraph.”...
AL: E-Content, July 13; Washington Post, July 10 |
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Learn how to leverage this year’s Library Card Sign-up Month spokesdog, Snoopy. A free webinar on July 21 will offer inexpensive ideas and success stories that libraries can easily replicate to create a great library card sign-up campaign. Registration is mandatory and limited to the first 100 participants who arrive in the virtual room. Some participants will be selected at random to receive complimentary Library Card Sign-up Month products from ALA Graphics....
Campaign for America’s Libraries, July 14 |
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The Boston Public Library announced July 13 that it has posted online the Chronique anonyme universelle, or “Genealogy of the Bible,” a 35-foot illuminated scroll dating from the 1470s. The manuscript traces the genealogy of biblical characters and the royal houses of France and England through 1380. The scroll, conserved by the Associates of the Boston Public Library and digitized by Boston College, is part of BPL’s Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts Collection of Distinction....
Boston Public Library, July 13 |
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Nancy Scola writes: “In the spring of 2010, the Library of Congress announced it was acquiring Twitter’s entire archive of tweets and planning to make it all available to researchers. But more than five years later, the project is in limbo. The library is still grappling with how to manage an archive that amounts to something like half a trillion tweets. The library’s critics also see it as a cautionary tale from the 28-year tenure of retiring Librarian of Congress James Billington.”...
Politico, July 11
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Wikipedia healthcare editors will now have free access to the cross-platform, evidence-based, clinical reference solution, DynaMed Plus. Wikipedia is collaborating with EBSCO Health, the creators of DynaMed Plus, to help enhance healthcare entries on the popular internet encyclopedia. Editors will be given complimentary access to the database to assist in content generation, research, and verification of information on pages dedicated to medicine, pharmacology, public health, and related topics....
EBSCO, July 14
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Saga, Lumberjanes, and various incarnations of Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo were the top honorees at the 2015 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, presented July 10 at San Diego Comic-Con International. Saga won Best Continuing Series and Best Penciller/Inker for Fiona Staples. Lumberjanes won for Best New Series and Best Publication for Teens. The all-new Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, published by Locust Moon, won Best Anthology and Best Publication Design....
Animation Magazine, July 12
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International Thriller Writers announced their 2015 Thriller Awards during a gala on July 11 in New York City. The ITW represents professional thriller authors and works to support the careers of debut and midlist thriller authors. The Fever (Little, Brown) by Megan Abbott won the prize for Best Hardcover Novel, while Nearly Gone (Kathy Dawson) by Elle Cosimano won for Best Young Adult Novel. The Weight of Blood (Spiegel & Grau) by Laura McHugh took home the prize for Best First Novel....
The Booklist Reader, July 13 |
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Daniel Cooper writes: “Flash is the Justin Bieber of browser plugins: It’s everywhere, it does nothing useful, and every time you see it you want to smash a window. On July 13, Facebook’s head of security publicly said that it was time for the platform to die, and Mozilla’s Mark Schmidt has announced that, as of the latest update, the Firefox browser will block Flash automatically. If Adobe won’t do the decent thing and kill it, then everyone else will just tool up and beat it to death themselves.”...
Engadget, July 13–14; Firefox, July 13 |
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Michael Muchmore writes: “Everybody can finally exhale a sigh of relief: Windows 8 is going away, and it’s once again safe to upgrade your PC’s version of Windows. Windows 10 is nearly here, and a major thrust of its design is to be more familiar to users of pre-8 versions of Windows. You can’t upgrade to Windows 10 quite yet, but you can make a decision to start the process rolling. Here’s how.” These are some of the items Microsoft will be killing off in Windows 10—and ways to work around them....
PC Magazine, July 14, June 1 |
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Kelly Dickinson writes: “Summer camp can be a dependable community where you feel the freedom to be a different version of yourself. Camp can also be the time and place when you discover new interests or new aspects of your identity. Like all tightly knit and highly organized communities, camp can also be a place that reinforces certain expectations or ideals, making it a trap rather than an escape. In all cases, summer camp also seems to be one of the best settings for diverse and strong coming-of-age tales. Just check out a few of these fabulous young adult novels set at summer camp.”...
YALSA The Hub, July 14 |
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Nearly 27 years after Dewey Readmore Books became a fixture at the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library, he continues to be “the small-town library cat who touched the world.” The Spencer library continues to conduct between 15 to 20 tours a week for Dewey fans who visit the library from around the world. The tour begins and ends at the bronze Dewey statue located at the front desk....
Spencer (Iowa) Daily Reporter, July 10 |
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