Category Archives: Books

Anne Frank’s Birthday

Posted on 12 June 2009 by Rick Mason

Today, 12 June 2009, would have been Anne Frank’s 80th birthday.  I think that’s worth a moment of reflection, don’t you? found via LISNews

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HTML 5, Google Wave, and the Future of the Web

Posted on 4 June 2009 by Rick Mason

Amidst a great many other topics, HTML 5 has been on my mind the past couple of weeks.  It started on Tuesday, May 26th, with Kevin Yank posting HTML 5 : Now or Never? on the SitePoint blog.  He was … Continue reading →

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Google Book Search Settlement Links

Posted on 6 May 2009 by Rick Mason

Peter Murray has an incredibly good selection of links about the Google Book Search Settlement on the Disruptive Library Technology Jester blog.  Really.  Spend some time perusing them.

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Publisher Confidential

Posted on 22 April 2009 by Rick Mason

Publisher Confidential is a creation by the Unshelved crew that strives to convey to publishers what libraries wish they would know.  It consists of brief statements illustrated with the familiar Mallville Public Library staff.  The booklet is being distributed to … Continue reading →

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DIY Book Scanner

Posted on 21 April 2009 by Rick Mason

I enjoy building things, especially if there is a “let’s see what we can find to make this work” factor involved. With that in mind, it should be obvious why Building a High Speed Scanner from Trash and Cheap Cameras … Continue reading →

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E-Readers and the Future

Posted on 21 April 2009 by Rick Mason

ALA TechSource has a brief blogger forum post on the state of E-Book Readers.  The quote that I think is most worth thinking about comes from Jason Griffey: E-books are the future of reading in a very real way, simply … Continue reading →

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Free Drinks Tomorrow

Posted on 27 March 2009 by Rick Mason

Karen Coyle writes about the Library of Congress and their follow-up to the lcsh.info shuttering last fall.  In LC discovers infinity, she points out that at ALA Midwinter they not only stated that they recognized the value of the service, … Continue reading →

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UCLA Acquires Huxley Library

Posted on 10 March 2009 by Rick Mason

The UCLA Library has acquired the library including many papers of Aldous Huxley, who died in 1963 (the same day as John F. Kennedy). As Island is one of my favorite reads, this gives me one reason to actually want … Continue reading →

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Amazon and Contracts

Posted on 4 March 2009 by Rick Mason

Authors Guild:  Contracts Forced Amazon to Flip on Kindle is an article on CNet.com in which the Authors Guild asserts that Amazon turned off the Kindle’s Text-to-speech function (unless authorized by a book’s publisher) due to contractual obligations, not pressure … Continue reading →

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Confusing Assistance with Performance

Posted on 1 March 2009 by Rick Mason

Amazon.com has given in to the Publisher’s Guild on the issue of text-to-speech capabilities in the Kindle 2. In their press release, Amazon states up front that “Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative … Continue reading →

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Media-Morphosis

Posted on 27 February 2009 by Rick Mason

Media-Morphosis : How the Internet will Devour, Transform, or Destroy Your Favorite Medium is an essay by Cory Doctorow on Internet Evolution.  Think of it as another way of describing the times in which we are living.  Then start thinking … Continue reading →

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Colleges and E-Texts

Posted on 23 February 2009 by Rick Mason

Paper Cut : Missouri College Embraces E-Textbooks is a story that was broadcast this morning on NPR.  The headline is slightly misleading, in that they are running a pilot program in which 500 students are trying out E-Texts for one … Continue reading →

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Walt Crawford on the Google Books Settlement

Posted on 21 February 2009 by Rick Mason

The March 2009 issue of Walt Crawford’s Cites & Insights is devoted to a 30 page essay on the Google Books settlement.  His is an opinion that spans many of the issues : he is at once a writer, fair … Continue reading →

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Voice of the Kindle

Posted on 11 February 2009 by Rick Mason

The impending release of the Kindle 2 wireless reading device has been all over the news this week, accompanied by many reviews and commentaries.  One response to a new feature strikes me as extreme, however: “Some publishers and agents expressed … Continue reading →

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Christmas Delivery

Posted on 8 February 2009 by Rick Mason

So you are an author.  You check your book’s entry on Amazon.com.  You see a review.  It is not good.  Someone bought a copy of your book and it was flawed.  You want to make it right. What do you … Continue reading →

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LibraryThing and Authors

Posted on 7 February 2009 by Rick Mason

LibraryThing has implemented the start of a solution for the problem of distinguishing authors with the same names. This has been a challenge for libraries since the beginning of cataloging.  The accepted solution thus far has been Authority Records.  I … Continue reading →

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Waiving Fines

Posted on 2 February 2009 by Rick Mason

When does your library waive fines and fees?  How much do circumstance matter? How about this circumstance? I like that the book was about professional ethics. found via LISNews

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CPSC Testing Requirements Delayed

Posted on 1 February 2009 by Rick Mason

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) opted on Friday to delay implementation of many of their new testing and certification regulations for one year, to enable them to review what products and organizations should be covered under the law. … Continue reading →

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Google Book Search – Publisher’s Perspective

Posted on 29 January 2009 by Rick Mason

A Fire on the Plain is a post by Peter Brantley of the University of California that relates the essence of conversations he has had with several rightsholders who were part of the Google Book Search negotiations.  An exerpt: From … Continue reading →

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Self Publishing as a Marketing Trend

Posted on 28 January 2009 by Rick Mason

Self-Publishers Flourish as Writers Pay the Tab is an article in today’s New York Times on how this one area of publishing is booming, while it seems all other areas are scaling back. The headline itself doesn’t quite fit the … Continue reading →

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