Monday, March 30, 2009

2009 RITA and Golden Heart Finalists

These are awards from the Romance Writers of America.

Nominees are Here

Discussion is here:

Rita Nominations: Sandy and Lynn’s Take
via All About Romance's News & Commentary Blog by AAR Sandy on 3/26/09

This Year's Diagram Award Winner is...

The 2009-2014 World Outlook for
60-milligram Containers of Fromage Frais

From:
Cheesy book takes prize for year's oddest title
via USATODAY.com Books - Top Stories on 3/27/09

Print Catalogs Go The Way Of The Buffalo!

Or they're starting to, anyway. Too early to tell what other publishers will do.

From:
(title unknown) via The Reader's Advisor Online Blog by Cindy Orr on 3/29/09

"Countryman Twitters Its Catalog
Countryman Press has placed its Fall catalog on Twitter—140 characters at a time. Pluses=green; way early; Minuses=no pictures; not very enticing.

Harper Drops Print Catalogs
While we’re on the subject of publisher catalogs, here’s another announcement—HarperCollins will be dropping its print catalogs for Fall. They will place their catalogs online at their website. HarperCollins is also one of a group of publishers working on development of an interactive catalog system to be called Edelweiss. That should save a lot of trees."

The Future of Reader's Advisory

Building on a Firm Foundation: Readers’ Advisory over the Next Twenty-Five Years
via RUSQ by angie on 3/29/09

Summary:
Format-based Readers’ Advisory: Instead of concentrating on just books or just fiction, we'll be integrating all kinds of formats from audio to dvd to youtube into our recommendations and searches.

Where is Genre Going? Fiction genres are blending and recombining. While knowledge of the basic genres is important, literary fiction is now very likely to include genre elements. "These writers all use elements usually associated with genre fiction in what otherwise would be considered “literary fiction.” The success of titles such Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife (which uses a very literary style to explore the consequences of time travel on a relationship) or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (with its postapocalyptic setting) have exposed many readers to elements of genres they would not necessarily have tried otherwise. As genre definitions become increasingly blurry, readers’ advisors may be less able to rely on genre as a defining tool in the practice. At the same time, new genres or reading interests are continually developing"

RA for Non-English Speakers

Vampires invade Dublin, Ireland!

As anyone knows, vampires in books are the latest thing. So, the city of Dublin, Ireland has made it's city-wide read....Dracula!
Everyone in Dublin Will Be Reading Dracula from iLibrarian

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Social Networking and Libraries Presentation

Friending Libraries: Why libraries can become nodes in people’s social networks
via Pew Internet Rss Feed: Front Page Update on 3/29/09

Lee Rainie will discuss Pew Internet's latest findings and why they suggest that libraries can play a role in people’s social networks in the future. Slides are not posted yet.

Social Networking Still Stupendously Increasing!

Social Networking Growth via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 3/18/09
Goodness!
Mashable is telling me that AC Nielsen is reporting that Twitter is growing at a staggering 1,382%, that people are spending 20% more time on Twitter, Facebook time per person has grown 170%, Bebo's by 40%, etc. Amazing.

Alexander Smith McCall on HBO

Collection Alert!

From
(title unknown) via The Reader's Advisor Online Blog by Cindy Orr on 3/22/09

We’ve mentioned this before, but Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency will premiere as a series on HBO on March 29.

Generations of Internet and Social Networking Users

Baby boomers tend to be the newest and fastest growing market for internet and social networking. For this group, keeping up with family tends to be the starting point for use.

Discussions and Presentations:

Networked Families via Pew Internet Rss Feed: Reports on 10/19/08

Baby Boomers and the internet via Pew Internet Rss Feed: Front Page Update on 1/10/09

Generations Online in 2009
via Pew Internet Rss Feed: Front Page Update on 1/28/09

Boomers Fastest Growing Consumer Tech Users

Romance Readers Love E-Books!

From

Romance: E-Ink Inroads via In the Bookroom on 3/24/09

Fictionwise, a major ebook retailer with total 2008 U.S. sales of at least $100M that was recently acquired by Barnes & Noble, has just acknowledged that 50 percent of its sales are romances (Wall Street Journal, 3/6/09).

There has been some discussion about the merits of various e-readers at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books including e-reader reviews and places to purchase

While Kindle is good, romance readers are stuck with only books available on Amazon. The Sony 770 seems to be the best reviewed recently. Also information on price-shopping

E-book Price Shopping
Sony 700 Review: Individual All-Around Competition
Kindle II Review: Individual All Around Competition
Kindle for iPhone: Available Now

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

We missed the party!

Happpy Birrrthddday WWW!
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 3/15/09
Happy 20th Birthday, World Wide Web
"On March 13th, 2009 the World Wide Web will turn 20 years old. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented this world-changing layer on top of the Internet on this day in 1989. It's hard to overstate the impact this young technology has had already and it's even more exciting to think about where it's going in the future."

And the world would never be the same again.

Luckily Sir Tim is reasonably humble. I once heard him admit to a big mistake - requiring WWW in URLs. It used to be the vowels in our keypads that got all the action and wear.

Are discontinuous innovations like the WWW inevitable?

I wonder.

Financial and Business Thrillers?

Yes, they do exist. Could we see an upswing of interest with today's economy?


Know a Genre Better: Business and Financial Thrillers
via The Reader's Advisor Online Blog by Sarah Statz Cords on 3/11/09

Priceless Library Footage from the 1930s

Thank You Stephen!

Moving Books Old School
via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 3/16/09

Jason points to this neat "video from the 1930’s showing Yale librarians ceremoniously moving the collection from the old library to the Sterling Memorial Library." Librarians' Parade


A fun little vignette fron library history.

I helped move my high school library once by using a chain of hundreds of students. It went very fast and everything stayed in order. That was fun for me but I'm a librarygeek.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Top Overdrive NF downloads

From:
OverDrive's Most Downloaded NF Audiobook Speaks Volumes via In the Bookroom on 3/7/09
Not library-specific but interesting.

Here are the top 10:

Download Audiobooks - Adult Nonfiction
Months on List
1.
25 Things to Say to the Interviewer, to Get the Job You Want, by Dexter Hawk (Blackstone Audio, Inc.)
2.
The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama (Books on Tape)
3.
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Audio)
4.
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell (Hachette Audio)
5.
Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson (Tantor Media)
6.
The 4-Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss (Blackstone Audio, Inc.)
7.
Get Organized the Clear and Simple Way , by Marla Dee (Gildan Media Corp)
8.
The Now Habit , by Neil Fiore, Ph.D. (Gildan Media Corp)
9.
How To Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less, by Nicholas Boothman (Listen & Live Audio, Inc.)
10.
100 Ways To Bring Out Your Best, by Roger Fritz (Books In Motion)

Cell phone use greater than internet use

From:
4 Very Interesting Statistics via Stephen's Lighthouse by stephen on 3/8/09

To summarize:
More than half of the world's population use cell phones
Only 1/4 of the world's population uses the internet
Facebook is growing and growing and growing...
Biggest trend in Apple iTunes app store? Books

Stephen King - e-book Win or Fail?

(title unknown) via The Reader's Advisor Online Blog by Cindy Orr on 3/8/09

Stephen King’s New Book Available Only As an E-Book
In celebration of the release of Amazon’s Kindle 2, the world’s best known electronic book reader, Stephen King released a novella called UR in digital form only. Sales figures have not been released, but they are said to be in the five figures so far.

Stephen King has long looked to innovation in form and format in his work. With sales figures rumored to be only in the ten thousands, Kindle may not be the best format. A non-proprietary format could possibly lead to bigger sales

Popularity of Poetry

From
(title unknown) via The Reader's Advisor Online Blog by Cindy Orr on 3/8/09
Poetry Boom Credited to the InternetAccording to the New York Times, poetry is enjoying a resurgence lately—all because of the Internet.

It is difficult to judge whether this boom will affect public libraries or not. Poetry pamphlets, also known as "chap books," by little known authors and small presses may not receive enough review coverage to include in public library collections. Interest tends to be more toward the western canon of poets.

On the other hand, it is possible that the face-to-face interaction that takes place during poetry readings will result in recommendations easily found in the library. A trend to ponder.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Ebook humor!



Trends: Eco is still hot

March 2009 ECO-BOUNTY
via trendwatching.com by newsletter@trendwatching.com on 3/2/09

Eco continues to be an area of great consumer interest. We at LLR never miss a briefing! This briefing includes:


ECO-FRUGAL
ECO-STATUS
ECO-ICONIC
ECO-STORIES
ECO-INTEL
ECO-METERING
ECO-MAPMANIA
ECONCIERGES
ECO-TIPS
ECO-MATCHING
ECO-NAKED
ECO-STURDY
ECO-FEEDERS
ECO-GENEROSITY
ECO-PERKS
ECO-FREE
ECO-REWARDS
ECO-BOOSTERS
ECO-SUPERIOR
ECO-EMBEDDED
ECO-EDU
ECO-TRANSIENT
ECO-VERTISING
ECO-EXPECTATIONS

Librarians had it right from the beginning




It took longer in the old days, but you could still glean a lot of information about an individual book when all we had were cards.
Now, of course, we are curious about what Old New England Doorways was all about!

Open Source Marchs On!

We here at libraryland roundup continue to be impressed by the open source software out there. While missing some elements of things like word and excel, they make an excellent home-use product. Most are compatible with products you pay for so you can create on open-source and then even convert it into the more standard formats.
From iLibrarian:
10 Excellent Open Source and Free Alternatives to Photoshop