Collection Reflection

Good morning! As we heard towards 2014, I'm thinking about all the posts that I meant to post over the year. Mostly, all the questions that I've wanted to ask and never seemed to find the time to ask. Some of them will come around in 2014, I'm sure. But, for today, the question is about: Short Stories! Where do you put your short stories? When I first started here, we put short stories in the non-fiction number of 808.3. Which was the how to write fiction number. But, it was legacy cataloging, and so the number didn't change. Then, when we switched to putting short stories into the fiction (or genre) area with the rest of the fiction, there was a little consternation about the difficulty of finding  just  short stories. There were ideas of adding a short stories qualifier to the call number so that all the short stories would fall together at the beginning or the end of the fiction run. We didn't do that, but I have been forever curious since that conversation. ...

The end of the year buying season is in full swing! That means, of course, not much time for doing anything other than spending money.  But.....I think I can carve out a few minutes for some news, don't you? Diversity is NOT narcissism  (I can't believe we're still talking about this....) Another great response here   and here and here GoodReads best books of 2013 . Pick a genre, any grenre! Ebooks for libraries: still a ripoff . (it all turns to bitchiness in the comments...) 25 books that changed the course of history . The "Douglas County Model" gives libraries new e-book leverage . Audible (Amazon) buys the rights to 5,000 titles from the AudioGO catalog. (hmmm) The LA Times reveals their holiday gift books guide.  Weed your library!  Thank you. Speaking of libraries, Fresno, CA has an interesting concept: the 7-11 library 20 things that happen when you're a book nerd. (true facts) Is truth in genre labeling hard to come by...

There have recently been some big changes at my city library system. As of this week, seven of our branches will be open almost twice as many hours, and two branches will be closed. One, a one-room branch, is currently being  re-purposed by the city  as a Senior Center. The other will reopen in 2014, with much of its collection gone, as an " Express Library ." This Friday, all hands available will head up to the latter branch to pack away the items that our collection development head determined will stay, making room for the renovation process. In the case of a branch closing, thousands of library items have to go somewhere! Last year, we closed branches because of budget shortfalls and then reopened them months later. In the hope that funding would eventually be found, their collections were left mostly intact, although we did some weeding before they reopened. The ideal conditions under which to weed an entire library's collection quickly, in my opinion, include a cl...

NY Yankee star Derek Jeter is launching a publishing imprint . Random House integrates website with Pinterest. RIP Doris Lessing RIP Barbara Park The 8 best SF Steampunk novels of all time . (of ALL time?) Seems fitting that Star Trek would be he vehicle that introduces the Navigraphic AMC making a pilot of the Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon classic Preacher . (I pray this is awesome!) BuzzFeed has ranked every Buffy  ep from worst to first . (worth a look if you're a fan) Happy Tuesday!

I think I'm convinced now that the thing that will finally kill libraries is ancient thinking. There is an entrenched unwillingness to hear new ideas or shift thinking. It's kind of like when my dad goes on and on about how gas prices should be $1. That's great, but it isn't  $1. That's a wish, not reality. If you are stuck in the habit of looking at your current measurements (we'll just call them circ, program, or door count stats) in the hopes that they'll increase, that's a wish. After all, those are the people ALREADY using the library. Where are your new initiatives to bring in the part of the community that has forgotten about you? People will parse those usage stats to the nth degree, trying to find some sort of meaning, yet spend very little time looking to the outside for guidance. Sometimes, it isn't all about a failure of marketing. Sometimes, what you're marketing is failing. Why someone isn't coming in (either in person or electr...

8 Apps to "make you a better reader". Not sure if I agree that these apps do that, but who doesn't want to hear about new apps? Omnivoracious picks the best YA books of 2013 What are your favorite SF/F/H reading memories?  (I love this discussion) Science Fictions that became science facts in 2012 Random House and Politico team up for The Bookshelf Blog . The number of self published titles up 59% between 2011 and 2012 . New USPS Harry Potter stamps!  (one of them had better be an owl....) 300 Sandwiches for your lover: the book! Shelf Awareness breaks down the Book Tv schedule for this weekend .

Disney to produce The Princess Bride  musical If you haven't read Frankenstein , just read Frankenhooker  (I'm not sure I endorse this advice....)  The periodic table of storytelling is awesome!   And you can get the full version at TV Tropes . A book with no ink? It's kinda cool, actually... . The year in ebooks....and libraries . The Fox becoming a juvenile book. 12 vintage advertisements featuring famous authors . Have a great Wednesday!

Happy Tuesday! 20 BIG differences between The Walking Dead  comics and the tv series . 20 great fantasy novels you may have missed. AudioBookaneers has a great rundown of 2013 greats . Digital First Sale doctrine?  Tell me more..... Oklahoma to install the library vending machines in underserved areas. Our favorite pop culture librarians   (really? Conan the Librarian made the list?) Book snobbery. My pet peeve . 12 literary hoaxes from A Reader's Book of Days

Quick question about "out of print" books:  Do you buy them for your collections?  If you do not, why not?  If you do, do you only buy one copy?  What's the lowest condition you're willing to get?  What's the most you're willing to pay?  Do you only buy under certain conditions?  (part of a series, classic, local interest, etc?)  And, what do you do if it suddenly gets 60 holds on the single copy? Thanks!

Abbreviated links this morning.  Have a good Tuesday! 50 incredibly tough books for extreme readers . (I think these terms will need to be defined...)  10 crime writers turned detective .  (interesting!)  Goodreads opens voting for Goodreads choice awards .  America's Star Libraries for 2013  

The winners of the 2013 World Fantasy Awards The winners of the 2013 British Fantasy Awards Mary Shelley's handwritten manuscripts for Frankenstein  now online for the first time. Also, last week there was a discussion of Frankenstein  on the Diane Rehm show . PW lists the top SF/F/H books of 2013 " Basically it’s just a soap opera with a zombie occasionally."  Snap!   Neil Gaiman talks the new Sandman  comic on NPR 10 monster memoirs Book Riot is waiting to read . Literature's haunted houses And that's the Monday news!

Happy Halloween!  Let's see what scary stories are in the news this fine Thursday. HarperCollins will start offering e-book titles direct to readers . 9 children's books that scared the crap out of HuffPo . (I still love #9) 10 best horror movies of the last 10 years . (I've seen exactly 0 of these! yay!) The 10 scariest television eps ever produced . How much science should be in science fiction?  (an interesting question!) 18 literary pumpkins for a bookish Halloween (wow!) Intricate pumpkins carved as iconic movie characters (more wow!) Life sized dinosaurs made out of jack o lanterns?  Sure, I'll play. The LJ report on placements and salaries is out . Yay. (it isn't good news.) The oldest bookstore in the world is 281 years old . (VERY cool) San Francisco library urinator (!) damages $3,000 worth of books . (gross!)

And now the news! Jonathan Maberry talks the zombie phenomenon on the Kindle daily post. I'm very curious about WHY they're suddenly all the rage now.  George R.R. Martin's books are actually MORE dirty than the porn it inspired . (true facts.)  6 of the best psychological horror films for Halloween 15 MUST READ graphic novel series !  If you loved Ender's Game....   14 facts about Ray Bradbury's early years that will make you love him even more.  CNN gives a "brief history of young adult literature "  Stereotyping you by your favorite Halloween song .  10 books about sports that even non-fans should read .  7 great works of fiction inspired by famous architecture .  Top 10 best-worst lawyers in Fiction . (hahahaha!) Book Industry Study Group shares (some) findings from "Consumer Attitudes Towards E-reading" report.  Q&A with the women who write dinosaur erotica . (dinorotica? Eroti...

Happy Monday! Dieselpunk for beginners.  An endless 1940s timeloop . Do YOU know a book lover? (I assume you all know at least one.) 20 obscure SF/F/H books recommended by the pros .  (I have to strongly disagree with the Gormenghast novels.) The Washington Post talks copyright.   (the comments are worth reading too, although not all of them make sense.) Copyright and Sound Recordings (I talked a little bit about this last fall. The Sound Recording/copyright intersection fascinates me.) For major pubs, will print no longer be the norm? PW Pics:  Books of the week for October 28, 2013

So, what's shaking in the world today? The cast for the BBC adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell  has been announced . Clive Barker to pen "Hellraiser" remake . (yeah, I was scared to death the first time around.) Nerdist lists their Top 10 Horror novels . Few complaints about censorship at Massachusetts libraries . Does "e-book" have a hyphen?  NYT Style Guide Says......  "Yes, Ma'am, it does"  11 psychological stories that will make you worry for your sanity . "Four Librarians, Four E-readers, Two Years."  Interesting experiment with...well, the title explains it. Happy Friday!

I tweeted yesterday on twitter about my new favorite source for upcoming Science Fiction and Fantasy Books: Fantasy Book Critic . Do I wish the format was a little better?  Yes, it can be difficult to read at times. But, it is the most comprehensive list I have found. If you know of others, send them my way! The ultimate guide to evil cats in SF/F .  Heh. Better off dead: 10 posthumous novels that should never have been published . The New Yorker  would like you to read a new Haruki Murakami short story online . American Mensa would like to share with you their Top 10 Banned Books list . Flavorwire ranks 20 classic YA literature heroines . Librarians and Distributors react to the Macmillan announcement. (for the record, I agree most with the last statement by ALA President, Barbara Stripling. "there is still a long way to go with publishers on ebooks.) Happy Thursday!

Felix Francis talks mysteries, and taking over his father's series . Not available in libraries (to my knowledge) but something your patrons may still want to know about: Bryan Cranston narrates The Things They Carried  by Tim O'Brien , for audible.  If you're looking for public domain audiobooks, LibriVox has recently been updated . Check out the spiffy new site here. 15 Famous Authors and their fashion label counterparts . Interesting.  Intriguing story involving republishing interviews as ebooks, and who may (or may not) own copyright in the interview . Kirkus provides "Best Books for Dogging the NSA"   Just for fun: The Walking Dead Singalong?  I'm sure someone asked for it...

I think life has returned to some sort of normal. I hope I didn't just jinx everything by saying that.... Check out this interview with David Sedaris. The beginning is in Dutch, but it switches over to English. If you're coming to Indianapolis for PLA 2014, you'll get to see him live and in person .  PEW updates the numbers on Tablet and E-Reader ownership in the US .  TED Talk:  Adventures in Twitter fiction   (this is fascinating, and well worth the time it takes to watch.)  Scott Turow is still railing against Fair Use . (damn libraries!) Mystery author Thomas H. Cook lists is 10 favorite mystery novels .  8 words that authors invented .  The A-Z of Stephen King movies and shows .  Harrison Ford talks about stuff. (you don't care what. Just read it!)  Ronald D. Moore talks the new Outlander  tv show .   25 scary stories by Stephen King and other great horror writers that you can read ...

Yesterday, I was casting about for a reasonable weeding project--one that I could complete within a day or two. I am always conscious of the need to weed in my part of the 800s , which includes more than 13,000 items. Sometimes I even make progress toward this end . Then I remembered that I had been planning to pare down the Shakespeare section, which would allow me to create space and clear out some dead weight. I'm not sure what other large public libraries have for Shakespeare in nonfiction; the section here includes the plays and criticism. (There is also a shelf full of the plays among the YA paperbacks.) For the purposes of this weeding project, I only targeted books with the 822.33 label--yes, Shakespeare has his own call number all to himself! When I started this project, we had nearly 600 items with an 822.33 call number that took up approximately 18 shelves. The average publication date of these items was 1969, and a few of the oldest were from the 1800s. One of the...

Happy Thursday!  And now the news.... Keira Knightly to star in big screen adaptation of  The Other Typist   Tim Burton to direct big screen adaptation of M iss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children More news on the Outlander  series coming to cable . The top 10 embarrassing moments in children's books (as chronicled by Mark Lowery. Hilarious.) 10 great multicultural children's books Coming in 2016.....modern writers translating Shakespeare to prose . Arthur C. Clarke's DNA to join mission into deep space .  (awesome!) Why Big Publishing thinks genre fiction is the future of E-books.  A Brief history of the dystopian novel . Create custom cookbooks with Random House's TasteBook Tim O'Brien wins $100k Pritzker Military Library Literature Award The list of most pirated tv shows  June is wedding month, right?   Wedding Photos of 16 Famous Authors in Love. Just for fun: Difficult men: tortured souls who make terrifi...

It's Thursday! It's Thursday! (There is a dance that goes along with this.) "Sex should not be forbidden in books for young people" Philip Pullman (He's all over the news lately.) Bestselling author Vince Flynn dies of cancer . Fifty Shades of Grey  movie gets its director . A post from @rachel_nk: " Collection Development: Power to the People " Zola Books, social retailer and publisher, to launch in September . Alice Munro talks about her decision to retire from writing . " Why is modern poetry so bad? " Is it? Michael Sheen has signed to read the audio version of Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane . LeVar Burton talks favorite children's books . Did you know: that old book smell is a mix of grass and vanilla.  (Really?!) Barnes & Noble has a summer reading program! 50 Essential LGBT Films Just for Fun: New City of Bones  trailer . Infographic:  Superman history . (LOVE!) 10 "Sciencey...

Happy Tuesday! Really, this qualifies as news?  Stephen King's Joyland  pirated . Apple took away RH's app until they agreed to play by the iRules. (I had no idea each publisher had their own app? Does anyone  buy books from iBookstore?) Brad Ricca's Super Boys  tells the story of Superman's creators Infographic : Ray Bradbury's predictions fulfilled. First Book confronts lack of diversity in children's books . Just for fun: The Joy of Books  video .  (super cute) Jon Snow's 80s training montage. I thought nothing could be better than the title. Then I saw the video.

The Friday links are short and sweet! New CIA Deputy Director used to be a bookseller that, gasp, held "Erotica Nights" at the store .  (yay!) Why Judy Blume's "Forever" is.....for ever . James Joyce's last undiscovered collection to be published The Al Michaels autobiography is a GO!  (I immediately heard the MNF music....not the Sunday night football music...) 20 awesome street art inspired book covers

Good Morning, Collection Reflection-ers!  Finally, after many conferences and illnesses, I'm back!   Happy Thursday.  Let's have some links! Zadie Smith fights the good fight against the false choice of career vs. family . DBW explains the recent spike in bestseller ebooks prices . In the UK, self published books are 20% of the genre fic market . Werewolf erotica is NOT  pornography (according to a California appeals court) Read the decision here . The complete book list from NPR's backseat bookclub . Philip Pullman ventures to the dark side on ebook loans . (UK model vs. US model and PLR) Fascinating article about the library at Guantanamo Bay prison . The changing face of high school reading lists . Help save a Timbuktu library BBC America announces a 4 part documentary series on Science Fiction .  (just when I was contemplating getting rid of cable again....) E-readers don't cut down on reading comprehension  Expanding the audio...

Happy Monday! A look at collection development over in the UK : "The main weeding criteria for well-conditioned stock is usage. Any fiction or non-fiction book that has not been borrowed in a year is either transferred to a different library or deleted. We automatically delete children’s non-fiction over ten years old although non-fiction relating to subjects like geography, computing and science are often weeded earlier (similarly for adult non-fiction in these subject areas)." From The Atlantic , Every Library and Museum in the US, Mapped . Pretty damn cool. From NPR, Five Books to Look Forward to This Summer . Neil Gaiman remembers Iain Banks . From the LA Times ,  Beyond Game of Thrones : Exploring Diversity in Speculative Fiction . According to Bowker, self-published ebooks represent 12% of ebook sales . Winners from the Lambda Literary Awards. Why do we read novelizations ? Evidence mounting that Pablo Neruda was murdered  (in 1973). 30 of the mos...

One of the areas of my responsibility in the nonfiction collection is the 840s. Officially this is "Literatures of Romance languages"--on a practical level, this translates to "French literature and related stuff." There may have been a time when French poetry, plays, criticism, and novels were incredibly popular at my library, but now is not that time. The average copyright date of items in this section is 1965 (the median and mode are both 1967). The Spanish-language (860s) and Russian-language (890s) sections are both over capacity and much more heavily used at my library, and weeding the 840s will help provide some additional space in that area. The weeding list I am working from encompasses the majority of the items in this part of the collection. So what do you do when you have an area to weed and you could theoretically delete almost every item? I was given responsibility for this area because I have a mild grasp of French and opinions about literature.* A...

Happy Tuesday! Cengage may declare bankruptcy . Don't judge old books by their new covers:  Restyling the covers of classics . A law librarian at the Library of Congress blog investigates the origin of "In God We Trust " on our currency. The Appeal of Reading True Stories --a list of suggestions for nonfiction reader's advisory. From Scientific American ,  The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper vs. Screens . Why Haruki Murakami translated The Great Gatsby . From the World's Strongest Librarian Josh Hanagarne, five great books about libraries . Just for Fun : How to Host a Genre-Reveal Party . Help a library, send a postcard ! 50 tattoos inspired by books .

This post was originally run by Kristi over at Books, Yarn, Ink, and Other Pursuits , but it is relevant to our interests here as well! She recently began working as a library director in western Massachusetts, and has been doing a lot of learning on the job. ________ Now that I have been here a year, I am starting to work on filling the holes in my knowledge about the collection. Over the last year I did accomplish some massive weeding projects throughout nonfiction, VHS, and books on cassette. We had some heavy-duty shelf sitters and overcrowded subject areas. The previous director loved nonfiction, but I have always been a fiction buyer and that was where I focused my efforts when I began working with the collection. Mysteries are the most popular genre here, but they still need to be weeded from time to time. I also broke out science fiction and fantasy into its own area. One thing I have enjoyed bringing to the library is more displays. We are a small library, but I have a b...

More Potter! Universal announces of the expansion of the Harry Potter theme park . How do YOU  like your classic lit: in a ball gown or lingerie? Women love erotica: they always have and they always will . (Women are a monolith now?) Polish spy, said to be inspiration for Bond girls, to be commemorated . Sourcebooks and Overdrive present: The Big Library Read . Ergonomics 101: for writers . (A lot of this applies to librarians, some of whom also sit a lot.) 10 disappointing film adaptations of classic American novels . 10 "essential" neo-noir authors . Famous books you didn't know were censored . Just for Fun: Could you talk to a caveman?  (I do. So often...) The best SF/F moms . William Shakespeare's Star Wars staged in Philly . (!!!) I would read each one of these fictional mama's biographies .

Happy Thursday! Last week, I presented on " Full-Frontal Shelving: Erotica in the Library " with  Kristi Chadwick --lots of opportunities for collection development in that area! The Anthony Award Nominees are out! Locus Award Nominees ! Finalists for the Shirley Jackson Awards (outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic). A handy flowchart for YA humor books (via the Lawrence PL). If you were waiting for a sequel to A Time to Kill , you're in luck . Via our friend @librarymary40, some tips on how to get started in a new library job . From Book Riot, your guide to summer movies based on books . Just for Fun : A brilliant solution to the quandary presented by reading in the bathtub .

"Denewing" is the term I invented for the process of taking books from the new shelf and changing their status to, for lack of a better word, "not-new." Sure, I could farm the work out to other people in my library, but it's never been clear to me why I would when denewing presents the perfect opportunity to see what has been circulating, how many times, and (thanks to Evergreen, our new ILS) the last library at which an item was checked out. Plus, peeling stickers = therapeutic. Denewing is something I can do on desk while I help people with their various computer issues. Denewing also makes your new shelves look better. Because space is at such a premium in most public libraries (although regular weeding could help with that-- cough ), the New Shelf is the place where we have the best opportunity to showcase what we're buying and catch people's attention. The new shelf should be positioned somewhere where it will catch patrons' eyes and shout (it...

Good morning and Happy Monday! Recommended reading for new (and not so new) librarians . What we can learn from PEW's changing world of librarians . Judging Gatsby by its cover(s) . The digital truths traditional publishers don't want to hear . Fascinating blog of books available in the Guantanamo Bay library . LJ's Periodical Price Survey 2013 . Isabelle Allende on her new book, grandchildren, and loss . 25 vintage photographs of librarians....being awesome . 20 amazing outdoor libraries . (Outdoor....I think I just got hives!) Internet archive strives to keep web history alive . Just for Fun: Stephen King's 11/22/63  on track to become a tv series. LA Confidential  getting a TV series sequel .

Happy Wednesday! Flowchart:  Which Shakespeare play should I read ? A special Bush Library exhibit puts visitors in the president's shoes . Yay? Authorized Margaret Thatcher bio coming in May . JD Salinger letters discovered . From Whitman to Lethem, a journey through Brooklyn's literary past . Jason Segel to write children's book series . Original BEA interviews with Wally Lamb and Ishmael Beah 11 famous actors reading Shakespeare out loud . Just for Fun : Cover battles: Original covers vs. redesigns . (As if Abercrombie Anne of Green Gables would ever  win.) A library of miniature books . Do you need to hear the Game of Thrones  theme played on a college bell tower?  Of course you do!

Happy Monday! Marketing Libraries is like marketing mayonnaise.  (I love it!) Ebook reader and buyer habits are changing . So what's next for ebooks and libraries ? What would happen if Amazon gave away every book for free ?  (I'd have a lot of books!) Sacramento library adds 3-D copies to its bag of tricks . What is being described as " the Porsche of e-readers "? Selecting materials for a Latino user collection  (via Letters to a Young Librarian). A school librarian describes building a graphic novel collection . Lists : Making its way around the web:  30 things to tell a book snob . 10 great kids' books that have never been made into movies . The Eisner nominees are ... The 2013 Los Angeles Times book prize winners are ... Play (dead) ball! A list of baseball mysteries . Just for Fun : The Evolution of Lois Lane . French literacy campaign ads make you look twice .