Collection Reflection

Happy Whatever Day This Is! Ampersand squabble!  S&S and B&N in dispute over terms . Lori Reed asks (and answers) What can libraries do to instill a lifetime of learning and relearning ? A cool infographic-esque look at Richard Stark's (Donald Westlake) Parker series . The 10 rights of a reader .  Hillary Clinton talks possible memoir . Tom Hardy to star in Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 . From Linda Holmes at NPR: Coastal Snobbery, 'The Masses,' and Respecting the Lowest Common Denominator : "But somehow in culture, "lowest common denominator" has become a way to describe not what's unifying but what's worst, as if we all come together where we are awful and stupid. In fact, when we do all come together in large numbers, it's usually not where we are awful and stupid, particularly not because we are awful and stupid. We come together where there's enough commonality to let people talk to each other about the same thing. ...

It's that time of year again. The end of football season. The Big GAME. You know the one. It's also a perfect time to talk about football books, old and new. And what goes better with football than...advertising? Well, that seems to be the most popular sideshow to the BIG GAME. The Big Ads.  Heck, we could even call them SuperAds. Greg Rosenthal from Around the League over at NFL.com did a list of favorite football books . The first book on the list, The New Thinking Man's Guide to Football by Paul Zimmerman is out of print, and doesn't appear to be available in a newer version than the most recent (1984) version. The list is wide ranging, though, and a great starting point for readers depending on their purpose. Are they coaching? Are they interested in players? Are they interested in knowing all there (or was) to know about the history of the game? This list is the place to start.  Bleacher Report's list is called "The 11 Football Books Any Tru...

Happy Wednesday! Let's all try to survive. J.D. Salinger to be the focus of a "major biography" due out in September 2013. NFL team name makeovers: literary style! (The Washington Irvings) needs to be a team right now! A quilt hanging in our library for the annual Meet the Artist exhibit causes a stir . (Art in libraries. Yea or Nay? Love to hear your thoughts on this!) "What genre (SF/F) novels would benefit from a re-branding as young adult? Which YA novels should NOT be branded as such? " (This was a question when some of these novels were released. I remember the Dragonlance Chronicles and the Lackey books being labeled YA in some places.) From the Swiss Army Librarian, a post on how to stop the Scientologists from sending books to your library . Now we just need the same thing for Warren Jeffs. Amy Poehler has a book contract ! Let’s not forget about the adult books that won awards at ALA Midwinter . (Yay for The Rook !) First Drafts: Po...

Happy Tuesday. Have some links! TODAY: Diane Rehm talks about the Growing Popularity of Audio Books with a panel that includes audio publishing exec, librarian, and audiobook narrator. Infographic: The Future of Libraries . (From Open-Site.org.) Rare Robert Frost collection surfaces 50 years after his death . The Weird Ass picture book awards . (Really!) 3 Epiphanies About Social Media Marketing for Books . (Interesting.) What we learned about Neil Gaiman's influences from his interview with NPR Oprah and Ayana Mathis talk The Twelve Tribes of Hattie Reading can boost a child's IQ by more than 6 points. Just for fun: Authors with the "juiciest love lives" (I couldn't have possibly resisted this.)

On TUESDAY, January 29th , the Diane Rehm show will feature " The Growing Popularity of Audiobooks " with a panel including reps from publishing, a narrator, and a librarian. Give it a listen. (I'll remind you tomorrow!) Just in! Winners of the ALA Youth Media Awards ! Via Publishers Weekly ,  The Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2013 . (Nicely broken down by genre.) Hilary Mantel on having her Thomas Cromwell novels adapted by the RSC . (Video.) The Failure of Book Trailers, and the Rare Exception . (I've still never seen a book trailer--H.) Our friend Kristi (@booksnyarn) wrote a post on the recent news about Macmillan and library ebooks . How SF author Jeremiah Tolbert recommends books (a dose of Reader's Advisory for your morning). Speaking of Reader's Advisory, here's a post from AbeBooks on Dragons in Literature . My friend Caro used pictures to illustrate weeding the print reference collection at Hampshire College . B&N  plans...

Infographic: Who reads Ebooks?  (I do, I do!) Infographic: Can Ebooks and Libraries coexist? Connecticut tries the legislative approach to ebooks and libraries . Text of the bill here . (Interesting!) Macmillan jumping into the library ebooks pool . The Digital Reader's take on the Macmillan news .  Over at AudioGals, they're wrapping up Sandra Brown week . The Top 50 Christian Bestsellers for 2012 as reported by the ECPA Anatomy of a Fantasy book cover: Michael Whelan talks A Memory of Light  (he's designed some of my very favorite covers.) EarlyWord has the Procrastinator's Guide to Midwinter 2013 --- but you don't have to read it yet.....you've got time! And in more "movies I didn't know where based on books" news, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is getting a sequel . Based on Book 5 of the series Just for fun: A Loki seduction: Tom Hiddleston reads Lord Byron's She Walks in Beauty . Timeline for The Lord of t...

Libraries: Good Value, Lousy Marketing (more responses to the recent Pew poll). Info Tech and Public Libraries: Edge Benchmarks 1.0 . Do YOU HQ?  (More than 7,200 libraries do!) From DBW13: Libraries offer Publishers local marketing advantage The Word of the day is: Integration:  Sirsi/Dynix & Overdrive ; Sirsi/Dynix & 3M . With a nod to our academic friends: " The State of Large Publisher Bundles in 2012 ." Ingram integrating new ebook lending model . 10 Bestselling Novels (and who should adapt them) . It's 2013 -- Where's that Kindle library ebook support we were promised? Classic Choose Your Own Adventure books are now available on the iPad . A new Song of Ice and Fire novella by George R.R. Martin will be included in the upcoming anthology Dangerous Women , which Martin is co-editing . Meet New York's loyal public library patrons . (I love this!) Margaret Atwood thinks you should read whatever you want.   “Nor did I make any ...

Diamond releases Top Graphic Novel Charts for 2012 . (Scroll all the way down for indie publishers.) "Lewd, lecherous, or obscene nature and intent " (and dangerous to know?) David Fincher in talks to direct big screen version of Gone Girl . James Franco brings American Tabloid to the big screen . (Books news with bonus Franco! Win.) BBCA bringing "classic" Doctor Who to the States . Jim C. Hines explains "Cover Art -- so where's the problem? " complete with some covers that are getting it RIGHT! Book buying is, apparently, a difficult thing for bookstores to do . The Shortlist for the UK's "Romantic Novel of the Year " "From Washington to Washington" linking President Obama's inaugural speech to ALA Midwinter . Zombieland the TV Show heads to Amazon.com . Self published bestseller lists from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, & Smashwords  (via Galleycat). 10 Books to read instead of watching MTV's...

Frozen Tuesday, Cozy Links! CBS This Morning profiled Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey . Americans call for libraries to provide more ebooks . (But they could buy them right from their device...) Related: Mashable breaks down the latest Pew poll on libraries . Free books that inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr . A Sundance 2013 review of Austenland . Amazon's Children's Publishing expands . This gives a whole new meaning to Love Your Library day!   From Publishers Weekly : " What We Buy Now: A Look at Purchasing Trends in Libraries ." "'We only buy nonfiction if it’s on the New York Times bestseller list. I think of nonfiction as the methadone for librarians—it’s their fix when they can’t buy reference.'" [Meh. -helgagrace] Why Online Book Discovery is Broken (And How to Fix It) . Happy Tuesday!

Happy Friday links! A London man finds only the second known, Mary Shelley inscribed copy of Frankenstein . (I wonder what else Grandpa has hiding on those shelves!) Jim Hines continues his battle against sexist SF/F covers .  (and I love him for it!) Forbes' talks about Why Public Libraries: and how they can do more .  Can the public library deliver that "golden egg"?   ABEbooks talks the 50 Essential Science Fiction Books . (your mileage may vary...) Penguin to start delivering POD books via Espresso .  10 Novels to solve all of your problems . Upon the death of Dear Abby , Galley cat tells us about 20 songs that were Dear Abby inspired. Why the hell would anyone put up a "Do Not Read" list ?  No, seriously.  (and I laughed hysterically, so I'm part of the problem!) Was 2012 the Year of Hand-Me-Down readers? Just for fun: Making of "Lincoln" featurette.

Love is in the links.... It is time for Digital Book World!  If you're on twitter, you can follow along at hashtag #DBW13 .  Authors and publisher and book tweets. Check it out. Real life stories behind 10 famous love songs . Adam Mansbach on his new book and what's in a title .  (Hard to top Go the Fuck to Sleep as far as titles go...) Bill Cosby's Speed Reading Tips!   10 Literary Board Games for Book Nerds . (redundant?) And the Edgar nominees are.... . Dust off your JoePa biographies (or at least, don't throw them away!) Al Pacino and Brian DePalma are making a movie. Just for fun: Making of Game of Thrones S3 videolog #2! Happy Thursday!

Happy Wednesday, Happy Links! Who is your best literary friend ?  (I wonder how this differs from your "book twin"...) Have YOU seen a hooded man ? North Carolina lawmaker objects to college library purchasing books on Islam . (Really? In 2013?) Overdrive thinks readers turn to libraries to discovery books and audiobooks . (I agree!) If your library is set in a pop culturally famous town.....work it ! And another plug for the awesome panel from last Saturday's panel:  Up with Chris Hayes talked with four fiction writers (Ayana Mathis, Michael Chabon, George Saunders, and Victor Lavelle) about politics and rhetoric. Lauren Pressley's book So You Want to Be a Librarian   has been unglued (and is available for free download) over at unglue.it. Check it out!

If you are responsible for collection development in just about any size or kind of library, the chances are good that there's been a recent push to reduce the size of your print reference collection.* Print reference materials are, to use a regional expression, wicked expensive. They are also being used less and less as librarians turn to databases and patrons turn to the immediate gratification of the internet. As budgets decline and libraries look to use their space in new and creative ways, physical reference collections are obvious targets for heavy weeding. Here at my library, we are reducing our reference collection by 50%. At our branches, reference collections will be cut by 75% . . . this time around. So where do you start when you are lucky enough to get the assignment to chop chop chop? Before You Begin Get a firm idea of how much the administration wants to reduce the reference collection. Survey the collection and determine how much you're going to have to weed...

New day, new links.  Happy Tuesday!  New Dan Brown!  New Dan Brown!   X-Men (?) Go all female in new book . Pilot ordered for Jo Nesbo's upcoming book, I Am Victor . A SF version of Homer's The Odyssey currently in the works . Google books and the librarian backlash .

National Book Critics Circle Award finalists announced . Lit Reactor talks about winter in Fantasy , for some recommendations on what to read after being frozen by George R. R. Martin. An article on Georgette Heyer at the Wall Street Journal , of all places. "Her reaction to being plagiarized by the "slightly illiterate" Barbara Cartland? "I would rather by far that a common thief broke in and stole all the silver." Warner Brothers wins legal control of Superman franchise . 10 private book collections of famous readers .   Conspiracy theories about classic literary characters  (who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory?!) Up with Chris Hayes talked with four fiction writers (Ayana Mathis, Michael Chabon, George Saunders, and Victor Lavelle) about politics and rhetoric. Stella Rimington, former MI5 director turned author, talks loving James Bond . The Guardian Cultural Professionals Network asks "What does a library look like in 2013?...

How on earth did it get to be January 10th already? Anyway, here are some links: Want to read some Star Wars books, but don't know where to start? Suggestions from Tor . Richard Blanco will be your (first gay, Latino) inaugural poet . Check your collection--his most recent title is Looking for the Gulf Motel  (2012). The 10 Commandments of a Righteous Readerly Life . Including: " It is not up to thee to save readerly humanity from itself ." Spielberg nixes plans to film Robopocalypse . From The Atlantic ,  Space Cartoons to Space Psychedelia: How SF Book Covers Evolved . Shiny! 10 Works of Literary Fantasy to Jumpstart Your Imagination . According to io9, all the essential SF and Fantasy books coming out in 2013 , helpfully organized by month. More shiny! The Guardian talks with readers about their Reading Resolutions . 12 "must read" erotic novels from She Knows Love .    From Book Riot, Grumpy Old Men and the Books They Hate : "Snee...

Happy Wednesday!  Let's love some links! Kirkus is newly beautiful . How important are maps to fantasy books ?  (and does it matter if we sticker the hell out of said map on inside cover....) Where'd You Go, Bernadette?   Apparently, to the big screen! McDonalds to hand out millions of children's books in happy meals . (in the UK) New price list shows marked change in library ebook availability .  (I don't know if this shows improvement in availability or some other cause.) Top Ebook Distributors, ILS Vendors to have sit down with Reader'sFirst library coalition at Midwinter. Updated: Anna (@helgagrace) was on a podcast in which librarians described their favorite books of 2012 ! Just for Fun: The trailer for documentary Google and the World Brain set to premier at Sundance:

"Now in eBook Format!" stickers at the Sacramento PL. Yea or nay? " Secret Lives of Readers ": on the ethnography of reading: "How do we recover the reading experiences of the past? Lately scholars have stepped up the hunt for evidence of how people over time have interacted with books, newspapers, and other printed material." APA surveys show growth in audiobook sales . "The average age of an audiobook listener (in any format) is 51; and their average income is $76,000. The average age of download audiobook listeners is 44; their average income skews higher at $84,000. The 25-34 age range shows a slight preference for the digital format." Our friend @librarymary40 writes about baby steps in collection analysis . In North Carolina, the library of the future has book robots . Favorite SF/F covers of 2012 . (A great list!) A series in time -- on the end of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series . (AAAAH TODAY IS THE DAY-Helga) Ja...

Happy Monday!  Have some links. Literary graffiti from around the world . 10 new "must reads" for January . The Bestselling Books of 2012 . AudioGo acquires Blackstone audio . (eep!) 10,000 Smashwords ebooks acquired by Douglas Co. Libraries . Another article about the Douglas Co & Smashwords deal . Penguin-Random House merger begins new chapter for publishing . Parade's End miniseries will be shown on HBO starting in Feb . Originally shown in the UK last year. Thanks to EarlyWord for posting this Junot Diaz interview with Bill Moyers! From Publishers Weekly : New Adult: Needless Marketing-Speak or Valued Subgenre ? If you're an adult who reads YA, the inclusion of the words "reading down" will make you hot under the collar. If you've never heard of "New Adult," consider yourself lucky. From The Millions : The Great 2013 Book Preview . Just for fun: Sci-Fi fan letter interviews Christopher Farnsworth . The 25 ...