Collection Reflection

Can we talk, for a minute, about things that aren't books? Don't get me wrong, I love books. I do. I always have. And, honestly, I can't even imagine that a day will come when I will disavow them. Not even for a million dollars. Not even for ten mill.....well, let's not go quite THAT far. But, the point remains, I love books so this is not even close to an anti-book screed. And, I understand that books and literacy are, and have been, the cornerstone of libraries. That's wonderful. Encouraging literacy, and a love of reading, is a fantastic thing to be associated with your organization/profession. I can't think of many people who would argue against these things, and it makes for wonderful, heart warming stories to share with people who hold the purse strings. But, libraries have been circulating things OTHER than books for a long time. In fact, I don't know that I can remember a time when libraries only had books. Even the tiny library in my hometown...

What are THE 8 books you need to read this June? 10 Irresistible books about juicy scandals . The Earth and the moon have been lying about their age. HathiTrust! The Importance of the Horror genre and why we love it.  13 movies that explore the future of technology Infographic:   Game of Thrones, how the books stack up. Lovereading wants to help choose your next book . Infographic: The Habits of British book readers Ghosts in the stacks: finding the forgotten books  How do you stop kids from reading a book? Telling them they can't is probably NOT the right answer... From Lisa Rabey: Graphic Novel Collections in Academia

I covered some of this ground in Getting Started with Graphic Novels , but I wanted to revisit the topic for a more in-depth look at how I choose what adult graphic novels to purchase. As I mentioned, I use a variety of review sources and websites, including: Library Journal , Booklist , Publishers Weekly The A.V. Club, Graphic Novel Reporter, Paste, NPR, i09, Diamond Eisner nominees and other lists curated by organizations like YALSA New York Times  bestseller lists (and occasionally reviews from NYT or LA Times ) Since I only order graphic novels one or two times a year, I needed a method to keep track of the items that are reviewed or listed over the course of the year. To do this--surprising to no one, I'm sure--I use a spreadsheet. When I encounter a potential purchase, I record the publication year, author, and title, as well as the review source.  The Spreadsheet Approach in Action On the far left, I assign stars based on how much weight I'm giving a ce...

With a busy couple of weeks behind me, and a busy couple of days ahead of me, let's have some links! New species of Croc named after a Tolkien beastie . Ebooks to outsell print by 2018?  Let's just wait and see, shall we? How would YOU rank the Stephen King books? Archie comics introduces the first character with a disability. Kirkus talks the best speculative fiction reads for June . Some big names in publishing celebrate the life and works of Octavia Butler (video) Penguin releases previously unpublished Dorothy Parker stories SF/F authors share their first SF/F reads with USA Today 9 ways book tech changes the future of books and how we read  Dispatches from IDPF Digital Book conference re: Public Libraries Oprah will narrate her next audiobook, based on the "What I know for sure" column from O magazine .  Just for fun: Game of Thrones: By the numbers