A Facebook group called "People for a library-themed Ben & Jerry's flavor" has attracted over 5,000 members, and is bent on petitioning the ice-cream company into submission. The group's suggestions for the new flavor include Gooey Decimal System, Chocolate Chip Bookie-Dough, and my favorite, Of Ice and M&M.
Read all about the cause in the New Yorker, or join the Facebook group yourself.
One Book, One Community programs bring communities together for stimulating discussions about a common reading experience. This year, the Troy Public Library, in cooperation with the Suburban Library Cooperative and its member libraries, is pleased to offer a series of discussions and programs about The Novels of Jane Austen.Our Booked for Lunch program will feature Emma on September 9.
Enhance your reading experience even more by attending these great programs sponsored by the Friends of the Troy Public Library:Jane Austen and her World, August 5, at 7 pm. Annick Hivert-Carthew will introduce you to Jane Austen through her letters, pictures and artifacts. Register here or by calling 248.524.3542.Jane Austen Film Festival, September 12, from 12 noon to 5 pm. Emma and Bride and Prejudice, the Bollywood adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Join us for one or both films and enjoy tea and scones between showings (recommended for older teens and above). Register here (beginning August 10) or by calling 248.524.3542.
One Book, One Community Tea, October 14, at 1 pm. Elliot Engel, PhD will present The Brilliance of Jane Austen followed by a light tea at the Macomb Intermediate School District in Clinton Township. This free event requires advance registration beginning August 3.For more information, please visit the One Book, One Community website beginning August 3, or pick up a reading or program guide at the Troy Library.
I dropped by the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn today, to see the OverDrive Digital Bookmobile. OverDrive is one of our vendors of downloadable titles – those audiobooks, ebooks, and videos that you can download directly from our website to your computer, no matter where you are or what time it is, as long as you have an Internet connection and a Troy Library card.The Digital Bookmobile is a 21st century take on a traditional library service. It is an 18-wheel tractor-trailer that houses interactive exhibits which explain what downloadabes are, and which show how to use them. The company is bringing its Digital Bookmobile to area libraries to promote this popular service.The Dearborn Library organized a nice event, with a county fair feel. As I approached the area, I could see several tents: cookies and key chains distributed by the Library Friends; a drawing for two Sansa mp3 players held by the Library staff; information provided by OverDrive; and even a trio playing music.But nothing was as impressive as the Bookmobile itself. It was huge. It is one thing to read about an 18-wheel tractor trailer outfitted with enough electronic equipment for a small library; it is another thing to see it close up, painted in the pastel company colors.
Upon entering, I first encountered a screen – several, in fact – explaining what downloadables are.
After viewing this well-done, introductory explanation, I moved into the next area of the bookmobile that housed about a dozen computers – both PCs and Apples. Here, visitors could sample a selection of audiobooks, ebooks, and video. I listened to a few minutes of The Cat in the Hat. The quality of the recording was sharp, and the presentation was pleasant and user-friendly.
I then moved to the next section of the mobile where there were several portable devices on display – from an Apple iPod to a Sony Reader.
The OverDrive staff helpfully explained to visitors the downloading process, and what the strengths and weaknesses of the various devices were.After I left the Bookmobile, I spoke for a few minutes with Julie Schaefer, the Library’s Deputy Director. She was very enthusiastic about the public response to the Bookmobile, and to the Library’s downloadable service. Indeed, in the few minutes I was there, a steady stream of Dearborn Library users entered the Bookmobile.
Julie reminded me that several libraries were reporting increases of up to 100% in downloadable use after a visit by the bookmobile. As Dearborn and Troy have been in a friendly competition to see which library could generate the most use of this service, she was please that her library would certainly see a bump in activity. (From January through July, Troy was just edging out Dearborn in total OverDrive use.)Congratulations to Julie and her staff for a great outreach and public relations event. It will certainly improve the recognition and use of downloadables throughout the area.We are hoping to have the OverDrive Bookmobile come to Troy within the next several months. In the meantime, if you would like to try this service, go to the Troy OverDrive site, or drop by the Library’s Technology Desk, and we’ll show you why this service is so convenient and popular.
Attention genealogists: Do you use a Michigan public library to help you in your family research? If so, the Lansing State Journal would like to know. The Journal is conducting a poll about the use of local libraries for such research.The poll ends at 7 pm tonight. Go to the Journal and click on Your Take, about halfway down the page.
This is a good way to let elected officials in Lansing know how important libraries are to the people of the State.
An apartment management company is suing a Chicago woman for tweeting that her apartment contained mold.According to Mai Ling, writing on the MSN Real Estate blog, tenant Amanda Bonnen’s tweet – “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it's okay." – is being challenged in court by the Horizon Group Management, which said Bonnen’s post "maliciously and wrongfully" criticized her apartment.The company is seeking $50,000 in damages in one of the first libel lawsuits involving the social networking site Twitter.
Writes Ling:
"Unfortunately for Horizon, the damage that Bonnen's tweet to her 20 followers would have caused the company is probably much less than the effect of this lawsuit. Now the company will forever be linked to a tenant's comment about her alleged moldy apartment, regardless of whether Horizon can prove the statement was false."
In October 2008, Google announced that it had reached a settlement with major publishers that would end the publishers’ copyright lawsuit against Google Books. In the settlement, Google would pay publishers and authors $125 million. In exchange, the company would resume scanning copyrighted, out-of-print books, and provide up to 20% of the text on-line at no charge, under its Google Book Search program. A final approval was originally scheduled for May 2009.Almost immediately, opposition arose from some publishers and academic institutions, who were concerned about Google receiving a monopoly over millions of orphaned books – those titles were a copyright holder cannot be found. A federal judge ordered a four-month delay to the settlement, to give time to the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the antitrust implications of the deal.For those of you interested in this issue – including its impact on authors, booksellers, librarians, and copyright law – you might want to check out The Public Index. This site is dedicated to studying and discussing this proposed settlement. Here, you can browse and annotate the settlement, section-by-section. In addition, you can:- Study the reading room of lawsuit documents
- Join the conversation in the forums
- Draft an amicus brief to the court on the wiki
The Public Index is a project of the Public-Interest Book Search Initiative and the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, a group of professors, students, and volunteers who believe that the Google Book Search lawsuit and settlement deserve a full, careful, and thoughtful public discussion.The site’s creators write:“This is a site for everyone, dedicated to no particular point of view other than the advancement of dialogue and understanding. We hope that the site will help the settlement’s fans and foes dispel misunderstandings and find common ground, and that those who have not made up their minds will find the facts and explanations they need to reach informed decisions for themselves”
Thinking about buying a Kindle 2? Nicholson Baker from the New Yorker bought one, but then again, how could he not?"Everybody was saying that the new Kindle was terribly important—that it was an alpenhorn blast of post-Gutenbergian revalorization. In the Wall Street Journal, the cultural critic Steven Johnson wrote that he’d been alone one day in a restaurant in Austin, Texas, when he was seized by the urge to read a novel. Within minutes, thanks to Kindle’s free 3G hookup with Sprint wireless — they call it Whispernet — he was well into Chapter 1 of Zadie Smith’s On Beauty ($9.99 for the e-book, $10.20 for the paperback). Writing and publishing, he believed, would never be the same."
Baker gives a thorough review (seven pages online) of his Kindle 2, elaborating on his personal experience, as well as citing celebrities and "ordinary people" alike. With convincing arguments both for and against digital media, I do wonder if the Kindle or other similar devices will ever become mainstream and functional enough to truly replace ink on paper. [via The New Yorker]
Remember old library bookmobile, that would drive around town delivering paper copies of books to you right in your neighborhood? Well, OverDrive, one of Troy Public Library's downloadable providers, has brought the bookmobile into the 21st century.
The new OverDrive Digital Bookmobile doesn't deliver physical books to people. Instead, it is an 18-wheel tractor-trailer that houses interactive exhibits to show people how to download library items without having to leave home. Visitors will be able to sample downloadable ebooks, audiobooks, and video available from OverDrive. The Bookmobile features broadband connected PCs and an array of portable digital devices such as MP3 players and ebook readers.The OverDrive Digital Bookmobile will be at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn on July 30 from 11 am to 5 pm. The Troy Library is in the same OverDrive group as Dearborn, so OverDrive items found in the catalog there can also be accessed through Troy's OverDrive site, as long as you have a valid Troy Library card.
If you go, let us know what you think!
