National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists

The 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award FinalistsA few of the finalists with links to the library’s catalog.

Autobiography
Heart like Water Joshua Clark
Brother I’m dying Edwidge Danticat

Nonfiction
Legacy of Ashes Tim Weiner
World without us Alan Weisman

Fiction
Sacred Games Vikram Chandra
The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz

Biography
Thomas Hardy Claire Tomalin

For the full list
The 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists

Yet another e-book reader

Amazon Kindle Well, to be fair, this does seem to have made a bit of a leap from it's predecessors in that it's actually wireless and doesn't need a PC to retrieve material. Amazon appears to be picking up the expense of the wireless. The Kindle is also using an electronic paper display screen which could solve some of the fuzzy display problems from the past. The price is still a bit steep though at $399. A ebook reader could be a boon for college students with sore backs from lugging heavy textbooks around, but a niche market like that doesn't seem to be where the technology is headed.

ATM for books?

This news piece in the November 2 issue of Time magazine is a bit of an eye opener. An ATM for Books.

It describes a printer that can publish a 300 page paperback book in a matter of minutes and could be used to create on demand copies of hard to find titles.

On Demand Books Inc. is still in a fledgling state, but it will be interesting to see if this kind of service takes hold.

Small Vermont Library straddles U.S./Canada border

This story from CNN reports on a the public library in Derby Vermont that straddles the US/Canada border. It's made the US Federal government nervous in that people are crossing over the border freely....seeing as it runs down the center of the library building. Patrons enter the library in the United States and check out their material at the circulation desk that is located in Canada.

The library's website. There is also an opera house....the stage is in Canada, the audience is in the United States.

1001 Books to Read before you die

The book, 1001 Books to read before you die, lists reviews on books that could be consider classics. Choices for inclusion were made by experts on various authors and genres.

An enterprising blogger created a downloadable spreadsheet listing out all of the titles and included boxes to check off. It's interesting and provides plenty of fodder for discussion.

Download a spreadsheet

Author David Halberstam

Books by David Halberstam

David Halberstam killed in a car accident.....
He worked as an intern for the Hartford Courant during the summers of 1952,1953 and 1954.

What is del.icio.us?

del.icio.us

Other than the odd name....it is a website that allows for online bookmarking; in a nut shell, the "favorites" function in browser but online. The beauty of it than is that it can be accessed from any computer.

It's not the prettiest website and the interface takes a bit getting used to, but once a few websites are bookmarked the usefulness because much more clear. I have an account set up for the reference staff at the library. There are a number of us that cover the desk and we all have our go-to websites but hadn't really had a good way of keeping track and sorting the different websites that get used. So far so good with del.icio.us as it has a search function.

A new account is needed to get started. The process is fairly simple, including the need to add two buttons to the browser tool bar. One of the buttons, the tag button, allows for easy catogorizing of websites with tags, much like subject headings or keywords in the library catalog. Once there are a number of tags that have been entered, the user can "bundle" similar tags to make searching through the bookmarks easier.

Lots of new things to try

We have downloadable audio books!
The occasional patron, starting a few years, had mention the possibility of being able to download audio books like being able to download music. Now, it is actually possible and it’s much easier to do that I had expected. They are available at http://bibliomation.lib.overdrive.com.

A few things to be aware of: this is a shared collection with a number of other libraries. Most titles are on a “one patron at a time” model, just like a physical book or book on tape. So if it’s checked out, a hold can be placed and an email notice is sent when the title can be checked out again. There are a number of titles that are always available, meaning that they can be checked to an unlimited number of people at a time.

Also new....playaway audio books. We only have a handful of titles at the moment though we are planning on adding some more. Just what is a playaway audio book? It is a preloaded audio player that has all the controls to listen. No need to download anything, no need to have an MP3 player...
Click here for titles

These have proven to be very popular. Place holds for titles that checked out.

Blog written by Saad Eskander, the director of Iraq’s National Library and Archive in Baghdad

http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary.html

I can't imagine what a "typical" day is like for librarians in a war zone. They deserve a tremendous amount of credit for doing the work they are doing.