By BRAD STONE and MOTOKO RICH Published: December 23, 2008
Could book lovers finally be willing to switch from paper to pixels? Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Alan Zale for The New York Times Although Amazon will not disclose sales figures, the Kindle has at least lived up to its name by creating broad interest in electronic books. The New York Times For a decade, consumers mostly ignored electronic book devices, which were often hard to use and offered few popular items to read. But this year, in part because of the popularity of Amazon.com’s wireless Kindle device, the e-book has started to take hold… Read more.
Unfortunately, it is still quite expensive and still does not work in Wyoming.
The Library of Congress has finished a report (full report and shorter summary in pdf) summing up what they’ve learned after the first nine months of their experimentation with Flickr. Here is an excerpt from the summary. Look at these numbers.
The following statistics attest to the popularity and impact of the pilot. As of October 23, 2008, there have been:
10.4 million views of the photos on Flickr.
79% of the 4,615 photos have been made a “favorite” (i.e., are incorporated into personal Flickr collections).
More than 15,000 Flickr members have chosen to make the Library of Congress a “contact,” creating a photostream of Library images on their own accounts.
7,166 comments were left on 2,873 photos by 2,562 unique Flickr accounts.
67,176 tags were added by 2,518 unique Flickr accounts.
4,548 of the 4,615 photos have at least one community-provided tag.
Less than 25 instances of user-generated content were removed as inappropriate.
More than 500 Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) records have been enhanced with new information provided by the Flickr Community.
Every year, NPR asks a writer to compose an original story with a Christmas theme. This year, Gregory Maguire reinvents the Hans Christian Andersen classic “The Little Match Girl” for a new time and new audiences.
Ann Arbor District Library director Josie Parker may have a pleasant Southern accent and good manners, but don’t question her toughness.
On Sunday, Parker pursued a thief after he grabbed a collection box of money donated for the library’s Family Book Club. In the process, she broke her leg and the thief got away – but not with any money.
Book club president Jenni Zimmer said club members are impressed by Parker’s bravery. “We consider her a hero,” she said.
Ed Surovell, longtime Ann Arbor library trustee, also cited Parker’s action as heroic.
“She’s tough,” he said.
Read entire article here and never, ever mess with a librarian!
Always good as a conversation starter…the things people leave in books that are not traditional bookmarks. Thousands of dollars, a Christmas card signed by Frank Baum, a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card, a marriage certificate from 1879, a baby’s tooth, a diamond ring and a handwritten poem by Irish writer Katharine Tynan Hickson are just some of the stranger objects discovered by booksellers. And then there’s the strip of bacon.
Abebooks has a listing of these items…some mundane, some bizarre, some deeply personal. What have you found?
At SCLS; a license plate, a certificate for dog surgery, mail, bills, receipts, airline tickets, grocery lists, a bug, love letters, drawn pictures, photographs, a twenty dollar bill, library cards. Some things are intriguing. Others, -not so much.
Many of us think of our dogs not as pets but as full-fledged members of our families. If you own a dog – or are thinking about getting one – A Member Of The Family is the ultimate resource for integrating your canine companion into your household.
This is not the grim, gray Moscow of Soviet times but a new Moscow awash in oil wealth and chocked with bulletproof Bentleys. A Moscow where power resides once more behind the walls of the Kremlin and where critics of the ruling class are ruthlessly silenced. A Moscow where a new generation of Stalinists is plotting to reclaim an empire lost and challenge the global dominance of its old enemy, the United States.
Stone Barrington is lured from Elaine’s to New England, and the genteel but cutthroat world of priceless antiques, historic homes, and lavish country estates. In a place dominated by bluebloods and their inherited wealth, along with the nouveau riche, there are surprisingly few rules of engagement, and Stone finds himself navigating a dangerous course, one where even the most expensive and sought after status symbols are sometimes stolen and sometimes clever fakes, though no less priceless.
Flower is only in his late thirties, but he’s been around the block a few times, and he doesn’t think much can surprise him anymore. He’s wrong. It’s a hot humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives (the second one, if you’re keeping count) when the phone rings. It’s Lucas Davenport. There’s a body in Stillwater, two shots to the head, found near a veteran’s memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth.
Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, LeHane’s eighth novel captures the political unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future. The Given Day tells of two families, one black, one white – all engaged in a battle for survival and power. Beat cop Danny Coughlin joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tried desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife.
The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros’ Networked Teacher.
Top Ten Predictions For 2009 and Beyond.
