This book features three short fictional stories of WWII on the American homefront, an angle on the conflict that hasn’t received as much attention in our popular culture as other aspects of the war have.
Our world is inundated with digital technology: mobile phones, laptops, iPads, smart cars, smart homes… The entirety of human knowledge is at our fingertips. The Internet revolutionized how we access information. It wasn’t long before people began to predict that the elimination of print was on the horizon. After all, when the Amazon Kindle was […]
Every day I see people in the library printing out electronic communications so they can review and have the information on paper: bank statements, emails, receipts, coupons, directions. People like paper, which brings me to a conundrum for my library.
Libraries, despite some strides toward a reasonable solution, still struggle with the cost of e-books. Regardless of the clear data showing the benefit of libraries lending an author’s work in print, publishers still hesitate to budge on e-book pricing. It’s different, they say. And in some ways they are right. But with issues of preservation, shrinking budgets, and rising costs, libraries have to be extremely careful about what books they stock both in print and in digital form.
It’s clear libraries and librarians face unique challenges as more and more content is presented digitally. One of the concerns I have heard from librarians relates to one of their primary missions: preservation. As an author, I share this concern. It’s been said that literature is writing that fifty years after the author’s death is forced upon high-school students by their teachers, who strive to explain what the author meant when he wrote “the sky is blue.”
What do book subscription services have to do with libraries? Well, in a Forbes article, Tim Worstall suggests we “close all of the libraries and buy everyone a Kindle Unlimited subscription.” Using his home country of the United Kingdom, the author argues such an action would benefit the public in the long run. Are subscription services library killers? Here are some simple reasons why not.
In a thestar.com article dated June 18, 2015, Vickery Bowles of Toronto Public Library lamented that the Big Five Publishers charge libraries up to $135 per ebook, sometimes five times the cost consumers pay. These publishers supply nearly half of all library books, according to the story. Purchasing multiple copies of high interest titles has put tremendous strain on some library’s budgets.
Many assumptions have been made about the fate of print books, and how e-books and our increasingly digital world will change the way people read and study. We all love the convenience and space-saving qualities of e-books, as well as the fun devices they live on. However, a Washington Post article from February discussed something unexpected: the fact that most college-aged students, often called “millennials” or “digital natives,” prefer reading print books.
I have always loved books. I have a bookshelf filled with them, and they have now spilled over to my nightstand and bureau. There was a time that on principal, I refused to buy a Kindle because of my love of books. That time has passed; I read e-books on my Kindle and I also have an iPad. But these new devices have not altered my love of physical books. A recent article on the BBC website discussed a “digital Dark Age.”
In many respects, going digital just makes more sense, such as the choice between physical reference books and online databases. However choosing the digital option for books, while increasingly a part of our lives, does not necessarily have such a clear answer.
It has often been said that New York is the nucleus of the universe. It is the style-maker and idea generator for many and always has the pulse of the latest de rigueur movements in art, culture, and fashion. This fall, they decided to expand that into the world of libraries with the Brooklyn Public […]
In a previous post or two, I have mentioned the popularity of the romance genre. Romance novels continue to be a staple of the bookselling and library worlds. Now, due to the popularity of the genre and the variety of its subgenres, the Romance Writers of America (RWA) has created a unique app.
A recent Library Journal Online article examined a newly passed bill in Connecticut that gave the state’s library board of trustees the authority to create a state-wide e-book collection. Connecticut’s small size means there are no county governments and therefore no individual library systems. A Connecticut library card is valid in every library in the […]
People understand and remember text better on paper than on screens. In fact, surveys indicate that for informational material people prefer paper. Further, brain activity in children reading paper and physically writing is higher than children reading screens and typing on keyboards. So, why do librarians and educator support the idea of the electronic library and future?
In an online article on Wired, Art Brodsky decries another issue concerning e-books; they contribute to the digital divide. He cites the disparity of e-book pricing for regular consumers and libraries as indicative of the problem.[1]
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