Monday, September 30, 2013

A Library Built for One

by: Jeff O'Neal

Designed for the Lisbon Architecture triennial, “One, Two, Many” is a library built to host a single patron at a time. Artist Marta Wengorovius, in collaboration with architect Aires Mateus, built the library to have a highly curated collection (20 people each contributed to the 60-volume collection).

Time in the library can be reserved by the hour or day, though only one visitor at a time. The library is part monastery, part art-installation, and Wengorovius has plans to move the library to a different location each year and have new books selected for each specific location.

one

three

two

from: Book Riot

Friday, September 27, 2013

A Bookless Library Opens in San Antonio

The all-digital space – stocked with 10,000 e-books and 500 e-readers –resembles an Apple store. But is that really a library?
by: Josh Sanburn

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff isn’t the man you’d imagine as the visionary for the nation’s first all-digital public library.

The former San Antonio mayor doesn’t own an e-reader (“I refuse to read the e-book!” he says) and for years has collected first editions of modern novels (in print, mind you). Back in the 1990s, Wolff helped spearhead San Antonio’s 240,000 square-foot, six-story, $50 million central public library, a building the city is now struggling to figure out what to do with. Today, Wolff says he would’ve avoided building such a large facility.

“Who would’ve thought 20 years ago we’d be where we are today?” he says.

On Saturday, Bexar County Digital Library – a $2.4 million, 4,000-square-foot space, also known as BiblioTech and located on the south side of San Antonio – opens to the public. The library, built with $1.9 million in county tax money and $500,000 in private donations, looks like an orange-hued Apple store and is stocked with 10,000 e-books, 500 e-readers, 48 computers, and 20 iPads and laptops. It has a children’s area, study rooms and a Starbucks-esque cafĂ©. Most importantly, it will have no printed material.

This isn’t the first time a public library has attempted to go bookless. In 2002, the Tucson-Pima Public Library system in Arizona opened a branch without books. But after just a few years, the library phased in printed materials. Its patrons demanded them.

“I don’t think people could really envision a library without any books in it,” says Susan Hubbard, the Santa Rosa Branch Library’s manager.

The idea of the bookless library no longer seems so daring considering our drift away from print and toward all things digital. At the end of 2012, 23% of Americans age 16 and older read e-books, up from 16% the year before, while the proportion of Americans who read a printed book fell from 72% to 67%, according to the Pew Research Center. But an all-digital library also raises a very basic question: is a library without books really a library?

“The library is no longer the place where you walk in and the thing you pay most attention to is the book collection,” says American Library Association President Maureen Sullivan. “It’s now a place where when you walk in, you’re immediately attuned to the variety of ways that people are making use of that space.”

Around the country, a number of public libraries have undergone radical transformations to cater to the needs of its patrons, often by moving and consolidating its book collections to make way for collaborative, digital spaces that can easily adapt to emerging technologies.
Chicago Public Library’s YOUmedia offers space for teens to create digital content like podcasts and video games. The District of Columbia Public Library system and the Columbus Metropolitan Library System in Ohio are renovating many of their locations to create all-digital areas and open spaces for patrons to work together. Arizona State University and the Scottsdale Public Library system are even collaborating to attract small businesses and entrepreneurs to work in libraries across the state.

While many are transforming into digital, collaborative hubs, libraries are also increasingly trying to serve low-income Americans, especially since the recession. In New York City, 40 of the 62 Queens Libraries have been renovated in part to increase space for jobseekers.

“You more or less can’t find a job today unless you can get on a computer,” says Queens Library President Tom Galante. “And a huge percentage of the population here doesn’t have access to a computer at home.”

When Galante first started working at the Queens library 26 years ago, 80% of the library’s focus was on loaning materials. Today, about 30% is lending while 70% is focused on programs and services like resume writing, job search tips and language classes. Last year, the library enrolled 6,000 New Yorkers in its ESL classes, and according to the ALA, public libraries offer an average of one program a day for every library system in the U.S.

But as the depressed economy brought more traffic into public libraries across the U.S., funding went in the opposite direction. From 2000 to 2010, physical visits to libraries increased by 32.7%, partly due to the influx of patrons during the recession, but overall funding for public libraries has decreased every year since then. In 2013, 37% of state libraries saw a dip in state funding, forcing libraries in 30 states to cut their hours.

Funding remains a constant concern for libraries, but a more short-term obstacle is the ongoing battle with publishers over e-book access. Going digital doesn’t solve any of the issues over lack of funds because for the last several years, the so-called Big Six publishers have either been unwilling to sell e-books to libraries or have jacked up their prices, making it virtually impossible for many libraries to carry e-book bestsellers. Publishers are worried about selling a commodity that will never need replaced, and they argue that it’s much easier for e-books to be shared among multiple library branches. In turn, librarians are increasingly bypassing the Big Six altogether and turning to independent and self-published e-books at a much lower cost.

Bypassing the big publishers, however, is risky. If libraries don’t carry the e-books patrons are looking for, they may be disinclined to use the library altogether.

But Wolff isn’t too worried about that right now. His $1.2 million annual budget will allow him to buy 10,000 additional e-books a year, and he’s decided to pay a premium for many of the e-books he’s stocked. And he’s confident that over time, libraries and publishers will figure out an agreement that furthers both of their interests. “As this develops, prices are going to go down,” he says. Wolff also hopes BiblioTech will bridge a digital divide in the area. According to a survey by ESRI, a geospatial analysis company, at least a third of Texans in Bexar County don’t have an Internet connection in their homes.

Still, these bold, bookless moves haven’t persuaded Wolff to get an e-reader for himself. But now, he’s got options. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold out,” he says. “But I think they’re going to let me borrow one from the library.”

from: Time

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Three designers compete to make 'chair of chairs for library of libraries'

The Bodleian Library in Oxford is commissioning its third new chair in 400 years. Who will take the prestigious prize?
by: Oliver Wainwright

Chairs on trial … the three shortlisted designs for the new Bodleain Library chair. Photograph: Jamie Smith
Chairs on trial … the three shortlisted designs for the new Bodleain Library chair. Left to right: Barber Osgerby; Amanda Levete; Matthew Hilton. Photograph: Jamie Smith
Clothed head to toe in a flowing blue robe, she sits on a high-backed wooden pew, quill in hand. Raised in front of her, connected to the pew by a low bench, are three raised contraptions – an angled lectern, a rotating round table, and what appears to be a hexagonal book carousel at the top of a spiralling carved column.

"Christine de Pizan seems to have had a thing for elaborate furniture," says Chris Fletcher, keeper of special collections at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. He is showing me a series of illuminations in the 400-year-old institution that depict the medieval author in a variety of situations: perched on a stool at a simple tilted desk, or sitting in a round-backed throne, she is surrounded by all manner of intriguing devices to aid the reading and writing of simultaneous texts.

But de Pizan, who is generally thought to be Europe's first professional female writer, is unusual for the period. "Libraries haven't always had the luxury of chairs," says Fletcher. "In medieval times, you would have had a book room, and then you would take the book out to the cloister to read. It's only in the post-medieval period that people started to read while sitting in the book rooms."

Thing for furniture … detail of Christine de Pizan in her study. Image: Flickr/Cea
Thing for furniture … detail of Christine de Pizan in her study. Image: Flickr/Cea
Founded in 1602, the Bodleian Library rooms were always furnished with either raised reading lecterns – to study manuscripts standing up – or low wooden benches fixed to the bookshelves, to which the precious volumes were chained. It was not until the mid-18th century that the radical idea of the chair was introduced.

Records show that in 1756, three dozen Windsor chairs were bought from a Mr Munday, for the princely sum of 8s 6d each (about £120 in today's money) – beginning a story of scholarly sitting that reaches its latest chapter this week.

On show at the V&A from this Saturday, as part of the London Design Festival, are the three shortlisted designs for a new Bodleian chair for the 21st century. Whittled down from 60 designers, the finalists are an eclectic mix of Amanda Levete, former half of space-age architecture practice Future Systems, Barber Osgerby, designers of the Olympic torch, and Mathew Hilton, former head of furniture at Habitat.

They are competing for a prestigious commission that was last awarded to Giles Gilbert Scott in 1936, when he designed two seats to furnish his New Bodleian Library building, in the form of heavy leather-clad bucket chairs to match his stripped stone fortress of books. The building is currently undergoing a £78m renovation by Wilkinson Eyre architects – due to open next year – as a home for special collections. And special collections clearly need a very special chair.

"We wanted something that would be iconic and representative of the library," says the Bodleian's estates manager, Toby Kirtley. "It should be contemporary in style, but not out of place in a heritage setting – innovative and original, without being too experimental and risky."

The library currently makes do with a motley collection of seating, from municipal 1970s chairs to elegant wooden Oxford chairs from the 1860s, which have timber bracing forming an 'x' across an 'o' in the back. But there are few of the 18th-century Winsdor chairs left – although you can buy a replica in the Bod's shop for £750.

"Most academics probably don't even think about what they're sitting in," says Fletcher. "But, subconsciously, they have a very tactile and intuitive relationship with the spaces they work in."
"People are now used to reading all over the place on their iPhones, while waiting for the bus or on the train, so there is a renewed attraction to coming back to the sanctity of a specific, static space."

Windsor chair, left, 1756; Giles Gilbert Scott's chairs, right, 1936. Photograph: Bodleian Library
Windsor chair, left, 1756; Giles Gilbert Scott's chairs, right, 1936. Photograph: Bodleian Library
Perhaps surprisingly, Fletcher has also seen the use of the special collections increase, despite the wide availability of much of the material online.

"As digital information becomes more accessible, so the importance of the analogue also surfaces. It's like vinyl, or 35mm film: people are interested in objects and the innate quality of things."
Sitting in a room below the vaulted halls of the Bodleian's Duke Humfrey's library, we test out the three prototypes in front of a tilted manuscript, supported on the table by an adjustable foam book rest – the kind of thing de Pizan would no doubt have jumped at using.

First up is the most experimental of the bunch, a streamlined shell clad in dark green leather, designed by Amanda Levete and produced by Herman Miller. Held aloft on a steel frame, the seating shell sits on cantilevered legs that slope back in a dynamic sweep, with a look of Oscar Pistorius's running blades – suggesting readers might be launched towards the shelves at record-breaking speed. The leather follows the contours of the shell exactly, as if it has been sprayed on, the result of working with a manufacturer that usually fits out high-end concept cars.

It is a smooth, sleek thing, but it has a rather unfortunate bounce when you sit in it, as if an overenthusiastic recline might see you catapulted towards the precious manuscript with disastrous force. It also feels a little too slick for the hallowed halls of the Bod – looking more at home in a club-class departure lounge.

Next we have Matthew Hilton's offering, manufactured by long-time collaborator SCP. Like most of his work, it is a stripped-back classic design, executed with the utmost attention paid to the detail of every joint. It is a level of precision revealed by his accompanying notes, which apologise for the millimetre differences that the prototype show, in comparison to the planned final product.

It is a clean, simple form – described by Fletcher as "bravely traditional" – with a CNC-milled back that twists along its length as it extends out to form the arms, like a human bone. But the boniness is also felt when you sit in it: the geometric twist means that your arms lie on a pointed ridge when resting. The classic design also makes it look a little municipal, like a subtly souped-up version of the kind of thing you probably have in your local council library.

Final reckoning … the three contenders outside the Bodleian. Photograph: Jamie Smith
Final reckoning … the three contenders outside the Bodleian. Left to right: Barber Osgerby; Amanda Levete; Matthew Hilton. Photograph: Jamie Smith
Finally we come to Barber Osgerby, working with classic English modernist manufacturer Isokon. Either the designers are fans of Christine de Pizan, or I have been looking at medieval illuminations for too long, but their chair has definite echoes of some of the low, round-backed seats the Renaissance feminist is depicted sitting in.

With a single straight spine that joins a continuous curving arm rest to a similarly-shaped rail on the floor, the form is also strongly reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright's Barrel Chair, designed in 1937 for the Wingspread house in Wisconsin. Seen in a row from behind, as they will be installed in the library, they appear to form a line of little rooms around the readers, defining a series of individual territories from the floor to the desk.

As Barber Osgerby have cleverly done before with their Tip Ton school chair, the bottom rail is also angled to allow the chair to be subtly tilted forward, or leaned back to recline.

"That could be an important feature for the users of special collections," says Fletcher. "You often want to get right in to see the variations in type, or annotations, or the chain lines in the paper."
Sitting down, it appears to be the most comfortable, with broad armrests set at the right height; although, as I tilt forward – engrossed in the detail of a ligature – it feels like there might be a chance of being deposited head-first into the folio.

The trio now faces a top panel of judges, including designer Sir Kenneth Grange and Martin Roth, director of the V&A, who has proclaimed that the winner will be declared "the chair of chairs, for the library of libraries".

As a classic form that would sit at home in the Gilbert Scott interiors, yet which has its own distinctive identity as an elegant and ergonomic design, my money's on Barber Osgerby.

from: Guardian

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Booktrack Adds Customized Playlists to E-Books

by: Adam Popescu

If you listen to music while you read, chances are the sounds and words don't match up.

But what if you could use one to augment the other, adding ambient sounds to your favorite book to turn it into a cinematic experience?

Booktrack is a digital publishing tool that reinvented itself as a DIY platform for bloggers, artists and writers to self-publish their work with synchronized soundtracks. Writers can embed songs from a catalogue of 20,000 licensed audio files, adding mood music, ambient audio and sound effects to play in tune with story lines, paced to a user's reading speed.

Any digital text or e-book is fair game. As long as writers own the rights to content, or the work is in the public domain (think The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), they can then publish on the Google Chrome Web Store. So far more than 10,000 people have started creating since Booktrack relaunched last week.

Copy and paste text into the platform, highlight what you want to apply audio to, then search for sounds based on genre, theme and category. After you drag and drop music over the text, you're ready to publish and share on social media. Booktrack's creators say the next step is to be able to directly import text from URLs and e-publications into the platform.

"The target user is anyone with a story to tell," Paul Cameron, Booktrack co-founder and CEO, told Mashable. "Both authors and audio enthusiasts and professionals who can not only explore a new creative outlet, but also reach new fans and promote their work in a new medium."

Currently, the platform doesn't charge users to create, publish and share. A mobile version is coming, as is the ability for writers to sell titles and priced premium features. For every book sold, Booktrack will take about a third of the revenue, similar to how iBooks or Kindle make money from authors.
Cameron said the idea was spurred by his co-founder and brother Mark, who noticed music on his playlist sometimes matched a scene in the book he was reading.

"This was pre-Kindle times, so our original prototypes and patents included paper books, mobile phones and remotes clicked onto books," Cameron said.

In 2011, Booktrack debuted as an iOS app focused on professional authors like Salman Rushdie; a total of 40 titles sold more than 250,000 downloads. Now, the company — backed by a group including Peter Thiel of PayPal — has raised two investment rounds and a total of $4 million in venture funding.

Changing the E-Book Model

Jordan Passman, CEO and founder of scoreAscore, which connects composers with companies seeking music, thinks Booktrack could benefit from composer collaboration. The trouble, he said, is offering quality music that matches the writers' vision. Passman added that it will be challenging to turn writers into composers, even if the audio and text is compelling.

 "Talent is king, and even if the book has soundtracks, it has to be a fantastic book for people to invest time and money it has to be a fantastic book for people to invest time and money," he said.

Mark Jeffrey, author and the co-founder of the digital publishing platform Glossi, said audio experience can help readers immerse themselves in text. But he worries about distribution.

"As an author, why would I put all the effort in to creating something this elaborate unless I can make substantially more money or become substantially more well-known?"

Booktrack's Cameron thinks his tool is effective for writers because it allows them to reinvent the reading experience, a subject he touched on in a past TED talk. He said it helps engagement, noting a recent New York University study proving that listening to music increases comprehension and retention rates.

According to a phenomenon called the "Mozart effect," listening to classical music improves mental performance. Studies from Stanford University reported a link between classical music and improved cognitive reasoning.

"Anything that gets children and adults engaged around reading has got to be a good thing," Cameron said. "Music brings emotion to our lives and our movies. We are just doing the same thing for reading."

from: Mashable

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Now boarding: a Twitter book club for commuters

The recently launched Rail Book Club aims to share train passengers' reviews and recommendations via digital screens in stations.
by: Phoebe Parke and Jon Stock

Rail Book Club: a commuter's book review is tweeted on the digital screen at London Victoria station
Rail Book Club: a commuter's book review is tweeted on the digital screen at London Victoria station

A new book club on Twitter, the Rail Book Club, has been launched, hoping to bring passenger reviews and book recommendations to commuters via digital screens in stations throughout the country.

Look around any train carriage during rush hour and you'll rarely see a bored face, according to outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, which is behind the club. It estimates that 81% of train commuters read on their journeys every week, and 38% of these use an e-reader.

So it follows that when looking for a new book to read on the way to work, a fellow passenger will probably have a pretty good recommendation. That, at least, is the thinking behind Rail Book Club, which invites passengers to tweet their recommendations to @Railbookclub, which is running a selection of the best book suggestions across its national network of station screens.

Paul Carolan, Commercial Director of JCDecaux, said: “If you’re wondering what book to read next, then @Railbookclub is for you. Our Connected Commuter research showed that rail passengers love books, with the vast majority reading during their commute, so launching @Railbookclub and linking it to our digital screens in stations was a natural step.

"This new book club community is part of our strategy to bring content to our screens that enhances the passenger journey, building communities though people’s passions and providing a daily source of inspiration for the rail audience. We’d like to become the go-to book club for commuters with the potential to publish daily extracts of books on our screens in the future.”

The @Railbookclub community currently has 2094 followers and is expected to grow.Today is Roald Dahl day, and the Rail Book Club team is celebrating the event with a prize, according to an earlier tweet today: "Most creative re-written Dahl book in Twitter form wins a box set of his books! #BookClubShorts".

And the best entry so far? "An odd man in the confectionery trade invents Total Wipeout years early to find his successor....#bookclubshorts" from Ade Couper @bigade1665

from: Telegraph

Monday, September 23, 2013

In Fairfax County, protests over dumping of library books could not be hushed

by: Petula Dvorak

The parking lot was jammed, cars snaking along the road and into the neighborhood.

The meeting room in Annandale was packed, with a satellite location for the overflow audience

Two police officers in body armor stood guard.

This mob at George Mason Regional Library could get unruly, I guess. That’s what happens when you toss 250,000 books into trash bins.

The Fairfax County Library Board of Trustees got a much deserved earful Wednesday night from patrons outraged that the system’s road to modernization included offloading surplus books like garbage.

When one of the wealthiest counties in the nation trashes a quarter-million books, that’s nothing but arrogance and laziness. Smaller libraries, veterans hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters and underfunded schools could all use those books. In fact, there are plenty of people in Fairfax who could use those unwanted tomes.

“Don’t Take Away Our Books,” declared one protest sign, laced with little hearts.
The photos shocked people. There was a sad “Harry Potter” book, bent at a spine-cracking angle, amid about the thousands of others. This tugged at the hearts of bibliophiles who swarmed the board meeting to demand answers.

The dump was part of a “strategic plan” makeover to absorb budget cuts and the changing way that people use the library, county officials had explained.

Along with trashing books that Fairfax libraries don’t have room for — they used to give most of those excess books to the Friends of Library groups that either sell them or donate them to needier groups — they were planning huge cuts in staff and eliminating the requirement that their librarians have master’s degrees in library science.

Aha. Now we get another visual: discarding librarians like those books.

The continuing coverage of this crisis by The Washington Post’s Tom Jackman was the talk of Fairfax this week.

“I’m bringing these books to donate now, but after reading all that, I have to wonder, what’s the point?” said Falls Church resident Jim Chase, 69, who is semiretired from the construction business and an avid reader in his wiser years.

He carried two bags of books — one to return, another to donate. Or dump? He was worried.

We chatted outside the Tysons-Pimmitt Regional Library on Wednesday afternoon. It is a place that is packed and humming with activity throughout the day.

“I thought librarians are the guardians of books. I don’t understand why any of them would do this,” he said. “It’s just wrong.”

And that’s pretty much how most of the people I talked to in his demographic felt.

But how about the kids with cool Kitson T-shirts and neon backpacks who came to the library after school?

“I just use the computer,” said one of them, before he put his earbuds back in — annoyed with me for making him take them out — and skulked off.

Books, libraries, information, all that is changing. We know that.

Inside the George Mason branch on Wednesday night, the computers were all fired up. There was a bent-over, parchment-skinned old man on a dating Web site, youngsters using Wikipedia, a Latino couple looking at rental homes.

My kids came with me to the meeting. (“Hooray! Not the homeless shelter this time, Mom,” one said.)

The first-grader was frustrated that the book he was supposed to finish, but forgot at home, wasn’t on the shelf. The entire “Lunch Lady” collection was missing. Had the Lunch Ladies been dumped, too? No worries. The library has blazing-fast WiFi, so we punched it up on our e-reader to download the book.

But is this where libraries are headed? A WiFi station for e-readers and a computer bank?

There will be a bookless future. Like, Star Trek future. Or maybe even sooner. Texas — yes, Texas — is taking us there: The flight-deck-looking BiblioTech, a bookless library, opens Saturday in San Antonio.

But in that future, if you can’t get a signal or your e-reader is out of juice, you’re out of luck. And it’s at that moment that the paperback in your bag never felt so good.

My fourth-grader, meanwhile, delighted in getting a big stack of books and browsed through them, relishing that uniquely bookey smell of pages the way I did as a kid.

The truth is, libraries need to change. And as the world is digitizing and speeding up, libraries don’t always handle the change gracefully.

The same outrage happened in Fresno three years ago, when a library dumped 22,000 books to make room. It happened in San Francisco way ahead of the trend, in the 1990s. And in Philadelphia — always a leader in dysfunction — in 1997.

The truth is, we are a nation of book lovers, knickknack gatherers and sentimentalists. We’re not ready for everything to look as stark as the Apple store.

Leigh Dameron is a great example. He grew up going to that Annandale library. And he showed up Wednesday night, Oakley shades on top of his head, a “Quality Libraries” sticker slapped on his broad, 29-year-old chest.

“I love this library. And I need books,” he said, waving the thick “History of the Dallas Cowboys” tome he just checked out. He’s a home health aide, and he reads voraciously on his night shifts to stay awake.

“But when I’m online and I’m researching these databases, I need a real librarian, someone who knows what they’re doing, to guide me,” he said.

“And those used books? They can sell them in bulk if that’s easier,” he said.

He was there for the meeting (and the football book) and he was among the crowd that cheered wildly when the board voted to suspend the modernization program.

They nearly knocked off their own glasses cheering when the board announced that “every usable book is either resold or redistributed.”

A strategic plan to keep pace with evolving technology is necessary, but it has to be done the right way.

“Our tax money bought those books in the first place,” said Chase, the construction guy/bookworm.

“They have a fiduciary responsibility to treat them with respect.”

from: Washington Post

Friday, September 20, 2013

Librarian Quietly Saved $1 Million for Gift Back to Library

Carol Sue Snowden, a librarian at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, was known by her peers for her modest lifestyle. She drove a used Chevrolet, lived in a condominium, and was happy to indulge in little other than her passion for books.

It was precisely because of this frugal lifestyle that she was able to accomplish something monumental: She'd saved over $1 million, donating all of it to libraries and reading programs she'd come to love.

According to her obituary, which ran in The Columbus Dispatch in 2008, her friends and coworkers were shocked. "You should have heard the gasp in the room," said Kim Snell, spokeswoman for the Columbus Metropolitan Library.

Snowden willed $530,000 to the Whitehall branch of the library, where she worked for over 30 years. The branch is using the money to create a new building, with a strong focus on children and teen programs, including a sound-proof recording studio. Snowden led story time at the library while working there, and also created pre-school reading programs.

Snowden also left $70,000 apiece to seven schools in her community. According to Melville house, she asked for permission from her three sisters before willing her savings to the community, rather than her family.

Snowden's remarkable story isn't the first time a library has received a surprising donation. Earlier this year, the New York Public Library received a $10 million donation from a pre-school teacher.

from: Huffington Post

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Where's the artistry in digital art publishing?

Art ebooks must possess elements that can't be found in print if they are to succeed.
by: Anna Baddeley

Art publishing has been slow to wake up to digital and not just because it is a notoriously conservative industry. One difficulty lies in production: securing digital image rights is a slog. Another, more serious, question is whether there is a market for this sort of thing.

Scholars can be sniffy: "There is a huge resistance in academia to ebooks, especially in art and art history," an editor from Yale University Press told an American journal. As for the museum-going public, good luck convincing them that a digital exhibition catalogue would make an ideal souvenir or Christmas present.

Tate Publishing's foray into ebooks ("marrying the Tate's remit to increase public understanding and enjoyment of art with a 'digital as part of everything' philosophy") sounded promising. Disappointingly, the ebooks, which range from textbooks to shorts on the artistic process (including William Blake's Seen in My Visions), turn out to be little more than replicas of print. Footnotes are not hyperlinked. The "fully zoomable" images only zoom to book resolution. A flirtation with video, such as in the iBook version of How to Paint Like Turner, is as interactive as it gets.

The Tate isn't alone in failing to crack digital. Phaidon's Focus series suffers from similar drawbacks. Even in America, where university presses and museums are steaming ahead with digitisation, no one has managed to design an ebook that is, well, better than a book.

If digital art publishing has a future, it needs to do what can't be done on the page. Zoom in on brush strokes. Click on details. Compare multiple versions of the same picture. Display the work in a cross-cultural context. View decorative arts in three dimensions (the Ashmolean iBook does this nicely).
One problem, however, seems insurmountable: you can't show off an ebook on a coffee table.

from: Guardian

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

200 Years After 'Frankenstein,' Science Fiction Is No Longer a Boys Club

English novelist Mary Shelley was born exactly 216 years ago. One hundred and ninety five years ago, she wrote Frankenstein, one of the world’s most famous science fiction novels of all time. Although women’s rights have changed dramatically since Shelley’s time, the genre of science fiction still struggles to empower women. The most anticipated sci-fi films are still largely led by men, and when anyone claims Angelina Jolie is the most influential woman in sci-fi, it’s clear that something’s not right. However, women have made strides in the field, both on screen and off it. Here’s a look at how sci-fi is slowly becoming less of a boy’s club.

The Guardian's Damien Walter recently discusses the problem in his column. He points out that of the 29 people who have won the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's lifetime achievement award, only four have been women. However, it's important to note is that three of the female winners received the award in the past decade. The number of female sci-fi writers has more than tripled since 1948, and a number of Goodreads’ 2012 best sci-fi novels were penned by women.

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series shows how successful science fiction novels written by women can also elevate women in film; the series was not only written by a woman, but features a strong female lead. While we all know it’s important to recognize the role of female writers, it’s equally important for there to be significant and well-written female characters in science fiction books, films, and television shows. Collins' Katniss Everdeen made it apparent that powerful female protagonists in science fiction can be a commercial hit, thus encouraging the promotion of female characters in the future. A good example of this is Veronica Roth’s Divergent, a dystopian science-fiction novel set in futuristic Chicago that was quickly picked up by Summit Entertainment (the series’ first book was published only two years ago). The series' protagonist is a young woman named Tris (pictured below). Personality-wise, Roth's lead is much more stereotypically feminine than Collins' Katniss, but she still takes an influential position in her world.

Female science fiction characters aren't just gaining momentum and mainstream acceptance. They've also become more varied, and are less often reduced to the role of eye candy. Although Jolie’s Lara Croft was influential (just ask the nearly 50% of women who play video games) and popularized strong female action leads, it's problematic to consider Jolie the most influential woman in sci-fi, because she so often serves as a form of eye candy. As a woman with a lifelong interest in sci-fi, I find actresses like Rachel Nichols to be more inspiring. In the Canadian-made series Continuum, Nichols plays Kiera Cameron, a lead character that isn't reduced to her physical assets. Women in the genre — especially in video games — are often provocatively dressed, one-dimensional, and only intended to augment the role of the male lead. In contrast, Continuum's Cameron is a stand-alone character who leads the series, and does so dressed from head-to-toe in practical, though not unattractive, gear. She’s intelligent and a little stoic, and very much a woman (she even has a child). While Cameron is only one example of a positive female role in sci-fi, the fact that this show is well reviewed, well made, and smart demonstrates how much potential there is for future female roles.

It’s true that women need more representation in science fiction, but it’s not quantity we’re after. What we all want, and should strive for, is better quality in the way women are included. Shelley’s contribution to the genre has been immense, but women are still, most certainly, changing things in sci-fi. As appreciators and consumers of science fiction, it’s up to us to affirm our need and desire for a less male-dominated pool of talent.

from: policymic

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

With Modern Makeovers, America's Libraries Are Branching Out

by: Elizabeth Blair

It's not exactly a building boom, but several public libraries around the country are getting makeovers. The Central Library in Austin, Texas just broke ground on a new building that promises such new features as outdoor reading porches and a cafe. In Madison, Wis., they're about to open a newly remodeled library that has, among other improvements, more natural light and a new auditorium. Historic libraries in Boston and New York City are looking at significant renovations.

When you say the words "libraries" and "future" together, the first question a lot of people have is: Will there still be books? According to most librarians interviewed for this story, the answer is a firm "yes." But they also say that housing books will be less of a priority. Take the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., which is in the midst of a $100 million remodeling. On the main floor, there used to be thousands of books and periodicals in the "Science, Business and Technology" section. Today, it's called the "Digital Commons," and there's hardly a scrap of paper to be found.

Looking very much like an Apple store, there's a digital bar displaying the latest portable electronic devices (nooks, slates, tablets, minis, etc.) There are rows and rows of desktop computers. There are "creative stations" that have pricey software like the Adobe CS6. "People who can't afford that software now have an opportunity to do so," says Nicholas Kerelchuk, manager of the Digital Commons.

Even on that rare event in Washington, D.C. — a beautiful Saturday morning in August — every seat inside the Digital Commons was taken. There were people waiting to attend a demonstration of what Kerelchuk calls the library's "rock star": A 3D printer that's about the size of a movie theater popcorn popper. The machine will create just about any kind of object you design, from a miniature bust of President George Washington to a cookie cutter shaped like a dinosaur.

Carolyn Hatton — a veterinarian who attended the demonstration — says she was there because the 3D printer could revolutionize the medical field. It's already being used to create artificial body parts. "I think it's got enormous purposes for it that we haven't even imagined," says Hatton.
That kind of visionary thinking is exactly what many public libraries around the U.S. want to happen in their new spaces. Even though 3D printers cost about $4,000, a growing number of public libraries are making the investment.

The MLK Jr. Library has also created a "Dream Lab." The large space is pretty nondescript but, with all of the technology at your fingertips, the training they offer, the self-publishing opportunities, Kerelchuk is confident they will turn the library into a place where content is not just consumed but created. "We're giving the opportunity to entrepreneurs and tech start-ups and non-profits to come in and really start scaling their venture, their idea. So we're really changing the idea of what a library is capable of and what we have to offer," he says. Plus, it's all free with a library card.

So why might this idea of an extremely well-equipped, maker space be the library of the future? Ginnie Cooper, D.C.'s chief librarian, believes it's a smart expansion of something libraries have done for years.

"Everything in libraries that we talk about as new today has its roots at some other time," says Cooper. "For example, I know writers who wrote their books at the library. I know people who started their business at the library. And what we realized was, if we were going to serve today's people building economic value in their communities and being creative, we had to think about the world differently," she says.

And since librarians around the country are doing this "thinking," chances are their vision for the future is well-informed.

from: NPR

Monday, September 16, 2013

Own Your Own Ebook Lending Service

by Monique Sendze and Laurie Van Court

If someone were to give us an ebook, do we have the tools to receive it, to integrate it into our catalog, and to check it out?” Douglas County Libraries (DCL) director Jamie LaRue posed this question to DCL's associate director of IT, Monique Sendze, in December 2010. The fact that she answered, “No,” launched DCL into an entirely new way of doing business.
DCL is a public library district located midway between Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo. DCL serves a population of about 295,000. In 2012, the library circulated 8.1 million items to 226,000 cardholders and purchased more than 184,000 items.

DCL's mission is to be a passionate advocate for literacy and lifelong learning. Among the library's core values are delivering a current, high-quality collection that meets our public's needs and blazing trails by being innovative and visionary. Providing access to the content of our culture through our collections and technology is one of our guiding principles, and we pride ourselves on being pioneers within the library industry.

The Issues: Why We Built a New Model

The year 2010 brought pivotal ebook developments to the library world. The Kansas State Library entered into contentious, and ultimately unsuccessful, negotiations with the econtent vendor OverDrive over proposed price hikes totaling nearly 700% during 3 years. Libraries found that, for ebooks, OverDrive was increasingly the “only game in town,” as the major publishers declined to sell outright econtent at any price. The Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) published its thought-provoking report, “eBook Feasibility Study for Public Libraries.” Two months later, Library Journal hosted a 1-day virtual conference, Ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point.

At the same time, demand for ebooks was exploding. According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), sales of ebooks in the U.S. grew by more than 160% between 2009 and 2010, from $166.9 million to $441.3 million. Similar growth was evident in DCL's own ebook circulation during the same period:

Despite growing demand, the supply of ebooks available for DCL to circulate was limited. Traditional mainstream publishing was dominated by the Big Six publishers, most of which refused to sell outright econtent to libraries. Those publishers who would sell to libraries charged prices that were many times higher than prices for the same titles in print. Or, as in the case of HarperCollins, econtent “sale” came with a use restriction of 26 loans per book. Furthermore, the publishers would not offer the same bulk-purchasing discounts that libraries rely on to stretch their collection development budgets. DCL discounts average 45%; its budget is slightly more than $3.5 million.

The emergence of OverDrive as an econtent provider brought its own problems. OverDrive retains ownership of its econtent titles, leasing them to libraries for use only through OverDrive's own platform. OverDrive titles weren't discoverable through DCL's OPAC (open public access catalog); patrons seeking econtent were forced to search an entirely separate OverDrive interface. (Later, alternative aggregator ebook providers, such as 3M and Baker & Taylor, required users to browse other proprietary discovery platforms.) If a library discontinues its relationship with OverDrive, it loses all the content for which it has paid. As the Kansas State Library learned, OverDrive is also willing to unilaterally raise its license pricing.

The loss of ebook ownership had particularly difficult implications for DCL. The library would not be able to lend leased titles to other libraries via interlibrary loan (ILL). Nor would DCL have archival rights to the books it had paid for, even if a vendor were to go out of business. The vendor also retained the power to add or delete books from DCL's collection, depending on the vendor's current agreements with publishers.

DCL found another significant issue with ebook delivery status quo in 2010. Available content originated almost entirely from mainstream commercial publishing, or the previously mentioned Big Six publishers, but three additional important streams of econtent were also largely unavailable to libraries: independent or midlist publishers, local historical documents, and self-published books. The latter category represents the fastest-growing segment of published content. In 2004, there were 29,000 self-published books in the U.S. By the end of 2010, there were more than 2.7 million self-published titles. (In an address to the PubWest annual conference in October 2012, Otis Chandler, founder and CEO of Goodreads, stated that about 350,000 new titles were published in 2011, and 150,000 to 200,000 were self-published. By 2015, the total is likely to reach 600,000 new titles per year, as the self-publishing trend increases. Self-published titles already appear regularly on TheNew York Times best-seller lists.)

Overlooking these three additional content streams not only limited the resources the library was able to offer its patrons, but it also denied the library opportunities to record local history and to support the burgeoning ranks of new authors. Those losses, plus the other negatives attached to the existing publisher-driven econtent model, spurred DCL to create its own approach to acquiring, managing, and circulating ebooks.

The Solution: How We Built a New Model

The DCL's ebook model is predicated on the belief that libraries should own, rather than lease, their collections' content. Wherever possible, DCL purchases ebook files and hosts them on its own Adobe Content Server (ACS), applying digital rights management (DRM) where it is required by the publisher. Ebooks are integrated into DCL's catalog and are discoverable through a customized version of the open source VuFind discovery portal. DCL-owned ebooks have defined circulation periods, just like print materials. They can be read online or downloaded to mobile devices. DCL ebooks circulate on a “one user per copy” basis, and the library buys additional copies in response to reader demand, at the rate of one copy purchased per four hold requests. Ebooks are promoted through large-screen discovery displays and DCL website features. Public catalog ebook listings include links to purchase, so patrons always have the option to buy their favorite or hold-listed titles.

This project required development not only of new technology, but also of new legal, collection development, acquisition, promotion, and marketing processes. DCL staff built new relationships with vendors, investigated new markets, created new discovery paths, and found new ways to promote its ebooks. The DCL ebook model is a groundbreaking approach to connecting library patrons with a universe of books.

Technical components. Development of the model's technical components began early in 2011. Components included the following:
  • An ACS was installed, including configuration for econtent purchase, DRM, search, circulation, holds, and reporting. In addition to the ACS, our model's architecture includes a fulfillment server and a media server.

    The ACS interacts with the library's ILS and its discovery layer. It also integrates with an HTML5 reader, developed by DCL IT staff, so digital content can be read online in the browser system, directly from the server.

  • The open source discovery layer, VuFind, was heavily modified to handle econtent management and circulation. DCL staff quickly discerned that its ILS simply wasn't designed to accommodate the logistics of econtent circulation. The ILS assumes that circulated items are physical; it couldn't flex to address items that don't require shelf space in specific locations. So DCL chose to customize VuFind to become a discovery layer and a circulation management system for econtent. After many hours of trying to resolve the differences between hard copy and digital items' circulation, IT staff decided to sidestep DCL's ILS completely to accomplish the library's goal of seamless searching and checkout for patrons.

    All of the library's econtent is now managed entirely through a combination of VuFind, Solr full-text indexing, a MySQL database for Creative Commons content, and ACS for DRM content. Application programming interfaces (APIs) were also developed for the DCL VuFind system to enable additional product integration, such as the Virtual Powerwall display and a DCL-branded e-reading application that was created on top of the VuFind platform.

    VuFind was initially configured with the help of a third-party consultant. After its initial launch, we added a full-time web application developer to our IT team. One of the developer's responsibilities is VuFind's ongoing maintenance and improvement.

  • A new recommendation engine, using patrons' own reading histories, was created to increase exposure to the digital collection.

  • The iDCL Reader mobile e-reader app was created from a commercial white label product (BlueFire Reader) and accepted for distribution on the Android (Google Play) and iOS (iTunes) platforms.

  • A touch-screen discovery display, the Virtual Powerwall, was developed to offer patrons the same browsing experience that has succeeded with our physical powerwall displays. Library staff selects displayed econtent using the same principles that drive our physical powerwalls: what we know people look for, what's hot, and what's seasonal.

  • DCL's website was enhanced in two ways to encourage econtent use. First, the VuFind discovery portal was integrated into the site's design so that the library's collection can be searched from nearly every page. Second, a carousel display of new, popular, and genre titles was installed on the front page to offer the powerwall experience to every website visitor.

Operational adjustments. As we were implementing the technical aspects of the new ebook model, many operational changes were also necessary throughout our organization:
  • Library administration reconfigured the annual budget to allow for new product development and the purchase of a new content type.

  • The Collection Development department forged new relationships with different content providers and devised new approaches to content selection. Our first publishing partner was the Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA), which submitted many of its annual award-winning ebooks for publication in the DCL ebook model. Collection development librarians made contact with hundreds of publishers through outreach efforts across the United States. Some of these efforts were unique: DCL was the first public library to exhibit at the 2012 annual conference of PubWest, an association of small and midsize publishers. PubWest gave us the unusual opportunity to be a buyer amid the other seller-exhibitors, as well as a chance to introduce fellow exhibitors to public library culture. The 2012 conference also prepared us to be exhibitors at the 2013 BookExpo America (BEA). By year-end 2012, DCL was working with more than 20 publishers. In early 2013, we finalized a partnership with Smashwords, the largest distributor of self-published ebooks.

  • The acquisition team developed strategies to track purchases from sellers who were completely unfamiliar with typical library processes. Some publishers needed help producing and delivering clean and consistent EPUB files. We needed to develop upload protocols for large and small ebook orders. The complexities of working with a growing number of econtent providers required DCL to contract with a third-party vendor, Impelsys, to develop an ebook acquisition dashboard tool. The acquisition dashboard will allow us to import publishers' catalog lists, select and add titles for purchase, and generate multiple purchase orders based on the number of different publishers. It also automatically generates email alerts to librarians for all new catalog updates and to acquisitions staff when selection lists are submitted for purchase.


  • The cataloging team learned to handle ebook files for which the MARC records were incomplete or nonexistent. Catalogers also had to learn the intricacies of cross-walking records provided by publishers in the retail ONIX format or Excel spreadsheets into library-friendly MARC formats.

  • DCL's training department developed materials and classes to teach new and evolving ebook processes to library staff. And frontline staffers, in turn, communicate those same processes to library patrons on a daily basis.

  • DCL's leadership also used some unusual approaches to promote the library's ebook program to the staff and the public. In the fall of 2011, the library's board of directors offered a $50 credit to every DCL employee toward the purchase of an e-reading device. Employees could choose from a list of suggested devices; they were promptly reimbursed by the DCL business office after showing proof of purchase. Leadership also approved the creation, by a professional filmmaker, of a video describing DCL's ebook strategy (douglascountylibraries.org/digital-branch).
Development of the DCL ebook model began in early 2011. Installation of the ACS server, construction of the VuFind discovery layer, and formation of the CIPA partnership occurred through the spring of 2011. The VuFind discovery layer was publicly released in mid-June 2011. Development of econtent interfaces and workflows continued through the remainder of 2011, with the first version of the econtent system, including the ACS server and DCL's Horizon ILS, released in early December 2011. A second version, integrating VuFind, was released in February 2012, and a third version, integrating OverDrive titles, was released in March 2012. By June 2012, the DCL ebook model, with all components working, was fully functional and loaded with 25,000 ebook titles. The recent addition of Smashwords titles brings our current hosted ebook total to more than 35,000.

Outcomes and Future Plans

Monique's project planning expertise was critically important to the successful launch of the DCL ebook model. That expertise continues to be necessary as the model grows and evolves. Indeed, debugging, refinement, and additional development will likely always require significant effort to keep the ebook system responsive, relevant, and fresh.

We now use Scrum, a form of agile project management, to constantly maintain and improve VuFind and related ebook model functions. Suggested enhancements and needed bug fixes are collected through IT help-desk tickets and automated suggestion boxes on our public website and staff intranet. Suggestions and fix requests are stored in a backlog and addressed through periodic sprints, which is the basic time unit of Scrum. Each sprint extends for a period of 3 weeks; the first two are for development and the third is for testing. Thus, the IT econtent team releases fixes and features on a regular basis. The team collaborates and documents its work using the online Scrum tool Yodiz. During every sprint, the team conducts weekly meetings and meets prior to new sprints in order to determine what items from the backlog to address next. Since DCL is its own vendor in our ebook model, we anticipate that this kind of structured approach to maintenance and enhancement will always be necessary.

DCL built its ebook model with the full expectation of sharing the model and all of its components with any other interested libraries. The Marmot Library Network (which includes public, school, and academic libraries throughout Colorado's mountain communities) implemented its own VuFind discovery layer in 2010. By incorporating DCL's VuFind code and sharing DCL's ACS server in 2012, Marmot launched its ebook model. The Califa Library Group, California's not-for-profit library cooperative, has launched an ebook project that's also based on the DCL's model. We continue to talk with libraries throughout the United States about the DCL ebook model and share resources and experiences wherever we can.

The DCL ebook model now provides the basis for Douglas County Libraries' digital branch. We will continue to seek additional publishing partners, perfect the process of econtent acquisition and delivery, and encourage our community's involvement in assessing our new streams of content. We now stand ready to serve econtent authors everywhere, whether they are long established or just starting out in our own neighborhoods. We can provide fresh, exciting ebooks to everyone in Douglas County, from a wide variety of sources that are compatible with most e-reading devices. We're ready to embrace the digital revolution now, however it evolves.

REFERENCES

Kelley, Michael. (2011). Kansas State Librarian Rejects OverDrive Contract. Library Journal, 136(8), 12

Chief Officers of State Library Agencies. (2010). State Librarians' Report Suggests Ways to Advance eBook Services. [Press release]. Retrieved March 4, 2013, from cosla.org/documents/eReader_Press_Release 140.pdf

“E-books Boost Sales: From the AAP.” (2011). Retrieved March 4, 2013, from publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/46224-e-books-boost-sales-from-the-aap.html

Hadro, Josh. (2011). “HarperCollins: Puts 26-Loan Cap on Ebook.” Library Journal. 136(6), p. 16. MasterFILE Premier, EBSCO host, viewed 30 July 2013

Impelsys. (2013). Impelsys Introduces eBook Ordering System for Libraries. [Press release]. Retrieved March 4, 2013, from globenewswire.com/news-release/ 2013/02/14/523679/10021557/en/Impelsys-Intro duces-eBook-Ordering-System-for-Libraries.html

LaRue, Jamie. (January/February 2012). The Last One Standing. Public Libraries Online. Retrieved Nov. 5, 2012, from publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/04/ the-last-one-standing

Sendze, Monique. (January/February 2012). The E-Book Experiment. Public Libraries Online. Retrieved Nov. 5, 2012, from publiclibrariesonline.org/ 2013/04/ebook_experiment

Monique Sendze (msendze@dclibraries.org) is associate director of information technology at Douglas County Libraries in Castle Rock, Colo. She was responsible for development of all technical aspects of DCL's ebook model. Sendze has a B.A. in English, an M.Ed. in teacher education, and an M.Sc. in management information technology.

Laurie Van Court
(lvancourt@dclibraries.org) is a digital resources librarian at Douglas County Libraries in Castle Rock, Colo. She serves in support of DCL's ebook model, including testing, communication, and customer guidance. Van Court has a B.A. in English and an M.L.I.S. in library science.

from: Infotoday

Friday, September 13, 2013

E-readers: the best way to get the world's children reading

The work of a group in Ghana shows that e-readers could be a far more practical way to raise literacy levels than paper books
by: James Bridle

In a dusty schoolroom in Kade, a small town 75 miles from Accra, the capital of Ghana, 40-odd children sit on rickety wooden benches, in front of equally rickety desks. Kade has a population of 16,500, and its main business is the local mine: a rich source of gold and diamonds. These children don't see a lot of the mine's produce, but in front of them , on those rickety desks, sits something unexpected and of potentially greater value in the long term: brand new e-readers.

Since 2010, Worldreader.org, a not-for-profit organisation, has been distributing e-readers to schools in Africa and Europe. The project was born out of a 2009 family holiday. Seeing a locked library building in a small town, founder David Risher realised it was cheaper and more effective to supply e-readers than paper books in the sort of quantities that are required for education. Once the gadgets have reached their destination, it costs almost nothing to keep them stocked with educational materials, and teachers consider them less distracting than laptops or tablet computers. They can also be used to display local material, including newspapers, health and voting information.

In October 2010, Worldreader delivered 550 3G and Wi-Fi Kindles to primary- and high-school children in the Kade region – one for every child in six schools. They trained the teachers to use the devices, and the teachers trained the kids. Pre-installed on the e-readers were public domain study books, as well as novels provided free by local and international publishers. And as of this summer, Worldreader has put over 662,008 ebooks into the hands of 4,300 children in sub-Saharan Africa – and research shows they now read more, and read better. As one teacher in Kade noted: "Before, it was difficult to get books. Now we will have as many as we want."

from: Guardian

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Books on Tap: the Book Group that Meets in a Bar

The first time I heard of a library running a book club in a bar was several years ago, when Oak Park (Ill.) Public Library’s group, Genre X (genre-x.com), was starting to pique the interest of librarians. At that point, I was working in academia but was also running literacy-based fundraising events for a group called Chicago Deskset in bars around Chicago, and I consistently found those interactions with people fascinating. If we were doing a book drive, people would run home, grab books, and return to the bar to donate them.

Later, when Northbrook (Ill.) Public Library hired me in 2011, I really wanted to start a book club in a bar. And so Books on Tap was born in summer 2012 with a lot of hard work and 25 copies of Swamplandia. The group now meets monthly, alternating its discussions between predetermined titles and “Books & Brew” sessions, where people can discuss whatever they’re reading at the moment. Now, 1 year later, we have a core group of 16 people and up to 25 people on any given night. Both men and women and people of all ages belong to Books on Tap, and the group is one of the most professionally fulfilling things I have ever been involved with. It also helps people think of libraries in a whole new way.

Writing the Proposal for Permission

When I began planning for my modern book club, naysayers crawled out of the woodwork to ask all sorts of things: “What kind of person would attend a program like that?” “Isn’t that a liability issue?” “So will people get too drunk to talk about the book?” They were valid questions, and I tried to answer them as authentically as I could: “The type of person who would attend is one who doesn’t want to sit in a boardroom and drink decaf coffee while talking about The Help.” And “While I am not an attorney and cannot speak specifically to the liability issue, other libraries have been OK with such programs because they do not buy drinks for the attendees.” I tried to assure those concerned that it wouldn’t be a club for drunks, based on my previous experiences with other similar groups. (As it turned out, some people just drink iced tea.)

I learned that wording was incredibly important. While preparing my pitch, I changed “book club in a bar” to “book club in a restaurant” and found that reticent people were more apt to get on board after this simple word shift.

But since the idea of a library-run program with booze was freaking some people out, I decided to write a formal proposal to explain it all. Writing out my reasoning not only helped me formulate my argument to tackle the tough questions but also gave my managers something concrete to take to the library board for approval. The proposal took time, thought, and research, and it helped prepare me for the planning to come.

My proposal started simply, with a list of ideas and points in order to organize my own thoughts. I needed to know the Five W’s: who, what, where, when, and why. The proposal had several main sections, which coincidentally, make an excellent how-to guide for those who want to start their own book club in a pub. In this article, I’ll share some basics from each section: purpose, target demographics, location, branding/advertising/budgeting, and book selection.

Purpose: My reason for starting a library book discussion group in a bar was to attract and engage those in the community who probably weren’t attending library programming and possibly didn’t have library cards yet. At Northbrook Public Library, we had great programs available for the very young and the very old but not a lot for the ages in between. I wanted to concentrate on people who were not being served yet. Also, I wanted to update the library’s image within the community and felt this was another way to show people that it’s not just a storage facility.
 
Target Demographics: Back when Oak Park PL’s staff first started Genre X, they specifically labeled it as a “20s and 30s Book Discussion,” but I wasn’t sure whether that would be a good fit for Northbrook. My service community has a younger population, but often they are college students who might not have the time or disposable income to join the group. My target market is working adults between the ages of 25 and 50, and I felt that I could attract them in all sorts of ways without directly putting the age range on my promotional materials.
 
Location: I described the type of environment I’d be aiming for and listed possible locations within the community that fit. At this point, I grabbed a friend from the library and went out on the town.

This part was fun but was also one of the most important aspects of planning. I knew that location could make or break our group. We lurked on our first night out, just to get a feel for places. (After I got approval, I visited the best spots again to make the final decision.)

Branding, Advertising, and Budgeting: I knew that the important part would be to keep the program cheap because there was no budget for it. I hoped that word of mouth and good old-fashioned signage would get us off the ground. In my proposal, I stated that I’d use free or inexpensive promotional tools, such as social media pages and in-house design. I also assured the decision makers that I’d use consistent branding that would credit the library for this program even though it would take place off-site.

Book Selection: I listed 11 books I had in mind and explained my reasoning for wanting to choose slightly different titles than I would for our average book discussions. I made the final decisions when the proposal became a reality.

After writing my proposal, I presented it to my supervisor and the assistant director of the library. Then our assistant director presented it to our library board and received permission to move forward with the program. The time frame between the beginning of my research and the first meeting of Books on Tap was around 6 months.

Finding the Right Location

The first thing I needed was a venue, so after I got the green light, I returned to the best spots a second time, on the day of the week that we planned to hold our meetings. This way I could tell if it was a good night for the bar as well as for me. While scouting locations, I tried to pay special attention to the actual space and layout. I was hoping to find a place with a private room in order to limit noise issues, or at the very least, a place with a large table that could accommodate 10–20 people on a weeknight. This turned out to be a challenge but helped eliminate several locations right off the bat.

I believe strongly in supporting local businesses, so I didn’t look at any national chains. A location needs to have some personality, a role in the community, and something unique that makes people want to hang out there. I lean toward pub-like bars because they tend to be cozy and locally owned. Most serve food as well as drinks, and people like to congregate there already.

Finally, I wanted good servers and communicative management, so when I was interested in a location, I asked to speak with the manager. I wanted to make sure they were interested in working with the library and also that they would guarantee that we could get separate checks (which was a make-or-break issue).

After exploring various locations, I ended up going with The Landmark Inn in Northbrook, Ill. (landmarkinnbar.com). It is an institution in the community, partway between a dive and a pub. It’s the type of place where people watch Blackhawks hockey games, eat burgers, and drink locally brewed beer. Even better, it’s located almost directly across from our Metra commuter train station in downtown Northbrook, which makes it a convenient place for people who may be commuting from their jobs in downtown Chicago. The management loved the idea of the library holding a book club at the bar. At first, they asked me if we wanted to meet there every week!

Branding and Publicity Materials

The other main startup issue I had to settle was choosing a name to help set a lighthearted tone for the group. In my proposal, I had suggested several different names and logo options, including Books & Brews, Pints & Pages, and PubFiction. After crowdsourcing ideas on Facebook and Twitter (a tactic I use whenever I need to come up with a name for something), I decided on Books on Tap.

After that, I met with the graphic designer at my library, Celina Preston, to start working on a logo. We played around with several ideas and opted for a simple beer mug. This logo goes on absolutely everything related to Books on Tap, to ensure consistent branding. We created posters, which I put up all around town—in grocery stores, coffee shops, local craft stores, the train station, and even a liquor store.

We also created beverage coasters with our logo, which we hand out at each meeting and also give to the Landmark staff to pass out to customers. They were surprisingly inexpensive. After checking with several companies, we ended up using Promos 911 (promos911.com) and were able to keep the cost under $150 for 250 pulpboard coasters. (These were paid for as a one-time expense from a general budget line.)

More recently, we created temporary tattoos of our beer-mug logo. We used our own inkjet printer and special tattoo paper (available at craft stores) and cut them with our in-house custom die-cut machine. Both of these fun promotional materials have gone over incredibly well with the members of the book group.

For both marketing and communication purposes, I created a Facebook page specifically for Books on Tap, and I promote it heavily on all of the library’s social networks. I also routinely put up posters, fliers, and schedules in our commuter train station.

Before the first meeting, I reached out to a local newspaper and it did publish an article, but we didn’t see a lot of attendance based on the press coverage.

How I Choose Which Books to Tap

The wonderful thing about this program is that I get to select books that I could never use for an in-the-library discussion, such as Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell or Mr. Peanut by Adam Ross. So far, Books on Tap members have discussed all sorts of books over a wide array of genres, including nonfiction, science fiction, and even postmodern Western. I have been lucky enough to be in contact with our Random House rep, and when we pick one of that company’s books, it sponsors the session by donating copies.

Ultimately, I pick books that I want to read (since I’m part of the target audience) and generally find that they’re a good fit. Occasionally, I ask my members if they want to vote on their next book, but they refuse every time. They tell me they have enough choices in their day-to-day lives and that Books on Tap is a break from them. That is the best compliment they can give me.

Reaching My Stated Goals

While the library hasn’t done a formal evaluation of the program, we all feel that Books on Tap is a great success based on various anecdotal evidence. First of all, it’s one of our best-attended book discussions and also has the most diverse attendee demographics. My original goal was to attract adults between 25 and 50 years old, and I’ve gotten close: Our first meeting had 27 men and women of varied ages, although most of my attendees have been 40 and older. Another core goal was to provide programs for a demographic that wasn’t very active in the library, and this has fit the bill.

We’ve made it through a year so far and are still going strong. We started out meeting bimonthly and now meet in the Landmark’s private room at the end of every month. What’s more, we’re still running without any sort of dedicated funds. (The cost of the books is folded into our fiction budget, since we buy 15 paperback copies, and all other books are interlibrary-loaned.) All signage is created by the library’s graphic designer and printed in-house.

As for publicity, a few core members told me they learned about Books on Tap from the train station posters. I ask new members at each meeting how they found out about us, and it is always one of three ways: word of mouth, the library’s Facebook page, or those posters in the train station.

On a personal level, some of the proudest moments of my career have occurred while leading these discussions. It’s not very often that a man in his late 20s and a woman in her late 70s sit together over beers talking about books. I love that Books on Tap brings this diverse group together. This project never ceases to surprise and enlighten me. And ultimately, the library has created a new social outlet for our community. Does it really get any better than that?
Leah White is a reader services librarian at the Northbrook (Ill.) Public Library. She holds an M.L.I.S. from Dominican University in River Forest, Ill. White was named a 2012 Mover & Shaker by Library Journal for her work in community building, and her book, The Big Book of Library Innovation, is due out at the end of 2013. Her email address is lwhite@northbrook.info, and you can follow her on Twitter @leahlibrarian.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Why are American universities shying away from the classics?

US colleges increasingly view anything published before 1990 as 'inaccessible' for students. So much for timeless themes
by: Ashley Thorne

One summer when I was an undergrad, my college assigned The Pilgrim's Progress to all the students. It was, so to speak, a mandatory beach book, not for credit in any course, but meant to be the basis for a campus-wide discussion on the theme of "difficulty". Reading Bunyan's 1678 allegory of Christian's hike to the Celestial City was indeed an uphill challenge for us. That college assignment comes to mind as I've recently been looking at trends in similar summer assignments for college students.

Before they arrive on campus this fall, many American college freshmen will already have finished their first assignment. Their colleges have given them a "common reading", one book that they are all expected to read. Last year, 309 colleges made such assignments. It's a great tradition, but something curious has happened since my days as a college student. Only eight schools assigned anything published before 1990, and only four assigned books that could by any stretch be considered classics.

For American college students, 1990 appears to be a historical cliff beyond which it is rumored some books were once written, though no one is quite sure what. Why have US colleges decided that the best way to introduce their students to higher learning is through comic books, lite lit, and memoirs?

For the last three years I have been tracking what colleges do in this vein and reading their rationales. This week my organization published Beach Books: What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class? It documents the obsession with the present that has overtaken American higher education. The faculty and administrators who devise these programs seem to think that unless the living author can stroll into the classroom and explain what she had for breakfast this morning, the students will be unable to "relate" to her written words.

I exaggerate, but only a little. The most important consideration for most of the colleges is picking a book whose author can come to campus. The top common reading authors last year were Rebecca Skloot (author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), Wes Moore (author of The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates), and Warren St John (author of Outcasts United), all of whom have agents who book their campus appearances. Consider that Skloot spoke at nine universities this spring.

Popular common reading authors don't come cheap. California State University, Channel Islands budgeted $14,000 for its speaker fee to Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Some authors market add-ons. Warren St John offers a discussion guide for students and "best practices" for teachers for his popular Outcasts United. Skloot also provides a handy teacher's guide, a timeline, and even a jeopardy game ("Perfect for classrooms!").

The marketing typically builds on the image of the contemporary author as an intrepid hero. That can backfire, as the former darling of common reading, Greg Mortenson, found out when his story about his building schools for girls in rural Pakistan, Three Cups of Tea, was exposed as a fraud (Mortenson contests those claims). In a blink, he became a very uncommon choice for common reading.

Another aspect of the college mania with the contemporary is the focus on trendy themes. Vegetarianism is in full leaf. Books like The Omnivore's Dilemma, Farm City, and Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat crowd this niche. Hurricane Katrina also continues to make waves. Wading Home, Zeitoun, and A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge exemplify this soggy genre.

A subtle kind of advocacy for Obamacare may be behind the popularity of Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which tells of Skloot's quest to find about the poor black woman whose tumor cells became a mainstay of medical research. The book depicts the injustice of the medical establishment that has left Lacks' descendants mired in poverty and without health insurance.

Racism is probably the most commonly touched chord in the common readings. Of course, there are great works of literature such as Othello that might serve to introduce students to that, but the emphasis in the common readings is on indicting contemporary society, not on discerning an age-old affliction.

Yet another reason why colleges harvest only new growth in the book vineyard is the idea that students are ready for only the most tender shoots. Defenders of the choices say they want "accessibility" and "relevance". Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and even Zora Neale Hurston just don't make the cut when it comes to relevant social issues. In response to critics, some of the colleges say that the books they pick are likely to be the "classics of the future", but the turnover among the choices from year to year suggests either that we are due for an unprecedented avalanche of new classics or that most of these hunches are off the mark.

British readers are likely to find the American obsession with contemporary literature odd. Perhaps especially so because most American students have not been introduced to a literary heritage in high school, nor are they likely to know it in college unless they seek out certain classes.

The choice of a recent book that is often the only book students will have in common with one another points to the death of a shared literary culture. To the extent that colleges want to approach that culture, they display willful selfishness in confining their sights to the present. Contemporary books are worth reading, but their richness is many times increased by the knowledge of what came before. That knowledge is evanescent.

from: Guardian

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

'Afghan Women's Writing Project' Enables Women In Afghanistan To Read, Write In Secret

by: Leigh Cuen

Despite constant dangers, Afghan women’s poetry continues to flourish. One outlet for women’s poetry is Mirman Baheer, Afghanistan’s largest literary society for women. Mirman Baheer operates in Kabul with over 100 members. Its members are generally educated and employed; they are professors, parliamentarians, journalists and scholars.

Approximately 300 of Miram Baheer’s members live in the outlying provinces -- Khost, Paktia, Maidan Wardak, Kunduz, Kandahar, Herat and Farah -- where the group functions in secret. Many who cannot safely travel to meet together listen to radio programs broadcast by Mirman Baheer and the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.

“We recruit only through word-of-mouth and delete any content that might be used to identify our writers,” says Richelle McClain, director of the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.

The Afghan Women’s Writing Project (AWWP) was founded in 2009. Today, 160 Afghan women across five provinces are enrolled in AWWP’s workshops, including a new workshop for teenagers and a Dari writing program. While security is an omnipresent concern, dwindling financial support is one of their greatest challenges. “We just lost 75 percent of our funding because of the U.S. withdrawal,” says McClain.

In addition to radio broadcasts and writing programs, the AWWP collects oral stories from illiterate Afghan women, which are edited and published on the organization’s blog.

Before the 2014 elections in Afghanistan, the AWWP plans to partner with IFES Afghanistan (International Foundation for Electoral Systems) to promote political writings by local women through digital, print, and radio networks. They will also run special broadcasts featuring interviews with female candidates and programs about how election results will impact Afghan citizens.

For many rural women in Afghanistan, these secret networks and the poetry broadcasts are their only form of education. U.N. investigations revealed that only 12 percent of Afghan women are literate.

 But, thanks to volunteer translators and journalists, contemporary Afghan women’s poetry can now reach global audiences. For example, the June 2013 issue of Poetry magazine was dedicated to landays – vitriolic, two-line verses traditionally recited by Afghan women at the river, the well, or private gatherings.

This collection came from years of investigative reporting by journalist Eliza Griswold. She journeyed to Afghanistan with photographer and filmmaker Seamus Murphy. On July 30, 2013 the Pulitzer Center will host “I Am the Beggar of the World,” a presentation of Griswald and Murphy’s work at the Culture Project in New York City.

A free exhibit at the Poetry Foundation Gallery in Chicago, Shame Every Rose: Images of Afghanistan, features many of these landays and images. The exhibit is open to the public through August.

“Sharing this poetry could endanger the poets’ lives,” says Don Share, editor of Poetry magazine. “Still, they gave these poems willingly.”

The tradition of landays provides some level of anonymity for women because they are collective. They are recited and shared rather than attributed to a single poet. Even so, in modern Afghanistan, poetry can be dangerous. Over the past year, several young Afghan poets were killed by their male relatives. A young Mirman Baheer member who called herself Rahila Muska burned herself to death in protest after her brothers found her writing poetry and brutally attacked her. Her real name was Zarmina. She often recited this landay over the phone to members of Miram Baheer:

“You sold me to an old man, Father.

May God destroy your home, I was your daughter.”

Landays derive their power from shrewd layers of tension between the poet’s inner and outer world. They can explore rage, sarcasm, irony, loss, separation and desire. Many of the poems are humorous, filled with bawdy sexual imagery.

Whatever the subject, a landay lilts from word to word in a short lullaby with scathing, layered meaning. These poems come from a long legacy of Afghan women’s literature.

“The Afghan woman poet predates the American or European female poet,” says Zohra Saed, an Afghan-American poet living in New York City. “Consider the poet queen Rabia Balkhi.” Legend has it this 11th century Afghan used her last drop of blood to write poems.

“Afghan women’s poetry is unique because it must respond to create change,” says Saed. “Within our communities and also to change outside perceptions. It is the poetry of witness, of trauma, of memory and of struggle to be seen as individuals.”

Saed recounted the time she edited a collection of literature by Afghan writers around the world. Before it was finished, an American radio station published a CD of the collection without her permission. They listed her as the editor and printed a photograph of an impoverished child on the cover.
“When people are interested in Afghan women’s poetry, it is presented as poetry by the same women the world has imagined rescuing over the past 20 years,” Saed says.

She took legal action to recall the copyrighted anthology, then focused it exclusively on Afghan-American writers. “There were also women poets who were not part of the war,” she says. “Writers raised abroad, their aesthetics and poetic voice is very different.”

Today, Afghan literature is fragmented by linguistic, cultural and geographic divides. Some of the world’s most prominent Afghan writers live outside their fatherland and write in English. Many female writers in Afghanistan come from the urban elite, often educated in western universities. Poems by women in rural Afghanistan are rarely published. Groups like the Afghan Women’s Writing Project and the Poetry Foundation are working to bridge this divide.
“Poetry is not only for the classroom and elite art circles,” says Share, editor of Poetry magazine.

“Poetry is an essential part of life, the only way these women can share their experiences. These poems are electrifying and relevant.” He hopes readers will realize that, even in the digital age, poetry can wield tangible power.

This post originally appeared on dowser.org.

from: HuffingtonPost Canada