Sneak Peek...

Psst! Want to get a preview of the new library web site? Click here... (and let us know what you think.)

Savvy in the City...

from Library Director Phil Tramdack, communicate and navigate:

The Urban Dictionary
Worldwide Subway Navigator

I Know It's Only Rock and Roll...

But I like it, like it, yes I do! First let me introduce you to BloodHag, a heavy metal band that performs songs about science fiction and fantasy novels and throws their favorite books at the audience... check out a performance here...
and this summary of rock bands touring libraries this summer, from librarian.net. Ha! And you thought it was pretty quiet around the library this summer...

Congratulations...

to Kathy Frampton, who is replacing Sherry Wilson as the Library Technician in the IMC and to Rita McClelland, who has been promoted to Library Technician in Resource Sharing.

A Little Bit of Library in Your Life....

In news of the weird... librarian.net reports that McGill University has digitized The Feather Book, with illustrations composed of beaks, claws, and feathers. Read more here...

In a flurry of cross-platform marketing... books now have movie trailers, from NPR. On second thought, this is a long overdue development in a world where you can visit the internet gaming site based on the movie that was inspired by an amusement park ride.

News Flash: Textbooks Cost Too Much...

and might be plagiarized. I'm reeling. Congress is going to get to the bottom of it.

Several million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was an undergraduate, I had a job doing research for a textbook. The professor (with a reputation in the field) wrote an outline, his graduate assistant (with an attitude) hired some library science majors to find supporting materials, and the publishing company (with deep pockets heavy with the profits of textbook gouging) had staff writers who actually wrote the thing. It was kind of a cool job, actually... except for that hollow, deceitful feeling.

Run Away and Read...

Nancy Pearl names some books to skip work for...

Currently re-reading A Moveable Feast to set the mood for a trip to Paris, hoping to avoid the DaVinci Code tourists... read on for some literary vacation opportunities:

Literary Trips
Literary and Writing Holidays
Literary New York
Literary Rome


and just because I enjoyed it so much, Sarah Vowell's Assasination Vacation.

Must Love Libraries...

A heartwarming story about a child's experiences in a library (and later) from children's author, Eva Ibbotson.

Saving It Up For Friday....

Behold! A quantity of unrelated information for your delectation... a veritable picnic basket of bibliotrivia. Minus the ants.

New Appalachian Digital Library, from Mesoj
Find a Trail, from Lifehacker (in case you are visiting said Appalachians)
New Words for Merriam-Webster, from ResourceShelf (and even more interesting, the New Words list from 1806)
Wikipedia, Kenneth Lay, and historians, from ACRLog
A Guide to Searching for Female Ancestors, from the Library of Congress via ResourceShelf
1/3 million free E-books at the World E-book Fair, from ResourceShelf
Ink Spots: The 10 Most Significant Literary Sites in Northern California, from LII
CNN's six year-old Literary Critic
And finally, The Authors' Guide to Summer Reading, from Lifehacker