World Book Day 

{pictureRef(, align:"left")} World Book Day

World Book Day was designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and was marked in over 30 countries around the globe last year.

World Book Day 2002 in the UK and Ireland will take place on Thursday 14th March.

World Book Day is about helping children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.

The Electronic Book 

Evolution of and Electronic Book: The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography.

The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography has become an invaluable online resourse. This is Charles W. Bailey, Jr.'s own story of its history.

Life in the Digital World 

A year without print at Princeton, and what we plan next by David Goodman (pdf)

Abstract:
Princeton began to receive some major titles as electronic only, starting with the 2000 subscription year. We are expanding this in appropriate cases where we have confidence in the publisher, and the financial advantage is significant. There have been no complaints, and also almost no comments. Apparently users now look for current journal articles online, using the paper versions only if online is not available. We plan further developments to facilitate user convenience. [read more]

Collateral Damage 

Ingenuity's Blueprints, Into History's Dustbin

On these frigid winter nights, Randy Rabin can be found combing through trash bins outside the United States Patent and Trademark Office, trying to rescue from destruction yellowed copies of patents from America's golden age of invention.

The patent office, home to nearly 6.5 million patents dating to 1790, is converting to an electronic database and discarding a significant portion of its paper files after they have been scanned and digitized.

Tonight, at least 30 large recycling bins are sitting in a driveway near the patent office's public search room, crammed with documents ready for destruction.

A few random swoops into the bins produce aged prints of patent documents dated from the 1880's and 90's, with spidery intricate sketches of inventions.

Four of the reproductions have the name T. A. Edison at the top of the page. That's Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb and the holder of more than 1,000 United States patents. One of the sketches retrieved from the dust bin of bureaucracy is of Mr. Edison's "dynamo electric machine or motor," patented March 15, 1892. [read more]

Read any good books or seen any good movies lately? 

Based on the Book

'Based on the Book' is a compilation of selected books that have been made into movies. Utilizing the Internet Movie Database as the authority on release dates, all movies in this collection have been released in 1980 or later. In the case where more than one movie has been based on the same book, the most current movie is listed.

Heard any good jokes lately? 

An Angel appears at a faculty meeting and tells the dean of the library that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selects infinite wisdom.

"Done!" says the angel, and disappears in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turn toward the dean of the library, who sits surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispers, "Say something."

The dean looks at them and says, "I should have taken the money."

For more laughs, check out, Fun for Bookworms

The Library 

Libraries focus on new technology by Kelly K. Spors

Come March, the Cerritos Library is more likely to resemble a theme park than a community center. The suburban Los Angeles public library will unveil its new digs, a $40 million expansion complete with a floor-to-ceiling saltwater aquarium, a life-size replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a rainforest room with trees, a stone-paved "Main Street" walkway and souvenir shops.

But just as jaw-dropping may be the library's technology effort -- 200 computer workstations, 1,200 laptop ports, wireless headsets and handheld computers for librarians, multimedia rooms, and a more efficient circulation system that uses radio frequency to track books instead of bar codes or magnetic strips.

The new circulation system, which alone cost the library about $150,000, automatically checks in books as they fall through the drop-off bin. Eventually, this wireless technology could allow cardholders to borrow books by simply walking out the door.

"We've been compared to Disneyland, just down the street," says library director Waynn Pearson, who dubs Cerritos the first "experience library." [read more]

Print on demand 

Technology: Bringing the Press to the People by Bill Marvel

Someday soon you'll walk into a bookstore, browse an online catalog for the book you want, order it, then repair to the coffee bar for a latte while your book is printed and bound.

It could be any book, because in this bright new future, no book need ever go out of print. Every title will be at least potentially available at any bookstore.

It's called on-demand printing, and it's closer than you think.

In the wooded hills 12 miles out side Austin, the future is already arriving at the rate of one book every five minutes.

That's how long it takes Eakin Press' new BookBuilderOne to print, trim and bind one paperback book. [read more]
(link via futureofthebook)

The Information Game 

My Rules of Information by Marylaine Block

A few years back, just before doing my first bibliographic instruction session for a class of freshmen, I had to figure out what the few, most important things were we could teach them, the things we information professionals knew and the students didn't, the lessons that would make all the difference between finding and not finding what they needed. I emerged from my office with a piece of paper with four sentences on it: my four rules of information. I have added to them over the years, but the fact that I and my colleagues still know and practice them seems to me the signal difference between us and our users.

I didn't invent the rules. I merely codified them. Codification ã another one of the things that information professionals routinely do when people ask them questions. [read more]
(link via Library Juice}

Internet vs. The Public Library 

The top ten reasons why the Internet still will not replace the public library

As advertising is constantly telling us, the major corporations have a vision, one in which every household is linked to a vast electronic library of games, music and other salable products. In this vision, the main use of the library is to be a symbol for the fast fading print world, that is, when it is not being sent across country in a second.

Don¼t plan on closing your doors anytime soon. Here are ten reasons why the public library is here to stay. [read the reasons]

Standards 

ANSI/NISO Z39.77-2001--Guidelines for Information about Preservation Products. This link is to the free pdf download.

Post Nine-Eleven 

The Day the World Changed: Implications for Archival, Library, and Information Science Education

Abstract
The terrorist attacks of September 11th on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have had profound implications for many aspects of American and global society. This essay explores the many implications for library and information science schools educating the next generation of information professionals. The essay considers an array of opinions by the faculty located in one such school regarding how to reflect on the aftermath of the attacks for basic aspects of teaching, research, and curriculum design in library and information science schools. Topics examined include disaster preparedness and recovery, knowledge management, workplace design and location, technology and the human dimension, ethics and information policy, information security, information economics, memorializing and documenting the terrorist attacks, the role of the Internet, and preservation. [read more]

Electronic Books Resource 

University of Texas at Austin, General Libraries Electronic Books

Publishing 

Publishing 2002: Where the Buck Stops

Eight top executives talk about where the business is now and where it is going
The year just past was a significant one for publishing. At the beginning of the year, many of the large houses made ambitious leaps into electronic publishing. By year's end, most of them had cut those programs significantly. Large author advances were highlighted by Bill Clinton receiving an estimated $10 million‚$12 million for his memoirs, following close on the heels of wife Hillary's estimated $8 million advance (in late 2000), and overshadowing New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's $3 million, two-book deal. Against this background, publishers received stark lessons in how quickly public interest can shift. Jack Welch's book Jack, for which publisher Warner advanced $7.1 million, came out on the very day that world events greatly changed the public's interest in books--September 11. The bursting of the Internet bubble made many business titles suddenly dated. It was also a year in which sales of bestsellers were soft, but the movies reminded us that some old bestsellers can become new again, with The Lord of the Rings as well as the surge in sales of the already blockbuster Harry Potter books.

To consider what this year meant and what the upcoming one might bring, Publishers Weekly invited the chief executives of eight of the largest publishing houses (see participants' sidebar) to a roundtable discussion in December. To accommodate schedules, two separate roundtables were held. The following story brings together the highlights of both sessions.

Cites and Insights 

The Midwinter 2002: Vol. 2 No. 2 Cites and Insights is available.