The board of Lenawee County Library in Michigan has voted to dispose of the entire collection of its Ridgeway branch where over 6000 books and 2000 magazines have been destroyed by mold.The library, built in the 1880's, did not have heat, air conditioning, or running water for the last five years!“There was a hole in the roof where a chimney had been...squirrels and mice had gotten in, and the books were covered with two and three different colors of mold.” said Teresa Calderone, who has been the director of the library system since August 1.There was a little bit of...
Digitization and the Bookseller
BooksnapWelcome to the next disruptive technology for the book trade.The force of commerce and the march of technology are soon to meet again at the booksellers door. The door might not be open for long but if entered correctly it might become a new source of revenue for the bookseller.Once Google's romance with the libraries is over do you think Google will stop looking for other sources of information to feed the machine?I would guess within 5 years or so Google will have cycled through the library trade and determined who they will be playing with and they will know...
The Video Writing of Gary Hill
"Perhaps as much as any artist using image/sound media, Hill's work in video is about, and is, a new form of writing."Seattle Post-Intelligencer art critic Regina Hackett reports on her blog Art To Go that Seattle based video artist Gary Hill has donated "four of his critical video language suites from the 1980s" to the Seattle Art Museum.Included is Hill's 1987-88 43+ minute piece Incidence of Catastrophe which was inspired by Maurice Blanchot's novel Thomas the Obscure. Like Hill, Blanchot's work is in "constant engagement with the 'question of literature', a simultaneous enactment and interrogation of the profoundly strange experience...
Helen Yentus Book Design
Talk about an inviting altered book.Released to late to make the Top Ten Lists for Book Design this year but a spot on the 2008 list pretty much guaranteed.Helen Yentus also did the cover for Elizabeth Gilbert's hugely popular book eat pray loveGallery of Yentus book coversThanks to The Book Design Review for the lead
The Book Wall at the Kansas City Public Library
Great idea - worthy titles- the design is questionable- books look like a cross between a book club edition and Easton PressThanks to Iconic Books for the leadImage 1 viaImage 2 via