Walnut wood with powder coated steel partsDimensions:shelf: 47.25" x 9.8" x 2"stand: 13.75"Designed by BCXSYCost: $1,899From the website:"Every book tells its own story. Every book has its own weight. By playing with balance, the See-Saw bookshelf visualizes the breadth of our home libraries.Is Kafka truly heavier than the latest issue of Vogue?.. "Boy there have been a lot of bookshelf designs floating around lately. Has anyone told the furniture designers that in most places the word on the street is that the book is dying. Regardless, this particular design is beyond me.Thanks to Neatorama for the lead
Google Book Search: A Report From the "Google Five"
The first five libraries that jumped on the Google digital book train took time at the recent ALA Annual Conference to weigh in on how things are going. The Google Five are the libraries of Harvard, Oxford, Michigan and Stanford and the New York Public Library.Though all five said that they were "pleased with the progress" they also acknowledged that there have been some issues, which range from books being damaged to questions about the quality of searches being performed. One library had someone complain because some of the scans have thumbs visible! And over at Oxford's Bodleian Library they...
Before Harry Potter It Was Little Nell
If you are looking for a little perspective on the Potter keg that is going to explode on July 21st when the last book in the series is released have a look at Lenore Skenazy's piece in the New York Sun, "For Harry Potter Fans, Time to Enjoy Unkown."She does a nice job of putting the phenomenon in historical context.Here are a few Potter puffs:-It is the most successful series in the history of publishing.-The forthcoming finale Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has the largest first printing in publishing history.- A first edition of the first Potter book sold...
POD Talk
Print on Demand has arrived on main street. There has been a tremendous amount of publicity surrounding the recent installation of the Espresso Machine at the NYPL.For a nice primer on the print on demand issue check out Peter Brantley's post "Where lies the Print on Demand" over at O'Reilly Radar.He reproduces a highly informative thread of "a debate on POD business models."All you booksellers out there need to keep your seat belt on for this is going to shake the book tree as hard as the advent of online bookselling did.Book Patrol post from December 06 - Books: Espresso...
Censorship at Home and Abroad
This was one of last weeks Daily Number at the Pew Research Center for the People & The Press .The headline: 46% support public school library book banning.The good news is that this is the "lowest level of support in 20 years."What are these "dangerous ideas" that people want to keep from their kids?Isn't the act of keeping our kids from these ideas just as dangerous?Then we have Google going full throttle with their campaign to fight censorship. Their guns are aimed at Washington, D.C. in the hope of getting Government support in their fight for the free flow of...