Click on image to enlargevia Flickr - sarahvictoriasmith Book set
The Waiting Game in Jackson County
The 15 libraries of Jackson County, Oregon have now been closed for over 2 months.No storytime for kids, no books, movies or cd's for the residents and no internet access for the people most in need.Where are we today?Still no help from Washington D.C. There was an emergency appropriation in the initial Iraq War bill that the President vetoed and I am not sure what incarnation survived the recent bill the President signed off on.Oregon Senator Ron Wyden is quoted as saying back in April: "The President may veto the bill more than once, but eventually the legislation must pass...
Auction Wrap: The Sale of Annette Campbell White’s Library
Nigel Burkwood over at Bookride has the wrap up of the auction of the library Annette Campbell White held at Sotheby's in London.The Recap:The sale grossed about £1.3 million. About half a million less than the top estimates.25% of the lots did not sell.Many of the dealers present were the same one who had sold Ms Campbell the books in the first place.The London trade gossip was "that the stuff had all been bought too recently and was in less than fab condition."The attendees were mostly male though Jeannette Winterson was spotted in crowd and active.Many lots went to an...
The Librarian: Hollywood Style
The documentary film from Overdue Productions "The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film" will premier in a couple of weeks at the ALA Conference in Washington, D.C.Here's the trailer:It is the first full-length documentary film to focus on the work and lives of librarians, offering "a unique and charming blend of film clips, humor and critical analysis of the popular image of librarians." The film weaves interviews with real librarians with "movie clips of cinematic librarians."This trailer focuses more on the interviews with librarians (after all the film is premiering at the ALA Conference) but I can't help...
Readings For Money and Books For Free
You get a sneaking suspicion reading Ceclia McGee's piece in the New York Times "A Way to Give Authors a Lucrative Second Platform" that the model for author readings has changed drastically and that the free in-store author reading is endangered.Many of the major publishing houses have set up in-house speakers bureaus which now hire out their authors to various groups and businesses for a fee which includes travel expenses.Why are they doing this? The publishers say "they are responding to common industry trends: fleeting tastes in mass-market books, shrinking shelf lives in bookstores, disappearing book review sections, and the...