Chinadaily.com ran a story a couple of weeks ago titled "China Wages War on Piracy". As you would expect "Pirates and bootleggers in China produce 120 million counterfeit audio and video products" a year and cause all sorts of havoc for record and movie companies. What was a surprise to me is that these pirates also publish "500 million unauthorized books a year".For a little perspective, that would be almost 3,000 copies of each of the 172,000 new books that were published in the U.S. in 2005Liu Binjie, vice director with the General Administration of Press and publication, said "the...
Seattle and the New Koolhaas Central Library: Is the Honeymoon Over?
Before we dive into the current flurry of the form vs. function debate regarding our Rem Koolhaas designed Central Library lets step back and take a look at the big picture.The library is one of the many gifts of The 'Libraries For All' 1998 bond measure that passed by the largest margin of victory for a bond measure in Seattle history.Seattle got a new Koolhaas designed Central Library, 5 other new branches and improvements to all 22 existing branches in Seattle.The impact on our city has been profound:-library usership is up citywide- the Central Library has become a top tier...
The Borders Trilogy: Reward the Loyal Less, Kill the Speciality, Withdraw From Parts of the World
The Border's Trilogy. Sponsored by the Oprah Book Club who's latest pick The Road by Cormac McCarthy...We won't get into the possible psychological motives for such a choice but let's just say that I can't understand half of what McCarthy writes, he is a bit reclusive and has given one interview in the last 40 years and he is going to Oprahland!As surprising as this pick is for Oprah is how unsurprising the recent news is from Borders.New CEO George Jones laid out his blurred strategic vision for the company.It includes a new and less improved loyalty programand "significantly reducing...
Keeping Up With the Gates Foundation at the Library
I had a look at the 8 minute video/infomercial The Gates Foundation has released to help library advocates make the case for funding in their communities.The video is an accessory to the announcement by the Gates Foundation at the ALA mid-winter meeting this past January in Seattle that pledged 5 more years of support so "public libraries serving low-income communities continue to provide free, high-quality computer and Internet services and training to their communities".As advertised the video has a strong focus on minority and low income library users who are in some ways becoming dependent on library technologies to do...
The Latest Advances in Papermaking and the Fiber Arts
Introducing 'The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper'25 odorless sheets from a single turdHow to do it yourselfFor more information visit the Poo-tiqueAlso don't forget that panda and sheep poo work too!And don't worry if all this poo paper kills you because now you can be buried in a paper casket."Ecopod is a revolutionary design in coffins made from naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper." Available in 2 sizes and 6 colors.The world is getting greener one sheet at a time.courtesy of Boing Boing