As previously noted here on Book Patrol, 2009 marks the bicentennial of the birth of America's unrivaled genius of the Gothic horror genre, poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe. Angelenos, and those planning a visit to the City of Angels in the coming weeks, may mark the two-hundredth swing of Poe's pendulum by attending a performance of Nevermore, a one-man show now in a limited engagement at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood.The play, written by Hunter College literature professor Dennis Paoli, is framed as an evening's lecture circuit reading by the Bard of Baltimore. Present among the...
Books to Bytes: "Physical Storage vs. Digital Storage"
click to enlargeMozy is company that provides online backup and storage solutions. In a recent blog post, Physical Storage vs. Digital Storage, they provided an astounding visual depiction of the advance of technology as it relates to the storage of information.Above is section from the graphic relating to books. Using the Library of Congress as a jumping off point, Moxy claims that they can now store the equivalent of 1000 LOC's without breaking a sweat.That is 32 billion books and 650,000 miles of bookshelves. Enough bookshelves to go from Jerusalem to Beijing 147 times! Now, that's a Great Wall.Essentially, the...
The Skating Librarian
Meet MegaBeth a 53-year-old librarian by day and roller derby player by night.Here is Beth Hollis in action in the CNN piece 'Tiny librarian on wheels'Embedded video from CNN VideoPreviously on Book Patrol:Roller Derby Hits the Books
Why Libraries Rock (Hint: They Don’t)
*This entry is part of a "Blogathon" to benefit the flood damaged Louisville, KY Free Public Library. See the link below to donate to this effort.The main title of this piece was chosen by the organizer of the blogathon. The subtitle is mine--all mine. You'll forgive me if I don't wax poetic on the mandated title and theme. The idea that libraries "rock" or are "awesome" or even (another variant suggested by said organizer) "kick a**" reminds me of the lame, costly, and inevitably unsuccessful marketing campaigns that public library P.R. departments love to launch in a vain attempt to...
Bookworms and Boxers Battle Back!
"You've been tagged in a note on Facebook."Everyone on that social networking site--and at this point who isn't?--has read this message with a mixture of flattery ("My online friends want to know more about me!") and dread. ("Who the heck has time for this stuff?").A popular note is entitled "The ABC's of Me," a straightforward trip through the alphabet, each successive letter revealing, theoretically, a fascinating fact about the friend. I must confess I never completed this work-out, throwing in the towel at the end of Round 2 with the letter "B."For any librarian, of course, "B" is for for...