The literary wealth of more than 5,000 years is preserved at this museum-row library that is anything but ordinary.
via Philly’s Free Library worth the trip for rare-book collection | readingeagle.com.
Books are one of Chloe Leitmann-Morales’s favorite things. She sorts through the full shelf in her family’s Arlington County living room, pulling out her choices one after another, then settles comfortably on almost any nearby lap. She’s ready to listen and follow along as her father, mother or grandmother reads about Dora the Explorer, different kinds of bellies or the dog Blue, in both English and Spanish.
Chloe has “read” more than 1,000 books. She is 2 years old.
She is a poster child for the Arlington County Public Library system’s “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program, a months-old effort encouraging preschoolers to strengthen language skills, build their vocabularies and begin love affairs with stories and the printed word.
Read the full story: Arlington library system starts ‘1,000 Books Before Kindergarten’ to urge a love of reading | The Washington Post.
Hey Macmillan, Why Does My eBook Say That it Belongs to a Public Library? | The Digital Reader
Quotable: “This title is old enough that by the time Macmillan decided to sell the ebook there very likely no digital copy available. The only way to get an ebook was to either type the book into a computer or scan an old paper copy.”
The Fairfax County Public Library system in Virginia reportedly destroyed 250,000 books as part of an effort to revamp its system and cut costs.
The Washington Post reports that the books were discarded as part of a plan to reduce costs and bring the county’s library system into the digital age.
But in the past, discarded books were donated to a group called Friends of the Library, which would then donate them or sell them to raise money for the libraries, which have faced steep budget cuts in recent years. This time, seven months went by with no books going to the group — and no explanation why.
See the full story: Virginia county library system destroyed 250,000 of its own books | The Sideshow | Yahoo! News Canada.
Google…filed for a new patent that would make eBooks come alive with sounds. The sounds would be triggered by events within the book, such as lapping waves, an ominous crescendo, or maybe an outdoor market. The new application would have the sounds stored on a server and would be pushed out to the eBook users are reading at the time.
The full story: Google Submits New Patent for Triggered Sounds in eBooks | GoodEReader.
Librarians and news outlets have been busy this summer, providing plenty of news-worthy articles and blog posts of interest to libraries. Here are 50 such stories that will get you caught up on the latest in the library world.
See the list of links: 50 Library Stories You May Have Missed in August | Ellyssa Kroski – OEDB.org.
Oyster, an app launched [September 5, 2013] by a trio of self-proclaimed bookworms, is already being called the “Netflix for books.” That’s a lofty moniker, but the app may just live up to the hype – it offers access to over 100,000 books for $9.95 a month!
Right now, the only Big 5 publisher it’s partnered with is HarperCollins, but they’ve still got some really big books: “Life of Pi,” “Water for Elephants,” and “The God Delusion” all came up when we were browsing.
According to its website, they are constantly adding new titles, so who knows? Other bigger publishers may be signing on as well.
Right now, Oyster is invitation-only, and it’s only available as an iPhone app (although they’ll be adding on a iPad app later this fall). The app is free to download. You can request an invite here.
The BiblioTech library in Bexar County is doing something that no library in the US has ever done. Since last year, the organizers had a grand vision of an all digital library. Six hundred e-readers and over ten thousand eBooks will be available to loan out when the new library opens this week.
via BiblioTech Digital Library Opens this Week | GoodEReader.
Tumblr has launched the Reblog Book Club, its first official book club. The series opens with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, “a coming-of-age story about fanfiction, family, and first love.”
If you want to join the book club conversation, you can post to your Tumblr with the #reblogbookclub tag or you can follow this link to post on the official Tumblr page.
infophile 