Tag Archives: books

Medieval book in unknown language contains message | Crave – CNET

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The Voynich Manuscript has eluded every attempt at deciphering. But new computerized statistical analysis suggests it has a genuine message and is not a hoax.

via Medieval book in unknown language contains message | Crave – CNET.

Voynich

Told in pictures | Eye Magazine

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What distinguishes the picturebook as a genre within children’s publishing is the way the images work with the words. Rather than merely illustrating the words, the images carry equal weight to them, achieving a harmonious balance between the two where each element adds something to the whole that the other does not. But there is an entire sub-genre of picturebook that eschews a written text altogether, relying entirely on a sequence of images to tell a story or create a meaning.

See the full story at Told in pictures | Eye Magazine

Throwing the Books at Each Other | Inside Higher Ed

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“…a large percentage of the library’s non-fiction collection was being removed in a hasty and ill-considered project driven by an awkward glitch in planning. Some temporary workers had been hired to insert RFID tags into the books and it seemed foolish not to remove outdated books from the collection first, particularly since the RFID tags had yet to arrive. So to make use of the workers who were already on the clock, that removal project was suddenly shifted into high gear, and soon the whole thing was smoking and the wheels fell off, but not before thousands of books were discarded.”

via Throwing the Books at Each Other | Inside Higher Ed

Urbana Free Library Scrutinized Over Book Weeding | Illinois Public Media

Illinois: “Library Director Says Mistake Was Made in Book ‘Weeding’” | InfoDocket – LibraryJournal

I’m sure the Annoyed Librarian is going to have a comment about this one!

New DRM Will Change the Words in Your E-Book | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

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The next e-book you buy might not exactly match the printed version. And those changes are there to make sure you’re not a pirate.

German researchers have created a new DRM feature that changes the text and punctuation of an e-book ever so slightly. Called SiDiM, which Google translates to “secure documents by individual marking,” the changes are unique to each e-book sold. These alterations serve as a digital watermark that can be used to track books that have had any other DRM layers stripped out of them before being shared online. The researchers are hoping the new DRM feature will curb digital piracy by simply making consumers paranoid that they’ll be caught if they share an e-book illicitly.

via New DRM Will Change the Words in Your E-Book | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

It will be interesting to see if those publishers who have recently moved to open access on ebooks reverse their stance due to this new technology. I’m sure libraries will be having many discussions about the implications of this new technology on ebook lending and relationships with publishers.

You may also like:

Digital Rights Management (DRM) & Libraries | American Library Association 

UPDATED: Summer 2013 Reading Lists

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That time of year where we look forward to lazy summer days, if we are fortunate enough to have vacation time, and where all sorts of summer reading lists are suggested by bloggers, publishers and media organizations. So here’s a list of 2013 summer reading lists. Also check out booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ChaptersIndigo for their summer reading portals. What books will you be inspired to read this summer?

Johan Krouthén: Three reading women in a summer landscape. Wikimedia Commons

General Fiction/Poetry/Non-Fiction

Young Adult/Children’s

Science Fiction/Fantasy

Mystery/Thriller, Action/Adventure

Romance

Also See

The Enormous Opportunity In Educating And Empowering Girls | Co.Exist

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Giving young girls an education has such a huge impact in developing countries that you need to see it to believe it. A new film called Girl Rising shows how education affects nine girls from nine countries–with some help from Meryl Streep.

via The Enormous Opportunity In Educating And Empowering Girls | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation.

CNN will be broadcasting Girl Rising June 16 & June 22. Check out the Girl Rising trailer website.

10×10 (Educate Girls: Change the World) is “a global action campaign for educating girls.” There will be a companion curriculum launched on October 11, 2013, The International Day of the Girl. The curriculum will be free of charge and educators can fill out a form to be notified when the curriculum is available.

There is also the 10×10 Book Club with toolkits for book clubs for two specific books so far (they will be adding more), as well as young adult and middle grade toolkits.

Prison Library at Guantánamo – NYTimes.com

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…its patrons may not browse the stacks. Instead, the chief librarian, a civilian who asks to be identified as “Milton” for security reasons, or an aide fills plastic bins with about 50 books and takes them to each cellblock once a week. 

Prison Library at Guantánamo – NYTimes.com

Also this tumblr blog shows reporter’s pics of books at Guantánamo.

The Case for Preserving the Pleasure of Deep Reading | MindShift

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Recent research in cognitive science, psychology and neuroscience has demonstrated that deep reading—slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity—is a distinctive experience, different in kind from the mere decoding of words. 

For the full article see: The Case for Preserving the Pleasure of Deep Reading | MindShift.

Taylor Stevens: 11 Most Kickass Literary Heroines | Huffington Post Books

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Taylor Stevens: 11 Most Kickass Literary Heroines | Huffington Post Books

Post by the Vanessa Michael Monroe series author Taylor Stevens. What a great topic for a book club or book forum! What is the meaning  and context of kickass? Does kickass necessarily require violent death? Comparing heroines across genres…dystopian, paranormal, historical/literary, mystery, action/adventure and science fiction/fantasy.

The post comments also suggest Lisbeth Salandar from the Dragon Tattoo series, Scarlett O’Hara, Elizabeth I and Paksenarion.

I would like to add Mrs. Amelia Peabody Emerson from Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series (Victorian set in London and Egypt), with her trusty steel shaft umbrella and archeological “tool belt.”

This Penguin Classics Wallpaper Is Perfect for Book Worms | Gizmodo

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This Penguin Classics Wallpaper Is Perfect for Book Worms | Gizmodo