She finally has a home: Harvard -- latimes.com
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Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
From the Oregonian with pictures by Mr. Thomas Boyd. Oregon author Katherine Dunn's long, slow bout with words - and the question
by Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
Saturday August 22, 2009, 7:56 AM
photographs by Thomas Boyd,The Oregonian
Mr Boyd has shown me how to work the image magic on the Oregonian site. Thank you Thomas. - Doug
http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/08/oregon_author_katherine_dunns.html
Saturday August 22, 2009, 7:56 AM
photographs by Thomas Boyd,The Oregonian
Mr Boyd has shown me how to work the image magic on the Oregonian site. Thank you Thomas. - Doug
http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/08/oregon_author_katherine_dunns.html
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Latest word on Wordstock
Latest word on Wordstock
by Jeff Baker, The Oregonian
Wednesday August 19, 2009, 5:15 PM
Wordstock 2009 is about booked up. Most of the big names are signed, the program is about ready to be printed, and everything is moving forward for the literary festival Oct. 8-11 at the Oregon Convention Center. Here are a few highlights:
• Headliners include Sherman Alexie, Ethan Canin, Dan Chaon, Richard Dawkins, Pete Dexter, James Ellroy, Julia Glass, Jacquelyn Mitchard and Jeannette Walls.
• Alexie and Dawkins will be separate-admission events away from the main floor. Those purchasing tickets will receive a copy of their new book, similar to the way Powell's does its events at Bagdad Theater.
• Wordstock patrons have been asking for Alexie for five years. His story "War Dances" is in the Aug. 10-17 issue of The New Yorker.
• Ellroy may do "Live Wire!" as part of his Wordstock experience. His new book, "Blood's a Rover," is generating some heat.
• Five writers from the International Writing Program, based at the University of Iowa, will read at Wordstock.
• 2nd Story, a storytelling theater group from Chicago that uses music in its performances, will appear on Oct. 8. Portland is awash in storytelling events right now, and these guys are supposed to be the real thing.
• The 150 or so writers participating in this year's Wordstock are "down by design" from the 210 to 230 of the past two years, according to executive director Greg Netzer. There were logistical problems with so many writers, and the smaller number is easier to handle.
• Local arts organizations will get in on the act with partnership events beginning Oct. 3. Write Around Portland, the Oregon Council for the Humanities, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, the Flash Choir and the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center are among the groups planning something special for Wordstock.
• Some of the Oregon Book Awards finalists will read on Oct. 11.
• There's going to be an emphasis on food writing, memoir and young adult fiction this year, with more than a dozen writers from each genre.
• Floor space at the convention center will be smaller, but (yet another) new configuration is supposed to help the sound problems that have bedeviled the festival throughout its history.
• All major sponsors from last year are back, Netzer said, and only one decreased its commitment. Given the economy, finances are going OK.
Jeff Baker: 503-221-8165; jbaker@news.oregonian.com.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Book throwdown: Julia vs. Julie
Meryl Streep in the movie
“Julie & Julia” doesn’t come out until Friday, but thanks to a huge publicity push, beloved actors, lots of movie previews and three popular books, there is already an incredible amount of buzz surrounding the movie.
Even this book reviewer got to attend a preview. I’ll leave the film review to colleague Joe Williams, of course. But I will say this: The movie is guaranteed to sell a lot of books.
This week I looked at amazon.com to see how “Julie & Julia,” “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and “My Life in France” are doing saleswise.
Not surprisingly, the three books that provide most of the inspiration for the movie are in the top 100.
“Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” which blogger Julie Powell cooked from for a year, was ranked highest at 34. The 40th anniversary edition, published in 2001, now sports a removable wraparound band with a photo - not of chef Julia Child but actress Meryl Streep!
Meanwhile, “My Life in France,” Child’s memoir, has not only a photo of Streep, but also one of actress Amy Adams. It was ranked 357 (the edition with the real Child’s photo was ranked better, at 99). The movie tie-in edition of the book by Julie Powell was ranked at 43, which was better than the original paperback.
I checked the catalog at the St. Louis County Library, and from what I could tell, there were more requests for “Julie & Julia” than for the books by Julia Child.
Even though the movie was charming (I could watch Streep play Child all day), I’d rather see the real people on the book covers. Especially the iconic Child. Her real kitchen is in the Smithsonian, for pete’s sake. But I’m sure that the publishers don’t hesitate a minute about putting actors’ pictures on other people’s memoirs if it will sell books. And the movie really does make one curious about the books - I’m reading “My Life in France” now.
In the movie, both Streep and Powell are appealing. (Maybe a bit too cutesy, but that’s typical of movies by Nora Ephron.) I’ve already heard from filmgoers who differ on which cook they found more interesting.
In the meantime, which cook would you rather read?
Friday, August 7, 2009
New Yorker Discovers the Little House Books' Libertarian Roots
Judith Thurman in the current New Yorker, in an article largely (and curiously) hooked off a now-16-year-old book, The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane, by William Holtz, uncovers what seemed (to anyone unfamiliar with modern libertarianism's history) like a fascinating and somewhat dark secret: that the hugely popular and influential Little House books were highly influenced, edited, maybe even "ghostwritten" to a significant extent, by Laura Ingalls Wilder's radical libertarian daughter and fellow novelist, Rose Wilder Lane.
Of their collaborative style, Thurman writes:
The cumulative evidence suggests that sometimes Laura stood her ground and sometimes she was cowed into submission, but most often she solicited and welcomed Rose’s improvements. When Rose left the farm, in 1935, the editing of the five books yet to come was done by correspondence. “I have written you the whys of the story as I wrote it,” Laura told her in a letter that accompanied a draft of volume four, “On the Banks of Plum Creek,” “but you know your judgment is better than mine, so what you decide is the one that stands.” Rose, for her part, could be an insufferable didact. She played down her authority, even as she hammered it home: “I’m trying to train you as a writer for the big market,” she had told her mother in 1925. (Laura had written an article about her Ozark kitchen, which, heavily revised, had appeared in the magazine Country Gentleman.) “You must understand that what sold was your article, edited. You must study how it was edited, and why. . . . Above all, you must listen to me.”
Of Rose's political work beyond working with her mother, Thurman writes:
In 1936, the Saturday Evening Post published Lane’s own “Credo,” an impassioned essay that was widely admired by conservatives. Her vision was of a quasi-anarchic democracy, with minimal taxes, limited government, and no entitlements, regulated only by the principle of personal responsibility. Its citizens would be equal in their absolute freedom to flourish or to fail.
Everything that Lane wrote after “Credo”—fiction or polemics—was an expression of that vision. She may have been the first to invoke the term “libertarian” (it dates to the eighteenth century) to describe the agenda of a nascent anti-statist movement of which she has been called, with Isabel Paterson and Ayn Rand, “a founding mother.” To the degree that she is still remembered for her own achievements, it is mainly by a few libertarian ultras for whom her tract of 1943, “The Discovery of Freedom: Man’s Struggle Against Authority,” is a foundational work of political theory. (It was written “in a white heat,” she said.)
As far as that "may have been the first," such attempts to pin down "firsts" is a mug's game; she was certainly early in using that term in what has become its main modern use, and also helped define what the term would come to mean.
Of the dual philosophies detectable in the Little House books, Thurman writes:
Last June, Anita Clair Fellman, a professor emerita of history at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, Virginia, published “Little House, Long Shadow,” a survey of the Wilders’ “core” beliefs, and of their influence on American political culture. Two streams of conservatism, she argues—not in themselves inherently compatible—converge in the series. One is Lane’s libertarianism, and the other is Wilder’s image of a poster family for Republican “value voters”: a devoted couple of Christian patriots and their unspoiled children; the father a heroic provider and benign disciplinarian, the mother a pious homemaker and an example of feminine self-sacrifice.....
Fellman concludes, “The popularity of the Little House books . . . helped create a constituency for politicians like Reagan who sought to unsettle the so-called liberal consensus established by New Deal politics.” Considering the outcome of the November election, and the present debacle of laissez-faire capitalism, that popularity may have peaked. On the other hand, it may not have. Hard times whet the appetite for survival stories.
Rose Wilder Lane could certainly have set Ms. Thurman straight on her absurd assertion that the current crisis is one of laissez-faire capitalism. Kate Harding at Salon chimes in with comments on Thurman's article, with some requisite modern liberal distaste, yet a hat tip to the undeniable power of Rose Wilder Lane as both character and phenomenon:
Even if she is partially to blame for a political landscape that's made me despair for most of my adult life, there's no denying that Rose Wilder's life story is compelling stuff -- arguably far more compelling than her mother's nostalgic stories (and especially the Michael Landonized version of them). Given the mainstream American tastes that keep the Little House books perennially in print, perhaps it's not surprising that someone who simultaneously lived feminist ideals and righter-than-right politics has gone largely unnoticed, but it's a shame nonetheless.
Rose's story is also told at great length in my 2007 book Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. She is also discussed in my review of a biography of Rose's good friend and ideological sister Isabel Paterson, from the February 2005 issue of Reason magazine.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Oh NO......
Win a prize -- deface a book!
Feeling bookish and artistic? Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library this week announced its first Altered Books Competition. Eligible is "any book, old or new that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art. They can be rebound, painted, cut, burned, folded, added to, collaged in, rubber stamped, drilled or otherwise adorned. [It] may be as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture."
I've seen some mind-boggling creations made from books -- the art shown above is just a sampling from the FunForever blog.
If you need artistic guidance, the Pratt will have a workshop at the Baltimore Book Festival on Friday, Sept. 25, 6 to 8 p.m.; old books and supplies will be provided for free. Entries in the competition must be received by the Pratt no later than 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. Prizes will be awarded to the top three altered books; the top 15 altered books will be displayed at the Central Library during October.
I admit there's something sad about defacing any book. But I have lots of old textbooks and other books lying around the garage, just waiting to be turned into works of art. Watch out Principles of Accounting, here I come!
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Texas Librarians Tattoo Calender
AUSTIN, Texas — So much for the stereotype. Texas librarians are baring their skin and revealing their tattoos — all to raise disaster relief money to help damaged libraries. Photos of the librarians and their body art appear in a new calendar sold by the Texas Library Association.
Librarian Shawne Miksa says it's a way to get people to notice library issues. As the model for November 2010, she shows off Chinese characters on her lower back that mean "wisdom" and "desire."
The "Tattooed Ladies of TLA" 18-month calendar is a follow-up to the successful "Men of Texas Libraries" calendar, which raised $9,000 to help libraries damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The TLA says libraries thrive on promoting diversity and free expression and the calendar exhibits that spirit.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A Posthumous Dispute Over a Writer’s Legacy
Here is a great article about
A Posthumous Dispute Over a Writer’s Legacy
A Posthumous Dispute Over a Writer’s Legacy
Monday, July 27, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Police Drop Charges in Gates Case
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Authorities agreed to drop a disorderly-conduct charge against renowned Harvard University African-American studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who had been arrested at his own home last week after police answered a call about a suspected break-in there.
The arrest had sparked concern that Mr. Gates was a victim of racial profiling, a controversial practice in which police allegedly use race as a factor in identifying criminal suspects.
In a joint statement, Mr. Gates' lawyer, the City of Cambridge, Mass., its police department and the county district attorney's office called the July 16 incident "regrettable and unfortunate." The statement added that "this incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department" and that "all parties agree this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances."
Bloomberg News
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., shown in 2007, told police he was the victim of racism.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gates said the situation "shows our vulnerability to the caprices of individual police officers who for whatever reason are free to arrest you on outrageous charges like disorderly conduct." Mr. Gates called a police report alleging he yelled at an officer and was uncooperative "a work of sheer fantasy."
Mr. Gates, a Harvard professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, said he hadn't decided whether to pursue any legal action. He said if the officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, "sincerely apologized, I would be willing to forgive him."
Sgt. Crowley didn't return phone calls.
Mr. Gates said he had returned from a trip to China last Thursday afternoon in a hired car. He said he and the driver had trouble opening his front door, which was jammed. Mr. Gates says he used a key to enter through the back door; his driver pushed open the front door. A passerby called police because she thought the men were breaking into the house. Mr. Gates said he had no issue with the woman's call.
Randomly Noted: The Gates Arrest
Mr. Gates said Sgt. Crowley arrived and asked him to step outside. Mr. Gates said he declined because of the officer's tone. He said Sgt. Crowley also asked him to prove he was a Harvard professor and followed him into his kitchen, uninvited. "He was clearly convinced I was the perpetrator," Mr. Gates said.
Mr. Gates alleges that Sgt. Crowley declined to state his name and badge number. "Are you not answering me because I'm a black man in America?" he says he told the officer. In his report, Sgt. Crowley said he had given Mr. Gates his name.
Robert McCrie, professor of security management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, called Mr. Gates' arrest "gratuitous" because, he said, even if Mr. Gates had yelled, such conduct doesn't amount to disorderly conduct. He said police departments need to improve training, especially when interviewing citizens at home. "We in America believe very much in the privacy of our own home," he says.
Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's president, issued a statement saying she was "gratified" the charges against Mr. Gates were dropped, but added, "I continue to be deeply troubled by the incident."
Write to John Hechinger at john.hechinger@wsj.com and Simmi Aujla at simmi.aujla@wsj.com
The arrest had sparked concern that Mr. Gates was a victim of racial profiling, a controversial practice in which police allegedly use race as a factor in identifying criminal suspects.
In a joint statement, Mr. Gates' lawyer, the City of Cambridge, Mass., its police department and the county district attorney's office called the July 16 incident "regrettable and unfortunate." The statement added that "this incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department" and that "all parties agree this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances."
Bloomberg News
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., shown in 2007, told police he was the victim of racism.
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gates said the situation "shows our vulnerability to the caprices of individual police officers who for whatever reason are free to arrest you on outrageous charges like disorderly conduct." Mr. Gates called a police report alleging he yelled at an officer and was uncooperative "a work of sheer fantasy."
Mr. Gates, a Harvard professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, said he hadn't decided whether to pursue any legal action. He said if the officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, "sincerely apologized, I would be willing to forgive him."
Sgt. Crowley didn't return phone calls.
Mr. Gates said he had returned from a trip to China last Thursday afternoon in a hired car. He said he and the driver had trouble opening his front door, which was jammed. Mr. Gates says he used a key to enter through the back door; his driver pushed open the front door. A passerby called police because she thought the men were breaking into the house. Mr. Gates said he had no issue with the woman's call.
Randomly Noted: The Gates Arrest
Mr. Gates said Sgt. Crowley arrived and asked him to step outside. Mr. Gates said he declined because of the officer's tone. He said Sgt. Crowley also asked him to prove he was a Harvard professor and followed him into his kitchen, uninvited. "He was clearly convinced I was the perpetrator," Mr. Gates said.
Mr. Gates alleges that Sgt. Crowley declined to state his name and badge number. "Are you not answering me because I'm a black man in America?" he says he told the officer. In his report, Sgt. Crowley said he had given Mr. Gates his name.
Robert McCrie, professor of security management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, called Mr. Gates' arrest "gratuitous" because, he said, even if Mr. Gates had yelled, such conduct doesn't amount to disorderly conduct. He said police departments need to improve training, especially when interviewing citizens at home. "We in America believe very much in the privacy of our own home," he says.
Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard's president, issued a statement saying she was "gratified" the charges against Mr. Gates were dropped, but added, "I continue to be deeply troubled by the incident."
Write to John Hechinger at john.hechinger@wsj.com and Simmi Aujla at simmi.aujla@wsj.com
In Final Round of Grants, Gates Foundation Gives $6.5M To Upgrade Library Computers
Third round of Opportunity Online grants serves 11 states; ; advocacy training required
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 7/20/2009
Third round of hardware grants
Part of $350M in domestic library support
$3.7M local match expected
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced its third and final round of Opportunity Online hardware grants, $6.5 million in grants to public libraries in 11 states. While the foundation, which has invested $350 million in domestic library support, did not initially aim to pay for hardware, it has recognized the need to upgrade and add public computer workstations in low-income areas, especially given the increasing demand for Internet access at libraries.
Last year’s round was worth $8.1 million, while the 2007 grants totaled $8.3 million. The remaining 18 U.S. states participated in the foundation’s Public Access Computing Hardware Upgrade Grant program in 2006.
In the current round, nearly 800 library branches in Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin are eligible. The libraries are expected to leverage $3.7 million in local funding.
Read On
http://www.thirdwayblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/bill-melissa-gates-foundation-785125.jpeg
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 7/20/2009
Third round of hardware grants
Part of $350M in domestic library support
$3.7M local match expected
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced its third and final round of Opportunity Online hardware grants, $6.5 million in grants to public libraries in 11 states. While the foundation, which has invested $350 million in domestic library support, did not initially aim to pay for hardware, it has recognized the need to upgrade and add public computer workstations in low-income areas, especially given the increasing demand for Internet access at libraries.
Last year’s round was worth $8.1 million, while the 2007 grants totaled $8.3 million. The remaining 18 U.S. states participated in the foundation’s Public Access Computing Hardware Upgrade Grant program in 2006.
In the current round, nearly 800 library branches in Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin are eligible. The libraries are expected to leverage $3.7 million in local funding.
Read On
http://www.thirdwayblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/bill-melissa-gates-foundation-785125.jpeg
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Inquiry bodes ill for writers
Inquiry bodes ill for writers
"Copyright recognises and enshrines the value of original work." ... Tim Winton.
Jacob Saulwick National Correspondent
July 13, 2009
THE Federal Government's economic advisory body is likely to recommend scrapping copyright provisions preventing the parallel importing of books.
The Herald understands one of the proposals the Productivity Commission will present tomorrow will be to free up restrictions on book imports, after a period of up to three years to give the industry time to adjust.
If adopted, the changes would significantly change the way books were sold and, according to writers and publishers, undermine the ability of new Australian authors to land their break.
Copyright provisions are intended to protect Australian authors and publishers.
Under laws introduced in 1991 Australian publishers are given 30 days to publish a local version of any book published in the world. Bookshops must then sell the Australian version and cannot import a cheaper alternative.
In establishing the inquiry in November, the former minister for consumer affairs Chris Bowen set off a pitched battle between booksellers on one side and authors and publishers on the other.
The booksellers - through the Coalition for Cheaper Books set up by Dymocks and the retail chains Woolworths and Coles - have argued that removing copyright limits would benefit customers.
Retailers have also argued they are losing business as they struggle to compete with cheap books sold on Amazon.com.
The Productivity Commission, known for espousing orthodox economic principles, is uncomfortable with market restrictions on book imports.
But in a draft paper in March the commission said removing all import restrictions would damage the industry. Instead it advocated limits should apply for a year after a book was first published, but then be removed.
The Herald understands the final report tomorrow is likely to go further and suggest the eventual removal of all import restrictions.
Those fighting the removal are probably the country's most articulate lobby. Authors such as Tim Winton, Kate Grenville and Peter Carey have peppered the commission with submissions. Winton wrote: "Copyright recognises and enshrines the value of original work.
"Copyright is the single most important industrial fact in a writer's life, the civilising influence of a culture upon a market."
Maree McCaskill, the chief executive officer of the Australian Publishers Association, said New Zealand was the only other big market to do away with restrictions on book publishing.
And even in New Zealand, there was little evidence that it had led to lower prices.
Ms McCaskill said an open book market would be "seriously devastating" to the industry, resulting in lost jobs and fewer publishing houses.
She said publishers would be less likely to search for and nurture new authors, and instead would rely more on established names in the book industry to guarantee sales.
The executive director of the Australian Society of Authors, Jeremy Fisher, said the copyright arrangements worked well, protecting the industry at no cost to the taxpayer.
The commission's draft paper noted there was little evidence that books were more expensive in Australia than overseas.
However, it said removing restrictions was likely eventually to lead to lower prices.
"Copyright recognises and enshrines the value of original work." ... Tim Winton.
Jacob Saulwick National Correspondent
July 13, 2009
THE Federal Government's economic advisory body is likely to recommend scrapping copyright provisions preventing the parallel importing of books.
The Herald understands one of the proposals the Productivity Commission will present tomorrow will be to free up restrictions on book imports, after a period of up to three years to give the industry time to adjust.
If adopted, the changes would significantly change the way books were sold and, according to writers and publishers, undermine the ability of new Australian authors to land their break.
Copyright provisions are intended to protect Australian authors and publishers.
Under laws introduced in 1991 Australian publishers are given 30 days to publish a local version of any book published in the world. Bookshops must then sell the Australian version and cannot import a cheaper alternative.
In establishing the inquiry in November, the former minister for consumer affairs Chris Bowen set off a pitched battle between booksellers on one side and authors and publishers on the other.
The booksellers - through the Coalition for Cheaper Books set up by Dymocks and the retail chains Woolworths and Coles - have argued that removing copyright limits would benefit customers.
Retailers have also argued they are losing business as they struggle to compete with cheap books sold on Amazon.com.
The Productivity Commission, known for espousing orthodox economic principles, is uncomfortable with market restrictions on book imports.
But in a draft paper in March the commission said removing all import restrictions would damage the industry. Instead it advocated limits should apply for a year after a book was first published, but then be removed.
The Herald understands the final report tomorrow is likely to go further and suggest the eventual removal of all import restrictions.
Those fighting the removal are probably the country's most articulate lobby. Authors such as Tim Winton, Kate Grenville and Peter Carey have peppered the commission with submissions. Winton wrote: "Copyright recognises and enshrines the value of original work.
"Copyright is the single most important industrial fact in a writer's life, the civilising influence of a culture upon a market."
Maree McCaskill, the chief executive officer of the Australian Publishers Association, said New Zealand was the only other big market to do away with restrictions on book publishing.
And even in New Zealand, there was little evidence that it had led to lower prices.
Ms McCaskill said an open book market would be "seriously devastating" to the industry, resulting in lost jobs and fewer publishing houses.
She said publishers would be less likely to search for and nurture new authors, and instead would rely more on established names in the book industry to guarantee sales.
The executive director of the Australian Society of Authors, Jeremy Fisher, said the copyright arrangements worked well, protecting the industry at no cost to the taxpayer.
The commission's draft paper noted there was little evidence that books were more expensive in Australia than overseas.
However, it said removing restrictions was likely eventually to lead to lower prices.
The Choices That Closed a Window Into Afghanistan
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Published: July 13, 2009
Among the many lasting consequences of the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was the collateral damage it inflicted on Afghanistan and the war there against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Money, troops and expertise were diverted to Iraq, and as the RAND Corporation political scientist Seth G. Jones observes in his useful new book, the initial success of the military operation in Afghanistan was squandered.
Read On
Published: July 13, 2009
Among the many lasting consequences of the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was the collateral damage it inflicted on Afghanistan and the war there against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Money, troops and expertise were diverted to Iraq, and as the RAND Corporation political scientist Seth G. Jones observes in his useful new book, the initial success of the military operation in Afghanistan was squandered.
Read On
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The worst books at your library
The worst books at your library ( from the Baltimore Sun)
While I'm hesitant to kick libraries when they're down, I couldn't pass up the chance to share the Awful Libary Books blog.
Created by two Michigan librarians, Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, the site chronicles the absolute worst books discovered on library shelves. We're talking The New York Times' 1985 guide to the return of Haley's Comet, a Star Power manual, outlining how to use obsolete computer programs I've never even heard of, and a 1962 book about what man will do when we reach the moon someday.
As Kelly and Hibner point out, these books aren't bad per se, they're just horribly outdated and could now actually be harmful for anyone trying to find information they can actually use.
Anyone here want to use a medical tome about AIDS that's about 20 years out of date? I didn't think so.
The best part is, they're always looking for more material. So the next time you find a book that makes you giggle, roll your eyes or even head for the trash can, snap a picture and send it to Awful Library Books where we can all "enjoy" it.
While I'm hesitant to kick libraries when they're down, I couldn't pass up the chance to share the Awful Libary Books blog.
Created by two Michigan librarians, Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, the site chronicles the absolute worst books discovered on library shelves. We're talking The New York Times' 1985 guide to the return of Haley's Comet, a Star Power manual, outlining how to use obsolete computer programs I've never even heard of, and a 1962 book about what man will do when we reach the moon someday.
As Kelly and Hibner point out, these books aren't bad per se, they're just horribly outdated and could now actually be harmful for anyone trying to find information they can actually use.
Anyone here want to use a medical tome about AIDS that's about 20 years out of date? I didn't think so.
The best part is, they're always looking for more material. So the next time you find a book that makes you giggle, roll your eyes or even head for the trash can, snap a picture and send it to Awful Library Books where we can all "enjoy" it.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Cleveland Library has to cook its books
Staff reports
About $400,000 worth of Cleveland Library’s books are headed to a shipping container to cook in nearly 100-degree heat until $8,000 in donations can be fo
und to pay for insulation, a combination air conditioner and heater, lights, wiring and finishing materials at the library.
No one at the library can tell how long the book bindings will survive in the hot, dry container temperatures.
The 40-foot container is getting shelving built by the N.C. Baptist Men for use as an on-site bookmobile, which also can be used as an off-site self-contained library. While not as flexible as the customary traveling bookmobile many libraries use, it will hold four times more books and can be moved by crane and truck to a shopping center, church or school parking lot. It will save Cleveland about $320,000.
The independent Cleveland Library on Hwy 42 is several years ahead of schedule on its book acquisition, which is forcing creative solutions to shelving and display. It has received 30,000 books and videos in more than 10 months and is receiving 1,000 or more books per week. The library increased Cleveland’s access to books from the county’s 1.7 books per resident to 3.7 and is on target to reach six by next year, when additional space will be needed.
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