The Myth of Browsing | American Libraries Magazine

The Myth of Browsing | American Libraries Magazine

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TightRope

Lately, I have been on the edge and this song pretty much describes my life right now. Either there is a light at the end of the tunnel or a train/locomotive. I feel like I am on a “tightrope”. As such, this song also describes the current situation with public libraries. Apparently, they are thinking of closing five public libraries in the Birmingham area. So hats off to Janelle Monae for coming up with a song that is kind of a neo-blues/pop song that may just bring tuxedos back into main street fashion. Yes I use to wear tux ties to church. What?

Do I Own a Facebook Account?

So I have compiled  some stats about and wanted to clear up a misinterpretation or two about my facebook account.

1. Out of 100 % of my friends on facebook, I see over half of them (face to face) every two months to three.
2. 60% of my friends on facebook are 26 or younger. I am in college and I normally hang out at coffee shops and academic libraries.
3.I often stay connected on Facebook even though my browser is does not have my page up.
4.Facebook is a tool for me to stay connected with friends. It is not a social networking service I normally use to hook up with women. I seriously just know a lot of women.
5.It would be a curious situation if all of my friends on Facebook got together in an auditorium and started asking me questions. I do like to talk. However, I would fear some of my friends talking to each other then asking me some tabloid type question.
6.I mainly use Facebook for social and classroom connections. In other words, I use it for class or to catch with friends whom I can't see do due to distance.
7. Almost all of my friends are book nuts. Which is cool!!!!!!!!
8. There are not as many librarians on my Facebook page as you would imagine.

Book Pirating

This post is a response to the article link below about iPads and pirating. So  read the article first.

Is iPad supercharging e-book piracy? (from The cnet Blog ) 

 

I only have a few gripes with this article. First, I just don't see the pirating of books being accelerated by the iPad or any other electronic reading device. Plenty of books have been illegally scanned  into electronic formats for years. Yes, even before Google started their whole scanning scheme. However, the advantages vs. the disadvantages of electronically viewed books does not add up. Electronic books require power and hardware/software to view. Also, the convenience of carrying a couple of thousand books in you purse or backpack does not a flight from New York to LA will take even longer?

Second, this article compares pirating books to pirating music. The pirating of music started out just as another way to share music from one electronically driven resource to another. We had records to tapes, Then tapes to CDs. Now CD's are giving away to mp3s and other software driven audio formats. All of these technologies require some type of power and hardware/software to use. Bottom line: with today's music culture, we are talking about ease of access, manipulation, and storage. Back to books. Yes, electronic readers make it easier to carry a horde of books around. And, given the format, you can share books with almost anyone with out even paying for it. However, there is a another resource that is legally free that holds probably 10 to 20 times the amount books that one of those electronic gadgets currently holds. Yes I am talking about your local library. I can just go down to the public library and check out a book. The only software required to view it is my mind.

Third, you can't sell back data to a bookstore for cash.  We all can't have a library that is the size of the Library of  Congress. So selling books is a logical choice versus, god forbid, throwing them away. Also I don't see an auctioneer at Sotheby's saying " Now showing the first edition of War and Peace, 20 MB in PDF for $2000 bucks." I do think that guidelines need to be set where authors are assured that they get a maximize amount for there works value as offered through various electronic vendors. It took years for the music industry to get apple to raise the price of some of their mp3 albums.So if authors are worried about the price of books being sold through amazon or apple, they should focus that issue with them.

Lastly, here are a few more things authors should focus on:

• Keeping Public Libraries open. Municipalities are closing Public Libraries like they are going out of style.
• Make sure academic libraries and public libraries (small and large) are adequately funded. Academic libraries are increasingly having to judge the value of their electronic and physical monograph counterparts.In short, one has to go because they either can't support the space of one or the cost of the other.
• Stop trying to turn this electronic reading trend into a nightmare and focus on the positive aspect of it. Just as a large portion of the population went crazy over the Y@K bug, spreading paranoia over pirating books just makes thing worse.
• Do more book tours in public and academic libraries as well as markets that your publisher normally would not recommend. Maybe, Alabama? Take a cue from Neil Gaiman "Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely irrelephant..."

 And that's it.

Making the grade, kicking ass and Jesus Hates Zombies

First and formost. I made all A's. Ok, I have not had the time to compose a new entry to this blog. However I was inspired to do so today. My inspiration came from the fact that a lot of my friends graduated from college recently. Congrats!!! Second, I heard about a potential protest that was going to occur at the near by veteran’s cemetery because some fundamentalist group was anti-gay, anti-war, and pretty much anti-anything that ran outside of their religious scope. Third, a book that I came across in one of the coffee shops I hang out at caught my attention. The name of the book or graphic novel is Jesus Hates Zombies. Normally, I find this type of fiction boring. However, the front cover at least got my attention.

 

This leads to a question. My question is why can’t they make a good film about Jesus? I am not talking about fundamentalist diatribes that bore people to tears. I am sorry but I went to go see Passion of the Christ and wanted a bloody streak afterwards. Yes I said it. And yes I am a Christian. Anyway, why can’t hollwood do a film that has nothing to do with scripture depiction and more about plain or action. I mean look at all the really cool films about angels.; City of Angels, Michael, The Heavenly Kid and so on. Just for sheer entertainment, make a motion picture character study on Jesus dealing with buying coffee and a Macbook. Ok, like he even needs one.  Or going to a funeral. Call the movie “ My daddy will see you in few”. What ? I mean some Christians go to church all serious about their faith and yet I have not heard one iota of a statement that god (himself) laughed his ass off because somebody let out an SBD (Silent But Deadly fart) in an elevator.  No one really has crossed the line in terms of almighty in a full motion picture. I can only think of one film that crosses the line Kevin Smith’s Dogma. But in the case of his films, he tries to  makes jokes about religion to point out his own views towards the religion. Lets get past the white haired dude in robes/ Morgan Freeman white suite and see a guy in a Serena Williams outfit walk up to someone and say “can we talk about the stupidity of people who close libraries ?”