Books on screen

Amazon reported that the Kindle was the top-selling electronic device of 2008, according to an article in Information Week. The Kindle allows users to download electronic texts of books onto a machine about the size of a paperback, and the device can hold thousands of texts.

I'm intrigued by the Kindle and would like to use it or its competition, the Sony Reader, just to see what it is like. But I can't imagine I will ever want to give up hard copies of books for it. I often read to relax, and I don't see how staring at a screen will help me relax after work where I have spent eight hours staring at a screen.

The benefits of free

The Miami Herald published an article about the freeness of libraries and how much that benefits the public — especially when so many are going through a difficult time financially. The article points out that not only do libraries offer a variety of media to anyone who wants to use it, but they also provide seminars, workshops and help for people on a plethora of subjects. None of this information is new because this has traditionally been the role of libraries, but this information seems to be more valued and pertinent given the economic downturn.

Ask Ms. Dewey

I just discovered the search engine Ms. Dewey, which combines flash animation with a sexy, sassy librarian who will answer your query. The search results seem to be what you would get by doing any Live Search (which powers Ms. Dewey), and there's no advanced search. Simple operators seem to work. Click on "Best of Dewey" to see Ms. Dewey's sass at its best. She's not entirely safe for work, though she doesn't say anything too colorful that doesn't get bleeped out.

Overall, the site is entertaining at best. The lack of options and the minimal display of results make it a poor search engine, and the flash animation is sure to transfer poorly to people with low RAM or anything less than a broadband connection. But Ms. Dewey is good for a laugh, or at least a smile. She won't be much help for anyone conducting a serious search, but she can suffice for someone who needs to find something basic and isn't in a time crunch. I don't expect to see THIS Dewey in a library anytime soon.

Preserving all of history

Joe Palca of NPR did an interesting story a few weeks ago regarding Dan Lewis, Dibner senior curator of the History of Science and Technology at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. Lewis and the library are preserving old books, keeping them as they are — dog-eared pages and all. As Lewis puts it in the interview, seeing what pages the great scientists and philosophers dog-eared is a way of seeing what information they found to be most important, most meaningful. I would recommend listening to the 6 minute piece, downloadable at the link provided above.

It's a library thing

I just joined this Library Thing. It's sort of a social networking site where people can enter the books in their personal library, write book reviews, discuss books, learn about book-related events, and get reading recommendations based on other members with similar books to those in your collection.

I've only added a few of the books so far, but I'm looking forward to adding more and getting recommendations based on readers like me.

Fairly fair

Librarians have the important job of providing access to information to the public, which might involve copying materials for patrons to use. The whole idea of copying is kind of muddled when it gets into the area of copyright violation, but some copying is protected under the fair use doctrine, which is explained through this video:


It's kind of long, but it's clever and cute.

Books about elephants

Last year my younger sister, who has always loved elephants, gave me the book "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. I really enjoyed the book, as it was one that I couldn't wait to finish but also dreaded finishing because I didn't want to leave the characters. There was something about elephants that made the book totally intriguing.

This week when I was out shopping, I came across another book about another elephant -- "Hannah's Dream" by Diane Hammond. I read the blurb and thought it sounded like it would be another "Water for Elephants," but was worried my expectations for a novel about elephants would be too high and that I would be disappointed if it didn't live up to Gruen's story.

Then yesterday I was listening to NPR's broadcast of The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU in Washington, D.C., and one of the guests was Hammond, discussing "Hannah's Dream." I was fascinated by the conversation. Hammond had worked with Keiko, the killer whale from the "Free Willy" movies, and she had amazing stories about the gentle giant, his habit of watching TV and communicating with the rehabilitation staff. She translated her experience into "Hannah's Dream" after seeing a video clip of a man taking an elephant that he had taken care of for 22 years to an elephant sanctuary. Hammond's story was very touching, and the novel she wrote must be, too -- she said during the interview that only one of 11 people in her family who read the book did not cry at the ending.

Now I am really looking forward to buying "Hannah's Dream" and sharing it with my sister, who first piqued my interest in books about elephants.

If you are interested in hearing the interview with Hammond that was broadcast on WAMU, you can find the Realtime Player audio here and the Windows Media audio here.