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.