Non-competitive Scrabble

Too Many Books?

Jim Rosenau was raised in a house with 5,000 books. He has been making and selling thematic bookshelves from vintage books since 2002.

Eleanor Wachtel interviews Robert Darnton

(photo credit Paul Orenstein)

An interview with Robert Darnton by the ever-fabulous Eleanor Wachtel of the CBC.
You can listen to the MP3 podcast here
or the audio here.

But hurry: CBC only makes these recordings available for a month after the original broadcast.

(Thanks, Claire!)

Dan Clancy of Google does some 'splainin'

Many thanks to Nigel Beale for bringing this to my attention via his excellent blog "Nota Bene".

We Know What You Read, and We Aren't Telling

T-shirts and totebags for radical militant librarians.(Merchandise available from Instant Attitudes.)

....or for anyone concerned that the Google Books Settlement is just not clear enough on privacy.

"The agreement apparently envisions a world where Google keeps all of the electronic books that you "purchase" on an "electronic shelf" for you. In other words, in order to read the books you've paid for, you have to log into Google. Google is also likely to keep track of which books you browse (at least if you're logged in). This is a huge change in the privacy we traditionally enjoy in libraries and bookstores, where nobody writes down "Fred von Lohmann entered the store at 19:42:08 and spent 2.2 minutes on page 28 of 0-486-66980-7, 3.1 minutes on page 29, and 2.8 minutes on page 30." If Google becomes the default place to search, browse, and buy books, it will be able to keep unprecedented track of what you read, how you read it, and collate that with all the other information it has about you. Does the agreement contain ironclad protections for user privacy?"

Read more here.

At F&G We are as interested as anyone about new developments in e-readers and the creative and cultural potential inherent in making information freely and rapidly available. Of course, along with the wonderful opportunities, there are some big issues to be discussed and resolved.

BUT we also think there will always be a place for real, beautiful books. Follow our progress as we move toward publishing our first title.

We Aren't Luddites. We Just Like Books.

Image of Ned Ludd, courtesy of Wikipedia.