Maurita Baldock, one longtime member, jaunty in red-tinged glasses and an asymmetrical haircut, keeps watch by day over records that document American history as the curator of manuscripts at the New-York Historical Society. Included among them is a frank letter that Gen. George Washington wrote in 1782, before stretch jeans hit the scene. In it, he begs his tailor to make his britches “roomy in the seat and not tight in the thigh.”

Archivists Bringing Past Into Future Are Now Less Cloistered - NYTimes.com

Another librarian (well, in this case, archivist) trend piece. Thanks, NYT, for describing this woman’s asymmetrical hair, another’s nose stud, and a third’s “thick-rimmed hipster glasses.” The public has really been served by this hard-hitting reporting.

(That being said, archivists are awesome.)

Character
Plot
Setting
Language
Genre
Pacing
Mood
Format

— 

These are, of course, appeal factors, the means by which readers’ advisory librarians try to figure out why a book appeals to a reader. More proof that this esteemed profession invented discovery. Who else would take the time to create an art/science to further a reader’s storyverse?

(Yes, this post is for Scott Turow.)

Now many public libraries want to lend e-books, not simply to patrons who come in to download, but to anybody with a reading device, a library card and an Internet connection. In this new reality, the only incentive to buy, rather than borrow, an e-book is the fact that the lent copy vanishes after a couple of weeks. As a result, many publishers currently refuse to sell e-books to public libraries.

— 

Authors Guild president Scott Turow in his New York Times editorial last Sunday, which many in the publishing world have criticized for its negativity and defensiveness. 

He claims to be looking out for the financial and creative interests of new and midlist authors, and yet, as I myself have pointed out, he fails to acknowledge how invested the American public library system is in launching writing careers. (First novels are always a draw for collection development librarians, and I market them aggressively.)

Turow is, how do you say, desperately out of touch with the opportunities of the digital age. Sad.

(via cloudunbound)

Wildly out of touch—and out of touch with the opportunities of the analog age? What does he think libraries have been up to all this time?

(via thelifeguardlibrarian)

I tell the kids that the library belongs to them,” she said. “And I think that any child who could not afford that doll will remember the time they were able to borrow it from the library.

— A Doll’s Magic, Free to Renew - NYTimes.com (via rachelfershleiser)

The public library is a true American invention. Perhaps no other place captures the values of freedom of expression and democracy like this venerable institution. Libraries represent what we should never take for granted: the freedom to read, the freedom to choose and the freedom to share our ideas.

— Luis Herrera, the city librarian of San Francisco, in the New York Times Op/Ed “More Relevant Than Ever” (via queenslibrary)

Perseus Creates New Service for Authors Seeking to Self-Publish - NYTimes.com

The new service will give authors an alternative to other self-publishing services and a favorable revenue split that is unusual in the industry: 70 percent to the author and 30 percent to the distributor. Traditional publishers normally provide authors a royalty of about 25 percent for e-books.

The service arrives as authors are increasingly looking for ways to circumvent the traditional publishing model, take advantage of the infinite shelf space of the e-book world and release their own work. That’s especially the case for reviving out-of-print books whose rights have reverted back to the author.