Libromancer's Apprentice

Book Lovers : Stories / Shawna Kenney (ed) ( Powell's Books ) Book Lovers is perhaps the most literal example of literary erotica I have encountered.  The word and the book really are the thing. The stories run a gambit of styles and explorations of the erotic.   Sensual, stark, sweet, sorrowful, intimate, lonely, unexpected.  The only connecting thread between these stories are stories themselves.  The books themselves that create the bridge into sexuality.  While labeled erotica the stories do not delve equally into the carnal, some brushing lightly and others embrace it fully. Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of Netgalley; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.

Six Libraries Exceed a Million Digital Checkouts This Year: OverDrive One of the things that's been driving me the crazy about not being at a library this time of year is that I'm really useful with all the patrons coming in with their new devices. How US Internet service might get better—and worse—in 2014 Some predictions based on trends and activities going on.  I'm a bit worried about some of the net neutrality stuff. As New Services Track Habits, the E-Books Are Reading You E-Books "reading us" isn't exactly new.  It's one of the (many) issues I have with Kindle.  However it is part of a trend that I'm not a fan of. British government porn filters block tech sites *headdesk*

The Professional; Part 1 / Kresley Cole Our premise is that Natalie is lovely, smart, seriously hardworking, and a bit disdainful of men.  She juggles three part time jobs while working on a  PhD (so not just disdainful of men, no time for them either).  She also has been searching for her biological father, wanting to know more about her birth family.  Then on a night at the bar while entertaining her lady friends by "manlyzing" the patrons she meets a man she doesn't have an almost instant scathing analysis of (though part of this might have something to do with maturity level in what seems to be a college bar). Sevastyan is a serious bad-ass (and of course, gorgeous), like Vinnie Jones only blindingly gorgeous (sorry Vinnie).  He is sure of himself, not a drunken frat boy, and all around gives off "amazing fuck" vibes.  He is definitely interested in Natalie, but something about it makes him angry.  As we soon find out he is (among other thing...

Design flyers to spread the word online A neat site to create fliers with, I discovered it when someone shared their DIY Cataloging flier . Could be a fun tool to use in the future. Ron Miller: DRM has always been a horrible idea Obviously, I'm not a big fan of DRM.  Decent article, though I've noticed a trend to ignore reasons that companies would want DRM, such as deliberately restricting access to their approved channels (and as annoying as it is, sometimes they want that). Morton Grove Library trustees rejects atheist blogger's donation From what I can tell this was $3000 with no strings attached, and being an atheist in no way makes someone part of a "hate group."  I've gone through his blog a bit, and it largely seems to be "don't be a jerk" with slightly more focus on churches that have been jerks, but he calls out atheists as well.  Looking more into it, it seems the donator in question regularly raises money for causes, including...

16 Fantastic Gifts For Lit Lovers Who Have Enough Books Some cute ideas here, but nothing for me in the overwhelming "I want that."  Except for #16, that's really spot on. Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year: “Science” I like basing their choice on the queries people were making. Twitter gobbles up more cookies with retargeted ads, says users have privacy choices Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  Still makes me go "ick."  I have enough trouble with Twitter because of the amount of retweets and targeted tweets at people I'm following that I have utterly no interest in.  Pretty much the only thing I use my account for is the meta-experience it provides when attending online conferences and seminars. "For users who bristle at the thought of another Internet company tracking them, Twitter offered a few options. Users can uncheck the box next to "promoted content" in their privacy settings and Twitter will not match their acco...

Once again the hilarity arises of someone labeling librarians as militant.  Not only that, they seem to again use the label as if its a bad thing.  I recently came across a discussion comparing being a librarian to having a religion; many of us in the field tend to be very passionate about what we do and the causes we champion.  Maybe this is what happens when you have a profession largely made of highly educated people in less than highly paid positions, we're not in the field for the money. #militantlibrarian is always a compliment. Especially when it isn't meant as one. — LibrarianShipwreck (@libshipwreck) December 11, 2013 Thank you, LibrarianShipwreck for putting it perfectly. So why the hell am I even talking about this today?  Why is anyone?  And who is Richard Russo? It started with a letter (or see the PDF ) written by Richard Russo on beseeching authors to join the Authors Guild to fight to protect the author way of life.  In the lett...

After Snowden, we're self-censoring and we don't care I do really care, and the fact that this article is over all pretty spot on is just more frustrating.  Heavy metal shows piracy is not killing music, offers new business model This isn't the first article along these lines I've encountered, in fact, I come across articles about piracy helping music sales quite often.  This one just happens to feature a band I really like.  :D Data Portraits: Connecting People of Opposing Views A paper on popping the filter bubble and exposing people to differing points of view.  "The motivation behind our research is: can we take advantage of user engagement with recommendations to indirectly promote connection to people of opposing views?"  I find this a really interesting topic and the full text is available. Copyright Takedown Requests to Google Have Doubled Since Last Year That's a lot of take down requests we're talking about. The gentle art of cra...

Goldieblox and the Three MCs Probably the best write up I've seen so far on the Goldiebox/Beastie Boys issue, in particular addressing some of the rumors surrounding the issue.  TL;DR - copyright law is a bloody mess and the determination of "fair use" is not cut and dried. NSA Planned To Discredit Radicals Based On Web-Browsing Habits Because in this day and age not being hetero-normative still can be held against you, or, as was proven earlier this year, searching for a backpack and a pressure cooker. Creative Commons Launches Version 4.0 of Its Licenses Cool stuff for those who are intersted. http://creativecommons.org/ Library to Hold Black Friday Sale I totally love this idea and it is likely we will be doing something like this next year at my library.  I'd love to be busier at the library on the day after Thanksgiving; usually it is so slow that I wonder why I didn't use a vacation day.  I also strongly feel that my library could benefit from mor...