Galleys

For the past few weeks I have been reading the galley books I've been able to download to my Kindle from NetGalley -- the only other way to download books other than through Amazon that I know of. What an enjoyable time -- good books and I do like my Kindle. My only problem is I have forgotten to write reviews of the books. Seems only fair that I should write a review in exchange for a free book. Maybe it's just the Christmas season and my mind is cluttered.

The cookbooks are good -- full of really interesting information and recipes. I've downloaded them to my desktop. They are in PDF form, easy to read, but hard to navigate and print. I must be doing something wrong so I will investigate more before I say anything else.

Great site for book related gifts

Don't you just love this site: Cafe Press

Cafe Press has the greatest magnets, t-shirts, stickers, mousepads, tote bags and more.

Hope they don't mind that I borrowed this graphic, but I wanted to display one unique picture that you can get on a variety of items.

Everything for the librarian who has everything!

List of gift ideas

The children's book review blog, Bookends, has posted a great list of book gift ideas. Many good suggestions for all age levels. I'm not that familiar with elementary books so this list will help me a lot!

Quote

Came across this quote on LM_NET the other day. Love it!

"Librarian. Genetically predisposed to answer questions and correct misconceptions -- whether asked or not."

(unknown author)

Lending Kindles

Though I ended up purchasing a Kindle, one of the reasons I considered a Nook was the lending capability to another Nook owner (once for a two-week period) and borrowing books from the public library. I decided that borrowing a book from a friend might be okay for short books, but sometimes I need longer than two weeks to read a book. So what would I do after that two-week lending period? I'd have to buy the book or check the public library offerings.

After owning a Kindle for three months, I do not regret the decision not to get a Nook. I find that my life activities determine how much time I can devote to reading which hasn't been much lately for a variety of reasons. The books I purchased from Amazon and those free books that I downloaded are still in the queue waiting for me.

Then the other day I heard that Kindle will allow lending books in the near future. The Kindle, too, will only allow a maximum lending period of fourteen days. Why is that? Why even have a limit? If the book is on loan, only one person can read it. Why should it matter who has it on the device?

NetGalley

Came across a great site the other day -- NetGalley.

Their own description is best: "NetGalley is an innovative and easy-to-use online service and connection point for book publishers, reviewers, media, librarians, booksellers, bloggers and educators.

NetGalley delivers digital galleys and promotional materials to professional readers and helps promote new and upcoming titles. Using NetGalley, publishers can build communities, invite contacts to view galleys and promotional materials, and track who has viewed their titles.

Professional readers--reviewers, media, journalists, bloggers, librarians, booksellers and educators--can join and use NetGalley at no cost."

I've looked at a couple books and wrote a very short review of a cookbook, Perfect One-dish Dinners, which I liked a lot. Good recipes without a lot of fuss with great pictures.

Supposedly some of the galleys can be downloaded to a Kindle. I've requested some fiction books in hopes of trying this download. We'll see.

Librarians do Gaga

Just love this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_uzUh1VT98

Another six months

Another six months have flown by! What have I done? Read a lot of book, purchased a Kindle, bought more Kindle books than I should have, ended one school year, started another, started teaching a reference/bibliography class for 'wannabe' librarians. Not enough time....

Ah. It's been a tough fall and winter. I totally forgot about this blog while confronting budget issues, retirements, family illness, 66" of snow in the D.C. area, and more budget issues. Hopefully, 'things' have settled down.

Twenty years ago I could not have dreamed of where we are today with computers, the Internet, online resources, social networking and Web 2.0.

Now the question is: What is the future of school libraries? More and more school library departments are merging with technology departments. Has this happened to you? How has the role of the librarian changed? What do you envision for the future?