Other uses for books -- how creative!

I wish I was artistic -- look at these great book art creations.

The 100 Greatest Non-fiction Books

The 100 greatest non-fiction books as reported in The Guardian.

Barnes & Noble sales

A recent press release from Barnes & Noble announced an overall loss of dollars, but soaring  ebook sales:



"The rapidly growing digital business propelled the top-line at BN.com driven by the company’s NOOK™ eReader product line and digital content from the NOOK Bookstore™.  BN.com comparable sales growth accelerated throughout the year, increasing 78% for the fourth quarter and 65% for the full year as compared to the same periods in fiscal 2010.  BN.com sales were $217 million for the quarter and $858 million for the full year."

Another way to get free Kindle books

Came across this site by accident -- eReaderIQ.com:

"eReaderIQ provides Amazon Kindle price drop alerts, watches your favorite titles to let you know when they are available for Kindle, and gives you a regularly updated list of all non-public domain freebies on Amazon.com. We also offer a superior search engine which not only lets you search the Kindle store by genre and keyword, but also lets you define the price range, reader age, language and more!"

The service is free and easy to use.

British Library 19th Century Collection

I don't have an ipad, but this sounds really great, especially if you are interested in the 19th century.  The British Library has released 1000 items from its collection into an ipad app.  

"This application provides access to titles from the British Library’s 19th century book collection. It includes classic novels, works of philosophy, history and science. Browse, search and read these historic books on a platform that enhances the reading experience. These digital book images have been captured in color to preserve the look of the original book.  Marbled papers, embossed covers, engraved illustrations maps, and beautifully colored plates are intact and help create a unique reading environment.

Features:

• Search the collection
• Browse titles by subject
• Read commentary on selected titles
• View images of original maps
• See author inscriptions and margin notes
• Create favorite title lists
• Download books for offline reading

Visit: http://britishlibrary19c.tumblr.com to see sample curated content."

Apple and Amazon ebook sales

paidContent.org  has a short article on the number of sales of Apple ebooks that Steve Jobs announced the other day -- an increase of 30 million since March.   The site also has some statistics on Amazon's sales to as they say "help put Apple's 130 million figure in perspective."






Post Options

Dewey Digger

Really interesting attempt to catalog the web  --   Dewey Digger .  
           "Welcome, wonderful web wanderer. Explore knowledge via the 
            Dewey Decimal  Classification; just clickety-click."
I clicked on the 900 History & Geography tab in the top menu and a listing of all Dewey numbers appeared.  After clicking on 929, a page of topics appeared (looks like a word cloud), and I chose 'ancestors.'  Twenty-seven (27) sources appeared (Amazon, Bing, Google, JSTOR, Internet Archive, Project Muse to name a few).  

Cataloging Tools

Joyce Valenza's blog, Neverending Search, covers six cataloging tools for librarians.  Simple and free.

My Morning Jacket - Librarian lyrics

aaahhhh --  lyrics to 'Librarian' 


Walk across the courtyard, towards the library.
I can hear the insects buzz and the leaves 'neath my feet...

Ramble up the stairwell, into the hall of books...
Since we got the interweb these hardly get used.

Duck into the men's room... combing thru my hair...
When god gave us mirrors he had no idea...

Looking for a lesson in the periodicals...
There I spy you listening to the AM radio...

Karen of the carpenters- singing in the rain...
Another lovely victim of the mirror's evil way.

It's not like you're not trying, with a pencil in your har
To defy the beauty the good lord put in there...

Simple little bookworm- buried underneath...
Is the sexiest librarian... take off those glasses and let down your hair for me.

So I watch you thru the bookcase- imaging a scene:
You and I at dinner, spending time, then to sleep.

And what then would I say to you- lying there in bed?
These words, with a kiss, I would plant in your head:

"what is it inside our heads that makes us do the opposite?
Makes us do the opposite of what's right for us?
Cause everything'd be grrreat... and everything'd be good...
If everybody gave... like everybody could."

Sweetest little bookworm. hidden underneath...
Is the sexiest librarian...
Take off those glasses and let your hair down for me.
Take off those glasses and let your hair down for me.

Simple little beauty- heaven in your breath.
The simplest of pleasures- the world at it's best.



View My Morning Jacket  on YouTube and you can get the ringtone sent to your cell! 

Robyn Jackson gave the following statistics (on Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshops website):

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

(Source: Jerold Jenkins, www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)

53 percent read fiction, 43 percent read nonfiction. The favorite fiction category is mystery and suspense.

(Source: Publishers Weekly)

About 120,000 books are published each year in the U.S.

(Source: www.bookwire.com)

The blog has a 2003 copyright and 2010 conference information so I don’t know how current these statistics are, but even so I found the stats rather interesting.  I’m startled by the ’80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.’

Recently I read someplace that people who do not usually buy print books are purchasing ebooks for ereaders.  Hopefully, that 80% will be a lower number in future years and the U.S. will become a nation of readers (wasn’t that a slogan for a library promotion at one time?).