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An author recounts a success story and what had to be done to self publish a casebook. Unlike fiction or repackaged public domain material this was a large book, 870 pages and nearly 40 megabytes in size. The author also did not used Amazon but Scribd and Gumroad as publishers.

This article was an interesting I didn't agree with a lot of it, but some of it was pretty accurate. Here's a hipster test : "Look around your living space. Do you surround yourself with things you really like or things you like only because they are absurd? Listen to your own speech. Ask yourself: Do I communicate primarily through inside jokes and pop culture references? What percentage of my speech is meaningful? How much hyperbolic language do I use? Do I feign indifference? Look at your clothes. What parts of your wardrobe could be described as costume-like, derivative or reminiscent of some specific style archetype (the secretary, the hobo, the flapper, yourself as a child)? In other words, do your clothes refer to something else or only to themselves? Do you attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or ugly? In other words, is your style an anti-style? The most important question: How would it feel to change yourself quietly, offline, without public display, from within?"

The concept of books as art objects is taken to a new dimension with Meric Ringborg's exhibit, "The Library of Unborrowed Books".

MOOCs - Massive Open Online Courses. There are multiple potential roles for libraries in MOOC development, support, assessment, and the preservation process.

The feature article "The Future of Library Systems" has a section about Sierra and a summary comparison of new library services platforms.

I was a little surprised the number of tweets is at 170 billion , with 400 million a day, but the Library of Congress has been archiving them. Part of the problem in displaying them is simply how; the size and continual growth of the collection would make a massive indexing collection. But also, I wonder about tweets that have been deleted for legal reasons or because of privacy, and whether those would appear in the database.

Really cool article that looks at : "Espresso Book Machines can offer two kinds of services: print-on-demand of any title available through the EspressNet database (which includes Google Books, the Internet Archive, all of Ingram's partnered publishers, and more) and self-­publishing services for authors and small publishers."

I sincerely love the idea of these book machines and have ever since they've become available. I don't know why every library doesn't have one (aside from cost).

Logan College of Chiropractic University has finally released how much the president and his family are paid. If you remember, several months back, another Chronicle article mentioned hints of nepotism. What's totally outrageous is that the president at Logan is the 2nd highest paid president in MO, with only Wash U being higher paid. I have concerns over the impact this can make on Logan as a whole.

A slight man with a stethoscope and black medical bag regularly walks through Tucson's downtown public library, helping patrons with issues that have nothing to do with books. Daniel Lopez is not a librarian, but one of the nation's first library nurses.

It is amazing what some libraries lend anymore. There is a library in Missouri that lends cake pans. I have seen some libraries lend power tools, guitars and more!

This is starting to sound like a science fiction story just waiting to be written.

I agree about curation. Since we're talking about science fiction now - which inevitably becomes science fact, in the not so distant future we will have desktop biological printers capable of "printing" a seed. Then libraries won't need to keep seed stores, they can just print any seed on demand if they have the DNA on file. Edit: Of course, that just means the e-resource vendors of the future will have another thing to try to license...

That's quite an honor.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) may invite some public libraries to double as post offices, Susan Hildreth, Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, said on August 1.

MOBIUS needs to do this only instead of empty cake pans they should be filled with cake and instead of going to other libraries they should come directly to the office. A longtime practice of checking out cake pans at libraries in Kansas, particularly in rural areas, has increased as people look for a way to save money while still providing treats for special occasions. More cake pans are being loaned at the Great Bend Public Library after employees recently moved nearly 100 of the pans from a back room to bookshelves, The Hutchinson News reported.

I've heard of libraries in Missouri that loan cake pans, too. I can't remember where she was from, but remember at MLA several years ago a librarian telling me about all the different shapes and "characters" of cake pans they had--cool idea!

Creative Commons weighs in on OCLC's recommendation that its members adopt the Open Data Commons Attribution license (linked in the article) for the catalog metadata they share in OCLC.  While CC commends OCLC for encouraging the sharing of data, it points out that a license, even an open data license, can prove problematic when it comes to reusing and recombining data found within OCLC with other sources.  

A positive four part blog entry about how libraries are evolving to meet new needs, strengthen communities during bad economic times, and are centers for sharing. Overall I think this article is the most realistic one I've read in some time. It still acknowledges that libraries are doing more with less, and that perceptions of libraries are slow to change.

"If the library has its way, this Beaux Arts-style building on Manhattan's 42nd Street - the one with the giant lions out front - will soon see some changes. A hotly debated renovation plan would demolish the seven stuffy floors of stacks. Some of the books would be stored under nearby Bryant Park, and up to 2 million books would be moved to climate-controlled storage in Princeton, N.J."