Sites and Soundbytes

The James Beard Foundation has announced the nominees for their book awards that feature the best in cook books. 

What a great way to promote the depth and breadth of your cook book collection!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Publisher's Weekly has a list of the Bestselling Books of the Year, 1996-2006.  The list for each year features the top 15 fiction and 15 nonfiction books that year.  Think of the displays, the bookmarks, and just the fun you can have with these lists. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just found out that Arthur C. Clarke has died at age 90.  He's the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as over 80 other fiction and nonfiction books and more than 100 short stories. 

His life of storytelling is nicely described in the link above and may serve as a great way to highlight your science fiction books and films.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tasmin Little is offering a free download of her violin CD.  Her hope is to bring classical music to a new generation and to people who otherwise don't tend to listen to violin.  The download features composers J.S. Bach, Paul Patterson and Eugene Ysaye. 

The download process can be a bit confusing because she offers several options.  Most folks will want the mp3 format and why not go with the 320Kbps if you have the space.  Enjoy!

What a nice thing to feature on your library site!  Free and legal downloadable music that everyone can enjoy!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Oo la la!  I adore the beta Lookybook site so much that I am posting about it on both of my blogs, something I almost never do!  The site offers all sorts of picture books that you can page through online!  They are top-of-the-line and recent books.  The paging works seamlessly and smoothly with an intuitive interface, and you can embed the Lookybooks onto your blog or website, even without registering for the site.

Registration gets you your own bookshelf, the ability to comment on books, and other bells and whistles. 

You can browse the books by highest rated and most looked at.  Here is an embedded book so you can see how it works:

I can see this really jazzing up online bibliographies of picture books, or just allowing you to highlight a particular author.  Think of the possibilities on your website!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm posting this right now to our library blog.  We have to fight news with news:

When asked about whether he was nervous about Amazon's new ebook reader, Kindle, Steve Jobs replied:  “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is,” he told John
Markoff of The Times, “the fact is that people don’t read anymore.
Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last
year.”

It's enough to make a librarian weep.  But wait!  Here comes a wonderful article from the New York Times offering alternative statistics:

Last year, a survey for the Associated Press found that a much smaller
number — 27 percent — had not read a book lately, which means nearly
three-in-four have read a book....  The more compelling statistic was rarely mentioned in news accounts of the A.P. story: the survey found that another 27 percent of Americans had read 15 or more books a year. That report documents a national celebration.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nice piece on John Grisham on the CNN website.  I know that we don't need to publicize Grisham to our readers, but it is a way to show that we "get" new popular literature.  And if you are concerned about just publicizing Grisham, what a great way to tie in other great authors who may be under-read by people.  Grisham himself refers to several of his favorite authors in the interview.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The nominees for the 2008 Razzie Awards have been announced.  These are the awards given to the worst movies of the year.  If your popular movie collection is anything like ours, you will find you have most if not all of the movies nominated.  I think it could be a great PR opportunity for a library to show that they don't stock only Masterpiece Theater, though we have those too.  We stock the movies you love to hate! 

Top nominee was I Know Who Killed Me with 9 nominations followed by Norbit with 5.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

NPR has another list of recommended books!  This group comes from three independent booksellers, so the mix is wonderfully eclectic.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Christian Science Monitor is doing their list of top 2007 books in a wide variety of categories.  So far they have put fiction, short stories and essays, thrillers, biography, memoirs, history and nonfiction lists up on their website.  Any of these lists would make great highlights for your website or library blog.  Think of how much the history buffs alone could get into debating the newest books!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 4:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

San Diego's Union Tribune has an interesting piece on Movies Better Than the Books That Spawned Them.  This could make great fodder for a blog post on your library site!  Don't be too worried about the list, the most recent film on it is Carrie which came out in 1976.  This is one of those blog posts that could start a real discussion.  Hopefully!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NPR has several great book pieces to point to on your library blog in their holiday section.

First is a nice list of coffee table books recommended for gift giving.  Just looking at the covers and some of the images make you want to pore over them.

Second is a mouthwatering collection of new holiday cookbooks.  Yum!

And then you have a list of holiday books for gifts from Karen Grigsby Bates where you will find books for all kinds of readers.

Way to push the book NPR!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The winners of the 2007 National Book Awards have been announced.  This is a great way to highlight real literature in your collection.  So post it up there. 

Personally, I am thrilled with the choice of Sherman Alexie for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.  It has been the one teen book I have told others to read this year, carrying a copy around to share.  Definitely worthy of the prize.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NPR has a great story about the tension between physicians and patients when patients head online to find more information on their health.  Nicely, the physicians seem to be turning around their previous ban on online information, and are asking their patients to share what they find online. 

The NPR story also links to two useful items on the Medical Library Association's site:  one on finding and evaluating online health information and the other on the top ten health sites. 

What a great way to highlight not only our librarian knowledge of online resources, but also our collections of medical information.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Boy, I get to post this one on all of my blogs today!  :)

The National Book Awards finalists have been announced.  This is a great addition to your library blog, because it highlights real literary work.  Now I read more teen fiction than adult, so I am no judge in the Fiction and Nonfiction category, but the Young People's category finalist list is amazing.  So feature this not only on your main blog, but also on a teen blog if you have one!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Crayola has a nice website celebrating October as National Book Month. 

You can also check out the official site at the National Book Foundation, though it isn't nearly as vibrant and doesn't offer coloring sheets.

Great items to promote on your library site, especially with the 2007 National Book Award Finalists being announced on Wednesday, October 10th.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

National Geographic has a very exciting new campaign to get children aware of the world.   My Wonderful World is a site that has special sections for parents, teachers and youth.  On the site, you can test your global IQ, play games, print out world maps, or read the blog. 

Even better, you can mention this worthy effort to your patrons while pointing out your collection of atlases, maps and informational books on countries around the world!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

West Side Story is celebrating its 50th Birthday!  There are two sites you can send patrons to:  The Official West Side Story Web Site filled with information on birthday celebrations, photographs of various productions, and a Now Playing list of current productions.  You can also send patrons to NPR's piece on the anniversary with information on making a new kind of musical, casting and the path from Broadway to the movies. 

You could use the birthday to highlight a couple places in your collection:  musicals on DVD, piano scores of musicals (especially if they are rarely checked out), music CDs, and even your general music section in nonfiction.  Oh, the potential!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Booker Shortlist has been announced.  I know that we have people in our area who follow this prize and having links to these titles on your website reminds your patrons that libraries are not just bestsellers and computers, but also offer literary works.  Imagine a debate about Ian McEwan on your comment area!  A librarian can dream!

Remember, you can use the covers of books freely on your site.  It's something that often comes up when I speak with librarians about websites and book covers are fine to use.  I tend to borrow the images from Worldcat rather than Amazon.  Worldcat's tend to have less white space around them and then I use LibX to quickly create a link via Worldcat to my catalog.  Slick as can be. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another way to highlight you science fiction collection:  The 2007 Hugo Award Winners! 



I like that it has science fiction, nonfiction and even a DVD to promote! 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sci-Fi Lists has a great list of the top 100 science fiction books of all time.  Several of my all-time favorites are in the top 10, but it would be a great list to start discussion on your library website and promote your genre collections. 

Thanks to Neat New Stuff for the link.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sweet!  Here is a nice response to the recent survey that says adults aren't reading much anymore.  20 Simple Ways to Become a Bookworm  from LifeRemix offers basic advice that will get any reader's head nodding in agreement.  My only quibble is that public libraries are #19!  But at least we are there and the comment is positive.  This is something you may want to point to on your site, and maybe ask for patron suggestions on how they became bookworms.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just posted this one to our website.  The Kansas City Star has a nice list of upcoming films based on books that you can link to.  You could even make it a real deep post with links to your DVDs that are based on books as well.  Sweet!  I love it when I can at least try to get our DVD users to take a look at our book collection.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This Christian Science Monitor article focuses on new books being added to the curricula of high schools and to their reading lists.  It features a list of some of the new titles replacing the classics on school reading lists.  Definitely something worth a mention on a library website.  Perhaps select a few titles and link into your catalog.  Also a chance to mention that you do carry the classics as well. 

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a nice article that can be used to point out on your websites that libraries will help serve book discussion groups.  The article has the top six book discussion books in the UK.  The Kite Runner tops them all, probably just as it would in the US.

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 3:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oooh!  What a nice article to link to to highlight your library's audio book section!

Listening to books is not cheating is an article from the Baltimore Sun that speaks in defense of listening to audio versions of books as being just as legitimate a form of reading as turning pages.  Agreed!

Posted by Tasha Saecker at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)