fantasy libraries online: project gutenberg

Project Gutenberg is the granddaddy of them all. It started in 1971 at the University of Illinois, which is logical, as the U. of I. was the home of PLATO and touch screens and chat rooms and pretty much the general turn-of-the-millennium internet world except twenty to thirty years earlier. Now there are tens of thousands of public domain and creative commons e-books, and even some audio books.

One fantasy-library-like aspect of this site is that it allows for serendipity more than many online databases. You can search for specific items but you can also wander through the stacks browsing the catalog by title, author, category, or language (yes, there are lots of 'em). Or put in a key word in the search blank and browse by subject. Title and author browsing are true browsing -- you get a page with all the authors or titles beginning with your chosen letter, so you scan stroll -- uh, scroll -- around and see what's on nearby "shelves." Besides the obvious classics, there are pop-culture items, eyewitness testimonies of times past, and all sorts of odd and esoteric items in the shadowy nooks.

Project Gutenberg is truly free -- no money, no advertisements, no strings attached, no sign-ins or other hoops to jump through. And you can download the books and truly own your copies until your flash drive or computer burns out.

http://www.gutenberg.org/

what makes a good fantasy library?

Books, lots and lots of books -- pretty books, gorgeous books, rare books loaded with arcane knowledge from all over the world and all through history (and forgotten histories and alternate histories), neatly lined up on shelves or overflowing in untidy piles, in a cavernous space or a twisty, cramped nook that holds more than seems possible. It should be mysterious and  hidden -- or hidden in plain sight. It need not be located in a magical world (although books are inherently magical), but if it is, it might be guarded by a friendly dragrynix.

This is just opinion, which is, of course, perfectly appropriate for fantasy 'cause, by definition, it's all made up anyway.

a computer-only public library

The First Bookless Public Library: Texas to Have BiblioTech
(Jan. 14, 2013  ABC News)

The tech-geek part of me thinks it sounds cool, but the book-nerd part feels some trepidation. This is not due to the concept in and of itself, but because we live in a polarized, extremist culture. We have trouble wrapping our minds around two good options existing side by side. We tend to think that if there are two of anything, one must be better, and if one is better, the other is downright bad, and the bad one should be gotten rid of entirely.

Apparently this is to be a new, specialized branch of the San Antonio system, which already has 26 branches. Viewed this way, rather than as the first step into an inevitable printless future, it need not be a threat to beloved tomes with paper pages, any more than the opening of a rare book library would threaten the ability of patrons to continue to get their bestsellers at other branches. So let the past make way for the future -- not by leaving, but by inviting the future to stand beside it.

the public library -- a great unbusiness

Libraries (and other nonbusiness institutions such as schools, museums, churches) have for some years been looking to the business world for ideas. This can be useful -- up to a point. What we want to be careful to do is to take only useful and appropriate ideas, not just for ethical reasons, but because often the strength of a nonbusiness institution is the fact that it's not a business. A library doesn't have to make money on every transaction. This is extremely liberating.

Some unbusiness advantages libraries have:

The best price around for its services -- free.
Time, space, and other resources which are not directly linked to immediate sales.
Freedom to serve all segments of society, rather than just those who are most popular in the eyes of the greater culture or useful to the institution.
Genuine respect for all patrons which is not linked to any individual's usefulness to the institution.
Respect for patrons' privacy.

These characteristics can give libraries have a tremendous advantage against their "competitors" -- stores and the internet. And best of all, they don't require any extreme effort or change of direction; they are things libraries have already been doing right for generations.

buy nothing day

Today is Buy Nothing Day.

Instead, why not go to your public library, where the books are free?

Check out a book of seasonal recipes and make something delicious.

Check out craft book for a holiday -- Chanukkah, Christmas, Winter Solstice, whatever suits your beliefs (or your fancy) -- and make something fun with a family member or friend.

Read an old favorite of your childhood to a child.

Or just find a quiet book, or an exciting one, or a purely informational one, according to your personal tastes.

Enjoy.

petulant penguin books plays poorly with others

Penguin Pulls Out of Ebook Lending Over Piracy Concerns
(Nov. 22, 2011  Mashable)


IF they were trying to kill library lending of ebooks (and if anybody re-posts this, please include this "if" clause so I don't come off as a paranoid conspiracy theorist), this would be a great tactic -- one by one take away the participation of the major publishers, and thus the availability of the most popular books.

After all, one major reason some users don't borrow ebooks from the library is the sparse selection. But you know what, many (probably most) of those readers don't just cave in and buy the ebooks. I sure don't. I buy ebooks I would've bought anyway, and for books I'm not willing to pay for, I borrow a physical copy from the library.

Is there a chance of piracy? Of course. And some morons steal other types of free library books. But they are few because it takes an uncommonly low level of stupidity to do the work and take the risk of stealing something free. By far most people aren't even tempted.

Most of the people I see at the library checking out ebooks are fairly new to computers. Their previous experience is often limited to emailing their grandkids and looking at family pictures on Facebook. Sometimes the ebook reader (usually a gift) is their first computer experience. It's hard enough setting up the library account. They're not going to be pirating books -- or navigating warez or P2P sites -- anytime soon.

And anyway, illegal free copies of copyrighted books have been widely available online for years before public libraries started legally lending ebooks. Libraries aren't the problem.

Why would a publisher want to license ebooks to libraries? For the same reasons that for over a century they've been selling physical books to libraries:

Sales to libraries are sales, pretty much guaranteed for important and popular books, highly likely for many other books. Yes, this is a trade-off against possible sales to more individuals, but traditionally seen as a wise one, the way investors diversify and put some of their money into low-yielding but safe bonds and only some of their money into potentially high-profit but high-risk stocks.

Exposure. The loss of a few book sales can be cheap as advertising costs go. Lots of people see the books in libraries. People might be hesitant to pay to take a chance on a book they might not like, or to read a book once, but sometimes want to own a copy of a library book they've read and loved. And if they really love it, they buy extra copies as gifts.

Publishers, you're not manipulating me into buying. You're just making me dislike and greatly disrespect you, a business for which I used to have quite positive feelings.

libraries and privacy

Got an embarrassing question? You may be better off asking a librarian than "anonymously" searching the web.

While it was once true that on the internet no one knew your were a dog, now they know what brand dog food you eat, when you got your last rabies shots, and that your name is Fido. And they want to keep that info, use it to sell you squeak toys, and sell it to others.

Even though a librarian may see your face or see your name and card number on an online ask-a-librarian form, libraries genuinely believe in confidentiality and non-judgmentalism as part of their professional goal of protecting the dignity of the patron.

You can be sure that you won't be followed for weeks by ads relating to this question on every web page you view. Your interest in this topic can't be known by your spouse, the church ladies, or a prospective employer three years hence. The librarian you talked to will be the only person on earth who knows, and will probably forget about you by the end of the day.

a shelving problem

Recently the library just got another enhanced book, the kind with fake realia -- facsimiles of documents, maps, photos, cards, etc. -- in pockets between the pages. We now have about half a dozen or so of these, and, as they are one more trend in publishers' attempts to make print books more exciting, we're likely to see more in the future.

The problem is what to do with them.

Right now, they're behind the desk, because the loose items in the pockets are so easily lost or stolen. The problem is, no one checks them out because no one knows they exist -- which is a shame, because they're so cool.

But if we put them on the shelf, where people can stumble upon them serendipitously -- or better, on display -- the loose things in the pockets will likely get lost or stolen, and then they won't be so cool ....

a voice from 1910

Why Do We Need a Public Library?

The basic idea still holds true.

digital library controversy

Open Letter to Librarians
(March 1, 2011 Library Love Fest)
http://harperlibrary.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/open-letter-to-librarians.html

Open Letter to Harper Collins
(March 7, 2011 Library in Black)
http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2011/03/hc.html

audio books (thing 22) revisited

Been there, didn't do that. The original objections remain. I'm afraid my only new activity on this one was to check back on the list of what's available and find that there still aren't enough interesting books out there to borrow -- even fewer in these borrowable audiobooks than there are in commercial ebooks for reading -- and I'm not much for listening to books, anyway. The video and music might be more appealing in a service like this, but my device doesn't support those formats. Ditto most (if not all -- it's too discouraging to check them all) of the language courses, which would be useful in this format. It would be nice to have a primary filter by device, so people don't have to search down long lists of items that they can't use.

a fine dilemma

In Chapter 5 of his book, Cognitive Surplus, about the sharing of information online, Clay Shirky talks about human motivation in general, and, at one point, moves into a discussion of an issue of interest to librarians -- fines. A fine, by its monetary nature, changes a transaction or situation from one of purely social and emotional motivations to a commercial one. If policy is changed, and a fine for noncompliance is imposed in a situation that had previous been operated on the basis of honor, the fine will be seen as "payment." Misbehavior now has a price, and curiously, gains some legitimacy because of it. Furthermore, that attitude of a paid transaction remains even if the fine policy is revoked. He also recalls an encounter with an airline agent in which he referred to the extra money to be paid for changing the date of a ticket as a charge, while she firmly called it a "penalty," thus insisting that it was a punishment, not merely a shame-free payment.

All of this gives some insight into why so many people carry large and/or persistent fines on their library card. (The fact that some refer to checking out videos, and sometimes even books, as "renting" gives another clue to the same phenomenon.) At five or ten or twenty-five cents a day the price for keeping an item beyond the due date is an incredible bargain. The social contract of giving the next person a turn may never enter their minds at all.

Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions for a library, which is, by nature and mission -- and rightly so -- a "good guy." As the book points out, getting rid of fines won't turn people into selfless angels. After generations of issuing fines, the concept of a commercial relationship in people's minds would not disappear. Making fines high enough to be a significant deterrent would not necessarily deter those who could comfortably pay, but would be a serious burden on poorer people, the very ones who need public libraries most. So what about making it clear that a fine is a penalty, not a shame-free payment for rental or the extra convenience of extended time? The problem with that is that too harsh of a judgement makes people feel bad. And libraries are about empowering the disempowered, which often means being kind and unjudgmental toward people who are judged unkindly in almost every other public transaction. Some people desperately need to be cut some slack by the one institution that's compassionate enough to cut them any at all. But other people have an inflated sense of entitlement, or enjoy seeing how much they can get away with, and some only respond to strict rules. And many people just float through life with a blind self-centeredness, not even aware of the needs of others. Somehow, the needs of all patrons (and of the library itself) have to be met with the same rules, impartially applied.

And no, I don't have any ideas.

wikis revisited

I'm finding that wiki editing (or should I say, getting my head wrapped around the idea of wikis) went more smoothly on this go-round.

Being somewhat bored with the available topics, which all have to do with (yawn) reality, I started a new page, "Late at Night in the Library," a story which one and all are welcome to continue. The dragons are waiting for your input.

reflections on video games

What makes a cartoonish game palatable to adults? Recently I had an insight into why, in spite of my general preference for computer games set in dark, brooding, realistic worlds, or else consisting of abstract patterns, I like Sonic and Mario. It's because, by now, they have lost some of their kindergarteny image. They have become cultural icons. It's the same reason adults who generally would be embarrassed to watch cartoons have no problem with Mickey Mouse (can I mention his trademarked name without paying royalties?) or Bugs Bunny.

For teens and adults young enough to have played these games in their childhood, of course, there is an added dimension. Whether there is a glow of nostalgia or an avoidance because the game seems all the more personally childish is an idiosyncratic reaction which is unpredictable from person to person.

How does this tie in at all with libraries? More and more libraries now have added game-playing to their offerings. This is something to consider when looking for games that might appeal to multiple age groups.

honestly free

Honestly free is completely free, available to those literally without a penny. "Free" (small print: with shipping and handling and/or sales tax) is a LIE; it is not free.

Honestly free doesn't require setting up an account (even a free one), logging in, or using a password.

Honestly free does not ask you to do anything special. There are no ads, no surveys, no competition, no need for luck, no roundabout routes to get to what you want. It is not "free if you buy ...." It is not "you can win ...." It does not have to be earned or won in any way.

Honestly free has no subscription fees, entrance fees, or parking fees.

Honestly free is not a trick to get people to want more. It is not a preview and certainly not a teaser. It provides enough to be truly useful or entertaining. It is not artificially cut short; it is not snatched away after a certain date or a certain number of uses.

Honestly free leaves you alone afterwards. It does not ask for your gratitude, opinion, or recommendation. It does not follow you with ads or requests of any kind.

Honestly free is completely anonymous. It doesn't ask for an i.d., or proof of age or residence. It doesn't ask for your zip code.

Ideally, in an honestly free situation, the most despised, totally penniless, physically repulsive, foreign person with political, religious, and sexual views which are anathema to the community will be treated the same as the most beloved home-town-golden-boy movie star.

Let me head off an obvious argument here: I'm talking about free to the individual using the object or service. Yes, these things are usually paid for by taxes or philanthropy. This type of pre-payment is inherently different from individual pre-payment for specific goods or services. You must pay taxes for the town library and park whether you use them or not. And people who have paid no taxes -- the homeless, visitors from other cities, even scofflaws who don't pay their taxes (till they get caught and put in jail) can use them, too.

The typical public library provides some honestly free services. Many (most?) have a free parking lot and are within walking distance of many of their patrons. A homeless person with completely empty pockets can come in, take a book or magazine or newspaper from the shelf, and sit there and read it, undisturbed.

the socialization of everything

The 19th through 20th centuries were marked by the rise in individual privacy and increases in solitary behavior.

• Dating as couples became the norm among young people, in contrast with primarily socializing in groups.
• It became less common for neighbors to be considered automatic friends, and in some neighborhoods, even to know each other.
• Fewer people joined clubs and other social groups, as pointed out in Bowling Alone, by Robert D. Putnam (2000). In fact, in some communities some such groups went from being respected and membership being considered socially necessary, to being considered "hokey." How many teenaged Scouts do you know? For that matter, how many kids do you know who went beyond Cub Scouts or Brownies?
• Television went from a community experience shared with friends and neighbors, to a family experience, to individuals having their own sets in their bedrooms.
• Groups of friends used to get together to listen to records. Beginning with the Walkman in the early 1980s, music became something often listened to through earphones on a personal device.
• Games went from mostly being played by two or more people around a table to being played by one person in front of a computer. I remember when early video arcade games like Asteroids and Pac Man began to replace pinball machines in the student union. Looking back, I realize that it was more usual -- more "normal" -- to see a person playing those games alone than to see a lone pinball player without friends standing around watching while they waited for their turn. Solitaire had a reputation for being played by pathetically lonely people. Few admitted to playing it. There seems to be no such connotation or shame with computer solitaire.
• The "populars" became a bit less universally worshipfully respected and the "nerds" a bit less despised. Respect for diversity and awareness of conditions such as Asperger's syndrome made people realize that not everyone is socially inclined; parents, teachers, and other caregivers became less likely to see shyness as a severely harmful character flaw or a sin. (Yes, people still laughed at the Trekkie in his parents' basement, but for the first time, there was sometimes some affection in that laugh.)
  

Recently, the tide seems to be turning.

• Scientific research is placing more and more emphasis on the social aspects of the human experience. In The Ape that Spoke (1991), John McCrone presents a theory that human language began, not for practical hunting, gathering, tool-making, or survival reasons, but to keep track of social interactions and relationships and interact socially -- to gossip and schmooze.
  
• In Gen Buy (2009), Kit Yarrow points out that the current generation of teens and young adults are more likely to socialize in groups (and especially shop in groups -- this is a business advice book), and to consult their peers before doing things (especially before buying things).
• More and more computer games are made to be played against human opponents rather than the computer. The social component is even greater in online multiplayer games like Runescape and World of Warcraft.
• Console video games have always been come with two or more controllers so that people could play together, but the games provided equally for a single-player experience. The games which seem to be growing most in popularity are ones like Rock Band and Wii Sports, which are primarily designed to be for multiple players.
• Web authoring has become social with the rise of blogging and microblogging, which provides a place for reader comments, as do many national and local news sites. Many blog hosting sites make it possible to turn the commenting function off, but a blogger who does so will be seen as unfriendly.
• Websites created solely for social interaction, such as Facebook and MySpace, are among the top sites on the internet.
• There's an increasing tendency for any activity done in public to be done in pairs or larger groups. Now few people seem to even study alone. Until recently, many, if not most, of the people at public libraries (excepting, of course, children young enough to need a parent with them) came alone. They got their books and went home to read alone, or sat in the library reading or writing alone. There's a reason many libraries had solitary study carrels. Even when families or friends came together, the individuals in the group usually had their own agendas, their own books to look for. Recently the shift is toward groups coming in and doing everything together. Many of the requests we get at the reference desk are for someone else in the group -- "My sister needs help," "My friend's computer crashed," "My husband is looking for the westerns," "My cousin..." Chairs are moved from individual carrels and individual places at tables and clustered around computers. The chairs left at the tables are moved from their rows and grouped into configurations better suited to conversation and sharing books or a notebook computer.
  

Some reasons for the shift may be technological, e.g., social websites and cell phones make it convenient to keep in touch with many people. And some may be cultural; more working class people, who tend to be suspicious of private activity, now are using computers, and there are more people from non-western-European cultures who place a high value on doing things in family or friend groups. But there does seem to be a definite shift toward more social behavior, and with it a change in norms and values.

cushing academy just doesn't get it

Cushing Academy, a prep school in Ashburnham, Massachussetts, is replacing the books in its library with computers. Completely. They're getting rid of a good library of 20,000 books, carefully collected over decades.

This is just one school library, one might argue. But the danger to society at large comes from making the unthinkable thinkable.

Libraries have always grown to include new forms of media. But before this they have generally kept the previous forms. The exception has been replacing items which could only be accessed by machines most people no longer owned with a form accessed by machines most people, by that time, do own. (E.g., records were replaced by cassette tapes which in turn were replaced by CDs.) When they got records, they didn't throw out the books. When they got books on tape, they didn't throw out the books. When they got videos, they didn't throw out the music or the books on tape -- or the books. They just kept adding media, enriching the overall information experience.

Books are usable anywhere they can be carried. They need no special technology. Even if the lights go out, a book is readable again as soon as the sun rises. And people like the paper format. Many people prefer the format. Some refuse to read anything of length any other way -- including many young people. In my library experience, most students with a reading assignment that's already checked out will change their choice (if possible) or go out and buy the book rather than read it at a computer, even if it's available for free from The Gutenberg Project.

I actually like to read books from a computer sometimes. (It's a playing-Star-Trek thing; it's fun because it feels futuristic.) But I also love my books and would never part with those dear friends. And I certainly would never presume to take the pleasure of holding a volume and turning the pages away from others.

bridge between two worlds

The cyberpunk era has begun. Sorta. We're not yet at the stage of having chips in our skulls, conducting all our business and personal interactions as avatars in a virtual world. Nor do we always have electronic information floating in front of our eyes as a heads-up display (although the first step of augmented reality is available for the public in the Netherlands). We're in an early transition stage where some of the information and connections are in cyberspace, some in the physical world. We have no choice at this point but to live in both worlds, as anyone who knows who has been told that a certain job can only be applied for online, or who wants to read an old book that has not yet been scanned into electronic form.

Libraries bridge both worlds. One obvious way is by providing both computer access and access to physical information (i.e., books, etc.). It's easier for people to explore a new world when the risk is removed -- when it's free of charge and in a supportive atmosphere. The thing is, many people live mostly in one world or the other. They don't see enough of the other world to know what they're missing. A bibliography in the back of a book isn't going to be of much help to someone who always goes straight to Google, nor a search engine to someone who only looks on bookshelves.

Libraries also provide "cross-cultural" guidebooks, maps, travelers' tips, and personal guides (i.e., librarians). A library might (as many have done) put its card catalog online, with an option to place holds remotely, maybe with a "lite" version of the website easily viewed on a smartphone's small screen. There might be tweets or a blog or e-mail notices giving updates of new books. Many libraries teach people how to navigate cyberspace with classes or simply with patient, nonjudgmental help from a friendly librarian. Flyers of new and interesting websites might be printed and laid on the counter next to the bestsellers list. The most astute libraries realize that it's not just a matter of providing the best print resources to those who prefer print, nor just a matter of providing the best online resources to those who spend their days online. It's also necessary to help both groups cross the border.

physicality

In spite of all the talk of physical bookstores being competed out of existence in the online age, there will, for the foreseeable future, be a need for a local physical location providing physical information and media.

If you really think about it, there are still all lot of people still alive who grew up in a world of books rather than of computers. Some people find computers intimidating. Remember, in their youth they had it pounded into their heads that computers could be touched (or even seen directly) ONLY by very smart, well-educated, adult, white males who had a job that allowed it. Some people like the portiblity of a book -- readable (during daylight hours) even when the power is out. And some just like the look and feel of books.

And there are times when a you don't want to order something and wait for it.

And then there's the serendipity effect of a place filled with the kind of random browsing not available by keyword searches or by the paths that software recommendations steer you in.

But stores are not about what all the people want; they're about what's most profitable and what a substantial subset of customers like (or are willing to put up with).

Enter the public library. They have books, newspapers, magazines, music CDs, movies. You can go in and browse and come away with whatever you're in the mood for right now -- not when it comes in the mail a week later. In many places, a library is within walking distance. In many others, it's a short drive.

And library materials are free.

the cutting edge and the long tail

One of the great strengths of a library is that, unencumbered by the restrictions of retail, it can provide the "long tail." While it's true that a library's shelf space is finite, the fact that it doesn't need to sell, and sell quickly, to stay alive means that it can keep a wider variety of materials and can serve groups that the mainstream (not to mention the popular or the elite) ignores or shuns, or just deems unprofitable -- the shy, bookish types, the elderly, the poor, and people who are interested in "weird" topics or viewpoints.