The New York Times has an article on the closing of Coliseum Books in Manhattan. The liquidation provides an index of the perceived value of books:
The first to fly out the Coliseum doors were the cookbooks, he said. Then crafts books, on subjects like needlework, pottery and knitting. The science section, nearly 1,000 titles, was sold en masse to a philanthropic foundation.
New York Magazine has a snapshot of what riders on a random subway train were reading on a Monday morning.
The publishing industry let its guard down in 2006, earning a swift pop to the proboscis, asserts a piece from National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
Media Matters has what is certainly one of the better attempts to make a worthwhile retrospective in the form of an ordered list.
No more!
The New York Times is running a story on university fund-raising.
On a hilltop patio with a stunning view of the J. Paul Getty Museum, as guests sipped bubbling guava-pineapple martinis, John Sexton, the president of New York University, was far from home, chatting up the crowd.
The 70 guests assembled in Los Angeles for this event on a beautiful spring evening, had already given $5,000 or more to N.Y.U. The parking area at the top of the private street that led to the mansion, owned by Nancy Moonves, former wife of the television mogul Leslie Moonves (and mother of two N.Y.U. students), was filled with Lexus and Mercedes sedans as well as a sleek Ferrari.
“I thank you,” Dr. Sexton said, “and I ask you to do 10 times as much as you are doing.”
The Washington Post has an article on how the hideous shorthand that makes instant messaging so unbearable is seeping into students’ papers.
Poets & Writers has an article about how the U. S. publishing industry is turning to China for profit.
I well remember the physical card catalogs of the libraries of my youth. I recall having to stand on the discreetly provided milk crates to open the top drawers. As quaint as these memories are, I would not fain return to that time. Modern libraries run on complex software systems that provide an embarrassment of riches to the savvy bibliophile. A group of librarians in Georgia has developed an open integrated library system that shows great promise. A Linux.com article has further details.
