“This book is a vague manifesto for change. The author is a lawyer that was appointed to some commission to study libraries, and this book feels like the result of his research. He’s essentially pushing for libraries to de-emphasize physical collections, and emphasize the role of librarians and…”
“This is a small coffee table book, really. It’s mostly pictures, with a slight narrative running through it. It’s published by the Library of Congress directly, and has a foreword from Carla Hayden, the current director. There are a few chapters which talk about the history of trying to organize…”
“This is the story of a book – a fictional novel by a classic Greek author – and how it moves through the lives of five people over thousands of years. The book tracks through three time periods. 1400s in Europe. A boy is conscripted into The Ottoman Army to sack Constantinople, and a girl in that…”
“This is a history book that answers the question: what did librarians do to help the war effort during World War II? Well, a lot it turns out. They amassed foreign periodicals and scoured them for intelligence information They captured and cataloged information left behind in German facilities…”
“incredibly dense book about library organization and cataloging systems. it’s good, but would take about three readings (with a group) to really plumb the depths of it. the key takeaway for me was: organizing information is often not perfect, and you have to make concessions to reality….”
“I started reading this all the way through, but – like most ‘Cookbook’ titles – it gets increasingly esoteric later on. Still, a very good book which helps you get a grasp on jQuery through considerable examples. Many examples are incredibly basic, which means the books functions well as an…”
“This is a ‘meditation’ book. It’s not an exhaustive look at any subject, but rather it’s a meandering tour of some of the things we have to consider when examine something. And what’s we’re examining here is big: how do we know things, and how to we transmit that knowledge? It’s basically…”
“This is a very (very!) big coffee table book of library photography. I’m not sure there’s much more to say than that. It’s enormous. It probably weighs 10 pounds. The photography is amazing. The pages are so big, it’s absorbing. However, it’s worth pointing out that a lot of libraries are very,…”
“This is exactly what it promised – a long, detailed history of libraries, from scrolls in chests to books on the shelves. Libraries really started with the church. They were first repositories of books, and they grew from there. Back in the day, books were expensive because mass printing was in its…”
“I thought this was a novel. It’s not. But it’s wonderful. It’s the story of: The 1986 fire at the Los Angeles library and its subsequent investigation and aftermath The larger Los Angeles library system and its history The future of libraries in general The three topics interweave throughout the…”
“This was a fun novel I picked up at Costco. These days, I’m kind of a sucker for the ‘magic book’ genre (see Cloud Cuckoo Land or The Midnight Library ). It’s set in Ireland, and jumps around in time between two periods and three characters. Opaline is a woman on the run from her maniacal brother…”
“This is an absolutely compelling history of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. It’s fairly comprehensive, but it uses a single murder as a narrative hook. Jean McConville, a widow with 10 children, was taken from her house one evening and ‘disappeared’ – she was just never seen or heard from again….”