Libraries, Archives, Choice and Red Envelopes: The Growth of Streaming, the Decline of Choice, and the Death of the Red Envelope
The role of libraries and archives as streaming grows, choice declines, and the death of the red envelopes arrives.
Ask the Community: What Did SSP 2022 Mean to You?
In the last of this series of posts about this year’s Annual Meeting, SSP’s Marketing & Communications Committee cochairs ask members of our community what the conference meant to them
Ask The Chefs: It’s Travel Time Again!
Professional conferences, it’s been a while, but we’re ready for you – or are we? This week we ask the chefs what did you forgot while we were home for 2 years? What’s changed and how are you adjusting?
The Ghost of Publishing Past: George Gissing’s “New Grub Street”
A lesson in publishing’s past is provided by George Gissing’s Victorian Era novel.
Wordle, The 1980s Version
What exactly is Wordle, and more importantly, what would it have looked like on a computer in the 1980s?
Revisiting: The Multifarious Book
Revisiting a 2017 post: The book is asked to perform many tasks, some of which are not necessarily the best use of the book format, whether in print or electronically. The long-form text, which may be print or digital, is a different matter, and is likely to remain with us and be called “a book” for some time to come.
Celebrating 25 Years of Preserving the Web
Since 1996, the Internet Archive has been capturing the World Wide Web but also doing so much more to preserve our digital world behind the scenes.
Revisiting: Theory of the E-book
Joe Esposito revisits his 2012 post on the unstated theory of the e-book, which assumes that a book consists only of its text and can be manipulated without regard to the nature and circumstances of its creation. This is only one theory of many, but it is now the prevailing one.
Revisiting: Cooperstown, Ground Zero for Altmetrics
A look back at 2014’s discussion of measuring the immeasurable.
The Spread of Folklore, the Impact of Mass Media, and What Happens After Batman Smells
Regional variance in childhood jokes offers a fun look at the impact of mass media on culture.
A Tough Upcoming Week Without the SSP Annual Meeting
A year without an annual meeting is tough to take. Here’s hoping for better times ahead.
Ritual, Process, and Social Interaction: The World’s Oldest Surviving Video Rental Store
A visit to the world’s longest running video rental store and a lesson about the value of inconvenience.
What’s Old is New Again: The Lost Art of Typewriting
The novelty of using a typewriter and the value in slowing down.
A Rare Shared Cultural Experience and the Value of Inconvenience
When was the last time everyone you knew experienced the same piece of culture at the same time? Is the age of shared cultural experiences over?
Guest Post — Dard Hunter and the Last Real Book: A Cri de Coeur
Tony Sanfilippo looks at the historical books of Dard Hunter and the future of printed works in an increasingly digital and consolidated world.