Is Greta Van Susteren right in taking universities to task for building “huge libraries” and in characterizing them as “vanity projects” that have been obviated by the growing online availability of books and other scholarly resources? Obviously not — that’s the position of an ignorant philistine. Except…
Of all the gin joints in all the world, a smokey little dive bar in Frankfurt became the focal point of the STM publishing social scene. How on earth did that happen? More importantly, is there a wider significance to its story?
This summer’s blockbuster movie “Ghostbusters” is, amazingly, about academic peer review and the quality of scholarly publishing. Is it possible that the specialized world of scholarly communications now has mass appeal?
A visit with Bob Dorough, 92, the man who set education to song for a generation in the US.
If you tried to make a book from scratch, how would you do it?
A farewell to 2015, and some thoughts on why our culture has, in an age of abundance, slowed down so much.
It’s easy to think that scientific ethics are straightforward and that results that aren’t robust end up in the literature because some people give into the temptation to cheat. The reality is more complex. If you were in this situation, what would you do?
Applicants for a recent conference scholarship wrote essays that tended strongly to depict the traditional collection as dead and collaboration between librarians and publishers as essential to the library’s future. Do they herald a generational shift in mindset among librarians?
In honor of the wisdom and humor of Yogi Berra, this month we asked the Chefs: What is your favorite Yogi Berra quote and why?
Anthony Bourdain visits San Francisco’s Arion Press to learn about the magic of making a book.
A short video on the joys of Letterpress printing.
There’s no such thing as “too big to fail,” and this applies to libraries as much as it does to car makers, steel companies, and search engines. My guess is that Ozymandias never saw it coming.
A report from Simba Information tallies the total value of the open access marketplace, putting OA at 2.3% of the total market for STM journals. It documents as well, without comment, that more and more OA activity is the business of for-profit companies.
A bit of underappreciated scholarship for your Friday entertainment.
Last fall in the New Yorker, Jill Lapore bemoaned the current relationship between intellectuals and the general public, which she feels is “more vexed than ever” — in part because of a system that rewards academics for outrageousness and for lousy writing. Does she have a point?