The Man Behind Schoolhouse Rock!
A visit with Bob Dorough, 92, the man who set education to song for a generation in the US.
Making a Book from Scratch
If you tried to make a book from scratch, how would you do it?
Greetings from the Age of Abundance
A farewell to 2015, and some thoughts on why our culture has, in an age of abundance, slowed down so much.
The Graduate Student’s Career – A Christmas Morality Tale
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?
The Death of the Collection and the Necessity of Library-Publisher Collaboration: Young Librarians on the Future of Libraries
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?
Ask The Chefs: What Is Your Favorite Yogi Berra Quote And Why?
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?
Arion Press and the Magic of Bookmaking
Anthony Bourdain visits San Francisco’s Arion Press to learn about the magic of making a book.
The Art of Letterpress
A short video on the joys of Letterpress printing.
My Name Is Ozymandias, King of Kings
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.
The Size of the Open Access Market
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.
1,000 Years of Popular Music
A bit of underappreciated scholarship for your Friday entertainment.
Meet the New Economy of Letters, Same As the Old Economy of Letters
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?
How Ink is Made: A Beautiful Reflection of the Analog World we still inhabit
A YouTube Video, How Ink is Made, reminds us of the art and craft that goes into creating the physical products that remain a significant fixture of the publishing world.
Author vs. Author: The Authors Guild and the Authors Alliance Set to Duke It Out?
The emergence of the Authors Alliance is causing consternation among some members of the traditional publishing community, most notably the Authors Guild, which has already issued a sharply-worded critique. But what is the Alliance actually going to do? They’re not really saying.
Cooperstown, Ground Zero for Altmetrics
The altmetrics movement is a key aspect of scholarly communications today. We can learn more about altmetrics by studying the statistical analysis of baseball.