Fusenews: Librarian Video Games and Newbery Secrets

Sounds about right.  A good way to begin this Friday morn.  I got that Toothpaste for Dinner image from BB-Blog (who also had a link to some realistic dollhouses that struck me just right).

• New blog alert!  It’s called Collecting Children’s Books and it is must-read for anyone interested in the world of reprints, first editions, collectability, and all things related to holding onto rare children’s titles.  Aside from the cool information you can receive, practically daily, check out this piece on the Newbery Award.  It includes a little known fact that many may find fascinating:

"My favorite Newbery years were the early 1970s. A lot of people today believe that the selection of the award has always been a very secret, cloistered process, with no one outside the committee having any idea what books are being considered. This was not always true. For about four years in the early 1970s, the American Library Association decided to try an experiment, publishing lists of all the books ‘nominated’ for the Newbery and Caldecott awards. Don’t believe me? Go look at old issues of School Library Journal and Horn Book from about 1972 through 1975. You’ll find the lists there."

Wow!  This stuff’s gold.  I like his piece on Newbery mysteries too.  Thanks so much to Eleanor White for the link.

• Bookshelves of doom discovered (via Boing Boing) that now some old Newbery winners are available for free online. It’s not much. Just 1923-1925 (Disney, you have much to answer for).

  
  

• This is near-teen news, but I’ll post it anyway.  Author Eric Luper (a Class of 2K7 man) is having "The Big Fat Slick Book Trailer Contest".  Here’s the deal.  You make a book trailer for his book The Big Slick and if he chooses it you get to name a horse in his book.  Heck, even if you promote this contest on your blog you’re entered to win a chance to also name a horse in the book.  You know what I’d call mine?  Good Master Sweet Lady.  A horse with that kind of name could totally clean up.  More details on the contest are here.  Entries are due by March 1st.

• I’m sure that you librarians out there are never ever bored on the reference desk.  Nuh-uh, no way, no how.  Buuuuuut . . . . . if you were bored (theoretically, of course) and you wanted a diversion of some sort, why not play some library arcade games?  This is all Carnegie Mellon’s fault.  Say they, "The Library Arcade features games designed to help students develop research skills through entertaining and easy-to-repeat activities. At this stage, we are testing each game to work through any technical glitches and prepare the games for a final version.  Please feel free to send us your comments & suggestions on ways that we can further develop the games."  There are two games to chose from.  You can either play I’ll Get It or Within Range.  I just played I’ll Get It for way too long.  As The Sims taught us, your day-to-day life is so much more interesting when it can be done in high-speed video game form.  Thanks to Maud Newton and me maw for the link.

• And for you wordies out there, here it is.  Dictionary wallpaper.

My aunt actually once wallpapered her bathroom in New Yorker covers.  It was brilliant.  I’ve always wanted to do the same thing myself, but there’s really not much point to wallpapering your New York apartment that you’re just gonna leave in a year or two anyway.  Thanks to bookshelves of doom for the link.