Fusenews: This American Library

• There’s a bit of a debate out there as to whether or not public libraries should be modeling themselves on bookstores.  Generally I feel that it’s a bit of give and take.  I’m not a big fan of putting people behind our reference desks without degrees, but bookstores have neat ideas that libraries can easily replicate.  For example, check out my fellow NYPL librarian Kiera and her Staff Picks Book Display area.  I’m just going to yoink some of her images here (see her blog for many more), because I think she’s doing something particularly nice with these recommendations.  For one thing, she has lovely handwriting.  And really, there’s something about a handwritten note in a book that feels special. It’s so easy for us to just type stuff out.  Think how much more personal it is to see the curve of another person’s Q or the way they cross their Ts.  Just lovely.  I may have to steal this idea.

• It’s a postmodern world. We’re just living in it. From Cynopsis Kids :

"Japanese publisher Shinchosha says that an animated version of author Budge Wilson’s book Before Green Gables has gotten the go ahead, according to Anime News Network .  Before Green Gables (known in Japan as Konnichiwa Anne) is a prequel to the author Lucy Maud Montgomery’s books about Anne Shirley, the first of which is Anne of Green Gables that celebrates its 100th anniversary this year."

Too soon?

• Galleycat had an interesting round up of links concerning authors and their publicists.  Not specifically childlit-centric, but well worth reading just the same.

• Blogging on SLJ is different from other kinds of blogging I’ve done in the past, partly because I now have people out there who solve my glitches for me and aren’t obligated to do so by marriage.  Take Dan Blank as an example.  Dan’s my I.T. feller.  If it’s goofy or I need to figure out why my Flip camera is convinced that it’s full when IT IS NOT (solution to problem pending), he helps me out of a jam.  Dan also happens to have a blog of his own called Dan Blank: Publishing, Innovation & the Web.  Recently he had a post up called How Clutter Prevents Greatness .  It’s an interesting piece on blogging and how a blog’s "clutter" keeps people from reading it.  He mentions that there are two ways to grab the potential reader’s attention: " Help solve a problem that keeps them up at night" and " Tap into their passion for your industry ".  I’m fairly certain that I’ve never done the former.  The latter sounds far more up my alley.

• The independent bookstores of New York City have come together in brotherhood and the greater good.  So sayeth Galleycat , though I took a long hard look at the picture of the representatives and was unable to determine whether or not any of them were from the two sole independent children’s bookstores here in town Books of Wonder or Bank Street Bookstore.  I wouldn’t mind hearing what their current status is.  In a neat little tie-in, there was also an article on one of  The Guardian’s blogs called How an Independent Bookshop Can Survive.  It doesn’t mention coming together as a group.  Perhaps it should. Thanks to Bookninja (who says that the real answer is "cake") for the link.

• Enjoyed the movie Wall-E?  Well, here’s your daily children’s literary connection, then.  Sharp-eyed spotter Sharon Levin saw Shaun Tan’s name in the credits and posed a query on the child_lit listserv about his involvement.  Turns out, he does do some background work for Pixar on occasion.  They’re clever devils for hiring him, no?

• Someday I will die and my bones will turn to dust. The seasons will pass, the world will turn, and as far as I can determine Peter will STILL be writing kick ass columns (I won’t say posts because these are bloody columns, people… they practically have footnotes) on Collecting Children’s Books.  Recently I was beyond pleased when he mentioned, amongst other things, how cool The Spell Book of Listen Taylor was under its jacket.  Faux staples?  Scholastic, you sly dogs, how on earth did you get that approved?  Somebody gets an A+ for extra effort (would that be you, Cheryl?).

• Man walks into a publishing house.  Sits down, draws up a chair and says, "I got three little words for you. Treasure. Island. Prequel."  Okay, fine.  Maybe that’s not how it happened.  But you can’t argue with the results.  Thanks to Jen Robinson’s Book Page and Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind for the link.

• What the heck happened to that Inkheart movie that was supposed to come out?  I mean, Kids Lit has a great summary of the upcoming children’s films slated for this year (librarians may wish to take note of the holds to come!) but Ms. Funke?  Nowhere in sight. A glance at the IMDB page says that it’s coming out in January.  We shall see . . . .

• This year for the Newbery/Caldecott Banquet I made a tattoo of the book winners and placed it on my upper left forearm (more on the pain involved in its removal later).  I’ve been trying to figure out how to celebrate next year’s winners in the meantime.  Here’s one possibility.  How cool would it be to eat your favorite winner?  Or, better yet, the faces of the winners?  Yum yum yum.

• FYI, were you fellow bloggers out there aware that the CCBC-net listserv discussion this month is about bloggers and who reads whom?  I’ve been seeing some very nice mentions of quite a lot of y’all (7-Imp is getting some heavy duty lovin’).  Some of you may wish to eavesdrop in on the conversation, if you’ve a hankering.  It gives an excellent sense of what people look for in their day-to-day blog reading.

• Daily Image:

Because I know we’re all NPR nerds anyway.  Thanks to BB-Blog for the link.  The full picture is available on Flickr.

Filed under: Fusenews