The much heralded ‘death of the book’ has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It is about a radical transformation in reading practices.
Marcella Cheng/NY-CC-BD
Essays On Air: Why libraries can and must change
The Conversation, CC BY23,3 MB(download)
The much heralded 'death of the book' has nothing to do with the death of reading or writing. It's about a radical transformation in reading practices, as explained in this episode of Essays On Air.
In our institutions of higher education and our research labs, scholars first produce, then buy back, their own content. With the costs rising and access restricted, something’s got to give.
Hurricane Maria denuded forests in Puerto Rico, revealing once-hidden homes and communities. A graffiti-sprayed saying is now popping up across the island, noting that “Behind the trees live people.”
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
A Puerto Rican librarian with a personal relationship to hurricanes describes the brutal reality of life on this Caribbean island more than a month after Maria and Irma left their mark.
The Girard, Kansas Carnegie library.
National Park Service
One reason why the steel magnate spent so much of his fortune building libraries across the nation and abroad is that he saw handing large fortunes to the next generation as a waste of money.
New technologies are taking books and libraries to places that are, as yet, unimaginable.
Shutterstock
The history of the library is replete with mechanical marvels. More than collections of books, libraries are social, cultural and technological institutions that house the very idea of a society.
Libraries are a good place for kids to hole up during emergencies.
Daria Chichkareva/Shutterstock.com
Catalog data are a library’s most important map to knowledge. What does it mean that
the Library of Congress just released 25 million records to the public?
Unstacked allows us to see what others’ are searching for among the 6 million items in the State Library of NSW’s collection.
Unstacked/the State Library of NSW
A new website allows you to see what other people search for in the State Library of NSW’s vast collection of artefacts – and discover things you’d never think to look up in the first place.
How can students think critically about information in today’s age?
UBC Library Communications/flickr
Since the 19th century academic librarians have helped students navigate the complex world of information. In today’s unpredictable information environment, how might they rethink their role?
E-books are likely to reach 20% of library holdings by 2020, but writers aren’t receiving renumeration from these sources. Is this changing any time soon?
Picjumbo
When you borrow a paper book from a library, authors get a small royalty, which is their second most important source of income. Yet if you borrowed an e-book tomorrow, the author would get nothing.
Australia’s librarians are a vital component of our research institutions.
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The research libraries attached to Australia’s art galleries are one of the nation’s great cultural assets. But the National Gallery of Australia’s library is losing crucial staff as ‘efficiency dividends’ hit home.
Anita Francis, ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare,’ book sculpture, 2014. By permission of the artist.
Anita Francis
Many libraries are now being transferred to be run by community groups. These volunteers play an important role but libraries should not be sacrificed for economic or political expediency.
Bodleian Education Library, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Australia has one of the world’s best reference libraries, available freely to anyone with an internet connection. Severe funding cuts will cripple Trove’s capacity – and that should worry everyone.