It Happened on Thanksgiving in Evanston

November 24, 2010

In 1895, 115 years ago this Thanksgiving Day, America’s first automobile race was held. The approximately 54 mile course ran from Jackson Park (now the Museum of Science and Industry) in Chicago to Evanston and back. The procession entered Evanston on Sheridan and proceeded north on Sheridan to Main, west on Main to Forest, north […]


NY Times to Start e-book Best-seller Lists

November 24, 2010

The NY Times announced that early next year it will start publishing best-seller lists for both fiction and nonfiction e-books. Amazon Kindle VP Steve Kessel claims that customers are purchasing e-books at more than twice the rate of print books. Shira S.



Another Nail in the Coffin of the Magazine Industry

November 20, 2010

In what is becoming more and more the norm, US News & World Report has become the latest magazine to abandon the print landscape to focus solely on digital media. Although it will continue to print a limited number of copies to be available at newsstands, the publisher is going to stop sending its print […]


Bluefire Reader is good news for iPod/iPad owners

November 18, 2010

At the eBook Boot Camp seminar I attended today at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, there was some buzz about a new free app for iPod and iPad owners who wish to download free ebooks from their public libraries. It’s called Bluefire, and was just released this last week. There a lot of chit chat […]


New Take on Cleopatra by Pulitzer-winning Author

November 18, 2010

Stacy Schiff has written a book delving into the life of Cleopatra in a way that hasn’t been done for a while. Schiff focuses more on the ruler’s character and political skill than the Hollywood version many of us are familiar with. (This view corresponds to a National Geographic article I read recently on Cleopatra […]


Fragments of Marilyn Monroe

November 15, 2010

This Vanity Fair article includes some fascinating excerpts from Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe, which reveal Ms. Monroe as a young woman with a “fierce determination to master her art,” and “for whom writing and poetry were lifelines, the ways and means to discover who she was and to sort through her often […]


Prof Discovers Donor and Grandfather are One and the Same

November 11, 2010

Journalism professor Ted Gup used an old suitcase of his grandfather’s letters to pursue the identity of a mysterious donor in the Canton, OH, area 80 years ago. It turns out that “B. Virdot”  was really Sam Stone, a successful businessman and Jewish immigrant, who gave money to help unfortunate people. Gup has written a […]


Chicago’s Lack of School Libraries Debated

November 10, 2010

I was aware that some schools did not have full library services or trained staff, but I had no idea how bad the situation was until I heard this story. According to this NPR report around 25% of elementary schools are managing (are  they?) without a library. That sounds very high. Shira S. Also see […]


A great ebook comparison chart

November 10, 2010

Now everyone who knows me knows that I LOVE my Kobo ereader.  I love the company philosophy, I love that I can download library books, and I love that I can buy books from almost any ebook store.  I also love the feel of this reader (I also own an ipad, and it’s just too […]


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