For those of you who haven't heard, Worldcat is now open to the public at large, making it easy for anyone to see what libraries near their homes carry a particular title. In my system, this is soon going to become an added feature to our catalog, which will certainly help us info-folk save some time logging into FirstSearch to answer a fairly straight-forward question.
It was nice to find out that Movie Licensing USA has added New Line Cinema to its list of authorized movie studios. Now, libraries everywhere that subscribe to the service have an even wider selection of films to share with their patrons inside the building.
For those who like to think outside of the box in terms of library building design, check out this bookstore in Beijing known as Kids Republic. I couldn't find the actual site for the store itself - all links lead back to The Cool Hunter at this time.
The Burlington Free Press has run a story about Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. I picked this up recently and really enjoyed it. From the article:
"As a result of her family's discomfort with
the her candor and very public story-telling, Bechdel said she hasn't
been able to fully enjoy the success of the book. She's almost become ambivalent about the notoriety she's achieved because of the book, and
it seems more baneful than anything. She acknowledged that while she
had to get her story out, perhaps as a way to make peace with it all,
the process wasn't easy and the aftermath of the book has completely
disrupted her life."
Want to help a library or perhaps yourself get some new reading material? Check out Bookmooch, a new service run by people who believe that "the worst thing that can happen to a book is for no-one to be able to read it." I'm thinking this service, if it becomes big, could be a great thing for people who are moving, don't want to lug their books with them, and are willing to potentially part with them forever. Just send out the books to the world and once re-situated, cash in your points for a whole new private collection!
And lastly, just for fun or mild perplexity, check out the Flickr set devoted to Engrish.