Who cares about libraries?

Macleans.ca: 2011 August 29

“People have preconceptions about libraries, and many of them are just inaccurate,” says Ken Haycock, emeritus professor of the University of British Columbia’s library science school. “The reality is that use is increasing, in foot traffic and in circulation.”

Libraries are eccentric, changing and vital public spaces

National Post: 2011 August 6

He hasn’t said so explicitly, but Doug Ford seems to dislike libraries. The Toronto city councillor has lately made disparaging–and inaccurate–remarks about his city’s library system, which faces possible funding cuts and closures. By suggesting Toronto has too many branches, and then crowing that he would vote to shut down some “in a heartbeat,” Mr. Ford has offended bibliophiles everywhere. And Margaret Atwood is not amused.

The man who killed bookstores

Vancouver Sun: 2011 August 2

All right, coppers. You’ve got me. I did it. I killed Borders.

Not all by myself, of course. I had some help. A guy can’t kill a 399-store chain of bookstores and put 10,700 people out of work all by himself.

But I grew up Catholic, so if there’s guilt to be assigned, lay it on me. I’m used to it.

Yes, I sometimes buy books at Amazon.com. I’ll buy ’em at Costco or Target, too, if they’re cheap enough. I get a lot of books from the library. I haven’t bought a Kindle or a Nook or another ereader yet, but I’m thinking about it. I borrowed an iPad and used it to read the e-version of Edmund Morris’s Colonel Roosevelt.

In the fight for better literacy, comic books are teachers’ secret weapon

This Magazine: 2011 August 2

On a cold mid-February afternoon under overcast skies, a school bell rings. The halls of Toronto’s Agnes Macphail Public School flood with children dressed in puffy jackets and schoolbags. Although a swift exodus befalls most schools at day’s end, Agnes Macphail still pulses with high-pitch chatter. Students linger in the foyer while others flock towards the school’s library. Amidst the rows of bookcases and computers, a group of students, ranging from grade six to eight, sit around tables as they talk animatedly and await the start of their book-club meeting.

E-readers turn every man into his own librarian

National Post: 2011 July 30

I remember from quite some time ago visiting the library of a small school in one of the outport towns of Newfoundland. Only one shelf held books, and even it wasn’t full. Of the 30 or so books that were on that single shelf, eight were the several volumes of a once-popular religious encyclopaedia. Of the rest, a couple were by the great storyteller Robert Louis Stevensons — his books were once the very definition of literary ubiquity, Kidnapped and Treasure Island in particular, being the book equals of Star Wars in our day. There was an old school text of John Buchan’s Prester John there too.


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Book apps: A reading revolution, or the end of reading?

The Globe and Mail: 2011 July 23

To understand the new big thing in publishing, the magic that promises to move put-upon paper pushers from the back of the digital bandwagon into the driver’s seat, you do what the lady said: Just put your lips together and … blow.

Why librarians should be more like Lady Gaga

The Washington Post: 2011 July 14

School libraries around the country are being dramatically cut as government officials look for places to cut their budgets — even though research shows that the country’s highest-performing students come from schools with good library centers.