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Volume 7, January 6, 2011 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) GO TO THE WEB AND SAY AHH!

2) FIRST TUESDAYS – DISPLAYS THAT POP!

3) FREE EBOOKS FOR YOUR LIBRARY

4) GUIDE TO STATE AND LOCAL WORKFORCE DATA

5) CONNECTING DONORS AND SCHOOL LIBRARIES

6) FREE CE OPPORTUNITIES NEXT WEEK

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First there was the book – okay, first there were tablets and scrolls and things, and THEN there was the book.

Then came the ebook. AKA the e-book, eBook, Ebook, etc. We’ll get that all straightened out one of these days.

And now? Now there is the app-book. Courtesy of none other than Sir Stephen Fry, self-described gadget-head, auteur, and world-renowned actor. With the release of his new book, The Fry Chronicles, Penguin Books has simultaneously released an ebook version (as one might expect in this day and age), and also an interactive app.

The app is called myFry and is available for the iPhone and iPad. I could say more, but they have a video that is probably more enlightening.

If you want more info, FutureBook has a couple good write-ups here and here.

eBooks (and eReaders) have been getting a ton of press over the past couple months, and I have a feeling that they will continue to do so throughout the year. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is happening in Vegas right now, and a lot of the buzz coming out is about ebooks and readers. In case you haven’t been paying attention, though, I’d like to highlight some of my favorite articles and thoughts on ebooks to date and for the coming year.

First, and you’ve probably read parts of this, Sherman Alexie was interviewed for Mother Jones, and he has some particular remarks about a particular ebook reader that are quite risqué. I won’t reprint them here, but the entire interview is worthwhile and available at motherjones.com.

Robert Darnton gives his case for books at Publisher’s Weekly, and says the following about ebooks:

“I want to write an electronic book. Here is how my fantasy takes shape. An “e-book,” unlike a printed codex, can contain many layers arranged in the shape of a pyramid. Readers can download the text and skim the topmost layer, which will be written like an ordinary monograph. If it satisfies them, they can print it out, bind it (binding machines can now be attached to computers and printers), and study it at their convenience in the form of a custom-made paperback. If they come upon something that especially interests them, they can click down a layer to a supplementary essay or appendix. They can continue deeper through the book, through bodies of documents, bibliography, historiography, iconography, background music, everything I can provide to give the fullest possible understanding of my subject. In the end, they will make the subject theirs, because they will find their own paths through it, reading horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, wherever the electronic links may lead.”

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Photograph of Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner, 1863.

On this Inauguration Day, and in anticipation of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial in February, we thought it appropriate to revisit Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, one of the great speeches of American history. The text of the speech is found in the Congressional Globe (1865, pages 1424-1425), which is housed in Washington State Library’s federal collection.

President Lincoln delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865. Image via LOC.

A second digitized version can be viewed in our Historic Newspaper Online Project from the Walla Walla Statesman of March 17, 1865, (Page 2, Column 3). Interestingly enough, the wording in the newspaper account differs somewhat from the Congressional Globe version. We surmise that this was editorial license at work.

If you would also like to see Lincoln’s own handwritten draft of the address, visit the Abraham Lincoln Papers digitized by the Library of Congress.