Waukegan needs Ray Bradbury museum, biographer says

Comment by Sam Weller - Bradbury Biographer

"Ray Bradbury put Waukegan in many ways on the map," he said. "There really should be some sort of place that will house his things, that could bring people from around the world to reflect on his legacy."

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Bradbury biography by Weller: The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury (P.S.)

Thieves make off with library sculptures worth $15K

Scrapper thieves struck at the heart of the Waukegan Public Library, ripping out two bronze statues that were bought by library patrons and displayed in the facility’s County Street courtyard.

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Project Excelsior, Colonel Kittinger, and Felix Baumgartner

Felix Baumgartner is planning a freefall jump from 120,000 feet. He is trying to break the record of U.S. Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger. This jump is being sponsored by Red Bull and they have a website about the jump.

 There are two books that discuss Col. Kittinger's earlier jumps that are interesting reads:

•   Come Up and Get Me: An Autobiography of Colonel Joe Kittinger
•   The Pre-Astronauts: Manned Ballooning on the Threshold of Space

 There is video interview of Colonel Kittenger: The Highest Step in the World, Joe Kittinger & the Excelsior Missions

 Wikipedia entry on Project Excelsior

 Interview with Felix Baumgartner on NPR: Austrian Pilot Hopes To Break Freefall Record

Book Publishing’s Real Nemesis

An antitrust suit may provide short-term price reductions on e-books, but once the competition is flattened, Amazon is likely to resume its monopolistic ways.


Note: I think there are many things to question in this article.

See full article: Book Publishing’s Real Nemesis

Give people time to read.

Harper Collins proposed a 26 loan cap on titles they license to libraries. The thinking was that if a book could be checked out for two weeks it could be circulated 26 times in a year. Restricting an ebook to 26 checkouts was equivalent to the use that a paper library book would have in a year.

This entire issue is contentious and I do not want to debate the number of checkouts in a year. What I did want to discuss was what changes could be made in regards to how checkouts are done if there is going to be a 26 check out cap on a book.

When I check an ebook out from the library why do I have to “return it” after 7 or 14 days? There is no “return” that is actually happening. I am using a digital file and after a certain date the file stops working. The whole idea behind checking out a book from the library is that it will be read. Why can I not take a month or two to read the book?

If we are going to have publishers put a cap on the number of loans why not free up the length of the loan? Why not allow the book to be read over a year? With the cap of 26 the book can only be loaned to 26 people. Why not allow each of these people to have up to one year to read the book?

Longer loan times would allow more people to make use of library books. People are busy and often they cannot finish a book is 7 - 14 days. Now that we have ebooks why not give people time to read?

Thinking more about ebooks and libraries and what big publishers should do

Blog post by publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin.

In the post he suggests several things the big publishers should do in regards to libraries. It is likely that publishers will experiment with some of these ideas. I recommend you read the post so that you are aware of them.

E-readers expand, but face obstacles in libraries

The popularity of e-readers is soaring, but good luck finding that hot new title at your local library.

Most large publishers refuse to sell critical portions of their digital catalogs for library lending, and those that do are imposing stiff fees and onerous rules.

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