Little shopping-mall libraries, a cool idea in use in Seattle and other cities, could be just the ticket to help popularize one of the most compact forms of information technology--electronic books. Besides, this is great example of public libraries going where new users can discover them. (Found via LISNews and Alev.)...

John "Populist" Edwards isn't my very favorite politician of the moment, given his wimpout on copyright matters in the wake of massive Hollywood donations. Still, I will go for the "self-made" angle.Now let's say that Edwards becomes VP and eventually president. How many home movies will exist about his childhood in a Carolina mill town? Despite my loathing of Edwards' cowardice on issues dear to me, I see his past as worthy of preservation. But couldn't future videos help Big Media depict the childhoods of self-made people like Edwards in all kinds of stupid, insufferable ways? Yes, and in...

Just a reminder: David Faucheux, the author of the Blind Chance blog hosted on the TeleRead site and praised by Audio Blogger, will moderate an audio chatcast at 7 p.m. CDT August 31, Tuesday, on the topic of historical fiction.As any follower of David's audio blog can vouch, he is unfailingly articulate--and knowledgeable in his book reviews. David is a big fan of Gary Jenning's novels and now has a new enthusiasm, My Antonia, topic of another another forthcoming presentation from the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center--Audio Chatcast Central.This is "good read" territory. No need for stuffy academic discussion. Dive...

We've been praising blogs for education--such as for essays to help show that students have digested e-books--but a New York Times piece makes an especialy strong case.(Thanks to Rick Barry.)...

Tomorrow's chatcast on Willa Cather's My Antonia has been postponed so that Prof. Susan J. Rosowski from the Cather Project at the University of Nebraska can participate with a panel. Nebraska is prime Cather territory, the setting of Antonia, and we're terribly excited. Details, including the new date in September, will be on the way.Sponsor is the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center, and you can e-mail the MITBC's Lori Bell to learn the new date ASAP. While the seminar is for the blind and visually impaired, MITBC welcomes all to its "Meting of the Minds" net.audio seminars (yes, that's the...

" ...there is no chemistry more subtle and combustible than the matching of reader with book; it just can't be standardized. Pair a Phantom Tollbooth kid with Little Women and the results will stink. You have to experiment until you get it right: that's the only formula for making a lifelong reader." - Why Teachers Love Depressing Books, by Laura Miller, in the New York Times (reg. required), via LISNews.The TeleRead take: The title of the article refers to certain teachers who, in the opinion of Ms. Miller, are jealous of the children's innocence and inflict "realistic" literature on...

"The majority of students prefer a traditional textbook to an electronic version, according to the most recent StudentWatch(TM) research from the National Association of College Stores(NACS)." - PR from the group.The TeleRead take: Oh, nothing like impartial research. NACS didn't just pay for the study, those people did it! I'd love to know the questions asked.Even with the odds stacked against e-books, the Luddites unwittingly compiled evidence for our side. The younger the respondent, the greater the enthusiasm for e-books. Truth is that the study stinks royally as science and as common sense.Just how can students evaluate p-books vs....

"...the files that I've seen most often in newsgroups and the like are almost always books for which no legitimate etext exists--Harry Potters and the like... The legitimate market will never be visible until you give the people something to buy." - Dave "Evil Genius" Slusher The TeleRead take: Yo, Harry. Can you use your magic powers to drum sense into the heads of the publishing establishment?...

Oh, no, Senator Hatch. Guess you'll just have to rely on the proposed INDUCE-style legislation for the preservation of your campaign contributors' business models--at least if this decision sticks. Might not....

Imagine a 520Mhz PDA with a docking station that lets you plug in a regular PC monitor and a keyboard.That's the prototype of the Toshiba e830 Pocket PC, which isn't a certain release but which has made it as far as an FCC submission. Wouldn't it be a shame if Toshiba left the PDA business instead of sending this beaut to market? The LCD screen is four inches and of VGA quality. More from engadget....

Should the Library of Congress and the U.S. National Archives & Records Administration share a common leader?No consideration of this is happening now. But it's still a timely question, since the post of chief archivist needs to be filled, and James Billington, librarian of Congress, is getting on in years. More importantly, in this digital era, lines are breaking down between publications and records. In a TeleRead context, imagine the possibility of a national digital library system with some nonfiction e-books linked intricately and reliably to source information form the archives.Yes, there would be complications--for example, the issue of...

"The Italian engineer, who founded the Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG), is moving ahead with his new Digital Media Project (DMP), hoping to bridge the gaps between resolutely incompatible copy-proofing technologies from companies like Microsoft, Apple Computer and Sony." - Group calls for copy protection Rosetta stone, via CNET.The TeleRead take: Let's hope that the DMP approach will be friendlier to libraries than MPEG's apparently will be. Meanwhile some DRM defenders are using worst-case scenarios to justify the technology....