Let’s Debate

if:book A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book is a good place to go to find challenging discussions of how the book might best be imagined in an online, networked world. A recent post highlights a new feature from the New York Times, which provides archived access to the recent Democratic presidential debate.

While the debate, obviously, is not a book, the Times web tool exemplifies a powerful way of presenting video, text, and navigation tools within a browser window — functions that could be well suited to some books. The debate is feature with a video clip of the debate, a linked transcript, and an index to subjects covered.

This is one of those tools that immediately struck me as very cool and very useful. It is extremely intuitive to use and thus elegant in design. Let’s hope it find wider application.

Links

• if:book blog entry
• New York Times debate presentation

Home For The Holidays

We have changed the loan period for our bestsellers collection. (See post here for information about this collection.) To enable students to bring home books for the whole intersession, we have extended the due date on these books to take you into the first week of the spring semester. Check them out now for the holidays.

A Sampling of What’s in the Bestsellers Collection
(Descriptions from the NYT Bestsellers List)

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini.
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.

THE CHOICE, by Nicholas Sparks.
How a North Carolina man’s choices play out in his life; from the author of ““At First Sight.”

PLAYING FOR PIZZA, by John Grisham.
An American third-string quarterback joins the Italian National Football League’s Parma Panthers.

I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!), by Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Allison Silverman et al.
The wit and wisdom of the mock pundit of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report.”

BOOM!, by Tom Brokaw.
The retired news anchor and author of “The Greatest Generation” recalls and assesses the 1960s.

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE, by Alan Greenspan.
A memoir by the longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Plus 654 more books!!!! The Bestsellers Collection is located on the 2nd floor of the main library, directly above the main desk.