The Author's Perspective

There is a whole industry around the promotion of books by their authors; book launches, book tours, radio and television interviews, book festivals and book programmes. It is fascinating and enlightening to hear an author talk about the background to their book(s) and their writing lives. Audio books read by the authors themselves have a genuineness about them and interviews with authors can provide some depth to the reading experience. I love hearing authors speak - they usually choose their words carefully.
Sessions at our own Auckland Writers and Readers Festival in 2009 were recorded and replayed on NZ Radio and Christchurch City Libraries created audio blogs that were picked up from their website by people all over the country.
Yes, there is a place for information directly from the author and I think our customers would be really interested in listening too.

Specials @ Google

Google is doing a fine job of integrating new trends into its search facility and to keep competitive will continue to do so. And then of course the others will try to beat or improve on Google - can only be good for us end users if we can keep up!
The Google search for videos goes directly to Youtube but Blinx includes news and other sites and came up with a much more interesting hit list on Filey than Google or Exalead.
Google books is useful for finding a known publication when wanting full text for example I have searched for some hard to find works by Carl Jung for a customer.

All the magazines listed so far appear to be popular American titles and I couldn't get interested in exploring them. No marks for effort here.
Poetry is the perfect medium for digitisation and it is good to see the New Zealand electronic poetry centre has such an accessible site with clear pages, bibliographies and links.

A few words from old postcards by Elizabeth Smither

It's dark at 4.30pm. That's your
London cum continent trip in 1996.
I raise a glass to you. Paris, outdoors.
The latest kind of snow-resisting lamps.

Just come from evensong in the Abbey.
(Bath). You were descending through
the layers of tourism to antiquarian books and textiles.
If this sounds choleric I have a raging 'flu.

The British Library is efficient but not beautiful.
Your red scarf wraps your shoulders like a cloak.
Anxiety is simply us trying to control events
from a distance. Head bowed, I see you writing it.


Google maps is one facility that I use all the time - it takes the guesswork out of exploring new places but it does mean you can arrive on time! And anywhere around the world.

Places in fiction

I've been thinking about locations in novels. Somtimes books are clearly set in a particular place; for example Remarkable creatures has to be in Lyme Regis. Somtimes the place is completely fictional and sometimes there is a blending of the two. Kate de Goldi commented on this when she explained about the settings in 10pm question; although the boys started at the top of the zig-zag in Wellington by the time they got to the bottom they were in Christchurch! I have just read a book set in my old home town of Filey - a small seaside settlement in East Yorkshire. The book in question though was called Scawsby and it included elements from Filey; the cliffs, the bay, the brigg, the 2 carriage train that we all took to the Grammar school but it also included elements from other Yorkshire places to give depth to the story. Why was I so keen to read Scawsby? The book, a legal novel written in 1977, would not be a usual choice for me. I'm reminded of the debate televised for NZ Book month about 'the great New Zealand novel' - I think we do like to read about ourselves!

Read what Margaret Drabble wrote about Filey

Sites for readers and booklovers

We Read
Library Thing
Shelfari
Google books

How to choose which facility to use? I've tried them all and have lists in several! I publish my lists to my friends in Facebook. I also have several hand written booklists and book journals. But do you know the best way of spreading the word about good books is actually to talk to people? What an idea! Maybe the next wave of book sites will include audio and video facilities so that we can actually see and hear the people who are enthusiastic about books. Just a minute I'd better check Google to see if this is being done already................ and the answer is lots of hits of course. Various people and organisations are podcasting and publishers are providing booktalks especially for children's books, for example here is a list of podcasts. I do think that our own Kate de Goldi is best at this; listen to her with Kim Hill on Saturday morning
And the people I find who can talk best about books that I like are part of this oufit

Happy Reading and sharing

Google etc. searching

It seems that repeating searches (this is Montesquie Volvestre in France) in different search engines brings the same results; and there is a Googleopoly! In Exalead, which I really liked for its clear screens and the drop down menus, the ads are provided by Google.

All applications/vendors will follow the same general trends and bring out new features as they are created/developed/marketed.As users we will always have our own preferences regarding style, navigation, ease of use etc. and then as we become familiar with the options we become more efficient at searching. Using Google by default is reasonable in the Library setting. What is important is that we read the screens and follow the links and prompts to get the best out of any resource. And also that we keep up to date with new offerings (eg Wolfram Alpha, Google Squared) although their usefulness may only become apparent after some time.

In hovering flight by Joyce Hinnefeld

a novel about mothers, daughters, and art; about illness, death, and burial; about fragile eco-systems and tenacious human relationships—all explored through characters who are inspired by the lives, and particularly the songs, of birds. Find out all about it here http://www.inhoveringflight.com/index.html

Keeping up to date

Having explored the further reading and noted all the media tracking services available, I'm happy to wait for the breakthrough that can be understood by the ordinary library user - it all seems a bit geeky at the moment.
Just thought I'd add a reminder about using a public library and consulting books - both activities available world wide, photos are from Finland.

RSS Feeds

Yes, RSS feeds from websites and blogs are very helpful for keeping up with what's going on. Alerts from databases are essential for researchers needing to be up to date with current thinking and publications. There is so much information out there - any tools we can use to cut through the forest of words eases the feeling of overload. The most useful are those that come direct to us into email, facebook or twitter, the applications being used on a daily basis. Or maybe there is something yet to be devised that will be even better! Bring it on :)