one link from a book

My friend Matthew works in a bookstore and we talk about bookish things often. From my inbox: “So, we just got this silly book in at the store called “The Lazy Person’s Handbook: Shortcuts to Getting Everything You Want with the Least Possible Effort” [link]

Chapter two is “The Short Cut to Arriving at the Right Answer” – it consists of five successive steps (e.g. guess, process of elimination, google it, ask random folk, etc.) – but #5 is Ask a Librarian then they say:

‘When all else fails, turn to the information experts. Today’s librarians are not your parents’ librarians. They are highly trained information specialists, with wide-ranging knowledge of subject areas, information sources, & search tools.'”

I’m not sure if being low on the lazy list is better than being high on the lazy list, but I guess it’s an honor just to be nominated, huh?

how the library is not like a bookstore, part eleventyteen

I enjoy the Stay Free! blog a lot. Today Carrie has a blurb that includes information from a New York Times story about big box bookstores like Barnes & Noble determining display space by how much they get paid by the publisher. I had always sort of cited this as something I knew, but I was never sure how I knew it. Carries adds this tidbit with request for authoritative citation, anyone know?

In fact, a label rep once told me that Tower makes more money from selling in-store display space and other co-promotions than from selling CDs themselves. I find that a little hard to believe, but if anyone has real, compelling numbers on this, I’d be glad to share them.