Ramblings, citations and "brainwaves" of a college librarian in Toronto. 475 square feet refers to the size of my home, not the size of my office or library.




Human Resources generally likes everything black and white, and easy. It is not surprising then that companies are replacing letters of reference, reference calls, with credit checks (see CNN). The idea being that if your personal life is all in order, you will be a great employee too. Also they can peer into your mental state, folks with big money problems might be stressed, have low productivity, work multiple jobs, etc.

Who sets the evaluative criteria for the retrieved report?
A great way to screen out new grads from poor families, don't you think?

Lets just hire people like us....when have we heard that before?
One mistake or two, some bad luck, and it could be end of the road for you.
Don't forget the blood test before you begin your first day, soon it will be augmented by a genetics analysis too.


Amazon Sells More Ebooks Than Print Books This Summer


NYTimes

"Amazon said, it sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books, including hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition."

"According to the Association of American Publishers, e-book sales have quadrupled this year through May."

but...is the U.S. recession causing folks to buy less new books? borrow more from libraries? are less people buying/reading books? My gut tells me it is not a consumer preference shift but a precipitate issue, the folks that are buying new are liking eBooks...but the aggregate has not changed.

MORE
NYTIMES

"If the number of brick-and-mortar stores drops, publishers fear that sales will go along with it. Some worry that large bookstores will go the way of the record stores that shut down when the music business went digital.

“The shift from the physical to the digital book can pick up some of the economic slack, but it can’t pick up the loss that is created when you don’t have the customers browsing the displays,” said Laurence J. Kirshbaum, a literary agent. “We need people going into stores and seeing a book they didn’t know existed and buying it.” "


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