News

ALA/ARL/ACRL Offer Guide to Amended Google Settlement
Having trouble understanding the Google Book Settlement? To keep librarians up to speed, the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, and Association of College and Research Libraries jointly have issued "A Guide for the Perplexed Part III: The Amended Settlement Agreement," emphasizing the major changes relevant to libraries. » » »

Libraries Put the Squeeze on Porn To Stem Bandwidth Troubles
With nearly 60 percent of public libraries reporting inadequate Internet connections, some are setting speed limits to streaming media (including pornography) to assure that their ILS and other functions don't lag. » » »

Guadalajara Book Fair Spotlights LAPL Achievements
The Guadalajara International Book Fair will focus on Los Angeles and the achievements of the city's public library system. LAPL Director Martín Gómez will address the International Librarians Colloquium, sharing the 73-branch system's best practices. » » »

Blogs

Wyatt's World

Wyatt's World: Poets for Winter

• The Complete Poems, 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop (Farrar)
• Colosseum by Katie Ford (Graywolf)
• Inseminating the Elephant by Lucia Perillo (Copper Canyon)
• Illustrating the Machine That Makes the World by Joshua Poteat (Univ. of Georgia)
• Captive Voices by Eleanor Ross Taylor (Louisiana State)
  

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Review

Vaz, Mark Cotta. Star Trek: The Art of the Film.

Titan. Nov. 2009. 160p. illus. ISBN 978-1-8485-6620-0. $29.95. FILM

Director J.J. Abrams's bold—and smart—reimagining of the dying Star Trek franchise was a pleasant surprise to both critics and especially rabid fans, whose phasers were set on kill if he mistreated their baby. He didn’t. Both Abrams and the screenwriters handled the material with the utmost seriousness and respect it deserved, creating a thrilling sci-fi action adventure revealing the iconic characters’ beginnings. This tie-in volume sports text by NY Times best selling author Vaz (an old friend to sci-fi film fans), and a ton of concept art, screen grabs, and behind-the-scenes shots covering all aspects of the film’s technical production. Chapters cover the creation of the assorted alien species, ships (the Enterprise, of course, gets more than 20 pages of coverage), props, uniforms, poster art, and more. Publisher Titan does Art of books right and this is no exception; the photos and illustrations are outstanding and what fans really want. Just loads of coolness for Trek heads, who’ll be crazy for this book. Grab it. » » »

—Mike Rogers, LJX/LJ

Xpress Reviews

Xpress Reviews—First Look at New Books
Beverley Kendall's Sinful Surrender, Patti Smith's Just Kids, and Matt Wagner & others' Madame Xanadu » » »

Magazine Highlights

Reference 2010: A Haven of Calm
In this edition of LJ's annual supplement, Reference Editor Mirela Roncevic finds that "the recession has had an enormous impact on a range of industries in the past year. For reference publishers, however, the challenge began long before the market crashed." Despite that, publishers pushed on, updating existing products and releasing a plethora of new offerings. » » »

Librarian Backtalk: Let's Circulate Librarians
Academic David Shumaker says it's time for reference librarians to free themselves from the yoke of their desks and become "embedded" by venturing out where the action is—physically or even virtually—to extend services and build better relationships. » » »

Publisher Backtalk: Let's Circulate Knowledge
Berkshire Publishing's Karen Christensen contends that in the age of Wikipedia, where encyclopedias might seem old-fashioned relics, they actually are more important—and useful—than ever for Google-heads desiring concise information in an easy-to-use, one-stop package. » » »

E-Reference Ratings
In this fourth revamp of every reference librarian's favorite evaluation resource, Julie Zamostny, Reference & Educational Services Librarian at Hood College, MD, does a mammoth job of upgrading Social Sciences. She not only revisits products she reviewed last year but adds many more, increasing the total number of resources reviewed in the category to 44. » » »

New Releases
A number of titles are singled out for their coverage of cutting edge topics and innovative use of online technologies, plus don't miss the Publisher Index and Reference Best Sellers. » » »

Best Sellers

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