What Is the Most Commonly Misspelled Word on the Web

"Armed with Terry Ballard's Typographical Errors in Library Databases, Andrew Baio has decided to see if he could find the most commonly misspelled word on the Web. The winners so far appear to be doesnt and seperate." [LISNews.com]

Why I Love the Internet but Like Books Better

"Libraries are really remarkable when you think about it. When I first heard about DNA I thought about libraries.DNA holds the information about how we are organized as biological beings. Libraries hold all the information about how we are organized in our social relationships, how the body of knowledge that we got from that ‘tree’ somewhere in our past has grown and changed, and perhaps most importantly they store the record of our languages....

Librarians have even more access to information than I do yet. All libraries in this country are linked. They have not progressed to the stage where I can log on and find some obscure book that is in Hotchkiss New Mexico (fictional place I hope) for example and have it delivered to my local branch. But, I am thinking that this is within the realm of possibility in the next few years.

I don’t know exactly how much I pay in taxes towards the library system. I don’t think that it is very much at all. I bet that there is some neoconservative out there who thinks that government – who can not do anything right after all – should be the ones to run libraries. I bet they figure that private enterprise can do it more better cheaper and all.

I don’t want the for-profit sector to get into libraries. I know that this would eventually destroy them. I know this intuitively for some reason. The privatization of our library system is something that I would take up arms to prevent." [Blog Baby, via Technorati Link Cosmos for The Shifted Librarian]

"If there were an award for Best Boxed-Set Deal, it would go to London's JSP Records, which recently reissued the complete remastered works of Patton - on five CDs - for under $30. JSP is just one of a number of (largely European) labels releasing classic American recordings at rock-bottom prices. These collections of blues, jazz, and country are packaged in simple cardboard slipcases, but the liner notes are informative and the sound quality is remarkable. So how do they do it?

'Manufacturing costs for CDs have steadily dropped over the past decade, and I realized it was possible to produce a set of five CDs for what it had cost to make one or two,' says JSP label head John Stedman, who notes that foreign copyright laws can also reduce expenses. He and remastering engineers John R.T. Davies and Ted Kendall put out their first boxed set in '99. Though the numbers aren't huge, JSP has enjoyed 'a steady stream of sales.'

...His model also offers a solution to the threat facing all record companies: the Internet. JSP's sets are such a bargain, why spend time downloading the 100 songs, artwork, and liner notes when you can buy them for just $25 to $30? After all, time is money, and isn't it better to spend less of both getting your music?" [Entertainment Weekly, April 4, 2003, p. 100] (emphases above is mine)

Definitely! To that end, I have to decide tomorrow whether I'm going to convert my free trial of FullAudio to a paid subscription. It's been nice to have the convenience of streaming music on any computer, but there are many artists I'd like to sample whose music is not available on this service. And it's shocking how few of these titles I can actually buy (well, of the number I would *want* to buy, that is). On top of all that, I chose to listen to a couple of "best of" compilations from specific artists, but they'd only let me hear two of the songs. They list all of them, but when I click on "play all tracks," I get two. Say what??

I have found one album I would like to purchase as a digital download, but they won't let me give them money until I'm a paying subscriber. So if I cancel tomorrow, they get absolutely nothing, whereas they could have at least sold me the album and made something. They won't even tell me how much the album would cost, and whatever it is, I'd have to pay at least $9.95 for a month's subscription just for the privilege of paying them whatever the album costs. I really wanted this service to work for me, but the music industry hasn't figured out the "point" yet, as opposed to JSP Records, who has.

Book Reviews by Danny Yee

"Over 600 book reviews, covering most subjects and genres." [News Is Free: Recent Additions]

This is similar to what I'd like to see librarians provide. If I already get advice from a local librarian for mysteries I will enjoy reading, I trust that person's judgement. So much the better, then, if I can get a feed of new titles or recommendations in my aggregator from that trusted person!

You have to love any blog that calls itself LibraryMan.com, has the subtitle "where libraries and Pez collide," and has a picture of a superhero with the library symbol on his chest! All Michael needs now is a theme song and -ahem- an RSS feed.  :-)