New York Times Book Review Best Books of 2008

Greetings Bibliophiles. The NY Times Book Review has released its list of 100 Notable Books and the 10 Best Books.
How many have you read?

What Will Obama Do About Education?

As if he won't have enough on his agenda, the new President will find himself in a struggle between two powerful opposing camps of educational philosophy and practice; "conservatives" represented by teachers' unions and "reformers" who promote changes like merit pay and charter schools. Conservative writer David Brooks offers a good article about the choices he will have to make. Unlike Canada, the U.S. Federal government has considerable influence upon education. However, since during times of national stress many eyes turn toward the education system, Ontario may well find itself facing a similar dichotomy of opinion.

Can Web-Browsing Keep Your Brain Young?

Studies at UCLA show some evidence that Internet searching activates more areas of the brain than ordinary text reading. There may be a link between increased brain activity of this kind and the reduction of brain decline through aging. At least it's a good excuse to keep surfing.

The Threat to Books

Here is a glass-half-full view of the publishing industry. The author believes that although some types of traditional books forms, like encyclopedias and dictionaries, are doomed the book as we know it will survive indefinitely.

Does Fiction Influence Girls' Health?

Researchers at Duke University have found links between young adolescent girls' reading of specific books and improvements in their health. The books in question are a series entitled "Beacon Street Girls" and address topics like "popularity, weight problems alcohol and divorce". Read the whole story here.

The Epistemology of Wikipedia

Yes, another Wikipedia article. But Wikipedia really is the elephant in the room for any discussion of online information, and this essay is a useful addition to the dialogue.
The author, a computer scientist, provides a very even-handed discussion of what constitutes and defines "truth" and knowledge in the Wiki world. There is something here for both critics and advocates of the the Wikipedia phenomenon.

The Changing Role of Reference

During my first years at CCVI Library, substantive reference requests from students were common. Nowadays I can count the number in a month on one hand. Obviously this is result of the advent of online information sources and changing student perception of how information is obtained. This article from Duke University takes a wide-ranging look at how reference services relate to the new paradigm. The details are from a university library perspective, but many of the problems and perhaps the solutions are relevant to school libraries. For example, real-time online reference could be an interesting experiment. The tools needed to try it already exist. RR

How Barack Obama Used the Social Web

Here is the fascinating story of how Obama, who will be the first post-boomer President, used the "Long Tail" of the Web and social software like Facebook to help capture the election. His central task was to build an online community.
The concept of online community will likely be increasingly important in all libraries, including school libraries since it holds the promise of reaching the "long tail" of the student population that traditionally are light users of the library.
Currently there appears to be little consensus on how to build an online library user community, nor what software tools are appropriate.

More About the Google Book Project

Is the Google Book project as significant as the advent of the printing press? Some media pundits are claiming this could be the case. See this piece for a good overview of the project and its potential importance.

Google Book Scanning Project

Google has scanned seven million books that are held in large collections. Over 4 million of these are out of print. The project was held up pending a lawsuit from publishers and authors claiming improper use of copyrighted material. The suit has now been settled. Google will continue scanning books, making twenty percent of every book visible at no charge. Images of full books will be available for purchase. This probably has limited importance for secondary schools, but it demonstrates the huge quantity of digital information that is becoming available.

Librarians as Wikipedia Contributers

This article proposes librarians as natural contributors to Wikipedia. The emphasis is on university librarians and how they can use Wikipedia to highlight their special collections. This has limited applicability to school libraries, but the article includes an excellent summary of Wikipedias "rules and culture" for potential editors and contributors.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Atlantic writer Nicholas Carr worries that the Internet is changing how we read at a deep psycho-neural level. There seems to be evidence that the brain modifies itself to create thinking patterns that are implicit in the type of reading we do. The author takes this as a bad thing, and feels that "deep reading" abilities will suffer.
However all may not be lost. There is research suggesting that Web surfing , especially in older individuals, enhances decision-making and complex reasoning.
You pay your money and take your choice.

Get a second medical opinion using Internet tools

This article gives a quick overview of some of the beyond-Google Internet health resources that exist. They range from layman-oriented to the highly technical, and exhibit a high degree of accuracy.

Multitasking and Student Performance

Students who can perform multiple tasks, particularly on a computer, are a relatively recent phenomenon. Some recent research indicates multitasking is detrimental to intellectual performance. Check out this review article from National Public Radio (U.S.)

The Future of Reading - Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers

Some authors and publishers are releasing companion games to lure reluctant readers. Is this good or bad?
This NY Times article weighs some of the pros and cons.
The Future of Reading - Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers

Teens, Video Games and Civics

A new Pew Internet Project survey studied the many aspects of the gaming behaviour of teenagers. The study was one of the first to determine the "social and civil" engagement aspects of gaming, and found them to be significant. View the entire report in PDF