Paper, Books, and Other Fun for the End of the Quarter

Happy Friday, dear readers! It has been a busy week on campus, but it is finally winding down as final exams have wrapped up. I thought today I’d share some thoughts about paper, books, and some fun for the end of your week/beginning of your weekend mainly because these are the kind of things rattling around my head at the end of the quarter.

Yesterday I went to San Francisco Center for the Book to take the Introduction to Bookbinding class. It was a lot of fun (although I’m tired from the lateness of getting home after class via BART) and it was great to see such an interest in traditional arts. This was a great break from all the work I usually do on the computer and definitely rejuvenating after hearing all the time about the demise of print, especially print books, in my work as a librarian and archivist. If you live in the area, I highly recommend checking on SFCB as the instructors are really nice and knowledgeable and it is rewarding to make something tangible (and beautiful).

Speaking of books and ebooks, one of my colleagues sent around this article from Salon, Books aren’t dead yet. It is a nice read and confirms what I’ve seen that we have a thriving, 2 format ecosystem of books for readers at the moment. And considering we need to buy another bookshelf for the apartment, you can tell where I fall on the spectrum of buying print and ebooks (although I do really enjoy using my tablet, I still love the physicality of print).

This video is lovely, silly, and a great reminder, too, that paper isn’t outdated just quite yet. Unfortunately it won’t allow embedding, so head over to Vimeo to check out the video, Paper is not dead.

Finally, I leave you with a lovely photograph of a reading nook, hopefully to inspire you to curl up with a favorite book/ebook over the weekend for a bit of a break:

reading nook from Beautiful Portals Tumblr

reading nook from Beautiful Portals Tumblr

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll be back soon with more news and notes. Allons-y!