Saturday’s Auditorium Series speaker Steven Johnson started the day off with a funny story about cholera.
No, really. The story, which he researched for his book The Ghost Map, depicted John Snow researching the cholera epidemic in 1850s London. In a eureka moment, Snow realizes that water, not miasma, carries cholera; stops the cholera epidemic; and saves London.
Midwinter-goers wanted to make a difference in Seattle, and on Friday they got their chance. As part of the Homeless Outreach project dreamed up and executed by ALA members and staff, a small group of librarian volunteers cooked meals and then served them to area homeless youth.
The late Douglas Adams was once forced to insist he didn’t write jokes in base 13. There’s been so much great tweeting coming out of Seattle, though, so in order to narrow it down to a Top 10 we had to fudge a bit and work in base 16.
The latest report on public library services from the Pew Internet and American Life Project takes a hard look at the future of library services. Most importantly, the survey explores roles for the public library beyond being a place to borrow books.
Best-selling authors Ruth Ozeki (My Year of Meats, All Over Creation), Terry Brooks (Genesis of Shannara series, Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy), Gregg Olsen (The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America’s Richest Silver Mine), and Ivan Doig (The Bartender’s Tale) were the featured guests at the ERT/Booklist Author Forum held on Friday
