Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Cryptomundo The Top Cryptozoology Books of 2012. The Beast Of Boggy Creek by Lyle Blackburn The Bigfoot Filmography: Fictional and Documentary Appearances in Film and Television by David Coleman The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered…
On January 10, 2013 Rick Anderson published a post at The Scholarly Kitchen published on six mistakes library staff are making when dealing with our vendors. Most of them were fairly standard stuff like don't be rude, don't waste people's time. That sort of thing. (Yes, sometimes I think that every time I link to a Scholarly Kitchen article, an open access journal loses its wings.) The sixth, however, was a bit different. Putting political library concerns above patron needs. I’ve saved for last the “mistake” that I know is likely to be the most controversial, but I think it must be said.…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Christmas gifts 2012: the best science books, Best science books of 2012, Christmas gifts 2012: the best wildlife books. The Particle at the End of the Universe: How the Hunt for the Higgs Boson Leads Us to the Edge of a New World by…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: ScienceGeek / Shabbeer Hassan Best Science Books of 2012. Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells us About Morality by Patricia Churchland The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution by Faramerz Dabhoiwala Wired for…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Township District Library Best Science Books of 2012. The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Zickefoose, Julie Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Cahalan, Susannah An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding…
The Best Science Writing Online 2012 edited by Jennifer Ouellette and Bora Zivkovic is decended from the old Open Laboratory series of anthologies which featured the fifty best science blog posts (and a poem and a cartoon) from the year in question. The series as a whole was organized by Bora Zivkovic and each year he would chose someone to actually edit that particular year's edition. As well, each year they would select a bunch of science-bloggy types to help out with the pre-reading of the literally hundreds of blog posts that would be submitted, including my turn as a pre-reader for the…
Another bunch of lists for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following:   Quill & Quire: Books of the Year Non-Fiction, Gift Guide Out of the Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness by Jan Wong My Leaky Body: Tales from the Gurney by Julie Devaney Fatal…
Another bunch of lists for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following:   Mitch Joel The best business books of 2012 Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain   January Magazine Best Books of 2012: Non-…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: The Hill Times' List of Top 100 Best Political, Government, Public policy and Canadian History Books in 2012 The Energy of Slavery: Oil and the New Servitude by Andrew Nikiforuk The End of Growth: But Is That Bad? by Jeff Rubin Save The…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Planetizen Top 10 Books - 2013 (urban planning, design and development). Green Washed: Why We Can't Buy Our Way to a Green Planet by Kendra Pierre-Louis Nature Wars: The Incredible Story of How Wildlife Comebacks Turned Backyards into…
The Machine Apocalypse Is Growth Over? "The data are": How fetishism makes us stupid Why Workers Are Losing the War Against Machines An innovation agenda to help people win the race against the machines Sure, Big Data Is Great. But So Is Intuition The Consequences of Machine Intelligence Will a Robot Take Your Job? Artificial intelligence – can we keep it in the box? You Must Make the New Machines Why Making Robots Is So Darn Hard The New York Times on Libraries Libraries See Opening as Bookstores Close Handled With Care (what to do with deceased scholars books) Failing to Close the ‘…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Jack Uldrich/Jump the Curve: A Futurist’s Top Ten Books for 2012. Note: This list includes some slightly older books and some books that are more strictly business books rather than tech or science books. I decided to include them…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: The Thought Stash: The Little Atoms 2012 Top 10 Book List. The Geek Manifesto: Why science matters by Mark Henderson Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins by Ian Tattersall Pieces of Light: The new science of memory by…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: The Millions: Jami Attenberg, Geoff Dyer Brain on Fire: My Month of Madnessby Susannah Cahalan Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoirby Ellen Forney The Social Conquest of Earthby Edward O. Wilson The Making…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Greg Laden: Top (mostly climate change related) Science Denialist Books. Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us by Maggie Koerth-Baker Deep Water: As Polar Ice Melts, Scientists Debate How High Our…
Nothing like a little engineering humour to get the year off to a good start! This is one of my favourite engineer jokes, one that's been kicking around the web for quite a while. I'm not sure the original source, but this is there I found it for today's post. If you know the original source, please let me know in the comments. Here goes: A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer and a Departmental Manager were on their way to a meeting in Switzerland. They were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car failed. The car careened almost out of control down the…
Another bunch of lists for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: Largehearted Boy Favorite Nonfiction of 2012 Things That Are by Amy Leach   OUPBlog: Abby Gross’s top books of 2012 Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature by David Barash   Michael Brand The 5 Best Nonfiction…
I'm including here a list of all the books I've read in 2012, as well as some commentary my year in reading. I always enjoy when people post these sorts of lists online and actually rather enjoy doing so myself. I've been doing this for a few years now: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007. If you've posted such a list online somewhere, please post a link in the comments. I'd love to see it! The list of books I'm posting below includes all the books I started and finished in 2012, with the exception of books that I'm currently reading. As it happens this past year I only abandoned one or two books…
Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure. Every year for the last bunch of years I’ve been linking to and posting about all the “year’s best sciencey books” lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year. All the previous 2012 lists are here. This post includes the following: The Birdbooker Report Best Bird Books of 2012. Cuckoos of the World by Erritzoe, Johannes, Clive F. Mann, Frederik P. Brammer and Richard A. Fuller Petrels, Albatrosses & Storm-Petrels of North America: A Photographic Guide by…
While it has not generally been my practice to do year end review posts, artificially trying to tie the various and disparate strands of my blogging habits together into some sort of coherent story, I think for this year it's worth doing. And that's because my blogging year did seem to have a coherent theme -- advocating for a fairer and more just scholarly publishing ecosystem. In particular I spent an awful lot of time advocating for Open Access in one way, shape or form. Not that I haven't always done so, but with all the various events happening in the academic and library worlds this…