George Washington returns overdue book 221 years late

The library at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate in Virginia, replaced a copy of a book borrowed in October 5, 1789 by George Washington from the New York Library Society. The book in question was an influential book on international law, The Law of Nations by Emer de Vattel. Washington borrowed the book six months after being sworn in as the first President of the United States under the new Constitution.

Bookcases and Book Storage Solutions

Being a librarian, working in a library, and writing a library blog, I had to share this one. WebUrbanist features a post about 15 (More!) Creative Bookcases and Book Storage Solutions.

Books may seem ever more anachronistic as electronics and the Internet continue to supplant their traditional roles, yet there will always be a place for books in our lives – and in our homes. These 15 creative bookcases take outrageous storage to the next level… storageous?

Any thoughts or comments? Which one is your favorite?

Free Library Check Outs With SONY E-Reader

To follow up on our previous post, via Engadget, Sony's Reader Daily Edition will launch in December 2009 for $400. It has a seven-inch touchscreen. It enables to pull content wirelessly. The 3G network will be free but limited to accessing the Sony eBook store.

The new feature (said to be a major advantage over Kindle) is

[t]he library finder service, which enables you to check out ebooks and other digital content from your local public library on any of the Readers -- for free.

The New York Public Library is the flashy public launch partner, but there are "thousands more" looped in through a partnership with Overdrive.com -- check out the huge selection of top-tier content you can get through the Chicago Public Library, for example.

The library buys a fixed number of "copies" of each title and "checks out" the licenses, so you're on a time limit -- licenses will revert after 14-29 days depending on your local branch's rules.

Any thoughts?

New Kindle by Amazon

As reported by New York Times, the new Amazon's Kindle is lighter, brighter and chattier. Kindle, an electronic reader or an e-book reader, was launched in the United States in November 2007. The newest version of this e-book reader is said to be simpler and more intuitive.

The Kindle 2 is thinner (thinner than an iPhone, to give you some idea), has a crisper black-and-white display, turns pages much more quickly and should hold its battery charge for about 25 percent longer than the previous version. New features include text-to-speech and the ability to transfer content to other devices (such as mobile phones and other Kindles). It’s the same price as the outgoing model ($359) and will be shipped Feb. 24.

What do you think? Do you have any experience using kindle? Do you still prefer paper books? Share your comments and feedback!

Interesting Bestsellers In Our Library Collection

American Bar Association (ABA) recently featured two interesting legal professional bestsellers. Pace Law Library has both of them in its collection. They both are ABA publications.

• William Drennan. Advocacy Words: A Thesaurus (2005). - an excellent tool to give you the advocacy terms and legal professional terminology. Pace Call Number: K50 .D74 2005

• William Drennan. Lay Words for Lawyers: Analogies and Key Words to Advance Your Case and Communication with Clients (2008). As one of the reviews states, "this books provides verbal 'ammunition' for the legal practitioner. Pace Call Number: KF156 .D74 2008

Check it out yourself and let us know what you think.

100 Notable Books in 2008 ... by New York Times

The New York Times Sunday Book Review has selected 100 notable books. Check out the complete list right here. The list is compiled from books that have been reviewed since December 2, 2007. The books are in alphabetical order and divided into two categories: Fiction & Poetry and Non-fiction. Enjoy reading and let us know your tip on a good book to read.