Melville House Books

Education

• The OED updates “follow,” “stream,” and other computing terms

  The first dictionary I bought for school included the definition for information superhighway. The addition of this term merited a special announcement on the dust jacket, which seemed almost comical;… Read more »

• 11 covers of Japanese children’s textbooks, 1920s

  Will Schofield recently shared a whimsical assortment of 1920s covers from Japanese children’s textbooks on his blog, “50 Watts” (formerly “A Journey Round My Skull”). The series was called Complete… Read more »

• You should’ve copied Charlotte Brontë’s homework

  Charlotte Brontë’s homework has just sold for £50,000 (nearly $78,000), an impressive sum for a one-page assignment. Purchased by the Brontë Society, her essay will be on display in her… Read more »

• New threat to publishing jobs: the Grammar Hound

  I thought we’d all be replaced by robots, but it seems the publishing industry is going to the dogs. This article from Science News reports that nine-year-old border collie Chaser… Read more »

• What’s the future for the UK’s local libraries?

  Yesterday, Arts Council England (ACE) published its report into the future of local libraries. ‘Envisioning the library of the future’ is ‘a major research project undertaken over the past year’ during… Read more »

• Academic publisher sues librarian blogger for millions

  “Beall’s list”, created by University of Colorado metadata librarian Jeffrey Beall, collates the academic journals which he regards as questionable. His hard work on outing journals whose business and academic… Read more »

• Testing Times: Culture Secretary Maria Miller’s worrying speech

  At an event on Wednesday at the British Museum, Culture Secretary Maria Miller addressed the heads of British arts organisations with a speech entitled,  ‘Testing Times: Fighting culture’s corner in… Read more »

• Plagiarism Education Week fails other moral tests

  This week is Plagiarism Education Week, an admirable idea, and certainly useful after the past year, which saw a number of high profile plagiarism scandals—in fact, so many that Jonathan… Read more »

• SLIDESHOW: Shipping container libraries and other creative spaces

  Batu, Indonesia’s new library and clinic opened its doors at the end of March. Built by dpavilion Architects, the Amin library is an eight room educational center with 6,000 books… Read more »

• Publishers try to make sense of new State Common Core Standards

  Trade publishers are scrambling to find ways to take advantage of the new State Common Core Standards, which are being implemented in K-12 schools throughout the country. While they are… Read more »