Melville House Books

Literacy

• “Give” and 22 other words that haven’t changed since the last Ice Age

  Linguists generally believe that words can’t survive for more than 8,000 to 9,000 years, but a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that… Read more »

• 6 Manchester libraries set to close

  In the continuing losing battle to save England’s local libraries, it’s been announced that Manchester will most likely lose six of its libraries within weeks, if the council’s proposed cuts… Read more »

• Reading as performance

  The Quiet Volume, an installation art exhibit about the reading experience, is up this week at NYU’s Bobst Library and the Schomburg Center. The brainchild of Ant Hampton and Tim… Read more »

• Bikers for Books reaches out to elementary school students

  There’s a new face for literacy advocacy in central Michigan, and it’s a bit different from the staid librarians and other bookish types you might expect. Bikers for Books launched… Read more »

• Concerned about the future of books? James Patterson to the rescue!

  Bestselling author and total page-churner James Patterson isn’t going to sit by silently while bookstores need community support, the Department of Justice is enabling Amazon to grow out of control, and library… Read more »

• Lambeth Palace recovers 1,400 stolen publications, thanks to thief’s note

  A sealed letter from a former employee of the library at Lambeth Palace, home to the Archbishop of Canterbury, revealed the location of thousands of books he had stolen from… Read more »

• Are picture books making kids materialistic?

  While working as a babysitter and nanny, University of Vermont student Rachel Franz, a double-minor in studio art and green building and community design, noticed that many of the picture… 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 »

• The death of print has been greatly exaggerated

  Could we please agree to stop using the word “dead” in headlines about print media and publishing? I’m convinced “the death of print” has been around for at least 130… Read more »

• Robots not replacing humankind, just writing haikus for Tumblr

  Jacob Harris, senior software architect at The New York Times, has developed an algorithm to find accidental haikus in the paper and post them to a new Tumblr. The timing… Read more »