"The British Library is restoring online its main catalogue, containing 36m records of printed and rare books, maps, journals and music scores. … However, access is limited to a 'read-only' format, and full restoration of services provided by the UK’s national library could take until the end of the year." - The Guardian
His painstaking work with a linguist has produced a dictionary of roughly 1,000 Chaná words. For people of Indigenous ancestry in Argentina, he is a beacon that has inspired many to connect with their history. For Argentina, he is part of an important, if still fraught, reckoning over its history of colonization and Indigenous erasure. - The New York...
The company wanted to have it both ways: to exert the cultural influence of a major media company without shouldering any more responsibility (or economic burden) than is expected of a mere service provider, such as Gmail. - The Atlantic
Swift obviously doesn't have any actual free time, but anyway: It all comes down a movie trailer and a cat in a backpack, signifying ... something. - Vulture
But by that, we mean the acknowledgements, "where you learn about the temperament of your author, which is sometimes unexpectedly different from that of your narrator." - LitHub
At the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Mass., "the first speaker took the lectern at noon after the strike of eight bells. 'Call me Ishmael,' the famous opening words, sent a ripple of applause through the room." - Slate
The author of a book about King Charles and other members of the Royal Family being held hostage says, "the move showed the Queen had 'a fantastic sense of humour.'" - BBC
It isn't pretty: "Publishing is competing with other forms of entertainment in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, and an author with existing name recognition is a tempting prospect." - The Guardian (UK)
The issues: "The company wanted to have it both ways: to exert the cultural influence of a major media company without shouldering any more responsibility (or economic burden) than is expected of a mere service provider, such as Gmail.-" The Atlantic
Both "wokeism" and "wokery" refer to culture war issues, though "wokery" has as a second definition cooking with a wok. Among other terms newly added are "safe word", "talkboard", "PFAS", "Gradgrindian", "taliswoman", "hypnic jerk", and "-splaining" as a suffix ("straightsplaining", "mumsplaining"). - The Guardian
The main version of ChatGPT has, since its launch last year, been able to write a children's story, but GPTs allow parents—or anyone, really—to constrain the topic and start with specific prompts, such as a child's name. This means anyone can generate personalized stories starring their kid and their favorite character. Wired
Up to the immediate post-WWII period, publishing was a fairly local, personal business, with houses founded by whiskered men shipping out books to stores on an irregular basis. Today we have the Big Five—HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Hachette, and Penguin Random House. - The Bulwark
The LAPL, which manages 73 branches and houses more than 8 million books, has lately been much more ambitious than even the average big-city library system, aggressively expanding its special collections in recent years. But acquiring an entire press takes the system to a whole new level. - Los Angeles Times
After she discovered the work of African-American spoken-word poets, Vanessa Chisakula co-founded Word Smash Poetry in Lusaka, Zambia's capital, and she's seen poetry events spread across the country in the years since. - The Guardian
