All the big ad agencies are developing blog strategies for their clients. Apparently, if your product hasn't been mentioned in a blog, you're on the road to bankruptcy. Yesterday, my wife and I received FIVE - count 'em, 5 - green boxes with odd labels. Actually, two were addressed to Fine Books contributors, two to my wife, and one for me. In each box we found a small bottle of He...

If all else fails, move to higher ground. That's the tactic that librarians at the University of Iowa took when it became clear that the Mississippi [correction] Iowa River would breech the levees in Iowa City. Staff and volunteers moved special collections materials to higher floors in the library. [Update, Friday night, 6/20/08, from a librarian a"directly involved in the efforts to secure o...

Here's an unusual twist on collecting: Fifteen-year-old Cory Peterson, in Suisun, California (located between Sacramento and San Francisco), has amassed more than 3,000 library cards from around the world. And he's putting his collection online. I was glad to see the Humboldt County library (the main branch is located just eight blocks from me), amply represented with three cards. ...

Our July/August issue, which is currently being printed, has a technology focus, meaning that many of the articles have some kind of technology hook, though not always in obvious ways. In case it wasn't already apparent, key books on science and technology have been steadily increasing in value. The results of Tuesday's sale of the Richard Green library of scientific books (held at Christie's in Ne...

This just in: The auction of legendary magic collector (or should I say accumulator?) Jay Marshall continues next month during the Society of American Magicians' annual convention. Magicians, as a group, tend to have a profound interest in the history of their craft - frequently referring to techniques by the name of the magician who developed them - and are therefore more prone to collecting...