Multiple Perspectives

The recent flurry of interest in a relatively small expenditure by the Nebraska Library Commission illustrates how one's perspective colors everything.

What some people considered training on a common piece of information technology was perceived by others as frivolous play and criticized accordingly. It is unlikely that we'd have the same reaction to Fred Niblo's African photos as his original audience a century ago. The enthusiastic tone in the circa 1919 York - A City That Is! is a promoter's perspective.

Says Who?

Testing e-audiobooks: Auditing "Plato and A Platypus .." and "Aristotle and an Aardvark .." brought to mind a freshman level college philosophy course. Anyone who has taken such a course will remember syllogisms and Venn diagrams from the section on logic. Combine that course with "Joe Miller's Jests" or The Daily Show. The authors' opinions and viewpoints permeate these works, so the next logical step is to determine who they are. There's no brief author bio or dust jacket photo on a downloadable e-audiobook. So we have to look elsewhere. A staid reference periodical like "Current Biography" and its annual cumulation also has authors. The editors and writers are listed on the title page, and the writers' initials appear on each biography they have written.