Writing n' junk

"Do We Still Need Libraries?"

What's the purpose of libraries—really? To be a community gathering place? To promote life-long learning? To help users navigate the information flow? To store print documents for the historical record, as Nicholson Baker argues they should (and aren't) in Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper?

Libraries can serve all these functions. But what they mean to us as physical spaces is changing, and the information-science vision has now been enshrined at Cambridge Main.

from Martha Nichols, who also writes at Talking Writing, a literary blog. I didn't even know there were such things, but if there are blogs for immigration rights activists and healthcare administrators and realtors and hockey fans, I guess that shouldn't surprise me terribly much.


and, "Do Novels Still Matter?" also by Nichols, who is apparently some sort of troublemaker.

OK, one last Salon.com related link:

"Are video games the next great art form?"
Developers are pushing the limits of storytelling, interactivity and design. Why aren't they getting any respect?
By Alex Jung

and, not from Salon, Gina Telaroli, "the top 10 film blogs"

BBC News, "What is Secret Cinema?" This video makes me think some people have more free time and disposable income than sense, although I suppose blogging may strike some as being the same sort of thing, at least as far as the time goes.