Historian Looks at Americans in Paris

Vacationers summering on Martha's Vineyard were treated to a reading of the first chapter of author David McCullough's as yet unpublished new book on Americans in Paris during the 19th c. The Vineyard Gazette article contains McCullough's remarks about doing research in and the importance of American libraries. He ended by saying, "... anytime you start to get a little down about the state of American society or the state of American culture, keep in mind that today, still, there are more public libraries in the United States than there are McDonalds."

Dangerous Keywords

Network security company McAfee has released a 2008 study on keyword searches that have the highest probability of enticing users to download viruses, worms, spyware, keystroke loggers, etc., which infect one's computer. The top four are: word unscrambler, lyrics, myspace, and free music downloads. The list of the 50 riskiest search terms in the United States is on p. 8 of the report, The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms.

The most in demand out-of-print titles in America

Bookfinder.com has published "Top 10" lists of the most popular out of print books in several categories (biography, history, popular science, thrillers, etc.) each August since 2003. The 2009 titles are now online, but at a different URL than the archive.