From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:38:21 -0500

A number of school libraries in many parts of the country have been making similar decisions -- removing NF books in favor of databases. While we ca n question, mourn, and fight back, I actually see a different lesson in th at growing trend. Note that one of the few books they were keeping is We Are the Ship. Like the Sibert books we have the chance to discuss this we ek, that was a pathbreaking book -- not just in the lavish treatment but in the author's clear Point of View. If databases are going to take the place of NF whose aim is to meet a scope and sequence and provide clear, accurate information, that leaves an entirely different field for NF book s -- books that take risks, that explore new areas, books in which an auth or -- while fully obliged to show sources and weigh evidence -- speaks wit h personal passion. In other words, the very pressure from libraries which are turning to databases for baseline information frees authors to create NF that is as path-breaking, as intense, as personal as this year's honor ees.

Marc Aronson
Received on Tue 02 Feb 2010 06:38:21 AM CST