marylaine at marylaine.com

Marylaine Block: Writer

Books, Articles, Columns, Miscellaneous Writings,
Book Proposal, and Articles About Me

BOOKS

• The Thriving Library: Successful Strategies for Challenging Times. Information Today, April , 2007
  
  
• Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet. Information Today, September, 2003.
  
  
• The QUINTessential Searcher: the Wit and Wisdom of Barbara Quint, which I edited. Information Today, 2001.
  
  
  
  
  

  ARTICLES

• "One with the Community." Library Journal< September 1, 2007, http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA6471071.html

• "Managing the Internet." In The Whole Digital Library Handbook, Diane Kresh, ed. ALA Editions, 2007, 155-161.

• "My First Rule of Information." The New Writer's Handbook, 2007, Philip Martin, ed. Scarletta Press, 2007, 125-129.

• "In Need of a Better Business Model"/Auf der Suche nach einem besseren Geschaftsmodell" and "Show Off Your Library as a Place/Die Bibliothek - ein Angebot als kommunaler Raum!" In The Library as a Public Place and Public Space/Die Bibliothek als Offentlicher ort und offentlicher Raum, ed. P.S. Ulrich, BibSpider. Berlin, 2006.

• "Grammar Matters." In Vocabula Bound, Robert Hartwell Fiske, ed., 2007, 51-54.

• Library Journal's Movers and Shakers issue, March 15, 2007 (in collaboration with Rachel Singer Gordon), http://libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=LJMS&pubdate=3/15/2007

• Library Journal's Movers and Shakers issue, March 15, 2006 (in collaboration with Rachel Singer Gordon). http://libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=LJMS&pubdate=3/15/2006

• "A Hole in One: Great Golf Fiction." Library Journal, August, 2005, http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA633349.html

• "Limited Success." Vocabula Review, May, 2005. http://www.vocabula.com/2005/VRMAY05Block.asp [subscription only].

• Library Journal's Movers and Shakers special issue, 2005, http://www.libraryjournal.com/index.asp?layout=LJMSTOC&pubdate=3/15/2005

• "My Life as a Librarian without Walls." Info Career Trends, March, 2005, http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives/mar05mblock.htm

• "On Analyzing Web Sites." OPALessence: Newsletter of ALIA One Person Australian Libraries Group. December, 2004, 11-14

• "The Right Hand Knoweth Not..." Library Worklife: HR E-News for Today's Leaders, 1, #11, November, 2004. http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/1n11.html

• "Rx for Healthcare Policy." The CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research, November/December, 2004, 6-7.

• "The Wrong Words." Vocabula Review, October, 2004, http://www.vocabula.com/2004/VROCT04Block.asp (subscription required)

• "Pearls from an OAIster." The CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research, October, 2004, 4-5.

• "Grammar Matters." in Vocabula Bound: Outbursts, Insights, Explanations, and Oddities: Essays on the English Language from the Vocabula Review, Marion Street Press, 2004.

• "Military Life: 'Serving Those Who Serve Us' Takes on New Meaning in Time of Armed Conflict." Library Journal, September 15, 2004, 40-41. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA452291

• "Polishing the Crown Jewels: the National Library of Medicine." CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research< July/August, 2004.

• "Findlaw.com as a Business Research Tool." CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research, June, 2004, 6.

• "Dr. Everyman: Publishers Help Consumers Take Control of their Health Care." Library Journal, May 1, 2004, 61-62, 64 http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA411589

• "The Sun Never Sets on the BBC." CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research, May, 2004, 4-5.

• "What's Where When: the Perry-Castaneda Map Collection." CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, April, 2004, 6.

• the Movers and Shakers supplement to Library Journal, March 15, 2004. I wrote 36 of the 50 profiles.

• "ZDNet: Technology Mother Lode." CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, March, 2004, 4-5.

• "A Tale of Many Cities (and States): Governing.com." CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, February, 2004, 6.

• "BNA Web Watch: an Information Source and a Model of Library Marketing." CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, January, 2003, 4-5.

• "Beware the e-Vanishing Act," Library Journal, December 15, 2003, http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA339604

• "The University of Michigan Document Center: a Locator of Key Official Sources." CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, November/December, 2003, 4-5.

• "Create Your Niche on the Net by Being First." Marketing Library Services, November/December, 2003, p. 5.

• "Telling It Slant." Vocabula Review, October, 2003. http://www.vocabula.com/2003/VROct03Block.asp (registration required)

• "A Convergence of Interests: CyberJournalist.Net." CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, October, 2003, 4-5.

• "Net Effects: How Librarians Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet." Searcher, October, 2003, 42-47. Available online at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/oct03/block.shtml

• "Your Guides to the English Languages: Glossarist.com and the OneLook Dictionary." The CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, September, 2003, 4-5.

• "Dealing with Digital." Library Journal, July, 2003, 40-43. http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA307058

• "Just the FACS, Ma'am." The CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, July, 2003.

• "Virtually Chasing Information: on The Virtual Chase." The CyberSkeptic's Guide to the Internet, May, 2003, 4-5.

• "Getting Students Beyond the Net." Library Media Connection, April/May, 2003, 52-55.

• "How To Become a Great Public Space: Marylaine Block Interviews Fred Kent and Phil Myrick of the Project for Public Spaces." American Libraries, April, 2003, 72-76.

• Movers and Shakers issue of Library Journal, March 15, 2003, http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=LJMS. I wrote 25 of the profiles, including those for Jeny Levine, Ann Sparanese, Waynn Pearson, Jose Aponte, Anne Coriston, and Mary George/Chris Christman.

• "Vanishing Act: The U.S. Government's Disappearing Data." SearchDay, December 19, 2002, #424, http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2161431

• "Just the Facts, Ma'am." The Writer, November, 2002, 19-20.

• "Doing It Right: How Some Universities Encourage the Creation of Prime Research Web Sites." Searcher, September, 2002, 42-47. http://infotoday.com/searcher/sep02/Block.htm

• "Who's Going To Preserve E-Zine Content?" Library Journal, August, 2002. http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA237597

• "Champions of Diversity: Five Public Librarians Talk about How They Serve Their Latino Patrons." Criticas, May-June, 2002, 20-27.

• "Gullible's Travels: Guarding against Misinformation on the Net." Library Journal Net Connect, Spring, 2002, available online at http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA210719

• "Mapping the Information Landscape." Searcher, April, 2002. Available online, minus the actual maps, at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr02/block.htm

• "Movers and Shakers." Supplement to Library Journal, March 15, 2002, available online at http://libraryjournal.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=wildcardMore&articleid
  =201300&title=%3CI%3ELJ%27s%3C%2FI%3E+2002+Movers+%26amp%3B+Shakers
  %3Cbr%3E+The+People+Who+Are+Shaping+the+Future+of+Libraries. I wrote 25 of the 51 profiles.

• "My Rules of Information." Searcher, January, 2002, 61-65, available online at http://infotoday.com/searcher/jan02/block.htm.

• "The Game of the Name." Vocabula Review, November, 2001, http://www.vocabula.com/VRNOV01Block.htm

• "Communicating off the Page." Library Journal, September 15, 2001, 50-52.

• "The Secret of Library Marketing: Make Yourself Indispensable." American Libraries, September, 2001, 48-50.

• "Teaching Kids Indirectly," Library Journal NetConnect, Summer, 2001, 33-34.

• "Winning the Title," which originally appeared as a My Word's Worth column, reprinted in SPAN Connection: the Official Newsletter of the Small Publishers Association of North America, July, 2001.

• "Beat out by Amazon," which originally appeared in ExLibris, reprinted in The Shy Librarian, Summer, 2001

• "Keepers of the Flame." American Libraries, June-July, 2001, 65-66.

• "Words To Be Wise," Vocabula Review, May, 2001, available online at http://www.vocabula.com/VRMAY01Block.htm

• "Consumer Health Information on the Net." Consumer Health Supplement, Library Journal, May 1, 2001, 21-25.

• "Secrets of a Search Expert." Yahoo! Internet Life, June, 2001, 100-101. Available online at http://www.zdnet.co.uk/help/tips/story/0,2802,e7109955,00.html

• "Serving Men Better." Library Journal, March 1, 2001, p. 60.

• "Afraid of Harry Potter." Library Talk, 14 #2, March-April, 2001, pp. 9-10.

• "Grammar Matters." Vocabula Review, February, 2001, http://www.vocabula.com/VRFeb01Block.htm

• "In the Book End Zone: Pigskin Fiction." Library Journal, October 15, 2000, p. 136.

• "Change a Word, Change a World." The Book Report, 19 #2 (Sept/Oct. 2000), 29-30.
  
  
• "Nicholson Baker Strikes Again." Library Journal, Sept. 1, 2000, p.176.
  
  
• "Advertising Demeans American Values," in American Values: Opposing Viewpoints, Greenhaven Press, 2000.
  
  
• "Computer Shy," published in The Wired Society, Carol Lea Clark, ed., Harcourt Brace, 1999.
  
  
• "Making It Up as I Went Along," Searcher: the Magazine for Database Professionals, October, 1998.
  
  
• "Creating an Internet Collection Development Policy: Principles of Selection." KnowledgeQuest, September/October, 1998.
  
  
• "Becoming a Gatekeeper", in the December, 1996 online edition of Ariadne, a British print and web journal on librarianship and information science, about how I designed and selected links for Where the Wild Things Are: Librarian's Guide to the Best Information on the Net. as BIOTN was originally known.
  
  
• I contributed seven articles to the book Twentieth Century Romance and Gothic Writers (St. James, Gale, 1982).
  
  
• "On the Internet," a weekly feature for the River Bend Library System Newsletter, Current Comment since July of 1996.
  
  
  

  COLUMNS

• The Finder's Keepers, a regular column in The CyberSkeptic's Guide to Internet Research.

• Observing US. My weekly column for Fox News Online which focused on oddities of American culture and politics, ran from April, 1998 to November, 2000. The copyright has reverted to me, and I'm now putting the columns on my own web site.
  
  
• My Word's Worth http://marylaine.com/myword/index.html, born in July, 1995 as a weekly column when I served as the American correspondent for the London Mall Magazine; It's now an occasional column, on my own website. It's where I talk about books, language, rock music, libraries, censorship, the internet, American politics, history and culture, and whatever else I'm mulling over. A complete archive is available on site.
  
  
• Ex Libris http://marylaine.com/exlibris/index.html
  A weekly e-zine for librarians and information junkies, on which I offer searching tips, and questions and thoughts on research, the net, and the future of libraries. A complete archive is available on site.
  
  
• Neat New Stuff I Found This Week http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html
  In which I select and briefly review ten great informational sites each week. A six month archive is available on site.
  
  
  

  BOOK PROPOSAL

• Land of Why Not: an Appreciation of America. A proposal for a collection of my writings about America.
  
  
  

  BOOK REVIEWS AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITING

• Review: The Visible Librarian: Asserting Your Value with Marketing and Advocacy. Marketing Library Services, 17 #5, September/October, 2003.

• Review: Super Searchers Make It on Their Own. Free Pint Newsletter, #118, August 8, 2002, http://www.freepint.com/issues/080802.htm

• Review of Online Communities: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability." Free Pint #88, May 23, 2001 (http://www.freepint.com/

• Review of The Tipping Point, Free Pint #109, April 4, 2002, http://www.freepint.com/issues/040402.htm

• Wow! Great Lines from Rock Music. An unpublished quote book of rock music lyrics my son and I edited. Unfortunately, the publishers who liked the idea didn't want to deal with getting all the permissions.
  
  
• Between 1980 and 2002, I contributed about a dozen book reviews a year to Library Journal, specializing in sports novels.
  
  
• An Explanation of the Popularity of Robert G. Ingersoll. My M.A. thesis, University of Iowa, 1968.
  
  
  

  ABOUT ME

• "Net Effects and the Librarians' Crisis: an Interview with Marylaine Block." The Information Advisor, December, 2003, 3-4.

• Streitfeld, David. "The In Crowd." Wired, February, 2002, http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.02/lists.html, discusses five providers of prime mailing lists including me.

• "Magazines, Men, and Music Lyrics: A Conversation with Marylaine Block." Tim Wocjik interviews me at the Librarians and Library Science page of About.com, April 29, 2001.

• "Webmastery." Gary Price interviews me in the June, 2000 issue of Searcher Magazine http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun00/price.htm
  
  
• "Six Questions," published on WebSearch at About.com on March 17, 2000, http://websearch.about.com/internet/websearch/library/insider/blsix_marylaine.htm

• "Seven Questions." Thomas Mangan interviews me at SevenQuestions.com, September 15, 1998. http://www.sevenquestions.com/old7q/7q36.htm.