Browser: An introduction

Welcome to Browser, the new blog of the American Library in Paris.

We hope these offerings – about books (and e-books), magazines, libraries, this Library, the information age, bookstores, authors, expatriate life, the French-American relationship, and much more — will provide food for thought, grist for the mill, windows on the new, reminders of the tried and true and maybe forgotten.

If all goes according to plan, and especially if readers of this blog participate, the posts in this space will include:

• Links to articles or sites that might pique your interest (or photos or audios or videos).
• News of media developments in a world of information currently in the midst of the biggest revolution since Gutenberg.
• Criticism, praise, and argument.
• News of literary (or other) happenings in Paris.
• Dispatches from our staff, trustees, and members about what they’re reading.
• Suggestions for speakers or programs or books to add to our shelves or magazines to add to our subscriptions.
• Literary news: publishing trends, technological advances, notable awards, important passings from the scene.
• Quotable quotes.
• Humor.
• News about bookstores, especially the wonderful English-language bookstores of Paris.
• Plugs for Library programs, and news from inside the Library, some of it echoing what appears in our electronic biweekly e-Libris and our quarterly paper newsletter Ex Libris, and some of it not.

Who will write the blog? You will, from time to time, we hope. But we here at the Library will be feeding the beast as regularly and creatively as we can. The editor of this blog is the Library’s director, Charles Trueheart, with heavy participation from the staff and friends of the Library. You can write the editor to suggest things, or you can post your own comment directly, whether in reaction to a previous post, or on an entirely new subject.

Such offerings will be reviewed before posting and, since we are a library, checked for spelling and punctuation as well as appropriateness. There are a few rules to follow, but nothing more than common sense and a respect for others should dictate – no personal attacks, no inappropriate language, no going on and on, no selling.

So let’s get started. Please let us know what you think.