Monday’s Link Roundup.

**Don’t forget to vote on my poll: How long have you been a personal historian? Click here to vote.**

There are some entertaining items in this Monday’s Link Roundup. One of my favorites is Vintage Tech Ads: The 15 Funniest Videos. How times have changed! And if you want to check out the popularity of your surname take a look at Find the Popularity of Your Surname. My surname, Curtis, is most popular in Australia. It surprised me. I would have said England.

The Rise of Self-Publishing. “Last year, according to the Bowker bibliographic company, 764,448 titles were produced by self-publishers and so-called microniche publishers. (A microniche, I imagine, is a shade bigger than a self.) This is up an astonishing 181 percent from the previous year.”[Thanks to Mary M. Harrison at Morning Glory Memoirs for alerting me to this item.]

a brief history of book printing and binding. “Youtube is an invaluable source to help us visualize a process. Here is a curated overview of book printing, from letterpress, the same process that produced the Gutenberg Bible, to the Expresso Bookmaker, and back to contemporary letterpress and hand binding.”

The Practical Archivist. “Hi there! I’m delighted that you found my corner of cyberspace. There are oodles of Practical Archivist articles for you to enjoy, with information and advice that will help you become a better family archivist. The only question remaining is…Where would you like to start?” [ Thanks to Sarah White for alerting me to this item.]

Vintage Tech Ads: The 15 Funniest Videos. “IT World has a humorous look back at hi-tech advertising videos of only a few years ago. Remember these ads with robot phone wars and naked spokeswomen in bathtubs? But looking back on them now, it’s hard not to find them amusing. And, yes, a little embarrassing. Cassette tape players, the Magnavox Video Writer, MS-DOS 5.0, and a young William Shatner all await you.”

Singing Out. Written by Molly Beer and David King Dunaway, the book “is culled from more than 150 interviews and the story it tells spans seven decades and cuts across a wide swath of generations and perspectives, shedding light on the musical, political, and social aspects of the folk revival movement. In the original article below Beer looks at the experience of writing a book with another author.”

Find the Popularity of Your Surname on PublicProfiler.org. “Just how popular is your surname? Is it popular in other countries? This web site will tell you. It won’t find your ancestors but, with less-popular surnames, it may give clues as to the emigration patterns of extended family members. Don’t try this on Smith or Jones, but with less-common surnames, it may provide clues.”

What Makes Great Marketing… Great? “Marketing has always been about telling great stories. The problem is that telling great stories is not an easy thing to do. The reason most Marketers struggle with telling great stories is because they have not spent enough time deconstructing what makes a great story. Ira Glass is here to help. Glass is a well-known radio personality with NPR. He is the producer and host of This American Life, and there is probably nobody more suited to explain the schematics behind brilliant storytelling than he is.”

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