Published by rwatstein November 23rd, 2008
in books, politics and publishing.
Motoko Rich writes: “When President-elect Barack Obama appeared on 60 Minutes November 16 in his first interview since winning the election, he mentioned having read ‘a new book out about FDR’s first 100 days’ without specifically naming a title or author. That tantalizing reference set off a scramble for the claim to First Reader rights the next day before a spokesman disclosed the president-elect was referring to two books: Jonathan Alter’s The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope (Simon & Schuster, 2006), and Jean Edward Smith’s FDR (Random House, 2007).”
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Published by rwatstein November 23rd, 2008
in books and publishing.
November, when the best-of lists come fast and furious, is the most wonderful time of the year. Our own Angelina Benedetti offers up her picks for 2008’s best teen fiction titles for adults, including last night’s National Book Award winner for Young People’s Literature, What I Saw and How I Lied.
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Published by rwatstein November 15th, 2008
in books, Google and publishing.
“On October 28, 2008, after several years of legal wrangling, Google, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and the Authors Guild reached a settlement agreement concerning Google’s scanning of copyrighted works. The scanning of these works has been done in cooperation with research libraries throughout the United States. The settlement agreement requires court approval by the presiding judge in the U.S. District Court in New York because the case was brought as a class action suit on behalf of selected copyright owners.
In large part, the settlement focuses on in-copyright books that are not commercially available. Public domain works fall outside of the settlement and owners of commercially available, in-copyright books created prior to January 5, 2009, may opt-out of the settlement or opt-in to other terms with Google. As a part of the settlement agreement, Google will fund the establishment of the Book Rights Registry. The Registry, jointly run by authors and publishers, will collect and distribute royalties including an up-front payment by Google of $45 million. Users will have several new opportunities to access scanned books, both free and fee-based, via public and university libraries and through institutional subscriptions for academic, corporate, and government libraries and organizations.”
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Published by rwatstein November 15th, 2008
in books, Google and publishing.
James Grimmelmann, an assistant law professor at New York Law School, reviewed the proposed settlement in the Google Book Search case, along with its 13 appendixes, and came up with some guiding principles for the court as it considers whether to approve the settlement, and for the public to help in thinking about its effects. Basically, he says the settlement is a good thing as it stands, but there are a few tweaks that could make it better.
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Published by rwatstein November 15th, 2008
in digital, publishing and ARL.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has released the final report of “Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication”, a study that ARL commissioned Ithaka to conduct. The study, conducted by Nancy L. Maron and K. Kirby Smith, comes with the database of exemplars that it produced. The study’s focus was on those projects that are pushing beyond the boundaries of traditional formats and are considered innovative by the faculty who use them. Ithaka’s findings are based on a collection of resources identified by a volunteer field team of over 300 librarians at 46 academic institutions in the US and Canada.
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Published by rwatstein November 15th, 2008
in publishing and newspapers.
On Oct. 28, 2008, The Christian Science Monitor (www.csmonitor.com) announced what managing publisher Jonathan Wells called a “period of big change,” moving from daily print distribution to the production of daily web editions with a print weekend edition and a daily email service. Wells described the newspaper industry as being in a “nexus of change,” a “rapidly changing media landscape,” with readers increasingly migrating to the web for information. Monitor editor, John Yemma, noted that the “old business model for print journalism is broken,” with the internet creating major disruption to all traditional news media. In meetings held over the past 2 years, Monitor staff and Christian Science church leaders looked at how the internet offered a “tremendous opportunity” for true global distribution of news and information, the Monitor’s core mission.
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Published by rwatstein November 9th, 2008
in books, Google and publishing.
Voicing its dissatisfaction with the terms of a settlement of lawsuits challenging the Google Book Search project, Harvard University Library will not take part in the program’s scanning of copyright-protected works. One of the original library partners in the project, Harvard plans to continue its policy of only allowing Google to scan books whose copyrights have expired. However, Harvard officials have declared their belief in the project’s legality.
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Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in books, Google, publishing and law.
Harvard says there are too many questions, while other reactions to Google’s sweeping $125 million settlement with publishers and authors over its library scan plan range from optimism to uncertainty.
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Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in books, Google, publishing and law.
To paraphrase University of Michigan librarian Paul Courant, what began as a blueprint for a universal digital library, has become a universal digital bookstore—and maybe that’s not all bad. Mostly, however, reaction in the library community has been muted thus far today as librarians and advocates attempt to digest a sweeping business deal in the guise of a legal settlement to two high-profile lawsuits filed against Google over its library scanning.
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Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in books, Google, publishing and law.
In a “landmark” joint settlement to two lawsuits filed against Google by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, Google today announced that the parties had agreed on a plan to expand Google Book Search into the web’s largest online commercial book venture.
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Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in digital, publishing and newspapers.
After a century of continuous publication, the Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition in favor of an online presence, its publisher announced October 28. The cost-cutting measure makes it the first national newspaper to largely give up on print. The Monitor will move to online only in April. Subscribers will receive an emailed PDF edition on weekdays and a print magazine on the weekend.
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Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in books and publishing.
For the seventh year running, General Mills’ Cheerios brand will make reading a part of kids’ daily nutritional requirements with its “Spoonfuls of Stories” promotion, putting 5 million copies of five new children’s book titles from Simon & Schuster inside cereal boxes. The reading campaign kicked off October 13 and continues the rest of the month. The books include Duck for President, When Dinosaurs Came with Everything, and Monkey and Me.
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Published by rwatstein November 2nd, 2008
in digital, Microsoft and publishing.
Software vendor Microsoft Corp. is demonstrating its digital media tools at the ongoing IFRA Expo 2008, October 27-30. The company will showcase how publishers can use technology to stay competitive in the world of online and digital media and evolve their publications into content service offerings by creating better user experiences and adapting their business models. It will exhibit a range of solutions dedicated to media search and monetisation of archive materials, advertising and the digital content experience.
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Published by rwatstein October 25th, 2008
in books and publishing.
He was a yellow tabby with twinkling green eyes, who arrived in the overnight drop box of the Spencer (Iowa) Public Library one frigid January night. Dewey Readmore Books became the library’s star boarder and an international celebrity. His story, Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter, has 336,000 copies in print and has quickly climbed to the top 10 on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and other lists of bestsellers.
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Published by rwatstein October 25th, 2008
in awards, books and publishing.
USA Book News has announced the winners of its National “Best Books 2008” Awards. The online magazine selected more than 500 print and audiobook winners and finalists in some 140 categories, all published in 2008 or late 2007. Selections include titles from major publishers as well as independents and university presses.
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More than 8,000 teen readers across the country chose Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer as their favorite book in the annual Teens’ Top Ten vote, sponsored by YALSA. The online vote took place during Teen Read Week, October 12–18, with the third entry in Meyer’s popular vampire romance series winning easily over J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
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Published by rwatstein October 25th, 2008
in publishing and journals.
A recent survey conducted by the UK-based Association of Learned and Professional Publishers (ALPSP) confirms much of what we already know about the market for scholarly journals: it is a rapidly evolving, and challenging environment, with perhaps the biggest challenge simply managing the vast—and increasing—number of scholarly articles produced every year.
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Published by rwatstein October 25th, 2008
in search, books, Google and publishing.
Google said at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair that it as has doubled the number of publishers participating in Google Book Search from last year, and confirmed that among its new partners is Random House, the world’s largest English language publisher.
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Published by rwatstein October 19th, 2008
in publishing and e-books.
Rowman & Littlefield has launched an ambitious ebook program, which hopes to generate 10,000 electronic titles in 24 months. The publisher also has partnered with some heavy hitters for distribution.
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Published by rwatstein October 5th, 2008
in books, digital and publishing.
Law professors from around the country gathered in Seattle on Saturday to put the printed textbook on trial. That about 40 people gathered on a sunny Saturday to ponder life beyond print shows that times are changing in publishing. The daylong discussion educed topics ranging from cerebral musings — could information proliferation make lawyers obsolete? — to technical nuance — what’s the difference between open source and open access?
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Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in books and publishing.
Mary Ellen Quinn writes: “As the new school year gets under way, our annual Best Bets list features new titles we reviewed in the past 12 months that are targeted specifically for students from the elementary through high-school levels. Also here are the latest editions of some library standards. For more good bets, check out the Encyclopedia Update coming up in the September 15 issue of Booklist.”
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Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in books, publishing and e-books.
Bloomsbury Publishing this week announced that is launching an academic imprint with a radical new open access model: all titles will be made available free of charge online, “with free downloads, for non-commercial purposes immediately upon publication.
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Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in books and publishing.
Who says dead men tell no tales? HoughtonMifflin November 17 is releasing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Tales from the Perilous Realm,“the definitive collection of Tolkien’s classic ‘fairie’ tales” illustrated by top Tolkien artist Alan Lee. Prepare to buy.
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Published by rwatstein September 27th, 2008
in publishing.
Maghound is Time Inc.’s new service that lets the consumer choose which magazines to receive each month—with no hassles, at three prices (three titles for $5 a month, five for $8, seven for $10). This may not save the magazine industry, but it’s a good product for anyone who likes magazines. Assuming Maghound takes off, it will offer a pure look at what consumers want to read….
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Information might want to be free, but that doesn’t mean the editors at Encyclopedia Britannica plan to let it run roughshod. While acknowledging its need to step into modern times, Britannica also is holding fast to the idea that experts make it better. You may not know this, but Albert Einstein wore an editor’s hat at Encyclopedia Britannica, as did George Bernard Shaw and more than 80 Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners. But it’s that other encyclopedia, the online one, where vandals and anonymous editors allegedly run rampant, that’s been getting all the attention lately. As hyped as Wikipedia may be, it’s hard to deny that an open source information repository that gets updated several thousand times a second is well suited to present times. I’m talking about an era defined by two phrases: instant gratification and user-generated. So where does a 240-year-old encyclopedia like Britannica fit in today? How does it face up to the criticism that it is expensive to access, closed and outdated? For starters, by being accessible, collaborative and continuously updated.
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Published by rwatstein September 21st, 2008
in library services, books and publishing.
Library users at the University of Michigan will soon be able to order print-on-demand copies of books from the university’s collection, and get them in about the time it takes for a barista to whip up a latte.
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Published by rwatstein September 14th, 2008
in education, books and publishing.
Senator Dick Durbin comments on an act he authored that’s intended to make textbooks costs more manageable — but notes that the publishing industry has succeeded in postponing the act’s implementation until July 2010.
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Published by rwatstein July 26th, 2008
in research and publishing.
The Internet gives scientists and researchers instant access to an astonishing number of academic journals. So what is the impact of having such a wealth of information at their fingertips? The answer, according to new research released today in the journal Science, is surprising–scholars are actually citing fewer papers in their own work, and the papers they do cite tend to be more recent publications. This trend may be limiting the creation of new ideas and theories.
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Imagine waking up to find your morning newspaper on the night stand each day without ever having to get out of bed. Or say you want another book to read while soaking up some sun on the beach. And voila! Michael Connelly’s latest book appears in the palm of your hand. Amazon.com wants consumers to go even more digital with their reading habits with its 8-month-old Kindle reading device. Visit Amazon.com, and it’s the first thing you see.
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Published by rwatstein July 26th, 2008
in technology, publishing and e-books.
With the market for electronics books still relatively sleepy, Sony Corp. is trying a new tack: untethering the latest model of its e-book reading device from its own online bookstore. On Thursday, Sony will provide a software update to the Reader, a thin slab with a 6-inch screen, so the device can display books encoded in a format being adopted by several large publishers. That means Reader owners will be able to buy electronic books from stores other than Sony’s.
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Published by rwatstein July 19th, 2008
in books, economics and publishing.
U of Nebraska Press sold almost one million copies of a book about American Indians on the Great Plains. The director moved to SUNY and now the book is moving too. Fair game or unfair edge?
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Published by rwatstein July 19th, 2008
in education, economics and publishing.
College students, already struggling with soaring tuition bills and expenses, are encountering yet another financial hit: Publishers and schools are working together to produce “custom” textbooks that can limit students’ use of the money-saving trade in used books. And in a controversial twist, some academic departments are sharing in the profits from these texts.
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NetLibrary, OCLC’s platform for eContent and the leading provider of eBooks for the institutional library market, has announced agreements with 19 publishers that will add thousands of new eBooks and eAudiobooks to NetLibrary’s growing catalog of more than 170,000 titles.With increasing worldwide demand for electronic content, NetLibrary continues to enhance and expand its catalog by partnering with preeminent publishers of scholarly, trade, STM and reference content. New publisher partners adding eContent to NetLibrary include:
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Published by rwatstein June 29th, 2008
in education, digital, publishing and e-books.
Digital content services provider Ingram Digital has announced a new survey of e-book users conducted by its Education Solutions unit. The survey is seen to confirm the top three factors driving a surge in adoption of digital textbooks that led Ingram’s January-May sales to surpass 2007 results by more than 400 percent. Data from the survey’s 680 respondents revealed that when deciding whether to purchase a digital title, 47 percent believe that ‘cost in relation to print copies’ is very important. A similar proportion of respondents identified the convenience of e-books and interactive features as also being very important.
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Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in publishing, open access and e-books.
Seventeen years ago people said “maybe” they would use computer networks for short pieces like journal articles, but books, never! In this issue two authors write about electronically publishing books. Colin Steele, former university librarian at Australian National University, looks at open access monograph publishing arrangements between libraries and publishers in Australia, the U.S., and Europe
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Published by rwatstein June 21st, 2008
in publishing and open access.
Joseph J. Esposito, an independent consultant focusing on digital media, looks at how the market determines publishing strategies and business models in “Open Access 2.0: Access to Scholarly Publications Moves to a New Phase.” The less a reader knows about a field, the more he needs the mediation of a publisher, and the less useful open access may be, Esposito writes.
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Published by rwatstein June 7th, 2008
in publishing and wiki.
Long a standard reference source for scholarship, largely because of its tightly controlled editing, the Encyclopaedia Britannica announced this week it was throwing open its elegantly-bound covers to the masses. It will allow the “user community” (in the words of the encyclopedia’s blog) to contribute their own articles, which will be clearly marked and run alongside the edited reference pieces.
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Social networking and other Web 2.0 technologies led the social whirl of the information industry. Publishers and librarians tried to keep their products and services relevant by mixing authoritative content with user involvement, but that wasn’t enough. Enhancing interfaces, adding new forms of content, and making strategic acquisitions—all are necessary to ensure that the information industry party continues.
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Published by rwatstein May 4th, 2008
in education, books and publishing.
Plenty of professors are thinking about ways of introducing alternatives to traditional textbooks that they or their students deem too pricey. Some are involved in efforts to create material that is online, free and open source in design. A new effort announced Monday aims to help this movement grow at community colleges. As Judy Baker, dean of the distance learning program at the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, sees it, not enough people are focusing on compiling content tailored to two-year college students. “We have more economic and racial diversity than the normal population, so it’s even more important for content to be culturally relevant and meaningful,” Baker said. “It’s important for faculty to be able to localize the information, and because our students are not always as prepared for a college-level textbook that comes from the publishers, we need to provide supplemental information.”
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Published by rwatstein April 27th, 2008
in digital, publishing and reference.
The future of reference and e-book publishing remains strong, according to Rolf Janke, Vice President and Publisher of Sage Reference. According to the publisher, the prospect of reference and e-book publishing remains strong despite continued concerns from the publishing industry over the growing popularity of social networking and online peer-reference sources such as Wikipedia.
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Published by rwatstein April 6th, 2008
in books, Amazon, publishing and Kindle.
More than four months after Amazon.com released the Kindle, no one is sure whether the latest e-book reader is really hot _ or not. But publishers believe that the Kindle has helped, if not revolutionized, the tiny electronic market. Amazon.com has received extensive media coverage since unveiling the Kindle on the Monday before Thanksgiving and announcing that the first run had sold out within a few hours. Amazon.com has declined to give sales figures for the Kindle _ at least 2,000, judging from the number of customer reviews _ but has said repeatedly that supply is not keeping up with demand, with the device often out of stock.
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Published by rwatstein March 29th, 2008
in publishing.
In her spare time, away from her duties as a chemicals specialist in the Army, Angie Papple fires up her computer and writes an article about something close to her, like life in the military. Other times she’ll analyze a piece of software. Or she’ll churn out advice for travelers to Hawaii, where she lives, or Puerto Rico, where she’s never been. Some of these pieces bring her mere pocket change. The most lucrative ones earn about $40. Most of all, though, she’s thrilled to be considered a writer.
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Published by rwatstein March 29th, 2008
in publishing.
E-book technology firm ebrary has announced publishing partnerships with 12 new publishers. Under the deal, ebrary’s new publishing partners will make their e-books and other authoritative content available to libraries and other organisations as part of ebrary’s subscription and perpetual access offerings.
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Published by rwatstein March 23rd, 2008
in economics and publishing.
A series of announcements from publishers across the globe in the last few weeks suggests that ahead of other books, magazines, and even newspapers, the classic multivolume encyclopedia is well on its way to becoming an internet casualty. Sales of the printed edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica are just 10% of what they were in 1990, Brockhaus is putting all 300,000 of its articles online for free, and Gyldendal has decided that the subscription plan for its online encyclopedia is misguided….
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Published by rwatstein March 23rd, 2008
in archives, economics and publishing.
As magazines and newspapers hunt for the new thing they need to be to thrive in the internet era, some find that part of the answer lies in the old thing they used to be. Publications are rediscovering their archives, like a person learning that a hand-me-down coffee table is a valuable antique. For magazines and newspapers with long histories, especially, old material can be reborn on the Web as an inexpensive way to attract readers, advertisers, and money.
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Published by rwatstein March 16th, 2008
in publishing and open access.
The SURF foundation has released the results of an inquiry into the copyright policies of traditional academic publishers. A group of forty seven traditional publishers, who do not currently allow Open Access, were assessed and it was found that these publishers are increasingly interested in allowing the depositing of articles into a publicly accessible repository.
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Published by rwatstein March 3rd, 2008
in books, digital and publishing.
Jim Sayer, Wright State University’s (OH) faculty senate president, is a master rhetorician and teacher of that fine art, as well. Leading a discussion among the faculty senators on the relentless rise in the cost of textbooks-compounding at more than 6 percent per annum for the last two decades (according to the US Government Accountability Office)-he puts the problem of high textbook prices plainly: “I’ve taught Aristotle for 38 years. Every three years I do so from a different textbook, and it always is more expensive for my students. Why? What’s going on here? Do we have a strategy for getting these costs under control?”
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Published by rwatstein March 3rd, 2008
in publishing and open access.
The open access (OA) Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), which announced its launch in May 2007, recently released its first OA content. The first 30,000 pages of the online encyclopedia were unveiled at the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, California.
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Encyclopedia of Life web site
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Published by rwatstein February 18th, 2008
in blogs, publishing and journals.
Marcus Banks writes: “I’ve became firmly convinced that the traditional journal model is antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians. A better course is to develop and nurture excellent blogs, with multimedia capabilities and guaranteed preservation of the postings. This could be an entirely new blog that starts from scratch, or an established journal that evolves into a blog.”
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