Gutter Type

What's hot in publishing, circa June 1902

2008-06-30T13:45:00.002-04:00

A short one for the short week.

From Publishers Weekly June 28, 1902, No. 1587.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

We regret to hear that W.B. Perkins, the well-known and popular bookman, is threatened with complete loss of sight.

LAIRD & LEE, Chicago, will publish next month a new story by Opie Read, entitled "The Starbucks," which is said to contain many unusually clever bits of philosophy.

THE so-called "book-fair" will be held in the Palmer House, Chicago, beginning with July 5. About fifty prominent publishing houses will be represented, and buyers are expected from leading points in the West.

THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL on the 19th inst. issued an order denying the use of the mails to the Empire Fountain Pen Company of Massena, New York. The concern was engaged in the operation of a chain-letter scheme.

HERBERT S. STONE & CO. hav published "The Book of a Hundred Houses." A score of writers contribute the text, treating of dwellings large and small, but mostly small, in existence here or abroad or proposed by a designer. The text is accompanied by a number of illustrations from photographs and drawings.

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & CO. will follow up their work of "American College Sororities" by a volume on "American college Greek-Letter Societies," by Reuel Linus Jason. The volume will be fully illustrated with group pictures and portraits. While the text is written by Mr. Jason, who is a recognized authority on the subject, he will receive material assistance from a board of advisory editors, consisting of one representative officially appointed by the government of each National society. The book will have the endorsement of this official board of advisory editors, who are for the most part the heads of various societies.

OLD-BOOK NOTES

MR. VOYNICH is exhibiting at his rooms, 1 Soho Square, London, 150 unknown and lost books. Though the collection does not include many books that can be described as of general interest, or of a very high order of importance, nevertheless, as every edition of a book has its place in the science of bibliography, the exhibition may be regarded as unique in the annals of bibliography, as is an incontrovertible argument in proof of the theory that there is no finality in bibliography.

No. 1639 June 27, 1903

2008-06-23T13:17:00.002-04:00

While perusing the Publishers Weekly shelves for material, it struck me that almost every year I picked up published on June 27th. Coincidence?

Most of the news wasn't worth reporting (again), but I found some interesting tidbits from 1903.

So, here we go, some publishing news from Publishers Weekly, June 27th, 1903 [No. 1639]:

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

THE AINSLEE PUBLISHING COMPANY, New York, have just published a new novel by edgar Saltus, entitled "Purple and Fine Women."

It may be necessary or not to pass the word along to the careless author who left a mysterious manuscript of a historical novel of the seventeenth century period, packed in a red box, at John Lane's London office, omitting to leave his address, that if he will but communicate with the "anxious publisher" he will hear something to his advantage.

A.C. MCCLURG & Co. are making arrangements to bring out during the autumn, in portfolio form, reproductions of some of the delightful sketches of girls' heads, drawn in red chalk and charcoal, by Miss Hazel Martyn, a well-known Chicago society woman. these sketched when exhibited this spring won great praise from the professional critics for their clever and original treatment.

CLEOPAS KUNENE, of Natal, South Africa, has applied to Doubleday, Page & co. for permission to translate Booker T. Washington's autobiography, "Up from Slavery,' into the Zulu language for the benefit of those who read the language and are trying to better the condition of the masses of their countrymen, who, the author says, "are still lolling and weltering in darkness and ignorance and poverty."

ALBERT F. BROWN, a clerk in the employ of Charles Scribner's Sons, was arrested on June 23, charged with stealing books. According to the police, he confessed that he had been taking books for the last five weeks. He said that he got into fast company soon after his arrival in this city, about six weeks ago, and needed money to "keep his end up." he then began taking a few books at a time, which he easily disposed of.

H.M. CALDWELL COMPANY will publish shortly a little book with the catchy title, "Reflections of the Morning After," which will contain clever maxims, epigrams, and sayings appealing to the gentler sex as well as to club men. . .

Victorian Pub weekly is back!!

2008-06-17T12:52:00.003-04:00

It's been a few months, but there are still decades of Publishers Weekly waiting for me downstairs. Let's resume the review.

Again, all of this is real and from the pages of Publishers Weekly from the late 19th/ Early 20th Century.

This week- Publishers Weekly, June 16, 1900 [No. 1481]

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

"HILDA WADE," it appears is not the only unpublished novel left by Grant Allen. There is another, entitled "The Linnet," which is said to contain some graceful love making, with the Tyrol for a background.

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE, & CO. have in press a volume entitled "The Lawyer's Alcove," a collection of "poems by the lawyer, for the lawyer, about the lawyer," edited by Ina Russelle Warren, with an introduction by Chauncey M. Depew.

P. BLACKISTON'S SON & CO., of Philadelphia, have secured the balance of the edition of "American Spiders and Their Spinning Work," by Rev. Henry C. McCook, Vice President of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. This work contains a large number of colored illustrations and is a standard among entomologists.

R.H. RUSSELL announces a new book by L. Frank Baum, whose "Father Goose," of last year, had such an encouraging reception. The book will be entitled "A New Wonderland," in which the author will introduce his young readers to a new and charming country. Frank Ver Beck has made a number of colored pictures for the book, which will be gotten up in a very attractive style. Mr. Russell has decided to postpone until the fall the publication of Ver Beck's new book of burlesque drawings entitled, "A Handbook of Golf for Bears."

This is a description?!

2008-06-05T14:46:00.002-04:00

Subject matter aside, I just ordered a copy of Paul Ruditis's Rainbow Party for the library, and what struck me was the brief description in Worldcat:

Rainbow parties. Are they real? Who's going? Gin and Sandy-one's been with all the guys, one's terrified of them. It's Gin's party: she invited everyone. Alison-President of the celibacy club. What's she thinkin? Hunter and Perry-friends...with benefits. Jade-hanging on to it for the right guy. Skye and Rod-totally doing it, totally curious. Vi-Skye's best friend who has it for Rod. The party could change everything. Rusty and Brick-one thinks he's a playah. One's built like it. Neither's getting any. Ash and Rose-the class couple, not ready yet. So why are they going?

I want to believe the book is either a realistic look at teens exploring sexuality or an exploitative look at teens, but the description makes it sound like a naughty Sweet Valley High with bad grammar.

I'm sure I'm late to the party on this one (bad cliché intended) since Oprah had a special on this and the myth has been discredited, but this description is so bad it needed a comment.

look what goodreads now offers

2008-06-04T20:53:00.000-04:00

The Blue Octavo Notebooks by Franz Kafka

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews.

Follow-up to MARC, OPACs, and Podcasts

2008-04-30T12:15:00.002-04:00

It's going to be a topic of discussion on Uncontrolled Vocabulary tonight! I'm teaching my last e-Pub class at Emerson tonight so I'm going to be in class or on the T for most of the broadcast. I'll have to download it and listen tomorrow to hear the group's sage advice.

Laurie Sabol at the Tisch Library at Tuft University sent out a post to several listsevs today asking for others who have had discussions about the pros and cons of cataloging podcasts to share their decisions and discussions. I received the post from fellow librarians who saw it through the ACRL-NEC News mailing list.

And I've started original cataloging on the first podcast in the GSLIS series. Not only is a podcast, but it has a PDF of a Powerpoint as well (can you say subfield e in a MARC 300 field with a bunch of notes?)

MARC, OPACs, and Podcasts

2008-04-27T22:24:00.003-04:00

I've been reading up on the history of descriptive cataloging of electronic resources for a presentation I need to do and I thought it would be fun to look at how catalogers are dealing with podcasts in their OPACs. Our tech lab has been asking us to catalog some of the podcasts they've created. My plan was to catalog one of the podcasts and use it as a sample in the presentation. Here's how that idea rapidly unfurled today:

Read through the OLAC Cataloging Policy Committee's Streaming Media Best Practices Task Force at about noon, thinking this would be a great resource. And I didn't stop to think that podcasts aren't streaming media. D'oh.
This paper is specifically for all the streaming media that we should probably catalog from the Library of Congress (RealPlayer?! really?). Okay, okay, okay, Jay Weitz must have something on podcasts somewhere else.

Did a search through OLAC's website and checked out their Useful website page but didn't find much of anything on podcasts.

I then did a few simple literature searches on Proquest, Haworth and LISTA. Plenty of articles on making podcasts, none on cataloging them.

Maybe I'm over-thinking it and I should just see what other people have done in their OPACS. Learn through example if I can't locate a best practices.

Got to Worldcat. STOP. How do you search for podcasts in OPACS? I wouldn't type in "book" or "magazine" or even "electronic resource." Have other catalogers used podcast in their 245s? I wouldn't since it's redundant. Ah what the heck- Worldcat, show me electronic resources that have a keyword of podcast! Hurrah. 80 podcasts, most of them from the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction. It's a start.

Okay, on to Google. Deep breath- I don't want to spend all day fiddling with delimiters so let's hope I have the right combination...

Success! A library in Orange County, Florida is cataloging their podcasts, but they don't seem to appear in Worldcat, let's put this as a bookmark in del.icio.us.

Now that I have some hope, let's try to find more. Library of Congress. Nope. Doesn't even look like they've cataloged their webcasts.

MIT? Main page has a link to libraries under "research" and a special section for videos, but videos are not in the catalog as far as I could tell. (This was the ace up my sleeve since I was sure MIT would have cataloged their videos).

My next attempt- Yale. The other university that I know has quite a few podcasts in ITunesU. Nope. Well, maybe somewhere buried but I couldn't find podcasts from August 2007 in either Orbis or the LibraryWeb.

U of Michigan, I'm looking at you. Let's see what Mirlyn has for me. I chose "Trail of Snails" from the list at ITunesU. Nothing.

Okay now I'm getting paranoid. Have I completely lost my ability to search an OPAC to find these items? Or are they really not there?

I could go through the rest of ITunesU but how much more time am I going to spend searching dead ends in different OPACs.

10:30 at night, I've found about 10 other things I should look at but I still have very little idea on special considerations for cataloging a podcast.

One last search through Autocat's archives. About 30 matches, most of them from 2006 and 2007 asking if anyone has added podcasts to their OPAC. Glad I didn't ask that question again. I think I found three catalogers who provide links to catalogs with podcasts, one of which is the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library at the University of Virginia. This is one of the few libraries I was able to read about in my literature search but the article did not have a link to the library's catalog. I also found a link to sunlibrary from Sun Microsystems, but that link is dead.

The best post I found on AUTOCAT was from Patricia Sayre McCoy who provided an OCLC number to one of her cataloged podcasts. I feel like I have a key to the locked door and I'll try it tomorrow.

So what have I learned from my initial search?

Everyone's talking about 'em but I don't see a whole lot of cataloging going on.

I'm going to really go out on a limb this week and attempt a catalog record using the different sources and samples I was able to find.

I'm really scared to do a search to see if any weblogs are being cataloged out there. (They must right? They're older that podcasts.)

Most of the podcasts I used as search samples are found on library websites, just not as part of their OPAC. How can we convince users that the OPAC can be so much more than an electronic card catalog if we're not adding the material to it? I thought the addition of creative commons PDFs to the Nebraska Library Commision's catalog are a brilliant example of how we can add accessible content to the OPAC.

This whole trek brings up the specter of a digital repository and that's like handing a loaded gun to a small technical services.

At this point I'm back to thinking that the easiest way to catalog podcasts would be to treat them as digital audio files and sound recording.
BUT there is a continuing resource angle to their production.
BUT podcasts also fit the definition of an electronic resource.
BUT podcasts aren't direct electronic resources (unless you copy them to CDs which seems to be a cataloging nightmare).
So maybe they're remotely accessed electronic resources.
Yes, I'm now thinking that podcasts are remotely-accessed electronic resources and can be cataloged using good old chapter 9 from AACR2.

....
Next morning I have a few more things to check out and I was able to look at Patricia Sayre McCoy's record to see how she catalogs podcasts. I think I'm ready to get my hands dirty in some MARC.

Jelly Beans

2008-04-16T12:46:00.003-04:00

If only these were real flavors.

*sigh*

From steviegirl who found it on Candy Addict.

Sure he snubbed Boston, but he's the Pontiff

2008-04-15T09:07:00.003-04:00

so I wanted to post this on our library's internal blog, but then I thought better of it because of the sheer religiousity of the subject matter. And I wasn't sure what category this would go under. Our blog has defined categories and it didn't fit anything about reorgs or eresources or patron requests. It was basically between two topic choices and it's definitely not "for fun," so "cool site/source" it is, but only in the sense that it's a source. Slate published a short article on the Pope's visit with some sources that might come in handy for all those Pope trivia contests around town. (Wait, there really are Pope trivia tournaments happening).

On not keeping our opinions to ourself

2008-04-14T13:11:00.004-04:00

From the April 16, 1989 edition of Publishers' Weekly [No. 1368]

NOTES ON AUTHORS

ROBERT BARR, the novelist, on the 12th inst. recovered a verdict of $1000 damages in a libel suit against the New York Sun in the United States Circuit Court. The suit has been pending for some time. On May 17, 1896, the Sun published a paragraph in its London cable news saying that "Robert Barr, the novelist" had been sent to an asylum for inebriates. It turned out that the Robert Barr who was sent to the institution mentioned was a former Canadian politician, and not the novelist. A retraction was demanded, but it was not forthcoming until the following November, when the Sun in the course of a review of on of Mr. Barr's books, alluded jokingly to its mistake and explained how it occurred. In the meantime many papers throughout the country had published the Sun's story as fact and commented on it editorially.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

RAND, MCNALLY & Co. have just issued "a Valuable Life," by Adeline Sergeant, who is possessed of the almost lost art- good storytelling. The love histories embodied in the romance runs through three generations. The scene is rural England and the interest centers in the transmitting of a great inheritance.

MRS. WRIGGINS vivacious story, "Penelope's Progress," will be published shortly, and as it relates wholly to Scotland, it is to be bound in Scotch plaid. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., in order to procure precisely the plaid which seemed most fitting, have had it made specially for the book at the famous Anderson factory in Glasglow. The result promises to be eminently satisfactory; a volume somewhat rare in American bookmaking.

Follow-up to last week

2008-04-08T12:41:00.003-04:00

You didn't think I could just leave you with a dead Mr. Donoghue lying at his wife's feet, did you? Well, Publishers Weekly made sure to follow-up and so will I.

Some choice cuts from Publishers Weekly, April 8, 1893 (No.1106):

Business Notes

CHICAGO, ILL.- It is feared that the death of Horace P. Donoghue, noted in the last issue of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, will seriously affect the financial standing of several publishing houses. He had been floating accommodation paper of half a dozen publishing concerns in Chicago, four of which may collapse- indeed that of H.J. Smith & Co. is already reported. Two of the concerns in questions will very likely pay their creditors in full and resume business as soon as arrangements can be made with the banks holding their paper.

Literary and Trade Notes

JOHN KNOX MCAFREE, representing A.L. Burt, will leave for the far West on April 17.

EUGENE FIELD is said to be preparing a book about books, one intended for the lover of books.

E.B. GAY, of the Warren School, Charlestown, Mass., was arrested on the 4th inst., charged with stealing valuable books from Brentano's. He is also suspected of of having stolen $95 worth of books from Charles Scribner's Sons. He was held on $1,000 bail for trial.

J.H. MASON, senior member of the J.H. Mason Publishing Co., of St. Louis, met with a horrible death in the Commerce Building in Louisville, Ky., on the 1st inst. Attempting to get out of the elevator on the ninth floor, the car started upward and caught Mr. Mason, catching his head between the rim of the floor of the car and the top of the gate. Before the elevator could be stopped Mr. Mason's body, horribly mutilated, was dashed to the pavement in the basement ten stories below.

LAST week Mark Lewin and Max Windlin, of 345 W. 43rd Street, New York, who keep a newsstand at the corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue, were arrested by Anthony Comstock on the charge of having sold books of an improper character to boys. On March 29 Comstock went to the stand and asked for a certain book. He was taken into a basement near by, where the book was sold to him for $1. Comstock obtained a warrant for the men's arrest, and in the Yorkville Police Court the prisoners were held in $500 each for trial.

And one last trade note-

W.H. LOWDERMILK & CO., Washington D.C., have just ready the third volume of the "Digest of Decisions of the Second Comptroller of the Treasury," Compiled by J.Q. Kern. These are the decisions which control all the payments made by the Treasury in the matters which pass the second, third, and fourth auditors, brought down to date in continuation of vol. 2 and covering ten years, 1884-1893,

Foreign Notes

WITH a view to enjoying a holiday at the Chicago Fair, Octave Uzanne, editor of the monthly magazine L'Art et L'Idee, announces that he will suspend its publication for one year. Happy M. Uzanne!

THE proprietor of the famous London bookshop, "Hatchard's," notes a marked advance in bookishness among English women. Asked to what he attributes this, he answered that he thought it to some extent a result of the American woman in English society- the fair American leading her English sister. 'I take it as generally accepted,' he added, "that the average American woman of education is the more bookish- cares more for books as books- than the average educated English woman, although she does not, it may be, read more."

PICK-UPS

THE CLIMAX AHEAD.- "I've written a novel for school-girls, and they'll never know the climax until they've read it through." "How have you arranged it?" "I've printed the conclusion in the first chapter."- Harper's Bazar.

NOT IN THE SAME SET.- The Parvenu: "Are you fond of belle-lettres?" The Chump: "Belle Letters? Don't know. Never met her." - Chicago News Record.

humourless news from1893

2008-03-31T13:08:00.002-04:00

Once again we're back with news from Publishers Weekly of long ago.

This time we're "reporting" the news from April 1, 1893 (PW no. 1105)

NOTES ON AUTHORS

MISS HELEN AINSLEE SMITH, of Newark N.J., a well-known writer of children's books, has been married for three years, and is the wife of James Elliott, a New York lawyer.

FOREIGN NOTES

THE Russian publishers do not intend to allow author to interfere with their business. They have petitioned the Minister of the Interior to impose a special tax on the works of all authors who acts as their own publishers.

IN Japan it has just been decided by a committee of the peers that the discharge of the work of editors or publishers is neither becoming nor desirable for women and that these offices shall be reserved to men of, or over, twenty-one years of age.

A "LOVER OF BOOKS," writing to an English journal makes a vigorous and much-needed protest against what he calls the ridiculous practice of allowing some modern litterateur to advertise his name as "editor" upon every reprint of a standard work offered to the public. He asks why these modern editors should be allowed to annoy in this impertinent fashion a classic read and beloved before they were born, and he scorns the "ridiculous, fussy and artificial ceremony of editing things which only require to be left alone to the care of any sensible publisher." Here is a slap for Andrew Lang: "Of Mr. Lang- Editor-in-Chief to the British Nation- it is too late to speak. The 'admirable and exhaustive index' now to be appended to Sir Walter's novels give one only more stimulus to the prevalent vices of the age- aimless quotation and a pretence of familiarity with our great classics."
LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

HORACE C. DONOGHUE, a well-known Chicago publisher, committed suicide on the 27th of March. While he was standing before his dressing-case his wife took up a newspaper and began reading about Elliott F. Shepard's death in New York. Suddenly she heard her husband fall with a peculiar gurgling sound, and rushing to his side she found that he had cut his throat from ear to ear with a razor. The cause for the suicide is a mystery. Mr. Donoghue leaves a large estate.

*sigh* I wonder how many sites will be rick-rolled tomorrow.

Housekeeping, March 24th, 1900

2008-03-24T12:47:00.003-04:00

Yes sir, it's Monday, time to see what Publishers Weekly was reporting on 108 years ago today.

For those playing along at home, the articles below are from issue no. 1469.

NOTES ON AUTHORS

R.D. BLACKMORE left instructions in his will that no biography or memoir of him was to be published.

MRS. FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT was married to Stephen Townsend, in London, on the 14th inst. The bridegroom is a son of the late Rev. George Tyler Townsend, once chaplain to the Duke of Northumberland, and also to the Bishop of Tasmania. He is a physician, and has won the degree of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, but never cared for this profession, and several years ago abandoned it for the stage.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

HORACE S. RIDINGS, of J.B. Lippincott Co., will sail for England on the 28th inst. by the Teutonic.

EX-QUEEN LILIUOKALANI, the former ruler of the Hawaiian Islands, has published for private circulation a book entitled "The Hawaiian Traditions of the Creation."

HARPER & BROTHERS will publish on the 28th inst. under the title of "Woman and Artist," an amusing tale , by Max O'Rell, (Paul Blouet,) of a London artist who invents a rifle which he attempts to sell to both the French and Russian governments. Some amusing complications ensue.

COLONEL G.B.M. HARVEY, the director of the affairs of Harper & Brothers, sailed for Europe on the 21st inst. He will be gone five weeks, and all the time of his stay in Europe will be spent in London and Paris. In these cities Harper & Brothers have branch houses-- that is Paris have recently opened, the London branch of long standing and large business. Te publishing company maintains a complete organization in both these cities, and it is to get a thorough knowledge, both of the business and the organization, that Col. Harvey will make this visit. While abroad Col. Harvey will cast out lines for writers for the several Harpers publications.

Day late, dollar short

2008-03-18T12:59:00.002-04:00

Let's travel back in time once again. The date- March 19,1898.

Selected articles from Publishers Weekly, no. 1360:

NOTES IN SEASON

CLIFFORD HOWARD, P.O. Box 633, Washington DC., has published a new and considerably enlarged edition of his work on "Sex Worship: an exposition of the Phallic origin of religion." This edition is virtually a new publication, and the increased size has necessitated an increase of price to $1.50.

BRETANO'S announce as nearly ready "The Handbook of Solo Whist" by A.S. Wilkes, a recognized authority on card games. The book contains the rules for a new variety of "dummy solo," the advantage of which is that it is the only variety of solo whist for three players that embodies the proposal and acceptance call.

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN & CO. publish to-day "Cheerful Yesterdays," in which the author, Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginston, gives an account of interesting experiences in the most attractive manner; "Satchel Guide" for 1898 ...

NEWS HEADLINE

for full article hunt down your own copy!

[R]EVOLUTIONARY BOOKSELLING

LETTERING ALONG THE BACKS

RULES FOR TITLE-PAGES

BOOKS IN THE POSTAL UNION

NOTES ON AUTHORS

RUDYARD KIPLING and his family, last month reached Capetown, Africa. They were very warmly received, and the author was presented with a set of verses addressed to himself by a private in the ranks called "An Experiment in Imitation." these appeared in Commercial Advertiser for February 28.

KARL HUYSMANS, the hysterial, pessimistic writers of "La-Bas," "En Route," and 'La Cathedrale," has abandoned his faith in his message of despair to a world out of joint, and has gone into a monastery.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

BENZINGER BROTHERS announce a new story by Ella Loraine Dorsey, entitled "Pickle and Pepper." The scene of the story is laid at the national capital.

MISS BELLE BERRY, known as the "Belle of Claysburg," book agent, will oppose Mayonr Isaac F. Whitesides for the nomination for the office now held by him.

THE FOWLER & WELLS Co. will publish next month "L.N. & J. Fowler's Chart," with original tables, specially designed for this work for marking. The scope of the chart will entitle it to the consideration of teachers and the general reader, whether already interested in phrenology or not.

FRANK L. ARMSTRONG, of Tarrytown, N.Y., was held for trial in a New York police court on the charge of swindling publishers and booksellers by means of worthless checks. He was held on complaint made by Peter Eckler and Bowers & Loy, but it is likely that when his case comes to trial he will be confronted by other members of the trade.

Dear used booksellers of America,

2008-03-11T13:33:00.002-04:00

Saran Wrap is not an effective method of packing your books. Saran Wrap does not magically protect the book the same way that bubble-wrap protects books. It does not count as anything other than annoying and wasteful when I receive a book that has 5 layers of the stuff wrapped around a book. I don't understand why you continue to be such cheap bastards who refuse to purchase some more effective protection when mailing books to people. Please stop.

Really just stop.

I mean how much time does it take to wrap that book that way? And I can only imagine Saran Wrap in the kitchen. Is that where you wrap your books? A Pall Mall dangling from your lips (I can smell the tobacco on the book) and a roll of Saran Wrap in your hand staring down at the next book to be shipped out? Please I don't want to think about the books I have to process as being in any way related to the leftover casserole in your fridge. but both are wrapped in the same stuff on the same counter.

You need to go to the UPS store or Staples and buy some bubble-wrap. At least for those packages you send to the library.

Extra Extra

2008-03-10T12:34:00.002-04:00

As to not interfere with news of amputation, I'm adding this personal note from the March 9, 1889 issue of Publishers Weekly as it's own post:

PERSONAL NOTES

CHARLES W. BURROWS, President and Harris B. Burrows, General Manager of the Burrows Brothers Co., Cleveland, are in the city for a few days, making the Murray Hill Hotel their headquarters.

All Amputation Post

2008-03-10T12:21:00.002-04:00

From Publishers Weekly, March 9, 1889:

GEORGE S. BLANCHARD, a well-known book dealer in Cincinnati, died at that city February 21 from the effect of amputation of one of his arms.

We regret to learn that "Bob" Wright, a well-known clerk at Robert Clarke's book-store, met with a frightful accident while stepping from a train at his home, in Maplewood, a week ago. In some manner Wright slipped, and his left foot got under the wheels. The member was fearfully mangled, and it was found necessary to amputate the limb at the knee in order to save his life. The accident will incapacitate him for duty for several months.

Lost skills

2008-03-02T15:58:00.002-05:00

I should be doing something else, but I want to master all the obsolete skills listed here.

Some skills I already possess*:

Adjusting rabbit ears on top of a TV

Adjusting tracking on a VCR

Balance tonearm on a turntable

Changing the ball or ribbon on your Selectric Typewriter

Darning a sock

Formatting a floppy

Rewinding a cassette tape using a Bic pen

*Instructions for all tasks listed on site. Go look now.

found on Boing Boing

Monday, Monday

2008-02-25T12:37:00.002-05:00

That means time for news reports from long ago . . .

This time we'll be quoting from the Feb 29, 1896

HENRY HOLT & Co. announce "Emma Lou, Her book," edited by Mis Mary M Mears. It is the diary, during her sixteenth year, of an ingenious Western girl, who by her highly serious and lofty views of life supplies an unconscious element of humor.

MR. AUSTIN, assistant librarian, in cataloguing the fine Dante collection presented to Cornell University b Prof. Willard Fiske, found some live bookworms in an edition of the "Divine Comedy" bearing the date MDXXXVI. "This is the third time only," according to the New York Evening Post, "that these rare insects have been found in an American library. Carefully removing the worms, which were eating from front to back, and had only reached the front pages of the 'Inferno,' Mr. Austin took them to Prof. Comstock of the entomological department. There, after making sure that they were genuine bookworms, they were developed, and, having secured the beetles, they were bred from until there were sufficient eggs, bookworms and beetles for the university museum, and enough more to make Mr. Austin a present of a good-sized vial of each."

And on the news that Reed Elsevier is looking to sell Reed Information and that our beloved Publishers Weekly may go completely online. . . we will accept it as rumor until we hear otherwise.

Until next week. . .

How to do the how to do things that you do

2008-02-25T09:05:00.002-05:00

Via Shelf Awareness, which you should be reading every day-

The Bookseller magazine has announced the shortlist for the Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year:

I Was Tortured By the Pygmy Love Queen

How to Write a How to Write Book

Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues

Cheese Problems Solved

If You Want Closure in Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs

People who Mattered in Southend and Beyond: From King Canute to Dr Feelgood

want more? Including short descriptions of the book mentioned above, and a chance to vote? Go here.

Pure print

2008-02-20T09:11:00.002-05:00

From the current issue of Shelf Awareness:

"Ah, the smell of pure print."--Spoken after a deep breath by a 10-year-old boy as he came into the Harry W. Schwartz Bookshop in Mequon, Wis., on Monday. The moment "made me smile along with the customers and booksellers who saw and heard him," Pattie Cox of Schwartz wrote, adding that Monday was the boy's birthday, and his parents had brought him to the store for a treat.

It has that "hang in there" feeling to it. And sometimes we need to see that kitten urging us to stay the course.

Feel like a librarian

2008-02-14T09:06:00.004-05:00

Even though I've been here close to a year(!), this announcement is the first time I feel like an honest-to-goodness librarian.

Marketing.

For me.

The questionable characters news from long ago

2008-02-11T12:59:00.000-05:00

it's Monday and that means time for some news from long ago.

Today's entry was part of Publishers Weekly #1620, the Valentine's Day edition from 1903.

PUBLISHING DIFFICULTIES IN TURKEY

ALL printing establishments in Turkey according to a new law just passed, may have only one door, and that opening on to the street. Windows must be covered with close-meshed wire netting, so that no papers can be handed through. A statement must be made a year in advance of the amount of ink required, which will be supplied by the state. A specimen of everything printed is to be kept, and must be shown at any time to a police inspector on pain of a fine.

NOTES ON AUTHORS

"ANGUS McNEILL," whose nationality and identity have been questioned, is said to come of a hunting family and lives near Evesham, in Worcestershire. He is said to be a sportsman himself, and to have been for a number of years a resident of England.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

THE order of arrest obtained by David Belasco for Mrs. Bertram Babcock ("Onoto Watanna") was vacated on the 6th inst. by Justice Leventritt, in the Supreme Court, because of proof of affidavit that a sufficient cause of action existed was defective.

E.P. DUTTON & Co. have just published "The Truth and Error of Christian Science," by M. Carta Sturge, a Cambridge graduate, with a preface by Canon Scott Holland. Some of the conclusions are not altogether flattering to the cause of Christian Science, but they are of undoubted significance as they author has given the matter very serious study.

PICK-UPS

THE impression is certainly bound to grow that there exists some wag in the remote regions of the undefined West who amuses himself by sending in unconscionable orders to staid publishers in the East. The latest instance is the receipt by Harper & Bros. of an order for "Napoleon, the Last Faze of Rosenberg," and :Heroine of Affection," by Howls.

Thought organization

2008-02-10T19:49:00.000-05:00

Taking a break from creating ISBDs for my Descriptive Cataloging class.
Switch windows from Cataloger's Desktop to Google reader.
Cleaned out most of the reference posts.
"Unread" some of the articles I wanted to look at later on FRBR, copyright (have first copyright class for WP690a on Thursday), and e-books.
Then I read an article on Publishing 2.0 that I looked at earlier and decided I didn't have the headspace to sit and read the whole article. Decided the looks of 1,000 word entry was just too much earlier in the day.

But then I stopped, focused on the article and read the whole thing through.

The article was on a change from linear thought to networked thoughts. The article is a really short essay by Scott Karp on how he no longer reads linear literature and relates it to Evan Schnittman's article from earlier this week about using an e-reader on a plane and how convenient it is, but still gave Evan something to think about in terms of the publishing biz and e-readers. he also goes in to the recent NEA study that people aren't reading (books) anymore.

At least with the NEA article he points out that the NEA is only considering printed. complete books.

I was passive in my reading of the article, since I read 1-3 articles from publishing/ content bloggers (sorry, I can't think of a better descriptor right now, but it is only there to define the point of publication, in comparison to a reprint of an article from paper media), until I came upon this:

We still retain an 18th Century bias towards linear thought. Non-linear thought — like online media consumption — is still typically characterized in the pejorative: scattered, unfocused, undisciplined.

And that's when I had to respond here as things began clicking for me.

This is something that's I've been thinking about, especially when talking to my students in my e-publishing class. In the surveys they fill out at the beginning of the semester they admitted they don't read online. This is the second semester I've used the survey and the students have responded that they don't read online. I always read the results as the students saying they don't read complete books online. But after going over the basic expectations for class, it turns out most of the students weren't using any kind of RSS reader or bookmarking sites.

Jump:

So here are my students- graduate students for an esteemed publishing program who were eager to learn about e-publishing and I was feeling a giant disconnect with them. It wasn't until reading Scott's article that I realized I've been working on "networked" thought for the past 5 years and I have this preconceived notion that most digital natives have had the same kind of training, but it's become apparent to me that linear reading/ linear thought is more than the predominant method of "learning." Even for students who have always know e-mail, online library catalogs, online articles, blogs, they still generally view this material in a linear fashion.

And there's the rub. How many people have left behind linear thought? It's a hard jump to make as we spend most of our schooling training to be linear. I don't think it's something natural, but necessary as all our information was constructed in a line for the past few hundred years. Now that we no longer rely on linear construction, we need to start thinking about learning in a non-linear fashion and I don't think it's as easy as the internet would have us believe.

Back to simpler times . . .

2008-02-04T12:46:00.000-05:00

It's Monday and that means time to look at some breaking stories from the 19th Century, courtesy of Publishers Weekly.

This week's news comes from issue 1358, February 5, 1898.

LAIRD & LEE, Chicago, have issued a useful "Combination Memorandum Book" for the vest-pocket. It contains a calendar for 1898 and 1899, identification card, reminders for daily use, help in accidents, weather signals, poison antidotes, postal rates, interest laws and tables, population of States and cities, value of foreign coins, electoral votes, presidents, States and territories, wars of the United States, weights and measures, cash book, etc.

A MAN who gives himself all sorts of famous names and represents himself as the son of any number of distinguished men, but who has lately appeared as Edward Epps, and has described himself as the brother-in-law of Alma Tadema, has been swindling New Yorkers prominent in literature or art out of all sorts of commodities, ranging from a good square meal to considerable sums of money. Mr. Epps is a young man, slight in build, with a pale complexion and blond hair and moustache. Sometimes a consumptive cough forms part of his stock in trade.

FRANCIS P. HARPER, New York, has in press an illustrated work of considerable interest to book-lovers, librarians, and naturalists, entitled "Facts about Bookworms, their history in literature and work in libraries," by rev. J.F. O'Conor, S.J., former librarian of Georgetown College. The author has gathered a vast amount of curious information about these destructive little creatures and skillfully interwoven them with anecdotes and quotations from ancient and modern writers. No less that 72 specimens of various kinds of bookworms have been discovered and studied under the microscope. The appendix consists of entomological notes. The entire edition is limited to 750 numbered copies.

SCRANTON, PA.- W.H. Anderson, bookseller, is selling out.