Gutter Type

There be Pirates!

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:00:00 +0000

The Millions posted an interview with a book pirate on January 25,2010. The interview leads off with a criticism of the Attributor study that states pirated e-books may costs the market nearly $3 billion dollars,* while The Millions questions this value, they do point our that the study did identify 3.2 million downloaded books. C Max Magee set out to find one of these pirates and found a willing interviewee with The Real Caterpillar. The interview is an eye-opening account of what happens when book-lovers start sharing texts through torrents and the reasoning behind their decisions.

The most important thing for publishers is the last question in the interview:

TM (the Millions): What changes in the e-book industry would inspire you to stop participating in e-book file sharing?

TRC (The Real Caterpillar): This is a tough question. I guess if every book was available in electronic format with no DRM for reasonable prices ($10 max for new/bestseller/omnibus, scaling downwards for popularity and value) it just wouldn’t be worth the time, effort, and risk to find, download, convert and load the book when the same thing could be accomplished with a single click on your Kindle.(emphasis added) Even in this situation, I would probably still grab a book if I stumbled across the file and thought it might interest me – or if I wanted to check it out before buying a paper copy....

Perhaps if readers were more confident that the majority of the money went to the author, people would feel more guilty about depriving the author of payment. I think most of the filesharing community feels that the record industry is a vestigal organ that will slowly fall off and die – I don’t know to what extent that feeling would extend to publishing houses since they are to some extent a different animal. In the end, I think that regular people will never feel very guilty “stealing” from a faceless corporation, or to a lesser extent, a multi-millionaire like King.

Sidestepping the ethical holes in the argument since the interviewee is well aware that his defense is faulty, it's important to point out that this person finds spending several hours to scan and proof text before uploading it to a site is easier than dealing with the DRM and business model publishers have constructed for the distribution of e-books. Publishers need to keep this in mind when they talk about e-book piracy as there's no financial gain for these people just financial loss for the industry.

*The report does not give a time frame for this cost nor is it exactly clear what prices they used to achieve this value. For example one of their most pirated books in the science category is Molecular Biology of the Cell which has a hardcover list price of $152.00, a paperback of $97.73 and no e-book price. Which price was used and is that price different from the one used for books that have an e-book available? More transparency on their methodology would be helpful if we are to trust their conclusions from their report.

A publishing meme I can get behind

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:35:00 +0000

Tomorrow Museum starts their article on how self-publishing can make sense for some authors with this quote from Virginia Woolf:

Books ought to be so cheap that we can throw them away if we do not like them, or give them away if we do. Moreover, it is absurd to print every book as if it were fated to last a hundred years. The life of the average book is perhaps three months. Why not face this fact? Why not print the first edition on some perishable material which would crumble to a little heap of perfectly clean dust in about six months time? If a second edition were needed, this could be printed on good paper and well bound. Thus by far the greater number of books would die a natural death in three months or so. No space would be wasted and no dirt would be collected.

The article cites it via Snarkmarket via The New Yorker. The original quote comes from a 1927 BBC radio broadcast between Virginia and Leonard Woolf. A quick search shows that the broadcast or script isn't readily available on the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg or the BBC.

I once tried to propose this concept to some publishing people and they proceeded to inform me that it makes very little economic sense for the book as the first 12 months of publication are when publishers need to make back as much money as possible on the first edition of the book. Publishers need to sell hard covers at as high a price point as possible to recoup the advance and cost of labor and shipping (oh and sending out all those ARCs and finished copies for review). They also proceeded to tell me that most book buyers want the hardcover to showcase on their bookshelf after reading. A paperback or cheap edition would look horrible on a bookcase. Of course I should point out, in order to cut costs, most of the paper trade publishers use is a little better than the 3-months Woolf talks about.

Running Press Archives

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:58:00 +0000

Where do publishing documents go when they die?

In the case of Philadelphia publisher, Running Press, all that documentation is headed off to the University of Pennsyvania. According to an article on Publishers Weekly website by Jim Milliot (January 11, 2010), former publisher, Buz Teacher has donated an "archive [that] includes a complete catalogue of Running Press titles as well as correspondence, contracts, business records and advertising and promotional brochures. This could be a potential boon to all researchers looking to research non-traditional publishers during the last 30 years of the 20th Century. Running Press's main product line included heavily illustrated books, mini editions and kits.

Harper's Index and Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:06:00 +0000

Based on a post on Boing Boing today, I went over to the Harper's Index webpage" and input the search term "publishing".

Here are a few of the facts on publishing that have appeared in the Index over the years:

Number of science books published in the United States in 1972: 16,923.
In 1982: 7,900 (August, 1984)

Number of book publishers in the United States in 1972: 1,205
In 1982: 2,001 (March 1985)

The number of titles published in 2006, according to Bowker: 291,920

Number of books published last year in Iceland and the United States, respectively, per 100,000 residents: 212, 63 (June, 2005)

How E-Books Will Change Reading and Writing

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:34:00 +0000

Change must be coming!

On December 30th, NPR's Morning Edition had a five-minute segment on about electronic literature. The segment covered twitter novels (well, just Rick Moody's failed attempt), phone novels from Japan and e-readers. What really turned me off from the segment was this quote from Nicholas Carr:

"Over the last couple of years, I've really noticed if I sit down with a book, after a few paragraphs, I'll say, 'You know, where's the links? Where's the e-mail? Where's all the stuff going on?' " says writer Nicholas Carr. "And it's kind of sad."

I assume he's being tongue-in-cheek here, but I still find it misdirected. It's another example of how mainstream media and our cultural critics have decided to ignore some of the foundations of information literacy and equate all formats as one.

The rest of the segment isn't any better. Rick Moody and Lev Grossman both look at new technology (twitter and mobile phones) and basically point out thier short-comings to the novel. Apples and oranges. When are we going to start hearing from people who are actually creating unique and powerful material on these new formats rather than traditional crafters who are comfortable with old media and are hesitant to really experiment. (How do you have a conversation in twitter? Easy. Two accounts and use the reply function.) At least the segment didn't end pointing to e-readers as the great innovation in this field. It just ended with the stock "woe is the novel, who knows if it will survive this latest change and still be the major cultural center it has been for the past 500 years."

Who buys books on Christmas Day?

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:59:00 +0000

I've tried to ignore the articles for the past few days but now that academics have started to send this around en masse to their associates (and I'm sure to see this a few more times once winter break is over), I want to point out a few things about this news story from the Guardian.

Who is on the computer buying books from Amazon on Christmas Day?

There's not much to do with a Kindle after buying it other than adding books. And since you can do it on the machine, there's no need to go to the computer and isolate yourself from the family.

This article's only source of information on this is a press release Amazon sent.

Amazon isn't releasing hard data, just a statement that this happened. I would like to see the sales figures and maybe have some investigative reporting rather than reiteration from a company touting it's device.

This passes for journalism today?

To confuse things a little bit more, they waste space with descriptions that have absolutely no bearing on the story. Check out the last paragraph:

The Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury made the 2009 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack available as an e-book for the first time this year, while Penguin has been selling a range of its classics in electronic form with extra features such as contemporary recipes.

Unless Bloomsbury has changed their name to "Harry Potter publisher Bloomsbury," I have no idea why they mention a series that isn't available in e-book format (and may never be) in a sentence about an almanack. Unless the journalist thought a reference to Harry Potter would add punch to the item. Also can't wait for those recipes that come with "The Picture of Dorian Gray", A Clockwork Orange, and On the Road (Chris Croissant of Penguin Digital's three favorite Penguin Classics according to the Penguin Classics UK book shop).

It's going to be an interesting year on the e-book front.

Business sense and snow

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:22:00 +0000

I found this title on Books 24x7 today and thought it the natural conclusion to these types of business books:
Everything I Needed to Know About Business...I Learned from a Canadian 2nd Edition. Where can you go from here?

Indie Music and publishing

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:26:00 +0000

Over the weekend I read through Bill Wasik's And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture, which ended up being another title in a long line of books that try to grasp the push and pull of 21st Century culture. It expands upon the birth and growth of memes and fits on the bookshelf stocked with titles like The Tipping Point, Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds, The Black Swan, and Here Comes Everybody.

The second chapter of the book covers Indie rock and how most new bands have become disposable. Throughout the chapter Wasik follows the hot bands of 2006 knowing full well they would disappear as quickly as people became aware of them (these bands fits the thesis of the book perfectly, and therefore, made a great case study). He follows the North Carolina group the Annuals (who it turns out have 2 albums and a handful of eps available) as well as Peter Bjorn and John. Wasik spends the chapter deep in rock snob territory, name-checking pitchfork media, SXSW, CMJ, tapes 'n tapes, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (a bands I couldn't remember why I had their MP3s until I heard them and remembered it was the band that sounded like David Byrne, but I quickly grew tired of and returned to listening to the Talking Head and David Byrne albums I have), add hip band of 2006 in here. So, why do I keep thinking back to this chapter? Is it because I've been spending time at home rearranging my music and I keep finding these odd songs here and there that I have no idea what they are (hint: I take a listen and end up filing them in the random Indie Rock folder I created. See: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). It's funny because I can identify most of the other stray artists and put them in the right folder (and we're talking about a mix of artists I pulled from someone's 78 collection posted online as well as old country and remnants of an obsession with bollywood). But why has this happened to indie rock? It wasn't always this way. I remember bands in the 90s making at least two or three albums before disappearing (I know there were tons of bands that made a blip and left, but they still seemed to have some fan base that would listen to them for years after the fact. I still want to find a copy of Bash and Pop's album). But I digress. Maybe Bill Wasik's theory about the indie rock scene is right, it's not the bands but the audience. We've become so accustom to instant new music we don't stick around to develop a taste for any one band.

The chapter also focuses on how we treat authors the same way. All the young authors are treated as flavors of the month and not taken as seriously as established authors like John Updike and Philip Roth. I'm going to skip the issues I have with using a poll from the New York Times Book Review to show preference for older authors, and just point out that these young bucks that the author identifies are David Foster Wallace, Zadie Smith, William T. Vollman, Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, etc. You know authors who have received some of the highest advances from publishers, have movies of their works, and have received grants awards etc over the past 10 years. Yes these authors may not be viewed on the same level as Morrison, Updike and Roth by the writers, critics and editors that the New York Times Book Review decided were prominent, but they still are well known in the literary world. We're still talking The Police, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Phish to The Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Who (we will also ignore that most of the discussion on literature, music and memes takes place in the trapping of upper class hip urban and suburban centers or what most media still considers the mainstream consumer).

So the point of this ramble is that you know what we need a new model that allows young writers to be discovered, consumed and forgotten. The literary magazines aren't strong enough to do it themselves. We need a MySpace of literature (as much as it pains me to write that), some place all of those hundreds of MFA students in programs around the country can share ideas and stories and find an audience. Something for literary fiction the same as the resources out there for science and speculative fiction. If there is something already out there (and not livejournal or blogs or any site that keeps stories by different authors separated) then let me know. And before you sneer yes I understand that authors will never have the same model as bands because reading is no longer in fashion with most people, except for those Twillight, Harry Potter things that everyone reads. Besides we might see a revitalization in reading in the mainstream if e -reading devices and book clubs continue to be cool (or have we started to adopt "off the chain" now? I don't remember. I'm just going to go back to waiting for The Beatles to be relevant again.)

Google Codex Project?

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:52:00 +0000

Found while reading James O'Donnell's Avatars of the Word: From Papyrus to Cyberspace. This from Nicholas of Tyre, writing in the 14th C. on those blasted printed books that were starting to be in vogue:

They have chopped up the text into so many small parts, and brought forth so many concordant passages to suit their own purpose that to some degree they confuse both the mind and the memory of the reader and distract it from understanding the literal meaning of text.

The irony is that I wanted to copy this quote and went to Google Books to highlight it and copy it but was blocked and could only see a small part of the text, so I had to pull my dead tree copy out as well to make sure I had the whole passage.

Every book is an island in a archipelago (for now)

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:13:00 +0000

Over at the e-book test, Mike Cane had a very short post called, "The Eleven Axioms of 21st Century Book Publishing." It takes all of a minute to read and should be the signpost for any publisher starting to build an electronic infrastructure for their traditional print material.

My personal favorite is number 6. I think the first 8 axioms are key to changing the trade publishing industry.

You're talking alot...

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:38:00 +0000

Last spring one of my students came to me with a great research idea: look at comments and online commentary with an eye towards how it relates to what we consider traditional publishing. She developed a proposal and spent the summer working on the project (as a blog, naturally).

I got an e-mail from Kerry last week to let me know that the project started getting retweeted by Richard Nash, formerly of Soft Skull Press.

The site was also picked up by Utne! I'm really glad her work has been recognized outside the small world of academia (which some days feels like 5 people).

Congratulations Kerry!

Howdy, Stranger!

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Silence. It's the number one problem with weblogs these days. Turns out blogs have suffered from silence this year as people have been busy doing other things. I just checked on guttertype and it's been subsisting on 3 posts since January.

So, dear reader (all two or three of you out there), I hope to start posting more here in the next few weeks, but I can't guarantee that.

Where have I been? I've been a little busy with things. Things I should have posted here while they were happening, but never got around to it. So here's the update on what I've been up to.

Simmons Library

In September, 2008 I received a professional grant to buy an Amazon Kindle to develop a pilot study to see how useful these ebooks are in an academic library. Part of the requirement of this grant was outreach to the community. During the spring semester I gave a short presentation on the Kindle to the Simmons GSLIS Graduate Student chapter of the Special Library Association and a Technology for Information Professionals (LIS 488) class. I also had a few one-on-one meetings with students and faculty about the reader and what they could mean for academics. My presentation for the LIS488 class can be found at slideshare.net.I also wrote an article for the Fall 2008 Simmons Library newsletter, "Rekindling your Interest in Ebooks" that introduced some of the issues involved with e-readers.(warning PDF format only!)

I also created my first library display in January for our DVD collection. This involved creating posters and pamphlets as well as pulling books and DVDs for the display. I have three photos of the display on flickr (yes, those are movie-size boxes of Junior Mints and Jujy Fruits as part of the display. I also wanted to try and get a popcorn machine, but stopped with the candy. I remember reading somewhere that popcorn and libraries do not mix.

Grad School

Yup. Still in grad school until the end of the year. I spent most of the spring working on an XML project that was part of a workflow to create focused Subsidiary Rights Guides using MySQL, PHP and XML. Again this is only the XML part of it. The completed project will be a dynamic webpage that take data from a database, publish it with XML tags and have it available as an HTML or PDF document for publishers interested in licensing books.

Other Library Stuff

Okay, if a job and classes weren't enough I also started to present at conferences this spring. In March I gave a Cyber Zed Shed presentation on "Tweeting in the Library: Libraries Using Twitter" at the ACRL National Convention in Seattle. (Presentation can be found on slideshare as well.). Two weeks later I was in Washington DC giving a presentation on "The Stuff We Make: Librarians using Institutional
Repositories" at Computers in Libraries. (Presentation, here.) I also started to review tech books for LS publications. I reviewed books for The Tech Static while it was publishing. (I miss that journal, what a great idea for a site for librarians). I also had a review of Bank on Yourself in the May, 1 issue of Library Journal. My first review for The Journal of Web Librarianship appeared in vol. 3, no. 2. I reviewed Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries: Librarians and Educators in Second Life and Other Multi-User Virtual Environments, edited by Lori Bell and Rhonda Trueman.

I also gave the keynote at the 2009 CET Symposium at Smith College in May. The theme of the symposium was "The digital scholar" and I discussed the intersection of copyright, ownership and community in online publishing.

Let's see, anything else.... oh yeah, starting September 1, I will be a full-time faculty member at Emerson College.

I'm also on Twitter if you want to follow me there.

Why do blog have a higher failure rate than restaurants?

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:40:00 +0000

...and does it really matter?

And what about Twitter? You thought blogs were easy... I'm posting more but in 140 characters on Twitter, so I wonder the effects of that on blogging?

Blogs Falling in an Empty Forest looks at the state of blogs as the half-finished novel in your closet or furniture in your garage that needs to be sanded and repainted. From the article:

"Like Mrs. Nichols, many people start blogs with lofty aspirations — to build an audience and leave their day job, to land a book deal, or simply to share their genius with the world. Getting started is easy, since all it takes to maintain a blog is a little time and inspiration. So why do blogs have a higher failure rate than restaurants?"

If you look at blogs as an enterprise it looks horrible, but if you compare it to other creative outlets, not so bad. I mean not every person taking cooking classes wants to open a restaurant, so just want to entertain.

via Resource Shelf

A Creative Commons tale

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 22:48:00 +0000

I use a lot of creative commons photos in my presentations for class. just from the creative commons search on the advanced search on Flickr I've been able to find professional photos to illustrate most of my topics. So I put most of my photos on Flickr under the same license. I follow the pay it forward with copyright credo. Well I just found out that schmap.com asked to use one of my photos for their Boston Harbor Cruises. Of course I said yes. At least it's being used. My creative commons photo is there under Boston Harbor Cruises. So there you go.

(And no, I'm not planning on changing Clare's pictures to creative commons. I thought about it, but until I can get Clare to sign a model's release, I don't think I'll be able to have her pictures out there for general use. For now you can just check out the FebruBEARy set.)

Brief discussion on Kindle at TWIM

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:51:00 +0000

Finally catching up on the podcasts from December this week.

I caught episode 120 of This Week in Media to find that their first story was about a New York Times article on the Amazon Kindle from December 23rd by Brad Stone and Mitoko Rich. The most interesting part of the discussion is the personal opinions these early adopter/ media savvy people have about the device and how their comments are in line with a lot of what I hear from people who use the library's device. I'm beginning to think that Amazon really created a great reader to get my parents comfortable with digital books.

The discussion is only about 10 minutes long at the most. After that the show goes back to focusing on the media they usually talk about- TV, film, online video, etc.

Here's the direct link to the show- TWIM 120

Another update on Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:30:00 +0000

This post will be mostly all about some discussions I had about starting to have people use the Kindle in the library. This may be interest for those librarians who love to create policy and want to see what others are doing with the Kindle.

So, a breakdown of the meeting.

Literature Guide- I'm at work on pulling together a guide to the literature on e-books and kindles that maybe helpful in developing a policy. My rough outline for the guide would look something like this:
- user's guides
- Blogs/sites/ forums
- sources of content
- Uses/ Issues of use in library
- Evaluation of services
- Library Policies

PDFs I've been using Stanza to convert some PDFs into ama-mobi format and they're horrible. What are our other options. I will try Amazon's service to see what it's like.

use of device within the library. Who will use it? what content will be on it? We need to investigate this further but we also want staff to start playing with the device. We have a tentative roll out of the device:
- Megan and John- original testers.
- Library staff- Thanksgiving to Jan 1 at the very least.
- Faculty and GSLIS next semester at the earliest. Arealistic push would be to have everything in place by March.
- Patron- the summer at the earliest, maybe the fall semester

Issues that still need to be discussed and researched. I will have a better understanding of some of these topics once I get deeper in to my literature review (I hope).
- Access services, including loan periods, storage/ charging, use (in library only?), fees for damage/ loss, accessibility
- Cataloging- the device and the content
- Copyright and use concerns
- Acquisition- who buys content? How do we provide content? How do we handle requests? What account should the device be attached to?
- Marketing of the device in the library- posters? announcements on the main page of the library? Mention of the availability by selectors at department meetings?
- surveys for use of the device

What happens when we de-select a device from an Amazon account? Does the content remain?

How is audio on the device? Need to add an audio book on the device.

What are other libraries doing?

Kindle- not today

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:24:00 +0000

So no update in a while since the semester is in full swing.
I was able to finish The Story of Edgar Sawtelle on the Kindle. I found the experience about the same as reading a book. The awkwardness of holding a 1000 page tome was equal to holding a device that kept flipping forward a page based on the placement of the buttons. So it's a tie between the p-book and the e-book reader. The look on the screen was about the same as on a printed page. No feeling of fatigue like reading off a computer screen. It's pretty much the same experience between both types of books. I'll say this, the Kindle's dictionary was one of those extra bonuses I looked forward to, but I found it lacking. Edgar Sawtelle has several sections in the book that focus on etymology, and the built-in dictionary failed to define several of the words. Again I find the two types equal since the slim advantage of having a built-in dictionary is offset by the frustration of spending the time looking up words that aren't available and still having to go to another dictionary.

So my reading experience on the Kindle was pretty much the same as reading a printed book. That makes the Kindle=fail. For ~~$450~~ $359 (ed: see correction to price in comments below) plus the cost of books, the Kindle needs to offer more. Is the fact that you don't have to physically carry around books worth $450? Other than the benefit of not having to haul physical books, I don't see any compelling reason to use a Kindle.

Kindle shorthand notes

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:40:00 +0000

I know I'll probably not get around to several full reports about the Kindle until well after I've grown bored with it. Here are some initial reactions and thoughts as I continue to use it.

-One week now and I have yet to recharge it. It could be that I don't use the whispernet.
-The experience of reading on the Kindle is like reading a printed page. Yes it's true, the e-ink page is a real improvement over previous readers. But that's not a ringing endorsement for the device. I mean it's basically saying, "Hey for $400 you can get a device that give you the same readability as a $20 book." The screen itself is not enough for me to say this is a real advance from the printed page
-The storage on the other hand is nice. I do like that I don't have to carry around an 800 page book. I like the idea that you can carry around several books on one device. That's a definite plus if you're someone who constantly carries around several books.
-I like the "buttons" that allow you to go forward a "page." When I first saw the device I thought the design was ugly (I still think it's ugly), and the buttons kinda silly. But being able to use the side of my hand to move forward is nice, especially on the T (no balancing acts while flipping a page).
-But at the same time I keep flipping pages since there's not a great way to hold the device without hitting a button.
-What happens when you deregister a device?
-Today while waiting on the T, I noticed that the text was a little pixel-y. I'm not sure if it was the battery power, the sun or the angle I was holding the device but it was strange. It wasn't that way during the commute, just those 5 minutes in that one spot.
- PDF problem. I'm going to see what Amazon's conversion does with the PDF, but so far the material I've read using Stanza.
-Questions for library policy:

Access

lending policy

loan period

billing for lost damaged items

bar code

storage

charging of device

loading content on device

Acquisitons

payment for content

accounting of payment

other financial issue

Cataloging

record for device

record for content

necessary fields for MARC records

OCLC records

same record as print?

display in OPAC

other access points

Okay, that's it for now...

Kindle- Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:29:00 +0000

About two months ago I was asked to participate in the development of a professional staff grant for the college on getting Amazon Kindles. Earlier this month the grant committee approved our grant request for two Kindles.

The idea behind the grant was to start playing with Kindles to see what issues and problems they present to a library. We also hope to explore the opportunities electronic readers may present.

The Kindles arrived today! And we added 4 titles from Amazon as samples.

I took one of the Kindles home and used Stanza to upload some PDFs for reading on the Kindle.

I hope to start using this blog to record my experiences with the kindle.

Initial reactions:

The reading experience is really smooth. I started reading The Story of Edgar Sawtell on my ride home and quickly read through several pages. The reading experience is even better than I thought. I know e-ink provided an experience well beyond what the old e-readers did, but I'm still surprised at how nice it looks on the screen.
Converting PDF is going to be a big issue. Stanza does not do a great job and Amazon's conversion is "experimental." I'll have to try Amazon's conversion later. Stanza does provide a way to get the content on the screen but all the formatting is lost or altered. This is not a fault of Stanza as it is a beta program and I will continue to use it for the trial period, but it's still not ideal and not something I would feel comfortable using on a device I would lend out to patrons.
Staff seem interested in using the Kindle. I was surprised how many people just wanted to hold the device. There's still a strong sense of novelty about the device. I hope to quickly get beyond that response and see how the reader is as a work-horse.

I'm planning on bringing in the camera tomorrow and taking some pictures of the Kindle in it's holding area before we release it into the wild.

late news from yester year

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:00:00 +0000

I meant to publish this last week, but never got around to it...
Anyway, some news from September 4, 1897 from the esteemed publication, Publisher's Weekly [no. 1336].

NOTES ON AUTHORS

VLADIMIR TCHERTKOFF, a disciple of Tolstoi, will soon have finished a work on "spirit Wrestlers of Russia."

MRS. CRAIGE has finished her novel, "The School of Saints," which will be published in the early autumn by T. Fisher Unwin. The story refers to political life in the middle of the century, and one of the characters is modeled, so it is said, on an eminent politician of the time.

JOURNALISTIC NOTES

BYRON'S sword, which he wore in the Greek revolution, was saved from the Chicago fire by Mrs. Keith, and now hangs in her library in Chicago. A picture of it appears in the September Scribner's, to accompany Mrs. Sanborn's article on "Lord Byron in the Greek Revolution."

ONE of the first newspapers to be started in the Klondike region will be owned and operated by a Chicago woman. Mrs. Caroline Westcott Romney, who will leave immediately for the Alaskan gold-fields, will take with her a small hand-press and an outfit comprising all the necessities of the newspaper business when conducted on a small scale.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

LAMSON, WOLFFE & CO. have just ready "Ballads of Lost Haven," a book of the sea, by Bliss Carman, whose "Low Tide on Grand Pre" proved that the waters speak to him of many things in the present and hereafter.

C. & E. LAYTON, London, announce "Fires and Public Entertainments," by Edwin O. Sachs, a study of some 1000 notable fires at theatres, music-halls, circus buildings, and temporary structures during the last 100 years.

THE AUTHORS' PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, will issue early in September "Zelma, the Mystic, or, white versus black magic," by Alwyn M. Thurber. The author offers solutions to many all-absorbing questions of the hour. The book will be illustrated.

THE J.B. LIPPINCOTT Co. call attention to two important books. "Getting Gold" by J.F.C. Johnson, is a compendium in specially concrete form of useful information respecting the processes of mining from the soil and after-treatment of gold and gold ores by a life-member of the Australasian Mine-Manager's Association; and "The Metallurgy of Gold," by T. Kirke Rose, Assistant Assayer of the Royal Mint, is ready in a second edition, revised and partly rewritten, with many additional illustrations.

FREDERICK WARNE & CO. have just ready "The Art of Conversing, or, dialogues of the day," by the author of "Manners and Rules of Good Society," in which sample conversations are given for many social occasions, such as chance meetings, dinner parties, ball-rooms, morning calls, etc. Great attention is given to charm of voice and manner, and the writer instructs carefully how it may be acquired with care and observation.

LAIRD & LEE have just ready "The Little Klondyke Nugget," a trustworthy vest-pocket companion for the gold-seeker. It contains the mining laws and regulations of Canada and the United States and a wealth of information on gold-mining in general- in California, at Cripple Creek, etc., as well as in the Klondyke region. The contents of the "Klondyke Nugget" are all well classified and every one starting for the new gold-fields will find this little book thoroughly up to date and a great help.

More diversion titles

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:31:00 +0000

So, here are a second group of potential titles for the Simmons College Diversion Collection. This list is of more books that just came out that I think would be perfect additions to the collection:

Straight from the Source by Kim Osorio

Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston

When I Grow Up by Juliana Hatfield

Janes in Love by Cecil Castellucci

Demons in the Spring by Joe Meno

Man in the Dark by Paul Auster

Click by Bill Tancer

Can You Ever Forgive Me? by Lee Israel

Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley

The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis

So many books. Feel free to add any additional titles to the comments.

I miss those "smokers"

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:52:00 +0000

I'm back from vacation with a bunch of news from last century. This week's report will be from the August 27, 1898 issue of Publishers' Weekly, No. 1387.

NOTES IN SEASON

CHARLES SCRIBNER's Sons will pubish during September "The Goede Vrouw of Mana Hata," by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer, an exhaustive history of the manners and social life in New York City from the time it was founded until the death of the last of the Dutch matrons... Several new juveniles are also ready, including three new books by Henty, and a new edition of Amelia B. Beard's "Girl's Handy Book" and Mary White's "The Book of Games," the latter greatly enlarged.

PERSONAL NOTES

JAMES BOWDEN has just arrived in this country for a short visit by the steamer Teutonic. He comes upon his own account and also in the interest of George Routledge & Sons, and hopes the trade will take notice of his stay among them.

NOTES ON AUTHORS

THE late Gustave Freytag left valuable manuscripts, but unhappy litigation has sprung up between his widow and a son by a former wife as to their possession.

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

P. BLAKISTON & SON, Philadelphia, publish a timely monograph by W.C. Hollopeter upon not only "Hay Fever," the growing plague, but upon "Its Successful Treatment," a claim which many would be happy to believe justified.

AT the next meeting of the Booksellers' League, in September, it is proposed to amend Article 4, Section 1, of the Constitution by increasing dues to such an amount as may be necessary to meet the additional cost in making the monthly meetings informal dinners instead of "smokers." Notice of the day and place of the meeting will be given later.

FIRE was discovered on the top floor of the five-story building at 25 Park Place a little before 5 o'clock, August 23. Two alarms were sounded, and the firemen had the flames under control within half an hour. The fire was confined to the fifth floor, which was burned out. The second, fourth and fifth floors are occupied by E. Steiger & Co. , publishers of kindergarten matter in German and other foreign languages. At the time of the fire half a dozen girls and about twenty men, employed as compositors and bookbinders, were on the top floor. They all escaped safely by the stairs.

"MORALS OF THE MIDLANDS" is the title of a new sporting novel which will be published next spring by Messrs. Hutchinson & Co. It is by Mrs. Kennard, whose busy pen has already produced five-and-twenty novels of sporting interest.

A LIFE of the late C.L. Dodgson, including specimens of some of his earlier compositions and drawings is being prepared by his nephew, S.D. Collingwood. The personality of the author of "Alice in Wonderland" was not well known in his lifetime beyond a narrow circle, but it was one of considerable interest.

When Publishing was a Dangerous Game...

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:44:00 +0000

I'm away from the library for the next week so here's a double-sized portion of news from the wonderful world of Victorian publishing.

From Publishers Weekly, August 16, 1890 [No. 968].

NOT IMMORAL, ONLY TRASH

The Grand Jury, on Tuesday, we learn from the New York Times, refused to indict Manager Patrick Farrelly and two clerks of the American News Company, charged with selling obscene books. Acting District Attorney Bradford and Assistant District Attorney Lindsay sat down one day and read the books- "L'Affaire Clemenceau," "An Actor's Wife," "The Devil's Daughter," "Speaking of Ellen," and "Thou Shalt Not." They marked several passages for the instruction of the Grand Jury and said the books were nothing but trash. The Grand Jury could not find anything in them that would be considered obscene or lascivious.

NOTES ON AUTHORS

A MELANCHOLY AUTHOR went to Dumas and moaned that if he did not raise 300 francs he was afraid he would have to charcoal-smoke himself and his two children. Dumas rummaged his coffers at once, but could only find 200 francs. "But I must have three, or I and the little loves are lost," said the author. "Suppose you only suffocate yourself and one of them, then," said Dumas.

"THE little red house near Lenox, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne lived forty years ago, and wrote some of his best-known works, has been burned. Hawthorne," says Harper's Weekly, "was visited here by Longfellow, his classmate at Bowdoin College, Herman Melville, G. P. R. James, and Fannie Kemble, who lived in the vicinity. There are residents of Lenox who remember the novelist well, and are able to tell of the rambles which he and his literary friends used to take over the country. Hawthorne loved Lenox in the summer, but grew tired of the boisterous Berkshire winters, and soon after returned to the eastern part of the State."

LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES

WARD & DRUMMOND will publish, Sept. 1, a new book by Col. Thos. W. Knox, entitled, "Tetotlar Dick."

ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, 3 East 14th St., N.Y., will issue, September 1, the "Complete Bible in Phonography." It is now 20 years since the last edition was published.

THE Lew Vanderpoole Publishing Co. have just published what they rightly denominate "a literary wonder"- a story by a thirteen-year-old child, Jessie Agnes Andrews. Its name is "Eteocles, a Tale of Antioch," and it is said to be "a picture of the stirring times of persecution."

D. VAN NOSTRAND CO. have just published "Electrical Light Fitting," by John W. Urquhart, an excellent handbook for electrical engineers; "The Naval Annual for 1890," edited by Thomas A. Brassey; and in their Science Series, Frederick Waller's "Practical Dynamo Building for Amateurs."

WARD, LOCK & CO. have just issued "A Dead Man's Diary," by a writer who prefers to remain anonymous, but who is said already to have published essays and stories "that have been received with high appreciation on both sides of the Atlantic." This record of experience in which he was believed to be dead, is written with a serious moral purpose, and the author's teaching, if put into practice, would conduce greatly to the happiness of the world.

NOVELS dealing with the outdoor life are welcome at this season, and a special interest will be felt in the graphic sketches of yachting and of a Canadian athletic contest which appear in the new novel, "Geoffrey Hampstead," just published in the Town and Country Library by D. Appleton & Co. The Author, Thomas Stinson Jarvis, a barrister of Toronto, evidently knows from actual experience the excitement and the perils which he describes so vividly that he should have a sympathetic audience even among those whose interest in outdoor life in indirect.

C.S. PRATT, 155 Sixth Avenue, reports that his bookstore opened a short time ago is proving a successful enterprise. Mr. Pratt firmly believes that the book business can still be made to pay if a bookseller knows his business and is not afraid of hard work. He has little patience with those who sell everything else along with books, and is determined to make his bookstore pay without doing any catering except to the literary tastes of his patrons. We heartily wish him success, and hope his capital of hope and energy will not be too severely drawn upon.

Potential diversion titles

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:20:00 +0000

The library at Simmons has a special borrowing collection called the Diversion Collection. The idea behind the collection is that the library should not only provide the necessary support for academic research but it can supply a few fun reads for students and staff. The Diversion Committee convenes every semester and chooses about 90 books per semester to add to the collection. Everyone on the council gets to suggest about 9 book to add to the collection. In preparation for the coming semester, I've listed the titles I am thinking about submitting to the collection:

The History of Anonymity by Jennifer Chang

Hiding in Hip Hop by Terrance Dean

Grace After Midnight by Felicia Pearson

Soldier's Heart by Elizabeth Samet

Wonder Woman: Love and Murder by Jodi Picoult

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

One Perfect Day by Rebecca Mead

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine

Waiter Rant by Waiter

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

The Night of the Gun by David Carr

Lifehacker by Gina Trapani

Million Dollar Deception by RM Johnson

Free-Range Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

As you can see there are quite a few titles on this list, so I'll need to start narrowing it down to a select 9. Feel free to add any additional titles to the comments.

Free baby, but not open source

noreply@blogger.com (john) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:18:00 +0000

So, someone shared a link with me for Richard Laermer's new book, 2011: Trendspotting for the Next Decade. It mentioned that McGraw-Hill was offering a free copy of the e-book. Intrigued, I went to freebabyfree and found this posted on the site:

Just fill in the form below and you'll get a link to the e-book. The whole book. Not excerpts. There are 77 chapters ~ bound to be something you love~!~

No tricks, no gimmicks, no spam. In 2008, this is the way to publish a groundbreaking book about the future.

Fill in below. We are being as open-source as possible here. Oh and to buy this book as a hardback then log on to Laermer.com.

In order to gain access to the book, you need to provide an e-mail address and they will send you the link to access the book (not necessarily a trick, but why aren't you just providing online access to the thing directly? Why do you need my e-mail address?), so I did so, I got the link e-mailed to me and. . . . the experience was horrible. Why?

Let me count the ways:

I have limited access to the book. Sure I can read the whole book- as long as I do it in a week in their format. (I would define this as a trick).
I need to read the book on the site so I'm stuck reading it on my computer screen thanks to the hosting by zmags.
The page layout make the book unreadable unless you zoom in.
The zoom is so sensitive as to make you feel sick.
The scroll wheel is used to zoom in and out and it's always active. In other words, you can't use a scroll wheel to scroll down a page.
I feel duped because some marketeer misused the term open source to describe the material (Open source means you're giving everyone access to the material in a format that is open for them to manipulate. You want to offer this material locked down in a specific format, fine, it's a valid method of providing access, but don't call it open source).

Did anyone do any usability on this e-book to see what the actual experience of reading it?

I would like to ask Cory Doctorow, Suze Orman, Charles Bock and the various groups working on the epub standard if this is indeed "the way to publish a groundbreaking book about the future" because I certainly thought the rest of the world was getting rid of DRM and freely sharing content with others.

If you want an example of a publishing company really publishing for today, check out Joe Wikert's entry on Thomas Nelson.