tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57324613811940675142024-03-12T15:56:38.086-07:00Content Storage UnitAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-69323642172934172452014-12-17T18:12:00.000-08:002014-12-17T18:12:15.037-08:00Citizen Mom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Within our communities are those who serve, without whom, our lives and communities would be significantly different. Usually their names aren’t on plaques, and their service doesn’t receive recognition, but incrementally their work makes all of our lives better, whether we notice their work or not.<br />
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When my mom was a young mother in the late Sixties, my father was a salesman for several tech companies, and one of his jobs required a move to Florida. It seemed to my mother to be a great opportunity, at least for my dad, but as both my younger and older brother had Down syndrome, and the educational system in Fort Lauderdale in the early Sixties was primitive to say the least (my sister and older brother actually attended a one room schoolhouse), my mother insisted that my father find another job back in their home town of Chicago. He didn’t find one there, but he did find one in the suburbs of Chicago, so we moved back to Illinois .<br />
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We moved to Streamwood, Illinois where yet another sprawling farm had recently been turned into a cookie cutter subdivision. The developer at the time enticed a lot of young families by promising to build a library in the center of the subdivision, right on the end of our street, Library Lane. But that promise wasn’t exactly in writing, other than the brochures they used to sell the lots which aren't exactly legally binding. So after the last house sold, the developer moved on, and the end of my block instead had small field of Queen Anne’s lace where a library was supposed to be. But my mother and several other of the moms in the area didn’t accept that broken promise. Instead they organized to put a petition on the ballot to sell bonds and create a library district along with several other adjoining communities. And it failed. But they also didn’t accept the defeat and re-wrote the referendum, and campaigned harder the second time, going door to door to extol the obvious benefits a library system could provide to the community’s families. And the second time it was on the ballot, it passed. So the Poplar Creek Library District was born. That library that grew out of that field of weeds was where I spent a good portion of my childhood and adolescence, and it is probably one of the primary reasons I’ve spent my entire life devoted to books.<br />
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My mother’s service wasn’t limited to the creation of the Poplar Creek Library District. She also worked with the school district to help set-up some of the first special education programs in our local schools. And for over twenty-five years she served on the Hanover Township Youth Commission which created programs for troubled and at-risk youth in our community. Sure, a lot of what she did she hoped would ensure that my brothers would receive the services that their disabilities required, but she was also influential in bringing mainstreaming to the school district, so that kids with disabilities weren’t segregated from the rest of the kids, and both populations could learn from each other. The kids with disabilities learned important social skills, and the rest of the students learned tolerance and acceptance of those with disabilities.<br />
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Having two brothers with Down syndrome taught me that every kid with a disability, like the rest of us, is different, and their potential shouldn’t be defined by their disability. But my brothers broke a lot of stereotypes about people with disabilities, and I think that’s as much a testament to my mom as it is to them. My brothers both held full time jobs, lived together independently, and my younger brother has been both married and divorced. They have lived on their own since graduating high school. They both even have drivers licenses, though rarely drive. That they have built this life for themselves is probably related to their living together and taking care of each other, but it’s also in no small measure related to my mother’s insistence from the very beginning that they would learn the basic life skills necessary to be independent. Yes, they received support from the ARC and Easter Seals in the form of weekly visits and some job coaches, but those ended decades ago. It was my mother’s insistence that they learn to shop, pay their bills, cook, clean their house, and keep a job, that they have achieved what by most standards is an extraordinarily independent life for people with Down syndrome. My younger brother still lives on his own, and if it weren’t for Alzheimer's and stroke, I suspect my older brother would be too. They, and a lot of people back in our home town benefited greatly from a strong and independent woman who didn’t listen to doctors who recommended institutionalization, who pushed school boards to accept and serve all of our citizens, who volunteered to run boring bi-weekly meetings about setting-up budgets for services for the most vulnerable among us.<br />
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She was an extraordinary woman, who did amazing things. And now she’s gone. My mom passed a couple of weeks ago, and while it has broken my heart, I think more of the thousands of people whose lives she improved with her quiet, boring, determined, bureaucratic, patient insistence that we all deserve a better life. That we all deserve a fair shake. Her work clearly made my brother’s lives better, but I’ve written this for the others who even today benefit from her work. Those who use the Poplar Creek Library, and the shelters for runaways her budgets created, and the special education programs she helped develop. Her anonymous, voluntary legacy that made the place I grew up a better place for everyone. Thanks, Mom. I miss you.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-49688991166368362342014-11-18T16:44:00.001-08:002014-11-19T06:31:08.709-08:00Leaving<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzaJtk_h5dDh6UjsIH0ClcPZSX-1xR7az1Avr-Ux-vdYhn0OjMKIF2zx35p52X5OzN6CagDmgFgC4W3uDsqLFMqcBXbjm6UkRcGb6APr1mO51K6wTaMMnZVE5HWkUutuDlrrdFkUOMDU/s1600/AubreysWorld.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitzaJtk_h5dDh6UjsIH0ClcPZSX-1xR7az1Avr-Ux-vdYhn0OjMKIF2zx35p52X5OzN6CagDmgFgC4W3uDsqLFMqcBXbjm6UkRcGb6APr1mO51K6wTaMMnZVE5HWkUutuDlrrdFkUOMDU/s1600/AubreysWorld.jpg" height="240" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<p>After twenty-five years of living in the same community, I’m finally leaving. Yeah, I know. It’s a little weird, to say the least. Community has always been important to me and I’ve invested a lot in this one. I’ve lived in only two different houses while I’ve been here; one an old one room schoolhouse where I lived for thirteen years, and this larger, more traditional house where we live now with our two kids. And I've had only two jobs, working at the Press and running the bookstore. Because of the transitory nature of the population, living in a university community has made it hard to say I still have friends who I met in those first few years who I will miss. I don’t really. Almost all of my closest friends over the years have already moved away themselves. It seems it’s just part of the DNA of a university community, especially a rural one. And everything’s changed about the place, though not everything looks different. </p>
<p>I was at a party recently and something happened there to me that happens a lot. Someone there recognized me but couldn’t remember from where. I said two words and it all came back to them: Svoboda’s Books. Less than a year after I arrived in the area I went to work for Svoboda’s Scholarly Books and I would end up working there for the next ten years. It was one of the most formative experiences of my life and is probably at the root of some of my most vehement opinions. I would end up becoming a co-owner of the store, and eventually, the decision as to whether to close the community’s only independent bookstore, and an academic bookstore to boot, fell on me, and I closed it. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the only rational one I could make. When that happened I have to admit I was a little mad at the community. How could they have let that happen? What kind of people choose price and convenience over the health and welfare of their intellectual community? Looking back at it, of course I blamed them, the only other explanation was that it was my fault. I think I better understand now that it was a result of what’s commonly referred to as “disruption” and it probably wasn’t either of our faults, but it still hurts. And you can still kind of see the bruise it left.</p>
<p>The other strange part of this is related to the shame a lot of us now feel about the horrors that happened here right under our noses. Horrors that seem to have been going on for a long period of time, yet almost all of us hadn’t a clue. I’ve seen a lot of good people leave since November, 2011, and while I don’t think this exodus from the university is directly a result of the scandal, I suspect it’s a factor. The place has a shadow over it that is going to be here for a while. Maybe forever. This is one of the most bucolic settings I’ve ever seen in my life, the very definition of a pastoral paradise, and yet now, when the words “Happy Valley” are mentioned anywhere in the country, only the most horrific thoughts come to mind. I do not think I will regret walking out from under this dark cloud, but I am clearly not as strong and loyal as those I leave behind.
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<p>That said, I will very much miss this place. I actually do love this university, in spite of its catastrophic failings. We do very good work here, and I really believe we make the rest of the world a better place. And this place is just drop-dead gorgeous. I’ll really miss the redtail hawks and the blue herons, the morels that come up in the spring and the miyataki that come up in the fall, the colts and calves, the fresh eggs and milk with cream on top, the old church on the corner with gravestones older than the university, the black walnuts and sumac lemonade, the mantids, cecropia and saturniid moths, Spring Creek which cuts through our little town, and the stone walls covered in moss that define its boundaries—the fertile though rocky land here that gives rise to all of the beauty at the center of this black-soiled soul of the earth. It’s tearing out a part of me to leave.
</p>
<p>On the other hand, the place we’re moving to is also really pretty wonderful. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I expect there to be a few bumps in the transition. We’ve been dedicated to a rural lifestyle for quite a while, and we’re moving to a city, an actual city, a metropolis of 2 million. Columbus, Ohio is the 15th largest city in the country, larger than Seattle, Denver, and even Boston. And we’ll be right in the heart of the city. We’ll have to start locking our doors, and think a bit more about safety, and we’ll have to get used to being among crowds and stuck in traffic. But as cities go, Columbus seems exceptional. I think we’ll get along. Its downtown has experienced an extraordinary renaissance, and as the largest city in Ohio (yes, it’s bigger than Cleveland and Cincinnati) it’s remarkably well-planned, other than needing some light rail and a few more bike lanes, but I think they’re on it. Being the home of both the capital and one of the largest public universities in the world, the city is filled with incredible cultural resources. We’ll be living within walking distance of the Columbus Art Museum, the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens will be around the corner, and I’ll be working on a campus that hosts one of the most amazing art laboratories in the world: The Wexner Center for the Arts. And you might have heard, they have a zoo. I’m also very excited to be working for Ohio State and the Press. I’ve been really impressed by the press’ staff, and I'm greatly encouraged by the administration's interest in investing in the Press, and growing its program. It’s kind of small in comparison to similar state or CIC presses, considering the size of the parent institution. I think they’re interested in changing that. I also think I'm the right guy for this opportunity. I’ve been doing this publishing thing for a while and I’m rather eager to put some of my knowledge and experience to work in a more direct way. With what I’ve learned about the Press, the University, and the city so far, I really can’t wait to get there and get started as the new director.</p>
<p>So on December 4th, we’ll get in the car and drive out of Happy Valley and into Ohio Country. While I doubt I will forget the many people and places I’ve experienced and learned from here in Pennsylvania, I’m very excited about the place I’m going to, and the people I’m about to learn more about. As the great Columbus writer, James Thurber, once said, “Love is what you've been through with somebody” to which I might add, or with some place.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-5870413864695929882014-02-01T06:33:00.000-08:002014-02-01T14:50:33.604-08:00Ode to a lost bookstore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXk9bqADogjMVSFrYGV0hN27p4mbUkBou20OIdG-5S94Y0GmeIQjyJE3S8-X1pWPTrr-mXmBV-0Wd52QULaNoEjY6oazVCTjwZ03nyd3SFJMRuI2Bg0TRMzFqfVbO0iSKAyJt2LXkB2k/s1600/SvobodasBiography.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcXk9bqADogjMVSFrYGV0hN27p4mbUkBou20OIdG-5S94Y0GmeIQjyJE3S8-X1pWPTrr-mXmBV-0Wd52QULaNoEjY6oazVCTjwZ03nyd3SFJMRuI2Bg0TRMzFqfVbO0iSKAyJt2LXkB2k/s320/SvobodasBiography.jpg" /></a></div>
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What I miss most is of course the books, and the people, and conversations,<br />
and drama, and beer, and more books, and returns, and coffee, and homeless Ed,<br />
and fish on paper plates, and wine, and more books, and textbooks, and dogs,<br />
and office hours, and learning, and poetry, and jokes, and laughs, and kids,<br />
and cigarettes, and cigars, and whiskey and mint, and more books, and ideas,<br />
and scholars, and plants in the window, and greeting cards, and rock stars,<br />
and arguments, and magazines, and students, and more books, and discovery,<br />
and authors, and community, and champagne, and receipts, and computers,<br />
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and then the Internet, and returns, and discounts, and final sales... and then the books were gone.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-28786164590031732912013-11-22T06:29:00.000-08:002013-11-22T06:32:01.708-08:00<h2>
A Mild Case of Bibliomania</h2>
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The publisher R.B. Russell discusses his collection, and his illness.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-66523016311125607642013-07-24T17:47:00.000-07:002013-07-24T18:48:45.762-07:00Pretend Fights<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peapodsquadmom/4005981153/" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Dueling Duo by peapodsquadmom, on Flickr"><img alt="Dueling Duo" height="320" src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2513/4005981153_ece96c0a94_o.jpg" width="277" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Dueling Duo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peapodsquadmom/" id="yui_3_7_3_3_1374712632715_2004" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0063cd; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: none;">peapodsquadmom</a></span></h4>
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There's been a lot of consternation of late over a <a href="http://blog.historians.org/2013/07/american-historical-association-statement-on-policies-regarding-the-embargoing-of-completed-history-phd-dissertations/" target="_blank">controversial policy statement put out by the American Historical Association</a> recommending a 6 year embargo for dissertations of history grads. The rationalization for this recommendation, according to the statement, was the practice of university presses refusing to accept revised dissertations. And it's a very hot controversy indeed, <a href="https://twitter.com/kariek/status/360115389159583744" target="_blank">including a call for the shaming of university presses</a> who do this.<br />
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Now, that's kind of the barebones of the controversy. Professional organization seeks to protect its most vulnerable members from the consequences of a perceived publishing practice. But let's tear this controversy apart, maybe we could learn something from its pieces. Let's first look at the AHA's concern. Do university presses avoid publishing revised dissertations? On the surface<a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?showinfo=ip006" target="_blank"> it might appear they do</a>, but I'm not sure that's actually true. Instead because university presses think that libraries won't buy books they can determine to be revised dissertations, when most university presses find one they want to publish, they scrub all signs of it being a revised dissertation from the manuscript. Remove the thanks to their committee and advisors in the acknowledgements, change the title, pull the anecdotes about grad school from the foreword, that sort of thing, but they still publish it—if it's a great piece of scholarship. Is the fact that it's in an electronic repository a factor? I don't think so, as long as it can be distanced from that original work. If the association with the dissertation will clearly impact sales I think it would be a factor, but if that impact can be mitigated through omission, as it typically is, I don't think it does impact sales. Either way, the upshot of this is university presses pretend they don't publish revised dissertations, but actually they do.<br />
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But that brings us to the next part to consider. Do libraries avoid the purchase of revised dissertations? <a href="http://listserv.crl.edu/wa.exe?A2=ind1305&L=LIBLICENSE-L&D=0&P=10558" target="_blank">I think they do</a>, but if you ask them they will frequently tell you they do not. What I do know is that their largest supplier would like us<a href="https://twitter.com/toekneesan/status/360135691960713216/photo/1" target="_blank"> to tell them if a book is a revised dissertation</a> because it would appear that supplier thinks they do avoid revised dissertations. So perhaps libraries pretend they buy dissertations or their supplier pretends they don't, I'm not quite sure on that one, but it's not a risk that seems worth taking.<br />
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So, because those two parties—the university presses and their customer libraries—aren't really sure what the other is doing, the AHA has, frankly pragmatically, advised their junior faculty members to hide the fact that they have written a dissertation. I think the problem with the AHA's policy is that it assumes university presses are doing something that most are only pretending to do, and that libraries are doing something they may or may not actually be doing, and it encourages their junior faculty members, by limiting access to their graduate work, to also pretend they haven't written a dissertation.<br />
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So, what's at the core of this problem? Perceptions? Yeah, that's a big factor. But the biggest problem is the market. I think most university presses would love to not have to care about the market for the serious scholarship they publish, but as long as their home and administrative institutions (which in some cases is ironically their university library) require that they pay for the majority of what they do with sales revenue, then we will all continue to have to live with this charade and simply because of the market for the content, not because of the quality or origin of the content. We all need to stop pretending. And we need to stop allowing the market to have such a large voice in both the accessibility of the content, and even what gets published, and by extension, who gets tenure and why. Until university presses and the scholarship they produce aren't dependent on capricious market forces, this kind of response to uncertainty will continue. And frankly this pretending is child's play compared to the market impact that Demand Driven Acquisitions is about to have on university press editorial decisions. Then we'll limit what we publish to what's predictably popular at libraries, and no amount of pretending can change that impact on History.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-81178522174652661262013-06-23T17:54:00.002-07:002014-04-29T14:55:51.074-07:002013 AAUP Presentation, Print in a Digital World<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="486" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/23369701" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="597"> </iframe> <br />
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<strong> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/TonySanfilippo/print-in-the-digital-age" target="_blank" title="Print in the Digital Age">Print in the Digital Age</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/TonySanfilippo" target="_blank">Penn State Press</a></strong> </div>
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Slide Notes:</h3>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">title </span>I’d like to talk today about leveraging print in a digital world and while yes, we’re not talking about ebooks—we’re talking about real physical books—we can’t really leave the electronic realm because while these are paper books, they’re digitally printed and distributed.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1 </span>While the difference between offset and digital printing is getting harder to detect in the physical product, the way it changes manufacturing is worth taking a look at, and specifically, worth exploiting.<br />
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So just what are these differences and how might we exploit them, well let’s have a look:<br />
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Digital/Inkjet Printing<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">2 </span>First, there are no plates, which means I don’t have to guess how much I need, I don’t have to print how much I guessed, and I don’t have to further guess if it’s going to be really big in Japan. Books can instead be printed as needed, and almost more importantly, they can be printed where they are needed. So rather than shipping to the customer, they’re printed closer to the customer, typically in the same UPS zone.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">3 </span>When I talk to people about how we use POD people often get confused about the various players and the particular type of platform we’re talking about so as a quick review, I’d like to go over some basics.<br />
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<b>Kinds of POD</b><br />
How they Print<br />
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<li>SRDP (really just humble digital printing)</li>
<li>One-offs (True POD, both with toner and inkjet)</li>
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How they Distribute<br />
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<li>Direct Channel Partners (Lightning Source)</li>
<li>Drop shipping</li>
<li>Print in warehouse</li>
<li>Distributed Printing (or Freelance/Contract Printing)</li>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">4 </span>At this point, this might be the best way to think about these two players.<br />
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Direct Channel Partners (Lightning Source)</div>
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Distributed Printing (Amazon/CreateSpace)</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">5</span> Lightning Source Direct Channel Partners: US (partial list)<br />
•Ingram<br />
•Baker & Taylor<br />
•Barnes and Noble<br />
•Amazon<br />
•Your Customers, Contributors, Reviewers<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span> Lightning Source Direct Channel Partners: UK (partial list)<br />
•Waterstones<br />
•Gardners<br />
•Bertrams<br />
•Amazon<br />
•Your Customers, Contributors, Reviewers<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">7</span> Lightning Source Direct Channel Partners: Australia (partial list)<br />
•Footprint<br />
•InBooks<br />
•James Bennett<br />
•University Co-op<br />
•Your Customers, Contributors, Reviewers<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">8</span> LS prints typically in their own warehouses, here in Pennsylvania, La Vergne, of course, they have a new facility in California, then over the pond to Milton Keynes, and now with Global Connect, they have partners in Brazil and Australia. It’s useful to note that those last two LS foot prints aren’t their own (distributed printing), but instead use established players in those territories, and then forging new partnerships like their Direct Channel partners in the English speaking territories.<br />
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Amazon, on the other hand, probably doesn’t have a lot of print capacity in most, or maybe in any of their warehouses, (maybe in the spate of new ones?) instead the original BookSurge Model relied on large scale regional printers and negotiating long and short term partnerships created when and where capacity is needed. This doesn’t always work as is occasionally evident when parts of a season are particularly busy, like textbook season, or the holidays. This last couple of years, however, seem to indicate that they have worked many of those problems out.<br />
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You could think of Amazon as fairly large Web properties across the globe, who have super-secret printing and distribution capacity everywhere—and they know where we live, and have almost everyone’s credit card information. So, a really great ROI is possible for their CreateSpace partners, vs. say, their Advantage partners.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">9</span> So after thinking about how these platforms worked, and the territories they covered, we decided to try something unusual, particularly to address the issue of libraries choosing paperbacks over hardcovers when simultaneously released. We started releasing hardcovers only in the US market, but putting both the paperback and hardcover in Lightning Source for the UK, and Australia, and in POD as a paperback in CreateSpace for Amazon's UK, German, and Japanese sites. While Lightning Source offers both hardcover and paperback editions from its platform, CreateSpace only offers paperbacks. So in essence, when a non-illustrated book is released, it is only available as a hardcover in the US, but it's available in both formats for a good portion of the rest of the world.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">10 </span>Any book that isn't an art book has been handled this way since 2010.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">11 </span>Using this strategy were were able to increase international sales by 22.5% in units, and 23.55% in net dollars.<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
It’s worth noting that this analysis not only evaluates our POD strategy, it also evaluates another unusual strategy we tried. Since our art books couldn’t be included in the POD program, we also moved those to a separate international distributor in 2009.<br />
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The drop between 2011 and 2012 is probably more likely related to a hopefully temporary 20% drop in new titles for that year.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">12</span> Now, this isn't really a fair comparison because it doesn't actually take into account some factors that might actually show the benefits are actually greater than just the net revenue we're receiving from our partners. They don't include some of the benefits we see when selling a POD edition outside of the United States, like avoiding a wholesaler or distributor cut when selling a CreateSpace edition, avoiding the so-called "Amazon Advantage" program and instead selling the CreateSpace edition at a true short discount, and avoiding a lot of shipping charges. Also, net dollars in the case of Amazon is net after the printing charge. If we were to include the printing costs of the pre-2010 editions the increase would be significantly higher.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">13</span> We also realized that since these titles were already in POD, we could offer another option for adoptions in the US beyond just the hardcover edition available in that market. We rolled out a program called the Early Adopter Program and what we do with this program is offer a low cost POD paperback edition, in the US dropped shipped from LS US, to the campus bookstore. They are sold non-returnable, and without a barcode.<br />
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To market the Early Adopter program we did two things:<br />
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First, we started notifying our authors about the program in the email sent to all new authors upon publication, which contains marketing tools for their book, and gives them a brief introduction to our marketing services. But some authors are already aware of the program having heard about it from their acquiring editor.<br />
<br />
We also created a postcard which we distribute at conferences, especially to faculty members complaining about the price of hardcovers, and expressing a desire for a paperback for classroom use. This program has been very popular with authors and other faculty, and has been a useful acquisitions tool.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">14</span> The production process for the Early Adopter editions involves removal of the barcode from the paperback file, and uploading that new cover file to LS. We then take the order from the bookstore and drop ship desired quantity to the store.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">15</span> There are some problems associated with this approach, the first of which is Market Leakage, and that refers to books from the UK crossing the ocean, so pricing must discourage this. This usually manifests itself in the form of an EU/UK bookseller listing it on Amazon's US site through Marketplace. Amazon will not remove 3rd party territorial violations from the Marketplace section of their site but the most frequent violator of this restriction is Book Depository and they will remove it when asked.<br />
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Your territorial distributor must be willing to go non-exclusive, or at the very least, allow sales through POD<br />
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CreateSpace, née BookSurge, has created a kludgee interface with publishers. Currently territories are indicated through marking a Y or N on a spreadsheet. But even that doesn’t always work. They have no idea why. *Surprised Face*<br />
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Also, you risk Amazon getting confused about the record, and even if CreateSpace takes the POD edition off the market, Amazon could list the POD as Temporarily Out of Stock, at least until you turn it on in that market. This, obviously, does not benefit individual consumer hardcover sales. But if your hardcover is very expensive (for the library market) that may not really matter.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-67165354427468002792013-05-22T08:45:00.001-07:002013-06-23T18:36:18.927-07:00And a Bookseller Shall Lead Them...
It is with pure delight that I pass on the news that Eric Papenfuse, <a href="http://www.midtownscholar.com/?page=shop/aboutus" target="_blank">bookseller</a>, <a href="http://newsle.com/article/0/3489297/" target="_blank">historian</a>, <a href="http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article/20111110/CPBJ01/111119987?highlight=midtown+scholar" target="_blank">publisher</a>, and <a href="http://papenfuseformayor.com/videos/" target="_blank">community activist</a>, has won the <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/05/papenfuse_post-vicotry_plans_r.html" target="_blank">Democratic Primary for Mayor of Harrisburg</a>. Harrisburg has had it pretty rough of late, declaring <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/us/harrisburg-pennsylvania-files-for-bankruptcy.html">bankruptcy</a> in 2011, and even recently having its fiscal fiasco featured on a <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/03/23/149057880/how-a-city-goes-broke" target="_blank">Planet Money segment</a> on Morning Edition. I had coffee with Eric a couple of months ago and I asked him why? Why would he even want to become mayor of a city in such dire straights? He told me, "Because I live and work here. Look, all I wanted to do was make things better for the block where my bookstore is, but I began to realize that to fix my block, I had to start with the city." And I completely believe him. It's the kind of guy Eric is. We recently published a book on the little known Pennsylvanian, <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/SampleChapters/978-0-271-05624-1sc.html" target="_blank">Mira Lloyd Dock</a>, and Eric was so thrilled that this greatly under-appreciated figure was finally getting her due that he chose the book for for his monthly <a href="http://www.midtownscholar.com/?page=shop/disp&pid=page_WITFBookClub" target="_blank">public radio sponsorship</a>, then proceeded to sell it at or below cost in his store. There are other booksellers who sell below cost, but typically it's to destroy competition and grab marketshare. Here's a bookseller doing it to be able to teach his community about a neglected yet incredibly important figure in their own history.<br />
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He is a man of great intelligence and principle. And while he's only won the primary so far, he's got an excellent chance of winning in November. Congratulations, Eric. Harrisburg is really fortunate to have you, and the city has finally shown some real wisdom in this primary election.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-27653577618874869052013-05-03T16:32:00.001-07:002013-05-03T19:37:33.583-07:00A Book From the Other Side.About a month ago, the trucking company that my ex-brother-in-law used to work for tried to contact my nephew at work, but as he was not immediately available to the dispatcher for the police department he works for, the department operator transferred the call to my sister who works for the same office(it's Louisiana). The lady who worked for trucking company was trying to get in touch with my sister's children. Apparently my ex-brother-in-law, who had died a few years ago, had left 2 full pallets in storage that were about to be dumped because the trucking company was moving its location. The following weekend my nephew went to the company's warehouse to find out what was on those pallets. He called my sister from the warehouse and told her, "Mom, I think you need to come and look at this." So she went to warehouse, and to her delight, the pallets were full of lost or forgotten family artifacts. Piles of the kids' art works, homework, notes, letters, photographs, trophies, report cards—memories. He had saved it all. The warehouse supervisor told her that they were ordered to throw all of the pallet contents away. The supervisor, however, knew my nephew, as he worked for his father for a while before he died. So he let them take it all.<br /><br />
I was really sorry when my sister's marriage to him broke up decades ago, mostly for how hard it was on their kids, but it's really hard to be mad at him now. What an amazing story. What an amazing gift.<br /><br />
Here's a book they found among those piles that it seems I sent to my nephew when he was a toddler and I had just finished college. I'm embarrassed by the typos, but so glad this was rescued that I want to share it.<br /><br />
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There's also this hilarious note from nephew to my sister.</div>
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Come on, Chris, just let this one go.</div>
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Thanks, Greg. RIP. Shipment Delivered.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-85675737562929905962013-04-23T14:33:00.000-07:002014-05-03T06:40:08.742-07:00Rethinking the College Bookstore<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gettysburg College 2012 by <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gettysburg_College_2012_12.JPG">Tomwsulcer</a></td></tr>
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There was a lot of <a href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/02/25/barnes-noble-leonard-riggio-retail-business//">chatter</a> in the <a href="http://www.mhpbooks.com/barnes-nobles-founder-wants-to-buy-the-business-but-not-the-nook/">book community</a> a couple of weeks ago over an announcement that Len Riggio, Chairman of Barnes & Noble, made about his interest in buying back his company. Riggio has done this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnes_%26_Noble#1970s">more</a> than <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-13/barnes-noble-chief-said-to-settle-suit-for-29-million.html">once</a> since he first purchased the company back in 1971. But what I’ve found most interesting about the announcement is a detail I haven’t seen anyone else mention. It’s what Mr. Riggio <b>doesn’t</b> want to include in the deal. In what he doesn’t want, everyone seems focused on his exclusion of the <a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1937">nook platform</a>, but what’s of much greater interest to me is the other thing he doesn’t want, the college bookstore division.<br />
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Now in thinking about this, let’s review specifically just what we’re talking about. Barnes and Noble currently has about 689 “regular” bookstores, but it also runs <a href="http://www.bncollege.com/college-partners/">674</a> college bookstores. Note that it doesn’t own 674 college stores, it manages them and in most cases the building the store is located in is part of the college or university, usually right on campus. Typically, Barnes and Noble won the concession in a bidding process from the home institutions, like <a href="http://www.centredaily.com/2012/05/25/3208055/pepsico-awarded-exclusive-penn.html">Pepsi</a> did at the stadium, and now it has exclusive rights to sell textbooks and t-shirts on the campuses of those institutions. If you’re talking about a large institution with a successful and popular sports program, like the one I work for here at Penn State, then the t-shirt piece of that can be as lucrative as the bookstore/textbook piece of it, probably more so, and it is very unlikely that we’re going to see that change anytime soon.<br />
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But there’s one thing Len Riggio correctly identified a couple of years ago which is that the textbook market is changing rapidly. Last year, at the <a href="http://cps.gwu.edu/gw-conference-ethics-and-publishing">George Washington Conference on Ethics and Publishing</a>, Dr. Al Greco, <a href="http://business.fordham.edu/faculty/greco/">Professor of Marketing at Fordham</a> who specializes in the book market, predicted that the market for print textbooks would go from a $4 Billion market in 2012 to $173 million by 2017, about a 95% drop in the next five years. That trend toward digital learning materials combined with the end of what was once a captive customer base forced by geography and proprietary adoption lists to purchase their textbooks from the campus store, has led to an amazing decline in the profitability of college bookstores. This is why, understandably, Len wants out. He saw the coming boom in campus stores back in the Seventies when he bought the chain, and I think he now sees what Al Greco sees.<br />
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So what does this mean for those of us at an institution with a B&N managed campus store? Well, probably nothing right away, but eventually those concession contracts will come up for renewal, and if what’s left of B&N after Riggio buys back the brick and mortar bookstores is nook and B&N College, well I can’t possibly imagine the nook division wanting anything to do with selling team hoodies, art supplies, and Blue Books. So when those agreements come up for renewal, what should happen? Well, if you’ll indulge me for a minute, I actually have an idea about this.<br />
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If we could start from scratch with a campus bookstore, what would we want it to do? Well, who are the affected constituents? It would seem students, faculty, and authors. If you’re a student, your answer might include doing something about textbook prices. If you’re a scholar it would probably include access, typically to the most recent scholarship. If you’re a writer, and not surprisingly colleges and universities are filled with those, both in the guise of publishing faculty and paper-writing students, you might want tools and expertise. But above all, I don’t think any of these constituencies wants to see the books go away. Instead, perhaps it’s high time something else left the building, the t-shirts.<br />
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If we are to reimagine the campus bookstore let’s first talk about what it doesn’t need to be. It doesn’t need to be a clothing outlet. Take the shirts and such out of the store and find a new home for it. It shouldn’t be difficult, there are probably already seven or fifteen or thirty other places on and near campus that can handle the distribution of officially licensed goods. Instead, let’s radically recommend that the bookstore handle what it says it does right in the name, books.<br />
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Next, let’s think about where else on campus books are a focus. Hmmmm. Wait, what’s that across the street? Is that the library? Might it be useful for the library to partner here? Are there efficiencies to be had? They both receive large quantities of books on a daily basis, process those arrivals, and then shelve them for browsing. They both collect course texts for students and distribute them at the request of faculty. They both purchase brand new material for their faculty and graduate students, so that they might have access to the latest scholarship being published. Well, yes, on the surface it does look like there are efficiencies to be had. But could this new kind of campus book place do more than just a bookstore or a library by combining some of what they each do? I think it probably could.<br />
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So let’s say for a moment that over the weekend I destroyed a giant, evil, purple, crystal Gorgon that had been tormenting a peaceable valley kingdom, and that as a reward for saving them, the people of the kingdom gave me this really cool golden magical wishing sword. (Yeah, I don’t know why they didn’t just use it themselves against the Gorgon, but whatever) So what would I do with it? Well, first I would ask for a million more wishes. It would then, of course, be pointed out to me that’s against magic wishing sword rules. I only get three wishes, and, oh yeah, they can only be used for good.<br />
<br />
Okay, three wishes, and only for good. Hmm. What good could I do… Wait, <a href="http://www.textbookssuck.org/">how about those students and those high textbook prices</a>? Can I use my magic sword to make things better for them? Well, now that I think about it, yeah, that would be kind of easy. And I might not even need to waste a wish on it. Under the current textbook paradigm, most textbooks are created and sold primarily by those with strong motivations to get the highest possible margin out of the sale those materials. What if we flipped that? What if we brought the librarian ethos to the textbook problem? <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/03/04/colleges-try-beat-textbook-costs-book-reserves">Should libraries lend textbooks?</a> In some cases that makes excellent sense, but ultimately why couldn’t students be offered both options, purchase or borrow? And if we take the profit incentive out of the retail sale of textbooks, and put librarians in charge of distributing these materials, might librarians have more incentive than B&N to help faculty find lower cost (or free) alternatives to higher priced learning materials? Might they even be willing to help faculty create those materials? Wait, libraries publishing? Who ever heard of such a <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Hot-Off-the-Library-Press/136973/">silly thing</a>?<br />
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So what else might I wish for that could help people on campus… How about the faculty, how can we help them? What if we offered them all of the latest books in their field at this bookstore? Imagine walking into a campus bookstore and actually finding books there, relevant books. That’s how I’d spend my second wish. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the university for new scholarship to be offered to faculty for browsing before either they or the library purchased it? As a bookstore, this could occur. The practice of returns in the book industry is a problematic one, though one that ebooks and POD are addressing, but in this instance, the ability to return an unwanted book makes a lot of sense. If publisher X University Press (XUP for short) publishes a book about say reliquaries, wouldn’t it make sense for XUP to send a copy to every campus with faculty who would be interested in that topic? If no one on campus needed the book, it could be returned, but if a faculty member wanted to read it, they might really like having the option to either borrow the book, or to purchase it. Either way, the campus bookstore would purchase the book from XUP, and if the faculty member wanted to borrow it, the library would own it after it was returned, and if the faculty member wanted to keep it, the faculty member could pay the bookstore/library for that copy. At which point the bookstore/library could decide if they’d like another copy, or not.<br />
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I suppose what I’m proposing is a little like the Patron-Driven Acquisitions model that a lot of ebook aggregators and wholesalers are experimenting with, but this would be done with physical books. And like the <a href="http://aaupdigitaldigest.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/book-places-in-the-digital-age/">Lookstore model</a> I wrote about last year, this one might make more sense on a consignment basis, with the onus put on the publishers to find which campuses, or more specifically which departments would be most interested in a new book in a particular field, and then sending the campus stores serving those departments a copy of the relevant book, on consignment for 9 months, after which it is either paid for and shelved, or returned to XUP.<br />
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Now, I’ve got one more wish left, and the last constituency on campus worth considering when rethinking the campus bookstore is writers—both students and faculty. So how might I use that last wish to help them. Well perhaps the most important thing we can do is keep the store open. Most writers seem to recognize that the recent disappearance of bookstores on the American landscape isn’t really a good development for them. Not only does it reduce the number of outlets where their work can be found, it diminishes book culture and reduces the overall number of commons devoted to books. Beyond just having books available though, I think a better use for some of the space might be for a writing and publishing center. Not only could it offer expertise for students, maybe it could also offer services to faculty. In fact, if libraries are serious about publishing and about Open Access, having a place on campus dedicated to offering publishing services specifically to their own faculty might be a way to ensure faculty are aware of alternatives to commercial publishing, are negotiating the best terms for the content, and using Institutional Repositories.<br />
<br />
I realize that little if any of this is actually going to happen. I guess it’s the risk one takes when one’s call for reform is entirely dependent on a magical wishing sword. Nonetheless, Gorgon excluded, it probably should happen. I don’t know how many of those almost 700 campuses are going to find themselves without a campus bookstore next year, but I’m finding it hard to imagine a scenario where, like the independents before them, they aren't going to start to close. When talking about what we're going to do with those empty book buildings on our campuses, I hope administrators will at least be thinking beyond the concession contract and seriously consider the role that books play in the life and work of their community. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with textbook prices, perhaps all faculty already see all the new scholarship in their respective fields at conferences, and maybe writing and publishing centers aren’t something campus communities need. Maybe. But it seems much more likely that what most folks on campuses don’t need is another opportunity to purchase a t-shirt.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-19303804945506229132013-03-16T03:12:00.001-07:002013-03-16T03:46:57.490-07:00Make Good Books<p>Chip Kidd designed this great cover for <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062266764/">the print edition</a> of Neil Gaimon's University of the Arts commencement address for the class of 2012. This is just really great design. For a really great speech.</p>
<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UxG-NylhHHLUJZx7Pw4H9Rl1aENM9m9-CmloSqk5WUnqg3m8dFT_YSwLAdTsW1rOSq112oX5KNVTousYprThvwqdl6ZBAOV7glfcpGmU6-hkavvnseDHh77h5-ZTtTE9uIHBAaEtxRg/s1600/41MOXaYKQIL._SS500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UxG-NylhHHLUJZx7Pw4H9Rl1aENM9m9-CmloSqk5WUnqg3m8dFT_YSwLAdTsW1rOSq112oX5KNVTousYprThvwqdl6ZBAOV7glfcpGmU6-hkavvnseDHh77h5-ZTtTE9uIHBAaEtxRg/s320/41MOXaYKQIL._SS500_.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>You can watch the video here:</p>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2OwRUyZMKwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-90298344638030110422012-10-11T07:59:00.001-07:002012-10-11T16:40:16.776-07:00Maurice Sendak and the Marketing ManagerOn some days my job is filled with delights. This is an example. As long as I've been here I've been trying to get <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-00949-7.html">John Cech's book on the poetics of Maurice Sendak</a> back into print. It was published in 1996 and quickly went out of print. The road block came when we approached HarperCollins, Sendak's usual publisher, about using the illustrations for a second printing. The fees they asked for really made the economics of a reprint, let alone a new edition, unfeasible.<br />
<br />
Then, back in the late oughts, our Humanities acquisitions editor at the time was talking to one of our authors, Jonathan Weinberg, at a dinner party, and Jonathan was telling her about the marvelous weekend he had just spent at the shore with his great friend Maurice Sendak. The editor asked Jonathan if he knew about the book we published about Sendak's work, and he said yes, both he and Maurice loved the book. She then mentioned that we were trying to bring it back into print, but the cost of repermissioning the HarperCollins illustrations was preventing that. Jonathan listened and promised to bring it up with Maurice.<br />
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About a week later, our Director got a call from the rights department at HarperCollins informing him that Mr. Sendak had asked that we be allowed to use any of his illustrations from HarperCollins books free of charge, and that was what they were calling to let us know. Because of this, <a href="http://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06064-4.html">a new edition of the book</a> will be published, for the first time in paperback, in the Spring.<br />
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So this morning I found myself going through the old marketing file for the book, and it was there I came across this letter. It was written by one of my predecessors and in the letter she's asking Mr. Sendak about just what we can do with some of the illustrations. Again we find ample evidence of Mr. Sendak's generosity and kindness. But the best part is at the end, where Kate Capps, the marketing manager here at the time, tells Mr. Sendak what his work has meant to her, and there in his own hand, Maurice replies with a "Thank you", and then politely asks to order one of our books on photography. To see his writing in one of my silly little files, caused me to pause.<br />
<br />
If the letter were written to me, I can't guarantee that the original letter would still be in the marketing file. Thanks Kate Capps, wherever you are. You just made my day.<br />
<br />
To see the letters in their original size click here for <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4Vdg4OHJ-XFYJQeADGJB6MvihjLVv5JGTRT5Kq3kaOvNrZx1gGyfTry8FD17RuYQYbWpNW0ttcLPHWPPEyCpAXB_URUJKqBQSB-8dAXzjXeAWg4XDo920338ZBBswhkS_nMUtlwTwCY/s640/SendakLetter1_Page_1.jpg">page 1</a> and <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1a6CrpdW9vO423kAQj5bbl2S0q9x2LnFl_o4ihqDG48R7UEf24ncthQgh4gFvOt8A5it2awFnfqyk_tD5Sdb4NMwVNjvNkXug02Pn2Ed9a4KuexG5ADoVyptndBw-IAezn5D0H7LW9jk/s1600/SendakLetter1_Page_2.jpg">page 2</a>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4Vdg4OHJ-XFYJQeADGJB6MvihjLVv5JGTRT5Kq3kaOvNrZx1gGyfTry8FD17RuYQYbWpNW0ttcLPHWPPEyCpAXB_URUJKqBQSB-8dAXzjXeAWg4XDo920338ZBBswhkS_nMUtlwTwCY/s1600/SendakLetter1_Page_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl4Vdg4OHJ-XFYJQeADGJB6MvihjLVv5JGTRT5Kq3kaOvNrZx1gGyfTry8FD17RuYQYbWpNW0ttcLPHWPPEyCpAXB_URUJKqBQSB-8dAXzjXeAWg4XDo920338ZBBswhkS_nMUtlwTwCY/s640/SendakLetter1_Page_1.jpg" width="494" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1a6CrpdW9vO423kAQj5bbl2S0q9x2LnFl_o4ihqDG48R7UEf24ncthQgh4gFvOt8A5it2awFnfqyk_tD5Sdb4NMwVNjvNkXug02Pn2Ed9a4KuexG5ADoVyptndBw-IAezn5D0H7LW9jk/s1600/SendakLetter1_Page_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1a6CrpdW9vO423kAQj5bbl2S0q9x2LnFl_o4ihqDG48R7UEf24ncthQgh4gFvOt8A5it2awFnfqyk_tD5Sdb4NMwVNjvNkXug02Pn2Ed9a4KuexG5ADoVyptndBw-IAezn5D0H7LW9jk/s640/SendakLetter1_Page_2.jpg" width="494" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-9250001372006769522012-06-27T08:30:00.001-07:002012-06-27T08:30:48.908-07:00Epilogue: The Future of Print<p>This is a beautiful student documentary about the vibrant print culture of Toronto, and how those book people see their future in the digital age.</p>
<p>The student is Hannah Ryu Chung of Ryerson University.</p>
<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/42599889?color=e4dfd2" width="650" height="365" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/42599889">EPILOGUE: the future of print</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/epiloguedoc">EPILOGUEdoc</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-85437646364165670532012-06-21T11:23:00.000-07:002012-07-30T18:15:09.679-07:00Book Places in the Digital Age<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d_ie0ffkG7M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
Book Places in the Digital Age<br />
An Ignite Presentation by Tony Sanfilippo, Penn State Press<br />
AAUP, 6/20/2012<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">1</span> I want to talk today about book places. While book places come in a variety of manifestations, the two most popular are libraries and bookstores. And unfortunately, both are in decline. Last year Borders folded, closing 800 stores and removing millions of books from our communities.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> We now have less than half the number of indie stores than we did just two decades ago. Almost every day we hear about libraries cutting staff, hours, or holdings. And many libraries have chosen to remove books to make room for more computers.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">3</span> Book places are clearly under attack, as any marketing or sales manager in this room can attest. Stacks are being converted to computer kiosks, or nook demonstration counters. And last year, just before Christmas, Amazon paid their customers to go into stores to check prices against Amazon’s, and then report back.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">4</span>The practice coined the term “showrooming” referring to shoppers who use real stores to inspect items before purchasing them online. But this got me thinking; maybe if we can’t beat them, we should join them. I also started to think about other things bookstores and libraries had in common, and if there were ways to combine them.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">5</span> So I started to imagine a model Book Place that was a little bit of both and that treated the book on the shelf as more than only a product. Then I tried to imagine what that might look like structurally. It would need a commitment from the community, which is why a member owned co-op might be best.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span> It would also need access to a catalog the size of Amazon’s, which reminded me of this, the Espresso Book Machine. With over seven million titles in its catalog, the EBM can print and bind any one of those titles in about five minutes. Now, to better understand how this store slash library might work, let’s consider three perspectives.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">7</span> How does the store work from the customer’s perspective, the bookseller’s, and the publisher’s. The customer walks in to what appears to be a normal bookstore, though one with a book-making machine next to the register, but the first significant difference is evident when they pull a book from the shelf...<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">8</span> and they see this sticker, offering a new copy, shipped from the publisher (or printed on site, should the title be available from the EBM), or they can buy the used/display copy. They can also borrow the book, free if they’re a member, or they can buy a DRM-free ebook edition, if they’re a member.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">9</span> The bookseller sees this, which is notable for what’s missing—the invoice. This program would need to be a consignment arrangement for a couple of reasons. Both consignment and co-ops are exempt from Robinson-Patman, and because a member-based co-op won’t have start-up capital for inventory.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">10</span> Finally, here’s what we publishers see. Income, not just from sales of the books in that box, but from five different sources: The used/display copy sales, new copies, POD copies, rental income, and ebooks. Now, I’m one of you, so I already know your concerns. And I can address them all with one simple word.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">11</span> You might ask, why should I trust this new-fangled account type? How many Kindle editions did you sell last year? How do you know that? You are already trusting a bookseller, an online bookseller, and one that is openly hostile toward you.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">12</span> The other instance where you would need to trust is that DRM-free eBook. Even in these incredibly tight times I would ask you all to consider our mission. We should be in the lead on this. If you hate channel-lock as much as I do, don’t be afraid to experiment.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">13</span> The structure of this new kind of book place might also be a reason to go DRM-free. The people you would be selling those files to have a stake in the store. If they mis-use the files, they are hurting their own store, compromising their own investment, injuring their community.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">14</span> When I ask people this related question, it is always answered the exact same way: If your library sold books to support itself, and offered almost everything available at Amazon, where would you buy your books? What I’m proposing is likely to engender the same kind of loyalty.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">15</span> So if the line between bookstores and libraries began to fade, and Lookstores started lending books, how might that impact revenues? Well, first you could be making money when your book was lent, and unless you’re a Australian publisher, this would be new revenue for you.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">16</span> And yes, you did provide that lending copy on consignment, but has a library ever paid you for anything after that first sale? This one will. Every time that copy prompts a transaction. And you get to choose which books go into this particular library.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">17</span> There’s one more reason we ought to consider this model. It could potentially end the practice of returns. Since nothing is purchased on speculation, returns may not be necessary. A book stays in a Lookstore until it sells, at which point the publisher can then choose if they want to send another copy, or a new title.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">18</span> But perhaps my favorite feature of this model is how green it is. Few returns, if any. Books printed where the customer is, so little or no shipping. And e-books. Think of the trees and miles that could be saved. And all those smirking boxes that might be avoided.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">19</span> So, if we want to avoid this, we as publishers need to experiment. We have to take risks. We need to work with stores and libraries that want to experiment. And we need to be proactive in determining our own future. As long as there are readers neither bookstores nor libraries need to close.<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">20</span> By combining the best of both worlds, it is possible to create an institution that both promotes book ownership, while providing access to content in what ever form that the customer—member—patron—reader desires. Thank you.<br />
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This presentation is based on a blog post I wrote for the AAUP's <a href="http://aaupdigitaldigest.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/book-places-in-the-digital-age/">Digital Digest</a> Blog.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">The images were either from my personal collection, Reddit's BookPorn subreddit: <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/bookporn/">http://www.reddit.com/r/bookporn/</a> or <a href="http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=commons&q=book&m=text">Flickr's Creative Commons collection</a> (including the Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums), The first of the two videos I used (showrooming) came from the Public Domain Prelinger Archives, <a href="http://archive.org/details/Wonderfu1960">http://archive.org/details/Wonderfu1960</a>. The second came from University of Michigan's Main Library YouTube video, <a href="http://youtu.be/kXr5mcGCxmk">http://youtu.be/kXr5mcGCxmk</a></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-77575652613075508012012-04-05T03:27:00.002-07:002012-04-05T03:27:59.100-07:00The Old Man and the Sea<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/39473645?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="601" height="338" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/39473645">the old man and the sea</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user11067752">Marcel Schindler</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-73184971994786310692012-04-01T11:53:00.000-07:002012-04-01T11:53:17.759-07:00Bookmaking in 1947...<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/4867613?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="600" height="450" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-82974621402554866442012-04-01T11:49:00.000-07:002012-04-01T11:53:53.477-07:00Bookmaking Today<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/38681202" width="601" height="338" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/38681202">Birth of a Book</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/glenmilner">Glen Milner</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-58434775117875066492012-02-09T07:41:00.000-08:002012-02-09T07:41:18.700-08:00All The Books In The World... Except OneI found this briliant little comic about a bookseller who carried all the books in the world, except....
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Below is the first page, to find out which book he doesn't have, <a href="http://paolody.multiply.com/journal/item/554/All_The_Books_In_The_World..._Except_One">read the rest here</a>...<br />
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<a href="http://images.paolody.multiply.com/image/3/photos/52/1200x1200/1/p1.jpg?et=vma%2CKQrKXMiok8wDqjeJfQ&nmid=114108306" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://images.paolody.multiply.com/image/3/photos/52/1200x1200/1/p1.jpg?et=vma%2CKQrKXMiok8wDqjeJfQ&nmid=114108306" width="468" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-41353816672794366842012-02-08T06:27:00.000-08:002012-02-08T06:27:25.359-08:00Books Shape YouThe New Zealand Book Council created this magnificent PSA about the power of books to shape young minds.
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4FCNsqxTNhs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-24308371509235314492012-01-26T07:22:00.001-08:002012-01-26T07:22:18.101-08:00Maurice Sendak talks to Stephen Colbert, Part 2<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='512' height='340'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com'>The Colbert Report</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/406902/january-25-2012/grim-colberty-tales-with-maurice-sendak-pt--2'>Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:512px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/'>www.colbertnation.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:406902' width='512' height='288' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/'>Colbert Report Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/video'>Video Archive</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-55624645357577299302012-01-26T07:20:00.000-08:002012-01-26T07:20:50.858-08:00Maurice Sendak talks to Stephen Colbert, Part 1<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='512' height='340'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com'>The Colbert Report</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/406796/january-24-2012/grim-colberty-tales-with-maurice-sendak-pt--1'>Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:512px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/'>www.colbertnation.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:406796' width='512' height='288' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/'>Colbert Report Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.colbertnation.com/video'>Video Archive</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-1552389687866109612012-01-25T08:10:00.000-08:002012-01-25T10:53:26.796-08:00Strange Bedfellows<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.lawrence.com/img/photos/2001/04/12/bizamazon_t640.jpg?a6ea3ebd4438a44b86d2e9c39ecf7613005fe067" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="151" src="http://media.lawrence.com/img/photos/2001/04/12/bizamazon_t640.jpg?a6ea3ebd4438a44b86d2e9c39ecf7613005fe067" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1649#m14785"><i>Shelf Awareness</i> reports</a> today that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has entered into an agreement with Amazon to handle the distribution of the books published by Amazon's east coast publishing operation. This is surprising and somewhat bucking a current trend among <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/12/drm-amazon-and-publisher-throa.html">publishers questioning Amazon's dominance</a> in the book world.<br />
<br />
Frankly, it's kind of reminiscent of the partnership between Borders and Amazon for Borders'Web site. That probably wasn't a great idea for Borders and one has to wonder about just what HMH is thinking are the advantages of this partnership.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-15854958936535322092012-01-24T09:58:00.000-08:002012-01-24T09:58:15.694-08:00I hear that one is a real page turner...<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GOMIBdM6N7Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-3054479778392660872012-01-24T04:41:00.000-08:002012-02-10T05:52:35.000-08:00Libraries and Wild CarrotsI’ve been meaning to write a few posts about my own personal history with books. I post a bit about the book trade, libraries, and the impact of e-books on physical books, but I haven’t much discussed my own involvement in books.
I’m going to start first in a field.<br />
<br />
When I was little, I was lucky enough to live in a home with three generations. My father’s mother and father, Mary and Sam, lived with us in the Chicago suburb of Streamwood. The farmhouse for the farm that used to exist where the subdivision we lived in sprouted was right behind our house, and we could walk to it from our backyard. They still had chickens, and a cow.
At the end of our block sat an empty meadow. I remember going to that field often, usually in the morning, with Mary, my grandmother. One day she said to me, “Tony, you’re very smart, a really clever boy. But you have to know more than you can only know from books, you know this, right?”<br />
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I nodded.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b3/Daucus_carota_closeup.jpg/800px-Daucus_carota_closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b3/Daucus_carota_closeup.jpg/800px-Daucus_carota_closeup.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
“Come here. Do you see this plant? What is it?”<br />
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“I don’t know.”<br />
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“This is called Queen Anne’s Lace or Bishop’s Lace. Now come over here.” She pulled the plant from the ground and held the roots under my nose. “ Smell this.”
I inhaled the smell of the damp earth, and what smelled like carrot.
“Looks and smells like carrots, no?”<br />
<br />
I nodded my head.<br />
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“Okay, now follow me.” She walked a little and found another big, white, papery, flat flower head. “Is this the same?” She held the two flowers next to each other.
They looked the same. The flowers more than the leaves, but they looked like they were probably related.<br />
<br />
“Maybe?” I tentatively offered.<br />
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She sighed.
“To really answer the question you must look at the roots. But if you’re only looking for carrots, look here.” And she pointed to the center of the flowerhead of the Queen Anne’s Lace. “Do you see that tiny spec of blood” She was referring to a minuscule cluster of black-red petals in the center, easy to miss, like a spec of dirt.
“That tells you it is wild carrot. If you are starving, you must know the difference. Because the other one, the one without the tiny drop of blood, that one is hemlock. This too, you must learn. Not only from books. My father taught me how to identify a wild carrot, and more importantly, how it’s different from poison. Someday, finding a carrot, and knowing it’s a carrot, could save your life. It once saved mine back in the old country.”<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHl66mvljnhiirW-7ZPB5T2v1bTdhRfJYoFO7CnrZ0QTjj8VXCTsIvGb9Ak7jUcRzf2bDTobhw6mMYl6PiuwJK44mvVki7fxF0LTyG0Dkf5Wk8JontMkYqXNK5GO74QQtelVgDJ5Z_R2E/s1600/PoplarCreek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHl66mvljnhiirW-7ZPB5T2v1bTdhRfJYoFO7CnrZ0QTjj8VXCTsIvGb9Ak7jUcRzf2bDTobhw6mMYl6PiuwJK44mvVki7fxF0LTyG0Dkf5Wk8JontMkYqXNK5GO74QQtelVgDJ5Z_R2E/s320/PoplarCreek.jpg" width="320" /></a>The small field at the end of our block where this lesson took place didn’t stay empty for long.
The street we lived on was Library Lane. The field on the end of it was supposed to eventually hold a library. But the promises of the developer never really materialized so in the mid-Seventies, my mom and several other members of the community organized a referendum to create a taxing body and a library district. The referendum passed, and a beautiful, though almost Brutalist, library building was built.
I spent a good part of my childhood there. I learned about current events from Doonesbury and human dynamics from Jules Feiffer. Vonnegut taught me to laugh through tragedy, and those old Bob and Ray albums taught me about timing. I spent a good deal of time in the children’s area, though mostly volunteering, but I really preferred the adult sections. I suppose it’s like Mitch Headberg used to say: Any book is a children’s book if the kid can read. I loved that library, and I think spending so much time there had an impact on what I would eventually do with my life, but I also miss that field. I sometimes wonder what might have happened if they hadn’t built a library on Grandma’s classroom. What might I have been instead?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-21867517223304315362012-01-18T07:37:00.000-08:002012-01-18T07:38:32.419-08:00A Scholar's Resource<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/etc/designs/psul/images/logowordmark1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="78" width="475" src="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/etc/designs/psul/images/logowordmark1.jpg" /></a></div>
The publisher I work for is a part of the library at Penn State and the folks at the library just launched <a href="http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/scholar.html">a Web site that provides a variety of resources to scholars looking to disseminate their work</a>. They did a really great job on this resource and I can see it becoming a really valuable tool to the scholars here.
Hats off to my colleagues at the library for putting together such a useful and informative resource.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5732461381194067514.post-32736032753661756422012-01-13T06:48:00.000-08:002012-01-17T08:51:19.537-08:00Rioting for the Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/01/13/apple_wide.jpg?t=1326462000&s=4" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="350" src="http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/01/13/apple_wide.jpg?t=1326462000&s=4" width="624" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.npr.org/2012/01/13/145159718/crowd-eggs-apples-beijing-store-after-iphone-delay">Heard on the radio this morning</a> that there were “scuffles” in line among folks waiting for the release of the iPhone 4S at some Beijing Apple stores, which got worse apparently when Apple decided not to open the stores over concerns about violence. Some are blaming Apple for the problems as there’s talk among their potential customers that the real reason they wouldn’t open the stores was because Apple had sold all available phones to corrupt officials and their families.<br />
<br />
And Apple’s response, there are plenty available online.<br />
<br />
This got me thinking. Did those customers not know they could simply get it online, or did they want one immediately. Or, is this a chicken and egg problem—Do some of those customers need an iPhone to get online? Or is it something else. Is this about being able to get it at a brick and mortar? Is it about the process of going to the store, looking at the product, trying the product, and taking home the product?
I ask this because as we watch Borders fade into the sunset, and Indies close at a rate of one or two a day, I wonder if what those people in Beijing were rioting over was as much about the experience of buying the product as it was the product itself. I have always adored the experience of shopping in a bookstore. What happened in China makes me wonder if I should be somehow actively protesting to protect it.<br />
<br />
On another note, <a href="http://poynder.blogspot.com/2012/01/pennsylvania-state-university-press.html">the director of the publisher I work for just went publically against H.R. 3699</a>, also known as the Research Works Act, which ostensibly protects commercial publishers from the “threat” of Open Access by putting limitations on the use of Open Access systems for some research. I’m really pleased that we took this stand and that we’re doing the right thing on this issue.<br />
<br />
This is from the act itself, and it demonstrates how the act prohibits the use of Open Access without the commercial publisher's permission, and then goes on to prohibit Federal agencies from requiring the public to be allowed to read the research it paid for:<br />
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<h3 style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">
SEC. 2. LIMITATION ON FEDERAL AGENCY ACTION.</h3>
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<ul style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that--</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">
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<ul style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><ul>(1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or</ul>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">
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<ul style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;"><ul>(2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work.</ul>
</ul>
It's enough to make a citizen want to riot.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13952273074290828938noreply@blogger.com0