the shrinking librarian

Mar 13

“Under the new Provincetown Public Press digital publishing imprint, a dozen or so writers and artists will learn this year how to create a digital book of their work and market it on the Internet, library officials announced Thursday.

Provincetown Public Press, a new digital book publishing operation of the public library, is offering writers and artists the ability to create and distribute a digital book on the Internet.

This might be a first in the country, library director Cheryl Napsha said Friday. “We haven’t seen it anywhere. There are some libraries that are starting to print physical books using high-end copiers. To the best of my knowledge, no one has gone digital.”

The library is starting the press as a public service, she said. It will be funded by a $3,000 donation.” Library as Publisher: A Massachusetts Public Library Will Soon Begin Publishing eBooks | LJ INFOdocket (via libraryjournal)

(via libraryjournal)

Dec 12

thelifeguardlibrarian:

Oooh, stay tuned:

OwnShelf is a cloud based solution to save and share ebook files across devices. Friends can browse each other’s shelves, and borrow one another’s books. Just like the bookshelf in your home, it is a way to show off and share your taste in books online. It is a friend to friend way to discover and read great books.

We are still in development and will have a Beta test soon. Talk to Rick about helping to test, or for any other reason via rick AT ownshelf dot.com

But I do wonder how this can happen without ruffling all the same feathers currently being ruffled between libraries and publishers?

Nov 18

“It’s strange to think about books in the context of parties like these, though they happen all the time and are part of the large, creaking machine that churns out the rectangles of paper, glue, and ink that end up on our shelves, by our bedside tables, in our own hands.” Molly McArdle (aka your LJ tumblrer) recaps the National Book Awards after party over at LJ. Click through for a gif! (via libraryjournal)

(via libraryjournal)

Sep 25

“It’s a rare thing in a free market when a customer is refused the ability to buy a company’s product and is told its money is “no good here.” Surprisingly, after centuries of enthusiastically supporting publishers’ products, libraries find themselves in just that position with purchasing ebooks from three of the largest publishers in the world. Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin have been denying access to their ebooks for our nation’s 112,000 libraries and roughly 169 million public library users.” ALA President Maureen Sullivan (via libraryadvocates)

(via libraryjournal)

Aug 9

How a Fake Erotic Fiction eBook Hit the Top 5 of iTunes

“How is the book fake? Well, The Diamond Club wasn’t actually written by the authors, Brian Brushwood and Justin Young, hosts of The NSFW Podcast but instead written through a crowdsourced effort. The fans of Brushwood and Young submitted contributions that included a main character and a lot of sex. They combined it all together to create the erotic fiction novel that’s a complete hoax.

Why would they do this? Because Brushwood realized that the top ten books in iTunes were all erotic fiction novels (erotic fiction novels are killing the charts because of the success of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy) and figured they could prove how ridiculous the general public, sex books and the best selling system all is.”

Jul 7

thelifeguardlibrarian:

‘The Sound and the Fury’ as William Faulkner imagined, in color

Jul 6

The Sound and the Fury to be published in colored ink--as Faulkner intended

Over 80 years after The Sound and the Fury made its debut on the literary stage, the novel which would go on to become one of the classics of 20th-century American literature is finally being published the way William Faulkner intended.

The four sections of the book, which tells of the disintegration of a southern family, move back and forth through time. Faulkner had hoped to use different colours of ink to mark the sometimes-confusing chronological shifts, writing on its publication in 1929: “I wish publishing was advanced enough to use colored ink … I’ll just have to save the idea until publishing grows up.”

Instead, the Nobel prize-winning author had to be content with using italics to convey different periods in time, and what he called the “unbroken-surfaced confusion” of Benjy’s narrative, the first section of the novel which is told from the perspective of an adult with the mind of a child. “If I could only get it printed the way it ought to be with different color types for the different times in Benjy’s section recording the flow of events for him, it would make it simpler, probably. I don’t reckon, though, it’ll ever be printed that way, and this’ll have to be the best, with the italics indicating the changes of events,” said Faulkner.

Now, following a suggestion from a member, the Folio Society has worked with two Faulkner scholars, Stephen Ross and Noel Polk, for the past year to pin down the different time periods in the novel, and is publishing the first ever coloured-ink edition of The Sound and the Fury on Friday 6 July, to mark the 50th anniversary of the author’s death.

Jul 1

“The great beauty of e-books means that all this stuff is suddenly trackable—how much time people spend reading, how people engage with their books. Which means, finally, there might be a way to measure consumer tastes and habits like there is in most of the rest of the world of entertainment—and the publishing industry has a lot more information available to help them create more books that people want to read. On the down side, are books better, really, just because writers and publishers know more about what readers like? All good fodder for debate, but mostly, I’m glad e-books have helped us determine the perfect romantic hero: he “has a European accent and is in his 30s with black hair and green eyes.” What Does Your E-Reader Know About You?; The Book That Disappears - Entertainment - The Atlantic Wire (via infoneer-pulse)

(via libraryjournal)

Jun 22

Research foresees demand-driven book acquisition replacing librarians' discretion | Inside Higher Ed

“Patron-driven acquisition, or PDA, is not new, but it is on the rise. Approximately 400 to 600 libraries worldwide have switched to a patron-driven system for purchasing new works, and that number is likely to double over the next year and a half, according to Joseph Esposito, a digital publishing consultant who has spent the last nine months studying the implications of PDA with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.”

(via LISNews)

Jun 12

Agnostic, Maybe: How Oprah Might Help Out Libraries When It Comes To eBooks (Maybe)

However, it was the discovery of Wild’s publisher that brought up a much more pertinent question in this whole deal as it relates to libraries: what happens when Oprah picks a book that is from one of the Big Six publishers but is not from Random House or HarperCollins? In the case of a book choice from Hachette, MacMillan, Penguin, or Simon & Schuster (all of the publishers that do not allow library eBook lending), what happens to libraries and the digital edition? Without a doubt, these publishers would love to get their book onto the Book Club 2.0 list. It’s a powerful Oprah-style publicity ride for their author and the book, capable of pushing books up the sales list as well as cementing an author onto the scene. It’s a prize to be won, for certain, since the rewards are quite lavish. It’s a no-brainer to say that the Oprah special digital edition will not be available for libraries if it is one of the four publishers mentioned.
When it comes to pass (and I will bet dollars to donuts that it will) that Oprah picks a book from a publisher that won’t allow library eBook lending, what will we do? We will have an excellent teachable moment and we can’t squander it.

(via libraryjournal)

the shrinking librarian

A shy violet keeps a library & information science scrapbook.

How a Fake Erotic Fiction eBook Hit the Top 5 of iTunes

The Sound and the Fury to be published in colored ink--as Faulkner intended

Research foresees demand-driven book acquisition replacing librarians' discretion | Inside Higher Ed

Agnostic, Maybe: How Oprah Might Help Out Libraries When It Comes To eBooks (Maybe)