[LISNews] The LISNews For March 1st 2011
The LISNews Librarian News By Email
lisnews at lishost.net
Tue Mar 1 11:01:55 CST 2011
On Tuesdays we take a look at the stories that got the most comments in the last week.
-[1] - New OverDrive DRM terms: "This message will self-destruct"
http://lisnews.org/node/38696/
-[2] - The eBook User’s Bill of Rights
http://lisnews.org/node/38706/
-[3] - Why is Barnes & Noble performing well while Borders is bankrupt?
http://lisnews.org/node/38676/
-[4] - Library Users, Librarians, and Libraries Boycott HarperCollins Over Change in Ebook Terms
http://lisnews.org/node/38703/
-[5] - We are tipping right now
http://lisnews.org/node/38683/
And here's the latest from LISNews:
--26-Year-Old Is Making Millions selling on Kindle
- http://lisnews.org/node/38715/
Welcome to disruption. 26-year old Amanda Hocking is the best-selling "indie" writer on the Kindle store, meaning she doesn't have a publishing deal, Novelr says. And she shouldn't. She gets to keep 70%
of her book sales -- and she sells around 100,000 copies per month. By comparison, it's usually thought that it takes a few tens of thousands of copies sold in the first week to be a New York Times
bestselling writer. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/amanda-hocking-2011-2?utm_source=feedburner#ixzz1FMsklkGD Note: I looked on Worldcat and her books are in some libraries. Paper versions of
her books are available. Assuming the numbers of sales are true anyone care to comment about whether more libraries should have her books?
--Another Ranganathan
- http://lisnews.org/node/38714/
I saw the name and had to share. From the NY Times. Microprocessors are close to reaching the limit on how small they can get and a new approach is needed. Enter Ranganathan: "Parthasarathy
Ranganathan, a Hewlett-Packard electrical engineer, offers a radical alternative to today’s computer designs that would permit new designs for consumer electronics products as well as the next generation
of supercomputers, known as exascale processors."
--Banned Books Returned to Shelves in Egypt and Tunisia
- http://lisnews.org/node/38713/
There is an article in the Monday Guardian, "Banned books return to shelves in Egypt and TunisiaWorks by censored authors available again in wake of revolutions." by Benedicte Page. It talks about how
books banned in Tunisia and Egypt by the repressive government are now appearing in bookstores and other locations. "Alexis Krikorian, director of the Freedom to Publish programme at the IPA, said the
emergence of these and other formerly banned books within Tunisia was "very good news". Whether censorship still existed with regard to new titles was a separate issue, he added, but it was likely that
the legal submission procedure, which under the old regime had been misused to block books at their printers, "no longer applies". Anecdotal reports are also emerging of once suppressed titles appearing
for impromptu sale on street corners and newspaper kiosks across Egypt. Salwa Gaspard of joint English/Arabic language publisher Saqi Books said accounts in the Arabic press told of books that had been
hidden for years in private basements now once more seeing the light of day. Cairo is also to hold a book fair in Tahrir Square – the focus for protests against former president Hosni Mubarak – at the
end of March, according to Trevor Naylor of the American University of Cairo Press bookshop, which is based in the square. Naylor told the Bookseller that the event had been planned in the wake of the
cancelled Cairo Book Fair, which was abandoned in January in the face of growing political unrest. "Everyone around the globe now associates Tahrir Square with freedom and revolution," Naylor said. "We
really wanted to do something that celebrates what happened here, and this seems like a great way to do it." Read more about it at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/28/banned-books-return-egypt-tunisia
--Richard Curtis 1999
- http://lisnews.org/node/38712/
Richard Curtis, veteran literary agent and president of Ereads.com, shared a few publishing predictions for 2011. Here is a talk by Curtis in 1999 called Content Spoken Here
--Random House Adopts New Model for Selling E-Books
- http://lisnews.org/node/38711/
Beginning Tuesday, Random House will join other major book publishers in selling its e-books using the so-called agency model, setting its own prices for e-books while the retailer takes a commission.
Five of the six largest publishers switched to the agency model last spring after Apple introduced its iPad. “The agency model guarantees a higher margin for retailers than did our previous sales terms,”
Random House, publisher of Stieg Larsson, George W. Bush and John Grisham, said in a statement on Monday. “We are making this change both as an investment in the successful digital transition of our
existing partners and in order to give us the opportunity to forge new retail relationships.” Full article
--Do E-Book Users Need a Bill of Rights? (Librarians Think So)
- http://lisnews.org/node/38710/
ReadWriteWeb article at NYT.com The news that the publisher HarperCollins would be capping the number of times a library could lend a digital copy of a book to 26 has raised concerns - yet again - about
the ramifications of our rush to embrace e-books. As one librarian, John Atzberger writes on his blog, the new model from HarperCollins "eliminates almost all the major advantages of the item's being
digital, without restoring the permanence, durability, vendor-independence, technology-neutrality, portability, transferability, and ownership associated with the physical version." Full article
--Want an Awful Library Book?
- http://lisnews.org/node/38709/
Holly and Mary from Awful Library Books are doing some weeding! Some great gift material here for the right person; check it out.
--Publishers Look Beyond Bookstores
- http://lisnews.org/node/38708/
Reminds me that I want to visit BookMarc on Bleecker Street when the weather warms up.... By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD and JULIE BOSMAN Published in the New York Times: February 27, 2011 Kitson, a group of
boutiques based in Los Angeles, is the kind of store that appears regularly in the tabloids for both its stylish clothes and its celebrity clientele like Sean Combs and Joe Jonas. But in a town that is
all about flash, Kitson is finding a surprising source of revenue that is not from its fashionable shoes or accessories. It is from books..... Read the rest here
--copyright?
- http://lisnews.org/node/38707/
http://www.copyright.org.au/news-and-policy/details/id/1892/ Interesting story (well I thought so anyway) about bloggers whose images have been taken off their sites and reused in a fashion line without
their knowledge. Ignorance or Arrogance?
--The eBook User’s Bill of Rights
- http://lisnews.org/node/38706/
The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users. The eBook User’s Bill of Rights Every eBook user should have the following rights: the
right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses the
right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner
the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks I believe in the free market of information and ideas. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their
works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share
with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural
cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access. Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information.
Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks. I am a reader. As
a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow. I am concerned about
the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’
rights. These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand. To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it
(#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole. To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or
neighboring rights to this work
--This Is Why Your Used Bookstore Clerk Hates You
- http://lisnews.org/node/38705/
This Is Why Your Used Bookstore Clerk Hates You Although bookstore workers love their customers, or are at least morally obligated to, sometimes the love is so great it turns murderous. Ever tried to
finish all-you-can-eat coconut shrimp? That's the love we're dealing with here. Although your narrator worked at a used bookstore just outside of the city more than a decade ago, he shut his eyes tight,
remembered three years of Fat Slice Pizza, and relived some moments of quiet desperation.
--Finnish library uses games to crowdsource indexing
- http://lisnews.org/node/38704/
Finnish library uses games to crowdsource indexing This Post From Spingwise points the way to a neat project from Finnish indexing effort Digitalkoot that now offers a series of games by which players
can help fix mistakes in the indexing of old Finnish newspapers. Digitalkoot is a joint project run by the National Library of Finland and distributed work platform Microtask that aims to index the
library's enormous archives so that they are searchable on the Internet. As in so many similar efforts, limitations on computers' ability to recognize text causes numerous instances where human help is
required. That's where Digitalkoot's games come in. In both Mole Hunt and Mole Bridge, human players offer solutions to problematic words, thereby helping the Digitalkoot effort make Finland's archives
more accurate and more accessible to all.
--Library Users, Librarians, and Libraries Boycott HarperCollins Over Change in Ebook Terms
- http://lisnews.org/node/38703/
www.BoycottHarperCollins.com New York, NY -- Library users, librarians, and libraries have begun to boycott publisher HarperCollins over changes to the terms of service that would limit the ability of
library users to borrow ebooks from libraries. A new website, BoycottHarperCollins.com, is helping to organize their efforts to get HarperCollins to return to the previous terms of service. On February
24, Steve Potash, the Chief Executive Officer of OverDrive, sent an email to the company's customers -- primarily US libraries -- announcing that some of the ebooks they get from OverDrive would be
disabled after they had circulated 26 times. Soon after, librarians learned that it was HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corporation (NWSA), that intended to impose these limits. Immediately, library
users, librarians, and libraries began voicing their opposition to the plan by HarperCollins, with several library users and librarians urging a boycott. As Joe Atzberg er, of Columbus, Ohio, one of the
first librarians to address the issue, wrote on his Atzblog : "The previous model already forced libraries to pretend a digital 'copy' was a single physical thing. Only one library's user can have it
'checked out' at a time. And only on one device. The clearly misapplied language around this tells you what a terrible idea it is. To be clear, this model eliminates almost all the major advantages of the
item's being digital, without restoring the permanence, durability, vendor-independence, technology-neutrality, portability, transferability, and ownership associated with the physical version."
Information on this grassroots campaign can be reached via a website that went online on February 27, 2011, BoycottHarperCollins.com. The boycott will end as soon as HarperCollins agrees not to limit the
number of times a library can loan each ebook.
--LISTen An LISNews.org Podcast -- Episode #144
- http://lisnews.org/node/38702/
This week's episode of LISTen brings the return of segment-sized Tech for Techies. A news miscellany is also presented. Listeners must re-point their podcast receiving software to the following address
to continue to receive the podcast uninterrupted: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LISNewsNetcasts Related links: Twitter outage Google-bombing abortion to equal murder Iranian Cyber Army attacks The Voice of
America Lianza updates on libraries affected in Christchurch The Tatler: Counties Dying The Associate Press: Counties Dying Excluding United States Government content incorporated herein, LISTen: An
LISNews.org Podcast -- Episode #144 by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
--Review: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
- http://lisnews.org/node/38701/
The New York Review of Books has a review of The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood (Click image to enlarge)
--Maybe Harper Collins Did Libraries a Favor
- http://lisnews.org/node/38700/
I wanted to write a railing piece about the new Harper Collins twenty-six checkout limit on ebooks, but Friday I had to finish a day of work and take my wife out for a date night before I could sit down
to write. This has given me the opportunity to read the reactions of librarian-bloggers. The reactions fell into two camps. The largest group was the" believers", those who saw ebooks as a means of
library renaissance on the foundation of digital content. The other group was the "skeptics". These, I include myself in this group, were willing to incorporate ebooks into the library collection, but
did not put all of their trust into the format for the salvation of libraries. After reading and pondering the news of the last few days, as well as the last several months, I wonder if Harper Collins
hasn't done libraries a favor in disguise. Harper Collins has allowed us to rethink our infatuation with digital books, DRM restricted digital books in particular. We think that those who interested
in librarianship are naive when they say that they want to become librarians because of the books. But maybe books, paper and ink books, are what our work is primarily about. The combination of paper
and the printing press spread the blessings of literacy to the greatest number of people around the world. This fact is contrasted to the digital divide that is growing into a digital chasm, with the
development of every new and expensive form of digital device. The decision by Harper Collins will not dampen the popularity of ebooks with a certain percent of the populace, but I find it interesting
that the classics are rising in popularity once more, because they are free to download, being out of copyright. Just maybe, the many who have purchased, or received ereaders in the past couple years,
are not that excited about buying the rights to read a book, rather than owning the book itself. The majority of the book purchased, both paper and electronic books, will be purchased by people who
do not "need" libraries, but there will always be a larger number of people (the children, the poor and the elderly), who receive the vast majority of their reading resources from libraries. Our
digital rights may change, but our mission remains the same- provide our communities with the information essential for democracy.
--Paging through a life tied to books
- http://lisnews.org/node/38699/
Paging through a life tied to books Jonathon Welch didn't plan on making Buffalo his home when he chose the University at Buffalo for his post-graduate study in the early '70s, but once he got here he
never left. The owner of Talking Leaves bookstore on Main Street in Buffalo, NY has run his shop for more than three decades, adding a second location in late 2001 on Elmwood Avenue. Welch, 60, grew up
in Mukwonago, a village in southeastern Wisconsin, where he took to books at a young age -- and also developed a lifelong habit. Look closely at his hands, and chances are you will see written notes
scrawled in pen.
--Google Revamps Search Engine to Fight Cheaters
- http://lisnews.org/node/38698/
>From the Wall Street Journal By AMIR EFRATI Google Inc., long considered the gold standard of Internet search, is changing the secret formula it uses to rank Web pages as it struggles to combat
websites that have been able to game its system. The Internet giant, which handles nearly two-thirds of the world's Web searches, has been under fire recently over the quality of its results. Google said
it changed its mathematical formula late Thursday in order to better weed out "low-quality" sites that offer users little value. Some such sites offer just enough content to appear in search results and
lure users to pages loaded with advertisements. Read more...
--The Shallows -- Chapter 3
- http://lisnews.org/node/38697/
In chapter 3 Carr refers to the developmental maturation of the mind and our intellectual transformation and correspondingly, the types of technologies which have evolved. The book and the Internet
belong to what is termed "...intellectual technologies. These include all the tools we use to extend or support our mental powers - to find and classify information, to formulate and articulate ideas, to
share know-how and knowledge, to take measurements and perform calculations, to expand the capacity of our memory" (44). Carr further refers to the instrumentalist and determinist views of technology -
essentially the former views that we are in control of our technologies, and the latter views technology as utimately out of our control (46). * Does the way that we gather information from the Internet
(quick reading and scanning) help to expand the capacity of our memory? * How does our use of the Internet compare to the ancient reliance on verbal information and the latter development and reliance on
the written word? * Are we as a species in control of the transformation of the Internet as an intellectual techology?
--New OverDrive DRM terms: "This message will self-destruct"
- http://lisnews.org/node/38696/
New OverDrive DRM terms: "This message will self-destruct" "This goes a step worse so that each digital "copy" effectively self-destructs after a set number of reads in your system or consortium. That
is to say, if you wanted to help blunt the crushing demand for a popular title, this would only help you slightly, if at all. And only one user at a time. And only if your users are faster than the rest
of the consortium. After that you (and the rest of your consortium) are straight out of luck. Guess you should have bought more print copies?"
--Mr. Edison’s Kindle
- http://lisnews.org/node/38695/
Technologizer takes a fun look back at some ideas and inventions that were ahead of their time. "Thanks to Google Books’ archives of Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, LIFE, and other magazines that
frequently reported on futuristic gizmos, we have a readily accessible record of technology that failed to live up to the initial hype–including random notions that never got off the drawing board,
startlingly advanced products that didn’t find a market, and very rough drafts of concepts that eventually became a big deal. The best of them are fascinating, even when it’s not the least bit surprising
that they flopped."
--Social Media Lure Academics Frustrated by Journals
- http://lisnews.org/node/38694/
By Jennifer Howard in the Chronicle of Higher Education Social media have become serious academic tools for many scholars, who use them for collaborative writing, conferencing, sharing images, and other
research-related activities. So says a study just posted online called "Social Media and Research Workflow." Among its findings: Social scientists are now more likely to use social-media tools in their
research than are their counterparts in the biological sciences. And researchers prefer popular applications like Twitter to those made for academic users.....More here.
--It's Time for a National Digital-Library System
- http://lisnews.org/node/38693/
Opinion piece in the Chronicle Review by David Rothman, who is a writer and founder of TeleRead, a Web site devoted to news and discussion of e-books and related topics. He is also a cofounder of
LibraryCity.org, an informal, nonprofit group working toward a universal national digital-library system. He clearly has some skin in the game. It's Time for a National Digital-Library System But it
can't serve only elites By David H. Rothman William F. Buckley Jr., my political opposite, once denounced the growing popularity of CD-ROM's in student research. Shouldn't young people learn from real
books? I disagreed. Why not instead digitize a huge number of books and encourage the spread of book-friendly tablet computers with color screens and multimedia capabilities? ....Read the rest here
--If you thought the library system took a hit this year, brace yourself.
- http://lisnews.org/node/38692/
Funding pinch unbalances books If you thought the library system took a hit this year, brace yourself. The next chapter in the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library system's steady decline can involve
branch closings, layoffs and a steep drop in acquisitions unless it can stave off a nearly $7 million deficit next year, staff and trustees warn.
--Specialty Public Libraries Offer More
- http://lisnews.org/node/38691/
Specialty Public Libraries Offer More As public libraries move from being analog to being digital, they will also move from being general purpose to more specialized. This short think-piece examines
that emerging trend.
--Did you know the BOOK?
- http://lisnews.org/node/38690/
I clearly have too much time on my hands. It's not even Friday and here's another video about the new product called BOOK, with english subtitles, so you can watch it with the sound off....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhcPX1wVp38
--Konomark
- http://lisnews.org/node/38689/
Read about the Konomark here.
--Intellectual Property’s Great Fallacy
- http://lisnews.org/node/38688/
Abstract: Intellectual property law has long been justified on the belief that external incentives are necessary to get people to produce artistic works and technological innovations that are
easily copied. This Essay argues that this foundational premise of the economic theory of intellectual property is wrong. Using recent advances in behavioral economics, psychology, and business-management
studies, it is now possible to show that there are natural and intrinsic motivations that will cause technology and the arts to flourish even in the absence of externally supplied rewards, such as
copyrights and patents. Download full PDF here
--Egypt's Jewel Of A Library Reopens, Thanks To Demonstrators
- http://lisnews.org/node/38687/
Story from NPR about the reopening of the Library of Alexandria. It was closed for the last few weeks during the demonstrations, both to protect it from vandalism, and to protest the army's curfew.
And the library's director, Ismail Serageldin says that in all the protests, not a stone was thrown at the library, and not a pane of glass was broken. "What happened was pure magic," he says. "People
from within the demonstrations broke out of the demonstrations and simply linked hands, and they said 'This is our library. Don't touch it.'" The ancient library has been destroyed several times by
vandals and conquerors — most notably by a fire, several centuries ago.
--Social media: A guide for researchers
- http://lisnews.org/node/38686/
Social media is an important technological trend that has big implications for how researchers (and people in general) communicate and collaborate. Researchers have a huge amount to gain from engaging
with social media in various aspects of their work. This guide has been produced by the International Centre for Guidance Studies, and aims to provide the information needed to make an informed decision
about using social media and select from the vast range of tools that are available.......More here.
--History of pollution found in old books
- http://lisnews.org/node/38685/
By Viva Sarah Press February 21, 2011 A Weizmann Institute scientist says clues to the history of pollution can be found in old books - but not in the written word, rather in the paper itself. Prof. Dan
Yakir of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research in the Faculty of Chemistry found the paper in library collections of old books and newspapers contains a record of atmospheric
conditions at the time the trees that went into making the paper were growing. Yakir says he has traced the effects of atmospheric pollution from burning fossil fuel going back to the beginnings of the
Industrial Revolution.....Read more here.
--World Book Night -- "World" meaning the UK and Ireland
- http://lisnews.org/node/38684/
On Saturday, 5 March 2011, two days after World Book Day, with the full support of the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association, the Independent Publishers Guild, the Reading Agency with
libraries, World Book Day, the BBC and RTE, one million books will be given away by an army of passionate readers to members of the public across the UK and Ireland. The book give-away will comprise
40,000 copies of each of the 25 carefully selected titles, to be given away by 20,000 ‘givers’, who will each distribute 48 copies of their chosen title to whomever they choose on World Book Night. The
remaining books will be distributed by World Book Night itself in places that might otherwise be difficult to reach, such as prisons and hospitals. Website for World Book Night Blog post questioning
World Book Night - WORLD BOOK NIGHT – MISGUIDED AND MISJUDGED?
--We are tipping right now
- http://lisnews.org/node/38683/
Blog post by publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin: But it has seemed clear to me for a long time that ebooks offered compelling advantages over print — portability, ease of purchase, and a lower cost
basis that must inexorably lead to lower prices — that would increasingly sway many of the inevitably growing number of people who had a readable handheld screen in reach most of the time. And my long
experience dealing with bookstore economics made it clear to me that the consequent sales subtraction from brick-and-mortar stores would lead to closures, which would lead to longer travel times for
customers to get to the stores, which in turn would drive more people to purchase print or digital books online. And that would lead to more closures. This is a virtuous circle if you’re in the ebook
business or sell print online. Or if you want to see Americans consume less gasoline. It is a vicious cycle — a death spiral — if you’re a bookstore. - Full article
--Save our Library
- http://lisnews.org/node/38682/
Funny cartoon from The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/
--openlibrary.org One web page for every book ever published.
- http://lisnews.org/node/38681/
One web page for every book ever published. It's a lofty but achievable goal. To build Open Library, we need hundreds of millions of book records, a wiki interface, and lots of people who are willing
to contribute their time and effort to building the site. To date, we have gathered over 20 million records from a variety of large catalogs as well as single contributions, with more on the way. Open
Library is an open project: the software is open, the data are open, the documentation is open, and we welcome your contribution. Whether you fix a typo, add a book, or write a widget--it's all welcome.
We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can't do it alone! Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and has been funded in part by a grant
from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.
--Library of Congress Talking Books Program Celebrates 80 Years
- http://lisnews.org/node/38679/
On March 3, 2011, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS)-the Library of Congress' talking-book and braille program-will celebrate 80 years of helping visually
impaired and physically handicapped individuals to enjoy reading their favorite books and magazines. This free library program brings reading materials in digital audio and braille formats straight to
the homes of patrons from preschoolers to centenarians. Books on digital cartridge, digital talking-book players and braille books are sent to patrons via the U.S. mail at no cost to users. People who
sign up with the program also have the option of downloading books and magazines over the Internet in audio or braille format. " Talking books offer a wonderful opportunity for anyone who cannot see to
read or handle regular print because of blindness or a physical handicap," says NLS Director Kurt Cylke. "For 80 years this service has been a priceless gift to people who cannot see to read or handle
regular print materials." The NLS collection of more than 400,000 titles of bestsellers, classics, biographies, romance, and other genres delights even the most selective readers. Magazine lovers enjoy
free subscriptions to more than 40 periodicals in audio format, including Consumer Reports, National Geographic, and Sports Illustrated for Kids, and 30 periodicals in braille, such as Ladies Home
Journal, ESPN: The Magazine and The New York Times Large Print Weekly. The NLS program also keeps pace with the latest book titles, adding 2,500 annually. Patrons learn of new releases through two
bimonthly magazines, Talking Book Topics and Braille Book Review. Patrons are served locally through a national network of cooperating libraries. Beginning with just 19 libraries in 1931, the NLS network
today includes 113 libraries throughout the United States and its territories. Congress appropriates funds annually to the Library of Congress for the NLS program, while regional and sub-regional
libraries receive financial support from federal, state, and local sources. U.S. residents and citizens living abroad whose blindness or physical handicap makes reading regular printed matter difficult
may be eligible to participate in the audio and braille books program. By law, priority is given to U.S. military veterans. Those interested in learning more or signing up may call 888-NLS-READ or visit
http://www.loc.gov/nls/.
--Stop Motion Video and bookcases
- http://lisnews.org/node/38678/
Who knew? It's not Friday but these are fun to watch. Organizing the bookcase -- love the soundtrack! The Amazing Stop Motion Bookshelf
--Shelving to the Latin Beat of Two Guitars
- http://lisnews.org/node/38677/
--Why is Barnes & Noble performing well while Borders is bankrupt?
- http://lisnews.org/node/38676/
Why is Barnes & Noble performing well as a business while Borders is near (or has even reached) bankruptcy? What is so different about how they are run? 1.Failure to adequately address the internet sales
channel and the subsequent ebook market. 2.Poor real estate strategy - Borders leased space that was too large, the storefronts did not compare well to B&N, and they were complacent in picking and
relocating existing stores to the best locations. 3.Over-investment in music - while this was a big plus for this in the early to mid 90's, this was a disaster in the long run. 4.Over-reliance on
assortment size to compete as opposed to efficient operations - Borders was renowned for its wide and quality assortment of titles. 5.Failure to build efficient systems and processes
--LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast -- Unnumbered Special Edition (23 February 2011)
- http://lisnews.org/node/38675/
This episode talks about information architecture in today's situation of dysfunctional nation-states that have shown no hesitation in terminating or curtailing Internet access within their territories.
An example of a plug computer mentioned in the program (click to enlarge): Related links: Declan McCullagh on the current Internet outage in Libya Roundup looking back on the Egyptian Internet
outage...barely three weeks ago... Al Jazeera English: Defiant Gaddafi vows to fight on Al Jazeera says Libya intelligence jamming broadcasts BashPodder Rsync HTTrack Internet Engineering Task Force
"Request for Comments" Documents Downloading RFC documents using Rsync SheevaPlug Eben Moglen speaking with the New York City chapter of the Internet Society (audio and video of the presentation) Rough
transcript of Moglen's presentation Debian Wiki on FreedomBox FreedomBox Foundation An early effort pioneered by Case Western Reserve University that attempted to reach a goal similar to that proposed by
Moglen LISTen: An LISNews.org Podcast -- Unnumbered Special Edition (23 February 2011) by The Air Staff of Erie Looking Productions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported License.
--Preserving a Unique Kind of Ephemera...Bumper Stickers
- http://lisnews.org/node/38674/
Though she’s seen thousands of bumper stickers, Whitney Baker isn’t all that interested in what they have to say. She’s more interested in keeping them around for a long, long time. She’s a conservator
for the KU Libraries and took a five-month sabbatical to go around the country to look at bumper stickers, and she’s learned a lot about how to preserve them for others. During her research, she found
that the history of bumper stickers points back to Kansas. Many credit Forest Gill, a screen printer from Kansas City, Kan., with developing the idea. He founded Gill Studios Inc., which today operates
out of Lenexa. Gill’s son-in-law, Mark Gilman, today is chairman of the board for the company. He said Gill developed an adhesive paper sticker to replace cardboard signs tied to bumpers that were
beginning to gain popularity at the end of the 1930s and early 1940s. Though many have said the concept can be traced back to Gill, that’s not something the company has definitively established, Gilman
said. Check out the thumbnail gallery and Baker's video about the collection now housed at the Spenser Research Library at Kansas University.
--Amazon Prime members get streaming movies
- http://lisnews.org/node/38673/
Amazon announced today that Amazon Prime members get access to 5,000 movies and tv shows for no additional cost. Currently Prime members pay $79 per year to get free two day shipping or $3.95 overnight
shipping. See Amazon.com for full announcement.
--Kindle e-book piracy accelerates
- http://lisnews.org/node/38672/
Kindle e-book piracy accelerates How much will price play into all this? Well, you already have plenty of folks out there who think it's outrageous for publishers to price an e-book at $12.99 or $14.99
when the hardcover is first released. And some of those folks may feel justified in downloading pirated versions of books in protest--or just because they say they don't like getting ripped off. And while
some pricing decisions by publishers are clearly bad, pricing may be a smaller part of the piracy equation than you might think. What a surprising number of people have told me is that they pirate stuff
for the same reason that a lot of people like the Kindle: it's all about instant gratification. Read more
--Great Funny Comic: In support of libraries
- http://lisnews.org/node/38671/
In support of libraries John Allison: "I believe passionately in libraries and have been horrified by the prospect of closures throughout the system as part of local government cuts. I tried to make a
useful comic to help but it wound up being a bit... flawed?"
--Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins
- http://lisnews.org/node/38670/
Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins “People will always find a way to annotate electronically,” said G. Thomas Tanselle, a former vice president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation and an adjunct professor of English at Columbia University. “But there is the question of how it is going to be preserved. And that is a problem now facing collections libraries.”
--74 of Thomas Jefferson’s books identified at Washington University library
- http://lisnews.org/node/38669/
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Washington University in St. Louis announced the discovery by Monticello scholars that a collection of books, long held in the libraries at Washington University in
St. Louis, originally were part of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library. Full story
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