Thursday, January 31, 2013

A Doll’s Magic, Free to Renew

by: Corey Kilgannon

After one visit, she returned with her hair in dreadlocks. Another time, her long blond locks were primly fashioned into a traditional bun. One day, she came back wearing a uniform of the exclusive all-girls Brearley School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.


These have been the many phases of Kirsten Larson, an American Girl doll who sat on a shelf in the Ottendorfer branch of the New York Public Library, in the East Village, until a resourceful children’s librarian began lending her to girls, many of whose parents, because of financial or feminist reasons, resist buying the dolls.

Kirsten — who retails for $110 and is marketed as a “pioneer girl of strength and spirit” leading an adventurous life in the mid-1800s — was dropped off a decade ago at the library branch, in a Gothic building on Second Avenue.

She could not have been more out of her element, in her homespun frock and bonnet, in the middle of a New York City neighborhood once known for punk rock, left-wing activism and on-the-edge art and fashion, and now for its rapid gentrification.

But Kirsten has adapted to her urban frontier, traveling from one girl’s home to another’s for two weeks at a time, spending nights inside cramped apartments in public housing projects and inside luxury high-rises with sweeping city views. She also has taken trips out of the neighborhood with her temporary guardians: boat rides on Oyster Bay, and to house parties held by Mexican immigrants in Harlem.

The doll, part of a brand that is all the rage among girls and whose price tag is rage-inducing to many parents, has become one of the most sought-after items at the library. For some girls, Kirsten was the only way they could afford such a luxury item in their home. For others, it was the only way their liberal-minded parents would allow any doll into their home, refusing to indulge in gender stereotypes or what they considered to be an elitist hobby.

Suzette Seepersad had been avoiding buying her daughter Caelyn Osborn, 5, any toys geared toward girls.

But Caelyn fell in love with Kirsten, taking her to the family’s apartment, bathing her, reading stories to her and putting her to bed. After keeping the doll for two weeks or so, she had to be reminded by a librarian to return it. Now, Ms. Seepersad said, “I’m trying to get my sister to buy her” an American Girl doll.

With its limited budget, the East Village branch library could hardly be mistaken for the upscale American Girl Place, the company’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue, where reservations are often required for $20-a-head tea parties. But the excitement level , at least, was comparable in the library — and of course, there it was free to take Kirsten home.

The children began adopting Kirsten for days or weeks at a time, the way they would borrow a book. The library system does not typically lend out dolls, so Thea Taube, the children’s librarian at the branch, kept it unofficial. She did not require names or library cards from borrowers but rather relied on the honor system. Some children kept the doll for several weeks, she said.


Now after dozens of trips over the years, Kirsten is worn out and is being shipped to the company’s doll hospital in Middleton, Wis., to have her loosened arm and leg joints fixed and her hair, which has become matted from being styled and restyled countless times, replaced.

She will also receive a new wardrobe and accessories, since Kirsten’s boots, apron, knit stockings and bonnet – everything but her dress – have all been long lost, something that Ms. Taube said was a result of “a lot of love over the years.”

A group of Kirsten’s other favorite caretakers gathered recently at the library for a going-away party, drawing get-well cards and relishing one last play-date with the doll.

There was Flora Sobrino, 11, who now has three American Girl dolls of her own. There was Alondra Salas, 6, who could not afford such a doll, and whose mother, a nanny for an East Village family, knitted Kirsten’s outfit at their modest apartment in Harlem.

There was Khadija Sankara, 6, from the Bronx, who asked her mother — a Senegalese immigrant who runs a T-shirt shop nearby – for an American Girl doll.

“She wanted one, but her older sister told me: ‘You know how much it costs? As much as an iPod or something,’” the mother, Theresa Sankara, recalled.

There was Alison Newmark, 3, who would sleep with Kirsten and show her off to neighbors in the lobby of her building.

“I would not buy it for her now because it’s very expensive, but she thought it was the most beautiful doll she ever saw,” said her mother, Julia Justo. “It was almost like a real person to her – like a friend.”

Despite all the adoration she has received, Kirsten was not an overnight sensation at the library. When Ms. Taube became the children’s librarian in 2004, she found Kirsten languishing on a forgotten shelf in a library office within earshot of the busy children’s room, because library workers considered her too expensive to risk damage by displaying.

Kirsten had been donated a year earlier by the American Girl company when it opened its flagship Manhattan store and gave dolls and their biographical books to city library branches.

“I thought, ‘Well, we loan out books that are that expensive, so why can’t we lend her out too?’” said Ms. Taube, who hoped the doll would attract more children to the branch, leading them to read the doll books.

Ms. Taube began displaying Kirsten on her desk, with no sign or label or explanation. Immediately there were shy inquiries.


“If I saw a girl admiring it, I’d say, ‘Do you know you can take her home?’” Ms. Taube said. “’She likes to take trips and visit other dolls.’”

New York library officials said they knew of no other doll-lending in their system.

Flora, a sixth grader at Brearley who dressed Kirsten in her school’s uniform, began borrowing Kirsten five years ago, taking her home to her apartment on St. Marks Place, and began writing homemade books with adventure stories featuring Kirsten.

She took Kirsten to playgrounds and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with her parents, who deemed Kirsten too extravagant. At one point, Flora misplaced the doll’s apron, but later found it and returned it along with a pair of underwear she bought for Kirsten with her own money.

“When Flora was 6 we told her, ‘It’s a very expensive doll,’” Ms. Sobrino said. “We weren’t considering buying her a $100 doll.”

“We were hoping that borrowing Kirsten might quench her desire for her own doll, but actually, I think it may have turned out to be a gateway doll,” she said.

Flora saved her allowance money for a year and bought herself two dolls and received another as a gift. Now the dolls are watching Flora grow too old to play with them.

As the library prepared to close, Kirsten’s farewell party was coming to an end. The children hugged and said goodbye to the little well-worn pioneer and put her in a box bound for Wisconsin. Ms. Taube told the girls they would celebrate together when the doll returned in several weeks.

Ms. Taube said Kirsten exemplified the library as a community center that offered diverse services and lending materials.

“I tell the kids that the library belongs to them,” she said. “And I think that any child who could not afford that doll will remember the time they were able to borrow it from the library.”

from: NY Times

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Take the Library to the People!

by: Kathy Dempsey

"You need to take the library to the people instead of waiting for the people to come to the library."


You have heard that for years, but what have you done about it? If you haven't been moving toward that goal, then you're behind the times. Bookmobiles have been doing it for decades. And your website, or "virtual branch," does it in a way. But you'll increase your usage and visibility if you do something new or unexpected to physically deliver information and / or books to the public at their points of need.

Many public libraries around the world are taking their resources out to the people in new and interesting ways, which brings lots of media coverage and increases circulation. Here's a sampling of great projects to inspire you. They include libraries built where travellers are, libraries that move on four legs, and libraries on wheels.

* I must start in the Netherlands, because I think their innovation is beyond compare. You've probably already heard of the Airport Library that's in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. It holds books, videos, movies, music, art, and more in over 30 languages, and is meant to entertain and enlighten people about Dutch culture while they're waiting for flights in Schiphol, one of the world's busiest airports. You can read about it in Marketing Library Services or watch the project manager, Dick van Tol of ProBiblio (a service organization for Dutch libraries), talk about it on This Week In Libraries.


* Last summer, ProBiblio did it again, this time with Europe's first library in a commuter train station in the city of Haarlem. The idea is so simple: Set up a lending library in a busy railway station and design it so that commuters can step inside, find a great book, self-check it quickly, and rush back out to meet their trains. ProBiblio did lots of research about commuters and the idea's feasibility, and it also did lots of publicity and promotion. You can read all about those details in MLS and you can watch a 3-minute video (spoken Dutch with English subtitles) report made in the library.


* Speaking of summer, libraries, and the Dutch: The Netherlands also has temporary Beach Libraries in the summer. Yes, you can borrow books, magazines, and newspapers right on the beach, whether you have a local library card or not. They simply trust you to return your materials. This travel blog explains it. Even OCLC has written about the beach libraries in a blog post on outreach.


* On a smaller scale, you've probably heard about the Biblioburro in Columbia, South America, which delivers books to very rural areas where no other library service exists. This has been around for many years. A children's book has been written about it. PBS has even made a documentary film about it!

* There are other four-legged book carriers too. The Camel Mobile Library has been travelling across Kenya for a long time, serving nomadic tribes and helping with literacy. There's a blog about it. IFLA has written about it. There's even a book about it, along with video and some lovely photos here.

* You don't need a pack animal to deliver books. One of my favorites, for its simplicity and effectiveness, was the Reading at the Market in Lima, Peru. Here, library workers from the Municipalidad de Miraflores (Public Library) pushed a shopping cart around the market square. They talked to the vendors, gave them library cards, and loaned them books to read while their market stalls weren't busy. This project won one of IFLA's International Marketing Awards in 2007.


* Here's something that started in 2011:

There's a bicycle-based library in Brazil that delivers books, wireless access, and programs around Sao Paulo, especially for the homeless. The "Bicicloteca" blog page is in Portuguese (it's worth translating and reading!). You can also read about it in English on the Global Voices site. In December 2011, the Bicicloteca was elected as "social project of the year" and has been widely recognized outside of its country.

* I've posted here before about the very unique, repurposed army tank that its owner calls the "Weapon of Mass Instruction." He drives around Buenos Aires, Argentina and gives free books to people It's quite a sight, which you can see on this YouTube video.

* Here's my latest discovery: In Taipei, Taiwan, the city government has a "movable library" program that's put bookshelves in city buses. It provides books on 62 city buses, and according to an article from 11 January, it "plans to place public bookshelves in MRT stations, on MRT trains or at venues around public transportation sites." Borrowers keep books for a month, and can return them to any participating bus or any city library branch. Wonderfully convenient!

* Then there's The Uni Project, a portable reading room that moves around New York City. It consists of many cubes that can be transported easily and set up in various configurations, right on the street. It's "dedicated to expanding a culture of learning beyond the walls of schools and libraries and into public space" and is referred to as a "walk-up learning space." Very mobile indeed!


* Finally, to bring this post full-circle, I'll refer back to "Library-a-Go-Go," the book-dispensing machine that Contra Costa County, California put into a commuter train station back in 2008. The project has expanded to serve a second train station and a shopping mall. Details are on its web page, which includes links to articles from both MLS and Library Journal.


I have also seen book-dispensing machines in Dutch train stations.

So these are some of the "take the library out to the people" projects that I'm aware of. And some of them are not even officially run by libraries! I have covered trains, planes, buses, bicycles, beaches, streets, and deserts, including rural, suburban, and urban areas. I'm sure there are even more -- please share comments and links about other outreach that public libraries are doing outside their own walls. As you can see, nothing is impossible!

from: The 'M' Word

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The 10 Most Anticipated Book Adaptations of 2013

by: Gabe Habash

In our 2012 Most Anticipated Book Adaptations article, we picked The Great Gatsby for the #4 slot. Since the writing of that article, the calendar has changed to 2013 and The Great Gatsby still hasn’t come out. And even though it’s supposed to release in May of this year, we’re going to give its spot this year to a new movie, because we don’t do repeats at PWxyz. It’s just a rule, plus we needed to make room for all of the YAey adaptations this year, because you can never have too much teens-in-peril with supernatural garnish. So here are the 10 movies from books we hope are at least somewhat sort of partially worth the hype.


10. Winter’s Tale (TBA)

Though it’s probably a long shot to be released before 2014 (filming was delayed in Red Hook because of Hurricane Sandy), a lot of people will be very happy when Winter’s Tale, the adaptation of Mark Helprin’s 1983 novel, comes out. The cast includes Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Colin Farrell, and Jennifer Connelly. Set in a mythic, Victorian-style New York City and involving fantasy and time-bending elements, hopefully the adaptation will be more successful than the lackluster Cloud Atlas, another epic fantasy with time-bending elements.


9. A Most Wanted Man (TBA)

Another John le CarrĂ© adaptation comes to the big screen, following 2010′s stellar Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy–this time, in A Most Wanted Man, the plot follows a Chechan Muslim who gets caught up in the international war on terror after illegally immigrating to Hamburg, where questions of his true identity lead to white-knuckle le CarrĂ©-esque intrigue. Willem Dafore, Rachel McAdams, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Robin Wright star.

8. The Wolf of Wall Street (TBA)

Based on Jordan Belfort’s tell-all about his Wall Street deeds that resulted in a criminal conviction, The Wolf of Wall Street is directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Terence Winter of The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire. Scorsese’s favorite actor Leonardo DiCaprio plays Belfort, a Long Island penny stockbroker who served 20 months in prison for refusing to cooperate in a 1990s securities fraud case involving Wall Street corruption and mob infiltration. The movie also stars Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, and Jean Dujardin.

7. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (August 16)

The first Percy made over $225 million when it came out in 2010, and since then, children’s/YA book-to-film franchises have only gotten hotter at the box office, and author Rick Riordan’s books have likewise grown in popularity. The story here centers on a quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.

6. Beautiful Creatures (February 14)

Based on the fantasy YA novel, Beautiful Creatures is about the mysterious new girl (Alice Englert) in a small town who brings some dark and troubling things along with her suitcase. Though it’ll have to compete with other fantasy YA franchises, it lands in theaters a full month before The Host (see below).
5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (December 13)

The second installment in Peter Jackson’s needlessly extended trilogy, expect Smaug to have lots more walking, but this time without the excitement of An Unexpected Journey‘s beginning or the closure of the journey in next year’s There and Back Again. If you’re trying to find things to do until December, you could try to eat every item on the Denny’s Hobbit Menu.
4. The Host (March 29)

No Twilight movie in 2013 means all the attention goes to Stephenie Meyer’s other book, The Host. After Melanie Stryder (Saoirse Ronan) is injected with an alien parasite, she’s supposed to help the alien race take over the world, but instead good things like human love and compassion get in the way.

3. World War Z (June 21)

This one is up so high based mainly on potential, as it has gone way over budget and has gone through extensive reshoots. Max Brooks’s book has sold over 1 million copies; the adaptation stars Brad Pitt and is directed by Marc Forster, owner of one of the weirdest filmographies ever (Quantum of Solace, The Kite Runner, Stranger Than Fiction, Monster’s Ball).

2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (November 22)

The Hunger Games was 2012′s #3 highest grossing movie ($408 million), and there’s no reason to believe that Catching Fire won’t top that. Historically, sequels gross more than their predecessors, and, combined with the fact that Suzanne Collins’s books are still selling, it’s within possibility that Katniss might take the #1 highest grossing spot in 2013.

1. Ender’s Game (November 1)

The kid from Hugo is Ender and his skills come in handy when aliens invade. Children will probably be imitating the games/tests found in the movie, like they did with Quidditch and like they did with lightsabers. Orson Scott Card’s book has sold millions of copies and it’s still going: in 2012, it was the bestselling science fiction book with over 100,000 copies sold.

from: Publisher's Weekly

Monday, January 28, 2013

The Book Boys of Mumbai

by: Sonia Faleiro

As the lights turn red at the Haji Ali traffic intersection in Mumbai, the boy slouching against the railings quickly straightens up. Yakub Sheikh is just 12 years old, but he knows he has only 45 seconds to make some money. Holding aloft his wares, he dashes toward a black BMW and in his cracking preteen voice addresses the woman inside: “ ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’?”

Mumbai once prided itself on its literary culture — libraries, journals and poetry societies flourished; foreign books, though hard to find and prohibitively expensive, were all the rage. It was into this economy of scarcity and exclusivity that, somewhere around the 1970s, the book pirates stepped in.

Initially, these literary entrepreneurs produced only thinly bound copies, their pages spilling out or missing altogether. Popular fiction sold well, as did American cookbooks and Asian volumes of dress patterns. It wasn’t until the ’90s that best sellers were pirated; today, they dominate the black market, selling at less than half the Indian cover price. (Don’t tell E. L. James, but the woman in the BMW bought the entire “Fifty Shades” trilogy for the equivalent of $10.) Eagerly anticipated books like those in the “Harry Potter” series are often available the morning of their worldwide release. As a result, the books most readily found in Mumbai these days aren’t purchased in the city’s established bookstores but outside, where children peddle shrink-wrapped paperbacks.

Ever since children have slept on Mumbai’s streets, they have worked on them, whether as sellers of trinkets or of talismans. The city has thousands of street children, but only a chosen few get to sell books. These are children like Yakub, who lives with his family and has a place to call home, even if it is on the pavement and contrived of bamboo poles and scavenged tarp. Such children are considered high-value sellers, more reliable than those who live in gangs without any parental supervision. Because the cost of one book is many times that of a handful of trinkets, book suppliers, who are called “seths,” or bosses, value trustworthiness in their ranks above all else. Suppliers traditionally hire only boys. “Boys move fast in traffic, and they carry many more books,” explained Ganesh, a seth I spoke with in Haji Ali. Ganesh, who uses only one name, is just 19 years old and has 15 boys working under his direction.

Bosses like Ganesh pick child peddlers over adults because they’re happy to earn small amounts. And they do exactly as told. Selling in traffic is also considered a starter job. After dodging speeding buses for a few years, inevitably suffering injury, child peddlers typically graduate to safer work as hawkers of fruits or temple flowers. If they’re ambitious, they become seths, working a group of children as they themselves were once worked.

India has laws against child labor and against copyright infringement, but both are openly flouted. In fact, most sales of pirated books, which take place at traffic crossings and on railway platforms, occur in direct view of the police. Traffic and railway officers say it isn’t part of their job description to round up child laborers or chase down seths. Ganesh is one of several seths who admitted to paying them off. “I know I’m breaking the law,” he told me. “That’s what bribes are for.”

Child labor and book piracy have something else in common: In India, at least, they’re socially acceptable. Children don’t just work on the streets for shady suppliers; they cook and clean in middle-class homes. And while some Indian readers disdain the very idea of a pirated book, most do not. It’s routine to watch Hollywood films on pirated DVDs and download American music from file-sharing Web sites. And it’s spoken of as openly as if this were legal. Students even buy expensive medical or technical textbooks from street sellers. If the excuse for buying pirated books was once an economy of scarcity, the justification now is that of abundance. It is far easier to buy a pirated book than it is to find a bookstore or library.

Some Indian authors have a similarly unconventional view toward the pirating of their books; they see it as a stamp of mass popularity. At least in private, they say there’s no greater thrill than spying their own latest novels in stacks of pirated books for sale.


The real problem, however, may not be corruption or social acceptability but poverty. Once a street child experiences the exhilaration of spending his own money, it’s hard to sell him on the long-term advantage of trading paid work for homework. Sellers pay their seths a fee of 100 rupees (about $2) a book; everything the sellers make above that is profit. Yakub sells at least three books a day, making a minimum of 300 rupees for himself. That’s more than his father, a plumber, brings home. “The key to encouraging street children to come to school,” said Kishor Bhamre, an assistant director at the nonprofit education organization Pratham, “is to show them that good money does not necessarily equal a good life. And that in any case, they can never hold on to the money they make. Older kids bully them out of it, their parents snatch it from them, it’s stolen.”

The tragic irony of Mumbai’s illicit book trade is that its best salesmen will never fully understand the value of what they’re selling. They can rattle off book titles and the names of best-selling authors. But because they forgo school for work, they can’t read, and so view books as no different from anything else they’ve sold — like boxes of tissues or bags of oranges. The pleasure, indeed the magic, of literature that shapes so many avid readers as children, defining who we are and influencing what we make of our lives, is beyond their reach. Yakub is poignantly aware of this. “I’ve grown up with novels,” he told me. “But I have never read one.”

Yakub has yet to realize that children like him are the face of an underground trade that operates in extreme secrecy. So little is known about the scope of the problem that the last official figures on the cost of piracy to Indian publishing were released in 1999. That study estimated that 20 to 25 percent of all books sold in the country were pirated. In fact, the only other adult in his network that Ganesh has even seen face to face is the young man who delivers his books. “When my seth retired, he passed on three mobile numbers to me,” Ganesh said. “When I need to place an order I call one of the numbers and a delivery boy reaches my house with 50 books. I’ve no say in what we sell. I’m told, ‘These novels are hot this week, move them quickly,’ and that’s what I tell my boys.”

Nor does Ganesh ponder the moral implications of his work. For him, selling pirated books is neither about the process of selling nor about the works themselves. It’s about survival. “My stomach doesn’t know the difference between an original and a duplicate,” he told me. Yakub, who along with so many other street children forms the mainstay of this trade, would agree. His father isn’t always around, and his mother, he says, is crazy. “If you catch her at the wrong moment she’ll scream curses that will fill you with shame,” he says. “I give her half the money I earn. She buys tea and chewing tobacco and forgets to swear. I ask only one thing of her: ‘Don’t touch my books.’ But I don’t take chances. At night I sleep with them. I use my books for a pillow.”

from: NYTimes

Friday, January 25, 2013

School Library Thrives After Ditching Print Collection

by: Lauren Barack

High school principal Sue Skinner may have removed nearly all of the physical books from Minnesota’s Benilde-St. Margaret’s school library in 2011, but the Moore Library remains a vital educational space where students still research, investigate and—above all—learn, she says. Today, students from both the junior and high school grades convene there with their laptops, get help from math and literacy coaches, or read quietly (sometimes even from books.)


“We used to think of a library as a building with stacks of books,” says Skinner, who has served as high school principal of the St. Louis Park, MN, Catholic preparatory school since 2007. “Now we should think of it as a space where people come together to share ideas, be creative, access information, and even read. Instead of thinking of it so literally, we should think of it as a more active space and evolving.”

The expansive use of digital tools at Benilde-St. Margaret’s plays a major role in the success of the “no books” library, Skinner says. Since 2010, the entire school is 1:1, with each student receiving a MacBook plus user access to various online databases including Gale and ProQuest.

Another key to the library’s success? A robust community of neighboring branch and university libraries in the surrounding area. There are 50 public libraries alone in a 15-mile radius of the school, Skinner points out. “We weren’t saying no to hard copy books,” she says. “But let’s not duplicate what public and other libraries have.” The school’s librarian as well as teachers help students to complete requests online for the books they need and want from all of these local branches.

Before distributing the library’s print stacks to local centers and donation sites in Africa, says Skinner, she had teachers comb through the physical books and pull anything they wanted for their curriculums into classrooms. Then she allocated additional funding towards purchasing new and used fiction books in physical form, since her students, Skinner says, actually prefer to read this genre on the printed page like many adults do. These titles, too, went into classrooms.

Today, the library is nearly devoid of books save for a few reference titles and any books that students bring in themselves, Skinner says. She notes, however, that the library still is a work in progress. While it contains some tables and chairs where students can work alone or in groups, Skinner hopes for even more resources. On her wish list? An interactive white board, a big monitor where students “can throw up things on a screen” as they work collaboratively, and even more power stations—although she’s “not convinced” yet that a coffee shop, a popular request from students, is needed.

At the top of the wish list, though, is a new school librarian; filling this role soon is crucial because Moore’s current librarian is retiring after 20 years spent at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Skinner explains. As Skinner combs through the candidates, she is looking for someone who shares her vision that student learning isn’t based solely on digital or physical resources, but a hybrid of both, she says.

“I think I want to be picky,” she adds. “I want someone who understands the role of a librarian as an instructional partner, an information specialist, a program administrator, and a school leader. I think the role and importance of a librarian and a media specialist is highly underrated. I am excited to get someone with a strong vision.”

from: School Library Journal

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Teaching IBM's Watson the meaning of 'OMG'

Getting supercomputers like IBM's Watson to understand slang may be the final frontier in machine intelligence.

by: Michael Lev-Ram

FORTUNE -- The scientific test to gauge if a computer can "think" is surprisingly simple: Can it engage in small talk? The so-called Turing test says a computer capable of carrying on a natural conversation without giving itself away can be considered intelligent. So far, no machine has made the cut.


Eric Brown, a research scientist with IBM (IBM), is charged with changing that. The 45-year-old is the brains behind Watson, the supercomputer that pummeled human opponents on Jeopardy! in 2011. The biggest difficulty for Brown, as tutor to a machine, hasn't been making Watson know more but making it understand subtlety, especially slang. "As humans, we don't realize just how ambiguous our communication is," he says.

Case in point: Two years ago, Brown attempted to teach Watson the Urban Dictionary. The popular website contains definitions for terms ranging from Internet abbreviations like OMG, short for "Oh, my God," to slang such as "hot mess."

But Watson couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity -- which the Urban Dictionary is full of. Watson picked up some bad habits from reading Wikipedia as well. In tests it even used the word "bullshit" in an answer to a researcher's query.

Ultimately, Brown's 35-person team developed a filter to keep Watson from swearing and scraped the Urban Dictionary from its memory. But the trial proves just how thorny it will be to get artificial intelligence to communicate naturally. Brown is now training Watson as a diagnostic tool for hospitals. No knowledge of OMG required.

This story is from the January 14, 2013 issue of Fortune.

from: Fortune

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

How bookshops could be happy ever after: ebooks could provide new revenue stream

Now they can cash in on ebooks, sellers are making shelf space for e-readers and can see a way forward

by: James Moore

Let battle commence: Amazon's Kindle has cornered up to 90 per cent of the ebook market by some estimates. But high street booksellers are starting to fight back. The Kobo and the Nook have arrived, securing deals with retailers to allow their eReaders to be sold in physical bookshops, which can then take a cut of future ebook sales.


With Amazon's corporate behaviour increasingly unpopular – its tax affairs have generated a furious backlash –there seems to be a ready market for an alternative that could provide Britain's independent booksellers with a much-needed new revenue stream.

Ron Johns, who owns the Bookseller in Falmouth and St Ives in addition to independent publisher Mabecron, is a convert.

"Kindles have about 90 per cent of the market, which means Amazon virtually controls it. Only in the last two months have indies been able to sell a reader, mainly Kobos. Through the Booksellers Association, who have organised and orchestrated it, we get a kickback from every ebook sale from a Kobo reader that we sell."

Smaller booksellers still have concerns about the rise of the ebook. Mr Johns cites the recent appearance of Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child at just 20p: "That was a shake. If an ebook is that cheap it doesn't generate enough income for anyone. If that sort of thing becomes the norm the economics of producing a book becomes shaky and it doesn't help anyone because the trade will collapse."

But they are having to find ways to live with them. ebooks are growing rapidly in popularity and WH Smith, for one, has gushed about the "incremental" opportunity of its "ahead of plan" partnership with Kobo.

And they might not have quite the devastating impact MP3s have had on the music industry if publishers wake up to the opportunities.

Patrick Neale, co-proprietor of Jaffé & Neale in the Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton, serves as president of the Booksellers Association. He says he realised he had to do something when people started turning up to the cafe in his shop armed with e-readers which they would read over coffee.

"The thing about having the Kobo in store to sell now is that it gives me an opportunity to talk about mixed formats when customers come into the shop. And at least customers' e-readers get them into the shop, which means I can talk to them, and perhaps get them to buy a book while they're here," he says.

"The research suggests that people will probably buy a mix of formats."

To capitalise on that research, Mr Neale would like to be able to "bundle" ebooks along with physical books in a similar manner to the way premium price Blu-Rays can often be bought as a "combi-pack" with a DVD and a digital download thrown in. Magazine publishers have gone down this route, as have comic book publishers such as Marvel. But so far book publishers have held back.

"We would love publishers to bundle. Bundling to me seems like a good idea but they are scared to proceed because they are worried about how to price the bundles. Amazon will inevitably drive the price down, of course. It just needs someone to be brave and take the jump," says Mr Neale.

One thing that might hold the Kobo back is the surprising lack of cross promotion through its owner Rakuten's other big UK business, play.com, in stark contrast to Amazon, where the Kindle is aggressively pushed through the retailer's home page.

play.com has closed its retail business after the Government stopped it selling goods free of VAT out of Jersey. It is now focused on acting as a marketplace for others. But why that should stop it from pushing Kobo is a mystery. That's not an issue for Barnes & Noble, which has successfully taken huge chunks out of Amazon's market share in the United States with its Nook. The giant bookseller has secured a number of tie ups for the entry of its e-reader into the UK.

While Barnes & Noble doesn't have anything like the brand recognition here as it does at home, it might not need it with the likes of Sainsbury's, John Lewis and Foyles on board.

Foyles' chief executive Sam Husain says: "The Nook is a fairly recent entrant to the market but it had huge success in the US against Kindle. What's important to us is it is made by Barnes & Noble, and they're another bookseller. We only started selling it on 29 October and we've been very satisfied. The screen is better, it's light and now backed by Microsoft."

Mr Husain is optimistic that the exploding ebook market need not be a bad thing: "I believe that there is a really good future for the bookselling industry." Even Amazon has enlisted the help of a physical bookseller, setting up a partnership with Waterstones. Kindles bought there have access to unique content, such as the Waterstones blog, and come with different screen savers. More unique add-ons are planned, although by contrast to the Kindle's competitor devices you still have to use the Amazon store.

Mention the word Amazon to Mr Johns and he gnashes his teeth, likening the company to the three-legged war machines in HG Wells' War of the Worlds. "What we need is a virus to take them down, like in the book," he says. The Kobo, and the Nook, might not take down the Kindle, but at least they can cut into the giant's dominance.

Philip Jones, editor of the trade paper The Bookseller, believes they have a shot: "If you look at the owners, they are big companies with a lot of financial clout so yes, they do have a chance to take Amazon on."

And if not? Well maybe the Kindle's closed shop will need to be broken up.

Says Mr Jones: "Estimates put Amazon's market share at 80 to 90 per cent of the ebook market. That's the sort of number that I'd certainly want to take a look at if I were a competition regulator."

from: Independent

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

In this university's laptop vending machine, the MacBooks are free

by: John Koetsier

Philadelphia’s Drexel University has installed a Macbook vending machine in the university’s Haggerty library. The kiosk dispenses MacBooks free of charge to Drexel students, staff, and faculty, who can use the machines for up to five hours at a time.

The goal is simply to help students get better, safer access to technology. Students toting laptops are targets for muggers.

“We installed it in late December,” Niki Gianakaris, Drexel’s media relations director, said. “Students didn’t want to carry their laptops to the library late at night.”

To get a MacBook, students simply walk up to the vending machine, sign in with their student card, and receive a laptop. Between lending sessions, the Macbook’s batteries charge, and the kiosk wipes the hard drives clean. Late fees of $5 do apply. The vending machine holds 12 notebooks, and I’m guessing it’s generally empty.

For now it’s a demo project with single vending machine, but it could grow over time.

“This is obviously going to be very popular,” Gianakaris said. “We’ll evaluate their use and, depending on the results determine how many more we can install.”

The program is part of Drexel Library’ knowledge transfer mission. “Libraries are not only meant to house books,” Drexel dean Danuta Nitecki said in a statement. “They also house learning.”

Depending on students’ reaction and university finances, Drexel is considering installing kiosks at additional potential locations around campus. Two other universities on the East Coast are also trying the laptop-lending program, Drexel said on its blog, using technology from Texas-based LaptopsAnytime.

If the program is popular, iPads are next up on the list for consideration, Gianakaris added. Right now, that seems like a safe bet.

from: VentureBeat

Monday, January 21, 2013

Turkey lifts ban on thousands of books

by: Ellie Robins

This weekend an important legal change came quietly into effect in Turkey, meaning that 23,000 books banned over the course of decades can now be printed freely.


In July, Turkish parliament adopted a bill stating that any book bans imposed before 2012 would be lifted unless a court stepped forward to uphold the banning within six months. The censorship in question has been implemented over a long period, by different institutions and in different cities, so there’s no one central body responsible for repealing or supporting it. One city prosecutor in Ankara reported last month that all bans in his jurisdiction would be lifted, but other officials have been more quiet. The passage of the January 5th deadline without any challenge means that works like The Communist Manifesto will now legally be available in the country for the first time.

True, in practice these laws were not closely observed, and many of the books on the banned list were already being printed in Turkey — but this is more than a symbolic victory. The Australian reports that carrying a book on the banned list often served as a pretext for detaining students and demonstrators in prison after a protest, meaning that those in power now have one less means of punishing legitimate protest. That’s a welcome change, given Turkey’s record on freedom of expression: the country has more journalists in prison than any other, at forty-nine to Iran‘s forty-five and China‘s thirty-two, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The situation for writers in Turkey is so bad that PEN launched an appeal on their behalf late last year — read more here.

from: mhpbooks

Friday, January 18, 2013

The World's Largest Floating Bookstore

by: Jeff O'Neal

Carrying more than 5000 books and measuring more than 430 feet long, the Logos Hope is the world’s largest floating bookstores. The Logos Hope is operated by a German charity organization, and its mission is to take books, education, and community outreach around the world.

All crew is unpaid and signs up for 1 or 2 year cruises. The Logos Hope has visited more than 42 countries in its 8 years of service, and usually stays in a port for several weeks, which allows the volunteer crew to take on community projects and bring on board as many visitors as would like (the ship can only hold about 45o people at a time).

Part of the ship’s mission is to make low-cost books available in parts of the world where books are hard to come by–this includes not only selling books below retail prices, but also establishing libraries in local schools, children’s homes, and other community organization wherever the Logos Hope sails.

In addition to book-distribution, the Logos Hope hosts educational programming about fitness, AIDS prevention, and a variety of other subjects. Since it set sail in 2004, the Logos Hope has distributed more than 3 million books and had more than 2.5 million visitors onboard.

Currently, the Logos Hope is in port in Subic Bay, The Philippines. On November 30th, it will sail for a month-long stay in Hong Kong. (Its schedule for the next six-months is available here).

from: Book Riot

Click here to see pictures of the Logos Hope.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

A New Chapter? A Launch Of The Bookless Library

by: Reema Khrais

If your idea of a library is row upon row of nicely shelved hardcovers, then you'll be in for a surprise when a planned new library in San Antonio opens this fall.


"Think of an Apple store," Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff says while explaining the layout of the new library, BiblioTech.

In keeping with technological advances, the county will house a library of neatly arranged LCD screens and gadgets instead of the traditional banquet of dog-eared print and paper books. The public library will be one of the first digital-only libraries of its kind.

With 50 computer terminals and a stock of laptops and tablets on-site, the building will also offer an array of preloaded e-readers available for the card-carrying customer to take home.

"The library is a chance to expand the scope of opportunities for people to learn technology," Wolff explains. "The world is changing."

He contends that the $1.5 million project will be cost-effective, as it'll be located in an existing county-owned building and available to many underserved communities where residents may not have access to at-home computers.

In fact, improving technological access to lower-income areas of the predominantly Hispanic county is what led to Wolff's bookless endeavor. Many of the unincorporated areas of the county, he says, lack public libraries.

Short-Lived And 'Premature' History Of Bookless Libraries

This replacement of jacket covers for hard drives is a calculated choice that many other libraries and officials around the nation have also considered, yet — in most cases — quickly abandoned.

In 2002, at the Santa Rosa Branch Library in Tucson, Ariz., officials attempted to bridge the digital gap in the community by offering a digital-only library. Years later, however, residents — fatigued by the electronics — requested that actual books be added to the collection, and today, enjoy a full-access library with computers.

In describing the Santa Rosa library's attempt and San Antonio's plan to redefine public libraries, Sarah Houghton, director of the San Rafael Public Library in California, has only one word: "premature."

The primary advantage of bookless arenas, according to Houghton? You can repurpose the saved space for work, study or collaboration areas.

Otherwise, she lists three reasons why they're not such a great idea quite yet.

"First, some people simply prefer physical media — they don't want to read on a device," Houghton says.

Second, she points to the issue of the digital divide. Those who aren't necessarily technologically literate may need extra over-the-shoulder help with the devices in a way that would require a large operation and, consequently, a big budget.

"A huge element is training staff, and that's even presuming that the library can afford enough of these devices to meet the demand," Houghton explains.

And the biggest issue? Most content is simply not available digitally to license and purchase.

"So your selection of best-sellers and popular media just went down the toilet because 99 percent of that is not available to libraries digitally," she says.

Many publishers don't license to libraries, and those willing to do business often have what Houghton considers outlandish terms — too expensive or unrealistic for a library's allowance.

An 'Evolving' Digital Backdrop

The tech-savvy librarian adds that her reluctance to embrace bookless libraries is a bit counterintuitive because she's an advocate for digital media. But the digital landscape, Houghton contends, simply isn't ready to revolutionarily merge with libraries.

"I think it'll be a good 100 to 150 years from now until all libraries are completely digital," she says. "I think in terms of seeing a trend of 10 to 20 percent of libraries becoming bookless, that'll take maybe 10 years or so."

At the forefront of the digital movement — if it's not too early to call it that — are academic libraries. In 2010, the engineering and technology library at the University of Texas, San Antonio pruned all of its print materials for e-books and e-journals. And just last year, Stanford University ditched bookshelves for screens.

Stanford's Terman Engineering Library adds close to 5,000 e-books a year and currently has more than 65,000. Despite expected disadvantages, such as possible student copyright infringements or not all the needed books available in digital format, Helen Josephine, head of the engineering library, heralds the launch as an overall success.

"It's available on our network 24/7, so students can download them locally on their computer, phone, wherever, whenever," Josephine says. "Continuing to make the library info space relevant as the technology improves is definitely where we're moving."

That's the mantra of Judge Nelson Wolff, of Bexar County: Design to fit the digital panorama. While he doesn't necessarily think it's time to open an existential conversation about the state of hardbacks, he makes it clear that the dialogue is certainly shifting.

"A technological evolution is taking place," he says." "And I think we're stepping in at the right time."

If successful, Wolff hopes to clone the model across the county.

from: NPR

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

McDonald's to become UK's largest book distributor with Happy Meal deal

McDonald's is to become the UK’s biggest children’s books distributor as it commits to handing out 15m books with its Happy Meals by 2015.

by: Louisa Peacock

The book giveaway will start today with a five-week promotion offering a series of non-fiction books from DK Books’s Amazing World series, including Stars and Planets, Big Cats and Oceans. By the end of 2014, the fast-food retailer will have handed out at least 15m fiction and non-fiction books to Happy Meal eaters.


The campaign aims to encourage families to enjoy reading together. The latest research from the National Literacy Trust (NLT), based on a survey of 21,000 young people in the UK, revealed that only 50pc of children enjoy reading “very much” or “quite a lot”.

As well as books given out alongside Happy Meals, customers can redeem books at WH Smith, the high-street retailer, under the offer, McDonald’s said yesterday.

Jonathan Douglas, director of the NLT, said: “Our research tells us that there is a very clear link between book ownership and children’s future success in life, so it is very concerning that one in three children in the UK doesn’t own a book, and half of kids don’t really enjoy reading.

“Initiatives like McDonald’s Happy Readers campaign play an important role in getting more books into the hands of children, and inspiring families to read together as a fun and interactive pastime.”

Meanwhile, the global fast-food chain said it would temporarily embrace its Australian nickname Down Under, with selected outlets across the country changing their signage to “Macca’s” for a limited period. The world-first change – affecting 13 chains in Australia – comes after a branding survey commissioned by the fast-food group found that 55pc of Australians called the company by its shortened name.

The first outlets involved are in the southern Sydney suburb of Engadine, and an outlet in Queensland’s Kangaroo Point.

McDonald’s Australia said some restaurants would change their signage as part of the company’s celebrations of Australia Day on Jan 26. The traditional McDonald’s signage will return to each site from early February.

from: Telegraph

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Book Reviews Vie For Dreaded Hatchet Job Award

by: Jill Lawless

LONDON — A mauling of Martin Amis and a savaging of Salman Rushdie are in the running for the best bad book review of 2012.


Eight finalists were announced Tuesday for the Hatchet Job of the Year Award, a prize set up to reward scathing works of literary journalism.

The nominees include Ron Charles' Washington Post review of Amis' satirical saga "Lionel Asbo" – a "ham fisted novel" full of "blanched stereotypes" – and Zoe Heller's assessment of Rushdie's memoir "Joseph Anton" for the New York Review of Books. Heller slammed the author's "magisterial amour propre" and concluded: "The world is as large and as wide as it ever was; it's just Rushdie who got small."

The prize was founded last year by literary website The Omnivore to reward the "angriest, funniest, most trenchant" review published in a newspaper or magazine. Its serious aim is to raise the profile of book critics and "promote integrity and wit in literary journalism."

"Book reviews are, in the main, too fawning and dull," said Omnivore editor Anna Baddeley.

Finalists for the award also include Richard Evans' assessment of A.N. Wilson's "Hitler: A Short Biography" – "stale, unoriginal material ... banal and cliche-ridden historical judgments" – and Craig Brown's review of "The Odd Couple" by Richard Bradford. Brown dismissed the book about the friendship between writers Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin as "a triumph of `cut and paste.'"

Last year's inaugural prize was won by Adam Mars-Jones for a review of Michael Cunningham's novel "By Nightfall" that accused the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist of scattering literary allusions like "tin cans tied to a tricycle."

This year's winner, to be announced Feb. 12, will receive a year's supply of potted shrimp from the award's sponsor, a fishmonger.

From: HuffingtonPost

Monday, January 14, 2013

Check These Out at the Library: Blacksmithing, Bowling, Butchering

To Draw Crowds, Some Facilities Offer Much More Than Books; Expanding the Tool Selection

by: Owen Fletcher

Alex Pope had no qualms about the ruckus one of his employees made on a recent afternoon at the Central Resource Library in Overland Park, Kan. The fellow in a black apron and baseball cap sawed around the joint of a 120-pound pig carcass and snapped off the back leg.


"It was a pretty audible crack," said Mr. Pope. "We like to start with that one because it's pretty dramatic."

Mr. Pope, owner of Local Pig, a butcher shop in nearby Kansas City, Mo., was at the library to give a hog-butchering demonstration to about 100 people in an event advertised as "Books and Butchers."


"If you can butcher a hog in a library, then all sorts of other things become possible," says Sean Casserley, a new county librarian for Overland Park, who dreamed up the idea.

Which raises the question: Have you checked out the library lately?

In an age where people use search engines instead of reference books and download novels on Kindles and iPads, some public libraries are taking extreme measures to stay relevant.

They are offering Zumba dance classes, seminars on landscaping and tips for holiday shopping. Besides hog-butchering, some have hosted demonstrations of blacksmithing and fly fishing. A library in Joliet, Ill., last summer held a "Star Wars Day" featuring games for kids, volunteers dressed as storm troopers and lemonade served at a mock-up of the famous Star Wars Cantina.

Ann Kuta, a 67-year-old former secretary in the financial services industry, swiftly swung her arm in an upward motion one recent Friday morning at a Des Plaines, Ill., public library. She stared intently at a giant screen as a virtual bowling ball rolled down a lane before knocking down most of the 10 virtual pins.

She pumped her fists in the air as about a dozen other seniors cheered.

Ms. Kuta is a top bowler in the biweekly Nintendo 7974.OK -1.73%Wii bowling competitions for seniors here. She has won the admiration of her fellow players, and a trophy, for bowling two perfect games on the videogame system.

"There have been ups and downs, but I always try to wear my lucky shoes," Ms. Kuta said, pointing to her white Keds.


Beyond the usual books, e-books, CDs and DVDs, some libraries are now lending out telescopes, musical instruments and electricity monitors.

The Berkeley Public Library in California, which has long offered tools like saws and demolition hammers for checkout, is expanding its selection in response to growing interest, library deputy director Doug Smith said.

"People will be coming in and getting some books or movies and then skipping over to the tool library and getting drill bits or drywall tools," he said.

Paul DeGeorge and his brother, Joe, are rarely quiet when they show up at a library. Performing as Harry and the Potters, the indie rock duo have played nearly 300 shows in libraries since 2004, with songs like "Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock" and other tunes in the key of Harry Potter.

Asked whether library patrons ever try to hush them during the band's loud shows, Paul DeGeorge said: "Usually patrons don't directly complain to us. I'm sure they complain to the librarians."

Bill Harmer, director of the district library in Chelsea, Mich., is trying to make it OK to laugh at libraries, too. In recent summers, he has hosted comedy shows on the library lawn in the small town.

"I put Chelsea in Mapquest and it was like—come on," comedian Horace H.B. Sanders told an audience seated in plastic chairs in 2010. "You go find it."

Now, Mr. Harmer is setting up a national tour of standup comics, trying to turn public libraries into new venues rivaling comedy clubs. "The only difference is that you couldn't drink and you can't smoke," he said.

Public libraries have long served as gathering places and offered a range of nonliterary programs. And those who predicted their demise "have been proved wrong," says historian Wayne Wiegand, emeritus professor of library and information studies at Florida State University.

Community-focused activities at libraries aren't new developments, he says, but rather "repetitions of what happened in the past."

Librarians say they are increasing the number and variety of programs they offer—and people seem to be responding.

Attendance at public library programs rose 29% from 2004 to 2010, as overall visits to libraries also rose, according to the most recent survey by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Some old-school types have mixed feelings about the push to diversify. "I hope the library doesn't turn into something that is a type of cooking-class meeting place with computers attached and no books," says Michael Gorman, former president of the American Library Association and university librarian emeritus at California State University, Fresno.


"If it appeals to youth and the youth are using the library…good luck to you," Mr. Gorman says, "though personally I would pay good money not to attend a standup comedy evening or a hog butchering."

Mr. Casserley, who organized the hog butchering in Kansas, says some staffers balked when he suggested it as part of his mission to expand the library's offerings. "You want to do what?" he says they asked.

Attendance at the demonstration surpassed his expectations, and he is now planning a card catalog of new activities: a home-brewing class, and a project to enter a car in a demolition derby under the library's name.

Mr. Casserley wants artists and kids to help decorate the car for the vehicle-ramming competition, and its driver will be a literary character—potentially The Cat in the Hat.

The hog-butchering demonstration lasted about two hours—including questions from farmers and curious city dwellers.

As his employee cut up the pig carcass, Mr. Pope pointed out which parts of the body produce different pork products.

"When he cut the piece where the bacon comes from, the crowd spontaneously went, 'ooh!' " Mr. Casserley said. "They're bacon lovers."

—Caroline Porter contributed to this article.

A version of this article appeared January 8, 2013, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Check These Out at the Library: Blacksmithing, Bowling, Butchering.

From: Wall Street Journal

Friday, January 11, 2013

What’s ‘Just Right’ for the Young Reader?

The presents have been unwrapped, and many kids, home for holidays, are happily ensconced in a new book they got from Aunt Betty, who probably had a hard time finding that gift — the choices available for young readers can be overwhelming. What’s more, since we’ve all at some point been surprised to see a 6-year-old with his nose in, say, a Harry Potter book, knowing what’s suitable can be confusing.

How do you know the age at which to introduce children to certain books that might have “big kid” themes?

Read the discussion here.

from: NYTimes

Thursday, January 10, 2013

As Use of Libraries Grows, Government Support Has Eroded

by: Sam Roberts

To see how New York City’s library systems stack up next to other big cities’ libraries in terms of government support, you might want to check the cookbook shelves under “chopped liver.”

In Columbus, Ohio, the libraries are open an average of 29 more hours a week. San Francisco’s receive up to three times as much per capita from the local government.

Meanwhile, New York’s three public library systems — workhorses all — are trying to do more with less: the city’s contribution to their operating budgets has declined by more than 7 percent, adjusted for inflation, over the past decade, even as circulation and program attendance have increased.

That’s the conclusion of an analysis of New York’s libraries and a comparison with 21 other major American library systems, plus Toronto’s, published Tuesday morning by the Center for an Urban Future.

In per capita circulation, the New York Public Library (which covers Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island) and the Brooklyn and Queens systems rank 10th, 11th and 9th, respectively; in attendance at public programs, 12th, 4th and 10th; and 12th, 15th and 20th in average hours per week.

New York City’s libraries are open an average of 43 hours a week, about the same as a decade ago and down from a high of 47 hours. “Even the Detroit public library system stays open longer;” the report noted. Columbus’s libraries are open an average of 72 hours a week. Despite the relatively short hours, the study found, New York City’s libraries “have experienced a 40 percent spike in the number of people attending programs and a 59 percent increase in circulation over the past decade.”

San Francisco’s government contributed $101 per capita to the city’s libraries, the highest of any city in the study, while New York’s library systems all received between $30 and $40 per capita, below Seattle, Boston, Detroit and others.

Among other findings of the study, “Branches of Opportunity” (pdf – see also below), funded by the Charles H. Revson Foundation: some of the biggest increases in library use in the city were in immigrant neighborhoods and in the Bronx; growth was slowest or even declined in branches that were isolated or near public-housing projects; libraries have not been rendered obsolete by technology and “in today’s information economy, libraries have only gotten more important, not less.”

Over 40 million visits were paid to the New York, Brooklyn and Queens systems in the 2011 fiscal year, the center said, or more than the combined attendance at all the city’s professional sports games or major cultural institutions. The libraries circulated 69 million books and other materials and responded to 14.5 million reference questions.

“Although they are often thought of as cultural institutions, the reality is that the public libraries are a key component of the city’s human capital system,” the center said. “With roots in nearly every community across the five boroughs, New York’s public libraries play a critical role in helping adults upgrade their skills and find jobs, assisting immigrants assimilate, fostering reading skills in young people and providing technology access for those who don’t have a computer or an Internet connection at home.”

The analysis found that only 20 percent of applicants for English language courses at some branches are placed, that the Woodside branch in Queens has begun stocking books in Nepali (Flushing has the highest circulation of any branch or central library in the city), and that the New York Public Library is planning to give all 1.1 million students library cards because so many schools lack their own libraries or librarians.

The analysis recommended that the city government contribute more to help extend hours, among other things; let libraries receive state funding for adult literacy programs; and create collaborations with arts and other nonprofit and commercial partners.

Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future, said in a statement: “Libraries are uniquely positioned to help the city address several economic, demographic and social challenges that will impact New York in the decades ahead — from the rapid aging of the city’s population (libraries are a go-to resource for seniors) and the continued growth in the number of foreign-born (libraries are the most trusted institution for immigrants) to the rise of the freelance economy (libraries are the original co-working spaces) and troubling increase in the number of disconnected youth (libraries are a safe haven for many teens and young adults).”

“On the downside,” he said, “we find that New York policy makers, social service leaders and economic officials have largely failed to see the public libraries as the critical 21st century resource that they are, while the libraries themselves have only begun to make the investments that will keep them relevant in today’s digital age.”

from: NYTimes

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay

The e-book had its moment, but sales are slowing. Readers still want to turn those crisp, bound pages.

by: Nicholas Carr

Lovers of ink and paper, take heart. Reports of the death of the printed book may be exaggerated.


A 2012 survey revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book.

Ever since Amazon introduced its popular Kindle e-reader five years ago, pundits have assumed that the future of book publishing is digital. Opinions about the speed of the shift from page to screen have varied. But the consensus has been that digitization, having had its way with music and photographs and maps, would in due course have its way with books as well. By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone.

Half a decade into the e-book revolution, though, the prognosis for traditional books is suddenly looking brighter. Hardcover books are displaying surprising resiliency. The growth in e-book sales is slowing markedly. And purchases of e-readers are actually shrinking, as consumers opt instead for multipurpose tablets. It may be that e-books, rather than replacing printed books, will ultimately serve a role more like that of audio books—a complement to traditional reading, not a substitute.

How attached are Americans to old-fashioned books? Just look at the results of a Pew Research Center survey released last month. The report showed that the percentage of adults who have read an e-book rose modestly over the past year, from 16% to 23%. But it also revealed that fully 89% of regular book readers said that they had read at least one printed book during the preceding 12 months. Only 30% reported reading even a single e-book in the past year.

What's more, the Association of American Publishers reported that the annual growth rate for e-book sales fell abruptly during 2012, to about 34%. That's still a healthy clip, but it is a sharp decline from the triple-digit growth rates of the preceding four years.

The initial e-book explosion is starting to look like an aberration. The technology's early adopters, a small but enthusiastic bunch, made the move to e-books quickly and in a concentrated period. Further converts will be harder to come by. A 2012 survey by Bowker Market Research revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book and that a whopping 59% say they have "no interest" in buying one.

Meanwhile, the shift from e-readers to tablets may also be dampening e-book purchases. Sales of e-readers plunged 36% in 2012, according to estimates from IHS iSuppli, while tablet sales exploded. When forced to compete with the easy pleasures of games, videos and Facebook on devices like the iPad and the Kindle Fire, e-books lose a lot of their allure. The fact that an e-book can't be sold or given away after it's read also reduces the perceived value of the product.

Beyond the practical reasons for the decline in e-book growth, something deeper may be going on. We may have misjudged the nature of the electronic book.

From the start, e-book purchases have skewed disproportionately toward fiction, with novels representing close to two-thirds of sales. Digital best-seller lists are dominated in particular by genre novels, like thrillers and romances. Screen reading seems particularly well-suited to the kind of light entertainments that have traditionally been sold in supermarkets and airports as mass-market paperbacks.

These are, by design, the most disposable of books. We read them quickly and have no desire to hang onto them after we've turned the last page. We may even be a little embarrassed to be seen reading them, which makes anonymous digital versions all the more appealing. The "Fifty Shades of Grey" phenomenon probably wouldn't have happened if e-books didn't exist.

Readers of weightier fare, including literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, have been less inclined to go digital. They seem to prefer the heft and durability, the tactile pleasures, of what we still call "real books"—the kind you can set on a shelf.

E-books, in other words, may turn out to be just another format—an even lighter-weight, more disposable paperback. That would fit with the discovery that once people start buying digital books, they don't necessarily stop buying printed ones. In fact, according to Pew, nearly 90% of e-book readers continue to read physical volumes. The two forms seem to serve different purposes.

Having survived 500 years of technological upheaval, Gutenberg's invention may withstand the digital onslaught as well. There's something about a crisply printed, tightly bound book that we don't seem eager to let go of.

—Mr. Carr is the author of "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains."

A version of this article appeared January 5, 2013, on page C2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay.

from: Wall Street Journal

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

E-Books Destroying Traditional Publishing? The Story's Not That Simple

by: Zoe Chace

What counts as a book these days, in a world of Kindles, Nooks and iPads — and eager talk about new platforms and distribution methods?


Traditional publishers are traveling a long and confusing road into the digital future. To begin with, here's the conventional wisdom about publishing: E-books are destroying the business model.

People expect them to be cheaper than physical books, and that drives down prices. But the story's not that simple. For one thing, digital publishers have the same problem that record labels do: piracy. And there's just not the same stigma attached to pirating an e-book as there is to holding up a Barnes & Noble.

It turns out, though, that some publishers are doing pretty well despite the piracy problem. "We've had an incredible year," says Sourcebooks President Dominique Raccah. "Last year was the best year in the company's history. This year we beat that, which I didn't think was even possible." Raccah adds that her company is doing well because of digital publishing, not in spite of it. "It's been an amazing ride," she says.

It turns out there are some huge advantages — at least for publishers. A big one: The price of an e-book isn't fixed the way it is with physical books. Ten years ago, a publisher would have sent out its books to the bookstore with the price stamped on the cover. After that, it was done — the publisher couldn't put it on sale to sell more books.

"The exciting thing about digital books is that we actually get to test and price differently," Raccah says. "We can even price on a weekly basis." Once publishers have this tool, the ability to adjust prices in an instant, they can do whatever they want with that tool — like use it to get publicity. That's what Little, Brown did with presidential historian Robert Dallek's book on John F. Kennedy, An Unfinished Life.


In the middle of November, Little, Brown dropped the price from $9.99 to $2.99 for 24 hours — the digital equivalent of a one-day-only sale. "That sparks sales; it gets people talking about it," says Terry Adams, a publisher with Little, Brown. "You've just expanded the market."

Dropping the price of An Unfinished Life did get people's attention. "Here, we had an opportunity to increase the audience," Adams says. The book — originally published in 2003 — launched itself back onto the best-seller list. And because Little, Brown could raise the price again, it wasn't stuck with a money loser.

This kind of promotion leads to discovery, something that used to just happen in brick and mortar bookstores. But with fewer of those around, publishers are using price to create discovery. It's like making music available for streaming, so that someone will discover an artist and buy a record.

And speaking of music, if you read the new e-book 40 Years of Queen, you'll find it full of links. Links to iTunes, where you can buy the music you've been reading about. That's another huge advantage of e-books: Publishers can sell you things inside your book. It's still quite rare, but that's where digital publishing is headed.

But enough with the good news. There's still one big problem putting pressure on publishers (besides thieves). A problem you may have noticed, actually, just in the past day or so.

"We actually don't have a good gifting tradition yet for e-books," says Sourcebooks' Raccah. Despite all the advances in reading technology, physical books are still the best Christmas presents.

from: NPR

Monday, January 7, 2013

Libraries And E-Lending: The 'Wild West' Of Digital Licensing?

by: NPR Staff

Have you ever borrowed an e-book from a library? If the answer is no, you're a member of a large majority. A survey out Thursday from the Pew Internet Project finds that only 5 percent of "recent library users" have tried to borrow an e-book this year.


About three-quarters of public libraries offer e-books, according to the American Library Association, but finding the book you want to read can be a challenge — when it's available at all.

Brian Kenney is the director of the White Plains Public Library in New York. He tells NPR's Audie Cornish about a library patron who wanted to check out a digital copy of Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs.

"It was a middle-aged guy, you know, had a high techno-comfort zone, he was carrying his iPad, and he approached the desk carrying the Isaacson bio and said, 'How do I download this,' " Kenney recalls. "And it was the classic case where I had to explain to them, 'Well, sir, actually, you can't download that from here.' And then ensues the discussion why, as though somehow or other the library was stupid or failing in its job."

In fact, Kenney says, it's not a failure on the part of the library — Simon and Schuster, which published the book, would not license it to the library for download.

You might think about all this as the Wild West of digital licensing — a frontier environment where every publisher has its own set of rules. Among the six biggest companies, Simon and Schuster currently licenses none of its e-books to libraries. The company says it simply hasn't found a model that works.

Only two publishing houses, HarperCollins and Random House, sell their most popular books to libraries in digital form, and as Kenney explains, those companies' models have their own quirks.


"HarperCollins uses a model where we can license a book, and we have 26 circulations for that one book," he says. "It is the same model that we have in print: one book, one user at a time." But after 26 people have read that book, the library must pay a fee — usually $25 to $35 — to renew the license. Kenney says libraries initially found the idea off-putting, but "now it's a model I work with. It makes a degree of sense."

But the Random House model is quite different, Kenney says, with new titles costing up to $100 to license. "It might make some sense with a huge best-seller, but libraries buy broadly — we buy first authors, we buy lesser-known memoirs, we want readers to come in and encounter authors and voices for the first time," Kenney says. And splashing out $100 on a book that may not get checked out very often just isn't an effective use of the library's money. "So it puts us in a funny place, that model."

Will loosening up e-lending rules ultimately hurt book sales? Kenney says that's not necessarily the case. "Because they're licensed, I would argue publishers have an opportunity here to be creative," he says. "The HarperCollins model is one interesting model; I would certainly entertain a variety of other models from publishers. ... This is a very different world that we're in, and I think that it's an opportunity for publishers and librarians to sort of work together to figure out, how can we sustain readers? How can publishers thrive? How can libraries also thrive?"

In a world where many people are using their tablet computers to catch up on Game of Thrones or the latest Kardashian antics, Kenney argues, "public libraries, I mean, we're out there really pushing the product of these publishers, and I can't imagine another industry in this country that has that type of a relationship."

But libraries also need to be open to experimentation, he adds. "They need to hear different solutions coming in the marketplace from publishers and just say, 'OK, we're gonna give that a shot ... things are changing, and the publishers need to experiment. We might not think that what they're doing might even be working, but we need to give it a fair shot.' "

from: NPR

Friday, January 4, 2013

Libraries Behaving Like Bookstores? Amazing.

The NYT ‘s reports today that libraries are adopting the bookstore model, by stocking what readers want and offering bestsellers in quantity.


A brand-new concept?

Hardly, as a 1979 article from Publishers Weekly about Baltimore County Public Library’s move in the “demand-oriented, public bookstore” direction proves (click here to view pages one, two and three in full size).

It’s a good reminder as we head into the New Year that “everything old is new again.”

Our thanks to our friends at Publishers Weekly for permission to reproduce this story. In case you are wondering, the author of the piece, Kenneth C. Davis, went on to write the “Don’t Know Much About” series.

from: EarlyWord

Thursday, January 3, 2013

No Wonder Those Books Weren't Selling

by: Kevin Koeninger

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) - The powerful company that assigns ISBN numbers to books hurt a publisher by falsely claiming that all its books are out of print, the publisher claims in court.


A.P. Lee & Co. sued R.R. Bowker LLC, several of its employees, and BookMasters, a distributor, in Franklin County Court.

Bowker has "the U.S. monopoly on granting ISBNs to publishers" and also "publishes 'Books in Print,' touted by Bowker as the most trusted and authoritative source of bibliographical information available," Lee says in its complaint.

The International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, is a "13-digit number that uniquely identifies books and book-like products and is used to simplify distribution and purchase of books throughout the global supply chain," according to the complaint.

Lee, which is based in Columbus, claims: "On June 1, 2012, defendant BookMasters notified defendants Cheryl Patrick and Rhonda McKendrick at Bowker that BookMasters/AtlasBooks would no longer be distributing A.P. Lee and Co.'s books effective June 1, 2012.

"On December 10, 2012, A.P. Lee and Co. discovered that Bowker had falsely published in 'Books in Print' that plaintiff's four printed books were 'out of print' and unavailable for purchase after June 1, 2012."

Lee claims that either Patrick or McKendrick was responsible for this.

It adds: "This defamatory publication of false information has adversely affected A.P. Lee and Co. in its trade and business through lost book sales and loss of reputation in the publishing industry as an ongoing concern."

Bowker compounded the damage by "publish(ing) in 'Books in Print' on an unknown date(s) that plaintiff's three Kindle eBooks, audiobook, ten CDs, and seven DVDs are not available from any distributor or any other source, including their publisher A.P. Lee and Co. These false publications in Books in Print are believed to date back to as early as 2007," the complaint states.

Lee claims that "when asked to change its policies in order to allow publishers to either be the sole source of information about their products or to verify data Bowker fabricates or obtains from others before its gets published, defendant Bowker's official position was: 'We cannot agree to your request to revise our operations' and 'This has been Bowker's practice for decades.' Bowker then threatened to remove A.P. Lee and Co.'s titles entirely from 'Books in Print,' thereby increasing its monetary damages by making it appear that plaintiff has no products for sale at all.

"When asked to publish a retraction of the false information and a correction setting forth accurate information for A.P. Lee and Co.'s titles, defendant Bowker refused and further responded that it would only upload corrections 'in a timely manner' and update 'Books in Print' 'according to Bowker's regular update schedules.' These facts show Bowker's malicious intent to defame plaintiff and to do nothing to lessen plaintiff's damages."

Lee seeks at least $50,000 in compensatory damages, and punitive damages for defamation, breach of contract, copyright infringement and conversion.

It is represented by Nanci Danison of Dublin, Ohio.

A.P Lee specializes in books on spirituality and the afterlife, according to a list of its books on its website this morning.   from: Courthouse News