by: Brennan Clarke
Vancouver Island bibliophiles beware: That unassuming elderly gentleman browsing through the bookshelves next to you could be one of America’s most wanted criminals.
Several Greater Victoria booksellers confirmed Monday that FBI agents have visited their stores in the past week and asked staff to be on the lookout for 80-year-old James J. (Whitey) Bulger, a known book lover and former Boston mobster with a long list of brutal crimes on his rap sheet.
“They came into the store and dropped off a picture, which is in our staff room and not to be seen by the general public,” said Jim Munro, owner of Munro’s Books in downtown Victoria.
“It’s totally bizarre. The guy’s 80 years old and the photographs that we have are at least 20 years old.”
Described on the FBI website as the leader of Boston’s notorious Winter Hill Gang, Mr. Bulger is wanted for a variety of mob-related crimes including racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion and as many as 19 murders.
He is also “an avid reader with an interest in history” and “is known to frequent libraries and historic sites,” the FBI website says.
Mr. Bulger was a key figure during the most violent decades of Boston’s underworld, an era that forms the basis for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film, The Departed, in which Mr. Bulger was played by Jack Nicholson.
He disappeared from the Boston area in January, 1995, after receiving a tip that FBI agents were about to arrest him. He has been on the bureau’s Top 10 Most Wanted list ever since.
An FBI task force dedicated to capturing Mr. Bulger has scoured five continents in search of the aging fugitive, who is known to be adept at using disguises.
Mr. Munro, who was out of town for the FBI visit, said the agents didn’t give his staff much information about why they were warning bookstores specifically in the Victoria area.
“They may have had some idea of sighting or something, I don’t know, but apparently he frequents bookstores,” Mr. Munro said.
Staff at Bolen Books in Hillside mall also confirmed that FBI agents dropped off photos and asked them to be on the lookout for Mr. Bulger, but added that “the owner of the store doesn’t want any of the staff talking to reporters about it.”
Tanner’s Books in Sidney also received a visit from the FBI, staff at the store said. Tanner’s owner, Cliff McNeil-Smith, did not respond to a request for comment.
Victoria police Sergeant Grant Hamilton confirmed that members of the department's major crimes unit recently helped members of the Boston FBI with an investigation in Victoria, but said local police weren't provided with specific details about the case.
Mr. Bulger stands between 5 foot 7 and 5 foot 9, weighs 150 to 160 pounds, and has blue eyes and silver white hair. He loves animals and enjoys taking long walks on the beach with his long-time companion Catherine Elizabeth Greig, the FBI website notes.
A $2-million reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest.
From: Globe and Mail
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
State Library Publishes Day in the Life Report
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Common Cause, a group of librarians and representatives of South Carolina’s major library organizations united in concern for the support and progress of libraries of all kinds, presents this report to create awareness of the astonishing growth in library usage in this time of economic recession. David Goble, Director of the South Carolina State Library and founding member of the group, called for a shared effort from all of the State’s libraries to gather information about library services. Goble’s vision endorses a collaborative effort to improve library conditions for all.
According to Goble, “Nothing is as important to a free society as the provision of information to all who need it, young and old. South Carolina libraries, working together with a common interest and a common goal, can ensure the future of free access to information, to literature, and to library services. This survey demonstrates the power of libraries to meet the needs of South Carolina citizens, even in a single day.”
The results of the survey revealed that in one day, 162,760 people visit South Carolina libraries. A total of 408 of South Carolina’s K-12, public, academic, and special libraries responded to the survey.
The report is published on the South Carolina State Library’s web site: http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/docs/newsroom/prdocs/day_in_the_life_2010.pdf.
According to Goble, “Nothing is as important to a free society as the provision of information to all who need it, young and old. South Carolina libraries, working together with a common interest and a common goal, can ensure the future of free access to information, to literature, and to library services. This survey demonstrates the power of libraries to meet the needs of South Carolina citizens, even in a single day.”
The results of the survey revealed that in one day, 162,760 people visit South Carolina libraries. A total of 408 of South Carolina’s K-12, public, academic, and special libraries responded to the survey.
The report is published on the South Carolina State Library’s web site: http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/docs/newsroom/prdocs/day_in_the_life_2010.pdf.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Duke Special and the Books that Rock
Rock stars may like to give the impression of being uncouth but some of their coolest songs are influenced by literature.
by: Victoria Segal
Leather trousers; guitar; library card: for all rock’n’roll’s upfront priapism, its back pocket has long contained a battered paperback. It might not have started that way — book-learning is hardly the main concern of Be Bop a Lula or All Shook Up — but by the Sixties pop music was aiming for the head as well as the heart and the groin.
The Beats sparked Bob Dylan’s synapses, the Doors were indebted to William Blake for their name and imagery, and the Velvet Underground, named after a book about sexual subcultures, were inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s whip-cracking book to write Venus in Furs.
There are reading glasses perched on the least likely noses: Iggy Pop might be the quintessential rock warlock, but his 1977 album The Idiot nodded to Dostoevesky’s novel. Last year he reminded people that there was more to him than a kebab-like torso and fondness for car insurance with his Franco-jazz album Préliminaires, his take on the novel by the notorious French misanthrope Michel Houellebecq, La Possibilité d’une île. “I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music,” Iggy said, bookishly.
Peter Wilson, the Belfast singer-songwriter who operates under the name Duke Special, understands the strong pull that literature can exert on music. His three-CD set The Stage, a Book and the Silver Screen, out now, contains the music he performed in Deborah Warner’s National Theatre production of Mother Courage and her Children, an EP devoted to Kurt Weill’s songs for his unfinished musical Huckleberry Finn, and The Silent World of Hector Mann, a suite of songs inspired by Paul Auster’s 2002 novel The Book of Illusions.
“I suppose when you are a songwriter one of the most important things is keeping your radar open for any moments of inspiration — a phrase in a conversation, a film that you’ve watched,” Wilson explains. “I was reading The Book of Illusions, about a silent-movie star who led a very colourful life but disappeared at the zenith of his powers in the late 1920s. He leaves behind 12 films and the book describes one of the films in detail, about a man who is given this potion that makes him gradually disappear. I found it a really intriguing scenario. I was in a studio recording a different song, waiting for the engineer to fiddle around, and I started playing around with this concept. A song called Mr Nobody came out. ”
The literary game is a dangerous one. Art schools have long been considered breeding grounds for bands — the Rolling Stones, Wire, Roxy Music — but there are surprisingly few graduates in English on the scene. While a casual allusion is often a safe bet for reflected cool, more sustained homage runs the risk of pretension. Discreet references abound, whether in a band’s name — the Soft Machine, a tribute to William Burroughs — or the one-off song title — Joy Division’s Atrocity Exhibition, from J. G. Ballard.
Brilliant though Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights is, it only gets away with it by the skin of its theatrically bared teeth. Prog-rock also casts a warning shadow over any would-be biblio-rockers. Camel’s 1975 opus Music Inspired by the Snow Goose, based on the Paul Gallico short story, is unlikely to send anyone rushing to their nearest bookshop, while Rick Wakeman has lit-crime form both with Yes (Tales from Topographic Oceans was inspired by Paramahansa Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi) and with his solo works Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, formerly the rhythm section of Galaxie 500 and now the space-folk duo Damon and Naomi, also run Exact Change, a small press specialising in reprints of surrealist and experimental literature (“a looking-glass version of Penguin classics”, as their website exactchange.com has it). “Are books and music natural companions? They are in our house — we live surrounded by both!”
They are aware of the pitfalls. “We’ve stolen bits from literature for songs, but we’ve never attempted something like a concept album based on a book,” Krukowski says. “That would seem to be an invitation for a Spinal Tap-type disaster. I have one in my record collection that I treasure for just that reason: Hamlet Hallyday by Johnny Hallyday. Although the title pretty much says it all, you really have to hear it in its entirely to appreciate its ... scope.”
Wilson thinks differently. “I think the cliché is that rock’n’roll is this lesser art form,” he says. “I’ve been learning a lot about Kurt Weill recently and often he put things to music that were already works of literature, whether poems of Walt Whitman or adapting books for opera. There’s a danger of the audience thinking, ‘Uh-oh, alarm bells, concept album’, but you have this really rich vein of material and I think the songs have every chance of coming out really well formed and accessible.”
Krukowski ponders books that he would like to see turned into music. “I’ll leave it to Christopher Guest. I would especially love to see him tackle the New Testament.”
For the marriage of rock and reading to work, the book in question must lend itself to ostentatious reading in cafés and at bus stops, a shorthand for cool all by itself. The Lou Reed version of Lark Rise to Candleford, for example, is yet to happen — although he did record a collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry on The Raven in 2003.
When the private world of reading and the public world of performance mesh happily, all parties benefit: musicians appearing cerebral, writers appearing hip, readers and listeners feeling smart.
“I sent Paul Auster a copy of the Hector Mann recording and got a really nice e-mail from him saying he loved it,” Wilson reveals. “I told him I was going to be in New York and his assistant set up a meeting in a little deli in Brooklyn. It was very strange talking to him about Hector Mann and thinking this is the guy whose head the character came out of. “It was,” he says with wonder, “like something from one of his books.”
Duke Special is touring the UK and Ireland from May 1 (dukespecial.com)
From: Times
by: Victoria Segal
Leather trousers; guitar; library card: for all rock’n’roll’s upfront priapism, its back pocket has long contained a battered paperback. It might not have started that way — book-learning is hardly the main concern of Be Bop a Lula or All Shook Up — but by the Sixties pop music was aiming for the head as well as the heart and the groin.
The Beats sparked Bob Dylan’s synapses, the Doors were indebted to William Blake for their name and imagery, and the Velvet Underground, named after a book about sexual subcultures, were inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s whip-cracking book to write Venus in Furs.
There are reading glasses perched on the least likely noses: Iggy Pop might be the quintessential rock warlock, but his 1977 album The Idiot nodded to Dostoevesky’s novel. Last year he reminded people that there was more to him than a kebab-like torso and fondness for car insurance with his Franco-jazz album Préliminaires, his take on the novel by the notorious French misanthrope Michel Houellebecq, La Possibilité d’une île. “I just got sick of listening to idiot thugs with guitars banging out crappy music,” Iggy said, bookishly.
Peter Wilson, the Belfast singer-songwriter who operates under the name Duke Special, understands the strong pull that literature can exert on music. His three-CD set The Stage, a Book and the Silver Screen, out now, contains the music he performed in Deborah Warner’s National Theatre production of Mother Courage and her Children, an EP devoted to Kurt Weill’s songs for his unfinished musical Huckleberry Finn, and The Silent World of Hector Mann, a suite of songs inspired by Paul Auster’s 2002 novel The Book of Illusions.
“I suppose when you are a songwriter one of the most important things is keeping your radar open for any moments of inspiration — a phrase in a conversation, a film that you’ve watched,” Wilson explains. “I was reading The Book of Illusions, about a silent-movie star who led a very colourful life but disappeared at the zenith of his powers in the late 1920s. He leaves behind 12 films and the book describes one of the films in detail, about a man who is given this potion that makes him gradually disappear. I found it a really intriguing scenario. I was in a studio recording a different song, waiting for the engineer to fiddle around, and I started playing around with this concept. A song called Mr Nobody came out. ”
The literary game is a dangerous one. Art schools have long been considered breeding grounds for bands — the Rolling Stones, Wire, Roxy Music — but there are surprisingly few graduates in English on the scene. While a casual allusion is often a safe bet for reflected cool, more sustained homage runs the risk of pretension. Discreet references abound, whether in a band’s name — the Soft Machine, a tribute to William Burroughs — or the one-off song title — Joy Division’s Atrocity Exhibition, from J. G. Ballard.
Brilliant though Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights is, it only gets away with it by the skin of its theatrically bared teeth. Prog-rock also casts a warning shadow over any would-be biblio-rockers. Camel’s 1975 opus Music Inspired by the Snow Goose, based on the Paul Gallico short story, is unlikely to send anyone rushing to their nearest bookshop, while Rick Wakeman has lit-crime form both with Yes (Tales from Topographic Oceans was inspired by Paramahansa Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi) and with his solo works Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang, formerly the rhythm section of Galaxie 500 and now the space-folk duo Damon and Naomi, also run Exact Change, a small press specialising in reprints of surrealist and experimental literature (“a looking-glass version of Penguin classics”, as their website exactchange.com has it). “Are books and music natural companions? They are in our house — we live surrounded by both!”
They are aware of the pitfalls. “We’ve stolen bits from literature for songs, but we’ve never attempted something like a concept album based on a book,” Krukowski says. “That would seem to be an invitation for a Spinal Tap-type disaster. I have one in my record collection that I treasure for just that reason: Hamlet Hallyday by Johnny Hallyday. Although the title pretty much says it all, you really have to hear it in its entirely to appreciate its ... scope.”
Wilson thinks differently. “I think the cliché is that rock’n’roll is this lesser art form,” he says. “I’ve been learning a lot about Kurt Weill recently and often he put things to music that were already works of literature, whether poems of Walt Whitman or adapting books for opera. There’s a danger of the audience thinking, ‘Uh-oh, alarm bells, concept album’, but you have this really rich vein of material and I think the songs have every chance of coming out really well formed and accessible.”
Krukowski ponders books that he would like to see turned into music. “I’ll leave it to Christopher Guest. I would especially love to see him tackle the New Testament.”
For the marriage of rock and reading to work, the book in question must lend itself to ostentatious reading in cafés and at bus stops, a shorthand for cool all by itself. The Lou Reed version of Lark Rise to Candleford, for example, is yet to happen — although he did record a collection of Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry on The Raven in 2003.
When the private world of reading and the public world of performance mesh happily, all parties benefit: musicians appearing cerebral, writers appearing hip, readers and listeners feeling smart.
“I sent Paul Auster a copy of the Hector Mann recording and got a really nice e-mail from him saying he loved it,” Wilson reveals. “I told him I was going to be in New York and his assistant set up a meeting in a little deli in Brooklyn. It was very strange talking to him about Hector Mann and thinking this is the guy whose head the character came out of. “It was,” he says with wonder, “like something from one of his books.”
Duke Special is touring the UK and Ireland from May 1 (dukespecial.com)
From: Times
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Future is Now?
NYPL's laserized sorter in action By: Macy Halford
I like the incongruity of two New York Public Library-related write-ups that were brought to my attention today. The first is a wonderfully observed blog post by Jamie Niehof, who is interning with the library’s Correctional Services Program, on Rikers Island. She describes how prisoners check out reading material, what they like:
"We stood outside the iron door to the house with our cart and had two prisoners come out at one time, check off their returned book, and pick out a new one. Each prisoner is allowed one book and one magazine. The most popular books are by far James Patterson’s novels, so popular in fact that we have to lock them up after book service because they tend to disappear. I wonder if James Patterson has any idea. National Geographic is the magazine of choice, and there is an entire box of them to choose from, some as far back as the early 80’s."
But what really caught my eye was this bit:
"Everything is done by hand. The prisoners hand me their picture ID and I copy down their number along with the title of book they chose. Later this will be printed up by one of the NYPL staff members and checked off as books are returned."
Now compare this to the other bit of news I received, in a press release:
The Future is Now: World’s Largest Automated Library Book Sorter Unveiled at Celebration, April 22, 11 a.m.
"Room-Sized, Computerized, Laserized Device is Among the Features at The New York Public Library’s New Library Services Center in Long Island City, Queens
What: Opening of The New York Public Library’s Library Services Center, a new 145,000 square foot facility in Long Island City, Queens, bringing together the departments that acquire, prepare, preserve, and distribute library materials. It features the world’s largest automated sorter of library materials, which sorts 7,500 items an hour, doubling the capacity of materials the Library can process.
This state of the art, four-level facility unifies previously dispersed departments, increasing efficiency in processing and preserving a range of materials. Features include the automated sorter, the Library’s Division of Collections and Circulation Operations; a digital imaging center; manuscripts and archives processing area; conservation labs; and exhibitions workshops."
It’s a wonderful contrast, isn’t it? They might as well belong to different universes, Rikers Island and the Library Services Center, time moves so differently inside them. The one is bound by old laws. You can feel the material weight of the world in Niehof’s sentences: the books, the iron door, the lock, the cards, the enumerated bodies of the prisoners—they come in twos—Niehof’s hand as it copies out the numbers associated with each body. And you can feel the closeness: a single cart, a single box, a single book. It’s all tedium, all lack of space.
At the Library Services Center, on the other hand, the human race has been set free—lazerized, computerized, digitized, etceterized (the tone is wonderfully “World of Tomorrow,” isn’t it?). Time has actually been cut in half, and books flow in and out at the unimaginable rate of seventy-five-hundred an hour (that’s a hundred-and-twenty-five a minute, 2.0833 a second). Everything “previously dispersed” is now one (the opposite could be said of the prison). It might as well be a dream, it’s so light and airy. Except that, when viewed alongside the fact of Rikers, it appears more like a collective delusion. At any rate, the two capture the cultural moment nicely, don’t they?
There’s obviously much more that could be said on the subject, but I’ll end with one of my mother’s favorite aphorisms: You’re only ever as happy as your least happy child.
(Further reading: Kate Taylor’s full review of the new facility, in the Times—there's a video of the sorter in action!)
From: New Yorker
Monday, April 26, 2010
The Lost 'Library Voice'
by: Sung J. WooThe library of my youth, in Ocean Township, N.J., was a tomb of peace, where the only sounds were shuffles, whispers and the occasional shush — delivered with an index finger crossing the lips of a bespectacled, cardigan-wearing librarian.
These days, at my local branch in Washington Township, N.J., I have to play an MP3 file in a loop — a sound bite of a hair dryer blasting between my ears — because without the white noise, I would not be able to think straight.
The theme of National Library Week, which begins on Sunday, is “Communities Thrive @ Your Library.” I have no problem with that. I just wish they would thrive more quietly. When did libraries become a cacophonous combination of cafe, video store, music store, computer lab and playground?
Twenty years ago, I was able to research my high school term papers in silence, but now the communal desks have been transformed into an open forum for children and adults to chat away as if they were hanging out at Starbucks.
Back in the day, there was such a thing as your “library voice,” which was pitched above a whisper but well below normal conversation, the sort of sotto voce used to deliver shameful apologies.
Not anymore. When fellow patrons walk through the doors and make a beeline for the DVD section, when they are clacking the discs’ plastic cases and lecturing on the savvy beauty of “Mad Men” or the intricate plotting of “The Wire,” I can hear their every word across the room.
One of the bigger libraries near me has a listening station for CDs, and the other day, two teenage girls sat down, clamped on headphones and proceeded to talk to each other while enjoying their music. Have you ever tried conversing with someone wearing Princess Leia-like headphones? You have to shout. Which is also what kids do when they log on the public computers to watch their favorite YouTube videos while opening up 15 windows of Instant Messenger. They may be quietly typing “LOL,” but they are also literally laughing out loud.
Meanwhile, tykes are burning up the carpet. I cannot remember the last time I went to my library when children were not playing hide-and-seek in the stacks, shrieking as they chased one another. The parents are usually nowhere to be seen, maybe playing a little hide-and-seek from their offspring. If this were story hour, I could understand, but it seems as if every minute of every day is now playtime.
Even librarians seem to be getting into the act, talking on the telephone as if sitting in a living room, letting everyone know that the plumber is arriving during lunch or that Uncle Jim is coming for dinner. At one point I had to turn up the dial of my hair dryer symphony to 11 because two librarians were discussing the location of a particular audio book — while standing at the opposite ends of the room.
At least this gives me a reason to look forward to old age, when I will again be blessed with the serenity that used to exist in libraries a long time ago — not because the noise level will have diminished, but because I will be too deaf to hear.
Sung J. Woo, a writer and Web developer, lives in Washington Township, N.J., and is the author of “Everything Asian” (Thomas Dunne Books, 2009).
From: NY Times
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Passport to Mystery
Global crime fiction tackles dark social issues, mystery backlists go digital
by: Wilda Williams
Mystery and suspense fiction remain as popular as ever for as many reasons as there are readers. “Those who wish for escape or respite read cozies, historicals, or romance crossovers,” says Poisoned Pen editor Barbara Peters. “Those who want to stay on the cutting edge of society read thrillers [from authors] like Daniel Silva, Alex Berenson, or James Rollins.”
When she acquires manuscripts, Peters strives for the middle ground with an eye to long-term appeal, but as a bookseller she has a front-seat view of the genre's current direction, which she sees as going ever more global.
South Africa rising
One rising star is South Africa, which Soho Press publisher Bronwen Hruska believes is set to explode on the U.S. mystery scene. Already garnering starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and LJ is Jassy Mackenzie's series debut Random Violence (Soho Crime, Apr.) about a private detective who returns to her native Johannesburg to help solve a crime.
“The voice is strong, the story is compelling, and Mackenzie takes an unflinching look at what it's really like to live in Johannesburg today,” explains Hruska. This summer, Hruska will reissue the first two titles in James McClure's long-out-of-print classic series about Afrikaner detective Tromp Kramer and Zulu sergeant Mickey Zondi: The Steam Pig (Jul.) and The Caterpillar Cop (Aug.).
“It was a conscious decision to publish McClure and Mackenzie on the same list—an opportunity to compare and contrast apartheid and postapartheid South Africa,” says Soho's publisher. “One thing that's clear from reading both authors is that South Africa is, and has been, a country rife with crime and violence.”
Other talented writers mining this dark material include “King of South African crime” Deon Meyer (Thirteen Hours, Atlantic, Sept.), Wessel Ebersohn (The October Killings, Minotaur, Oct. 2011), and Malla Nunn (Let the Dead Lie, Washington Square: S. & S., Apr.). Born of mixed-race parents in neighboring Swaziland and now an Australian citizen, Nunn explores the dire consequences of apartheid in her acclaimed Edgar Award–nominated debut, A Beautiful Place To Die.
Even Hollywood has taken notice. Later this year in Cape Town, director Philip Noyce (The Quiet American) will film Roger Smith's acclaimed noir thriller Mixed Blood (LJ 12/08), with Samuel L. Jackson starring as Zulu detective Disaster Zondi. Smith (see Q&A, p. 23), who read McClure's mysteries as a teenager, says his protagonist is a small tribute to Mickey Zondi.
Scandinavia still riding the wave?
Despite talk last year about declining sales (see “The Great Escape,” LJ 4/15/09), the Nordic crime wave has not yet crested. For example, Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's Nemesis was shortlisted for this year's Edgar Award for Best Novel. Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing immediately landed on the New York Times best sellers list on its publication in February. And even though the final volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is set for May, so many impatient U.S. fans ordered the UK edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Knopf) that it tied last fall for the number five spot on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's best sellers list.
Coming in August is Karin Fossum's new psychological thriller Broken (Houghton Harcourt) and The Postcard Killers (Little, Brown), the first collaboration between the prolific and best-selling James Patterson and Swedish crime writer Liza Marklund (who also has a four-book deal with Atria: S. & S.). The latter is sure to attract new American readers not usually interested in international mysteries.
“People's appetite for the icy Scandinavian style is still quite powerful,” notes Pegasus Books editor Jessica Case. The June release of The Ice Princess marks the U.S. debut of Camilla Läckberg, Europe's sixth best-selling author (after fellow Swedes Marklund and Larsson). “We really believe someone like Camilla, who combines an incredible cast of characters and setting (the tiny seaside town of Fjallbecka) alongside a sinister mystery, has the potential to bring Scandinavian fiction to an even higher level.” Winner of the 2008 Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (France's most prestigious award for crime fiction), the novel has been sold into 33 countries.
Melville Mysteries joins the lineup
“I have been intrigued to see that people are finally coming around to reading fiction in translation,” says Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson. But he also believes that the novels coming out of Scandinavia have become too much of the thriller, more concerned with violence or technology than with current social or political issues.
Watching as other presses launched crime fiction imprints, Johnson saw an opportunity for his press, best known for literary fiction in translation, to do mysteries that were set in other places but returned to Melville House's literary and political sensibilities. This fall Melville Mysteries, which Johnson compares to the harder-edged Black Lizard, Black Cat, and Serpent's Tail imprints, will kick off with Israeli playwright Joshua Sobel's Cut Throat Dog (Oct.), a literary spy thriller about an ex–Mossad agent, and Jakob Arjouni's Kismet (Oct.), which introduces a Turkish-German private investigator in a gritty Frankfurt locale.
“I think Arjouni's book will go over well with an American audience,” remarks Johnson. “You can tell he's read a lot of Raymond Chandler, lots of gumshoe wise-cracking stuff, but in a very cool setting.” But don't take him lightly; Arjouni, whose award-winning, four-book series is popular in Germany, also explores serious contemporary issues: immigration, organized crime, and the fallout from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
From Russia with love
Akashic Books, which has had great success publishing shorter fiction in translation with its popular Noir anthologies, continues to broaden the series' global scope. Coming in June is Moscow Noir, edited by Natalia Smirnova and Julia Goumen. “It still seems Russia holds an air of mystique for Americans,” says Akashic managing editor Johanna Ingalls. “The two countries have such a long (and often tortured) history, and references to the Cold War continue to this day.”
Simon & Schuster executive VP and publisher David Rosenthal has also noticed more suspense novels than usual set in either contemporary Russia or done as period pieces from the Stalinist era. “People are trying to figure out what the Putin era is all about, and Comrade Joe's days are still relatively unknown.” Rosenthal points to Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko thrillers, which have kept up with Russia's ever-changing politics: “from the repressive communist dictatorship of Gorky Park to the birth of the oligarchs in Wolves Eat Dogs to his upcoming Three Stations (Aug.), where the billionaires are now being harassed by the government.”
Expert at finding new talent and putting marketing muscle behind what Minotaur Books publisher Andrew Martin calls “power debuts,” the Macmillan crime fiction imprint is launching William Ryan's The Holy Thief (Sept.) with a 125,000-copy first printing. In addition, Minotaur for the first time ever will be offering as an exclusive to librarians an e-version of the Advance Reader's Edition. (Go to LJ BookSmack! or MacmillanLibrary.com for details.)
“Our expectation is to make this author a best seller,” says Martin, who compares the novel, the first in a three-book deal, to David Benioff's City of Thieves. Set in Stalin's Russia, it features a world-weary detective who must operate in a crumbling, corrupt system to solve a terrible crime with political implications. In an interesting twist, Martin turned down another Russian-flavored crime novel in favor of Ryan's book.
But Kate Miciak, editorial director of Bantam Books/Delacorte Press, quickly snapped up Sam Eastland's debut, Eye of the Red Tsar (May), about Tsar Nicholas II's chief detective (based on a historical figure) who eventually becomes Stalin's investigator. “Despite the legion of Russian thrillers I've read, I've never read one that so seamlessly binds the fragile luxury of the Romanov period with the dizzying paranoia of the Stalinist regime.”
A little light in the mix
Not all the new foreign mysteries coming this summer are dark social portraits. In July, Kensington is releasing Alexander Campion's The Grave Gourmet, the first entry in a cozy series set in France and featuring a policewoman married to a restaurant critic. And while a small press like Poisoned Pen can't afford much in the way of works in translation, Barbara Peters loves finding novels either with foreign sensibility or books like Simon & Schuster author Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri series (The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, Jun.), which uses the Indian landscape as the backdrop to a classic mystery plot. Poisoned Pen's big summer debut is Jeanne Matthews's Bones of Contention (Jun.), a riff on the traditional country-house murder mystery set in the Australian outback
A digital crime wave
Last March when Minotaur released Olen Steinhauer's The Tourist, the publisher saw significant ebook sales by week two of the print on-sale date. In fact, the spy thriller was the number one best-selling Macmillan ebook title that week. Minotaur's Martin attributes this to several factors: the Kindle II had just been launched with all the attendant promotion, there was extensive press coverage for Steinhauer's book, and many of the Kindle's early adopters were “big boys with toys.” “Part of the fun of the Kindle,” says Martin, “is the one-click immediate gratification download of a hot book.”
Ebooks were the only bright spot in last year's grim publishing environment, with the American Association of Publishers (AAP) reporting sales jumping an astonishing 176.6 percent in 2009, to $169.5 million. On the other hand, they remain a small percentage of overall trade book sales at just 3.3 percent, though up from 1.2 percent in 2008. But mystery publishers are discovering that the digital format has become a viable sales channel for backlist titles. Steven Pomije, publicity manager for Midnight Ink Books, reports that many older titles whose print sales dropped two or three years ago are now seeing significant ebook sales. This month the publisher will make its top ten mystery Kindle ebooks (headed by G.M. Malliet's 2008 Agatha Award–winning Death of a Cozy Writer) available for the iPad via Kobo and will grow the list from there.
Crediting her marketing director for having the foresight to get Soho Press up on Kindle almost three years ago, Hruska, too, has seen tangible results. Ebook sales now constitute at least 50 percent of Soho's backlist sales and about 25–30 percent of its total sales. “It's not insignificant,” says Hruska, who is now starting to sell through other e-tailers like Sony.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and OverDrive. “And I don't think it's just about crime fiction. Series fiction in any genre is really taking off in ebook form.”
Literary agent and ebook publisher Richard Curtis agrees. His company, E-Reads© (www.ereads.com), specializes in reprints of genre fiction (sf, romance, action adventure, mystery/thriller, etc.) and currently offers about 1000 titles, in all ebook formats and trade paperback via print on demand. “There is a lot more fuel in these old titles than anyone imagined, and our sales support that.” His top-selling mystery authors include Nancy Herndon, Nancy Cohen (licensed from Kensington), Parnell Hall, and Richard S. Prather, but Curtis thinks the genre is underrepresented. He predicts that mysteries will become a big ebook staple as the demographics of Kindle owners trends toward older users.
As the recent Macmillan-Amazon dustup over ebook pricing and availability reveals, issues remain over what distribution models publishers will adopt, especially where libraries are concerned. At a “Publishing Point” Meet Up Group (bit.ly/bRqvoy), Macmillan CEO John Sargent argued that the way ebooks are currently loaned in libraries presents a thorny problem and that the publisher/library relationship might have to be changed. Still, the brave new digital world offers huge opportunities for selling books.
“I think ebooks will increase the sales of everything once we get all this stuff (price, rights) figured out,” says Minotaur's Martin. “And crime fiction is a big category for ebooks. If you look at the best sellers lists for ebooks, they now mirror the print best sellers.”
From: Library Journal
by: Wilda Williams
Mystery and suspense fiction remain as popular as ever for as many reasons as there are readers. “Those who wish for escape or respite read cozies, historicals, or romance crossovers,” says Poisoned Pen editor Barbara Peters. “Those who want to stay on the cutting edge of society read thrillers [from authors] like Daniel Silva, Alex Berenson, or James Rollins.”
When she acquires manuscripts, Peters strives for the middle ground with an eye to long-term appeal, but as a bookseller she has a front-seat view of the genre's current direction, which she sees as going ever more global.
South Africa rising
One rising star is South Africa, which Soho Press publisher Bronwen Hruska believes is set to explode on the U.S. mystery scene. Already garnering starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and LJ is Jassy Mackenzie's series debut Random Violence (Soho Crime, Apr.) about a private detective who returns to her native Johannesburg to help solve a crime.
“The voice is strong, the story is compelling, and Mackenzie takes an unflinching look at what it's really like to live in Johannesburg today,” explains Hruska. This summer, Hruska will reissue the first two titles in James McClure's long-out-of-print classic series about Afrikaner detective Tromp Kramer and Zulu sergeant Mickey Zondi: The Steam Pig (Jul.) and The Caterpillar Cop (Aug.).
“It was a conscious decision to publish McClure and Mackenzie on the same list—an opportunity to compare and contrast apartheid and postapartheid South Africa,” says Soho's publisher. “One thing that's clear from reading both authors is that South Africa is, and has been, a country rife with crime and violence.”
Other talented writers mining this dark material include “King of South African crime” Deon Meyer (Thirteen Hours, Atlantic, Sept.), Wessel Ebersohn (The October Killings, Minotaur, Oct. 2011), and Malla Nunn (Let the Dead Lie, Washington Square: S. & S., Apr.). Born of mixed-race parents in neighboring Swaziland and now an Australian citizen, Nunn explores the dire consequences of apartheid in her acclaimed Edgar Award–nominated debut, A Beautiful Place To Die.
Even Hollywood has taken notice. Later this year in Cape Town, director Philip Noyce (The Quiet American) will film Roger Smith's acclaimed noir thriller Mixed Blood (LJ 12/08), with Samuel L. Jackson starring as Zulu detective Disaster Zondi. Smith (see Q&A, p. 23), who read McClure's mysteries as a teenager, says his protagonist is a small tribute to Mickey Zondi.
Scandinavia still riding the wave?
Despite talk last year about declining sales (see “The Great Escape,” LJ 4/15/09), the Nordic crime wave has not yet crested. For example, Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's Nemesis was shortlisted for this year's Edgar Award for Best Novel. Henning Mankell's The Man from Beijing immediately landed on the New York Times best sellers list on its publication in February. And even though the final volume of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is set for May, so many impatient U.S. fans ordered the UK edition of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Knopf) that it tied last fall for the number five spot on the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association's best sellers list.
Coming in August is Karin Fossum's new psychological thriller Broken (Houghton Harcourt) and The Postcard Killers (Little, Brown), the first collaboration between the prolific and best-selling James Patterson and Swedish crime writer Liza Marklund (who also has a four-book deal with Atria: S. & S.). The latter is sure to attract new American readers not usually interested in international mysteries.
“People's appetite for the icy Scandinavian style is still quite powerful,” notes Pegasus Books editor Jessica Case. The June release of The Ice Princess marks the U.S. debut of Camilla Läckberg, Europe's sixth best-selling author (after fellow Swedes Marklund and Larsson). “We really believe someone like Camilla, who combines an incredible cast of characters and setting (the tiny seaside town of Fjallbecka) alongside a sinister mystery, has the potential to bring Scandinavian fiction to an even higher level.” Winner of the 2008 Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière (France's most prestigious award for crime fiction), the novel has been sold into 33 countries.
Melville Mysteries joins the lineup
“I have been intrigued to see that people are finally coming around to reading fiction in translation,” says Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson. But he also believes that the novels coming out of Scandinavia have become too much of the thriller, more concerned with violence or technology than with current social or political issues.
Watching as other presses launched crime fiction imprints, Johnson saw an opportunity for his press, best known for literary fiction in translation, to do mysteries that were set in other places but returned to Melville House's literary and political sensibilities. This fall Melville Mysteries, which Johnson compares to the harder-edged Black Lizard, Black Cat, and Serpent's Tail imprints, will kick off with Israeli playwright Joshua Sobel's Cut Throat Dog (Oct.), a literary spy thriller about an ex–Mossad agent, and Jakob Arjouni's Kismet (Oct.), which introduces a Turkish-German private investigator in a gritty Frankfurt locale.
“I think Arjouni's book will go over well with an American audience,” remarks Johnson. “You can tell he's read a lot of Raymond Chandler, lots of gumshoe wise-cracking stuff, but in a very cool setting.” But don't take him lightly; Arjouni, whose award-winning, four-book series is popular in Germany, also explores serious contemporary issues: immigration, organized crime, and the fallout from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
From Russia with love
Akashic Books, which has had great success publishing shorter fiction in translation with its popular Noir anthologies, continues to broaden the series' global scope. Coming in June is Moscow Noir, edited by Natalia Smirnova and Julia Goumen. “It still seems Russia holds an air of mystique for Americans,” says Akashic managing editor Johanna Ingalls. “The two countries have such a long (and often tortured) history, and references to the Cold War continue to this day.”
Simon & Schuster executive VP and publisher David Rosenthal has also noticed more suspense novels than usual set in either contemporary Russia or done as period pieces from the Stalinist era. “People are trying to figure out what the Putin era is all about, and Comrade Joe's days are still relatively unknown.” Rosenthal points to Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko thrillers, which have kept up with Russia's ever-changing politics: “from the repressive communist dictatorship of Gorky Park to the birth of the oligarchs in Wolves Eat Dogs to his upcoming Three Stations (Aug.), where the billionaires are now being harassed by the government.”
Expert at finding new talent and putting marketing muscle behind what Minotaur Books publisher Andrew Martin calls “power debuts,” the Macmillan crime fiction imprint is launching William Ryan's The Holy Thief (Sept.) with a 125,000-copy first printing. In addition, Minotaur for the first time ever will be offering as an exclusive to librarians an e-version of the Advance Reader's Edition. (Go to LJ BookSmack! or MacmillanLibrary.com for details.)
“Our expectation is to make this author a best seller,” says Martin, who compares the novel, the first in a three-book deal, to David Benioff's City of Thieves. Set in Stalin's Russia, it features a world-weary detective who must operate in a crumbling, corrupt system to solve a terrible crime with political implications. In an interesting twist, Martin turned down another Russian-flavored crime novel in favor of Ryan's book.
But Kate Miciak, editorial director of Bantam Books/Delacorte Press, quickly snapped up Sam Eastland's debut, Eye of the Red Tsar (May), about Tsar Nicholas II's chief detective (based on a historical figure) who eventually becomes Stalin's investigator. “Despite the legion of Russian thrillers I've read, I've never read one that so seamlessly binds the fragile luxury of the Romanov period with the dizzying paranoia of the Stalinist regime.”
A little light in the mix
Not all the new foreign mysteries coming this summer are dark social portraits. In July, Kensington is releasing Alexander Campion's The Grave Gourmet, the first entry in a cozy series set in France and featuring a policewoman married to a restaurant critic. And while a small press like Poisoned Pen can't afford much in the way of works in translation, Barbara Peters loves finding novels either with foreign sensibility or books like Simon & Schuster author Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri series (The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing, Jun.), which uses the Indian landscape as the backdrop to a classic mystery plot. Poisoned Pen's big summer debut is Jeanne Matthews's Bones of Contention (Jun.), a riff on the traditional country-house murder mystery set in the Australian outback
A digital crime wave
Last March when Minotaur released Olen Steinhauer's The Tourist, the publisher saw significant ebook sales by week two of the print on-sale date. In fact, the spy thriller was the number one best-selling Macmillan ebook title that week. Minotaur's Martin attributes this to several factors: the Kindle II had just been launched with all the attendant promotion, there was extensive press coverage for Steinhauer's book, and many of the Kindle's early adopters were “big boys with toys.” “Part of the fun of the Kindle,” says Martin, “is the one-click immediate gratification download of a hot book.”
Ebooks were the only bright spot in last year's grim publishing environment, with the American Association of Publishers (AAP) reporting sales jumping an astonishing 176.6 percent in 2009, to $169.5 million. On the other hand, they remain a small percentage of overall trade book sales at just 3.3 percent, though up from 1.2 percent in 2008. But mystery publishers are discovering that the digital format has become a viable sales channel for backlist titles. Steven Pomije, publicity manager for Midnight Ink Books, reports that many older titles whose print sales dropped two or three years ago are now seeing significant ebook sales. This month the publisher will make its top ten mystery Kindle ebooks (headed by G.M. Malliet's 2008 Agatha Award–winning Death of a Cozy Writer) available for the iPad via Kobo and will grow the list from there.
Crediting her marketing director for having the foresight to get Soho Press up on Kindle almost three years ago, Hruska, too, has seen tangible results. Ebook sales now constitute at least 50 percent of Soho's backlist sales and about 25–30 percent of its total sales. “It's not insignificant,” says Hruska, who is now starting to sell through other e-tailers like Sony.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and OverDrive. “And I don't think it's just about crime fiction. Series fiction in any genre is really taking off in ebook form.”
Literary agent and ebook publisher Richard Curtis agrees. His company, E-Reads© (www.ereads.com), specializes in reprints of genre fiction (sf, romance, action adventure, mystery/thriller, etc.) and currently offers about 1000 titles, in all ebook formats and trade paperback via print on demand. “There is a lot more fuel in these old titles than anyone imagined, and our sales support that.” His top-selling mystery authors include Nancy Herndon, Nancy Cohen (licensed from Kensington), Parnell Hall, and Richard S. Prather, but Curtis thinks the genre is underrepresented. He predicts that mysteries will become a big ebook staple as the demographics of Kindle owners trends toward older users.
As the recent Macmillan-Amazon dustup over ebook pricing and availability reveals, issues remain over what distribution models publishers will adopt, especially where libraries are concerned. At a “Publishing Point” Meet Up Group (bit.ly/bRqvoy), Macmillan CEO John Sargent argued that the way ebooks are currently loaned in libraries presents a thorny problem and that the publisher/library relationship might have to be changed. Still, the brave new digital world offers huge opportunities for selling books.
“I think ebooks will increase the sales of everything once we get all this stuff (price, rights) figured out,” says Minotaur's Martin. “And crime fiction is a big category for ebooks. If you look at the best sellers lists for ebooks, they now mirror the print best sellers.”
From: Library Journal
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Children's books gone horribly, horribly wrong
by: Vanessa FarquharsonAt some point in the past decade, the demand for children's books offering uncharacteristically blunt guidance on issues related to everything from social issues to bodily functions has surged. Forget all the nuanced subtext of a story like The Velveteen Rabbit or the meaningful imagery in Robert Munsch's I'll Love You Forever; bring on stuff like The Gas We Pass: The Story of Farts. But has this trend gone a little too far? Some of the kids' fare coming out today verges on disturbing, as this blog post by Kim Hartman keenly illustrates, summing up 12 Bizarre Kids Books You Won't Buy, which include It Hurts When I Poop, I Wish Daddy Didn't Drink So Much, Who Cares About Disabled People? (a follow-up to Who Cares About Elderly People?) and A Scary Thing Happened, a colouring book full of images of natural disaster, with a cover featuring a child's rendering of 9/11. Obviously, publishers realize the importance of literary tools in potty-training children and teaching them about puberty and where babies come from, but colouring in an image of the twin towers burning to the ground? Yeesh.
From: National Post
Friday, April 23, 2010
The new struggle: one school, one library, one librarian
by: Graeme Bloch and Njabulo S Ndebele
On Human Rights Day, March 21, a Sunday, 10000 high school pupils marched through the centre of Cape Town in school uniform. They were children, predominantly of working-class origins, from all over the Western Cape, rural and urban, black and white. Not a rock or a bottle was thrown and they dispersed peacefully to the trains that had been arranged to take them home.
The children were marching for books. In 2010, when we have built fine football stadiums across the country and will undoubtedly run an organised and inspiring World Cup, children were marching under the same banner as in 1976: Equal Education.
Sixteen years after democracy, our young people are calling for schools that work, for places where they may study and for materials that will help them read and learn. As the organisation Equal Education points out, fewer than 7% of schools in South Africa have a functioning library. Perhaps 21% have some kind of structure called a reading room, but these are usually used for classrooms, are seldom stocked properly and do not have a library professional in charge to ensure that the right books are there and that they are used properly. The lack of libraries compounds the many problems, such as teachers' poor subject knowledge and poor access to textbooks, that plague our schooling system. These factors combine to make our reading outcomes, at all grade levels, among the worst in Africa.
As Equal Education says: "The provision of a school library is not a luxury, but a necessity ... a school library on its own remains insufficient - for a school library to be at its most productive, its resources must be managed by a qualified librarian."
Among all the other needs in teaching, a school library can help improve performance by between 10% and 20%.
This campaign deserves our support. We should all raise an angry, but focused, voice. There are two reasons: the first is the impact of libraries on reading; the second is giving pupils access to a safe space to study, given a hectic township and home life.
Inequalities in access to books resound across the system, reinforce social inequalities and hold us back as a developing nation from achieving outcomes or utilising the human talents with which we are blessed.
Books and a love of reading are key drivers of successful education. For this reason alone, the campaign for one school, one library, one librarian must get our active support.
Perhaps more importantly is that young people themselves are making this demand.
On the same day the pupils marched, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe called on South Africans not to burn libraries to get attention.
Yet, in one service protest last year in Siyathemba, Mpumulanga, young people destroyed the municipal library, where many students spend their time. The next day, the government was there to ask what could be done.
Outside the Jub Jub bail hearing, angry students demonstrated for four days during school time, and Cosas, the high school organisation, threatened to meet police with rocks and petrol bombs. Only a strong community response and the rallying of parents calmed them down.
The Equal Education students, by contrast, had to fight to be heard and still do not have a plan from the government on how their needs will be addressed.
The march was a peaceful mass demonstration. Its discipline and the lack of any aggression were a tribute to the pupils of Cape Town. Young people are learning to take their lives into their own hands and to act for their goals. In an inspiring message, they are telling us that they will not stand by while an education system fails them.
With thousands of marshals to keep the peace, with the government present, led by basic education director-general Bobby Soobrayan, they announced that principled activism is not dead among young people. They are concerned about their future. By coming to town, they showed that they will not be confined to ghettoes of inequality or hide away unseen, but will claim the streets of the city as the stage on which to act.
Led in an inclusive and engaging way, they called on the citizens of the city and country to hear their pleas. They have run an entirely sophisticated campaign. They have written articles in newspapers based on extensive research. They have come to meetings of academics at the University of the Western Cape to argue their case. They have drawn professional librarians to their cause and have called on middle classes, black and white, to join them.
On Thursday, the Development Bank of Southern Africa had a meeting with Yoliswa Dwane of Equal Education, government officials and business to discuss a response. This is a campaign not only for those who do not have, but for all of us.
The students have mobilised and have shown in a disciplined and huge march that their cause has support and that they are prepared to act to achieve their goals.
It is not hard to begin to address their needs. Firstly, there is the goodwill of corporates and ordinary citizens. Equal Education (like other organisations such as Biblionef or Rotary) has been collecting books from the public and asking us to help stock libraries with our old books. They have organised read-ins and thus asked for older citizens, for experienced grannies with skills, to help inspire our young, helping them to know the pleasure of the book.
Equal Education has come up with architectural designs for what a school library could look like. It has done detailed costing of buildings and materials to stock a library, and of the salaries of employees at each public school. The total cost of about 19808 school libraries is R7.9-billion. It cost us over R13.6-billion to build the football stadiums for the World Cup. Spread over 10 years, functional school libraries could cost just R2.2-billion annually, only 1.6% of the Department of Education's annual budget. This does not even require creative funding models; it requires the political will to set aside the funds and to make school libraries work.
As one pupil said: "Having a library is not a favour that the government gives us, it is our right. My parents voted. I want their vote to be heard. We are marching, but we have done this before. Why must we shout for what we need?"
It is not just that the cost of functioning libraries is entirely affordable. It is not just that the pupils have drawn to our attention their needs in an entirely disciplined and peaceful way. When pupils ask in this way, it is incumbent on us to hear. Or are we asking them to meet us with fire and petrol bombs before we listen and respond?
The question is not simply about whether we can afford school libraries, with books and a professional librarian. Can we afford the cost of failing a generation and of not helping our young people to read when this simple request is all they are making? We must rally around to help our children read at the appropriate levels, to love books and explore knowledge, and to help carve a future as a learning nation.
A learning nation needs to be a successful one as well. We should remember that the failure of an education system over a long time might threaten the sustainability of our entire society. A nation that is unable to consistently transmit new and proven knowledge, skills, practices and values from one generation of citizens to another will soon run aground.
"One School, One Library, One Librarian" is a simple demand with profound implications. In meeting this demand, we ensure the sustainability of our democracy.
The call of young South Africans through the Equal Education campaign is to be left a legacy of citizenship that assures them a future.
It is an awesome responsibility for adult South Africans to heed the call of their children.
from: Times Live
On Human Rights Day, March 21, a Sunday, 10000 high school pupils marched through the centre of Cape Town in school uniform. They were children, predominantly of working-class origins, from all over the Western Cape, rural and urban, black and white. Not a rock or a bottle was thrown and they dispersed peacefully to the trains that had been arranged to take them home.
The children were marching for books. In 2010, when we have built fine football stadiums across the country and will undoubtedly run an organised and inspiring World Cup, children were marching under the same banner as in 1976: Equal Education.
Sixteen years after democracy, our young people are calling for schools that work, for places where they may study and for materials that will help them read and learn. As the organisation Equal Education points out, fewer than 7% of schools in South Africa have a functioning library. Perhaps 21% have some kind of structure called a reading room, but these are usually used for classrooms, are seldom stocked properly and do not have a library professional in charge to ensure that the right books are there and that they are used properly. The lack of libraries compounds the many problems, such as teachers' poor subject knowledge and poor access to textbooks, that plague our schooling system. These factors combine to make our reading outcomes, at all grade levels, among the worst in Africa.
As Equal Education says: "The provision of a school library is not a luxury, but a necessity ... a school library on its own remains insufficient - for a school library to be at its most productive, its resources must be managed by a qualified librarian."
Among all the other needs in teaching, a school library can help improve performance by between 10% and 20%.
This campaign deserves our support. We should all raise an angry, but focused, voice. There are two reasons: the first is the impact of libraries on reading; the second is giving pupils access to a safe space to study, given a hectic township and home life.
Inequalities in access to books resound across the system, reinforce social inequalities and hold us back as a developing nation from achieving outcomes or utilising the human talents with which we are blessed.
Books and a love of reading are key drivers of successful education. For this reason alone, the campaign for one school, one library, one librarian must get our active support.
Perhaps more importantly is that young people themselves are making this demand.
On the same day the pupils marched, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe called on South Africans not to burn libraries to get attention.
Yet, in one service protest last year in Siyathemba, Mpumulanga, young people destroyed the municipal library, where many students spend their time. The next day, the government was there to ask what could be done.
Outside the Jub Jub bail hearing, angry students demonstrated for four days during school time, and Cosas, the high school organisation, threatened to meet police with rocks and petrol bombs. Only a strong community response and the rallying of parents calmed them down.
The Equal Education students, by contrast, had to fight to be heard and still do not have a plan from the government on how their needs will be addressed.
The march was a peaceful mass demonstration. Its discipline and the lack of any aggression were a tribute to the pupils of Cape Town. Young people are learning to take their lives into their own hands and to act for their goals. In an inspiring message, they are telling us that they will not stand by while an education system fails them.
With thousands of marshals to keep the peace, with the government present, led by basic education director-general Bobby Soobrayan, they announced that principled activism is not dead among young people. They are concerned about their future. By coming to town, they showed that they will not be confined to ghettoes of inequality or hide away unseen, but will claim the streets of the city as the stage on which to act.
Led in an inclusive and engaging way, they called on the citizens of the city and country to hear their pleas. They have run an entirely sophisticated campaign. They have written articles in newspapers based on extensive research. They have come to meetings of academics at the University of the Western Cape to argue their case. They have drawn professional librarians to their cause and have called on middle classes, black and white, to join them.
On Thursday, the Development Bank of Southern Africa had a meeting with Yoliswa Dwane of Equal Education, government officials and business to discuss a response. This is a campaign not only for those who do not have, but for all of us.
The students have mobilised and have shown in a disciplined and huge march that their cause has support and that they are prepared to act to achieve their goals.
It is not hard to begin to address their needs. Firstly, there is the goodwill of corporates and ordinary citizens. Equal Education (like other organisations such as Biblionef or Rotary) has been collecting books from the public and asking us to help stock libraries with our old books. They have organised read-ins and thus asked for older citizens, for experienced grannies with skills, to help inspire our young, helping them to know the pleasure of the book.
Equal Education has come up with architectural designs for what a school library could look like. It has done detailed costing of buildings and materials to stock a library, and of the salaries of employees at each public school. The total cost of about 19808 school libraries is R7.9-billion. It cost us over R13.6-billion to build the football stadiums for the World Cup. Spread over 10 years, functional school libraries could cost just R2.2-billion annually, only 1.6% of the Department of Education's annual budget. This does not even require creative funding models; it requires the political will to set aside the funds and to make school libraries work.
As one pupil said: "Having a library is not a favour that the government gives us, it is our right. My parents voted. I want their vote to be heard. We are marching, but we have done this before. Why must we shout for what we need?"
It is not just that the cost of functioning libraries is entirely affordable. It is not just that the pupils have drawn to our attention their needs in an entirely disciplined and peaceful way. When pupils ask in this way, it is incumbent on us to hear. Or are we asking them to meet us with fire and petrol bombs before we listen and respond?
The question is not simply about whether we can afford school libraries, with books and a professional librarian. Can we afford the cost of failing a generation and of not helping our young people to read when this simple request is all they are making? We must rally around to help our children read at the appropriate levels, to love books and explore knowledge, and to help carve a future as a learning nation.
A learning nation needs to be a successful one as well. We should remember that the failure of an education system over a long time might threaten the sustainability of our entire society. A nation that is unable to consistently transmit new and proven knowledge, skills, practices and values from one generation of citizens to another will soon run aground.
"One School, One Library, One Librarian" is a simple demand with profound implications. In meeting this demand, we ensure the sustainability of our democracy.
The call of young South Africans through the Equal Education campaign is to be left a legacy of citizenship that assures them a future.
It is an awesome responsibility for adult South Africans to heed the call of their children.
from: Times Live
Thursday, April 22, 2010
My iPhone has revolutionised my reading
For dyslexics, books are much easier to read on its screen.
by: Howard Hill
I was hopeless at school, messy and terrible at spelling. And although the term dyslexia was not something I came across until much later in life, when I did I understood immediately that I had a number of its symptoms. My writing often had a jumbled logic. The advent of computers, of course, brought spell-checkers, but even so my word blindness can carry such conviction that I sometimes find myself staring incredulously at the red line underneath words, before finally realising that "during" does not begin with a "J".
I'm reasonably well read but I read slowly; books have always been a struggle. I read one sentence, which sparks a thought, maybe causing my eyes to flicker, and I lose my place.
Recently, at the age of 57, I got an iPhone. Like many, I spent the first few hours loading up apps, including a Classics book app. Some weeks later, while mending a client's computer, waiting for the blue line to progress slowly across the screen, I began reading. The first thing I noticed was that, while familiar with many of the books on the app, having seen a film version or been read them as a child, I had not myself read a single one. Books which would have been part of many a youthful literary diet had passed me by. Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer – I hadn't read any of them (but I have now).
The first title I selected was The Count of Monte Cristo. I raced through this on my iPhone in just over a week, my wife asking why I was continually playing with my iPhone. When I'd finished I enjoyed the story so much that I went to buy a copy for a friend. In the bookshop I was amazed. It was more than 1,000 pages! Had I been presented with the book in this form I would never have read it. It would have been too much like climbing a mountain.
So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don't get lost on the page. Second, the handset's brightness makes it easier to take in words. "Many dyslexics have problems with 'crowding', where they're distracted by the words surrounding the word they're trying to read," says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. "When reading text on a small phone, you're reducing the crowding effect."
I was so impressed that I contacted the Dyslexia Society, where Sue Flohr, herself dyslexic, recounted how her iPhone had changed her life. She told me that many others share my experience reading books and the society is in talks with the government over making school textbooks available as eBooks. Flohr said that her iPhone has not only brought greater organisation to her life, it has greatly improved her sense of self-esteem. I share this sense and now see that when I proudly show off my iPhone to others it is not just a new bit of technology, but the centrepoint of my newly ordered life.
from: Guardian
by: Howard Hill
I was hopeless at school, messy and terrible at spelling. And although the term dyslexia was not something I came across until much later in life, when I did I understood immediately that I had a number of its symptoms. My writing often had a jumbled logic. The advent of computers, of course, brought spell-checkers, but even so my word blindness can carry such conviction that I sometimes find myself staring incredulously at the red line underneath words, before finally realising that "during" does not begin with a "J".
I'm reasonably well read but I read slowly; books have always been a struggle. I read one sentence, which sparks a thought, maybe causing my eyes to flicker, and I lose my place.
Recently, at the age of 57, I got an iPhone. Like many, I spent the first few hours loading up apps, including a Classics book app. Some weeks later, while mending a client's computer, waiting for the blue line to progress slowly across the screen, I began reading. The first thing I noticed was that, while familiar with many of the books on the app, having seen a film version or been read them as a child, I had not myself read a single one. Books which would have been part of many a youthful literary diet had passed me by. Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer – I hadn't read any of them (but I have now).
The first title I selected was The Count of Monte Cristo. I raced through this on my iPhone in just over a week, my wife asking why I was continually playing with my iPhone. When I'd finished I enjoyed the story so much that I went to buy a copy for a friend. In the bookshop I was amazed. It was more than 1,000 pages! Had I been presented with the book in this form I would never have read it. It would have been too much like climbing a mountain.
So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don't get lost on the page. Second, the handset's brightness makes it easier to take in words. "Many dyslexics have problems with 'crowding', where they're distracted by the words surrounding the word they're trying to read," says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. "When reading text on a small phone, you're reducing the crowding effect."
I was so impressed that I contacted the Dyslexia Society, where Sue Flohr, herself dyslexic, recounted how her iPhone had changed her life. She told me that many others share my experience reading books and the society is in talks with the government over making school textbooks available as eBooks. Flohr said that her iPhone has not only brought greater organisation to her life, it has greatly improved her sense of self-esteem. I share this sense and now see that when I proudly show off my iPhone to others it is not just a new bit of technology, but the centrepoint of my newly ordered life.
from: Guardian
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Many a good book is undone by its cock-ups
A recipe book calling for “freshly ground black people” has been pulped. Little wonder, writes Christopher Howse.
by: Christopher Howse
Seven thousand copies of The Pasta Bible have been pulped because a recipe in it called for a sprinkle of salt and "freshly ground black people". The recipe was for "spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto", or, as printed, for mis-spelt tagliatelle.
"Why anyone would be offended, we don't know," said the head of publishing at Penguin Australia. No, perhaps not, but pulped it had to be. It is, by the way, notable that the books were pulped, not burnt. There is a taboo against burning books, as if even pasta bibles were sacred.
Real Bibles are stuffed with errors. This is a consequence of the Cock-Up Coefficient (A "cock-up" is nothing rude, but a technical term for a misplaced piece of type.) The rule is that cock-ups occur in direct proportion to the importance of avoiding them. "Thou shalt commit adultery," declared the Book of Exodus in an edition of the Bible in 1631. The printers were fined £300. Those little words not and no are slippery customers.
"There was more sea," said the Book of Revelation in a printing of 1641, to general hilarity, since it should have said "There was no more sea." "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?" asked St Paul in a printing by the clever men at Cambridge in 1653. More inventively, Jesus was represented, by transposition of a single letter in a printing in 1716, as telling the woman caught in adultery: "Go and sin on more."
If these grave errors corrupted generations of Bible-readers, they lack the poignancy of the 17th-century misprinting of Psalm 119: "Printers have persecuted me without cause." The printer is easy to blame, but it was his very reliability that gave misprints their interest. John Simon, after his retirement as Lord Chancellor, complained to a newspaper for the "wounding error" of giving his age in an article as 78 instead of 77. Those were the days. Now that compositors are nearly extinct, the result somehow loses its entertainment value.
Classic misprints depend on an interplay between the writer's ambition and the bathetic outcome. Philip Hope-Wallace, the opera critic, liked to tell not only of a review he had written of The Merchant of Venice being printed with Olivier filling the role of "Skylark", but, best of all, the chain of misfortunes attending his review of Tosca. He had described the heroine as appearing "like a tigress robbed of her whelps".
First, a feminist-minded subeditor changed tigress to tiger; then, crucially, whelps was printed as whelks. So the reader was presented next day with the baffling image of Tosca "like a tiger robbed of his whelks". For someone who enjoyed recounting in El Vino's, the Fleet Street bar, his persecution by printers, it was suitable that when, on his 60th birthday, a little plaque was unveiled where Hope-Wallace habitually sat, it should spell his Christian name as "Phillip".
Such errors wait for their victim. But the "black people" misprint relied for its force on our anxiety not to be suspected of grinding down black people. Different anxieties a century ago meant that a four-letter word could shock far more electrically than now. On June 12, 1882, the Times published an advertisement for a book called Every-Day Life in our Public Schools (6s), "with a glossary on some words used by Sir Henry Irving in his disquisition upon f–ing, which is in common use in those schools".
That must have been deliberate sabotage, but the perpetrator was never caught. In our own age, it is fear of falling into the use of "inappropriate language" of a social rather than a sacrilegious or scatological kind that has dug a new network of elephant traps beneath our fingers on the keyboard.
From: Telegraph
by: Christopher Howse
Seven thousand copies of The Pasta Bible have been pulped because a recipe in it called for a sprinkle of salt and "freshly ground black people". The recipe was for "spelt tagliatelle with sardines and prosciutto", or, as printed, for mis-spelt tagliatelle.
"Why anyone would be offended, we don't know," said the head of publishing at Penguin Australia. No, perhaps not, but pulped it had to be. It is, by the way, notable that the books were pulped, not burnt. There is a taboo against burning books, as if even pasta bibles were sacred.
Real Bibles are stuffed with errors. This is a consequence of the Cock-Up Coefficient (A "cock-up" is nothing rude, but a technical term for a misplaced piece of type.) The rule is that cock-ups occur in direct proportion to the importance of avoiding them. "Thou shalt commit adultery," declared the Book of Exodus in an edition of the Bible in 1631. The printers were fined £300. Those little words not and no are slippery customers.
"There was more sea," said the Book of Revelation in a printing of 1641, to general hilarity, since it should have said "There was no more sea." "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God?" asked St Paul in a printing by the clever men at Cambridge in 1653. More inventively, Jesus was represented, by transposition of a single letter in a printing in 1716, as telling the woman caught in adultery: "Go and sin on more."
If these grave errors corrupted generations of Bible-readers, they lack the poignancy of the 17th-century misprinting of Psalm 119: "Printers have persecuted me without cause." The printer is easy to blame, but it was his very reliability that gave misprints their interest. John Simon, after his retirement as Lord Chancellor, complained to a newspaper for the "wounding error" of giving his age in an article as 78 instead of 77. Those were the days. Now that compositors are nearly extinct, the result somehow loses its entertainment value.
Classic misprints depend on an interplay between the writer's ambition and the bathetic outcome. Philip Hope-Wallace, the opera critic, liked to tell not only of a review he had written of The Merchant of Venice being printed with Olivier filling the role of "Skylark", but, best of all, the chain of misfortunes attending his review of Tosca. He had described the heroine as appearing "like a tigress robbed of her whelps".
First, a feminist-minded subeditor changed tigress to tiger; then, crucially, whelps was printed as whelks. So the reader was presented next day with the baffling image of Tosca "like a tiger robbed of his whelks". For someone who enjoyed recounting in El Vino's, the Fleet Street bar, his persecution by printers, it was suitable that when, on his 60th birthday, a little plaque was unveiled where Hope-Wallace habitually sat, it should spell his Christian name as "Phillip".
Such errors wait for their victim. But the "black people" misprint relied for its force on our anxiety not to be suspected of grinding down black people. Different anxieties a century ago meant that a four-letter word could shock far more electrically than now. On June 12, 1882, the Times published an advertisement for a book called Every-Day Life in our Public Schools (6s), "with a glossary on some words used by Sir Henry Irving in his disquisition upon f–ing, which is in common use in those schools".
That must have been deliberate sabotage, but the perpetrator was never caught. In our own age, it is fear of falling into the use of "inappropriate language" of a social rather than a sacrilegious or scatological kind that has dug a new network of elephant traps beneath our fingers on the keyboard.
From: Telegraph
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Host of books appear as angels become theme of new teenage reading cult
They're heavenly, or hellish, but tales about angels are joining vampire sagas on the bestseller shelves.
by: Vanessa Thorpe
"Angels are all around us," reads the publisher's blurb for Angel, the first of a British trilogy of books for teenagers. "Their beauty is intoxicating, their presence awe-inspiring, their energy irresistible. Angel fever is spreading."
And this spring an angelic host does seem to have taken over a key sector of the book industry, with at least seven new literary series about angels targeted at young adults published here and in America, and two further bestselling titles dominating the European market.
The publication of Angel, written by L.A. Weatherly, an established children's writer from Hampshire, will be followed next year by two sequels, Angel Heat and Angel Burn. They imagine a world where the "potent magnetism" of these "stunning beings" is not what it seems. Far from benevolent forces, Weatherly's angels are "despicable creatures" who must be destroyed by the book's hero, Alex, to stop them "feasting lustily on the energy of innocent victims". For Alex, "the only good angel is a dead angel".
Comparisons with the vogue for teenage stories about vampires are obvious. Just like their blood-sucking supernatural cousins, angels are half-human visitors who can both fly and usefully suggest the mysterious adult world of sexuality that lies beyond. It is a thought that appears to have simultaneously occurred to authors and publishers searching for a new cult reading trend. "I had this idea that I thought was really original," said Weatherly, "and then it seems that everyone else had the same idea at the same time, although hopefully not with angels being evil."
Cambridge-educated author Bryony Pearce, from Bedfordshire, was also drawn to the subject. Her new novel, Angel's Fury, is published by Egmont early next year and concentrates on the grim notion that a fallen angel is walking the earth to "bring mankind to its destruction". Pearce's story was inspired by the malevolent nephilim of the Old Testament and serves as a reminder that the subject of angels is potentially much more complicated than vampiric lore and has been intriguing readers for 3,000 years.
Two British academics with new books out about the theology and mystique of angels are very aware of the complexities involved. David Albert Jones's Angels: A History looks at the origins of the modern concept of angels and their many popular reinventions. "People can project their own meanings on to angels," he says, "and this makes them perfect for young people and for the adolescent age we live in, an age when we are looking for things to believe in… They have all the ingredients for people who want to take something from established religion, but not in a way that ties them down." A theology, philosophy and history professor at St Mary's University College in Twickenham, Jones also accepts, he says, the saccharine and superstitious modern faith in angels as part of a strong spiritual tradition of seeking truth in unusual places.
Joad Raymond, of the University of East Anglia, is equally happy to watch the growing interest in cherubim and seraphim. Professor Raymond, author of Milton's Angels, suspects angels have now been released from the confines of orthodox religion and as a result writers feel confident to play with them. "Angels have become particularly accessible in recent generations. Before that, they were discussed only strictly theologically," he said. "A couple of hundred years ago it would have been a risk to write about them because they were still regarded as real. Now they are almost seen as fairies." Like Jones, Raymond sees angels as more fertile imaginative ground than vampires and he puts their appeal down to their superior status: "On the ladder that goes up from the mushroom to God, angels are one rung above us." He thinks, too, that the success of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, with its influences from Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost may be behind the recent trend.
Authors such as Weatherly focus on the romance and drama. "I am not getting into religion and the whole Judeo-Christian tradition. I concentrate really on their heartbreaking beauty," said the author. "Angels are outsiders and I write about finding the one person who understands you."
European teen hits by writers such as Laura Gallego García, whose Two Candles for the Devil is hugely popular in Spain, and the aptly named Italian writer, Dorotea De Spirito, also tell stories of youthful desire. De Spirito's book, Angel, charts the love between an angel and a demon and wonders, "will their opposite natures keep them forever apart?"
The origins of this incoming flock of winged messengers can be traced back to American author Lisa Jane Smith, who wrote Dark Angel in 1996. Following in her wake have come bestselling author Becca Fitzpatrick, whose first novel, Hush, Hush, is about a fallen angel called Patch, and the New Orleans-born writer Cate Tiernan, whose Immortal Beloved trilogy is due to be published by Little, Brown over the next three years.
Baltimore novelist Elizabeth Chandler brought out the first of her romantic trilogy, Kissed by an Angel, in 2008. Last year there was a comic approach from another US writer, Sharon Creech, who wrote about an angel undergoing an identity crisis in The Unfinished Angel, while Danielle Trussoni's manuscript for Angelology sold to the publishers Viking Press for a six-figure sum and has been optioned by Will Smith's film production company. Her book focused on the dark angels mentioned in Genesis and explored in the Book of Enoch, a non-canonical book of the Bible. Trussoni is now at work on the second book of the series, Angelopolis. Any angel assassins patrolling the skies, like Weatherly's hero Alex, have got their work cut out.
From: Guardian
by: Vanessa Thorpe
"Angels are all around us," reads the publisher's blurb for Angel, the first of a British trilogy of books for teenagers. "Their beauty is intoxicating, their presence awe-inspiring, their energy irresistible. Angel fever is spreading."
And this spring an angelic host does seem to have taken over a key sector of the book industry, with at least seven new literary series about angels targeted at young adults published here and in America, and two further bestselling titles dominating the European market.
The publication of Angel, written by L.A. Weatherly, an established children's writer from Hampshire, will be followed next year by two sequels, Angel Heat and Angel Burn. They imagine a world where the "potent magnetism" of these "stunning beings" is not what it seems. Far from benevolent forces, Weatherly's angels are "despicable creatures" who must be destroyed by the book's hero, Alex, to stop them "feasting lustily on the energy of innocent victims". For Alex, "the only good angel is a dead angel".
Comparisons with the vogue for teenage stories about vampires are obvious. Just like their blood-sucking supernatural cousins, angels are half-human visitors who can both fly and usefully suggest the mysterious adult world of sexuality that lies beyond. It is a thought that appears to have simultaneously occurred to authors and publishers searching for a new cult reading trend. "I had this idea that I thought was really original," said Weatherly, "and then it seems that everyone else had the same idea at the same time, although hopefully not with angels being evil."
Cambridge-educated author Bryony Pearce, from Bedfordshire, was also drawn to the subject. Her new novel, Angel's Fury, is published by Egmont early next year and concentrates on the grim notion that a fallen angel is walking the earth to "bring mankind to its destruction". Pearce's story was inspired by the malevolent nephilim of the Old Testament and serves as a reminder that the subject of angels is potentially much more complicated than vampiric lore and has been intriguing readers for 3,000 years.
Two British academics with new books out about the theology and mystique of angels are very aware of the complexities involved. David Albert Jones's Angels: A History looks at the origins of the modern concept of angels and their many popular reinventions. "People can project their own meanings on to angels," he says, "and this makes them perfect for young people and for the adolescent age we live in, an age when we are looking for things to believe in… They have all the ingredients for people who want to take something from established religion, but not in a way that ties them down." A theology, philosophy and history professor at St Mary's University College in Twickenham, Jones also accepts, he says, the saccharine and superstitious modern faith in angels as part of a strong spiritual tradition of seeking truth in unusual places.
Joad Raymond, of the University of East Anglia, is equally happy to watch the growing interest in cherubim and seraphim. Professor Raymond, author of Milton's Angels, suspects angels have now been released from the confines of orthodox religion and as a result writers feel confident to play with them. "Angels have become particularly accessible in recent generations. Before that, they were discussed only strictly theologically," he said. "A couple of hundred years ago it would have been a risk to write about them because they were still regarded as real. Now they are almost seen as fairies." Like Jones, Raymond sees angels as more fertile imaginative ground than vampires and he puts their appeal down to their superior status: "On the ladder that goes up from the mushroom to God, angels are one rung above us." He thinks, too, that the success of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, with its influences from Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost may be behind the recent trend.
Authors such as Weatherly focus on the romance and drama. "I am not getting into religion and the whole Judeo-Christian tradition. I concentrate really on their heartbreaking beauty," said the author. "Angels are outsiders and I write about finding the one person who understands you."
European teen hits by writers such as Laura Gallego García, whose Two Candles for the Devil is hugely popular in Spain, and the aptly named Italian writer, Dorotea De Spirito, also tell stories of youthful desire. De Spirito's book, Angel, charts the love between an angel and a demon and wonders, "will their opposite natures keep them forever apart?"
The origins of this incoming flock of winged messengers can be traced back to American author Lisa Jane Smith, who wrote Dark Angel in 1996. Following in her wake have come bestselling author Becca Fitzpatrick, whose first novel, Hush, Hush, is about a fallen angel called Patch, and the New Orleans-born writer Cate Tiernan, whose Immortal Beloved trilogy is due to be published by Little, Brown over the next three years.
Baltimore novelist Elizabeth Chandler brought out the first of her romantic trilogy, Kissed by an Angel, in 2008. Last year there was a comic approach from another US writer, Sharon Creech, who wrote about an angel undergoing an identity crisis in The Unfinished Angel, while Danielle Trussoni's manuscript for Angelology sold to the publishers Viking Press for a six-figure sum and has been optioned by Will Smith's film production company. Her book focused on the dark angels mentioned in Genesis and explored in the Book of Enoch, a non-canonical book of the Bible. Trussoni is now at work on the second book of the series, Angelopolis. Any angel assassins patrolling the skies, like Weatherly's hero Alex, have got their work cut out.
From: Guardian
Monday, April 19, 2010
Roller Derby in the library?
The Monroe Library is renovating their Main Library, and when the renovation of the first floor children's area was taking longer than expected, the intrepid children's librarians brought in a local roller derby team to take over the space and make a video.
Margaret, Monroe Library's Communications Officer writes:
"Our Main Library is undergoing renovation. When the first floor children’s area was taking longer than anticipated, our creative children’s librarians made this video in the empty space with our local roller derby team and CATS (Community Access Television Services). It was a big hit and kept everyone in good spirits during the wait. The Children’s Dept. was operating from an “outpost” in our largest two meeting rooms during the renovation."
Check it out for yourself here: http://www.mcpl.info/cats/podcast/psa/rollergirl_psa_renovations.m4v
Thanks to Ingrid Keuper-Dalton for the heads up!
Margaret, Monroe Library's Communications Officer writes:
"Our Main Library is undergoing renovation. When the first floor children’s area was taking longer than anticipated, our creative children’s librarians made this video in the empty space with our local roller derby team and CATS (Community Access Television Services). It was a big hit and kept everyone in good spirits during the wait. The Children’s Dept. was operating from an “outpost” in our largest two meeting rooms during the renovation."
Check it out for yourself here: http://www.mcpl.info/cats/podcast/psa/rollergirl_psa_renovations.m4v
Thanks to Ingrid Keuper-Dalton for the heads up!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
How to hook kids on books
by: Susan Elkin
Children who can't read can't learn," remarked David Blunkett when he was education secretary. Of course he was right – although that's not the only reason reading matters. Books also bring tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction. Reading them breeds tolerance and understanding of other ways of living, places, times and cultures. It develops concentration, self-reliance and confidence, as well as building vocabulary, use of language and general knowledge.
Some children are totally hooked. "I like fantasy and adventure books by authors like Anthony Horowitz and Derek Landy and getting pulled into books to the point when you can't put them down," says Harry Smurthwaite, 12. "I love playing Xbox, too, but I like to imagine the characters in books which you can't do with a computer game because the visual effects are all done for you."
Eve Attwood, aged eight, agrees. "I like reading because when you read a book it takes you to the place you're reading about. For example, if someone was reading about a castle and they were really enjoying the book it might take them to the castle in their mind
But not all children and young people, especially boys, agree with Eve and Harry. Although it was a children's author, Jacqueline Wilson – Eve's favourite – who topped the polls for the most borrowings (16 million) from public libraries in the past decade, fewer than half of all children aged nine to 14 read fiction more than once a month according to a survey published last month by the National Literacy Trust.
A recent ChildWise survey found that 42 per cent of boys aged 11-16 never read books for pleasure. And last year's Government figures showed that nearly a tenth of 14-year-old boys have a reading age of just nine.
"Too many boys simply aren't aware of the concept that reading can be for pleasure's sake alone," says the Football Association's editor-in-chief Dan Freedman, who also writes the Jamie Johnson novels about a football prodigy. Freedman is a frequent visitor to schools and promoter of reading.
One of the problems is that we have lost sight of what we mean by "can read" and "can't read". Nearly all children eventually learn to turn the squiggles on the page, paper or noticeboard into words. They may not be very quick or fluent, but when they see "Danger" or "Menu", they know what it means. Very few children in the developed world reach adulthood in a state of total illiteracy.
By the age of seven most can stumble through a passage from a book while an adult listens. It's decoding. Real reading is what you learn to do once you've cracked the code.
It's like swimming. Getting your 10-metre certificate is not the end of your swimming career. It's the beginning. Now that you can stay afloat and use a stroke or two to propel yourself along, you can strike out, build up your swimming stamina and enjoy the water. It's just the same with reading. Children need to grow into strong, confident "deep-end" readers.
Sadly, this is a stage and a concept which is often neglected. It's easy to think that once Chloe or Jack "can read", the job is done. But imagine passing your driving test, walking out of the test centre and not getting behind the wheel again for five or 10 years. The skill, unconsolidated and developed, would probably have gone.
So what are the factors which impede deep-end reading? John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders told his organisation's 2010 conference that children are harder to motivate in the internet age because children spend an average 1.7 hours online, 1.5 hours on games consoles and 2.7 hours watching television each day. "They live in a celebrity dominated society where success seems to come instantly and without any real effort," he said. And learning to read properly requires effort – although it's effortless once you can do it.
Another problem is dependence on subvocalising, which fast and fluent readers don't do. A subvocaliser reads every word aloud to him or herself, inside the head but without speaking. A strong deep-end reader can read a piece of text quickly for meaning without having to "translate" each individual word into a sound.
Only practice gets a child to this confident stage. That's why enlightened schools set aside time every day for silent, independent reading. As with any other skill, the more you do it, the faster you get.
So what can we do? Well, at home, subtle strategies work best; piously commanding children to read because it's good for them is likely to turn them off instantly.
Read to babies every day from birth and don't stop until the child of 10, 11, 12 or whatever insists that he or she no longer wants you to do it. Children who hear stories and are shown books are far more likely to develop a lifelong love of reading than those who aren't.
Make sure that children see lots of grown-ups reading habitually, borrowing books from libraries, buying books and talking about books. Then children don't get the message that reading is a childish thing, like skipping or conkers, that you stop doing when you grow up because your attention is claimed by more important things.
That is especially important for the adult males in a boy's life. If a reluctant-to-read boy sees a man he respects – father, male relative, carer, teacher, sports hero – with a book in his hand, reading becomes cool.
Dan Freedman, who claims to have been a reluctant reader in boyhood, says: "I can see boys' attitude to reading thaw as I tell them how similar I was to them... how I started off thinking reading was boring but now I read and write for pleasure – an entirely new concept for many boys."
That is why the National Reading Campaign (NRC) has set up its Reading Champions project. "Its purpose is to celebrate men and boys who enjoy and promote reading in order to encourage others to do likewise," says Julia Strong, NRC's director. It is also why the National Literacy Trust (literacytrust.org.uk) publishes an online magazine called Getting the Blokes on Board.
Bridge Academy in Hackney has large cheerful photographs of staff members reading books displayed around the building. The captions below simply state the adult's name and the title of the book. It's a simple example of how reading can be role-modelled quietly but positively in school.
We cannot afford to let our children fail to develop the reading habit. In 2003 a study in 37 countries by the Programme for International Student Assessment found that the most important factor for academic success was the amount of time pupils spent reading; books, magazines, newspapers and websites. But reading books makes the biggest difference, according to this and other studies.
And just think of the pleasure and general development a child who doesn't read books is deprived of. If such a loss were imposed on children it would rightly be regarded as a form of abuse. It can't be allowed to happen by default.
Susan Elkin is a journalist and former teacher. Her book 'Encouraging Reading' is published by Continuum at £9.99
Six tips to encourage reading
* Never "rubbish" anything a child wants to read. Even the flimsiest, trashiest material helps build reading stamina
* Value all reading, including web pages, instructions and magazines
* Be seen absorbed in books yourself, especially if you are male and the child is a boy
* Take children to bookshops, libraries and book-related events
* Read children's books yourself and show real interest in them
* Restrict time spent with TV and computers and do not allow them in children's bedrooms; not difficult if you start as you mean to go on
Titles to tempt young readers
'Saving Rafael' by Leslie Wilson (Romeo and Juliet, set in Nazi Berlin) 12+
'My Sister Jodie' by Jacqueline Wilson (sibling rivalry between children of boarding- school staff) 9+
'Keeper' by Mal Peet (football thriller set in South America, first of a trilogy) 12+
'Chains' by Laurie Halse Anderson (slavery escape, set in 18th-century revolutionary New York) 10+
'Burn My Heart' by Beverley Naidoo (Mau Mau-period friendship of black and white boy in Kenya) 9+
from: The Independent
Children who can't read can't learn," remarked David Blunkett when he was education secretary. Of course he was right – although that's not the only reason reading matters. Books also bring tremendous enjoyment and satisfaction. Reading them breeds tolerance and understanding of other ways of living, places, times and cultures. It develops concentration, self-reliance and confidence, as well as building vocabulary, use of language and general knowledge.
Some children are totally hooked. "I like fantasy and adventure books by authors like Anthony Horowitz and Derek Landy and getting pulled into books to the point when you can't put them down," says Harry Smurthwaite, 12. "I love playing Xbox, too, but I like to imagine the characters in books which you can't do with a computer game because the visual effects are all done for you."
Eve Attwood, aged eight, agrees. "I like reading because when you read a book it takes you to the place you're reading about. For example, if someone was reading about a castle and they were really enjoying the book it might take them to the castle in their mind
But not all children and young people, especially boys, agree with Eve and Harry. Although it was a children's author, Jacqueline Wilson – Eve's favourite – who topped the polls for the most borrowings (16 million) from public libraries in the past decade, fewer than half of all children aged nine to 14 read fiction more than once a month according to a survey published last month by the National Literacy Trust.
A recent ChildWise survey found that 42 per cent of boys aged 11-16 never read books for pleasure. And last year's Government figures showed that nearly a tenth of 14-year-old boys have a reading age of just nine.
"Too many boys simply aren't aware of the concept that reading can be for pleasure's sake alone," says the Football Association's editor-in-chief Dan Freedman, who also writes the Jamie Johnson novels about a football prodigy. Freedman is a frequent visitor to schools and promoter of reading.
One of the problems is that we have lost sight of what we mean by "can read" and "can't read". Nearly all children eventually learn to turn the squiggles on the page, paper or noticeboard into words. They may not be very quick or fluent, but when they see "Danger" or "Menu", they know what it means. Very few children in the developed world reach adulthood in a state of total illiteracy.
By the age of seven most can stumble through a passage from a book while an adult listens. It's decoding. Real reading is what you learn to do once you've cracked the code.
It's like swimming. Getting your 10-metre certificate is not the end of your swimming career. It's the beginning. Now that you can stay afloat and use a stroke or two to propel yourself along, you can strike out, build up your swimming stamina and enjoy the water. It's just the same with reading. Children need to grow into strong, confident "deep-end" readers.
Sadly, this is a stage and a concept which is often neglected. It's easy to think that once Chloe or Jack "can read", the job is done. But imagine passing your driving test, walking out of the test centre and not getting behind the wheel again for five or 10 years. The skill, unconsolidated and developed, would probably have gone.
So what are the factors which impede deep-end reading? John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders told his organisation's 2010 conference that children are harder to motivate in the internet age because children spend an average 1.7 hours online, 1.5 hours on games consoles and 2.7 hours watching television each day. "They live in a celebrity dominated society where success seems to come instantly and without any real effort," he said. And learning to read properly requires effort – although it's effortless once you can do it.
Another problem is dependence on subvocalising, which fast and fluent readers don't do. A subvocaliser reads every word aloud to him or herself, inside the head but without speaking. A strong deep-end reader can read a piece of text quickly for meaning without having to "translate" each individual word into a sound.
Only practice gets a child to this confident stage. That's why enlightened schools set aside time every day for silent, independent reading. As with any other skill, the more you do it, the faster you get.
So what can we do? Well, at home, subtle strategies work best; piously commanding children to read because it's good for them is likely to turn them off instantly.
Read to babies every day from birth and don't stop until the child of 10, 11, 12 or whatever insists that he or she no longer wants you to do it. Children who hear stories and are shown books are far more likely to develop a lifelong love of reading than those who aren't.
Make sure that children see lots of grown-ups reading habitually, borrowing books from libraries, buying books and talking about books. Then children don't get the message that reading is a childish thing, like skipping or conkers, that you stop doing when you grow up because your attention is claimed by more important things.
That is especially important for the adult males in a boy's life. If a reluctant-to-read boy sees a man he respects – father, male relative, carer, teacher, sports hero – with a book in his hand, reading becomes cool.
Dan Freedman, who claims to have been a reluctant reader in boyhood, says: "I can see boys' attitude to reading thaw as I tell them how similar I was to them... how I started off thinking reading was boring but now I read and write for pleasure – an entirely new concept for many boys."
That is why the National Reading Campaign (NRC) has set up its Reading Champions project. "Its purpose is to celebrate men and boys who enjoy and promote reading in order to encourage others to do likewise," says Julia Strong, NRC's director. It is also why the National Literacy Trust (literacytrust.org.uk) publishes an online magazine called Getting the Blokes on Board.
Bridge Academy in Hackney has large cheerful photographs of staff members reading books displayed around the building. The captions below simply state the adult's name and the title of the book. It's a simple example of how reading can be role-modelled quietly but positively in school.
We cannot afford to let our children fail to develop the reading habit. In 2003 a study in 37 countries by the Programme for International Student Assessment found that the most important factor for academic success was the amount of time pupils spent reading; books, magazines, newspapers and websites. But reading books makes the biggest difference, according to this and other studies.
And just think of the pleasure and general development a child who doesn't read books is deprived of. If such a loss were imposed on children it would rightly be regarded as a form of abuse. It can't be allowed to happen by default.
Susan Elkin is a journalist and former teacher. Her book 'Encouraging Reading' is published by Continuum at £9.99
Six tips to encourage reading
* Never "rubbish" anything a child wants to read. Even the flimsiest, trashiest material helps build reading stamina
* Value all reading, including web pages, instructions and magazines
* Be seen absorbed in books yourself, especially if you are male and the child is a boy
* Take children to bookshops, libraries and book-related events
* Read children's books yourself and show real interest in them
* Restrict time spent with TV and computers and do not allow them in children's bedrooms; not difficult if you start as you mean to go on
Titles to tempt young readers
'Saving Rafael' by Leslie Wilson (Romeo and Juliet, set in Nazi Berlin) 12+
'My Sister Jodie' by Jacqueline Wilson (sibling rivalry between children of boarding- school staff) 9+
'Keeper' by Mal Peet (football thriller set in South America, first of a trilogy) 12+
'Chains' by Laurie Halse Anderson (slavery escape, set in 18th-century revolutionary New York) 10+
'Burn My Heart' by Beverley Naidoo (Mau Mau-period friendship of black and white boy in Kenya) 9+
from: The Independent
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Five Essential Books on Video Games
The iPad has been discussed in length this week on this blog, but we’ve ignored the gaming aspect of the device, which could be revolutionized by a large touch screen. Here, Jamin Brophy-Warren, a former Wall Street Journal entertainment reporter and co-founder of Kill Screen, a magazine about video games, recommends five essential books to read about the medium:
Video games matured at a time when the traditional outlets that would have tracked its growth were in sharp decline. As a result, much of the good writing lives on the web, which has served as a wonderful incubator for young writers hashing out their experiences. Video games are still a bit of blue ocean in the world of non-fiction, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few titles worth recommending.
Adults tend to be very pessimistic towards play as it’s written off as childhood fancy. Video games tragically fall victim to this bias as well, but for those who doubt that play is an essential element of human nature, there are two books by the elder statesmen of “ludology” that merit your attention. The first is Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s “Homo Ludens,” from 1938, which traces play systems through linguistics, epistemology, art and law. He outlined five characteristics of play, the first of which should be inscribed in every classroom in America: play is freedom. Twenty years later, French sociologist Roger Caillois grappled and bolstered Huizinga’s work in “Man, Play and Games.” The book is best known for Caillois’s four play forms—agon (competition), alea (chance), mimesis, and ilinx (vertigo). Both books are instrumental to understanding video games.
Game studies is a blossoming discipline in academia, but the writing from that field has been directed, understandably, toward fellow professors and professional game designers. There are, however, two “mainstream” books by professors that I’ve found appealing, if only that they debunk popular wisdom about video games. To combat the idea that the only people who play games are teenage males and housemothers, Jesper Juul’s “A Casual Revolution” is a deftly argued and thoroughly researched recommendation. With the advent of the Nintendo’s Wii and social games like FarmVille on Facebook, video games of many shapes and sizes have become standard fare as swaths of previously ignored players now find themselves with controllers in hand. The result has been a muddling of the archetypes of “hardcore” and “casual” players. Juul, the visiting professor at New York University’s Game Center, paints a world of middle-aged women trying to kick fifty-hour-a-week-video-game habits and young professional men only clocking a few hours a week on their Xbox 360s before shuttling off to their cubicles.
The second grand fallacy—that video games are useless, at best, and dangerous, at worst—receives a calm rebuttal from James Paul Gee, a professor of reading at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” passes for more than educational theory. Gee lays out the simple and systematic ways (forty-six, in fact) in which games teach those who play them, and what the significance of these learning behaviors is in the classroom and beyond.
A few years ago, a few video game writers attempted to create something called “new games journalism.” It positioned writing about games as akin to travel writing—video games were a place that you journeyed to and all who play video games should seek to report what they found there. The term never caught on, but the impulse—that video games deserved both observational and personal approaches—is quite valid.
It’s not surprising then that a former Peace Corps volunteer (and New Yorker contributor) would deliver the best work of literary non-fiction on video games thus far. Tom Bissell’s forthcoming “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” is a fantastic first-person work about what the act of playing video games actually means. Bissell writes about video games with the same passion and mania reserved for love letters—they are his advocates, nemeses, and collaborators. Games like “Resident Evil” are objects that have consumed him completely and Bissell’s sharp and naked assessment of his profound affection for the medium is an exemplar of good writing about the genre. The Guardian posted an excerpt of the book on his tripartite relationship with Grand Theft Auto IV, drugs, and writing that merits a gander.
from: The New Yorker
Video games matured at a time when the traditional outlets that would have tracked its growth were in sharp decline. As a result, much of the good writing lives on the web, which has served as a wonderful incubator for young writers hashing out their experiences. Video games are still a bit of blue ocean in the world of non-fiction, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few titles worth recommending.
Adults tend to be very pessimistic towards play as it’s written off as childhood fancy. Video games tragically fall victim to this bias as well, but for those who doubt that play is an essential element of human nature, there are two books by the elder statesmen of “ludology” that merit your attention. The first is Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s “Homo Ludens,” from 1938, which traces play systems through linguistics, epistemology, art and law. He outlined five characteristics of play, the first of which should be inscribed in every classroom in America: play is freedom. Twenty years later, French sociologist Roger Caillois grappled and bolstered Huizinga’s work in “Man, Play and Games.” The book is best known for Caillois’s four play forms—agon (competition), alea (chance), mimesis, and ilinx (vertigo). Both books are instrumental to understanding video games.
Game studies is a blossoming discipline in academia, but the writing from that field has been directed, understandably, toward fellow professors and professional game designers. There are, however, two “mainstream” books by professors that I’ve found appealing, if only that they debunk popular wisdom about video games. To combat the idea that the only people who play games are teenage males and housemothers, Jesper Juul’s “A Casual Revolution” is a deftly argued and thoroughly researched recommendation. With the advent of the Nintendo’s Wii and social games like FarmVille on Facebook, video games of many shapes and sizes have become standard fare as swaths of previously ignored players now find themselves with controllers in hand. The result has been a muddling of the archetypes of “hardcore” and “casual” players. Juul, the visiting professor at New York University’s Game Center, paints a world of middle-aged women trying to kick fifty-hour-a-week-video-game habits and young professional men only clocking a few hours a week on their Xbox 360s before shuttling off to their cubicles.
The second grand fallacy—that video games are useless, at best, and dangerous, at worst—receives a calm rebuttal from James Paul Gee, a professor of reading at University of Wisconsin-Madison. “What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy” passes for more than educational theory. Gee lays out the simple and systematic ways (forty-six, in fact) in which games teach those who play them, and what the significance of these learning behaviors is in the classroom and beyond.
A few years ago, a few video game writers attempted to create something called “new games journalism.” It positioned writing about games as akin to travel writing—video games were a place that you journeyed to and all who play video games should seek to report what they found there. The term never caught on, but the impulse—that video games deserved both observational and personal approaches—is quite valid.
It’s not surprising then that a former Peace Corps volunteer (and New Yorker contributor) would deliver the best work of literary non-fiction on video games thus far. Tom Bissell’s forthcoming “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” is a fantastic first-person work about what the act of playing video games actually means. Bissell writes about video games with the same passion and mania reserved for love letters—they are his advocates, nemeses, and collaborators. Games like “Resident Evil” are objects that have consumed him completely and Bissell’s sharp and naked assessment of his profound affection for the medium is an exemplar of good writing about the genre. The Guardian posted an excerpt of the book on his tripartite relationship with Grand Theft Auto IV, drugs, and writing that merits a gander.
from: The New Yorker
Friday, April 16, 2010
Literary critics scan the brain to find out why we love to read
'Neuro lit crit' is the study of how great writing affects the hard wiring inside our heads.
by: Paul Harris and Alison Flood
It is the cutting edge of literary studies, a rapidly expanding field that is blending scientific processes with the study of literature and other forms of fiction. Some have dubbed it "the science of reading" and it is shaking up one of the most esoteric and sometimes impenetrable corners of academia. Forget structuralism or even post-structuralist deconstructionism. "Neuro lit crit" is where it's at.
Later this year a group of 12 students in New England will be given a series of specially designed texts to read. Then they will be loaded into a hospital MRI machine and their brains scanned to map their neurological responses.
The scans produced will measure blood flow to the firing synapses of their brain cells, allowing a united team of scientists and literature professors to study how and why human beings respond to complex fiction such as the works of Marcel Proust, Henry James or Virginia Woolf.
The students are part of a group called the Yale-Haskins Teagle Collegium, which is headed by Yale literature professor Michael Holquist. "We are a group made up of honest-to-God scientists who spend all day in the lab and a group of literary humanists who are deeply devoted to the cause of literature," Holquist said.
His groups have spent months designing their texts, or "vignettes", and they have been specifically created to different levels of complexity based on the assumption that the brain reacts differently to great literature than to a newspaper or a Harry Potter book. The aim, Holquist says, is to provide a scientific basis for schemes to improve the reading skills of college-age students.
Holquist's group, however, is just one area of neuro lit crit. Academics from the arts and science are getting together in cross-disciplinary ways in order to explore the biological processes behind reading, creating and processing fiction. "Reading is a very hard-wired thing in our brains. There are brain cells that respond to reading and we can study them," said Professor Richard Wise, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London.
That might seem a counter-intuitive way to treat the arts. Great literature – and, indeed, not-so-great literature – has long been examined and studied in terms of other fields of the humanities.
People have identified philosophical theories in Shakespeare and analysed his differing moral ways of seeing the world. Famous works of literature have long been interpreted according to Marxist theories or by looking at gender. Or they have been seen as the product of exact historical, social, economic or environmental contexts.
Now, adding to those age-old debates, groups of scientists and literature experts are saying that the biology and chemistry of the brain are equally worthy of study and could provide as much insight. Literature, they say, has its roots in what it does to our brains or even what genes might be involved. Lighting up the right neurones is every bit as important as a keen moral insight or a societal context. Some see that as revolutionary. "It is one of the most exciting developments in intellectual life," said Blakey Vermeule, an English professor at Stanford University.
Vermeule is examining the role of evolution in fiction: some call it "Darwinian literary studies". It looks at how human genetics and evolutionary theory shape and influence literature, or at how literature itself may be an expression of evolution. For instance, the fact that much of human fiction is about the search for a suitable mate should suggest that evolutionary forces are at play. Others agree that fiction can be seen as promoting social cohesion or even giving lessons in sexual selection. "It is hard to interpret fiction without an evolutionary view," said Professor Jonathan Gottschall at Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania.
However, there has also been a backlash against the idea of using scientific methodology as a way of analysing fiction. Some say that the very experience of literature is too individual for scientific study. Or that science might do down the artistic and poetic notions of the humanities. Others protest that the science is simply not advanced enough. "It strikes me as just plain silly. The mind and the brain are two quite separate things, and nobody knows what the relation is between them," said Dr Ian Patterson, a fellow at Queens' College, Cambridge. Dr Nikolaj Zeuthen, of Aarhus University in Denmark, agreed. "The experience of reading something is subjective, something that we have only private access to. And surely there is nothing electrical, chemical about my experience of reading Woolf. So how can you say anything about my experience by looking at brain imaging?" he said.
But the proponents of neuro lit crit say that the critics are missing the point: discovering the scientific rules behind humankind's passion for story-telling does not take anything away from aesthetics. "Knowing the science behind the movement of a comet through space does not degrade the beauty of the night-time sky," said Gottschall.
THE BLOOMSBURY DATA SET
There have been many different trends in the field of literary criticism, not least the emergence of the black polo-neck as preferred wear for any self-respecting lit crit student. One of the giants of the early days was British academic FR Leavis who rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s. His works interpreted works of art in isolation from their social context.
Other schools have gone in the opposite direction. Marxist and feminist literary criticism interpret art as a practice placed within a society, its politics, gender relations and economy, and they dominated leftwing faculties in the 1960s and 1970s.
Structuralism, which sees human culture as a system of signs, then renewed focus on the internal workings of the text. More recently post-structuralism announced the "death of the author" – a refusal to posit any single "true" meaning of a work of art.
from: Guardian
by: Paul Harris and Alison Flood
It is the cutting edge of literary studies, a rapidly expanding field that is blending scientific processes with the study of literature and other forms of fiction. Some have dubbed it "the science of reading" and it is shaking up one of the most esoteric and sometimes impenetrable corners of academia. Forget structuralism or even post-structuralist deconstructionism. "Neuro lit crit" is where it's at.
Later this year a group of 12 students in New England will be given a series of specially designed texts to read. Then they will be loaded into a hospital MRI machine and their brains scanned to map their neurological responses.
The scans produced will measure blood flow to the firing synapses of their brain cells, allowing a united team of scientists and literature professors to study how and why human beings respond to complex fiction such as the works of Marcel Proust, Henry James or Virginia Woolf.
The students are part of a group called the Yale-Haskins Teagle Collegium, which is headed by Yale literature professor Michael Holquist. "We are a group made up of honest-to-God scientists who spend all day in the lab and a group of literary humanists who are deeply devoted to the cause of literature," Holquist said.
His groups have spent months designing their texts, or "vignettes", and they have been specifically created to different levels of complexity based on the assumption that the brain reacts differently to great literature than to a newspaper or a Harry Potter book. The aim, Holquist says, is to provide a scientific basis for schemes to improve the reading skills of college-age students.
Holquist's group, however, is just one area of neuro lit crit. Academics from the arts and science are getting together in cross-disciplinary ways in order to explore the biological processes behind reading, creating and processing fiction. "Reading is a very hard-wired thing in our brains. There are brain cells that respond to reading and we can study them," said Professor Richard Wise, a neuroscientist at Imperial College London.
That might seem a counter-intuitive way to treat the arts. Great literature – and, indeed, not-so-great literature – has long been examined and studied in terms of other fields of the humanities.
People have identified philosophical theories in Shakespeare and analysed his differing moral ways of seeing the world. Famous works of literature have long been interpreted according to Marxist theories or by looking at gender. Or they have been seen as the product of exact historical, social, economic or environmental contexts.
Now, adding to those age-old debates, groups of scientists and literature experts are saying that the biology and chemistry of the brain are equally worthy of study and could provide as much insight. Literature, they say, has its roots in what it does to our brains or even what genes might be involved. Lighting up the right neurones is every bit as important as a keen moral insight or a societal context. Some see that as revolutionary. "It is one of the most exciting developments in intellectual life," said Blakey Vermeule, an English professor at Stanford University.
Vermeule is examining the role of evolution in fiction: some call it "Darwinian literary studies". It looks at how human genetics and evolutionary theory shape and influence literature, or at how literature itself may be an expression of evolution. For instance, the fact that much of human fiction is about the search for a suitable mate should suggest that evolutionary forces are at play. Others agree that fiction can be seen as promoting social cohesion or even giving lessons in sexual selection. "It is hard to interpret fiction without an evolutionary view," said Professor Jonathan Gottschall at Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania.
However, there has also been a backlash against the idea of using scientific methodology as a way of analysing fiction. Some say that the very experience of literature is too individual for scientific study. Or that science might do down the artistic and poetic notions of the humanities. Others protest that the science is simply not advanced enough. "It strikes me as just plain silly. The mind and the brain are two quite separate things, and nobody knows what the relation is between them," said Dr Ian Patterson, a fellow at Queens' College, Cambridge. Dr Nikolaj Zeuthen, of Aarhus University in Denmark, agreed. "The experience of reading something is subjective, something that we have only private access to. And surely there is nothing electrical, chemical about my experience of reading Woolf. So how can you say anything about my experience by looking at brain imaging?" he said.
But the proponents of neuro lit crit say that the critics are missing the point: discovering the scientific rules behind humankind's passion for story-telling does not take anything away from aesthetics. "Knowing the science behind the movement of a comet through space does not degrade the beauty of the night-time sky," said Gottschall.
THE BLOOMSBURY DATA SET
There have been many different trends in the field of literary criticism, not least the emergence of the black polo-neck as preferred wear for any self-respecting lit crit student. One of the giants of the early days was British academic FR Leavis who rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s. His works interpreted works of art in isolation from their social context.
Other schools have gone in the opposite direction. Marxist and feminist literary criticism interpret art as a practice placed within a society, its politics, gender relations and economy, and they dominated leftwing faculties in the 1960s and 1970s.
Structuralism, which sees human culture as a system of signs, then renewed focus on the internal workings of the text. More recently post-structuralism announced the "death of the author" – a refusal to posit any single "true" meaning of a work of art.
from: Guardian
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Vong Sundara: How to pick up a librarian
Let's face it, some librarians can be tough, especially if you are late returning your books. So, Vong Sundara, a Post employee who headlining tonight's "Laughter for Literacy" comedy show in Toronto has compiled a few jokes to warm up your local maven of borrowed books. If you happen to find yourself attracted to the power of the librarian, check out these pick-up lines:
"Come closer, baby, I just want to see if we are on the same page."
"Let's play search engine: enter your terms and see if you get positive results."
"Do you have any overdue books, because you have fine written all over you?"
"Care to slip between the covers with me?"
"Can I get a library card, so I can check you out?"
• Laughter for Literacy is presented by Tom’s Place, hosted by National Post & Comedy Cares takes place tonight at Palmerston Library Theatre, 560 Palmerston Ave, Toronto at 6pm.
From: National Post
"Come closer, baby, I just want to see if we are on the same page."
"Let's play search engine: enter your terms and see if you get positive results."
"Do you have any overdue books, because you have fine written all over you?"
"Care to slip between the covers with me?"
"Can I get a library card, so I can check you out?"
• Laughter for Literacy is presented by Tom’s Place, hosted by National Post & Comedy Cares takes place tonight at Palmerston Library Theatre, 560 Palmerston Ave, Toronto at 6pm.
From: National Post
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Book on text messaging teens prompts most book challenges of 2009
"ttyl" series tops ALA's 2009 Top Ten list of most frequently challenged books.
CHICAGO –Lauren Myracle’s best-selling young adult novel series "ttyl," the first-ever novels written entirely in the style of instant messaging, tops the American Library Association’s (ALA) Top Ten list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009.
Two books are new to the list: Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer and “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult.
Both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War” return after being dropped from the list in 2008.
“Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values,” said Barbara Jones, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Protecting one of our most fundamental rights – the freedom to read – means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read.”
For nearly 20 years, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has collected reports on book challenges. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness. In 2009, OIF received 460 reports on efforts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves.
Though OIF receives reports of challenges in public libraries, schools, and school libraries from a variety of sources, a majority of challenges go unreported. OIF estimates that its statistics reflect
only 20-25% of the challenges that actually occur.
The ALA’s Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009 reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:
1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin RichardsonReasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen ChboskyReasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie MeyerReasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. SalingerReasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi PicoultReasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn MacklerReasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert CormierReasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
Seven titles were dropped from the list, including: His Dark Materials Trilogy (Series) by Philip Pullman (Political Viewpoint, Religious Viewpoint, Violence); Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz (Occult/Satanism, Religious Viewpoint, Violence); "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya (Occult/Satanism, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Sexually Explicit, Violence); Gossip Girl (Series) by Cecily von Ziegesar (Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group); "Uncle Bobby’s Wedding" by Sarah S. Brannen (Homosexuality, Unsuited to Age Group); "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group); and "Flashcards of My Life" by Charise Mericle Harper (Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group).
Also new this year is an updated list of the top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the Decade (2000 – 2009). Topping the list is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, frequently challenged for various issues including occult/Satanism and anti-family themes. A complete listing can be found at http://tinyurl.com/top100fcb.
For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books Week Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks.
The Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.
from: ALA
CHICAGO –Lauren Myracle’s best-selling young adult novel series "ttyl," the first-ever novels written entirely in the style of instant messaging, tops the American Library Association’s (ALA) Top Ten list of the Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009.
Two books are new to the list: Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer and “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult.
Both Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War” return after being dropped from the list in 2008.
“Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values,” said Barbara Jones, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Protecting one of our most fundamental rights – the freedom to read – means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read.”
For nearly 20 years, the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) has collected reports on book challenges. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school, requesting that materials be removed or restricted because of content or appropriateness. In 2009, OIF received 460 reports on efforts to remove or restrict materials from school curricula and library bookshelves.
Though OIF receives reports of challenges in public libraries, schools, and school libraries from a variety of sources, a majority of challenges go unreported. OIF estimates that its statistics reflect
only 20-25% of the challenges that actually occur.
The ALA’s Top Ten Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2009 reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:
1. ttyl, ttfn, l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin RichardsonReasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen ChboskyReasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie MeyerReasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. SalingerReasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi PicoultReasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn MacklerReasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert CormierReasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
Seven titles were dropped from the list, including: His Dark Materials Trilogy (Series) by Philip Pullman (Political Viewpoint, Religious Viewpoint, Violence); Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz (Occult/Satanism, Religious Viewpoint, Violence); "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya (Occult/Satanism, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Sexually Explicit, Violence); Gossip Girl (Series) by Cecily von Ziegesar (Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group); "Uncle Bobby’s Wedding" by Sarah S. Brannen (Homosexuality, Unsuited to Age Group); "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (Offensive Language, Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group); and "Flashcards of My Life" by Charise Mericle Harper (Sexually Explicit, Unsuited to Age Group).
Also new this year is an updated list of the top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of the Decade (2000 – 2009). Topping the list is the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, frequently challenged for various issues including occult/Satanism and anti-family themes. A complete listing can be found at http://tinyurl.com/top100fcb.
For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom’s Banned Books Week Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks.
The Office for Intellectual Freedom is charged with implementing ALA policies concerning the concept of intellectual freedom as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights, the Association’s basic policy on free access to libraries and library materials. The goal of the office is to educate librarians and the general public about the nature and importance of intellectual freedom in libraries.
from: ALA
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Our Public Library Lifeline is Fraying. We'll Be Sorry When it Snaps
by: Art Brodsky
This is National Library Week, a time normally reserved for celebrating an institution that plays a vital role in many of our cities, towns and counties. Instead, many libraries, particularly public libraries, are being decimated by budget cuts at a time when library services are needed most.
Libraries, once considered a necessity, are now seen as a luxury. They are low-hanging fruit for budget pluckers, particularly at the state and local levels of government in communities across the country. It's been a slow death by attrition over the past couple of years. First, it was the budget for books and materials because, after all, books and materials aren't people. No matter that books and materials are what makes a library, well, a library. Then came the hours of operation, then the staff, then the closure of branches. No two communities are approaching the situation identically, but in cities from Boston to Indianapolis, the stories are increasingly dire.
In Boston, the trustees voted to close four branches. There was lots of protest, and Mayor Thomas Menino still has to make the final call, but the situation doesn't look good.
The Florida legislature is considering eliminating state aid to libraries entirely, while the New Jersey legislature is only looking a at a 74 percent cut. Indianapolis and surrounding Marion County are also looking at closing six branches and cutting back programs and staff.
In my home community of Montgomery County, Maryland, formerly one of the wealthiest local jurisdictions, the County Council is looking at a budget for fiscal year 2011 of $29 million - down from $40 million just three years ago. This year, it is slated for a 23 percent cut - one of the largest of any agency, on top of cuts in the last fiscal year with percentage decreases larger than all but one county agency. And this is for a county of about one million residents in which 70 percent hold library cards. It's even worse across the river, in Fairfax County, Virgina, where libraries were declared a "discretionary" service while cutting 30 of 54 full-time librarians. Libraries discretionary? That's nuts.
These are only some of the stories. They are being repeated endlessly across the country, perhaps even where you live. Some places put a high value on their libraries. Contrast the $29 million of my county for the $51 million library budget in Seattle, a city of about 600,000. Sure, Seattle needed to cut the library budget, but the fact that they started out much higher than my home says something about their priorities. Sadly, Seattle is the exception, not the rule.
One problem for libraries in some jurisdictions is that they don't fit squarely into any one policymaker's domain, like public safety or a school system. Libraries serve a range of purposes - they help teach children to read, they help students work on projects, they provide meeting space for tutoring, they provide Internet access. They serve students, seniors, immigrants. They provide assistance to the unemployed. Libraries combine education, workforce development, socialization, recreation. But they aren't the school board, or a social services agency, and so generally get buried in the larger budgets.
The cuts come at a time when library use is increasing, for all types of services. The one that hits home the most these days is the crucial access to the Internet. A study by the Information School at the University of Washington found that: "Low-income adults are more likely to rely on the public library as their sole access to computers and the Internet than any other income group. Overall, 44 percent of people living below the federal poverty line used computers and the Internet at their public libraries."
In addition, the study reported: "Americans across all age groups reported they used library computers and Internet access. Teenagers are the most active users. Half of the nation's 14- to 18-year-olds reported that they used a library computer during the past year, typically to do school homework."
Ask any librarian, or read any of the stories about the budget cuts, and one message that stands out loud and clear is that the Internet at libraries is a lifeline for many. Here the unemployed look for jobs, and apply for jobs - many companies these days accept applications online only. Here people learn what many would consider rudimentary skills - how to attach a document to an email, for example. Is this what a library is supposed to do? Yes. The Internet has become an integral part of the library mission.
Internet support for libraries is national policy, going back to the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the amendment from current Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) as well as former Nebraska senators, the late James Exon and Robert Kerrey. Today, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is trying to update the policy for the 21st century.
But it would be a mistake to say that the Internet replaces libraries. It doesn't. It's an adjunct. More than one budget officer has said that people don't need libraries because they can go online. First, many people can't go online due to their economic circumstances. Second, librarians help to guide research. A simple online search will not always achieve desired results, as anyone who does this well knows. And libraries still have those quaint old things called books, many of which aren't online. The printed medium still has a lot of attraction for many, from the youngest readers whose parents check out armloads of picture books, to the serious readers and researchers who realize there is more to find than what's online.
It would also be a mistake to say that bookstores replace libraries. Nothing against bookstores, but they aren't a public resource. Quite obviously, who have to pay to enjoy the fruits of a bookstore. Libraries are there for everyone.
Politicians are loathe to raise money to pay for libraries. That's the kiss of death to an aroused citizenry that wants services but doesn't want to pay for them or, in some cases doesn't value them at all. Still, it's nice that around the country, people are protesting the cuts to their local libraries. In some cases, library lovers have formed foundations or other organizations to supplement their libraries. These are to be lauded, and supported, but they aren't a substitute for the public commitment that led to public libraries in the first place.
Let's give the last word to someone who has a secret ambition to be a librarian, but whose career went in a different direction. No less an authority than Keith Richards put it best in his forthcoming autobiography: "When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser."
Happy National Library Week.
from: Huffington Post
This is National Library Week, a time normally reserved for celebrating an institution that plays a vital role in many of our cities, towns and counties. Instead, many libraries, particularly public libraries, are being decimated by budget cuts at a time when library services are needed most.
Libraries, once considered a necessity, are now seen as a luxury. They are low-hanging fruit for budget pluckers, particularly at the state and local levels of government in communities across the country. It's been a slow death by attrition over the past couple of years. First, it was the budget for books and materials because, after all, books and materials aren't people. No matter that books and materials are what makes a library, well, a library. Then came the hours of operation, then the staff, then the closure of branches. No two communities are approaching the situation identically, but in cities from Boston to Indianapolis, the stories are increasingly dire.
In Boston, the trustees voted to close four branches. There was lots of protest, and Mayor Thomas Menino still has to make the final call, but the situation doesn't look good.
The Florida legislature is considering eliminating state aid to libraries entirely, while the New Jersey legislature is only looking a at a 74 percent cut. Indianapolis and surrounding Marion County are also looking at closing six branches and cutting back programs and staff.
In my home community of Montgomery County, Maryland, formerly one of the wealthiest local jurisdictions, the County Council is looking at a budget for fiscal year 2011 of $29 million - down from $40 million just three years ago. This year, it is slated for a 23 percent cut - one of the largest of any agency, on top of cuts in the last fiscal year with percentage decreases larger than all but one county agency. And this is for a county of about one million residents in which 70 percent hold library cards. It's even worse across the river, in Fairfax County, Virgina, where libraries were declared a "discretionary" service while cutting 30 of 54 full-time librarians. Libraries discretionary? That's nuts.
These are only some of the stories. They are being repeated endlessly across the country, perhaps even where you live. Some places put a high value on their libraries. Contrast the $29 million of my county for the $51 million library budget in Seattle, a city of about 600,000. Sure, Seattle needed to cut the library budget, but the fact that they started out much higher than my home says something about their priorities. Sadly, Seattle is the exception, not the rule.
One problem for libraries in some jurisdictions is that they don't fit squarely into any one policymaker's domain, like public safety or a school system. Libraries serve a range of purposes - they help teach children to read, they help students work on projects, they provide meeting space for tutoring, they provide Internet access. They serve students, seniors, immigrants. They provide assistance to the unemployed. Libraries combine education, workforce development, socialization, recreation. But they aren't the school board, or a social services agency, and so generally get buried in the larger budgets.
The cuts come at a time when library use is increasing, for all types of services. The one that hits home the most these days is the crucial access to the Internet. A study by the Information School at the University of Washington found that: "Low-income adults are more likely to rely on the public library as their sole access to computers and the Internet than any other income group. Overall, 44 percent of people living below the federal poverty line used computers and the Internet at their public libraries."
In addition, the study reported: "Americans across all age groups reported they used library computers and Internet access. Teenagers are the most active users. Half of the nation's 14- to 18-year-olds reported that they used a library computer during the past year, typically to do school homework."
Ask any librarian, or read any of the stories about the budget cuts, and one message that stands out loud and clear is that the Internet at libraries is a lifeline for many. Here the unemployed look for jobs, and apply for jobs - many companies these days accept applications online only. Here people learn what many would consider rudimentary skills - how to attach a document to an email, for example. Is this what a library is supposed to do? Yes. The Internet has become an integral part of the library mission.
Internet support for libraries is national policy, going back to the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the amendment from current Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) as well as former Nebraska senators, the late James Exon and Robert Kerrey. Today, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) is trying to update the policy for the 21st century.
But it would be a mistake to say that the Internet replaces libraries. It doesn't. It's an adjunct. More than one budget officer has said that people don't need libraries because they can go online. First, many people can't go online due to their economic circumstances. Second, librarians help to guide research. A simple online search will not always achieve desired results, as anyone who does this well knows. And libraries still have those quaint old things called books, many of which aren't online. The printed medium still has a lot of attraction for many, from the youngest readers whose parents check out armloads of picture books, to the serious readers and researchers who realize there is more to find than what's online.
It would also be a mistake to say that bookstores replace libraries. Nothing against bookstores, but they aren't a public resource. Quite obviously, who have to pay to enjoy the fruits of a bookstore. Libraries are there for everyone.
Politicians are loathe to raise money to pay for libraries. That's the kiss of death to an aroused citizenry that wants services but doesn't want to pay for them or, in some cases doesn't value them at all. Still, it's nice that around the country, people are protesting the cuts to their local libraries. In some cases, library lovers have formed foundations or other organizations to supplement their libraries. These are to be lauded, and supported, but they aren't a substitute for the public commitment that led to public libraries in the first place.
Let's give the last word to someone who has a secret ambition to be a librarian, but whose career went in a different direction. No less an authority than Keith Richards put it best in his forthcoming autobiography: "When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser."
Happy National Library Week.
from: Huffington Post
Monday, April 12, 2010
Publishers & Librarians: Two Cultures, One Goal
Both aim to put books and readers togethers
by: Barbara Fister
For two professions so committed to meeting the needs of readers, publishers and librarians have distinct cultures. Put simply, one culture is all about developing and selling books; the other is about sharing them and fostering a culture of reading. But there's another basic difference, too. Publishers work closely with authors and use sales figures to tell them what readers want, interpreting those figures like tea leaves. Librarians work closely with readers, using them as informants to help them select books that will satisfy the diverse tastes of a community.
Though sharing may seem contrary to the imperative to sell books, many publishers have recognized the importance of the library market. Traditionally, children's book houses have been especially aware of libraries as a catalyst for the industry (libraries represent about 40 percent of the children's book market), and libraries are critical for some small publishers. On the adult side, larger publishers often have library marketing departments that actively network with librarians. Talia Ross of Macmillan, Virginia Stanley at HarperCollins, and Erica Melnichok, Jen Childs, and Marcia Purcell (who heads academic and library marketing) at Random House, for example, are thoroughly plugged-in to the library scene and well known among public librarians. However, for many publishing professionals working in the trenches, the library market is just a number on a P&L (profit-and-loss statement), and for many librarians, the ways of publishers are a complete mystery. [For more on marketing to libraries, see the web exclusive at the end of this article.]
Libraries are a major market for books. Their purchases account for over ten percent of the $27 billion industry (excluding print textbooks for K–12 and higher ed). In contrast to consumer buying, which relies on discretionary dollars, the library market remains a consistent sales channel for publishers.
Libraries' true roles
Libraries are far more than a market, however. Libraries create readers. They are the test bed, the petri dish for books, a place where people can discover a passion for reading as children and indulge it as adults and where passionate readers can sample new authors. Librarians are the ultimate handsellers of books (though they call it readers' advisory), and increasingly they put their considerable technical skills into making library web sites rich interactive social networks for book lovers.
Many library users are also book buyers. Tim Spalding of LibraryThing noticed that when he mapped the location of bookstores and libraries in urban communities, bookstores often cluster near libraries, benefiting from the proximity. But libraries are much more broadly spread throughout the community. They bring books to places where future, and current, readers live but where no bookstore will go.
Yet many publishers remain permanently befuddled about the library market—and they don't grasp the access to readers that libraries provide them. Some think there's something a little dodgy about letting lots of people read the same book at no charge. This lack of knowledge cuts them off from a tremendous resource—librarians. Librarians are knowledgeable about the practices and preferences of readers of every demographic and have a wealth of information from their patrons about what makes books work.
Moreover, Bookscan isn't the only source of hard data on what's popular right now. LJ aggregates statistics on the most popular books from multiple library systems nationwide to create a “best sellers” list of the books most circulated in U.S. libraries. Combined with their own local data and their immediate connection to readers, librarians know what readers want and, like publishers, strive to bring books and readers together.
In an effort to help us all just get along, let's channel the thoughts of two professionals, both struggling with red ink, feeling misunderstood and underappreciated, yet both devoted to books and readers in their own way. These two profiles are fictionalized composites intended to illustrate the similarities between the two cultures—and their profound differences.
The book editor
The next person who tells me, “Gee, I wish I could read books all day at my job,” is going to get a punch in the nose, seriously.
They think all I do is have boozy lunches in mid-Manhattan with famous authors, correct a few typos with a red pencil, and voilà—a book!
They have no idea.
First, I have to acquire the right manuscripts. When I find one I love, I have to convince the editorial board and the publisher that it's going to sell, persuade the author's agent we're the right house for the project, spend hours on the phone bidding against other publishers, and, finally, close the deal—and that's just the beginning. I have to manage every step of the process of turning a manuscript or a proposal into a book, from convincing the author he really can cut 100 pages out of his masterpiece, to negotiating an agreement on cover art and page design, to coordinating with marketing and publicity so my books won't get lost in the shuffle, to pleading for blurbs and soothing ruffled feathers when production screws up or when I'm way behind. And I'm getting dozens of new manuscripts to consider every week, while juggling multiple books at once, all at different stages in the process.
Too bad I don't have a crystal ball. I must guess what people will want to read a year from now, and my future as an editor depends on making good guesses. Not that much is at stake in the pay department. My $32K starting salary barely pays the rent, and my prospects won't get much better. The average salary for editors is in the mid-$50s. I suppose that's because this “gentleman's profession” is largely female—unless you look at upper management.
Still, I'm lucky to even have a job after Black Wednesday (December 3, 2008, a day of mass layoffs across the industry), but with fewer colleagues, my workload has increased. And it's hard to find anyone who's been at this house long enough to hand out good advice.
Most of what I do is invisible. An editor plays a key role in developing a publisher's greatest asset—its list. As soon as we build up an author, though, another publisher offers a bigger advance and off he or she goes, taking all those carefully nurtured readers along. There's no brand loyalty to a publishing house. Most readers don't even notice who published the book.
The last time we paid a celebrity a multimillion-dollar advance, some of my authors—the ones who get the usual four-figure advance—acted as if I personally had given a bonus to a bailed-out AIG executive. I sympathize. I don't want to publish schlock. I'd much rather publish quality books, and I fight really hard to get attention for my authors, but we have to publish what people want. The fact is, seven out of ten books don't recoup their costs. It's the best sellers and the steady sellers on the backlist that pay the bills.
Yet I even get complaints from my friends (some of whom don't flinch at paying five bucks for a good cup of coffee) that books cost too much. Here's the reality behind that book price. We give retailers a discount that amounts to half or more of the cover price. The distributor takes a cut. The printer gets between 10–15 percent, and the author gets a similar piece of the action, to be shared with his agent. In the end, there's about ten percent of the cover price left for us.
Part of the problem is we flood the marketplace with too many titles, and we have fewer and fewer sales reps on the payroll to promote them. Who can keep up? Besides, even if a writer has a following, we can't afford to bring out books for a limited niche audience. We need to see audiences grow. The fact is, we're just going to have to publish fewer books. Really. We mean it this time. (Maybe.)
Oh, sure—there's a lot of craziness in this business. The returns thing? It's nuts that 40 percent of hardcovers are returned to the publisher for a refund. No other business runs that way. It started back in the Great Depression. The only way booksellers could take the risk of carrying a new book was if publishers promised to take it back if it didn't sell. Turning that returns policy around won't be easy, especially in this economy. Booksellers are struggling, too. And even though we know good reviews help people learn about books, there aren't many traditional consumer review outlets anymore, and there are fewer every day. Sure, there are more and more blogs that focus on books, but it's hard to know which ones are the trendsetters.
All these pressures don't stop the higher-ups from demanding higher profits. Though there are tens of thousands of small publishers, a handful of multinational corporations dominate the book business, and for them it's just another business. What I don't get—why did these geniuses buy book publishers in the first place? Books may be a big business, but it's not exactly a boom industry, and margins are historically narrow. You can't mass manufacture books. Each book is different—meaning it's handcrafted, page by page, chapter by chapter. And there's no telling how readers will respond. You can't just follow the trends, aiming for another Da Vinci Code or the next Twilight. Readers are too smart for that—not that we don't try. All you can do is use your best instincts, rally the resources you can get out of the publisher, and cross your fingers.
And the technology is changing constantly. We're trying to figure it out, but this whole online world—it's so difficult to keep up: blogs, social networks, book trailers, and this new thing, Twitter? What's that about? The market for ebooks is growing, but it's hard to know where it's going. People seem to think an ebook should be nearly free, but it costs money to develop a book, whatever its format, and it costs even more to launch a book on multiple platforms. People don't realize that Amazon keeps all but 35 percent of the list price for Kindle books. On top of that, we have no idea how many people have bought Kindles or what their demographics are, so it's impossible to plan ahead.
Besides, who knows what could happen when books go digital. Sure, people complain about DRM (digital rights management), but we have to protect our assets. Just look what happened to the music industry.
My mother keeps sending me articles about how people are going to the library to get their books. But she doesn't get it. How can we keep publishing books if people think they should get them for free?
The librarian
The next person who tells me, “Gee, I wish I could read books all day at my job,” is going to get a punch in the nose, seriously.
People seem to think I spend my time shelving books, except when I'm shushing people. They don't realize how much planning goes into the workings of a library, how much technology know-how is required, or that I have to keep on top of a gazillion forthcoming books to make sure we have what our patrons want, cataloged and shelf-ready before they know they want it.
Every day brings a new challenge. I have to build a case for the materials budget when tax revenues are down. There are license agreements to figure out and phone calls from vendors for new databases we can't afford. (I have never bought anything over the phone. Are they crazy?) There will be roughly a million kids coming through the doors for the summer reading program that nobody's had time to plan because we lost two positions thanks to a hiring freeze. And someone just told me there's something nasty on the floor of the men's bathroom.
Just another day at the library!
Luckily, I love a challenge. What I love best is helping people find the perfect book for them. I know my community, and I know what their interests are. I'm excited by the sense of pride that a child feels when she learns how to read all by herself, and I know how reading expands the horizons of an elderly shut-in who reads six or seven books a week. There's nothing more fun than greeting a patron at the door with news of the arrival of a book that I know they've been waiting for. And then there are the author events and book clubs and our annual book festival.... There's no doubt in my mind that people love books. Heck, nearly everyone seems to be writing one.
Which brings its own issues. I get a lot of requests from self-published authors asking me to buy their books, and I have to explain that with limited resources and only so much space on the shelves, we have to go with books that are reviewed, that have been professionally edited. With nearly half a million books published each year—maybe half of them self-published, and most of those pretty awful—I just don't have time to go beyond trusted sources. This usually doesn't go over well.
It's getting tougher. We're seeing a 50 percent increase in traffic, which is literally wearing out the carpet, and we're having trouble keeping our hardworking computers running when they're constantly in use. Circulation has increased, too, but our materials budget has shrunk and will probably get even smaller.
Some days it doesn't take much to set me off. Why do publishers reassign an ISBN to a completely different book? Why can't they include the original publication date in their catalogs? Why does a U.S. publisher have to give a UK book a new title? And some of the jacket art, what were they thinking? Would you want to be seen in public carrying that? Especially when it comes to YA fiction. Teens aren't going to pick up a book that looks dumb. Trust me. They won't.
I wish publishers knew that reputation matters. If you can't be bothered to describe your books accurately in our vendor's online catalog, you're going to end up on my “do not buy” list. I'm tired of ordering what appears to be a book and find out it's some silly gift item. Or worse, I order a book on tarot and get a deck of cards. Get your information right, and get it in months in advance, if possible, so I can have the right book hit the shelves as soon as it's published. Isn't that what you want, to have your books in readers' hands quickly so they can spread the word?
My wish list for publishers: It would be nice to have lists by subject of nonfiction that's selling well and to know what's on a publisher's backlist by subject. A geographical list that lets us find local authors would also be great. (Hasn't anyone shown you how to customize Google Maps?) As for fiction, we need big books in big numbers. We bought dozens of copies of Twilight for each of our branches—and still had holds a mile long. But it's not just about the blockbusters. Our most avid readers are connoisseurs of the midlist. We also want to be able to fill in series and replace worn editions. If warehousing copies is too expensive, why not make the backlist available through print on demand? And where'd you get the idea we don't buy mass market?
Unabridged audio is hot, hot, hot. But we need downloadable formats since that's what our patrons have embraced. I mean, really—aren't we one of your biggest customers for these pricey items? Here's a crazy idea: treat us that way.
And don't get me started on ebooks. We thought about getting a Kindle, but we kept getting different answers from Amazon. Yes, you can use it. No, you can't. Well, you can loan out the Kindle, but only if there aren't any books on it because that would be a violation of the terms of service. The Google settlement bromide about having one terminal in every public library—are you kidding? That's never going to work. And products that make it impossible to print or copy and paste make zero sense to my patrons. Ebooks have a tremendous future, but you run the risk of driving readers away by creating products people don't want and locking everything down. Just look what happened to the music industry.
Making it hard for us to lend books as they go digital is not the way to grow a strong customer base. Why don't publishers realize that we're early adopters and strong allies when it comes to digital formats? We work hard to make our e-collections accessible and attractive, and we'll help readers who are on the fence about technology embrace it. This is the cheapest marketing publishers will ever have!
My dad keeps sending me articles that claim nobody reads anymore. I know that isn't true—but sometimes I fear publishers are working on it.
In the final analysis
Though publishing and librarianship may have different cultures, we have a common goal. S.R. Ranganathan put it in a nutshell with two of his famous rules: every reader his book; every book its reader. In an era when publishing opportunities have proliferated and the number of titles being published has skyrocketed, libraries rely on professionals who can do the painstaking work of developing quality books. In turn, publishers need librarians, who help spark a love of reading among children, sustain it through the stages of life, and know what's important to readers.
Though book sales have slumped in recent months, library circulation is soaring. If publishers didn't get the importance of libraries before, now's the time to get the message, because it's in libraries that book culture will be sustained through these hard times.
by: Barbara Fister
For two professions so committed to meeting the needs of readers, publishers and librarians have distinct cultures. Put simply, one culture is all about developing and selling books; the other is about sharing them and fostering a culture of reading. But there's another basic difference, too. Publishers work closely with authors and use sales figures to tell them what readers want, interpreting those figures like tea leaves. Librarians work closely with readers, using them as informants to help them select books that will satisfy the diverse tastes of a community.
Though sharing may seem contrary to the imperative to sell books, many publishers have recognized the importance of the library market. Traditionally, children's book houses have been especially aware of libraries as a catalyst for the industry (libraries represent about 40 percent of the children's book market), and libraries are critical for some small publishers. On the adult side, larger publishers often have library marketing departments that actively network with librarians. Talia Ross of Macmillan, Virginia Stanley at HarperCollins, and Erica Melnichok, Jen Childs, and Marcia Purcell (who heads academic and library marketing) at Random House, for example, are thoroughly plugged-in to the library scene and well known among public librarians. However, for many publishing professionals working in the trenches, the library market is just a number on a P&L (profit-and-loss statement), and for many librarians, the ways of publishers are a complete mystery. [For more on marketing to libraries, see the web exclusive at the end of this article.]
Libraries are a major market for books. Their purchases account for over ten percent of the $27 billion industry (excluding print textbooks for K–12 and higher ed). In contrast to consumer buying, which relies on discretionary dollars, the library market remains a consistent sales channel for publishers.
Libraries' true roles
Libraries are far more than a market, however. Libraries create readers. They are the test bed, the petri dish for books, a place where people can discover a passion for reading as children and indulge it as adults and where passionate readers can sample new authors. Librarians are the ultimate handsellers of books (though they call it readers' advisory), and increasingly they put their considerable technical skills into making library web sites rich interactive social networks for book lovers.
Many library users are also book buyers. Tim Spalding of LibraryThing noticed that when he mapped the location of bookstores and libraries in urban communities, bookstores often cluster near libraries, benefiting from the proximity. But libraries are much more broadly spread throughout the community. They bring books to places where future, and current, readers live but where no bookstore will go.
Yet many publishers remain permanently befuddled about the library market—and they don't grasp the access to readers that libraries provide them. Some think there's something a little dodgy about letting lots of people read the same book at no charge. This lack of knowledge cuts them off from a tremendous resource—librarians. Librarians are knowledgeable about the practices and preferences of readers of every demographic and have a wealth of information from their patrons about what makes books work.
Moreover, Bookscan isn't the only source of hard data on what's popular right now. LJ aggregates statistics on the most popular books from multiple library systems nationwide to create a “best sellers” list of the books most circulated in U.S. libraries. Combined with their own local data and their immediate connection to readers, librarians know what readers want and, like publishers, strive to bring books and readers together.
In an effort to help us all just get along, let's channel the thoughts of two professionals, both struggling with red ink, feeling misunderstood and underappreciated, yet both devoted to books and readers in their own way. These two profiles are fictionalized composites intended to illustrate the similarities between the two cultures—and their profound differences.
The book editor
The next person who tells me, “Gee, I wish I could read books all day at my job,” is going to get a punch in the nose, seriously.
They think all I do is have boozy lunches in mid-Manhattan with famous authors, correct a few typos with a red pencil, and voilà—a book!
They have no idea.
First, I have to acquire the right manuscripts. When I find one I love, I have to convince the editorial board and the publisher that it's going to sell, persuade the author's agent we're the right house for the project, spend hours on the phone bidding against other publishers, and, finally, close the deal—and that's just the beginning. I have to manage every step of the process of turning a manuscript or a proposal into a book, from convincing the author he really can cut 100 pages out of his masterpiece, to negotiating an agreement on cover art and page design, to coordinating with marketing and publicity so my books won't get lost in the shuffle, to pleading for blurbs and soothing ruffled feathers when production screws up or when I'm way behind. And I'm getting dozens of new manuscripts to consider every week, while juggling multiple books at once, all at different stages in the process.
Too bad I don't have a crystal ball. I must guess what people will want to read a year from now, and my future as an editor depends on making good guesses. Not that much is at stake in the pay department. My $32K starting salary barely pays the rent, and my prospects won't get much better. The average salary for editors is in the mid-$50s. I suppose that's because this “gentleman's profession” is largely female—unless you look at upper management.
Still, I'm lucky to even have a job after Black Wednesday (December 3, 2008, a day of mass layoffs across the industry), but with fewer colleagues, my workload has increased. And it's hard to find anyone who's been at this house long enough to hand out good advice.
Most of what I do is invisible. An editor plays a key role in developing a publisher's greatest asset—its list. As soon as we build up an author, though, another publisher offers a bigger advance and off he or she goes, taking all those carefully nurtured readers along. There's no brand loyalty to a publishing house. Most readers don't even notice who published the book.
The last time we paid a celebrity a multimillion-dollar advance, some of my authors—the ones who get the usual four-figure advance—acted as if I personally had given a bonus to a bailed-out AIG executive. I sympathize. I don't want to publish schlock. I'd much rather publish quality books, and I fight really hard to get attention for my authors, but we have to publish what people want. The fact is, seven out of ten books don't recoup their costs. It's the best sellers and the steady sellers on the backlist that pay the bills.
Yet I even get complaints from my friends (some of whom don't flinch at paying five bucks for a good cup of coffee) that books cost too much. Here's the reality behind that book price. We give retailers a discount that amounts to half or more of the cover price. The distributor takes a cut. The printer gets between 10–15 percent, and the author gets a similar piece of the action, to be shared with his agent. In the end, there's about ten percent of the cover price left for us.
Part of the problem is we flood the marketplace with too many titles, and we have fewer and fewer sales reps on the payroll to promote them. Who can keep up? Besides, even if a writer has a following, we can't afford to bring out books for a limited niche audience. We need to see audiences grow. The fact is, we're just going to have to publish fewer books. Really. We mean it this time. (Maybe.)
Oh, sure—there's a lot of craziness in this business. The returns thing? It's nuts that 40 percent of hardcovers are returned to the publisher for a refund. No other business runs that way. It started back in the Great Depression. The only way booksellers could take the risk of carrying a new book was if publishers promised to take it back if it didn't sell. Turning that returns policy around won't be easy, especially in this economy. Booksellers are struggling, too. And even though we know good reviews help people learn about books, there aren't many traditional consumer review outlets anymore, and there are fewer every day. Sure, there are more and more blogs that focus on books, but it's hard to know which ones are the trendsetters.
All these pressures don't stop the higher-ups from demanding higher profits. Though there are tens of thousands of small publishers, a handful of multinational corporations dominate the book business, and for them it's just another business. What I don't get—why did these geniuses buy book publishers in the first place? Books may be a big business, but it's not exactly a boom industry, and margins are historically narrow. You can't mass manufacture books. Each book is different—meaning it's handcrafted, page by page, chapter by chapter. And there's no telling how readers will respond. You can't just follow the trends, aiming for another Da Vinci Code or the next Twilight. Readers are too smart for that—not that we don't try. All you can do is use your best instincts, rally the resources you can get out of the publisher, and cross your fingers.
And the technology is changing constantly. We're trying to figure it out, but this whole online world—it's so difficult to keep up: blogs, social networks, book trailers, and this new thing, Twitter? What's that about? The market for ebooks is growing, but it's hard to know where it's going. People seem to think an ebook should be nearly free, but it costs money to develop a book, whatever its format, and it costs even more to launch a book on multiple platforms. People don't realize that Amazon keeps all but 35 percent of the list price for Kindle books. On top of that, we have no idea how many people have bought Kindles or what their demographics are, so it's impossible to plan ahead.
Besides, who knows what could happen when books go digital. Sure, people complain about DRM (digital rights management), but we have to protect our assets. Just look what happened to the music industry.
My mother keeps sending me articles about how people are going to the library to get their books. But she doesn't get it. How can we keep publishing books if people think they should get them for free?
The librarian
The next person who tells me, “Gee, I wish I could read books all day at my job,” is going to get a punch in the nose, seriously.
People seem to think I spend my time shelving books, except when I'm shushing people. They don't realize how much planning goes into the workings of a library, how much technology know-how is required, or that I have to keep on top of a gazillion forthcoming books to make sure we have what our patrons want, cataloged and shelf-ready before they know they want it.
Every day brings a new challenge. I have to build a case for the materials budget when tax revenues are down. There are license agreements to figure out and phone calls from vendors for new databases we can't afford. (I have never bought anything over the phone. Are they crazy?) There will be roughly a million kids coming through the doors for the summer reading program that nobody's had time to plan because we lost two positions thanks to a hiring freeze. And someone just told me there's something nasty on the floor of the men's bathroom.
Just another day at the library!
Luckily, I love a challenge. What I love best is helping people find the perfect book for them. I know my community, and I know what their interests are. I'm excited by the sense of pride that a child feels when she learns how to read all by herself, and I know how reading expands the horizons of an elderly shut-in who reads six or seven books a week. There's nothing more fun than greeting a patron at the door with news of the arrival of a book that I know they've been waiting for. And then there are the author events and book clubs and our annual book festival.... There's no doubt in my mind that people love books. Heck, nearly everyone seems to be writing one.
Which brings its own issues. I get a lot of requests from self-published authors asking me to buy their books, and I have to explain that with limited resources and only so much space on the shelves, we have to go with books that are reviewed, that have been professionally edited. With nearly half a million books published each year—maybe half of them self-published, and most of those pretty awful—I just don't have time to go beyond trusted sources. This usually doesn't go over well.
It's getting tougher. We're seeing a 50 percent increase in traffic, which is literally wearing out the carpet, and we're having trouble keeping our hardworking computers running when they're constantly in use. Circulation has increased, too, but our materials budget has shrunk and will probably get even smaller.
Some days it doesn't take much to set me off. Why do publishers reassign an ISBN to a completely different book? Why can't they include the original publication date in their catalogs? Why does a U.S. publisher have to give a UK book a new title? And some of the jacket art, what were they thinking? Would you want to be seen in public carrying that? Especially when it comes to YA fiction. Teens aren't going to pick up a book that looks dumb. Trust me. They won't.
I wish publishers knew that reputation matters. If you can't be bothered to describe your books accurately in our vendor's online catalog, you're going to end up on my “do not buy” list. I'm tired of ordering what appears to be a book and find out it's some silly gift item. Or worse, I order a book on tarot and get a deck of cards. Get your information right, and get it in months in advance, if possible, so I can have the right book hit the shelves as soon as it's published. Isn't that what you want, to have your books in readers' hands quickly so they can spread the word?
My wish list for publishers: It would be nice to have lists by subject of nonfiction that's selling well and to know what's on a publisher's backlist by subject. A geographical list that lets us find local authors would also be great. (Hasn't anyone shown you how to customize Google Maps?) As for fiction, we need big books in big numbers. We bought dozens of copies of Twilight for each of our branches—and still had holds a mile long. But it's not just about the blockbusters. Our most avid readers are connoisseurs of the midlist. We also want to be able to fill in series and replace worn editions. If warehousing copies is too expensive, why not make the backlist available through print on demand? And where'd you get the idea we don't buy mass market?
Unabridged audio is hot, hot, hot. But we need downloadable formats since that's what our patrons have embraced. I mean, really—aren't we one of your biggest customers for these pricey items? Here's a crazy idea: treat us that way.
And don't get me started on ebooks. We thought about getting a Kindle, but we kept getting different answers from Amazon. Yes, you can use it. No, you can't. Well, you can loan out the Kindle, but only if there aren't any books on it because that would be a violation of the terms of service. The Google settlement bromide about having one terminal in every public library—are you kidding? That's never going to work. And products that make it impossible to print or copy and paste make zero sense to my patrons. Ebooks have a tremendous future, but you run the risk of driving readers away by creating products people don't want and locking everything down. Just look what happened to the music industry.
Making it hard for us to lend books as they go digital is not the way to grow a strong customer base. Why don't publishers realize that we're early adopters and strong allies when it comes to digital formats? We work hard to make our e-collections accessible and attractive, and we'll help readers who are on the fence about technology embrace it. This is the cheapest marketing publishers will ever have!
My dad keeps sending me articles that claim nobody reads anymore. I know that isn't true—but sometimes I fear publishers are working on it.
In the final analysis
Though publishing and librarianship may have different cultures, we have a common goal. S.R. Ranganathan put it in a nutshell with two of his famous rules: every reader his book; every book its reader. In an era when publishing opportunities have proliferated and the number of titles being published has skyrocketed, libraries rely on professionals who can do the painstaking work of developing quality books. In turn, publishers need librarians, who help spark a love of reading among children, sustain it through the stages of life, and know what's important to readers.
Though book sales have slumped in recent months, library circulation is soaring. If publishers didn't get the importance of libraries before, now's the time to get the message, because it's in libraries that book culture will be sustained through these hard times.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)