Meet Portland's "Street Librarian"

by: Alison Hallett

The Mercury's new location is already paying off: This morning, Steve messaged me to tell me to look out the window, because "There's some weird rolling book thing down there." When I went down to investigate, I met Laura Moulton, who handed me a business card reading "Street Librarian," and explained that she recently received a RACC grant to fund a project called Street Books, a mobile library that provides books for the homeless. (Or "people living outside," to use the website's wording.) The bike-powered library has a small trailer full of 40-odd books—an impressively diverse collection skewing slightly toward regional authors (Jim Lynch, Benjamin Parzybok, Kevin Sampsell, Tom Robbins). While we spoke, Moulton shuffled through a stack of neatly labeled index cards, cataloguing a book that had just been returned—yes, cue nostalgia, she uses a card catalogue system. She told me that although she started the project with "no expectation that books would be returned," she's had about 6 books returned of 25 or so lent out since the project began in early June.


But the project is more than just a useful service for homeless people itching to read Bastard Out of Carolina: There's a documentary component, where Moulton photographs or video-records willing library patrons, and posts their story and book selection on the website. One gent recently swapped in Portland Noir for a copy of A Common Pornography—Sampsell's a hit with the homeless, apparently. Readers can also share book reviews, as well as their own stories from the road.

If you'd like to support the project, there's a PayPal account accessible through the Street Books website, where you can sponsor individual books that've been requested. You can also check out the cart in person—from 10-2 pm Wednesdays at the Skidmore Fountain, and Saturday 11-2 in the Park Blocks, on Salmon.

Hit the jump for a snapshot of Moulton's small but quality book collection.

from: Portland Mercury

Ebooks: the latest frontier for spam

The ease with which you can license content and repackage it to sell as an ebook has created a growing problem for Amazon and other resellers – spam ebooks. Distributors are worried, too

by: Mike Essex

With Google clamping down on content farms, the attention of those looking to get rich quickly from churning out content is now turning to major ebook retailers – and to selling stolen and replicated content.


A key starting point of the problem is Private Label Rights content (PLR), which allows anyone to buy prewritten content in bulk that they can then make into ebooks or website content. PLR seller Ronnie Nijmeh of PLR.me describes it as "royalty-free content, which means, when you pay for a licence, you get the rights to use the content without royalty in nearly any way you please". We might be familiar with that in photographs – the stock photo – but when it comes to words, the idea of reusing them is less well-known. But the explosion in the number of ebook readers has made such reuse suddenly attractive to some.

Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, an ebook distributor, sees PLR as "one of the worst threats to ebooks today". It's an easy system to get involved in as well, and "idiots fall prey to the PLR schemes and pay their $24.95 a month or whatever to access vast databases of generic content, and they have the ability to mix and match this content and republish it as an ebook in their own name."

This isn't an issue only observed by Smashwords, with AJ McDonald of Lulu, a print and digital book distributor, experiencing similar problems. "A growing concern in the ebook space is the publishing of public domain content. Sites such as Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia make it very possible for potential authors to grab works and [legally] republish them as their own," says McDonald. In the commercial market of ebooks this raises customer concerns over just what is good content, and which books are nothing more than amalgamated online information.

Vanessa Reece of Geekette Marketing, an author developing her own set of PLR, agrees that it is easy to find and to buy. "There are tonnes of places to find free, paid and limited edition PLR online. You only have to type 'PLR' and the subject you need into Google."

One prolific author of the type of content highlighted by Coker publishes "a mix of both PLR content and stolen content".

In some cases, the person simply smudged out the author name from the book cover image and didn't even bother to enter his own. Other research has highlighted Manuel Ortiz Braschi, the creator of 2,879 PLR ebooks and republished public domain content. Doing so is legal; the question is whether it's useful, given that it exists for free online already.

Although PLR.me goes through multiple editors and checks when writing its own content (including fact checking and grammar checks) the problems seem to occur after the PLR has been sold. Numerous people can buy the same packs, and in terms of after-sales monitoring, Nijmeh states: "We do spot checks, but it's hard to monitor since some of our members use content in a variety of ways.". This can lead to duplicate versions of the same content. Reece seems to reflect the same view: "In basic PLR you can generally change all aspects of the copy and apply your pen name to it. You can also go ahead and sell that to people".

McDonald offers a similar view of the problems faced by such an open platform: "While Lulu's mission is to empower anyone to publish anywhere, anytime; there have been instances of plagiarism and copyright violation."

This type of violation was experienced firsthand by SKS Perry who found his book had been taken by another 'author' and was available on Amazon. "I was doing a vanity search of my name on Google when I noticed a page for Amazon.co.uk listing Darkside by SKS Perry. When I linked to the page I saw that it was, in fact, my novel for sale."

Perry isn't the only person facing this issue and They Stole My Book.com lists other authors who have had their work reproduced illegally, often in the case of free books being repackaged at a price. For Perry he reported the book via Amazon, filed a DMCA takedown notice, left phone messages with Amazon and sent additional paperwork before the book was taken down.

Before the book was removed Perry carried out an experiment to see if Amazon would allow another version of the book to be listed by him. He was able to upload exactly the same content and create a duplicate version of the book on the site. What really surprised Perry is that his book was "under review" before it was made live for 48 hours, but was still allowed through the process, despite being identical to another existing book on the Amazon database.

When the book was removed Perry received neither confirmation nor any compensation for sales that occurred from the fake version of his book. He was never given any indication that the author of the fake version had been punished in any way, other than the book being removed. No information was detailed on actions that would stop the fake author repeating the process in the future.

While Amazon, Lulu and Smashwords all offer options to report bad content, the onus is on writers to find their stolen content in the first place. Coker suggests running Google searches for strings of content from an author's book as a means of seeing if it has been reproduced elsewhere. All three providers emphasise that they have automated and manual checks in place to spot bad content, but as shown by Perry these are not always effective.

While Reece and Nijmeh create original content, they both admit that many PLR sellers have terrible mass-produced text. "I think some people get very lazy with PLR and don't want to change any elements of it so what happens is you get terrible duplicates." explains Reece, pointing out that even with a good team of writers, "it's important to note that what the buyer does with the PLR is up to them".

So does customer protection instead lie with ebook content providers? One line of defence Coker highlights is a three-point system, with Smashwords relying on its filters and the community to spot problems, and that Smashwords itself acts as judge and jury, taking all claims of copyright violation seriously. For Lulu the only automated check is to look at whether an ISBN has been used before, something that can quickly be bypassed with a fake ISBN, with other checks occurring manually when a 'report this content' button is clicked on any book.

Both McDonald and Coker stress that any questionable content will result in a ban for the author. Unless they can prove ownership, the authors will lose any accrued revenue from the current quarter. This gives them three months to find stolen content, which compared to a shorter payment system for Amazon allows for a much higher chance of catching bad content before any money is lost.

None of this completely stops the issue of poor-quality PLR content, which could simply be of low quality or have no formatting for ebooks. In this case another line of defence is implemented by Lulu and Smashwords, at the request of the platforms to which they distribute, including Apple and Barnes & Noble. McDonald puts it best: "As Lulu continues to grow our global network of third-party retailers; we must adhere to their guidelines to ensure the utmost quality for our authors' content and their customers."

This level of regulation is driven by Apple which insists on a six-week turnaround for all books and apps. Smashwords and Lulu have to ensure the content they provide to Apple is of high quality, or they risk losing these distribution agreements. When Coker first signed a distribution deal with Barnes & Noble he introduced a 'premium catalogue' to only provide them with the best books. Over time this evolved in to a 60-page style guide which all books submitted to these high end sites via Smashwords must abide by. An automatic tool then checks books against these guidelines, and a manual check is made on every book before it is sent. Lulu also uses ePub validation guidelines to ensure formatting for high-end sites is correct before they will accept a book.

All of these checks are great for Apple, but are not enforced by Amazon whose 48-hour turnarounds has seen them accused of duplicate books and poor-quality content. Coker is not convinced Amazon is as effective as it could be: "We have deleted the accounts of dozens of PLR scammers, and often I'll see those same scammers turn around and upload their content directly to Amazon. The Kindle Store is awash in it." He continues: "They aggregate a larger customer audience, and they let a lot of stolen stuff through."

Amazon did not respond to repeated requests for comment over a number of weeks.

One such tool is designed to manipulate the system by repackaging public domain content scraped from the web in to quick ebooks. Owners of the software can generate hundreds of books and it promises "totally hands-free income".

None of this is good for consumers, and as Coker puts it, "The risk of PLR is that you see 50 copies of the same book on the same shelf written by equally lazy-ass idiots who got suckered in to the scam. Then customers, trusting they're buying a real book, purchase these books of questionable value. "

Digital books are still at the early part of their life cycle and many customers are embracing the ebook format for the first time. Impulse purchases that result in low-quality content are not likely to lead to future sales for legitimate authors. Likewise any books which are purchased legitimately but found to be stolen by another author will be removed from a customer's device through no fault of their own.

Although both McDonald and Coker are quick to highlight that they have only seen a small percentage of authors affected they agree that more can be done. For Coker and Smashwords it is about control and punishment: "I think we make the PLR folks jump through more hoops, our vetting is tighter and more effective, and we simply make it more difficult for them to earn a dime off the scams." McDonald and Lulu are focused on the legal aspect of PLR and stolen content: "We must stay on top of all laws or make a blanket decision to not distribute public domain content outside of the US."

Even with these systems in place, Coker feels that "ebooks will continue to attract the dregs of the cybercrime underworld". While PLR can contain well-researched content, it is also being manuipulated on a grand scale both by people who write poor-quality content, or buyers who repackage the same content in multiple ways. Ultimately while the main providers of ebooks are taking action and giving customers and authors the power to take back control there are clear loopholes that need to be closed.

from: Guardian

Why bedtime will never be the same

Goodnight Keith Moon is the latest in a very strange fad: children's bedtime books for adults
by: Viv Groskop

An illustration from Goodnight Keith Moon Photograph: PR company handout

The nightly climb up the stairs to Bedfordshire is supposed to be a time of parent-child bonding and sleepy tranquillity. The little darlings dress themselves obediently in their pyjamas and clutch their hot water bottles dreamily to their chests murmuring: "I love you, Mummy and Daddy."

In reality they want "just one more" repeat of Come Dine With Me. When they have already watched three. And, despite it already being several hours past the time they are supposed to be asleep, they now want you to read to them. You intone the words of Peepo, The Gruffalo or The Smartest Giant in Town as if you were a mass murderer.

Now comes the backlash – in the form of children's bedtime books designed for adults. Goodnight Keith Moon by Bruce Worden and Clare Cross published in the UK this week, is already a cult hit in the US. "Morbidly funny," according to the New Yorker, it's a spoof of the children's classic Goodnight Moon, told through the eyes of the Who's late drummer. A trashed hotel room replaces the sleepy child's bedroom. Instead of the bowl of mush featured in the original, there are pills everywhere: "And some whiskey and fish and some more in a dish, And the ghost of Cass Elliott whispering shhh."

It's already a trend with Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortes (Canongate, £9.99), also just published here, on its third print run in the US. "I'll read you one last book if you swear, You'll go the fuck to sleep."

Samuel L Jackson who reads the audiobook version says : "Everybody tells you that reading stories will put kids to sleep. It doesn't work. I did say 'Go the fuck to sleep,' to her a lot. My daughter would say, 'Go the fuck to sleep, Daddy?' And I would say: 'Yeah, go the fuck to sleep.'"

We can expect more of this stuff. There's already Porn For New Moms: photographs of beefcake guys feeding babies in the style of a children's picture book. And there's the "Baby Be Useful" series: Baby Mix Me a Drink, Baby Fix My Car, Baby Do My Banking. My favourite? All My Friends Are Dead by Avery Monsen: "If you're a dinosaur, all your friends are dead. If you're a pirate, all your friends have scurvy." Genius.

from: Guardian

Will the home library survive the surge of the e-book?

by: Alice-Azania Jarvis


High browse: London architects Levitate created this
literary staircase from words and oak

"I've not actually read any of them. I just love the bindings." So said the actress Davinia Taylor earlier this year when she decided to put her house on the market – complete with its carefully-sourced collection of classic books. Rarely removed from their perch on a bookcase in the living room, their primary purpose was to disguise Taylor's walk-in fridge. And so, with the fridge no longer destined to be a feature in her life, the books were deemed redundant.


In January Amazon revealed that it was selling more books in Kindle format than any other, and global sales of eBooks are expected to surpass the $1bn mark this year. In an age when literature is increasingly going digital, books hold a curious role in our homes. There aren't many purchases which, once used, would be placed on proud display in our living rooms, considered a vital part of our identity and carted round with us as we moved from one home to the next – particularly not when a virtual equivalent exists. And yet that's precisely what we've been doing with our books. Will the digital revolution change that?

Perhaps. After all, both the music industry and the print media have felt the heat of virtual competition. But in the meantime, there's every indication that, while we might do most our reading on-screen, the living room tradition of displaying our (non-digital) books is alive and well. When Michelle Obama and Samantha Cameron were photographed perched on the sofa of the Downing Street kitchen, attention immediately turned to the bookshelves (black, £665, available from OKA Direct). What did the presence of Mrs Beeton's Household Management say about our Premier's family? And why do they keep the Complete Works of Shakespeare in the kitchen? Similar treatment was meted out to both Milibands during the run-up to the Labour leadership contest. When it comes to the crunch, nosing around someone's bookshelves is interesting.

"You can tell a lot about someone by their choice of books – and how many they've got," says Doug Jeffers, owner of the My Back Pages bookstore in Balham, south London. "You can tell their political views, their interests, when they did most of their formative reading and, as a result, how old they are. You can even guess where they go on holiday and what they do for a living."

Household stylist Abigail Hall agrees. "I often style houses for sale and you'd be amazed how important the contents of your book case can be. People form judgments about the type of person who lives in the property as a result. So the paperbacks they've bought on holiday go straight into storage, and the classics go on display."

Given this, it's no surprise that those seeking to bolster their own intellectual reputation stock their shelves with an eye to something other than pure entertainment. As interior designer to the rich and famous (previous clients include the Rooneys and Status Quo's Rick Parfitt), Laura McCree is skilled in the art of reputation-management-via-bookshelf: "I've created whole libraries before. Recently, I did the house of a client who wanted to look like he read a lot. I stocked a library which stretched over two floors."

But it's not just a matter of which books we display that's interesting – how we choose to do so has become an equal point of fascination. "They can almost sculptural in that they offer a physical presence," explains Hall. "It's not just about stacking them on a bookcase, it's how you stack them. I've seen books arranged by colour, stacked on top of each other. Once I saw a load of coffee-table books piled up to become a coffee table in themselves." Recently one national newspaper went so far as to create a Flickr group on their website, inviting readers to upload pictures of their bookshelves for everyone to see. The results ranged from the mundane (untidy paperbacks spilling out of Ikea shelves) to the highly artistic. If nothing else, they confirmed our enduring love affair with the prominently-displayed book.

Curiously, this whole phenomenon – the whole wearing one's personality on our bookshelves – is, in fact, a rather modern one. "It wasn't really until the paperback explosion of the 20th century that books became widely available," explains George Johnson, owner of Lady Kentmores antiques in Callander, Scotland. "The Victorians had been great book collectors – it was very much in keeping with the ethos of the era – but it was an expensive pursuit. To have a library was a sign of status." When Penguin launched its run of ten titles in 1935, the possibility of buying – and displaying – books opened to the masses. In the late 1980s Ikea arrived on the scene, offering cheap bookshelves which promised a stylish way to store books without costing the earth. Ever since, we've been hooked.

"Books define a space," reflects Abigail Hall. "If you have some books and a comfy chair, you have immediately created an area." McCree agrees – books, as she puts it, are an "interactive display tool." It's a trick of which countless hotels, cafés and Harley Street surgeries are only too aware.

Placing a few carefully-chosen books atop coffee tables is the oldest trick in the, well, book. Indeed Johnson himself has repeatedly been drafted in to advise clients on which titles to place where. "Hotels are one of the great buyers. It's about creating an ambiance. No one actually reads the content"

Perhaps, then, the future of books lies in this. With more and more being bought in digital format, the first casualties of the tangible variety are likely to be the beach-read paperbacks – the ones that, if you invite Hall around, would be relegated to the garage anyway. But given the uses to which we put our other tomes – whether they're deployed to show-off, look pretty, or create an atmosphere – the odds of them hanging around look good.

"Already, you can see signs of the book industry moving in that direction," notes Hall. "You can buy books in design shops specifically for that purpose. Even novels are getting a makeover: books by authors like Terry Pratchett were always very striking, and other titles are getting similar treatment." As for vintage books, the future – like that of vintage vinyl – looks positively rosy; one recent sale saw an illustrated copy of John James Audubon's Birds of America sell for a record £7.3m. "The love for great work is still there," says Johnson of this. "An eReader is all right sometimes – but there's nothing like the real thing."

from: Independent

J.K. Rowling announces Pottermore

 Thursday, June 23, 2011 – J.K. Rowling today answered mounting speculation about the nature of her new project and announced Pottermore, a unique and free-to-use website which builds an exciting online experience around the reading of her hugely successful Harry Potter books, and is partnered by Sony.


The announcement today was heralded by the revealing of the website's name via an online search for its letters, and a ‘coming soon' holding page which received over a million visits within 36 hours of launching.

For this groundbreaking collaborative project, J.K. Rowling has written extensive new material about the characters, places and objects in the much-loved stories, which will inform, inspire and entertain readers as they journey through the storylines of the books. Pottermore will later incorporate an online shop where people can purchase exclusively the long-awaited Harry Potter eBooks, in partnership with her publishers worldwide, and is ultimately intended to become an online reading experience, extending the relevance of Harry Potter to new generations of readers, while still appealing to existing fans. As the Pottermore Shop develops, it is intended that it should include further products designed specifically for Harry Potter fans, offering a potential outlet for Sony products and services related to Pottermore. In keeping with Harry Potter's international appeal, the site will launch in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, with more languages to follow.

In the new website, which launches in Beta on 31st July, the storylines will be brought to life with sumptuous newly-commissioned illustrations and interactive ‘Moments' through which you can navigate, starting with the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (Sorcerer's) Stone. On entering, you choose a magic username and begin your experience. As you move through the chapters, you can read and share exclusive writing from J.K. Rowling, and, just as Harry joins Hogwarts, so can you. You visit Diagon Alley, get sorted into a house, and cast spells and mix potions to help your house compete for the House Cup.

At a press conference at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Rowling revealed some key features of the website. In an announcement which will thrill fans, she described how she has brought to life both the Sorting Hat and Ollivanders experiences from her books for the first time on Pottermore, by revealing the questions asked by the Sorting Hat - which places newcomers into their Hogwarts houses according to their characteristics - and the magic behind the Wand Chooser – which finds the right wand for each user from over 33,000 possible combinations. She also revealed glimpses of the new information she has provided on some of the best-loved characters.

J.K. Rowling's announcement on YouTube and sony.com today revealed that Pottermore (along with the Pottermore Shop) will be open to all users in October 2011. From today, 23rd June, fans can submit their email addresses on Pottermore.com in order to be contacted by the site following the opening of registration on 31st July, Harry's birthday. Also on that date, an online challenge will be launched, whereby the first million people to complete their registration will gain early entry into the website, and help put final touches to the experience.

J.K. Rowling commented:
"I wanted to give something back to the fans that have followed Harry so devotedly over the years, and to bring the stories to a new digital generation. I hope fans and those new to Harry will have as much fun helping to shape Pottermore as I have. To add to my input into the website, everyone will be able to join in by submitting their own comments, drawings and other content in a safe and friendly environment – Pottermore has been designed as a place to share the stories with your friends as you journey through the site."

Pottermore has been made possible with the support and partnership of Sony.

Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Sony Corporation, commented:
"Sony's association with J.K. Rowling's Pottermore brings together one of the world's most innovative brands with the most successful book series in history, in a pioneering partnership that will help shape the future of story-telling. We are proud to be a part of it, both at this momentous announcement, and as we collaborate on its development over the coming years."

On Sony's partnership of Pottermore, J.K. Rowling commented:

"As I think people know, I am very protective of Harry and have always been very selective with any new initiatives, but I am totally committed to making this partnership with Sony and this wonderful new website a success. There are many companies I could have worked with on this ultimate digital expression of Harry Potter's universe, but it is Sony's unique philosophy of creativity in harmony with technology that made them my first choice. The spirit behind Sony's make.believe philosophy is one that rings true with Pottermore's own values."

The detailed creative execution has been led by TH_NK, a leading UK digital agency, under the supervision of J.K. Rowling and the Pottermore management team, in co-operation with Sony. J.K. Rowling's publishers, Bloomsbury in the UK and Scholastic in the USA, as well as her international publishers worldwide, have been active supporters in the creation of pottermore.com and the Pottermore Shop. Warner Bros, the makers of the hugely successful Harry Potter film franchise, is also one of the partners who have worked to support the launch of Pottermore through a variety of marketing, promotional and other efforts and will continue to collaborate as the project grows.

The storyline of the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, will go live on the site in early 2012. The Pottermore Shop opens when the site opens to all in October, selling complete ranges of the eBooks and digital audiobooks in a selection of languages, exclusively.

Designed for fans of all ages, the website has been created with child safety in mind, employing best practice and compliance with internet codes of practice in the UK, Europe and USA, and elsewhere.

http://www.pottermore.com/

by: Ken Haycock

Following my convocation address to the 700+ MLIS graduates at San José, I was asked to make my talk available (it was of course streamed live with the convocation itself to graduates and their families around the world, and will be available on the San José website). This is a condensation, organized according to ten elements for a productive career, without the jokes and sidebars, based on my own forty years of good times.

As I pointed out to the graduates, it may be less appropriate to offer an inspiring message concerning our particular profession and its prospects in a tight economy but we also sometimes forget that this too shall pass.

The term convocation denotes a coming together, in this case for a celebration of achievement, but it is also a commencement, a beginning, a beginning of a new career and a new life, and also a beginning to learn, just as one gets a driver’s license but then really learns to drive over years of continued learning and experience.

So, my pieces of advice:

#10. Understand the education you got. Much of what has been taught will be irrelevant or even wrong in five years; we don’t know what exactly but you should have learned to assess, to adjust and to continue to learn. You have gained the mindset of the professional, a way of thinking as a librarian, and a way to continue to learn about your profession and craft. This is just the beginning: commit to moving forward, to pushing boundaries.

# 9. Recall always our enduring values. These include most especially our commitments to service, to equitable access to information and ideas, to the public’s right to know and their right to enjoy privacy and confidentiality, and to freedom of expression; these distinguish us from other professions.

# 8. Continue to demonstrate that we make a difference. Insist on data and results in your work. You have learned the evidence, continue to extend it. Medical libraries save lives with a majority of physicians changing their advice to patients after using the library; schools libraries have a positive affect on student achievement; academic libraries influence the research grants obtained by faculty and the grades received by students; public libraries change lives, transforming the experience of residents; and so on. But notice our language here. Stop focusing on the place; focus on the profession not the building; it is not the library so much as the librarian who made difference, and by behaving in specific ways based on our research.

# 7. Your job title is irrelevant. The discipline is Library and Information Science, the profession is Librarianship (in my opinion, there is no such profession called Information) and the job title is irrelevant. Don’t look for a job title in the ads, look for a reflection of your knowledge, skills and abilities. There are jobs, good jobs, if you don’t limit yourself by geographic location, by type of preferred work environment or type of library or by lack of imagination. Remember that employers do not care about your grades or the courses you took but do care deeply about what you can do and how well you can play with others. The largest employers of librarians today are not libraries but vendors, and they are challenged in finding qualified and capable librarians to work for them. In my forty years I have never had the job title “librarian”; indeed, my professional skill set was probably most useful when I was a school principal where we planned action research, made decisions based on evidence and collaborated through partnerships. There are examples of corporate libraries being closed while new graduates were hired to develop training programs in immersive environments: both groups held the MLIS degree from San José —was one group more real librarians than the other because they worked in a library?

# 6. Take advantage of the career resources available to you. You won’t find better career development material available to you than through the School’s career centre and the SLIS career consultant. Take a god look at the career tips, review the resume and interview resources, have your resume reviewed… search the jobs databases. Attend the many virtual workshops. Draw on their expertise. You paid for it. Use it.

# 5. Develop your network. There is growing evidence that this is even more important than previously thought. This is why it is often easier to learn about other jobs when you already have a job. The U.S. Department of Labor notes that almost 70% of the jobs in our field are not advertised. You need a network. You may have to force yourself to network but remember that your network also includes your family and friends. Never leave home without your business cards.

# 4. Build your board of directors. There is no question that mentors are important, especially for women interested in library leadership according to studies. But mentors can play limited roles in complex environments; have several mentors, different people who play different roles in your life. Put 8-12 on your personal board of directors and call on them, ask their opinion and perspective. These are people whom you trust and who have your best interests at heart. They need not even know or give permission to be on your board. And serve on the boards of your friends and colleagues as well.

# 3. Continue to learn. Prepare before you need it. Luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity. Take chances; prepare for an unknown future. Imagine this scenario: a state library consultant who is 23 years old; the head of a large university library who is 32; the coordinator of 110 school libraries who is 28 and who has been a consultant elsewhere already. I knew these people; they were the norm in the 1970s, and this situation is coming back. An urban library recently hired a manager of branches two years out from the MLIS, age 28, and she had never been a branch manager; another hired a deputy director five years out, at age 31. Why? The boomers have not just plugged the top positions but also the middle range and many existing mid-managers are comfortable in their positions and see no interest in career advancement. The implications of retirements go far beyond entry-level positions. Employers are increasingly keen once again on your potential more than your direct experience; they are less focused on your skills than on your team building and interpersonal abilities, your relationships. Embrace change; yesterday was Friday, today is Saturday, get over it. How we engage with our communities is going to become very different. How we “do” reference/information services is very different today than five years ago and will become even more different as librarians become embedded with community groups, just as academic librarians will move beyond liaison to being embedded in research groups and departments.

# 2. It is all about you. It really is all up to you. Determine what distinguishes you and how to express it. Have a passion for your profession, your career and the opportunities in front of you. Too many employers pass on hiring someone because they demonstrated no passion for the organization or the position available or the prospects for making a difference. If you can’t demonstrate enthusiasm and passion in an hour interview, how will you do so in the community? And it is passionate librarians who engender support from community leaders and funders.

# 1. Celebrate. Celebrate your achievements, starting with being here today. Celebrate your family and friends, your personal network, who helped to make it possible. Celebrate your School, an example of cutting-edge innovation and creativity blended with quality assurance. And celebrate yourself, you did it!

We salute you. We wish you well.

Now go out and make a difference in this world and make us all even more proud of this profession and of you, our newest members.

from: Ken Haycock

Reading Made Easy - Why Just Books Libraries Work

Sunder Rajan, founder of Just Books, is using technology to bring libraries back to the people

by: Nilofer D'Souza

Melissa D’Silva goes to the library almost every day. For someone who is not a book lover, this is unusual. “I don’t like to read,” she confesses. “But I came here to find books on baby care, and things to occupy my mind and time.” A few days ago, D’Silva had started her maternity leave and boredom was creeping in. So one day, she decided to head to the local library that her husband, Sharlon, had been frequenting for four months. Soon, she was hooked.

D’Silva’s 10-year-old niece Rhea recently picked up Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. When Rhea wanted to read the other books in the series, the library, called Just Books, offered to get her those books within 24 hours. The books would be sourced from other member libraries.

Until a few months ago, the D’Silva household were not members of any library. “I was last the member of a government library, 12 years ago,” says Sharlon D’Silva.

So, what’s the reason for the change? Simply that Sunder Rajan, a software engineer from Bangalore, had a bright idea. He hated travelling miles to access a library. So, in May 2008, he decided to start one near his house with the help of his wife. This was the beginning of Just Books. He thought it would be a good part-time run, but he was surprised when he got 1,000 members in three months. He shrugged it off as the initial excitement about a library in the neighbourhood. But after another three months when his fledgling library grew to 2,000 members, Rajan knew he had stumbled onto something. He decided to make it his full-time job. Today, his company has 22 libraries all over India with a revenue of approximately Rs. 4 crore.

A New Way to Read
Rajan wanted two things to become the DNA of his company: One, the libraries had to be integrated so that members could borrow from one library and return books to another; two, members should spend more time reading a book than searching for one. He has achieved both these objectives.

Members can borrow or lend books from any Just Books library in India. “Once we reach 5,000 members in a city, we establish a warehouse in that city,” says Rajan. “This helps us network the libraries so that if one member from one area needs a book that is in another library, we can get it for them.” Rajan calls it the milk van model. “We collect all the books [that have been asked for in other libraries] in the evening, and sort them out to be sent in the morning.” Rajan already has a warehouse in Bangalore, where most of his libraries are based. The next warehouse will be between Mumbai and Pune to service the libraries in both cities.

Most transactions in a Just Books library — searching, issuing or returning a book — can be done through a self-help kiosk using an ID card given to members. Users can locate the shelf within any library on which the book is placed. Members can also have books picked up and delivered from any address in India.

“The clichéd image of a library — dusty, books untouched, no one knows what is where — is done away with,” says Ramesh Prabhu, a book lover and a member of Just Books.

Tech Does the Trick
The one secret ingredient behind all this efficiency is Rajan’s belief in technology and the software that he invested in early on.

As his chain grew, Rajan convinced 10 of his old colleagues from iFlex (now Oracle Financial Services) to leave their full-time IT jobs and work at half their pay to build an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. The ERP software integrates all aspects of running a library and makes efficient use of all the available resources. For the software engineers, who were bored with their jobs, Just Books provided the spark they were looking for in their line of work.

Rajan also coupled the ERP offering with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. RFID is usually used in stores like Wal-Mart or in other supply chain management systems.

By using RFID, Rajan can ‘read’ several books at one time, and route them to their library with one click. This, in turn, increases the efficiency of the user experience.

Akilesh Kataria, Rajan’s colleague at iFlex and now the head of the IT team in Just Books, says, “Initially, we used to process 200 books; this number has gone up to 1,500 per day, and will keep going up.” Just Books has approximately eight people working on four different entry processes. RFID enables them to track the books and move them across libraries efficiently. The entire inventory is connected to every member library. These technical nuances have helped Just Books grow from five libraries in May 2010 to 30 libraries across four cities by May 2011, and an inventory of over three lakh books.


Infographics: Sameer Pawar

While RFID is not new to a business or a library, Rajan is one of the first to use this technology to achieve scale.
The British Council, which has a network of nine libraries, has adopted RFID at its centres in Delhi and Chennai. Neeti Saxena, head of central content procurement unit, British Council Division, says, “[It] can lead to extended opening hours for customers as minimal staff is required to manage the floor. [Also there is] higher customer satisfaction as most of the transactions are carried out by members themselves.”

For Rajan, scaling up has also reduced the cost of the technology. An RFID tag now costs him Rs. 9 while market rates place it between Rs. 20 and Rs. 40. This is because his order has gone from 25,000 tags to 100,000.

Rajan says his vision is materialising only because he employed technology early on. “Most libraries in India operate on limited funds, therefore their first preference is to expand their collection of books and journals instead of parallel investments like RFID,” says Shamik Basu, general manager, track and trace division, of tech company 3M India. “What libraries must realise is that installing RFID systems will eventually bring down the operating cost,” he says.

Building a Business
While he was solving the software puzzle with RFID, Rajan had already invested Rs. 50 lakh from his pocket. Then, in May 2009, he chanced upon the N.S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Excellence affiliated to IIM-B and his story grew. “They have finished their incubation period,” says Suryanaryanan A., ex-COO, NSRCEL. “They should not be less than 200 libraries in the next couple of years, which gives them the potential to reach half a million homes,” he says. Since then, “a private investor has helped us by investing a few crore,” says Rajan. He refused to name the investor.

Another cornerstone of Rajan’s business model is the franchisee system, with a 50:50 ownership pattern. The franchisee looks after the procurement of space and day-to-day operations, while Just Books owns and operates the software.

The business opportunity is also huge for franchisees. Rajan says, “My average revenue per customer is Rs. 2,500 for two books and one magazine a month.” Franchisees can make between Rs. 70,000 and Rs. 1 lakh per month. Bhanu Ganesh, a franchisee of Just Books at Navi Mumbai, says, “We broke even within three to four months. I had invested Rs. 20 lakh, which was only for interiors.”

What Next?
Each Just Books library has approximately 10,000 books and is approximately 1,200-1,400 square feet. But Rajan has smaller formats at 300-400 square feet, as he found that people were open to having small libraries inside their apartment complexes. They do just as well for the business. He also sees an opportunity to convert his libraries into community centres and grow other businesses through that, such as holiday planning and developing a music hub.

A vision that is in closer sight: Become the largest rental space for paperback books. Rajan’s confidence comes from his conversations with publishers, who told him: “As long as children continue to write on paper, India will have a market for paperback books.”

from: Forbes India

Lending Kindles at the Library

by: SB Sarah

I admit, I’m terribly curious to find out what the Kindle on-device library lending will look like, whenever it arrives this fall. But I learned recently of another library lending program that totally knocked my socks off. At the Cudahy Family Library in Cudahy, Wisconsin - where is that, you ask? It’s right here - the librarians have the Most Interesting Lending Program.


They lend Kindles.

No, really, they lend Kindles. Preloaded with a ton of books, each device devoted to a different genre.

I will let Michelle Gibbs, the Adult & Administrative Services Librarian (or, as I called her, Superpowered Librarian), explain the program.

Michelle Gibbs: We’ve got 6 Kindles that we loan out for 3 weeks at a time, and each is pre-loaded with 30-50 titles within a particular theme: Mystery and Suspense, Romance, Book Club Favorites, Nonfiction and Memoir and two Young Adult (different titles on each one).

Each Kindle has unique content; we made sure that we only loaded one copy of each book that we purchased, and if we had wanted the same book on more than one Kindle, we would have purchased a second copy. We put them out at 9:00 on a Saturday morning with no previous publicity, and they were all claimed by 10:00. We’re quite pleased with the program, as are our customers!

We were the first library in Milwaukee County to offer Kindles to check out, but not the first in Wisconsin – that honor goes to the Frank L. Weyenberg Public Library in Mequon. And there were other libraries in the U.S. before that.

The library buys the digital books from Amazon using a library credit card? Or do you have a different purchase method? All the Kindles are registered to the library on one account?

Gibbs: We use a credit card.

All the Kindles are registered to the library on one account?

Gibbs: Each Kindle has its own account, to make things easier for us to track and to prevent the books from being automatically shared from one Kindle to another.

Did you know that multiple Kindles on the same account can access the same books? It’s totally allowable under the Kindle terms of service - or did you want to make sure you bought individual copies of each book for other reasons?

Gibbs: We’re following the one book/one circulation at a time policy because that’s in line with what we do with both our print books and our eBooks. Since Amazon hasn’t explicitly said that it’s o.k. for us to be loaning Kindles (although they’ve danced around it enough that we’re confident that it won’t be an issue), we thought we’d better err on the side of caution.

How do you decide which content to load? Are there books that are requested or that are very popular?

Gibbs: Once we figured out the genre or theme for each Kindle, we chose mostly new releases or enduring works in the field. We figured that would be another way for people who were searching the catalog to find the Kindles – if they were looking for the newest James Patterson book and saw it listed on a Kindle, they might be interested enough to request one. You can see what titles are on each one if you’re interested by following the links on our homepage, http://www.cudahyfamilylibrary.org/.

[SB Sarah says: Click “More Details” on this page to see the list of romances on the Romance Kindle.]

We’ll certainly add new books and books that people have requested when the demand dies down enough that we can get our hands on them for a few hours to load the new titles.

How many patrons have gone on to purchase their own? Do you know?

Gibbs: Unknown at this point. Many people wanted to try out a Kindle before they purchased one, so we were happy to be able to help them out. Since the beginning of the year, we’ve had a tremendous amount of people in with their own e-readers trying to figure out how to download library books onto them – which can be rather cumbersome, especially if they aren’t terribly tech-savvy.

What made you choose Kindles, since Kindles aren’t (yet!) compatible with digital library lending?

Gibbs: They’re very easy to de-register, which would prevent people from loading them up with titles that may (or may not) be appropriate. Of course people can still register them to their personal Amazon accounts and load books onto them that way, but it’s definitely a deterrent. We do check to make sure that nothing has been added or removed before we check them back in. It will be interesting to see how people will use them once Amazon and Overdrive are working with each other. We are restricting patron downloading to the Kindles at this point for a couple of reasons. 1. The catalog record for the Kindles lists what books are on each of the devices, so any changes would not be accurately reflected in our library catalog. 2. The materials that people load onto them may not be appropriate for our customers, especially the teen Kindles.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HOLY SMOKE is that not COOL? I love this idea! Jennifer Lohmann, RWA’s Librarian of the Year 2010 and general purveyor of awesome, told me that her library in Durham, NC, has Barnes & Noble nooks that they lend out as well to book clubs - though they aren’t very strict on how many people constitutes a “book club.” The nooks are pre-loaded with titles that are common selections for book club discussion groups.

So what do you think? Does your library lend digital reading devices? If they did, would you be tempted to borrow one and try it out? I think this is a brilliant program, and it gives me epic giddypants to ponder the possibilities of setting up digital device lending programs in my local public library. Thank you to Ms. Gibbs and to Kate Fellowes for their time in answering my nosy questions, and to Angela James for connecting us.

And to the board at the Cudahy Family Library: Your librarians are made of awesome! Way to go!

From: Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Australian minister predicts the end of bookshops

Politician says that in five years' time three-dimensional bookstores will have disappeared

by: Alison Flood

An Australian politician has predicted that bookshops will be wiped out within five years, prompting widespread outrage among the country's booksellers.


Speaking in Canberra, minister for small businesses Nick Sherry said: "I think in five years, other than a few speciality bookshops in capital cities, you will not see a bookstore. They will cease to exist because of what's happening with internet-based, web-based distribution," he said, speaking at an event encouraging small businesses to expand online. "What's occurring now is an exponential take-off – we've reached a tipping point."

His comments follow the collapse of Australia's largest bookseller, Angus & Robertson, and Australian high street chain Borders earlier this year, but were angrily dismissed by the country's booksellers.

Joel Becker, chief executive of the Australian Booksellers Association, said he was "gobsmacked" at the "extraordinarily unhelpful" remarks, and had written to the minister asking him to explain himself. "It's an industry that's obviously going through changes, and we're responding to those changes by working out ways for even the smallest bookstores to go online and sell ebooks; we've been doing it so far without any support from the government," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"We're getting ready to have National Bookshop Day in August, celebrating the role of the bookshop in the community and we just found his comments extraordinarily unhelpful. I've asked him to explain them to me, and the rest of the sector for that matter."

Steve Belton, manager of the Paperchain Bookstore at Manuka, was also "open-mouthed", telling the paper that "as the minister for small business, [such talk] is not really supporting small businesses", while Jon Page, president of the ABA and a bookseller at Sydney's Pages and Pages, insisted on Twitter that "we are not a dead or dying industry".

There is "still a place for an independent that services their local community", said Page, telling the SMH that Sherry had shown "a distinct lack of understanding about the Australian book industry".

"It seems he'd rather promote overseas businesses who do not collect much-needed revenue than help the ones within his portfolio. I doubt he's even looked at any industry stats to make a remark like that," Page said.

Sherry later responded to the uproar, telling his Twitter followers that it was "great to see the lively debate about bookshops in the digital age".

"For the record - I'm a book lover and I don't have an e-reader. I'm a traditionalist, but obviously part of a dying breed," he wrote.


from: Guardian

Children's Laureate Julia Donaldson: ditch the internet and visit your library instead

20Children should research their school projects in the library rather than churning out facts copied from the internet, according to the new Children's Laureate.
by: Anita Singh

As author of The Gruffalo, which has sold over 15 million copies and been published in 42 countries, she has done more than most to foster children's love of reading Photo: GEOFF PUGH


Julia Donaldson set out her stall in the new role by speaking out against the government's planned library closures.

The best-selling author of The Gruffalo said she was "heartbroken" at the prospect of library cuts and would spend her two-year tenure campaigning against them.

"I care very much about libraries and I'm looking for more opportunities to speak out against the cuts and closures I see as so damaging to our children's future," said Donaldson, who was the most borrowed children's author in 2010.

"In 10 days' time I'm going to visit Whithorn Library in Dumfries and Galloway, which is having its 100th birthday. It should be a lovely cause for celebration but it is facing the axe.

"I just hope that by doing more library visits I can bring these issues to widespread attention." She hopes to undertake a tour of libraries "from Lands End to John O'Groats".

Donaldson argued that the internet is no substitute for the personal service provided by libraries.

"For children, it is vital they can visit libraries and speak to expert librarians who can help them discover their taste in books," she said. "I think it's rubbish when children do their homework on the internet. Half the time they just print out a whole lot of bumph they don't understand. Doing their own research is much better than churning out stuff from the internet."

Donaldson was speaking after the Waterstone's Children's Laureate ceremony, where attendees included Ed Vaizey, the culture minister

She will find a supporter in Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United boss, who recently despaired of his players using Twitter.

"I don't understand it. I don't know why anybody can be bothered with that kind of stuff. There are a million things you can do in your life without that. Get yourself down to the library and read a book," he said.

Donaldson succeeded Anthony Browne, the children's illustrator, and becomes the seventh person to hold the title.

As author of The Gruffalo, which has sold over 15 million copies and been published in 42 countries, she has done more than most to foster children's love of reading.

She believes that acting out stories with the aid of song and dance, rather than sticking to the written word, is key to improving literacy.

"It's very important for people to realise that children need different ways into reading. We should encourage children to act out stories," said Donaldson.

"Acting is such fun for children and beneficial in lots of ways. If it's scripted well, it's fantastic for reading development and self-confidence.

"It's great that phonics are back with a bit of a vengeance, but we must be aware that some children don't respond that well. Children should get enthused about stories, not just read texts and excerpts.

"My background is in songwriting and drama and playwriting and acting and performing, and I'm hoping to bring some of those things to the job."

Donaldson, 62, met her husband, Malcolm, whilst busking in Paris. She went on to become a songwriter for children's television before publishing The Gruffalo in 1999, with illustrations by Axel Scheffler.

She suffered tragedy in 2003 when Hamish, one of her three sons, committed suicide aged 25. He suffered from schizo-affective disorder which Donaldson believes was exacerbated by cannabis use.

The Gruffalo has become one of the best-selling children's books of all time but Donaldson vetoed an eBook version and does not believe they are good for children.

"I'm not anti-eBooks, but I'm not the world's greatest fan," she said. "They are fine for adults, and there is an eBook of my teenage novel, but I don't feel human should be controlled by technology.

"I saw an Alice in Wonderland app with her neck growing and shrinking - no child with that is going to bother to listen or read the words. That doesn't do anything for me."

Donaldson joked that she had "had enough" of The Gruffalo, which has spawned an animated film and extensive range of merchandise. She is the author of 156 other books.

from: Guardian

Digital Publishing in the Developing World: Imitation or Autonomous Evolution?

Many assume that the digital models that work in the United States and Europe can easily be applied to China, Latin America, and elsewhere in the developing world. This could not be more wrong, argues a new study “Digital Publishing in Developing Countries,” carried out by Octavio Kulesz in October 2010, and commissioned by the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, with the support of the Prince Claus Foundation. The report covers developments in Latin America, the Arab World, Sub-Saharan Africa, Russia, India and China. Here, we offer the introduction to the report, which has been made available online this week and can be read free of charge in Spanish, French and English.

by: Octavio Kulesz

In the last 15 years, the digital revolution has thoroughly modified the way in which cultural assets are produced and distributed. Music was probably the first industry affected, but the impact has now reached all sectors, and in particular the book world. Indeed, e-books, audio books, print on demand, virtual stores and the expansion of cellular phones have profoundly transformed the means of circulating texts.


As is well known, there are marked contrasts in the assimilation of these technologies from region to region. The industrialized nations –- in particular the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and South Korea –- have access to extremely efficient Internet services and plentiful human resources. Their firms therefore enjoy a considerable margin for action when it comes to testing out hardware, software and new digital publishing business models, which means that companies like Amazon, Apple, Google or Sony are taken as references in the media and at professional events all over the world. Now, it is clear that in the case of countries from the South, infrastructure limitations and low rates of human development hinder the advancement of electronic publishing such as it is known in more advanced regions. And certainly what little news that comes out about digital publishing in the developing world is usually related to incursions undertaken by those same actors from the North.


Thus, the conclusion reached in numerous articles and international conferences is that, in order to promote electronic publishing, the countries of the South have no choice other than to await the arrival of successful models from the North. However, this assumption is highly objectionable. For a start, so far it has not proven easy to identify a “successful system” of digital publishing, even in advanced countries; indeed, the sales figures for publications through Amazon’s Kindle Store or Apple’s iBooks are not widely available, which prevents us from knowing the extent to which in themselves these publishing platforms constitute as lucrative a model as is publicized. In fact, the constant changes in setting sale prices, defining formats and applying digital rights management (DRM) –- or not –- show that even the major players are still feeling their way.


Secondly, we must ask ourselves how useful it would be to reproduce the prototypes from the North in the South, as in addition to the disparities in infrastructure, there are also enormous cultural, linguistic and even religious differences. Let’s not forget that digital models represent more than just a tool: with a notable dose of egocentrism contained in its very name and the attraction produced by a logo that refers, amongst other things, to biblical sin, an iPad may well captivate a young Westerner educated in a particular tradition, but it won’t have the same effect on someone from India or the Cameroon. And, as we will point out later, the experience of reading from the screen of a cell phone means something very different to a Chinese user, for example, than it might do to a European one, due to the qualitative difference in the characters used in each case. Of course, a company like Apple will certainly find a highly profitable niche among the most affluent classes in developing countries, since the cultural and consumption patterns of these sectors merely imitate those of the North. But the interesting thing would be to find out what digital models might be a hit not just with the wealthiest 20% of the citizens of developing countries, but with the rest of the inhabitants, that is to say with the bulk of humanity.

Thirdly, given the enormous population, and above all the accelerated economic growth observed in many countries of the South, it is hard to believe that the developing world isn’t making its own contribution to the electronic age. In addition to the countless IT service providers in India and hardware manufacturers in China that support the Western platforms from behind the scenes, there are original and innovative digital publishing projects being carried out at this very moment in the South -– local platforms that will one day be able to compete with foreign ones. In fact, some of these ventures are so dynamic that instead of debating who will be the future Apple of China or the Amazon of South Africa, perhaps we will soon be asking ourselves who will be the Shanda of the US or the m4Lit of the UK.

A Matter of Enormous Significance


The development of electronic publishing in the South proves therefore to be a topic that is in itself worthy of discussion in global forums. But, more importantly still, it constitutes an absolutely vital issue for developing countries themselves.


On the one hand, according to the observations of the main actors involved, many of the typical obstacles of publishing in countries of the South can be overcome by incorporating digital technology into the book chain. Indeed, if the Internet connection tends to be defective in these regions, then the infrastructure of the book sector –- distribution, retail sales and printing -– is even worse. In some cases, then, certain technologies can be employed to help skip the “Gutenberg stage” and work directly in digital form by making use of the equipment already available.

Likewise, the electronic solutions that certain countries of the South have implemented to overcome their problems of content distribution can also serve as a model for others, thus facilitating South–South knowledge and technology transfer. For example, the rich prospects for mobile phones in India, China and South Africa represent a fruitful precedent for the Maghreb and the Middle East.

Lastly, the rapid economic growth experienced by many nations in Latin America, Asia and Africa has increased the funds states have available to them to invest in infrastructure, training and research and development (R&D). Sooner or later, these countries will have to ask themselves what kind of digital publishing highways they must build and they will be faced with two very different options: a) financing the installation of platforms designed in the North; b) investing according to the concrete needs, expectations and potentialities of local authors, readers and entrepreneurs. Whatever the decision of each country may be, the long term impact will be immense.


from: Publishing Perspectives

Harry Potter fans flock to JK Rowling's mysterious new website, Pottermore

Launch of JK Rowling's Pottermore site sparks rumours of a new Harry Potter novel among fans of the bestselling children's series

by: Alison Flood


The promise of more Potter ... the front page of JK Rowling's new Harry Potter website, Pottermore

 Harry Potter fans have been sent into a frenzy of excitement after the creator of their favourite wizard, JK Rowling, launched a mysterious new website.


The website, Pottermore.com, currently only shows the word "Pottermore" on a pink background, with the promise of more "coming soon" and Rowling's famous signature emblazoned below. A Twitter account, @Pottermore, has also been set up, and already has almost 25,000 followers. Fans were guided to the site yesterday by a "Secret Street View" challenge, which saw ten Potter fansites given coordinates, each of which led to a single letter. Put together, the letters spelled out Pottermore.

No other details about the new project have yet been revealed, but an editor at the fansite HPANA said they had seen a "sneak preview" of Pottermore "and it is breathtaking in scope, detail and sheer beauty".

Fans immediately expressed hope that the project would be the long-promised Potter encyclopedia, with other suggestions ranging from a "giant theme park" to a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (Pottermore standing for Potter Multiplayer Online Role-playing Experience) and a fansite. "Wow! This is probably the most exciting thing ever! I am shaking hardcore because I am so excited!" wrote one reader on the fansite Mugglenet.

Some readers were praying that the news might be a new Potter book, although Rowling has previously said it is "highly unlikely" that she would write more Harry Potter novels. "I've got enough story for seven books and I never planned to carry the story beyond the end of book seven. I might do an eighth book for charity, a kind of encyclopedia of the world so that I could use all the extra material that's not in the books ... we'll see!" she has written on her website.

However, she did tell Oprah Winfrey in an interview last year that she could "definitely write an eighth, ninth [and] 10th book", adding "I think I am done but you never know".

Rowling's PR company Stonehill Salt said this morning that the new project was not a new book. "All we can say is that Pottermore is the name of JK Rowling's new project. It will be announced soon, and it is not a new book," said a spokesperson.

from: Guardian

Wikipedia goes to class

by: Jenna Johnson

A Virginia Tech graduate student hit save on her overview of the state workers’ compensation commission one spring day, but before her professor could take a look at it, someone else began deleting entire sections, calling them trivial and promotional.

It wasn’t a teaching assistant on a power trip — it was a Wikipedia editor known only as “Mean as custard.”

“I had worked on it for almost an entire day,” said Amy Pearson, a public administration master’s student. “It was kind of shocking.”

This school year, dozens of professors from across the country gave students an unexpected assignment: Write Wikipedia entries about public policy issues.

The Wikimedia Foundation, which supports the Web site, organized the project in an effort to bulk up the decade-old online encyclopedia’s coverage of topics ranging from the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 to Sudanese refugees in Egypt. Such issues have been treated on the site in much less depth than TV shows, celebrity biographies and other elements of pop culture.

Many students involved in the project have received humbling lessons about open-source writing as their work was revised, attacked or deleted by anonymous critics with unknown credentials.

In the fall, Rochelle A. Davis, an assistant professor at Georgetown University, told undergraduates in her culture and politics course to create a Wikipedia page about a community they belonged to, then use that research to develop a thesis for an academic paper.

“Collectively, they were the best papers I’ve ever read at Georgetown,” Davis said. She said students benefited from vetting their ideas with a wider community — a practice that could help academics at all levels. “This is where we are going,” she said. “I think that’s a good thing.”

In the fall semester, nine professors were involved. There are about three dozen now. By next semester, the foundation hopes to expand to schools in India, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. The goal is to train at least 10,000 professors and students by 2013.

The total number of participants in the volunteer project is about 600. But in April alone, that group contributed 2.9 million characters worth of information, which would fill nearly 2,000 traditional printed pages.

“The outcome is just amazing,” said Frank Schulenburg, the foundation’s head of public outreach. “We have a much larger number of professors who are interested than we ever expected.”

Still, Wikipedia and academia make an odd pair. The “free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” has long had an uneasy relationship with professors who dedicate their lives to filling scholarly journals and libraries. In their eyes, Wikipedia is an unreliable cheat sheet.

“I start every semester with the typical speech: ‘If you are turning in a paper and cite Wikipedia, then we have a problem. We need to talk,’ ” said Matt Dull, who is Pearson’s professor at Virginia Tech. But this time, he gave that speech and followed it with the Wiki assignment.

As the Wikipedia catalogue has grown to 18 million entries in more than 270 languages, the site has become one of the leading ways much of the world learns about new topics, double-checks memories of past events and settles bar bets.

Professors such as Dull are starting to see Wikipedia as an opportunity to educate a massive audience on the specialized topics their students research. Most college papers are read by a handful of people, at most, while a Wiki entry can be read by thousands (or millions) around the world.

“It’s the ability for students to feel that their works matters, that it doesn’t get trapped in the classroom,” said Adel Iskander, a Georgetown instructor who assigned Wiki entries in his graduate-level Arab media course. “We’re kind of challenging the academic establishment, in a way.”

To the uninitiated, writing for Wikipedia can be intimidating. There are complicated rules for what can be an entry and what counts as a reliable source. The language must hew to a neutral point of view. Writers also must learn how to add technical code to display their work properly on the Web.

To help students and professors, the foundation recruited a network of experts to organize campus workshops and answer questions via e-mail or online chats.

As students create the content, instructors must find a way to grade it. By the end of the term, the typical student has already received help — or headaches — from a host of Wiki editors. Automated Web tools known as bots have scoured their work for grammatical and coding errors.

“We had so many people, from God knows where, scold them for things that they have done and praise them,” said Cindy Allen, a technical writing and editing instructor at James Madison University who assigned two classes to write Wiki entries. “It’s really a different thing.”

Some professors have sifted through the editing histories of their students’ pages to pinpoint what they wrote. Some have simply given participation grades. Others have asked students to convert their entries into traditional term papers.

Some students walked away with an understanding of how to evaluate the quality of a Wikipedia page. Others found themselves contributing more to Wikipedia — just for fun.

“I got really sort of addicted to it,” said Jeff Reger, a Georgetown graduate student. “At this point, when I hear of something new, I find myself wondering, ‘Oh, I wonder what that Wikipedia page says.’ ”

from: The Washington Post

House collapsing under weight of rescued books

Home of Canadian who saved collection from being burned now threatened by their bulk

by: Alison Flood

A Canadian woman's house is collapsing under the weight of the 350,000 books she rescued from a neighbour who was planning to burn them after her bibliophile husband died.


Shaunna Raycraft, from Pike Lake, Saskatchewan, stepped in when her widowed neighbour began to burn her husband's collection of books. "There was a house floor-to-ceiling with books. He was the collector; she had tried to get someone to appraise the books but they wouldn't come out [to the rural setting]. She didn't know how to deal with them so she started to burn them," Raycraft told Canadian national broadcaster CBC.

But Raycraft and her husband, both book lovers, couldn't stand to see the book bonfire – "There was a first edition copy of Black Beauty on the top pile and the bottom was all charred off [from being burned] but the top was just immaculate," she said – and bought the lot. Thirty tonnes of books later, she realised what she had let herself in for. From How-To manuals to a 1907 first edition of Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Two Bad Mice, Shakespeare to textbooks, the collection was so large the couple had to buy a small house and install it on their land to store the books, which fill 7,500 boxes.

"It took a minimum of three days to pack the baseball books alone into boxes [and] five days for the Bibles and religious texts," she told UPI. "Most of the boxes are still unopened and unsorted."

After trying and failing to sell the books online and to used book stores, Raycraft is now having to contemplate burning them herself. "We're talking 30 tonnes of books. The weight of the books is pulling the house apart," she said. "We are kind of at a standstill. I work at two jobs. My husband is a full-time student. We have three kids and no time. And no money. And so we're at the point now where were looking at having to burn some of the books ourselves."

Her goal, she said, is to get a sea container brought to the house to help store the books. "When you say to somebody, 'I have 350,000 books,' it just goes over their head — they have no concept. It's very hard to take a box in and say, 'Here, sort through this and see what you want'," she said.


from: Guardian

Batgirl to walk again thanks to DC Comics revamp

Fans of the Batgirl comics have been stunned by a decision by owners DC Comics to give the lead character Barbara Gordon the use of her legs 20 years after she was paralysed.

DC comics will launch Batgirl this September Photo: DC Comics

For the past two decades Gordon has been unable to walk after she was shot through the spine by the Joker the 1988 story The Killing Joke.


In 1989, Gordon was reintroduced as the wheelchair-bound character Oracle who used her genius to work as a hacker fighting cybercrime while two other characters wore the Batgirl mask.

But DC Comics has announced that in September the crime fighting heroine will return to full strength. The controversial move is part of a relaunch by DC Comics that will begin the series again from issue number one.

This decision has sparked the most outcry among fans of the series, who have claimed that Oracle was the only disabled superhero on the shelves.

Batgirl writer Gail Simone has said that she understands the concern.

"She's been removed from the action and danger for a long time," Simone told Newsarama. "With this relaunch she is still very much Barbara but she can reclaim part of her history and legacy with modern stories - in her own book and elsewhere - drawn by some wonderful artists."


Batgirl 1 will launch this September.

Eventually all of DC Universe's 52 comic book series will go back to square one, with new, modern storylines, in an attempt to reignite reader interest in the genre.


from: Telegraph

Reading Between the Security Lines

Authors Bring Books to Airports, Fans Bring Boarding Passes

by: David Roth

A few weeks ago, Kostya Kennedy sat at a small table just past the security checkpoint inside LaGuardia Airport's Terminal D. Surrounding him were copies of his new book and the everyday chaos of air travel. It was an unlikely spot for a literary event.

Mr. Kennedy, a senior editor at Sports Illustrated and author of "56," a study of Joe DiMaggio's 1941 hitting streak, had been invited by an airport bookstore to sign copies of the book, greet customers and answer travelers' questions about the Yankee great. A steady stream of departers and arrivers rolled suitcases past the author as announcements of gate changes crackled through speakers overhead.


Author Betty N. Thesky, left, and a Hudson Books
representative at JFK airport for a book signing.



 "When you do these in a bookstore, you're dealing with regular customers—people who are coming in to buy a book," Mr. Kennedy said. "You never know who you're going to meet in an airport."

The less-than-bookish environs have become normal for Mr. Kennedy. The three-hour session at LaGuardia marked the final leg of an all-airport publicity tour for the New York-based author, who had already held events at Newark and Kennedy airports. Of course, New York-area fans of the author could not attend—unless they had a boarding pass.

More than a few authors have started using airport bookstores to promote their works. The Hudson Group, which operates newsstands and bookstores in 70 airports and transportation hubs in the U.S. and Canada, has hosted events with, among others, Madeleine Albright, Charles Ogletree, Magic Johnson, Cesar Millan and Donald Trump. The retailer even lists upcoming airport book events on its Facebook page. (In related news: even airport bookstores have Facebook pages.)

Indeed, at high-traffic airports such as those in the Greater New York area, signings have become commonplace. During the recent BookExpo America fair, an annual gathering of publishing professionals and authors at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, the Paradies Shops had three signing events scheduled at each of its Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia bookstores.

"It depends on the author, of course," said Shannon Twomey, a senior publicist at Viking Books, "but a lot are really gung ho about signing stock."

Airport book signings won't supplant traditional book tours anytime soon, but maximizing publicity opportunities, even during an author's travel layover, makes sense for publishing houses as marketing budgets shrink and traditional bookstores vanish. Hudson News's transit locations make up 10% or more of total sales for some books that the retailer keeps in heavy stock, said Sara Hinckley, a company vice president.

Many airport book signings are what Ms. Hinckley terms "fly-bys"—opportunities for traveling authors to press the flesh between flights. Hudson News bookstores at Newark and Kennedy airports were recently treated to unscheduled signings by Ice-T and Rob Lowe, she said.

"A lot of times, if they're flying through, out of the blue [authors] will show up and sign their books," said Nuris Rodriguez, an assistant manager for Paradies, which operates the LaGuardia bookstore where Mr. Kennedy recently appeared. "When Joan Collins passes through, she signs all her books."

There are, of course, downsides to the life of an airport author: Your audience is often in a hurry and wishing to be somewhere else. But an appearance in a travel hub offers authors the sort of exposure that can be hard to come by at a time when multi-city publicity tours are less common. "It's not just people from New York who want to talk about Joe DiMaggio," Mr. Kennedy said of his airport encounters. "I've gotten people from all over who want to talk—a guy from Omaha, a few people from Texas."

Mr. Kennedy's three-airport book tour capped a spate of promotional appearances on television and radio, making the airport visits some of his only opportunities to meet potential readers in person. "There have definitely been times," the author said, "when I've thought, 'Man, if only I'd written about transportation."

from: Wall Street Journal

‘Huge spike’ in e-book downloads at Toronto libraries

by: Paul Moloney

Downloads of e-books by Toronto Public Library users have increased nearly 400 per cent over the past year, according to the library’s data.


“We’ve noticed a huge spike this year,” said Vickery Bowles, the library’s director of collections management.

In May, readers accessed 21,736 e-books versus 5,629 in May, 2010, Bowles said.

“What is significant is to see this huge spike in use which we’re not seeing in other formats,” she said. “So it’s an indication that people are adopting the new technology more and more, which is really exciting.”

All that’s needed is a library card and internet access to download books from the Toronto Public Library website to an e-reader or other device, she said.

The reader borrows the material for three weeks, at which time it disappears from their device, which in turn means you can’t be fined for overdue books.

“You don’t have to worry about getting your books back on time.”

While electronic use is soaring, traditional library usage is holding its own as well, Bowles said.

Visits to the library’s 99 branches increased last year to 18 million from 17 million the previous year.

The library’s total circulation of hard copy materials came to more than 32 million last year, versus 257,700 downloads of electronic books and e-audiobooks containing voice recordings.

from: Toronto Star

Toronto startup drags NY libraries into the future

by: Kira Vermond

Remember when you went to a library, browsed, signed out a book and left? Before the dot-com explosion, the library was a knowledge warehouse. But times have changed, and libraries are struggling to adapt.


BiblioCommons, an 18-employee company from Toronto, is trying to bodycheck the library industry into the information age in such places as New York, Chicago and Ottawa. Taking the lead from social media, BiblioCommons, which launched in 2006 with funding from Knowledge Ontario, private investors and subscriptions, brings book readers, movie watchers and music listeners together.

Using BiblioCommons catalogue software, library patrons can search for items like books or DVDs or other material, then rate and review it, create best-of lists, follow other reviewers, view recommendations, and post likes and recommendations to social media sites.


“There’s nothing radical about BiblioCommons whatsoever,” says co-founder Beth Jefferson. “This is really about taking and packaging things that are completely standard in the rest of the Web and integrating them into the search-and-discovery environments of libraries.”

Spread the word

Radical or not, the BiblioCommons formula is catching on through word-of-mouth in Canada, the U.S. and the world. What started as a pilot project in Toronto aimed at helping kids find books through knowing what other kids were reading is now a library-based software service in more than 100 libraries, including Ottawa, Cleveland, Chicago and Christchurch, New Zealand.

This, despite having only a spindly one-page website and no sales force other than Ms. Jefferson herself.

A few years ago, Peter Schoenberg, director of eServices for Edmonton Public Library, was at a library conference when he first learned about BiblioCommons. Social media aspects aside, he says its true power is the searchable catalogue.

“Right away I thought they had hit on a new model. They had done more than put lipstick on a pig,” he says, referring to how library cataloguing companies once simply added bells and whistles to old legacy software. Instead, BiblioCommons was in the unique position of starting from scratch. The result? A better way to search.


For instance, using Edmonton’s old catalogue software, a library user could type in “up” and find themselves face-to-face with a scattershot list of books, CDs, movies, authors’ and even publishers’ names. Since launching BiblioCommons in 2009, however, users searching for “up” are more likely to get the recent Pixar movie, Up, an REM CD and anything else relevant and highly targeted.

“You can’t interact, rate or enjoy something you can’t find. ‘Findability’ is a huge thing that BiblioCommons brought,” says Mr. Schoenberg.

The choice to choose

Until BiblioCommons entered the scene, it was no secret that many book lovers were hitting sites like Amazon or Chapters/Indigo to read customer reviews and browse ratings. Then with titles in hand they would head to their own library’s site and put the items on hold.

Not a bad idea, but it was hardly a seamless process. Plus, the library missed out on an opportunity to provide its core service: help readers find good books.

“If you’re just providing the title for free, but you’re not part of the discovery process, then you also lose control. You’re not valuable to publishers,” says Ms. Jefferson.


Instead, by turning a public library’s website into a one-stop shop where a book reader can, say, read a glowing customer review, search for that book, put it on hold and then eventually walk out the door with it, the library becomes an online destination.

Those all-important customer reviews serve not only as a way to steer readers, viewers and listeners to new material – they’re also a filter, keeping people looking for popular items free of being overwhelmed by too much choice.

About five years ago BiblioCommons researched how patrons chose what they went home with. It turned out that library visitors were likely to find their reading material by checking out the return cart or flipping through items left on desks. It was one way to avoid the aisles of unwanted books and find the stuff other people obviously felt was interesting.

Armed with the survey results, programmers developed an area on library sites that shows the most recently reviewed and rated items.

“What people most value is not access to 10 more sources, but filtering,” says Ms. Jefferson. “What are the three titles I should start with? People want some way of limiting this big collection to something manageable.”

Get used to it

More manageable and more fun: In one month, Mr. Schoenberg says he sees more than 10,000 ratings pop up on the site; and library customers write about 1,000 reviews and create about 1,000 lists. (A favourite that shot around Twitter for a while: “What would Charlie Sheen be reading?”)


Even formerly skeptical library users, such as Marty Miller, from Hamilton, Ont., have come out in favour of the new system. Nearly 60, Mr. Miller admits he wasn’t a fan of change when the city launched the new system. He even shot off an e-mail voicing his concerns. The library’s response: He’d get use to it.

“I did,” he writes in an e-mail. “They were right and now I wonder what I was upset about. A lesson was learned through this: Embrace change or grow old worrying about it.”

Mr. Schoenberg says he hears stories like Mr. Miller’s at his library’s own branches. Some frequent library users had never rated or reviewed anything online before. In fact, for some, when BiblioCommons came along, it was the first time they’d ever created a username.

“It has an intriguing library-as-gateway-to-the-digital-world element,” he says. “Eventually age stereotypes just fall away.”

from: Globe and Mail