by: Nic Halverson
When Dr. Matthias Schlesewsky and colleagues sent preliminary results of their new study to one of Germany’s biggest newspapers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung -- commonly known as the FAZ -- they quickly found themselves being dragged through mud.
“We were immediately attacked in the newspaper on the feuilleton,” said Schlesewsky, a professor in the Department of English and Linguistics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The feuilleton is the arts and culture section of the paper, similarly compared to the New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town.”
Their study sought to address a common stigma in Germany -- and perhaps across the world -- regarding one's reading experience when it comes to traditional media printed on paper versus digital media, specifically e-readers and tablets.
“There’s a ubiquitous statement you hear throughout German media or if you talk to people,” said lead author, Dr. Franziska Kretzschmar, also a professor in the Department of English and Linguistics at Johannes Gutenberg University. “It’s that if you read on digital media, your reading is worse, you comprehend less, it’s more difficult and it takes more effort to memorize information. It’s something like a prejudice that people hold against digital media in Germany.”
Schlesewsky, who oversaw the study, said his intentions and results were clear.
“The aim of this study,” he said, “was to show if this” stigma “was either right, or as we found, wrong.”
Conducted in collaboration by researchers from Georg August University Göttingen and the University of Marburg, full findings of the study, published today in PLOS ONE, are sure to spark more controversy, which Schlesewsky says he fully anticipates.
“For all people in the intellectual domain,” the feuilleton “is the first thing they read in the newspaper. And we were attacked on the first page,” he said. “They said we were a slave of the e-book media, that we were paid to run a favorable study and that the study can’t be true.”
To prove their results were no fabrication, researchers brought more scientific gravity to the debate simply by removing subjective emotions from the equation.
“From the area of psycho-neurolinguistics, you can actually see that, sometimes, what people perceive and how they interpret their own behavior, is not what you can measure online while people are performing a linguistic test,” Kretzschmar said. “Even if you claim that you have more trouble reading on one medium versus the other, that might not actually be the objective reality in terms of what’s going on in your brain.”
Kretzschmar and Schlesewsky say that, to the best of their knowledge, no one has really tried to answer this question -- if there’s such a trail between subjective impressions about ease of reading and objective measurements. That alone, they say, makes their study unique.
In two groups of young (between ages of 21 and 34) and old (60 to 77) readers, the researchers measured two parameters to identify the amount of cognitive processing required as each participant read uniform text on a paper page, an e-reader and a tablet computer.
Using eye-tracking technology, the first parameter measured was time required for visual fixation of text. Secondly, to gauge cognitive effort, the researchers used EEG sensors to measure theta band voltage density in the brain, known to co-vary with memory encoding and retrieval.
“In our field, EEG and eye movements in reading are the two best methods you can use because both have a very high temporal resolution,” said Kretzschmar. “So you’re able to say exactly at which moment in time or at what position in the sentence or word there is some processing disruption.”
Prior to the study, a questionnaire showed that participants of both age brackets overwhelmingly chose the paper page over the other two e-devices as their preferred reading medium. The study results, however, showed no bias. In fact, they told a different tale.
Not only did comprehension accuracy show no difference across the three media for either group, young participants showed comparable text fixation durations and EEG theta activity for all three devices. Perhaps most myth-busting is that the older adults spent less time fixating on text and showed lower brain activity (effort) when using a tablet, as compared to the other devices.
Perhaps the most striking finding, the study states, was “the complete lack of a correspondence between the offline measures collected (comprehension accuracy and subjective ratings) and the online measures of reading effort.”
The bottom line: “Our results thus indicate that negative subjective assessments of readability for e-books and other digital texts are not a reflection of real-time information processing demands.”
“I am totally surprised that so many people argue from an emotional perspective that reading on an e-reader or iPad is more unpleasant than reading a book and then combine this statement that it’s more difficult and complex to read on this new digital media,” said Schlesewsky.
“In the UK, as well in America, people are more open and more interested to see and think about the data,” he added. “In Germany, people don’t think about the data, they think about the consequences based on habit and emotion.”
Kretzschmar says the study could encourage the young and old to go digital.
“Maybe it’s a good thing to also know for the future,” she quipped, “that in 40 years time you can increase you reading speed” by reading on a tablet.
from: Discovery
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Bookish, a new website for readers by three major publishers, launches
Bookish, which lets users find recommendations based on their favorite titles, and features exclusive content from authors like Elizabeth Gilbert, was created by publishers Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and Hachette Book Group. Bookish lets users create an account and add titles to their digital 'shelf.'
by: Molly Driscoll
A new website called Bookish, founded by Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Group, lets readers find recommendations based on their favorite titles and read content created exclusively for the website by authors like Elizabeth Gilbert.
Bookish allows users to buy titles off the website, but also includes links for buying books on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as independent bookstores. The website will publish exclusive interviews with authors, as well as excerpts from books that readers can peruse. Users can also create accounts which lets them add titles to their electronic “shelf,” and will get advanced access to Bookish website content, among other perks. The site will also include original articles about the book world written by Bookish staff.
“Bookish was created to serve as a champion of books, writers, and, most importantly, readers," Ardy Khazaei, Bookish CEO, said in a statement. "Ultimately, we seek to expand the overall marketplace for books, and whether a book gets into a reader's hands via Bookish's e-commerce partner or another retailer, everyone – from the publisher, to the retailer, the author, and the reader – wins.”
The site also compiles lists such as one titled “For Moms,” which recommends books like “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot for mothers. Searching for a title brings up any lists the book appears on, recent news articles about the book, selected quotes from the text (uploaded by users who registered for an account), as well as recommendations of other similar titles on the site. Visitors can also check out user reviews.
Bookish’s launch was delayed because of various technical problems after it was first announced in 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal.
So far, original content uploaded to the site includes a piece by Elizabeth Gilbert challenging Philip Roth’s statement that writing is “torture,” an interview with writer Michael Connolly conducted by fellow author Michael Koryta, and pieces by the humor website The Onion in which they review bestsellers like “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “The Great Gatsby.”
“F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is renowned for having characters, figurative language, plot, themes, symbols, and 'point of view,'” the Onion’s review of “The Great Gatsby” reads.
from: Christian Science Monitor
by: Molly Driscoll
A new website called Bookish, founded by Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin Group, lets readers find recommendations based on their favorite titles and read content created exclusively for the website by authors like Elizabeth Gilbert.
Bookish allows users to buy titles off the website, but also includes links for buying books on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as independent bookstores. The website will publish exclusive interviews with authors, as well as excerpts from books that readers can peruse. Users can also create accounts which lets them add titles to their electronic “shelf,” and will get advanced access to Bookish website content, among other perks. The site will also include original articles about the book world written by Bookish staff.
“Bookish was created to serve as a champion of books, writers, and, most importantly, readers," Ardy Khazaei, Bookish CEO, said in a statement. "Ultimately, we seek to expand the overall marketplace for books, and whether a book gets into a reader's hands via Bookish's e-commerce partner or another retailer, everyone – from the publisher, to the retailer, the author, and the reader – wins.”
The site also compiles lists such as one titled “For Moms,” which recommends books like “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot for mothers. Searching for a title brings up any lists the book appears on, recent news articles about the book, selected quotes from the text (uploaded by users who registered for an account), as well as recommendations of other similar titles on the site. Visitors can also check out user reviews.
Bookish’s launch was delayed because of various technical problems after it was first announced in 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal.
So far, original content uploaded to the site includes a piece by Elizabeth Gilbert challenging Philip Roth’s statement that writing is “torture,” an interview with writer Michael Connolly conducted by fellow author Michael Koryta, and pieces by the humor website The Onion in which they review bestsellers like “Fifty Shades of Grey” and “The Great Gatsby.”
“F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is renowned for having characters, figurative language, plot, themes, symbols, and 'point of view,'” the Onion’s review of “The Great Gatsby” reads.
from: Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Sex in Young Adult fiction – a rising trend?
With the publication of one of the UK’s first ‘Steamy’ novels imminent, Alice Vincent reports on the rise of sex in Young Adult fiction and the readers who can't get enough.
by: Alice Vincent
Irresistible is a girl meets boys story. The debut novel of Liz Bankes comes with a 15 certificate and features heavy petting, a country estate and a Facebook account being hacked. Its publisher admits that Irresistible is an attempt to capture the Fifty Shades of Grey success within the teen market, and in the United States raunchy teen literature has been flying up bestseller lists. But is there any more to so-called “Steamies” than a marketing ploy, and how many teenagers are really getting their hands on them?
Steamies are better known in the trade as New Adult Fiction. The genre was coined in 2009 by the Manhattan publishing house St Martin’s Press to reflect a slightly older group of readers who were indulging in teen, or Young Adult, fiction. Goodreads.com, which has 14 million members, is an American social networking website built around users’ reading habits. They first noticed users labelling books as New Adult in May 2011, and since creating a New Adult genre page in September 2012, 14,000 titles – a 500 per cent increase in two years – have been listed as such.
Three of the titles on the current New York Times bestseller list have been Goodreads-listed as New Adult: Someone to Love by Addison Moore, The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen and Hopeless, the third novel from New Adult author Colleen Hoover. Two of the three titles feature on their covers beautiful young things entwined in passion. Goodreads founder Elizabeth Chandler says: “It’s definitely a trend”.
However, all of this has been happening in America: the birthplace of Young Adult blockbusters Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. According to Dr Lucy Pearson, a lecturer in children’s literature at Newcastle University, it’s nothing new: “Sex has always been an issue in Young Adult fiction, but historically a problematic one,” she tells me. A turning point came, Pearson says, with Forever by Judy Blume. Forever, published in 1975, “is noticeable as a book which tells of teens who want to have sex and do have sex and nothing bad happens”. Pearson continues: “It’s still rare in that aspect – there aren’t many Young Adult novels out there which feature healthy sexual relationships.”
Irresistible falls into a similar trap: Mia, the 16-year-old protagonist, has an inadvisable fling with “toxic” posh totty Jamie Elliot-Fox. She later has her misdemeanours exposed on Facebook, and the first-person narrative suggests a similar situation arose after her previous relationship. Despite announcing itself as “the sexy new thing for teens”, Irresistible remains a cautionary coming-of-age tale with more hot air than bedroom action.
Brenda Gardner, managing director of Irresistible’s publisher, Piccadilly Press, explains that this is the mark of a Steamy. “Irresistible is about passion and love, touching rather than sex.” It is aimed at sophisticated teenagers aged 14 and above, but considering Gardner’s team picked it to capture “the Fifty Shades effect for teens”, the book seems curiously tame.
However, Clare Hall-Craggs from Random House echoes the demand for “safer” teen fiction, “with romance rather than raw sex”. Hall-Craggs cites Beth Reekles, a 17-year-old author and a new signing for the publisher. Her novel The Kissing Booth topped the children’s iBooks chart when it was released in December as an ebook. It has a similar scorned-girl/bad-boy romance feel to Irresistible, and despite its “safer” publishing push, is being listed as New Adult on Goodreads.
This is because these teen-aimed romances aren’t being read just by teenagers. A Bowker survey from September 2012 showed that 55 per cent of teen fiction was bought by over-18s for themselves – and that, surprisingly, buyers aged 30 to 44 accounted for a hefty 28 per cent of sales.
Goodreads’ statistics follow the same trend. Of the users reading fiction labelled as New Adult, 30 per cent sit in the 18 to 24 bracket, and another 30 per cent are between 25 and 34.
Gardner says the trend “isn’t really about sex, it’s more about adults reading teen fiction”. Piccadilly has been publishing teen fiction since the mid-Nineties. Gardner recollects that in 1999 women in their early Twenties were enjoying Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, the first of 10 books in the series Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. “It’s been around for some time, but when Twilight got big [with older readers], publishers started to sit up and notice.”
Pearson explains the impact of the age gap between teen fiction’s intended and actual markets. “Two things happen,” she says, “one is that the older audience are less likely to be satisfied by the omission of detail regarding sex, another is that it changes the gateposts for publishers and booksellers.”
It’s interesting that three out of the 15 New Adult titles on The New York Times bestseller list were originally self-published. Self-published writers are free of the constraints which publishers are finding challenging when it comes to straddling these two markets. Chandler says, “we think the rise in New Adult is linked to self-publishing. So many began as self-published books, then they get reader attention and eventually publishers pick up on some.” It’s the E L James Fifty Shades success story all over again – and it’s worth noting that James started out as a Twilight fan fiction writer.
Hall-Craggs says “readers are clamouring for The Kissing Booth to come into paperback”. When Reekles’ debut novel is published in April, it will be one of the first in the bookshops of its kind. Bookshops have been slow on the uptake. Jon Howells from Waterstones says that publishers are too. “We’re aware of the Steamies/New Adult genre, but there has not been any significant publishing in this area in the UK yet. We’re talking to publishers regarding our expectations for clear, informative advice for parents of teenagers about the content. Publishers have indicated that these titles are aimed at an older audience than even Young Adult, and therefore would need to be stocked appropriately.”
As the first couple are brought into print this spring the UK may begin to mirror American readers’ love of them. As self-publishing and ebooks have shown, there is a real hunger for the genre, but one which is causing awkward decisions for publishers and bookshops on how they will be marketed. It’s only a matter of time before we see New Adult books in high street booksellers – but you won’t necessarily find them in the teen section.
from: Telegraph
by: Alice Vincent
Irresistible is a girl meets boys story. The debut novel of Liz Bankes comes with a 15 certificate and features heavy petting, a country estate and a Facebook account being hacked. Its publisher admits that Irresistible is an attempt to capture the Fifty Shades of Grey success within the teen market, and in the United States raunchy teen literature has been flying up bestseller lists. But is there any more to so-called “Steamies” than a marketing ploy, and how many teenagers are really getting their hands on them?
Steamies are better known in the trade as New Adult Fiction. The genre was coined in 2009 by the Manhattan publishing house St Martin’s Press to reflect a slightly older group of readers who were indulging in teen, or Young Adult, fiction. Goodreads.com, which has 14 million members, is an American social networking website built around users’ reading habits. They first noticed users labelling books as New Adult in May 2011, and since creating a New Adult genre page in September 2012, 14,000 titles – a 500 per cent increase in two years – have been listed as such.
Three of the titles on the current New York Times bestseller list have been Goodreads-listed as New Adult: Someone to Love by Addison Moore, The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden by Jessica Sorensen and Hopeless, the third novel from New Adult author Colleen Hoover. Two of the three titles feature on their covers beautiful young things entwined in passion. Goodreads founder Elizabeth Chandler says: “It’s definitely a trend”.
However, all of this has been happening in America: the birthplace of Young Adult blockbusters Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. According to Dr Lucy Pearson, a lecturer in children’s literature at Newcastle University, it’s nothing new: “Sex has always been an issue in Young Adult fiction, but historically a problematic one,” she tells me. A turning point came, Pearson says, with Forever by Judy Blume. Forever, published in 1975, “is noticeable as a book which tells of teens who want to have sex and do have sex and nothing bad happens”. Pearson continues: “It’s still rare in that aspect – there aren’t many Young Adult novels out there which feature healthy sexual relationships.”
Irresistible falls into a similar trap: Mia, the 16-year-old protagonist, has an inadvisable fling with “toxic” posh totty Jamie Elliot-Fox. She later has her misdemeanours exposed on Facebook, and the first-person narrative suggests a similar situation arose after her previous relationship. Despite announcing itself as “the sexy new thing for teens”, Irresistible remains a cautionary coming-of-age tale with more hot air than bedroom action.
Brenda Gardner, managing director of Irresistible’s publisher, Piccadilly Press, explains that this is the mark of a Steamy. “Irresistible is about passion and love, touching rather than sex.” It is aimed at sophisticated teenagers aged 14 and above, but considering Gardner’s team picked it to capture “the Fifty Shades effect for teens”, the book seems curiously tame.
However, Clare Hall-Craggs from Random House echoes the demand for “safer” teen fiction, “with romance rather than raw sex”. Hall-Craggs cites Beth Reekles, a 17-year-old author and a new signing for the publisher. Her novel The Kissing Booth topped the children’s iBooks chart when it was released in December as an ebook. It has a similar scorned-girl/bad-boy romance feel to Irresistible, and despite its “safer” publishing push, is being listed as New Adult on Goodreads.
This is because these teen-aimed romances aren’t being read just by teenagers. A Bowker survey from September 2012 showed that 55 per cent of teen fiction was bought by over-18s for themselves – and that, surprisingly, buyers aged 30 to 44 accounted for a hefty 28 per cent of sales.
Goodreads’ statistics follow the same trend. Of the users reading fiction labelled as New Adult, 30 per cent sit in the 18 to 24 bracket, and another 30 per cent are between 25 and 34.
Gardner says the trend “isn’t really about sex, it’s more about adults reading teen fiction”. Piccadilly has been publishing teen fiction since the mid-Nineties. Gardner recollects that in 1999 women in their early Twenties were enjoying Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, the first of 10 books in the series Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. “It’s been around for some time, but when Twilight got big [with older readers], publishers started to sit up and notice.”
Pearson explains the impact of the age gap between teen fiction’s intended and actual markets. “Two things happen,” she says, “one is that the older audience are less likely to be satisfied by the omission of detail regarding sex, another is that it changes the gateposts for publishers and booksellers.”
It’s interesting that three out of the 15 New Adult titles on The New York Times bestseller list were originally self-published. Self-published writers are free of the constraints which publishers are finding challenging when it comes to straddling these two markets. Chandler says, “we think the rise in New Adult is linked to self-publishing. So many began as self-published books, then they get reader attention and eventually publishers pick up on some.” It’s the E L James Fifty Shades success story all over again – and it’s worth noting that James started out as a Twilight fan fiction writer.
Hall-Craggs says “readers are clamouring for The Kissing Booth to come into paperback”. When Reekles’ debut novel is published in April, it will be one of the first in the bookshops of its kind. Bookshops have been slow on the uptake. Jon Howells from Waterstones says that publishers are too. “We’re aware of the Steamies/New Adult genre, but there has not been any significant publishing in this area in the UK yet. We’re talking to publishers regarding our expectations for clear, informative advice for parents of teenagers about the content. Publishers have indicated that these titles are aimed at an older audience than even Young Adult, and therefore would need to be stocked appropriately.”
As the first couple are brought into print this spring the UK may begin to mirror American readers’ love of them. As self-publishing and ebooks have shown, there is a real hunger for the genre, but one which is causing awkward decisions for publishers and bookshops on how they will be marketed. It’s only a matter of time before we see New Adult books in high street booksellers – but you won’t necessarily find them in the teen section.
from: Telegraph
Monday, February 25, 2013
Miami Ad Students Propose Solution to Empty Libraries
by: Steve Hall
Here's an ingenious idea. Now that the internet is available almost anywhere, people are able to do "instant research" to learn about anything on their smart devices. For a fictional project, Miami Ad School students Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez developed subway campaign that allows people to grab the first ten pages of a book while riding the subway using near field communications. Once finished they will be informed of the closest libraries so they could finish their story.
The campaign is admirable in the sense that it's aim is to get people to the library but what's to stop the person from simply downloading the book from Amazon or somewhere else on the internet once they leave the subway instead of going to the library.
In any event, getting people to read is the key whether they do it with a book from the library or on their digital device.
from: Adrants
Here's an ingenious idea. Now that the internet is available almost anywhere, people are able to do "instant research" to learn about anything on their smart devices. For a fictional project, Miami Ad School students Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez developed subway campaign that allows people to grab the first ten pages of a book while riding the subway using near field communications. Once finished they will be informed of the closest libraries so they could finish their story.
The campaign is admirable in the sense that it's aim is to get people to the library but what's to stop the person from simply downloading the book from Amazon or somewhere else on the internet once they leave the subway instead of going to the library.
In any event, getting people to read is the key whether they do it with a book from the library or on their digital device.
from: Adrants
Friday, February 22, 2013
Why Terry Deary Is Wrong: The Case For Libraries
by: Foz Meadows
If someone too poor or otherwise unable to buy a specific product is given that product for free, has the product's creator lost a sale?
In most instances, I'd argue, the answer is no. You can't lose money that doesn't exist in the first place, or which your potential customer is unable to spend on whatever it is you're selling. What you've lost, if anything, is a specific product, and therefore the opportunity to sell it to someone who can pay.
If Lamborghini were to give me a free car, for instance -- or if some altruistic third party were to do so instead -- then either they've lost the money they could've earned by selling that specific vehicle elsewhere, or they've lost the opportunity to sell to me directly. In the latter instance, though, they haven't lost a sale, because someone actually did buy the car; and in the former instance, while they might have lost a sale, they haven't lost my sale, because the chances of my being able to afford a Lambo in this lifetime, let alone wanting to buy one if I could, are slim to none. The only way for Lamborghini to lose my sale, therefore, is if I were both willing and able to buy a car from them, but elected not to -- and even then, I'd still be within my rights as a consumer to look elsewhere.
I mention all this because Terry Deary, author of the Horrible Histories series, has not only said that libraries are defunct, but accused them of stealing the income of authors -- "cutting their throats and slashing their purses", as he rather dramatically has it. "Books aren't public property," he says, "and writers aren't Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby. They've got to make a living. Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat. We don't expect to go to a food library to be fed."
Ignoring his rather snide and sexist slighting of Blyton, as though authors are somehow fundamentally less deserving of recompense if they happen to be middle-class women who do it for fun (the horror!), the linchpin of Deary's argument seems to hinge on his belief that, because his books were borrowed more than 500,000 times from public libraries last year -- earning him the maximum return of £6,600 under the PLR scheme -- he's effectively lost out on the £180,000 he feels he ought to have had if he'd instead sold 500,000 extra copies.
Never mind the fact that all those library copies were themselves bought and paid for in the first instance, such that, by virtue of being in a library, they've collectively netted him more money than if they'd been bought by members of the public: the maths he's used to reach his £180,000 figure is predicated on the assumption that every single person who's borrowed his books was otherwise both willing and able to pay for them - an assumption which is categorically false.
He then tries to bolster his outrage by saying:
"What other industry creates a product and allows someone else to give it away, endlessly? The car industry would collapse if we went to car libraries for free use of Porsches... This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses. People expect to pay for entertainment. They might object to TV licences, but they understand they have to do it."
Well, actually, no: they don't. Ignoring the fact that not every country has a TV licencing scheme, even in the UK, it's entirely legal to watch regular programming online, for free, using sites like BBC iPlayer and 4oD, so long as you only watch catch-up and not live streaming. More pertinently, perhaps, Deary has clearly never heard of radio, video rental, museums, art galleries, or, indeed, the internet, because if he had done, then there'd be no excuse for making the claim that libraries are some lone, perverse bastion of free panem et circuses in a world where absolutely everything is paid for otherwise.
And then, of course, there's the moral/historical angle: "Because it's been 150 years, we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers," Deary moans. "This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that."
The bolding above is my own, and it's there for a reason. Take a good, long look at that sentence -- specifically, at the crucial use and placement of the word wanted, whose past tense indicates that allowing the impoverished access to literature is something we don't want to do any longer; or rather, that Deary believes we shouldn't.
There's so much wrong with this statement that I hardly know where to begin. With the fact that, under Deary's ideal system, the poor are only entitled to literature while they're of school age, perhaps? With the fact that most of the literary benefit one experiences while a student comes, not from English class, but the school library? Or how about the novel idea that treating support of literacy in poverty as a quirky Victorian prerogative rather than an ongoing social necessity is not only morally repugnant, but incredibly shortsighted when one depends for one's living on the existence of a literate, interested populace?
But let's return to Deary's primary argument -- that his 500,000-odd library rentals represent some 500,000 lost sales -- and why it's so inaccurate: first, because it assumes that he gained no sales by virtue of readers encountering his books in the library and later deciding to buy them; second, because it assumes that everyone who borrowed his books was similarly able or inclined to buy them, and only went the library route out of sheer cheapness; third, because it likewise assumes that the figure of 500,000 borrows corresponds to 500,000 discreet individuals; fourth, because it ignores the fundamentally obvious point that many, if not most people will try all sorts of things for free for which they'd never readily pay money, or for which they wouldn't pay money without a free sample first; and fifth -- and specific to Deary's case -- because his books are aimed at a middle-grade audience, meaning that his readers and the persons who actually hand over money are overwhelmingly two different sets of people, with the latter tending (one suspects) to be the parents and relatives of the former.
Those last two points in particular are worth expanding on, because they're linked in quite a significant way: that is, that parents are about infinity times more likely to buy specific books for their children when in possession of cold, hard proof that their gift will actually be read, rather than mouldering quietly on a bedroom shelf.
Off the top of my head, I can think of at least ten books or series that my parents bought me in my pre-teen years as a direct result of my having borrowed and re-borrowed the library copies: they knew they were making a successful purchase, and I in turn was getting something I wanted. Without libraries, I'd never have bought the entirety of Geoffrey McSkimming's Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood stories, or convinced my mother to shell out the princely sum of nearly thirty Australian dollars for my own hardbacked copy of the Pan Macmillan Book of Greek Gods and Heroes -- a book, I might add, which I still possess today. As wrongheaded as Deary's comments are, they'd at least be marginally more comprehensible if he wrote for adults, who have direct control over their discretionary spending -- but children?
All my life, I've been a patron of libraries. Even now that I'm an adult with my own disposable income, I still use them. Why? Because, not unreasonably, I'm reluctant to outlay money on unknown authors if I can sample their works beforehand for free. My book-buying budget is limited, and I want to make the most of it: now that I have a Kindle, I'll often download sample chapters, and when I have time to browse through bookshops at leisure, I'll read the first few pages to help me make a decision, but ultimately, neither method guarantees that a book will be worth my time and money.
And so, I'll try the library: that way, I lose nothing on books I don't like, but can still discover new authors -- and once I've discovered an author I like, their books go on my 'automatic purchase' list. Tamora Pierce and Sara Douglass are both authors I discovered through libraries in my early teens; thus hooked, I proceeded to buy their entire respective works, even the titles I'd already read, because the idea of not owning them was insupportable. Libraries are an investment in the creation of new readers, and if Deary thinks for a second that nobody has ever bought his books as a direct result of having encountered them first in libraries, then I'd venture to suggest that he's in the wrong profession.
Libraries don't inhibit a writer's profits: they add to them -- not just through the PLR scheme, but through the creation of new readers and the maintenance of a literate, book-hungry populace. And while, as I've said, Deary is wholly wrong in his assertion that libraries are unique in providing entertainment or creative content for free, they are unique (or at least, almost unique, the internet having joined their ranks) in promoting an actual, necessary life-skill -- literacy -- among those parts of the populace who might otherwise suffer for its inaccessibility. The idea that such beneficence should begin and end with the classroom (and where does Deary think many poorer students are getting not only their assigned reading and reference books, but free internet and computer access, if not the library?) is a social Scroogism that ill becomes a professional author even moreso than it would any other person, and particularly one who writes about history.
So here, then, is my advice to Mr Deary: conduct a campaign to have your books removed from libraries everywhere. Petition schools and librarians, call the distributors, go by in person and tear up their copies if you have to, but rid the freeloading reading world of access to your work; and when, having done so, your annual income fails to increase to the tune of £180,000 pounds?
Then, Mr Deary, I will laugh at your hubris -- and buy someone else's books.
from: Huffington Post
If someone too poor or otherwise unable to buy a specific product is given that product for free, has the product's creator lost a sale?
In most instances, I'd argue, the answer is no. You can't lose money that doesn't exist in the first place, or which your potential customer is unable to spend on whatever it is you're selling. What you've lost, if anything, is a specific product, and therefore the opportunity to sell it to someone who can pay.
If Lamborghini were to give me a free car, for instance -- or if some altruistic third party were to do so instead -- then either they've lost the money they could've earned by selling that specific vehicle elsewhere, or they've lost the opportunity to sell to me directly. In the latter instance, though, they haven't lost a sale, because someone actually did buy the car; and in the former instance, while they might have lost a sale, they haven't lost my sale, because the chances of my being able to afford a Lambo in this lifetime, let alone wanting to buy one if I could, are slim to none. The only way for Lamborghini to lose my sale, therefore, is if I were both willing and able to buy a car from them, but elected not to -- and even then, I'd still be within my rights as a consumer to look elsewhere.
I mention all this because Terry Deary, author of the Horrible Histories series, has not only said that libraries are defunct, but accused them of stealing the income of authors -- "cutting their throats and slashing their purses", as he rather dramatically has it. "Books aren't public property," he says, "and writers aren't Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby. They've got to make a living. Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat. We don't expect to go to a food library to be fed."
Ignoring his rather snide and sexist slighting of Blyton, as though authors are somehow fundamentally less deserving of recompense if they happen to be middle-class women who do it for fun (the horror!), the linchpin of Deary's argument seems to hinge on his belief that, because his books were borrowed more than 500,000 times from public libraries last year -- earning him the maximum return of £6,600 under the PLR scheme -- he's effectively lost out on the £180,000 he feels he ought to have had if he'd instead sold 500,000 extra copies.
Never mind the fact that all those library copies were themselves bought and paid for in the first instance, such that, by virtue of being in a library, they've collectively netted him more money than if they'd been bought by members of the public: the maths he's used to reach his £180,000 figure is predicated on the assumption that every single person who's borrowed his books was otherwise both willing and able to pay for them - an assumption which is categorically false.
He then tries to bolster his outrage by saying:
"What other industry creates a product and allows someone else to give it away, endlessly? The car industry would collapse if we went to car libraries for free use of Porsches... This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses. People expect to pay for entertainment. They might object to TV licences, but they understand they have to do it."
Well, actually, no: they don't. Ignoring the fact that not every country has a TV licencing scheme, even in the UK, it's entirely legal to watch regular programming online, for free, using sites like BBC iPlayer and 4oD, so long as you only watch catch-up and not live streaming. More pertinently, perhaps, Deary has clearly never heard of radio, video rental, museums, art galleries, or, indeed, the internet, because if he had done, then there'd be no excuse for making the claim that libraries are some lone, perverse bastion of free panem et circuses in a world where absolutely everything is paid for otherwise.
And then, of course, there's the moral/historical angle: "Because it's been 150 years, we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers," Deary moans. "This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that."
The bolding above is my own, and it's there for a reason. Take a good, long look at that sentence -- specifically, at the crucial use and placement of the word wanted, whose past tense indicates that allowing the impoverished access to literature is something we don't want to do any longer; or rather, that Deary believes we shouldn't.
There's so much wrong with this statement that I hardly know where to begin. With the fact that, under Deary's ideal system, the poor are only entitled to literature while they're of school age, perhaps? With the fact that most of the literary benefit one experiences while a student comes, not from English class, but the school library? Or how about the novel idea that treating support of literacy in poverty as a quirky Victorian prerogative rather than an ongoing social necessity is not only morally repugnant, but incredibly shortsighted when one depends for one's living on the existence of a literate, interested populace?
But let's return to Deary's primary argument -- that his 500,000-odd library rentals represent some 500,000 lost sales -- and why it's so inaccurate: first, because it assumes that he gained no sales by virtue of readers encountering his books in the library and later deciding to buy them; second, because it assumes that everyone who borrowed his books was similarly able or inclined to buy them, and only went the library route out of sheer cheapness; third, because it likewise assumes that the figure of 500,000 borrows corresponds to 500,000 discreet individuals; fourth, because it ignores the fundamentally obvious point that many, if not most people will try all sorts of things for free for which they'd never readily pay money, or for which they wouldn't pay money without a free sample first; and fifth -- and specific to Deary's case -- because his books are aimed at a middle-grade audience, meaning that his readers and the persons who actually hand over money are overwhelmingly two different sets of people, with the latter tending (one suspects) to be the parents and relatives of the former.
Those last two points in particular are worth expanding on, because they're linked in quite a significant way: that is, that parents are about infinity times more likely to buy specific books for their children when in possession of cold, hard proof that their gift will actually be read, rather than mouldering quietly on a bedroom shelf.
Off the top of my head, I can think of at least ten books or series that my parents bought me in my pre-teen years as a direct result of my having borrowed and re-borrowed the library copies: they knew they were making a successful purchase, and I in turn was getting something I wanted. Without libraries, I'd never have bought the entirety of Geoffrey McSkimming's Cairo Jim and Jocelyn Osgood stories, or convinced my mother to shell out the princely sum of nearly thirty Australian dollars for my own hardbacked copy of the Pan Macmillan Book of Greek Gods and Heroes -- a book, I might add, which I still possess today. As wrongheaded as Deary's comments are, they'd at least be marginally more comprehensible if he wrote for adults, who have direct control over their discretionary spending -- but children?
All my life, I've been a patron of libraries. Even now that I'm an adult with my own disposable income, I still use them. Why? Because, not unreasonably, I'm reluctant to outlay money on unknown authors if I can sample their works beforehand for free. My book-buying budget is limited, and I want to make the most of it: now that I have a Kindle, I'll often download sample chapters, and when I have time to browse through bookshops at leisure, I'll read the first few pages to help me make a decision, but ultimately, neither method guarantees that a book will be worth my time and money.
And so, I'll try the library: that way, I lose nothing on books I don't like, but can still discover new authors -- and once I've discovered an author I like, their books go on my 'automatic purchase' list. Tamora Pierce and Sara Douglass are both authors I discovered through libraries in my early teens; thus hooked, I proceeded to buy their entire respective works, even the titles I'd already read, because the idea of not owning them was insupportable. Libraries are an investment in the creation of new readers, and if Deary thinks for a second that nobody has ever bought his books as a direct result of having encountered them first in libraries, then I'd venture to suggest that he's in the wrong profession.
Libraries don't inhibit a writer's profits: they add to them -- not just through the PLR scheme, but through the creation of new readers and the maintenance of a literate, book-hungry populace. And while, as I've said, Deary is wholly wrong in his assertion that libraries are unique in providing entertainment or creative content for free, they are unique (or at least, almost unique, the internet having joined their ranks) in promoting an actual, necessary life-skill -- literacy -- among those parts of the populace who might otherwise suffer for its inaccessibility. The idea that such beneficence should begin and end with the classroom (and where does Deary think many poorer students are getting not only their assigned reading and reference books, but free internet and computer access, if not the library?) is a social Scroogism that ill becomes a professional author even moreso than it would any other person, and particularly one who writes about history.
So here, then, is my advice to Mr Deary: conduct a campaign to have your books removed from libraries everywhere. Petition schools and librarians, call the distributors, go by in person and tear up their copies if you have to, but rid the freeloading reading world of access to your work; and when, having done so, your annual income fails to increase to the tune of £180,000 pounds?
Then, Mr Deary, I will laugh at your hubris -- and buy someone else's books.
from: Huffington Post
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Libraries 'have had their day', says Horrible Histories author
Author of children's bestsellers Terry Deary says they are a drain on taxpayers and authors that no longer makes sense
by: Alison Flood
Libraries "have been around too long" and are "no longer relevant", according to Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, an apparently lone literary voice to believe that libraries have "had their day".
Deary, a bestselling author who was also the seventh most-borrowed children's writer from UK libraries last year, was speaking as his local council in Sunderland became the latest authority to look into the possibility of closing branches to save money. But unlike other authors up and down the country, who have come together to protest the closures of their local branches, Deary was clear that libraries have had their day.
"I'm not attacking libraries, I'm attacking the concept behind libraries, which is no longer relevant," Deary told the Guardian, pointing out that the original Public Libraries Act, which gave rise to the first free public libraries in the UK, was passed in 1850. "Because it's been 150 years, we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers. This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that," said Deary, who has received hate mail since he first aired his views in the Sunderland Echo yesterday.
But despite the negative reaction to his comments, the Horrible Histories author is adamant that the public attitude around libraries "has to change". "People have to make the choice to buy books. People will happily buy a cinema ticket to see Roald Dahl's Matilda, and expect to get the book for free. It doesn't make sense," he said. "Books aren't public property, and writers aren't Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby. They've got to make a living. Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat. We don't expect to go to a food library to be fed."
As one of the most popular library authors – his books were borrowed more than 500,000 times during 2011/12 – Deary will have received the maximum amount possible for a writer from the Public Lending Right scheme, which gives authors 6.2p every time one of their books is borrowed, up to a cap of £6,600. "If I sold the book I'd get 30p per book. I get six grand, and I should be getting £180,000. But never mind my selfish author perception – what about the bookshops? The libraries are doing nothing for the book industry. They give nothing back, whereas bookshops are selling the book, and the author and the publisher get paid, which is as it should be. What other entertainment do we expect to get for free?" he asked.
Bookshops are closing down, he said, "because someone is giving away the product they are trying to sell. What other industry creates a product and allows someone else to give it away, endlessly? The car industry would collapse if we went to car libraries for free use of Porsches … Librarians are lovely people and libraries are lovely places, but they are damaging the book industry. They are putting bookshops out of business, and I'm afraid we have to look at what place they have in the 21st century."
Deary is calling for a public debate around libraries, and for an end to the "sentimentality" he believes has framed the issue so far. "Why are all the authors coming out in support of libraries when libraries are cutting their throats and slashing their purses?" he asked. "We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses. People expect to pay for entertainment. They might object to TV licences, but they understand they have to do it. But because libraries have been around for so long, people have this idea that books should be freely available to all. I'm afraid those days are past. Libraries cost a vast amount … and the council tax payers are paying a lot of money to subsidise them, when they are used by an ever-diminishing amount of people."
Deary's comments were described as "horrible" by his fellow author Alan Gibbons, a key figure in the campaign to save libraries. "Is the support of the vast majority of the artistic community for libraries 'sentimentality'? OK, Terry, tell that to Lee Hall, author of Billy Elliot. Tell it to Jacqueline Wilson and Lee Child, Kate Mosse and Kathy Lette, Philip Pullman and David Almond. Tell it to the hundreds of authors, illustrators and poets who have joined protests. Are they just dewy-eyed romantics? No, they are convinced proponents of the effectiveness of libraries. They are backed up by numerous reports by the OECD and the National Literacy Trust," said Gibbons.
"Some of us who have devoted enormous amounts of time and effort to the library cause, who have marched and petitioned, lobbied and demonstrated, argued with councillors and ministers, feel utterly betrayed by Terry's words. Does he really want to line up with the philistines? Terry's pronouncement is not quirky or eccentric or 'just Terry'. In current circumstances it is downright irresponsible," said Gibbons.
from: Guardian
by: Alison Flood
Libraries "have been around too long" and are "no longer relevant", according to Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, an apparently lone literary voice to believe that libraries have "had their day".
Deary, a bestselling author who was also the seventh most-borrowed children's writer from UK libraries last year, was speaking as his local council in Sunderland became the latest authority to look into the possibility of closing branches to save money. But unlike other authors up and down the country, who have come together to protest the closures of their local branches, Deary was clear that libraries have had their day.
"I'm not attacking libraries, I'm attacking the concept behind libraries, which is no longer relevant," Deary told the Guardian, pointing out that the original Public Libraries Act, which gave rise to the first free public libraries in the UK, was passed in 1850. "Because it's been 150 years, we've got this idea that we've got an entitlement to read books for free, at the expense of authors, publishers and council tax payers. This is not the Victorian age, when we wanted to allow the impoverished access to literature. We pay for compulsory schooling to do that," said Deary, who has received hate mail since he first aired his views in the Sunderland Echo yesterday.
But despite the negative reaction to his comments, the Horrible Histories author is adamant that the public attitude around libraries "has to change". "People have to make the choice to buy books. People will happily buy a cinema ticket to see Roald Dahl's Matilda, and expect to get the book for free. It doesn't make sense," he said. "Books aren't public property, and writers aren't Enid Blyton, middle-class women indulging in a pleasant little hobby. They've got to make a living. Authors, booksellers and publishers need to eat. We don't expect to go to a food library to be fed."
As one of the most popular library authors – his books were borrowed more than 500,000 times during 2011/12 – Deary will have received the maximum amount possible for a writer from the Public Lending Right scheme, which gives authors 6.2p every time one of their books is borrowed, up to a cap of £6,600. "If I sold the book I'd get 30p per book. I get six grand, and I should be getting £180,000. But never mind my selfish author perception – what about the bookshops? The libraries are doing nothing for the book industry. They give nothing back, whereas bookshops are selling the book, and the author and the publisher get paid, which is as it should be. What other entertainment do we expect to get for free?" he asked.
Bookshops are closing down, he said, "because someone is giving away the product they are trying to sell. What other industry creates a product and allows someone else to give it away, endlessly? The car industry would collapse if we went to car libraries for free use of Porsches … Librarians are lovely people and libraries are lovely places, but they are damaging the book industry. They are putting bookshops out of business, and I'm afraid we have to look at what place they have in the 21st century."
Deary is calling for a public debate around libraries, and for an end to the "sentimentality" he believes has framed the issue so far. "Why are all the authors coming out in support of libraries when libraries are cutting their throats and slashing their purses?" he asked. "We can't give everything away under the public purse. Books are part of the entertainment industry. Literature has been something elite, but it is not any more. This is not the Roman empire, where we give away free bread and circuses to the masses. People expect to pay for entertainment. They might object to TV licences, but they understand they have to do it. But because libraries have been around for so long, people have this idea that books should be freely available to all. I'm afraid those days are past. Libraries cost a vast amount … and the council tax payers are paying a lot of money to subsidise them, when they are used by an ever-diminishing amount of people."
Deary's comments were described as "horrible" by his fellow author Alan Gibbons, a key figure in the campaign to save libraries. "Is the support of the vast majority of the artistic community for libraries 'sentimentality'? OK, Terry, tell that to Lee Hall, author of Billy Elliot. Tell it to Jacqueline Wilson and Lee Child, Kate Mosse and Kathy Lette, Philip Pullman and David Almond. Tell it to the hundreds of authors, illustrators and poets who have joined protests. Are they just dewy-eyed romantics? No, they are convinced proponents of the effectiveness of libraries. They are backed up by numerous reports by the OECD and the National Literacy Trust," said Gibbons.
"Some of us who have devoted enormous amounts of time and effort to the library cause, who have marched and petitioned, lobbied and demonstrated, argued with councillors and ministers, feel utterly betrayed by Terry's words. Does he really want to line up with the philistines? Terry's pronouncement is not quirky or eccentric or 'just Terry'. In current circumstances it is downright irresponsible," said Gibbons.
from: Guardian
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
She-Hulk leads superheroes into battle for chick lit market
Marvel moves into long-form fiction with heroines seeking love and fighting cosmic evil
by: Alison Flood
Stand aside, Bridget Jones. Becky Bloomwood, your shopaholic tendencies in Sophie Kinsella's novels have no currency here. There's a new chick-lit heroine in town, and she goes by the name of She-Hulk.
Comics publisher Marvel is teaming up with Hyperion Books to target women readers, with two new novels out this summer both featuring "strong, smart heroines seeking happiness and love while battling cosmic evil": She-Hulk, the female cousin of the Incredible Hulk, and Rogue, one of the female mutants from X-Men. This is the first time the publisher has taken its female superheroes out of the world of comics and into the world of long-form fiction.
"Marvel has had tremendous success with recent hit movies, and we think it's a great time to explore what happens to superheroines when they are dropped into traditional women's novels," said Hyperion's editor-in-chief Elisabeth Dyssegaard. Dyssegaard also told book trade magazine Publishers Weekly: "We think the books will definitely appeal to comics readers – male and female – but also draw a new crowd of women readers who will be introduced to superheroes through a medium they already love."
In The She-Hulk Diaries, which comes with an image of a green lipstick on its cover, Jennifer Walters is a corporate lawyer and sometime green rampager who is looking for love. She "juggles climbing the corporate ladder by day and battling villains and saving the world by night – all the while trying to navigate the dating world to find a Mr Right who might not mind a sometimes very big and green girlfriend", said Marvel. Written by Marta Acosta, the novel is out in June.
Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward will focus on the X-Men character Rogue, a mutant whose touch is lethal but who is also "a young woman trying to navigate the challenges of everyday life and romance". Rogue puts her first boyfriend in a coma, then meets "the handsome and otherworldly James". "Stealing a car, they head out on the highway and eventually, Rogue has to decide whether she will unleash her devastating powers in order to save the only man alive who seems to truly understand her."
"In addition to threats to the universe, She-Hulk and Rogue have challenges that women readers know well, including finding the right guy. Our heroes are real people first and super powers second, which is why fans connect with them," Dyssegaard told USA Today . "These books delve into what happens if dating challenges also include turning huge and green or having a lethal touch, offering readers a unique perspective on superpowered high drama."
Not all potential readers were impressed, however. "If the comic book industry thinks that this is the answer to their woman problem, well, they're worse off than we originally imagined," wrote Alicia Lutes at Hollywood . "The novels purport to 'showcase strong, smart heroines', but seemingly relegate their stories to 'seeking happiness and love', as if those are the only two things women are programmed to care about, ever… Here's an unpopular opinion, comic book industry: Why don't we first work on making our female superheroes more than just spandex-tinged boobholders meant to tantalise and frustrate the predominately male audience that reads them?"
from: Guardian
by: Alison Flood
Stand aside, Bridget Jones. Becky Bloomwood, your shopaholic tendencies in Sophie Kinsella's novels have no currency here. There's a new chick-lit heroine in town, and she goes by the name of She-Hulk.
Comics publisher Marvel is teaming up with Hyperion Books to target women readers, with two new novels out this summer both featuring "strong, smart heroines seeking happiness and love while battling cosmic evil": She-Hulk, the female cousin of the Incredible Hulk, and Rogue, one of the female mutants from X-Men. This is the first time the publisher has taken its female superheroes out of the world of comics and into the world of long-form fiction.
"Marvel has had tremendous success with recent hit movies, and we think it's a great time to explore what happens to superheroines when they are dropped into traditional women's novels," said Hyperion's editor-in-chief Elisabeth Dyssegaard. Dyssegaard also told book trade magazine Publishers Weekly: "We think the books will definitely appeal to comics readers – male and female – but also draw a new crowd of women readers who will be introduced to superheroes through a medium they already love."
In The She-Hulk Diaries, which comes with an image of a green lipstick on its cover, Jennifer Walters is a corporate lawyer and sometime green rampager who is looking for love. She "juggles climbing the corporate ladder by day and battling villains and saving the world by night – all the while trying to navigate the dating world to find a Mr Right who might not mind a sometimes very big and green girlfriend", said Marvel. Written by Marta Acosta, the novel is out in June.
Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward will focus on the X-Men character Rogue, a mutant whose touch is lethal but who is also "a young woman trying to navigate the challenges of everyday life and romance". Rogue puts her first boyfriend in a coma, then meets "the handsome and otherworldly James". "Stealing a car, they head out on the highway and eventually, Rogue has to decide whether she will unleash her devastating powers in order to save the only man alive who seems to truly understand her."
"In addition to threats to the universe, She-Hulk and Rogue have challenges that women readers know well, including finding the right guy. Our heroes are real people first and super powers second, which is why fans connect with them," Dyssegaard told USA Today . "These books delve into what happens if dating challenges also include turning huge and green or having a lethal touch, offering readers a unique perspective on superpowered high drama."
Not all potential readers were impressed, however. "If the comic book industry thinks that this is the answer to their woman problem, well, they're worse off than we originally imagined," wrote Alicia Lutes at Hollywood . "The novels purport to 'showcase strong, smart heroines', but seemingly relegate their stories to 'seeking happiness and love', as if those are the only two things women are programmed to care about, ever… Here's an unpopular opinion, comic book industry: Why don't we first work on making our female superheroes more than just spandex-tinged boobholders meant to tantalise and frustrate the predominately male audience that reads them?"
from: Guardian
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Why Japanese readers don't like e-books
Japan has some of the fastest internet connections in the world, but physical media such as books and DVDs still remain popular.
by: Michael Fitzpatrick
FORTUNE -- Despite Japan's "default-setting-for-the future" status, coined by Sci-fi writer William Gibson, time on this rocky archipelago appears to be headed backwards. Kerosene is replacing nuclear energy; deflation, not inflation, is still rife; and, publishers are clinging energetically to print when, in neighboring South Korea, it seems to have been abandoned altogether.
Why have Japanese consumers not fallen in love with digital reading? "So far the Japanese have failed to be moved by e-readers from home or abroad, mostly owing to a paucity of content," says editor and publisher of Japan's E-book 2.0 magazine Hiroki Kamata. Sony (SNE), for instance, has been in the market for more than seven years but has sold only 500,000 e-readers in Japan. Other manufacturers' tablets have begun to sell here, but overall the category is still way behind e-reader take-up in the U.S. or Europe. Tablet sales have tripled since 2011, with market research firm IDC estimating tablet sales in Japan to be 3.6 million units.
Japanese consumers still seem dead set against adopting e-books, showing less interest in them than even the print-worshipping French. According to an R.R. Bowker study, 72% of Japanese consumers said they had not tried e-books and did not want to try them. That compares with 66% of French respondents polled. Overall adoption rates in Japan remain the lowest in the developed world. Only 8% of Japanese readers have downloaded and paid for an e-book compared with 20% in the U.S.
Tokyo based e-publisher Robin Birtle notes that Japan is at least five years behind the West in terms of digitization. He says Japanese tastes may simply be different. "The Japanese do like to have something physical," he says. That might explain why although Japan has some of the fastest Internet connections in the world and on-demand services, packaged, physical media such as DVDs still remains popular.
Japan has also been slow in getting the machinery of Japanese e-books whirring. There are just 40,000 titles available in most digital bookstores. "Publishers are indifferent to, or even hate, digital things. Mainly because of excessive commitment to traditional print book distribution," explains Kamata. Japanese publishers are said to fear losing their long-held privilege of dictating prices. Amazon's (AMZN) arrival -- its first Japanese Kindle arrived late last year -- notwithstanding, the publishing revolution appears stalled. Aya Murota, an analyst for the Tokyo office of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, says it is difficult for Japan to change. "Japanese publishing companies are very traditional. Many of them are reluctant to change their whole business structure," she says.
Much as elsewhere in the world, the battle over Japanese books is shaping up along conventional lines. Amazon is feeling pressure from Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL), both of which are poised to open e-bookstores for Japanese readers. The launch of Kobo e-reader, which is owned by Japanese company Rakuten, last July was marred by software issues.
Competition may emerge from an unexpected corner. "Whether or not a significant third player emerges is an interesting question. Apple are always a threat, and Microsoft's (MSFT) investment in Barnes and Noble (BKS) may be enough to underwrite overseas expansion beyond Europe," explains Birtle. "The company to watch, though, is NTT Docomo (DCM) -- Japan's leading mobile network provider." Recently the telecom giant announced it would be going head to head with Amazon in March with its own tablet the "dtab" - priced lower than the Japanese Kindle.
So, so far it's tablets galore for the Japanese market. But with such meagre offerings in the way of content from the Japanese publishers, it will take more than shiny new gadgets to lure Japan's avid readers away from their paper.
from: Fortune
by: Michael Fitzpatrick
FORTUNE -- Despite Japan's "default-setting-for-the future" status, coined by Sci-fi writer William Gibson, time on this rocky archipelago appears to be headed backwards. Kerosene is replacing nuclear energy; deflation, not inflation, is still rife; and, publishers are clinging energetically to print when, in neighboring South Korea, it seems to have been abandoned altogether.
Why have Japanese consumers not fallen in love with digital reading? "So far the Japanese have failed to be moved by e-readers from home or abroad, mostly owing to a paucity of content," says editor and publisher of Japan's E-book 2.0 magazine Hiroki Kamata. Sony (SNE), for instance, has been in the market for more than seven years but has sold only 500,000 e-readers in Japan. Other manufacturers' tablets have begun to sell here, but overall the category is still way behind e-reader take-up in the U.S. or Europe. Tablet sales have tripled since 2011, with market research firm IDC estimating tablet sales in Japan to be 3.6 million units.
Japanese consumers still seem dead set against adopting e-books, showing less interest in them than even the print-worshipping French. According to an R.R. Bowker study, 72% of Japanese consumers said they had not tried e-books and did not want to try them. That compares with 66% of French respondents polled. Overall adoption rates in Japan remain the lowest in the developed world. Only 8% of Japanese readers have downloaded and paid for an e-book compared with 20% in the U.S.
Tokyo based e-publisher Robin Birtle notes that Japan is at least five years behind the West in terms of digitization. He says Japanese tastes may simply be different. "The Japanese do like to have something physical," he says. That might explain why although Japan has some of the fastest Internet connections in the world and on-demand services, packaged, physical media such as DVDs still remains popular.
Japan has also been slow in getting the machinery of Japanese e-books whirring. There are just 40,000 titles available in most digital bookstores. "Publishers are indifferent to, or even hate, digital things. Mainly because of excessive commitment to traditional print book distribution," explains Kamata. Japanese publishers are said to fear losing their long-held privilege of dictating prices. Amazon's (AMZN) arrival -- its first Japanese Kindle arrived late last year -- notwithstanding, the publishing revolution appears stalled. Aya Murota, an analyst for the Tokyo office of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, says it is difficult for Japan to change. "Japanese publishing companies are very traditional. Many of them are reluctant to change their whole business structure," she says.
Much as elsewhere in the world, the battle over Japanese books is shaping up along conventional lines. Amazon is feeling pressure from Google (GOOG) and Apple (AAPL), both of which are poised to open e-bookstores for Japanese readers. The launch of Kobo e-reader, which is owned by Japanese company Rakuten, last July was marred by software issues.
Competition may emerge from an unexpected corner. "Whether or not a significant third player emerges is an interesting question. Apple are always a threat, and Microsoft's (MSFT) investment in Barnes and Noble (BKS) may be enough to underwrite overseas expansion beyond Europe," explains Birtle. "The company to watch, though, is NTT Docomo (DCM) -- Japan's leading mobile network provider." Recently the telecom giant announced it would be going head to head with Amazon in March with its own tablet the "dtab" - priced lower than the Japanese Kindle.
So, so far it's tablets galore for the Japanese market. But with such meagre offerings in the way of content from the Japanese publishers, it will take more than shiny new gadgets to lure Japan's avid readers away from their paper.
from: Fortune
Monday, February 18, 2013
Read Any Good Web Sites Lately? Book Lovers Talk Online
by: Leslie Kaufman
Lori Hettler is a passionate reader, tearing through about 80 books a year. But as a resident of a Pennsylvania town and with a preference for fiction from small publishers, she can have trouble finding new books to feed her habit.
She tried to start a book club, but there weren’t enough takers. For years she made a weekly trip to browse a bookstore 40 minutes away in a Scranton suburb.
But then she found a solution to her problem: Goodreads.com, a social media site for finding and sharing titles that has 15 million members, is exploding in popularity and rivaling Amazon.com as a platform for promoting new books.
The site allows passionate readers to share what they are reading, rate books they have already read and list what they are considering next. They can do this publicly or among only a self-selected network of online friends. The site is also host to roughly 20,000 organically occurring online book clubs for every preference — from people interested in only Proust to those who prefer history and Tudor-period fiction. There are 314 clubs for paranormal romance fans alone.
Goodreads and smaller similar sites are addressing what publishers call the “discoverability” problem: How do you guide consumers to books they might want to read? The digital age has created online retail sites that are overflowing with new books, leaving readers awash in unknown titles.
At the same time the number of bookstores has shrunk considerably, depriving customers of the ability to browse or ask staff members for guidance.
For a long time Amazon, the largest online bookseller, dominated the digital discovery zone through its book reviews, recommendations and displays on its home page. But Amazon has lost some trust among readers recently amid concerns that its reviews and recommendations can contain hidden agendas.
The theory behind Goodreads and its two main — albeit much smaller — competitors, Shelfari and LibraryThing, is that people will put more faith in book recommendations from a social network they build themselves. Amazon was convinced enough by the concept that it bought Shelfari in 2008. It also owns a portion of LibraryThing as a result of purchasing companies that already owned a stake in the site.
Goodreads members represent a small portion of all book buyers, and it is not immune from some of the politicking that goes on elsewhere — authors are not prevented from reviewing their own books, for instance. But advocates consider this acceptable because readers can choose their own reviewers.
“Because Goodreads is not a publisher or retailer, people feel that the information is not getting manipulated,” said Amanda Close, who runs digital marketplace development for Random House. “People trust them because they are so crowd-sourced and their members are fanatics. You can’t buy a five-star review there.”
Ms. Hettler, who trains employees at a T. J. Maxx warehouse, started her own group on Goodreads, the Next Best Book Club, which now has more than 10,000 members. She has become so well known that not only does she never run out of book recommendations, but she is also courted directly by small publishers like Graywolf Press and Artistically Declined to promote their authors.
“I am trying to use my platform to spotlight the underdog,” she said. “My reach is limited, but I know what will speak to my audience, and when we pitch a book, we clearly see an uptick in people who say they are going to read it.”
Goodreads.com was founded by Otis Chandler, grandson of the last family owner of The Los Angeles Times, and the woman he later married, Elizabeth Khuri Chandler. They met after graduating from Stanford University.
Trained as an engineer, Mr. Chandler was always interested in starting his own social media company, and his first job included working on a dating site. Ms. Chandler trained as a dancer and worked as a writer and editor. But what they shared was a passionate love of books, and they quickly realized that books bound others as well.
“Books are one of the strongest social objects that exist,” Mr. Chandler said in an interview, “so lots of people are innately willing to talk about and share them.”
The couple began creating Goodreads in 2006 from Mr. Chandler’s apartment, and it made its debut in 2007. By 2009 they were doing well enough to raise $2 million in venture capital and then open offices in San Francisco. As the site grew, they added features: a recommendation engine, author video chats, book giveaways and a newsletter that fostered a sense of community.
Slowly the site became the largest source of independent reviews on the Web, with 21 million and counting.
The collective power of the membership model began to be felt across publishing as groups like Ms. Hettler’s discovered books and created buzz for them. One example is “Wool,” a 2011 self-published sci-fi series by Hugh Howey that has been optioned by 20th Century Fox. In 2011 USA Today began featuring Goodreads reviews on its Web site.
Goodreads has been particularly crucial for self-published authors, many of whom would never have had success without it. But even authors with publishers are setting up their own Web pages on Goodreads to promote future books — as essential as Twitter or Facebook — and to connect with readers while not on tour.
Lisa See, whose 2005 novel, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” made it to The New York Times extended best-seller list, has been using Goodreads since 2009. “It is a way to meet your readers and hope they become your advocates and spread the elusive word-of-mouth in places you are not going and are off the book-tour route,” she said.
Leah Wasielewski, vice president for marketing at HarperCollins, says that from a publisher’s perspective, Goodreads has earned its bona fides as a must stop for promotion. “For a book-centric Web site,” she said, “they are clearly the top leader.”
Mr. Chandler said that Goodreads earned most of its income by selling promotion packages to publishers. It also offers ad space, tailored to reach readers most likely to be interested in a certain book, and sells sophisticated data mining to marketers.
“Getting real-time feedback in sales trends is the kind of data publishers dream of,” said Rachel Chou, chief marketing officer for Open Road, a new publishing house. Especially enticing, she said, are readers who have put a book in the site’s “to read” pile.
Recently, she said, Open Road was promoting its “Eighty Days” erotic trilogy, whose content was more hard-core than the enormous best seller “Fifty Shades of Grey.” First Goodreads helped the publisher place ads to reach all its readers in hard-core erotic book clubs. Then, when some had placed the book in their “to read” pile, Open Road was able to offer those readers a discount.
“With data like that you can really move the needle,” Ms. Chou said.
from: NYTimes
Lori Hettler is a passionate reader, tearing through about 80 books a year. But as a resident of a Pennsylvania town and with a preference for fiction from small publishers, she can have trouble finding new books to feed her habit.
She tried to start a book club, but there weren’t enough takers. For years she made a weekly trip to browse a bookstore 40 minutes away in a Scranton suburb.
But then she found a solution to her problem: Goodreads.com, a social media site for finding and sharing titles that has 15 million members, is exploding in popularity and rivaling Amazon.com as a platform for promoting new books.
The site allows passionate readers to share what they are reading, rate books they have already read and list what they are considering next. They can do this publicly or among only a self-selected network of online friends. The site is also host to roughly 20,000 organically occurring online book clubs for every preference — from people interested in only Proust to those who prefer history and Tudor-period fiction. There are 314 clubs for paranormal romance fans alone.
Goodreads and smaller similar sites are addressing what publishers call the “discoverability” problem: How do you guide consumers to books they might want to read? The digital age has created online retail sites that are overflowing with new books, leaving readers awash in unknown titles.
At the same time the number of bookstores has shrunk considerably, depriving customers of the ability to browse or ask staff members for guidance.
For a long time Amazon, the largest online bookseller, dominated the digital discovery zone through its book reviews, recommendations and displays on its home page. But Amazon has lost some trust among readers recently amid concerns that its reviews and recommendations can contain hidden agendas.
The theory behind Goodreads and its two main — albeit much smaller — competitors, Shelfari and LibraryThing, is that people will put more faith in book recommendations from a social network they build themselves. Amazon was convinced enough by the concept that it bought Shelfari in 2008. It also owns a portion of LibraryThing as a result of purchasing companies that already owned a stake in the site.
Goodreads members represent a small portion of all book buyers, and it is not immune from some of the politicking that goes on elsewhere — authors are not prevented from reviewing their own books, for instance. But advocates consider this acceptable because readers can choose their own reviewers.
“Because Goodreads is not a publisher or retailer, people feel that the information is not getting manipulated,” said Amanda Close, who runs digital marketplace development for Random House. “People trust them because they are so crowd-sourced and their members are fanatics. You can’t buy a five-star review there.”
Ms. Hettler, who trains employees at a T. J. Maxx warehouse, started her own group on Goodreads, the Next Best Book Club, which now has more than 10,000 members. She has become so well known that not only does she never run out of book recommendations, but she is also courted directly by small publishers like Graywolf Press and Artistically Declined to promote their authors.
“I am trying to use my platform to spotlight the underdog,” she said. “My reach is limited, but I know what will speak to my audience, and when we pitch a book, we clearly see an uptick in people who say they are going to read it.”
Goodreads.com was founded by Otis Chandler, grandson of the last family owner of The Los Angeles Times, and the woman he later married, Elizabeth Khuri Chandler. They met after graduating from Stanford University.
Trained as an engineer, Mr. Chandler was always interested in starting his own social media company, and his first job included working on a dating site. Ms. Chandler trained as a dancer and worked as a writer and editor. But what they shared was a passionate love of books, and they quickly realized that books bound others as well.
“Books are one of the strongest social objects that exist,” Mr. Chandler said in an interview, “so lots of people are innately willing to talk about and share them.”
The couple began creating Goodreads in 2006 from Mr. Chandler’s apartment, and it made its debut in 2007. By 2009 they were doing well enough to raise $2 million in venture capital and then open offices in San Francisco. As the site grew, they added features: a recommendation engine, author video chats, book giveaways and a newsletter that fostered a sense of community.
Slowly the site became the largest source of independent reviews on the Web, with 21 million and counting.
The collective power of the membership model began to be felt across publishing as groups like Ms. Hettler’s discovered books and created buzz for them. One example is “Wool,” a 2011 self-published sci-fi series by Hugh Howey that has been optioned by 20th Century Fox. In 2011 USA Today began featuring Goodreads reviews on its Web site.
Goodreads has been particularly crucial for self-published authors, many of whom would never have had success without it. But even authors with publishers are setting up their own Web pages on Goodreads to promote future books — as essential as Twitter or Facebook — and to connect with readers while not on tour.
Lisa See, whose 2005 novel, “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” made it to The New York Times extended best-seller list, has been using Goodreads since 2009. “It is a way to meet your readers and hope they become your advocates and spread the elusive word-of-mouth in places you are not going and are off the book-tour route,” she said.
Leah Wasielewski, vice president for marketing at HarperCollins, says that from a publisher’s perspective, Goodreads has earned its bona fides as a must stop for promotion. “For a book-centric Web site,” she said, “they are clearly the top leader.”
Mr. Chandler said that Goodreads earned most of its income by selling promotion packages to publishers. It also offers ad space, tailored to reach readers most likely to be interested in a certain book, and sells sophisticated data mining to marketers.
“Getting real-time feedback in sales trends is the kind of data publishers dream of,” said Rachel Chou, chief marketing officer for Open Road, a new publishing house. Especially enticing, she said, are readers who have put a book in the site’s “to read” pile.
Recently, she said, Open Road was promoting its “Eighty Days” erotic trilogy, whose content was more hard-core than the enormous best seller “Fifty Shades of Grey.” First Goodreads helped the publisher place ads to reach all its readers in hard-core erotic book clubs. Then, when some had placed the book in their “to read” pile, Open Road was able to offer those readers a discount.
“With data like that you can really move the needle,” Ms. Chou said.
from: NYTimes
Friday, February 15, 2013
Virtual Book Displays are Easy to Create with New LibraryThing for Libraries Widget
Catalog enhancement tool enables libraries to market their collection on their homepages
LibraryThing for Libraries™ has launched a new Book Display Widget that enables libraries to easily create customizable displays for their homepages. Using the new feature, libraries can routinely update their homepages to highlight particular books or collections. Patrons click on book covers to move directly to the title in the catalog. The Book Display Widget is the newest feature in LibraryThing for Libraries’ system of OPAC enhancements, designed to make catalogs more engaging and informative. Bowker®, a ProQuest affiliate, is the exclusive distributor of LibraryThing for Libraries to libraries.
“Library Thing for Libraries’ Book Display Widget can pull in any collection that supports the library’s focus at the time – the Oscars, African-American History Month, National Reading Week, whatever it is,” said Sharon Lubrano, ProQuest Vice President and General Manager, Bowker. “It’s an ideal way to highlight the library’s collections, exposing patrons to more than just the bestsellers.”
Book Display Widgets are completely customizable, highlighting whatever collections the library chooses and using as many widgets as they like. Librarians can select from pre-populated data sources like series, awards, and genres or create their own collection with a list of titles. The service includes four different display styles (dynamic grid, shelf, scrolling, and 3-D carousel), and endless customization possibilities.
To learn more about LibraryThing for Libraries and its Book Display Widget visit http://www.bowker.com/assets/literature/products/librarything_bookdisplaywidget.pdf
from: Bowker
LibraryThing for Libraries™ has launched a new Book Display Widget that enables libraries to easily create customizable displays for their homepages. Using the new feature, libraries can routinely update their homepages to highlight particular books or collections. Patrons click on book covers to move directly to the title in the catalog. The Book Display Widget is the newest feature in LibraryThing for Libraries’ system of OPAC enhancements, designed to make catalogs more engaging and informative. Bowker®, a ProQuest affiliate, is the exclusive distributor of LibraryThing for Libraries to libraries.
“Library Thing for Libraries’ Book Display Widget can pull in any collection that supports the library’s focus at the time – the Oscars, African-American History Month, National Reading Week, whatever it is,” said Sharon Lubrano, ProQuest Vice President and General Manager, Bowker. “It’s an ideal way to highlight the library’s collections, exposing patrons to more than just the bestsellers.”
Book Display Widgets are completely customizable, highlighting whatever collections the library chooses and using as many widgets as they like. Librarians can select from pre-populated data sources like series, awards, and genres or create their own collection with a list of titles. The service includes four different display styles (dynamic grid, shelf, scrolling, and 3-D carousel), and endless customization possibilities.
To learn more about LibraryThing for Libraries and its Book Display Widget visit http://www.bowker.com/assets/literature/products/librarything_bookdisplaywidget.pdf
from: Bowker
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Should Libraries Shush?
by: Kathryn Zickuhr
Last week, Salon published a piece by Laura Miller entitled “Bring back shushing librarians,” focusing on some of the findings from our recent report on library services. “[T]here’s a lot to be said for that shushing,” Miller writes, adding, “I’ve long believed that one of the most precious resources libraries offer their patrons is simple quiet.”
The piece has sparked a bit of a debate on a couple blogs and in social media about what people want from libraries. So should libraries shush, or not?
One of the interesting findings that surfaced throughout our research, whether in our nationally representative phone survey, in-person focus groups, and our online panel of librarians, was that Americans want many things from their libraries. About three-quarters said that they want quiet study spaces available, but a similar number said they want programs and classes for children and teens, for instance — a decidedly un-quiet service!
If there’s one thing our research shows, it’s that there’s no one thing people want their libraries to be. They want their libraries to be lots of things, a place where they can study and meet with friends and attend meetings — and more. (And different patrons want different things — and patrons in different communities have different needs, as well.) But we do see some common themes, one of which is that quiet spaces are still an important part of what people expect from their libraries.
And it’s not just patrons. One librarian in our online panel, echoing many others, described quiet study spaces as “essential.” Another highlighted the multiple roles libraries play as spaces in the community: “a place to go where it is reasonably quiet, comfortable — to focus, read, study,” and also as “a place to gather for study groups, group learning and leisure experiences, [and] library-sponsored community events.”
Perhaps this is why, in a separate question, Americans identified having separate spaces for different services as one of the top things libraries should do — only coordination with local schools and free literacy programs ranked higher. A majority (61%) of Americans say that libraries should “definitely” have completely separate locations or spaces for different services, such as children’s services, computer labs, reading spaces, and meeting rooms, and another 27% say libraries should “maybe” do this.
The value of having separate spaces for different activities (especially for noise reduction) was mentioned very often in our focus groups, both by patrons and library staff members.
In our report, we quoted librarians in our online panel who described the effect that separating traditionally quiet activities from typically louder ones has had. “When possible I think that it works well to keep the computer, group meeting, and children’s area noise away from the quieter reading areas,” one wrote. Another said that moving the area for teens away from general adult areas “has made a world of difference.” In this case, quiet was not the only result: “The teens behavior has gotten so much better we no longer need a security guard at the library.”
Many libraries already offer separate spaces for different services. The librarians in our online panel who said they were unlikely to offer this generally cited issues of space or funding; one pointed out that “in small libraries, often operated by a single staff member, separate spaces cannot be for reasons of security or even customer service.”
In a post responding to the Salon piece, the Teen Librarian Toolbox blog offered a few thoughts about some of the issues libraries face when trying to keep the noise levels down:
“Some libraries are better designed to meet the changing landscape of libraries today. They have smaller, independent study rooms. Their children and teen areas are a more reasonable distance from areas designated as quiet study areas. But older buildings don’t always retrofit well to the changing needs of our library populations. Perhaps nowhere do we see this more clearly than in teen services; how many of us have had to try and find a sensible place to put a new teen area in library that didn’t previously recognize the need for teen services? You have to consider things like noise levels, line of sight, location in reference to both the children and adult collections, funding we don’t have and more.”
Finally, another interesting aspect to this discussion is that while the members of our in-person patron focus groups also said that they valued quiet spaces at the library, they didn’t necessarily want the general atmosphere in the rest of the library to be too quiet. When asked to imagine their “dream” library, participants in our focus groups consistently described having a comfortable place where they could not only focus and get work done, but also feel like a part of their community; where “even if you’re by yourself, you don’t feel like you’re by yourself,” as one participant put it. Many described a sort of “coffeeshop” ambience or “living room atmosphere,” a “safe and affordable hangout location” where they could mingle with other people if they wanted to, but can do their own thing if not.
The New York Times recently hosted a “Room for Debate” discussion about the present and future of libraries. I was struck by something that Matthew Battles, the author of “Library: An Unquiet History,” wrote in his response:
“In their long history, libraries have been models for the world and models of the world; they’ve offered stimulation and contemplation, opportunities for togetherness as well as a kind of civic solitude. They’ve acted as gathering points for lively minds and as sites of seclusion and solace. For making knowledge and sharing change, we still need such places—and some of those, surely, we will continue to call ‘the library.’”
from: PewInternet
Last week, Salon published a piece by Laura Miller entitled “Bring back shushing librarians,” focusing on some of the findings from our recent report on library services. “[T]here’s a lot to be said for that shushing,” Miller writes, adding, “I’ve long believed that one of the most precious resources libraries offer their patrons is simple quiet.”
The piece has sparked a bit of a debate on a couple blogs and in social media about what people want from libraries. So should libraries shush, or not?
One of the interesting findings that surfaced throughout our research, whether in our nationally representative phone survey, in-person focus groups, and our online panel of librarians, was that Americans want many things from their libraries. About three-quarters said that they want quiet study spaces available, but a similar number said they want programs and classes for children and teens, for instance — a decidedly un-quiet service!
If there’s one thing our research shows, it’s that there’s no one thing people want their libraries to be. They want their libraries to be lots of things, a place where they can study and meet with friends and attend meetings — and more. (And different patrons want different things — and patrons in different communities have different needs, as well.) But we do see some common themes, one of which is that quiet spaces are still an important part of what people expect from their libraries.
And it’s not just patrons. One librarian in our online panel, echoing many others, described quiet study spaces as “essential.” Another highlighted the multiple roles libraries play as spaces in the community: “a place to go where it is reasonably quiet, comfortable — to focus, read, study,” and also as “a place to gather for study groups, group learning and leisure experiences, [and] library-sponsored community events.”
Perhaps this is why, in a separate question, Americans identified having separate spaces for different services as one of the top things libraries should do — only coordination with local schools and free literacy programs ranked higher. A majority (61%) of Americans say that libraries should “definitely” have completely separate locations or spaces for different services, such as children’s services, computer labs, reading spaces, and meeting rooms, and another 27% say libraries should “maybe” do this.
The value of having separate spaces for different activities (especially for noise reduction) was mentioned very often in our focus groups, both by patrons and library staff members.
In our report, we quoted librarians in our online panel who described the effect that separating traditionally quiet activities from typically louder ones has had. “When possible I think that it works well to keep the computer, group meeting, and children’s area noise away from the quieter reading areas,” one wrote. Another said that moving the area for teens away from general adult areas “has made a world of difference.” In this case, quiet was not the only result: “The teens behavior has gotten so much better we no longer need a security guard at the library.”
Many libraries already offer separate spaces for different services. The librarians in our online panel who said they were unlikely to offer this generally cited issues of space or funding; one pointed out that “in small libraries, often operated by a single staff member, separate spaces cannot be for reasons of security or even customer service.”
In a post responding to the Salon piece, the Teen Librarian Toolbox blog offered a few thoughts about some of the issues libraries face when trying to keep the noise levels down:
“Some libraries are better designed to meet the changing landscape of libraries today. They have smaller, independent study rooms. Their children and teen areas are a more reasonable distance from areas designated as quiet study areas. But older buildings don’t always retrofit well to the changing needs of our library populations. Perhaps nowhere do we see this more clearly than in teen services; how many of us have had to try and find a sensible place to put a new teen area in library that didn’t previously recognize the need for teen services? You have to consider things like noise levels, line of sight, location in reference to both the children and adult collections, funding we don’t have and more.”
Finally, another interesting aspect to this discussion is that while the members of our in-person patron focus groups also said that they valued quiet spaces at the library, they didn’t necessarily want the general atmosphere in the rest of the library to be too quiet. When asked to imagine their “dream” library, participants in our focus groups consistently described having a comfortable place where they could not only focus and get work done, but also feel like a part of their community; where “even if you’re by yourself, you don’t feel like you’re by yourself,” as one participant put it. Many described a sort of “coffeeshop” ambience or “living room atmosphere,” a “safe and affordable hangout location” where they could mingle with other people if they wanted to, but can do their own thing if not.
The New York Times recently hosted a “Room for Debate” discussion about the present and future of libraries. I was struck by something that Matthew Battles, the author of “Library: An Unquiet History,” wrote in his response:
“In their long history, libraries have been models for the world and models of the world; they’ve offered stimulation and contemplation, opportunities for togetherness as well as a kind of civic solitude. They’ve acted as gathering points for lively minds and as sites of seclusion and solace. For making knowledge and sharing change, we still need such places—and some of those, surely, we will continue to call ‘the library.’”
from: PewInternet
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Bring back shushing librarians
Library users plead for quiet places to read, write and study — but is anybody listening?
by: Laura Miller
Librarians hate to be depicted as bun- and glasses-wearing shushers, hellbent on silencing any and all noisy activities within their sacred domain. Fair enough: Librarians are highly skilled, well-educated and socially aware as a rule, and should not be reduced to a cultural stereotype ranking only a notch or two above a church lady on the hipness scale.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to be said for that shushing. I’ve long believed that one of the most precious resources libraries offer their patrons is simple quiet. Alas, for too long I’ve been forced to confine this sentiment to bar-stool rants because for all I knew I was being hopelessly retrograde. Libraries are constantly talking up the new — and often clamorous — services and activities they have added or plan to add in order to “better serve a diverse community” (and by extension, justify their continued funding in the eyes of public officials who like to appear forward-thinking). But take heart, seekers of serenity, for now we have data!
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center, “Library Services in the Digital Age,” polled a nationally representative sample of 2,252 Americans about what they get, and want, from public libraries. Like many such studies, the Pew survey is so focused on unusual programs and activities not typically associated with libraries that it tends to overlook the mere provision of a peaceful place to read and think. Nevertheless, the parts of the report dedicated to what people really want from their libraries makes the public’s wishes clear.
The two services that patrons regard as most essential in a library are “librarians to help people find information” and “borrowing books,” each rated as “very important” by 80 percent of respondents. Next comes “free access to computers and the Internet,” rated very important by 77 percent of those surveyed. No surprises there. These three services are what nearly everyone has come to regard as a public library’s core mission.
“Quiet study spaces for adults and children” comes in fourth, and here is where the results go rogue. The percentage of people who consider quiet spaces to be a very important element in any public library is 76, only one percentage point less than the value given to computer and Internet access. A relatively silent place to read is almost exactly as valuable to these people as the Internet!
According the Pew study, quiet matters more to library patrons than special programs for kids or job-search resources or access to fancy databases or classes and events or spaces for public meetings. It matters more to them than the ability to check out e-books or engage in “more interactive learning experiences” — areas that many library experts seem to regard as top priorities for the libraries of the future.
African-American and Hispanic respondents to the Pew survey rated the availability of computers and Internet access in libraries more highly than whites. The library has become a godsend to lower-income citizens who may not be able to afford their own computers at a time when society has become ever more dependent on them. But 89 percent of African-Americans (as well as 81 percent of urban residents and 81 percent of women) also consider quiet to be a very important provision. Poor people don’t just feel the lack of pricey communications tools. If you live with family members in crowded conditions, it isn’t easy to find the tranquility to read, study or write — which makes it that much harder to get the education you need to improve those conditions.
Granted, quiet isn’t a sexy or novel topic. Perhaps that’s why the handful of stories written about this survey — and the survey summary itself — ignore how highly the public rates quiet as a library service. Instead, the interpretation Pew promoted, and the angle taken up by Publishers Weekly and other trade publications, is that libraries have a marketing problem: The reason why patrons don’t rate libraries’ non-core activities and programs more highly is because they just don’t know about them. Maybe that’s true, and far be it from me to discourage any library from offering baby sitting or writing workshops or classes in estate planning — those are all boons to the community. But not at the expense of quiet.
Does expanding the library’s mission demand that patrons surrender the peace they seek there? Couldn’t libraries do both? Apparently not, to judge by the input the Pew researchers got from an “online panel of library staffers.” One of these contributors announced, “We need to change the concept of the library as a restricted, quiet space — we bustle, we rock, we engage, but so many people in the community do not know this.” Or maybe they’re hoping, like a commuter trapped on a train with a loudly chatty cellphone user, that it will just go away. Speaking of cellphones: “Libraries should be the social hub of the community,” said another library staffer, “and to do that the customers have to be able to use cellphones in the library, congregate around computers, sit and visit, laugh out loud and be noisy.”
The same person insisted that “the main part of the library should be devoted” to this hustle and bustle, while “quiet spaces should not be in any open areas, but should be in smaller cubicles.” (Given the popularity of quiet space, presumably patrons would end up waiting to get at those drab little cubicles, but, hey, at least they can laugh out loud and be noisy while they’re taking numbers and standing in line.) I can see why someone who works in a hushed library might prefer to see it become as lively as a cafe, street corner, park bench or the Apple Store, but we already have those places to go to when we want to sit and visit or to congregate around a screen. Where will we go when we need some peace?
For rich people, that’s not a problem. They live in spacious homes, glide along in hermetically sealed cars, book weekends in restful spas, dine in restaurants where the nearest table is 6 feet away. Quiet is one of the sweetest luxuries they’re able to afford. But most rich people don’t use libraries. For the rest of us, refuge from this cacophonous world is getting harder and harder to come by. Let’s hope librarians are listening to all the patrons asking them not to take it away.
from: Salon
by: Laura Miller
Librarians hate to be depicted as bun- and glasses-wearing shushers, hellbent on silencing any and all noisy activities within their sacred domain. Fair enough: Librarians are highly skilled, well-educated and socially aware as a rule, and should not be reduced to a cultural stereotype ranking only a notch or two above a church lady on the hipness scale.
Nevertheless, there’s a lot to be said for that shushing. I’ve long believed that one of the most precious resources libraries offer their patrons is simple quiet. Alas, for too long I’ve been forced to confine this sentiment to bar-stool rants because for all I knew I was being hopelessly retrograde. Libraries are constantly talking up the new — and often clamorous — services and activities they have added or plan to add in order to “better serve a diverse community” (and by extension, justify their continued funding in the eyes of public officials who like to appear forward-thinking). But take heart, seekers of serenity, for now we have data!
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center, “Library Services in the Digital Age,” polled a nationally representative sample of 2,252 Americans about what they get, and want, from public libraries. Like many such studies, the Pew survey is so focused on unusual programs and activities not typically associated with libraries that it tends to overlook the mere provision of a peaceful place to read and think. Nevertheless, the parts of the report dedicated to what people really want from their libraries makes the public’s wishes clear.
The two services that patrons regard as most essential in a library are “librarians to help people find information” and “borrowing books,” each rated as “very important” by 80 percent of respondents. Next comes “free access to computers and the Internet,” rated very important by 77 percent of those surveyed. No surprises there. These three services are what nearly everyone has come to regard as a public library’s core mission.
“Quiet study spaces for adults and children” comes in fourth, and here is where the results go rogue. The percentage of people who consider quiet spaces to be a very important element in any public library is 76, only one percentage point less than the value given to computer and Internet access. A relatively silent place to read is almost exactly as valuable to these people as the Internet!
According the Pew study, quiet matters more to library patrons than special programs for kids or job-search resources or access to fancy databases or classes and events or spaces for public meetings. It matters more to them than the ability to check out e-books or engage in “more interactive learning experiences” — areas that many library experts seem to regard as top priorities for the libraries of the future.
African-American and Hispanic respondents to the Pew survey rated the availability of computers and Internet access in libraries more highly than whites. The library has become a godsend to lower-income citizens who may not be able to afford their own computers at a time when society has become ever more dependent on them. But 89 percent of African-Americans (as well as 81 percent of urban residents and 81 percent of women) also consider quiet to be a very important provision. Poor people don’t just feel the lack of pricey communications tools. If you live with family members in crowded conditions, it isn’t easy to find the tranquility to read, study or write — which makes it that much harder to get the education you need to improve those conditions.
Granted, quiet isn’t a sexy or novel topic. Perhaps that’s why the handful of stories written about this survey — and the survey summary itself — ignore how highly the public rates quiet as a library service. Instead, the interpretation Pew promoted, and the angle taken up by Publishers Weekly and other trade publications, is that libraries have a marketing problem: The reason why patrons don’t rate libraries’ non-core activities and programs more highly is because they just don’t know about them. Maybe that’s true, and far be it from me to discourage any library from offering baby sitting or writing workshops or classes in estate planning — those are all boons to the community. But not at the expense of quiet.
Does expanding the library’s mission demand that patrons surrender the peace they seek there? Couldn’t libraries do both? Apparently not, to judge by the input the Pew researchers got from an “online panel of library staffers.” One of these contributors announced, “We need to change the concept of the library as a restricted, quiet space — we bustle, we rock, we engage, but so many people in the community do not know this.” Or maybe they’re hoping, like a commuter trapped on a train with a loudly chatty cellphone user, that it will just go away. Speaking of cellphones: “Libraries should be the social hub of the community,” said another library staffer, “and to do that the customers have to be able to use cellphones in the library, congregate around computers, sit and visit, laugh out loud and be noisy.”
The same person insisted that “the main part of the library should be devoted” to this hustle and bustle, while “quiet spaces should not be in any open areas, but should be in smaller cubicles.” (Given the popularity of quiet space, presumably patrons would end up waiting to get at those drab little cubicles, but, hey, at least they can laugh out loud and be noisy while they’re taking numbers and standing in line.) I can see why someone who works in a hushed library might prefer to see it become as lively as a cafe, street corner, park bench or the Apple Store, but we already have those places to go to when we want to sit and visit or to congregate around a screen. Where will we go when we need some peace?
For rich people, that’s not a problem. They live in spacious homes, glide along in hermetically sealed cars, book weekends in restful spas, dine in restaurants where the nearest table is 6 feet away. Quiet is one of the sweetest luxuries they’re able to afford. But most rich people don’t use libraries. For the rest of us, refuge from this cacophonous world is getting harder and harder to come by. Let’s hope librarians are listening to all the patrons asking them not to take it away.
from: Salon
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The most borrowed library books of 2012
With figures compiled too late for EL James to make an impression, borrowers favoured homicide over hanky-panky
by: John Dugdale
"Has EL James done it again?" is what you inevitably wonder, when approaching the latest annual chart for UK library loans. "Did she dominate sales rankings as she did last year? Did library users show just as much appetite for porn as bookshop customers?"
A quick glance at the chart will show that the emphatic answers are no, no and no: not only is the Fifty Shades trilogy not at the top, it's nowhere – as are last year's other erotica hits. As a result, the borrowings table looks more blokeish and less sexy than the all-2012 sales chart, where the top 10 was female-dominated: overall, 65 of the authors of the 100 most-borrowed books are men.
Perhaps some librarians were reluctant to stock porn. The difference between buying (where titles can be acquired impersonally online) and borrowing (where users typically hand titles to librarians for checking out) might also offer a partial explanation.
The main factor, however, is presumably not primness or diffidence but the chart's timeframe. The table, compiled by PLR – which distributed a total of £6.4m to 23,190 authors for 2011/12, at a rate of 6.20 pence per loan – covers borrowings up to the end of June last year, leaving little time for James's books to make an impression after their publication in April.
So, instead of switching to sex and spanking in America, borrowers stuck with 50 shades of US murder. The kind of crime fiction consumed is disparate, as shown by the top two titles: 10th Anniversary (1) is part of the Women's Murder Club series – think Sex and the City, but with homicide not hanky-panky as the girls' shared interest – while Worth Dying For (2) is a macho novel featuring Lee Child's nomadic vigilante Jack Reacher. Yet the demand for a US setting is consistent.
Exclude Child, who is British but lives in America and sets his books there, and the highest-placed UK author of fiction for adults is Martina Cole (21). Thereafter, the union flag is waved only sporadically, with single entries for crime writers such as Val McDermid (24), Peter Robinson (28), Dick and Felix Francis (32) and Peter James (63).
In stark contrast, James Patterson – who oversees a multi-genre fiction factory producing eight or more new titles a year – takes a credit on 15 of the 60 crime novels or thrillers in the top 100, usually as co-writer. Underlining the Americanisation of a chart previously ruled by Catherine Cookson and Jacqueline Wilson, he thereby continued his six-year reign as most-borrowed author.
Although gore also scored with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish library users, judging by broken-out top 10s for those countries that roughly correspond with the UK-wide picture, its appeal was not universal. Broadly speaking, the further north you go, the nastier the predominant reading matter borrowed, a pattern that might invite sociological, meteorological and even horological (fewer winter daylight hours) explanations.
In England's soft south, some regions departed radically from the nationwide preference for murder. London's top 10, for example, consists entirely of children's books (topped by three Jeff Kinney titles), as does most of the equivalent list for East Anglia, which was headed by Aliens Love Underpants!.
Overall, 11 children's titles made the top 100, with the children's laureate, Julia Donaldson, leading from the front with the ever-popular Gruffalo (6). For PLR, the good news story, at least partially offsetting the potentially depressing evidence of borrowers' ghoulishness, was the most borrowed authors rankings, where borrowing of multiple titles allowed Rainbow Magic creator Daisy Meadows (2), Donaldson (3), Francesca Simon (5), Wilson (6) and Mick Inkpen (9) to overleap crime-mongers placed higher in the most borrowed books list.
Children's writers performed even more strongly in the most borrowed classic authors chart, where Roald Dahl pipped Enid Blyton (though crustier chart-watchers might mentally disqualify them as classic – along with Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer – and so promote Charles Dickens from fifth to first). Borrowing of their books continues to rise, both numerically (81.8m children's fiction titles were borrowed in 2011/12) and as a proportion of all loans (now 37.4%, up from 35.9%).
It's surely no accident that the top-100 novel with the strongest literary credentials, Emma Donoghue's Booker- and Orange-shortlisted Room (79) concerns crime (it was inspired by the Josef Fritzl case). Of the few titles in the list that are not straightforwardly crime novels, kids' books, or love stories, many have thriller elements.
Donoghue apart, literary fiction is represented only by Kathryn Stockett (5), Maeve Binchy (10, 41), David Nicholls (42), Kate Atkinson (89) and Joanna Trollope (91), and whether some of those authors should be so classified is debatable. It's a markedly thinner showing than in 2010/11, when Stockett and Trollope were joined by Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby, Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters.
Non-fiction is once again wholly absent from the top 100, but the most-borrowed factual title was Bill Bryson's Home, followed by Kate McCann's Madeleine, Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, a guide to the driving theory test, and a stamp catalogue. Tony Blair, whose memoirs came 17th, perhaps surprisingly managed to beat Nigella Lawson, but in an especially quirky category chart the ex-PM was himself beaten by the Duchess of Devonshire.
from: Guardian
by: John Dugdale
"Has EL James done it again?" is what you inevitably wonder, when approaching the latest annual chart for UK library loans. "Did she dominate sales rankings as she did last year? Did library users show just as much appetite for porn as bookshop customers?"
A quick glance at the chart will show that the emphatic answers are no, no and no: not only is the Fifty Shades trilogy not at the top, it's nowhere – as are last year's other erotica hits. As a result, the borrowings table looks more blokeish and less sexy than the all-2012 sales chart, where the top 10 was female-dominated: overall, 65 of the authors of the 100 most-borrowed books are men.
Perhaps some librarians were reluctant to stock porn. The difference between buying (where titles can be acquired impersonally online) and borrowing (where users typically hand titles to librarians for checking out) might also offer a partial explanation.
The main factor, however, is presumably not primness or diffidence but the chart's timeframe. The table, compiled by PLR – which distributed a total of £6.4m to 23,190 authors for 2011/12, at a rate of 6.20 pence per loan – covers borrowings up to the end of June last year, leaving little time for James's books to make an impression after their publication in April.
So, instead of switching to sex and spanking in America, borrowers stuck with 50 shades of US murder. The kind of crime fiction consumed is disparate, as shown by the top two titles: 10th Anniversary (1) is part of the Women's Murder Club series – think Sex and the City, but with homicide not hanky-panky as the girls' shared interest – while Worth Dying For (2) is a macho novel featuring Lee Child's nomadic vigilante Jack Reacher. Yet the demand for a US setting is consistent.
Exclude Child, who is British but lives in America and sets his books there, and the highest-placed UK author of fiction for adults is Martina Cole (21). Thereafter, the union flag is waved only sporadically, with single entries for crime writers such as Val McDermid (24), Peter Robinson (28), Dick and Felix Francis (32) and Peter James (63).
In stark contrast, James Patterson – who oversees a multi-genre fiction factory producing eight or more new titles a year – takes a credit on 15 of the 60 crime novels or thrillers in the top 100, usually as co-writer. Underlining the Americanisation of a chart previously ruled by Catherine Cookson and Jacqueline Wilson, he thereby continued his six-year reign as most-borrowed author.
Although gore also scored with Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish library users, judging by broken-out top 10s for those countries that roughly correspond with the UK-wide picture, its appeal was not universal. Broadly speaking, the further north you go, the nastier the predominant reading matter borrowed, a pattern that might invite sociological, meteorological and even horological (fewer winter daylight hours) explanations.
In England's soft south, some regions departed radically from the nationwide preference for murder. London's top 10, for example, consists entirely of children's books (topped by three Jeff Kinney titles), as does most of the equivalent list for East Anglia, which was headed by Aliens Love Underpants!.
Overall, 11 children's titles made the top 100, with the children's laureate, Julia Donaldson, leading from the front with the ever-popular Gruffalo (6). For PLR, the good news story, at least partially offsetting the potentially depressing evidence of borrowers' ghoulishness, was the most borrowed authors rankings, where borrowing of multiple titles allowed Rainbow Magic creator Daisy Meadows (2), Donaldson (3), Francesca Simon (5), Wilson (6) and Mick Inkpen (9) to overleap crime-mongers placed higher in the most borrowed books list.
Children's writers performed even more strongly in the most borrowed classic authors chart, where Roald Dahl pipped Enid Blyton (though crustier chart-watchers might mentally disqualify them as classic – along with Agatha Christie and Georgette Heyer – and so promote Charles Dickens from fifth to first). Borrowing of their books continues to rise, both numerically (81.8m children's fiction titles were borrowed in 2011/12) and as a proportion of all loans (now 37.4%, up from 35.9%).
It's surely no accident that the top-100 novel with the strongest literary credentials, Emma Donoghue's Booker- and Orange-shortlisted Room (79) concerns crime (it was inspired by the Josef Fritzl case). Of the few titles in the list that are not straightforwardly crime novels, kids' books, or love stories, many have thriller elements.
Donoghue apart, literary fiction is represented only by Kathryn Stockett (5), Maeve Binchy (10, 41), David Nicholls (42), Kate Atkinson (89) and Joanna Trollope (91), and whether some of those authors should be so classified is debatable. It's a markedly thinner showing than in 2010/11, when Stockett and Trollope were joined by Sebastian Faulks, Nick Hornby, Hilary Mantel and Sarah Waters.
Non-fiction is once again wholly absent from the top 100, but the most-borrowed factual title was Bill Bryson's Home, followed by Kate McCann's Madeleine, Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, a guide to the driving theory test, and a stamp catalogue. Tony Blair, whose memoirs came 17th, perhaps surprisingly managed to beat Nigella Lawson, but in an especially quirky category chart the ex-PM was himself beaten by the Duchess of Devonshire.
from: Guardian
Monday, February 11, 2013
Price of a Bad Review
by: Colleen Flaherty
Librarian questions quality of a publishing house. Librarian publicly criticizes said press on his personal blog. Two years later, librarian and current employer get sued for libel and damages in excess of $4 million.
That’s been the progression of events for Dale Askey, associate university librarian at McMaster University in Ontario, where he’s been working since 2011. At the time of his blog post, in August 2010, Askey was a tenured associate professor at Kansas State University, where librarians are granted faculty status. He said his comments about Edwin Mellen Press, since removed from his blog, pertained to his work, assessing materials for potential inclusion in Kansas State’s library collection in a time of diminishing resources.
“It was, as such, my job to assess the quality of books, and I did so based on many years of experience in the field,” he said in an e-mail interview. “As budgets decrease, the necessity to be more discerning increases, yet libraries have reduced their qualified staff numbers over the years. As a qualified and experienced librarian, I was sharing a professional opinion for consumption by peers.”
Askey declined to say when or why he removed the post from his blog. According to court documents, Askey’s critique was posted as “The Curious Case of Edwin Mellen Press,” through early 2012, and referred to Mellen a “vanity press” with “few, if any, noted scholars serving as series editors,” benefiting largely from librarians not returning books sent for approval at “egregiously high prices.” (In the suit, Mellen refutes many of these claims, saying its average list price is lower than Askey alleged; that most books are sent out by special order and not through approval plans; and that books are edited by reputable scholars.)
Edwin Mellen Press, an academic publisher with offices in upstate New York and Britain, filed two lawsuits in June in Ontario’s Superior Court. The first implicates Askey and McMaster, his current employer and employer for some of the time the blog post was live, as "vicariously liable" for his statements, and claims libel and exemplary damages in the amount of $3.5 million. A second suit, filed against Askey alone, claims more than $1 million in similar damages (the individual suit names Herbert Richardson, press founder, as plaintiff and alleges additional, defamatory remarks directed against him personally on the blog).
Representatives from the press did not return requests for comments. Richardson’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
Askey said he was shocked by the complaints, which were filed shortly after he moved to Canada. “The librarian profession is one that values open dialogue and critical opinions,” he said. “This is especially true, perhaps, of academic librarianship, since many librarians are faculty members and thus have strongly held views regarding academic freedom.”
James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, called Mellen’s move “deeply concerning,” and a clear attempt to silence Askey’s exercise of academic freedom by legal action. One of the most disturbing aspects of the case, he said, is that McMaster has yet to provide Askey with legal support – something the association is trying to rectify by direct engagement with the university.
“This is very major matter,” said Turk. “It’s one of the more significant attacks on an academic staff person in Canada and the implications of it being successful or for [Askey] having to settle because he couldn’t afford to defend himself against the claims would be dire. It would be a sad day for academic freedom in this country.”
No court date has been set for either suit. Askey said he is currently paying his own legal bills for both suits, but said that he had reached out to Kansas State for support, “considering the principles at stake.”
Regarding McMaster’s reaction to the suits, Askey said only: “I enjoy the work I do at McMaster, appreciate the opportunities that have arisen here, and look forward to continuing my work here. They have my full professional support and dedication.”
McMaster University officials did not respond to initial requests for comment. Today, McMaster posted a public statement on the case, pledging its commitment to academic freedom: "In its Statement on Academic Freedom, McMaster University affirms the right of the academic community to engage in full and unrestricted consideration of any opinion. Beyond this commitment to teach and learn unhindered by non-academic constraints, the university strongly supports the exercise of free speech as a critical social good. For this reason, McMaster University has for more than 18 months rejected all demands and considerable pressure from the Edwin Mellen Press to repudiate the professional opinions of university librarian Dale Askey, notwithstanding the fact that those opinions were published on his personal blog several months before he joined McMaster." (Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to include McMaster's response.)
A Kansas State spokeswoman said the university doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Other members of the academy have publicly supported Askey, including Leslie Green, a professor of law at the University of Oxford with honorary adjunct faculty status at McMaster.
“Librarians are expert at making such judgments; that’s what universities pay them to do,” Green wrote on a recent Leiter Reports philosophy blog post that put Edwin Mellen Press at the bottom of a list of 34 "best book publishers of philosophy in English," based on a reader poll. “And [Askey’s] post made a key point about the public interest: ‘In a time when libraries cannot purchase so much of the first-class scholarship, there is simply no reason to support such ventures.’ ”
Another blog maintained by a Princeton University librarian, Academic Librarian, reports that Mellen sued the esteemed but now-defunct Lingua Franca magazine in 1993 for remarks similar to Askey’s but lost the case. Ironically, a book, The Edwin Mellen Press Versus Lingua Franca: A Case Study in the Law of Libel, was written about the case in 2006. The publisher? Edwin Mellen Press.
Green called McMaster’s “public silence” on the matter surprising and urged the university to support Askey. “Let’s hope someone at McMaster forcefully says ‘enough’ to this sort of bullying. Universities have a negative duty not to abridge the academic freedom of their members; they also have a positive duty to see to it that others do not do it either.”
Askey said his case, like others before, shows that although academics largely espouse their firm belief in academic freedom, “the integrity of true academic freedom is only as strong as the will and resources to defend it.”
from: Inside Higher Ed
Librarian questions quality of a publishing house. Librarian publicly criticizes said press on his personal blog. Two years later, librarian and current employer get sued for libel and damages in excess of $4 million.
That’s been the progression of events for Dale Askey, associate university librarian at McMaster University in Ontario, where he’s been working since 2011. At the time of his blog post, in August 2010, Askey was a tenured associate professor at Kansas State University, where librarians are granted faculty status. He said his comments about Edwin Mellen Press, since removed from his blog, pertained to his work, assessing materials for potential inclusion in Kansas State’s library collection in a time of diminishing resources.
“It was, as such, my job to assess the quality of books, and I did so based on many years of experience in the field,” he said in an e-mail interview. “As budgets decrease, the necessity to be more discerning increases, yet libraries have reduced their qualified staff numbers over the years. As a qualified and experienced librarian, I was sharing a professional opinion for consumption by peers.”
Askey declined to say when or why he removed the post from his blog. According to court documents, Askey’s critique was posted as “The Curious Case of Edwin Mellen Press,” through early 2012, and referred to Mellen a “vanity press” with “few, if any, noted scholars serving as series editors,” benefiting largely from librarians not returning books sent for approval at “egregiously high prices.” (In the suit, Mellen refutes many of these claims, saying its average list price is lower than Askey alleged; that most books are sent out by special order and not through approval plans; and that books are edited by reputable scholars.)
Edwin Mellen Press, an academic publisher with offices in upstate New York and Britain, filed two lawsuits in June in Ontario’s Superior Court. The first implicates Askey and McMaster, his current employer and employer for some of the time the blog post was live, as "vicariously liable" for his statements, and claims libel and exemplary damages in the amount of $3.5 million. A second suit, filed against Askey alone, claims more than $1 million in similar damages (the individual suit names Herbert Richardson, press founder, as plaintiff and alleges additional, defamatory remarks directed against him personally on the blog).
Representatives from the press did not return requests for comments. Richardson’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
Askey said he was shocked by the complaints, which were filed shortly after he moved to Canada. “The librarian profession is one that values open dialogue and critical opinions,” he said. “This is especially true, perhaps, of academic librarianship, since many librarians are faculty members and thus have strongly held views regarding academic freedom.”
James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, called Mellen’s move “deeply concerning,” and a clear attempt to silence Askey’s exercise of academic freedom by legal action. One of the most disturbing aspects of the case, he said, is that McMaster has yet to provide Askey with legal support – something the association is trying to rectify by direct engagement with the university.
“This is very major matter,” said Turk. “It’s one of the more significant attacks on an academic staff person in Canada and the implications of it being successful or for [Askey] having to settle because he couldn’t afford to defend himself against the claims would be dire. It would be a sad day for academic freedom in this country.”
No court date has been set for either suit. Askey said he is currently paying his own legal bills for both suits, but said that he had reached out to Kansas State for support, “considering the principles at stake.”
Regarding McMaster’s reaction to the suits, Askey said only: “I enjoy the work I do at McMaster, appreciate the opportunities that have arisen here, and look forward to continuing my work here. They have my full professional support and dedication.”
McMaster University officials did not respond to initial requests for comment. Today, McMaster posted a public statement on the case, pledging its commitment to academic freedom: "In its Statement on Academic Freedom, McMaster University affirms the right of the academic community to engage in full and unrestricted consideration of any opinion. Beyond this commitment to teach and learn unhindered by non-academic constraints, the university strongly supports the exercise of free speech as a critical social good. For this reason, McMaster University has for more than 18 months rejected all demands and considerable pressure from the Edwin Mellen Press to repudiate the professional opinions of university librarian Dale Askey, notwithstanding the fact that those opinions were published on his personal blog several months before he joined McMaster." (Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version to include McMaster's response.)
A Kansas State spokeswoman said the university doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Other members of the academy have publicly supported Askey, including Leslie Green, a professor of law at the University of Oxford with honorary adjunct faculty status at McMaster.
“Librarians are expert at making such judgments; that’s what universities pay them to do,” Green wrote on a recent Leiter Reports philosophy blog post that put Edwin Mellen Press at the bottom of a list of 34 "best book publishers of philosophy in English," based on a reader poll. “And [Askey’s] post made a key point about the public interest: ‘In a time when libraries cannot purchase so much of the first-class scholarship, there is simply no reason to support such ventures.’ ”
Another blog maintained by a Princeton University librarian, Academic Librarian, reports that Mellen sued the esteemed but now-defunct Lingua Franca magazine in 1993 for remarks similar to Askey’s but lost the case. Ironically, a book, The Edwin Mellen Press Versus Lingua Franca: A Case Study in the Law of Libel, was written about the case in 2006. The publisher? Edwin Mellen Press.
Green called McMaster’s “public silence” on the matter surprising and urged the university to support Askey. “Let’s hope someone at McMaster forcefully says ‘enough’ to this sort of bullying. Universities have a negative duty not to abridge the academic freedom of their members; they also have a positive duty to see to it that others do not do it either.”
Askey said his case, like others before, shows that although academics largely espouse their firm belief in academic freedom, “the integrity of true academic freedom is only as strong as the will and resources to defend it.”
from: Inside Higher Ed
Friday, February 8, 2013
Hiring the Next Wave of Multicultural Librarians
by: Rosa Ramirez
Jason Alston, a doctoral candidate in library and information science at the University of South Carolina, sometimes answers uncomfortable questions on why he selected his chosen career path.
For starters, he’s preparing for a career in librarianship, an industry largely dominated by white women. As an African-American male, Alston is what some would consider a double minority. Many of his friends and relatives wonder about his future after having spent many years earning a master’s and now a Ph.D. in library science. “What will you be doing all day?” “What’s the future viability of libraries?" Someone even teased him once, “That’s no kind of profession for a man.”
Alston says he believes those inquiries shine a light on reasons his profession is struggling to recruit and retain credential librarians of color.
Maureen Sullivan, president of the American Library Association, says that while libraries are eager to keep up with technology, books, magazines, and other services that match the needs of the patrons, they’re also committed to ensuring that librarians and staff understand the backgrounds and languages of the people they serve.
But more often than not, credential librarians—those with at least a master's degree in library and information science—don’t look like the people they serve, something industry leaders hope to change as the nation continues to rapidly diversify.
At the same time, the public has come to rely more on services as a result of the economic downturn, seeking everything from assistance with job searches, resume creation, books, and computer training, among other things, says Mark Puente, director of diversity and leadership programs at the Association of Research Libraries. “It has created an environment where libraries are being stretched. Resources are dwindling.”
“What we all know is that the complexion, the color, of this country is changing,” Sullivan says. “[Libraries] are deeply committed to inclusion and providing information resources, consultation, and general help so that patrons become effective members of the community.”
In 2006, Sullivan’s organization began documenting the demographic breakdown of the librarianship workforce, including those in academic, public, and school libraries. The American Library Association’s “Diversity Counts” report revealed that a significant majority of credential librarians were women between the ages of 45 and 54.
Believed to the be the first of its kind, the analysis found that fewer than 13 percent of the nearly 110,000 credential librarians, including those with at least a master’s degree in library science, were racial and ethnic minorities, an uptick from 9 percent in 1990. In 2000, academic librarians were slightly more diverse than their counterparts in public or school libraries, the study showed. “The 2000 data does not reflect the national recruitment efforts initiated by the ALA and others beginning in the late 1990s,” Keith Michael Fields, executive director for the association, lamented at the time the report was released.
Minorities weren’t doing much better a decade later. Of the 118,666 credential librarians, nearly 88 percent were white, the library association determined after it reviewed 2009-2010 American Community Survey data. Minorities working in the nation’s public libraries, academic and school branches had made small gains from 11 percent in 2000 to 12 percent in 2010. At 5.2 percent, African-Americans were the minority group to have the largest representation, followed by Latinos (3 percent) and Asian-Americans (2.3 percent).
For the librarian workforce to reach parity with the nation’s demographics, which is estimated at nearly 37 percent of the total U.S. population, Puente stresses, “we would have to hire tens of thousands of librarians of color. That’s not going to happen.”
Future of Librarianship
Puente stresses that the nation will see a wave of retirements in the next decade, creating a need for librarians in public and private settings.
This is among the top reasons Alston, who was a former print journalist, decided to get his master’s in library science at North Carolina Central University. Aside from helping others find information, he saw an industry with better salaries and perhaps more job security, something that he’s beginning to question as politicians across the country constantly threaten to slash funding for these institutions.
After finishing his master’s in 2008, he secured employment as the first diversity resident librarian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He worked as a reference librarian at Forsyth County Public Library in Winston-Salem before starting his doctoral program in 2011.
One way library associations are helping increase the pipeline of scholars trained in library science is by creating scholarship and mentorship programs for Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans to pursue librarianship careers.
One of the best-known programs is the American Library Association’s Spectrum Initiative, a multimillion-dollar effort to diversify the nation’s librarian workforce. Students receive financial support and professional development to fast-track their careers in library science.
Puente was one of those recipients. He first became interested in library science in 2003 while doing his graduate work at the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science.
Puente, who is the first in his family to obtain a college degree, noted that his father, who worked as brick mason, had one goal for his children: that they wouldn’t end up doing manual labor.
But when Puente told his parents he wanted to obtain a master’s degree in library science, his father couldn’t understand why his son wanted to spend more years in college to work putting books on shelves.
“That’s probably the biggest perception our profession has,” he said, adding that minority communities don’t understand the scope of the work, skills, and preparation necessary to become a librarian. One of his main missions, he said, is changing that perception among communities of color.
from: National Journal
Jason Alston, a doctoral candidate in library and information science at the University of South Carolina, sometimes answers uncomfortable questions on why he selected his chosen career path.
For starters, he’s preparing for a career in librarianship, an industry largely dominated by white women. As an African-American male, Alston is what some would consider a double minority. Many of his friends and relatives wonder about his future after having spent many years earning a master’s and now a Ph.D. in library science. “What will you be doing all day?” “What’s the future viability of libraries?" Someone even teased him once, “That’s no kind of profession for a man.”
Alston says he believes those inquiries shine a light on reasons his profession is struggling to recruit and retain credential librarians of color.
Maureen Sullivan, president of the American Library Association, says that while libraries are eager to keep up with technology, books, magazines, and other services that match the needs of the patrons, they’re also committed to ensuring that librarians and staff understand the backgrounds and languages of the people they serve.
But more often than not, credential librarians—those with at least a master's degree in library and information science—don’t look like the people they serve, something industry leaders hope to change as the nation continues to rapidly diversify.
At the same time, the public has come to rely more on services as a result of the economic downturn, seeking everything from assistance with job searches, resume creation, books, and computer training, among other things, says Mark Puente, director of diversity and leadership programs at the Association of Research Libraries. “It has created an environment where libraries are being stretched. Resources are dwindling.”
“What we all know is that the complexion, the color, of this country is changing,” Sullivan says. “[Libraries] are deeply committed to inclusion and providing information resources, consultation, and general help so that patrons become effective members of the community.”
In 2006, Sullivan’s organization began documenting the demographic breakdown of the librarianship workforce, including those in academic, public, and school libraries. The American Library Association’s “Diversity Counts” report revealed that a significant majority of credential librarians were women between the ages of 45 and 54.
Believed to the be the first of its kind, the analysis found that fewer than 13 percent of the nearly 110,000 credential librarians, including those with at least a master’s degree in library science, were racial and ethnic minorities, an uptick from 9 percent in 1990. In 2000, academic librarians were slightly more diverse than their counterparts in public or school libraries, the study showed. “The 2000 data does not reflect the national recruitment efforts initiated by the ALA and others beginning in the late 1990s,” Keith Michael Fields, executive director for the association, lamented at the time the report was released.
Minorities weren’t doing much better a decade later. Of the 118,666 credential librarians, nearly 88 percent were white, the library association determined after it reviewed 2009-2010 American Community Survey data. Minorities working in the nation’s public libraries, academic and school branches had made small gains from 11 percent in 2000 to 12 percent in 2010. At 5.2 percent, African-Americans were the minority group to have the largest representation, followed by Latinos (3 percent) and Asian-Americans (2.3 percent).
For the librarian workforce to reach parity with the nation’s demographics, which is estimated at nearly 37 percent of the total U.S. population, Puente stresses, “we would have to hire tens of thousands of librarians of color. That’s not going to happen.”
Future of Librarianship
Puente stresses that the nation will see a wave of retirements in the next decade, creating a need for librarians in public and private settings.
This is among the top reasons Alston, who was a former print journalist, decided to get his master’s in library science at North Carolina Central University. Aside from helping others find information, he saw an industry with better salaries and perhaps more job security, something that he’s beginning to question as politicians across the country constantly threaten to slash funding for these institutions.
After finishing his master’s in 2008, he secured employment as the first diversity resident librarian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He worked as a reference librarian at Forsyth County Public Library in Winston-Salem before starting his doctoral program in 2011.
One way library associations are helping increase the pipeline of scholars trained in library science is by creating scholarship and mentorship programs for Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, and Asian-Americans to pursue librarianship careers.
One of the best-known programs is the American Library Association’s Spectrum Initiative, a multimillion-dollar effort to diversify the nation’s librarian workforce. Students receive financial support and professional development to fast-track their careers in library science.
Puente was one of those recipients. He first became interested in library science in 2003 while doing his graduate work at the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science.
Puente, who is the first in his family to obtain a college degree, noted that his father, who worked as brick mason, had one goal for his children: that they wouldn’t end up doing manual labor.
But when Puente told his parents he wanted to obtain a master’s degree in library science, his father couldn’t understand why his son wanted to spend more years in college to work putting books on shelves.
“That’s probably the biggest perception our profession has,” he said, adding that minority communities don’t understand the scope of the work, skills, and preparation necessary to become a librarian. One of his main missions, he said, is changing that perception among communities of color.
from: National Journal
Thursday, February 7, 2013
New photos, videos and app shed fresh light on Anne Frank's family life
Archive documents, photos and video footage are released to the public for the first time in digital edition of Anne's diary
by: Vanessa Thorpe
Scrapbook pictures that give a bright glimpse of Anne Frank's life before her family went into hiding are among a wealth of unpublished material made public for Holocaust Memorial Day on Sunday.
The scrapbooks, thought to have been made by her father Otto, are held in the archives of the Anne Frank Fund and their release, with rare film footage, letters and pictures, is intended to give a broader picture of the Frank family.
"Anne's father was a keen amateur photographer, something that was more unusual at that time, and we have hundreds of images, mainly of special family occasions, but of friends too," said Yves Kugelmann, who sits on the board of the fund.
A photo of Anne with her elder sister and parents out together in May 1941 near their home in Amsterdam is a poignant reminder of the freedom they lost, while a jaunty image of Anne, taken by her sister Margot, shows her leaning over the balcony of a block of flats and letting her hair fly. The picture was meant to include their grandmother, Rosa, but a note in the scrapbook explains that she moved out of the way at the last moment.
Original documents, diary pages and footage are all included in the first app edition of The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal written by the teenage Frank during the two years she spent concealed from the Nazis in an annexe behind a warehouse.
The content of the app is drawn from archives held in Basel, Switzerland, where Otto Frank lived after the war, and has been assembled with the help of Frank's only surviving direct relative, Bernd Elias, known as Buddy. "I am happy to say that interest in Anna and her times is still strong, but bringing out this now is highly important for the future of her story," Elias told the Observer. "The new material gives it a completely different outlook."
In childhood Anne's elder cousin, Buddy, was the object of her dreams. Inside the annexe at Prinsengracht 263 she drew a picture of the outfit that she hoped to wear one day when she went ice-skating with him. Now 87, Elias works with the Anne Frank Foundation and is still committed to explaining the relevance of his cousin's story.
"It is a great thing that we have so much material available now for young people," he said. "In the past there was only the diary, now there are pictures and videos. Hatred, of course, and racism are still working away all over the world. They are with us. It is so important that children learn to respect all religions and all nationalities."
Tens of millions have read The Diary of a Young Girl since it was first published in 1947; readers of the app can now see the hiding place she shared from 6 July 1942 until 4 August 1944 with her parents, her sister, the Van Pels family and a dentist called Fritz Pfeffer.
Importantly for Kugelmann and Elias, the app also shows what was happening outside the annexe. While Helena Bonham Carter reads Anne's diary entries, users can watch videos of those who secretly helped the threatened Jewish family, or listen to original radio news broadcasts.
"When I knew Anne, she was a girl like every other girl," said Elias. "She was lovely and wild and we had a wonderful time playing together. But she was no real exception, although it is true that she just loved writing, even before she was in hiding. In a way, she was not somebody special, though. That was the point really." Although Frank was "great fun", Elias often thinks of the rest of her family too. "We know about Anne because of her writing, yet no one knows about her sister. Sometimes I can't believe that she went then too. And I know that Otto felt that. Margot was highly intelligent and was always the best in her class. Anne was one victim of millions, and all these victims were each people with their own characters."
Elias feels Anne's wider importance now is as the best known Holocaust victim. "She has become an icon of that time, and now I think about her every day because of my work. I get mail sent to me almost every day and I answer them all."
The Anne Frank Fund makes no profits and invests in education projects, so its commercial ventures are carefully chosen. Elias believes his cousin's legacy is liable to exploitation. "I hated to see the musical. She is used sometimes for things that are not right. There were even some Anne Frank jeans at one time. Horrible ideas."
At the same time it is "heartwarming", Elias says, that she is read all over the world. Penguin General's app also includes 21 video clips from the Oscar-winning documentary Anne Frank Remembered and several audio recordings, including a commentary from Miep Gies, one of those who risked her life to help Anne.
But schoolchildren will not, of course, be spared the last chapter of Frank's story. Her time in hiding ended on a summer's day when the Austrian Nazi SS Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer entered the annexe. Those inside were all taken away and Frank went first to the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, then on to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, where she died from typhus three months before her 16th birthday.
from: Guardian
by: Vanessa Thorpe
Scrapbook pictures that give a bright glimpse of Anne Frank's life before her family went into hiding are among a wealth of unpublished material made public for Holocaust Memorial Day on Sunday.
The scrapbooks, thought to have been made by her father Otto, are held in the archives of the Anne Frank Fund and their release, with rare film footage, letters and pictures, is intended to give a broader picture of the Frank family.
"Anne's father was a keen amateur photographer, something that was more unusual at that time, and we have hundreds of images, mainly of special family occasions, but of friends too," said Yves Kugelmann, who sits on the board of the fund.
A photo of Anne with her elder sister and parents out together in May 1941 near their home in Amsterdam is a poignant reminder of the freedom they lost, while a jaunty image of Anne, taken by her sister Margot, shows her leaning over the balcony of a block of flats and letting her hair fly. The picture was meant to include their grandmother, Rosa, but a note in the scrapbook explains that she moved out of the way at the last moment.
Original documents, diary pages and footage are all included in the first app edition of The Diary of a Young Girl, the journal written by the teenage Frank during the two years she spent concealed from the Nazis in an annexe behind a warehouse.
The content of the app is drawn from archives held in Basel, Switzerland, where Otto Frank lived after the war, and has been assembled with the help of Frank's only surviving direct relative, Bernd Elias, known as Buddy. "I am happy to say that interest in Anna and her times is still strong, but bringing out this now is highly important for the future of her story," Elias told the Observer. "The new material gives it a completely different outlook."
In childhood Anne's elder cousin, Buddy, was the object of her dreams. Inside the annexe at Prinsengracht 263 she drew a picture of the outfit that she hoped to wear one day when she went ice-skating with him. Now 87, Elias works with the Anne Frank Foundation and is still committed to explaining the relevance of his cousin's story.
"It is a great thing that we have so much material available now for young people," he said. "In the past there was only the diary, now there are pictures and videos. Hatred, of course, and racism are still working away all over the world. They are with us. It is so important that children learn to respect all religions and all nationalities."
Tens of millions have read The Diary of a Young Girl since it was first published in 1947; readers of the app can now see the hiding place she shared from 6 July 1942 until 4 August 1944 with her parents, her sister, the Van Pels family and a dentist called Fritz Pfeffer.
Importantly for Kugelmann and Elias, the app also shows what was happening outside the annexe. While Helena Bonham Carter reads Anne's diary entries, users can watch videos of those who secretly helped the threatened Jewish family, or listen to original radio news broadcasts.
"When I knew Anne, she was a girl like every other girl," said Elias. "She was lovely and wild and we had a wonderful time playing together. But she was no real exception, although it is true that she just loved writing, even before she was in hiding. In a way, she was not somebody special, though. That was the point really." Although Frank was "great fun", Elias often thinks of the rest of her family too. "We know about Anne because of her writing, yet no one knows about her sister. Sometimes I can't believe that she went then too. And I know that Otto felt that. Margot was highly intelligent and was always the best in her class. Anne was one victim of millions, and all these victims were each people with their own characters."
Elias feels Anne's wider importance now is as the best known Holocaust victim. "She has become an icon of that time, and now I think about her every day because of my work. I get mail sent to me almost every day and I answer them all."
The Anne Frank Fund makes no profits and invests in education projects, so its commercial ventures are carefully chosen. Elias believes his cousin's legacy is liable to exploitation. "I hated to see the musical. She is used sometimes for things that are not right. There were even some Anne Frank jeans at one time. Horrible ideas."
At the same time it is "heartwarming", Elias says, that she is read all over the world. Penguin General's app also includes 21 video clips from the Oscar-winning documentary Anne Frank Remembered and several audio recordings, including a commentary from Miep Gies, one of those who risked her life to help Anne.
But schoolchildren will not, of course, be spared the last chapter of Frank's story. Her time in hiding ended on a summer's day when the Austrian Nazi SS Oberscharführer Karl Silberbauer entered the annexe. Those inside were all taken away and Frank went first to the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands, then on to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, where she died from typhus three months before her 16th birthday.
from: Guardian
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Library under fire after offering free pole-dancing lessons to encourage users
A council has come under fire for offering free pole-dancing lessons and using books as tennis bats in a bid to encourage more people to use libraries.
by: Rachael Stubbins
While guests swing on poles, local singers will perform and there will be sessions on novel writing. Books will be used as bats in games of "booky table tennis" sessions held through-out the day.
Council bosses at Midlothian Council in Scotland hailed the unusual event as the first as its kind, calling it a "fun and interesting" way of encouraging people to use libraries in the area.
But Laura Swaffield, chairman of The Library Campaign, said that while pole-dancing was a novel approach to whipping up interest in local services, using books as table tennis bats was "just a step too far".
"We all agree in particular that the more that people use our libraries the better but I think using books as tennis bats is just a step too far," she said.
"Pole dancing is a new way of drumming up support so I suppose if it works what the hell, we may as well give it a try. But books as tennis bats? I'm absolutely appalled."
Bob Constable, Midlothian Council's Cabinet member for public services and leisure, defended the decision saying that the council had decided to host the pole-dancing event as a "fitness session".
Ultimately, he said, it was a "fun and interesting" way of encouraging more people to borrow books and try out local library services.
He added: ''But it's not just pole fitness on offer. I'm delighted to see such a wide range of free and exciting events organised to mark this special occasion.''
Other activities on offer in Midlothian including country dancing, head massages and an Xbox challenge. Local musicians are also performing, and sessions will be held for hopeful authors on how to write a novel.
The pole-dancing event is being held on Love Your Library Day – February 2 – at Mayfield Library in Dalkeith.
The pole dancing class is for over-16s only.
from: Telegraph
by: Rachael Stubbins
While guests swing on poles, local singers will perform and there will be sessions on novel writing. Books will be used as bats in games of "booky table tennis" sessions held through-out the day.
Council bosses at Midlothian Council in Scotland hailed the unusual event as the first as its kind, calling it a "fun and interesting" way of encouraging people to use libraries in the area.
But Laura Swaffield, chairman of The Library Campaign, said that while pole-dancing was a novel approach to whipping up interest in local services, using books as table tennis bats was "just a step too far".
"We all agree in particular that the more that people use our libraries the better but I think using books as tennis bats is just a step too far," she said.
"Pole dancing is a new way of drumming up support so I suppose if it works what the hell, we may as well give it a try. But books as tennis bats? I'm absolutely appalled."
Bob Constable, Midlothian Council's Cabinet member for public services and leisure, defended the decision saying that the council had decided to host the pole-dancing event as a "fitness session".
Ultimately, he said, it was a "fun and interesting" way of encouraging more people to borrow books and try out local library services.
He added: ''But it's not just pole fitness on offer. I'm delighted to see such a wide range of free and exciting events organised to mark this special occasion.''
Other activities on offer in Midlothian including country dancing, head massages and an Xbox challenge. Local musicians are also performing, and sessions will be held for hopeful authors on how to write a novel.
The pole-dancing event is being held on Love Your Library Day – February 2 – at Mayfield Library in Dalkeith.
The pole dancing class is for over-16s only.
from: Telegraph
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
E-Readers Track How We Read, But Is The Data Useful To Authors?
by: Lynn Neary
Reading always seemed to be the most private of acts: just you and your imagination immersed in another world. But now, if you happen to be curled up with an e-reader, you're not alone.
Data is being collected about your reading habits. That information belongs to the companies that sell e-readers, like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And they can share — or sell — that information if they like. One official at Barnes & Noble has said sharing that data with publishers might "help authors create even better books."
The data is also, of course, a brilliant marketing tool. Best-selling author Scott Turow says e-readers can collect a lot of information about their owners.
"You can tell everything about how somebody reads a book," says Turow, "whether they are the kind that skips to the end, how fast they read, what they skip ... So [data from e-readers] can give the author specific feedback. You know, '35 percent of the people who bought this book quit after the first two chapters.' "
A Writer's Skepticism
Turow, who is also president of the professional society The Authors Guild, says this kind of information can be very useful to a writer.
"I would love to know if 35 percent of my readers were quitting after the first two chapters," Turow says, "because that frankly strikes me as, sometimes, a problem I could fix. Would I love to hitch the equivalent of a polygraph to my readers and know how they are responding word by word? That would be quite interesting."
There's no question that writers are keenly interested in how readers respond to their work, says novelist Jonathan Evison. But, he says, that doesn't mean a writer wants to tailor his work just to please the reader.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about the reader all the time. I always think about the reader," says Evison. "I'm trying to create an effect for the reader, and sort of engage them in a sort of collaborative dance ... But I'm still trying to be the leader."
The idea that data collected from e-readers might be used by publishers to improve a writer's work strikes Evison as wrong. It feels like creating by committee, he says, and reminds him of the days when he worked in commercial radio and met with general managers and program directors.
"When I was in commercial radio, the GMs [general managers] and the PDs [program directors] would sit me down and they'd show me thick packets of research that were all demographics: 'With focus groups, we did studies ... These are the 100 songs we want you to play because these are what people like best. And this is what we want you to talk about, these are the evergreen subjects, like, people like topical.' They would tell me all this, and what would happen is ... my show started to lose its voice."
E-Reader Data For 'Moby Dick'?
What would have happened, asks Evison, if this kind of research had been around when some of the world's greatest and most challenging books were written — War and Peace, Ulysses, Moby Dick?
"Moby Dick is one of my favorite books, but let's face it — it's a hot mess," says Evison. "If I had software that said, 'Look, maybe this four-page essay on scrimshaw isn't gonna fly with your 28 to 40 male [demographic],' what would we have lost with that? Sometimes, you know, it's just got to be a little bit of a dictatorship."
There is nothing collaborative about writing a novel, says Turow: It is one person's vision. On the other hand, he says, it makes sense for publishers to try to figure out what readers want. After all, publishers are trying to make money.
"There's a certain logic to that from the business side," Turow says. "Why should we publish this book if 11 readers out of 12 can't make it past page 36? But the 12th reader may be more discerning in her tastes, and it could turn out that what the people are thumbing their nose at is Ulysses or the novels of [William] Faulkner."
Marketing Vs. Creativity
Of course, there are different kinds of novels. Turow writes best-selling legal thrillers. Jennifer Egan writes literary fiction. In her most recent book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan played with the form of the novel. And although it was commercially successful and critically well-received, Egan says she knows that for some readers, the novel just didn't work.
"When I hear that someone couldn't connect with Goon Squad, I really do feel I failed that person," Egan says. "I don't at all subscribe to this idea that they just 'didn't get it.' And I'm sorry about it. That being said, I think it is silly and kind of childish to expect to write a book like Goon Squad, which is idiosyncratic, does not follow a lot of the narrative conventions we've come to expect from contemporary novels, is not straightforward — I think one can't do all that and expect to be loved by everyone."
Egan suspects that information drawn from an e-book would show that a lot of readers skipped over one chapter in particular, which was written as a PowerPoint presentation.
"While I respect the opinions of those who didn't connect with that PowerPoint chapter and I really am sympathetic as someone who is kind of alienated by PowerPoint," Egan says, "I believe that chapter is the heart of the book. And I think without it, the experience of the book is not complete. And I say that knowing that many people were alienated by it. And I guess this speaks to the question of how important market research really would be for me as a creative person ... [It's] interesting to know, but should not really be predictive or part of the creative process."
And anyway, Egan says, she doubts Faulkner would have changed one word of Absalom, Absalom! on the basis of market research.
from: NPR
Reading always seemed to be the most private of acts: just you and your imagination immersed in another world. But now, if you happen to be curled up with an e-reader, you're not alone.
Data is being collected about your reading habits. That information belongs to the companies that sell e-readers, like Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And they can share — or sell — that information if they like. One official at Barnes & Noble has said sharing that data with publishers might "help authors create even better books."
The data is also, of course, a brilliant marketing tool. Best-selling author Scott Turow says e-readers can collect a lot of information about their owners.
"You can tell everything about how somebody reads a book," says Turow, "whether they are the kind that skips to the end, how fast they read, what they skip ... So [data from e-readers] can give the author specific feedback. You know, '35 percent of the people who bought this book quit after the first two chapters.' "
A Writer's Skepticism
Turow, who is also president of the professional society The Authors Guild, says this kind of information can be very useful to a writer.
"I would love to know if 35 percent of my readers were quitting after the first two chapters," Turow says, "because that frankly strikes me as, sometimes, a problem I could fix. Would I love to hitch the equivalent of a polygraph to my readers and know how they are responding word by word? That would be quite interesting."
There's no question that writers are keenly interested in how readers respond to their work, says novelist Jonathan Evison. But, he says, that doesn't mean a writer wants to tailor his work just to please the reader.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about the reader all the time. I always think about the reader," says Evison. "I'm trying to create an effect for the reader, and sort of engage them in a sort of collaborative dance ... But I'm still trying to be the leader."
The idea that data collected from e-readers might be used by publishers to improve a writer's work strikes Evison as wrong. It feels like creating by committee, he says, and reminds him of the days when he worked in commercial radio and met with general managers and program directors.
"When I was in commercial radio, the GMs [general managers] and the PDs [program directors] would sit me down and they'd show me thick packets of research that were all demographics: 'With focus groups, we did studies ... These are the 100 songs we want you to play because these are what people like best. And this is what we want you to talk about, these are the evergreen subjects, like, people like topical.' They would tell me all this, and what would happen is ... my show started to lose its voice."
E-Reader Data For 'Moby Dick'?
What would have happened, asks Evison, if this kind of research had been around when some of the world's greatest and most challenging books were written — War and Peace, Ulysses, Moby Dick?
"Moby Dick is one of my favorite books, but let's face it — it's a hot mess," says Evison. "If I had software that said, 'Look, maybe this four-page essay on scrimshaw isn't gonna fly with your 28 to 40 male [demographic],' what would we have lost with that? Sometimes, you know, it's just got to be a little bit of a dictatorship."
There is nothing collaborative about writing a novel, says Turow: It is one person's vision. On the other hand, he says, it makes sense for publishers to try to figure out what readers want. After all, publishers are trying to make money.
"There's a certain logic to that from the business side," Turow says. "Why should we publish this book if 11 readers out of 12 can't make it past page 36? But the 12th reader may be more discerning in her tastes, and it could turn out that what the people are thumbing their nose at is Ulysses or the novels of [William] Faulkner."
Marketing Vs. Creativity
Of course, there are different kinds of novels. Turow writes best-selling legal thrillers. Jennifer Egan writes literary fiction. In her most recent book, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Egan played with the form of the novel. And although it was commercially successful and critically well-received, Egan says she knows that for some readers, the novel just didn't work.
"When I hear that someone couldn't connect with Goon Squad, I really do feel I failed that person," Egan says. "I don't at all subscribe to this idea that they just 'didn't get it.' And I'm sorry about it. That being said, I think it is silly and kind of childish to expect to write a book like Goon Squad, which is idiosyncratic, does not follow a lot of the narrative conventions we've come to expect from contemporary novels, is not straightforward — I think one can't do all that and expect to be loved by everyone."
Egan suspects that information drawn from an e-book would show that a lot of readers skipped over one chapter in particular, which was written as a PowerPoint presentation.
"While I respect the opinions of those who didn't connect with that PowerPoint chapter and I really am sympathetic as someone who is kind of alienated by PowerPoint," Egan says, "I believe that chapter is the heart of the book. And I think without it, the experience of the book is not complete. And I say that knowing that many people were alienated by it. And I guess this speaks to the question of how important market research really would be for me as a creative person ... [It's] interesting to know, but should not really be predictive or part of the creative process."
And anyway, Egan says, she doubts Faulkner would have changed one word of Absalom, Absalom! on the basis of market research.
from: NPR
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