Bologna Recap: Are Teens “Snapping Back” to Print?

by: Edward Nawotka

The latest StatShot from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for the month of November 2012 shows an ongoing explosion in YA sales — indicating a +141% increase in ebook sales against the same month in 2011 (vs. 17% for print, and -2% for paperback). YA books sold $1.56 billion for the month, of which $222 million were ebooks.


And yet, teens appear to be “snapping back to print,” said Kristen McLean at the Tools of Change Bologna conference on Sunday morning, just prior to the opening of Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Sales for YA ebooks represent just 20% of the segment, versus 15% for children’s books in general and just 2% for picture and story books.

“All the indicators are taking me towards this idea. Print and ebooks are a known quantity for these readers. We’re watching this to see if this is going to be an ongoing trend,” added McLean.

Could this ongoing preference for print be because the digital titles available to them are underwhelming in relation to competing forms of digital entertainment? Or is it more a question of the lower percentage of teens who have access to digital reading devices, with just 13-14% of teens owning an e-reader and 20% having an iPad or tablet?

from: Publishing Perspectives

Folding shelves

E-books mean a plot twist for public libraries and publishers

PLASTERED on the wall of San Francisco’s main public library are 50,000 index cards, formerly entries in the library’s catalogue. The tomes they refer to may be becoming decorative, too. Not only can library patrons now search the collection online, they may also check out electronic books without visiting the library. For librarians, “e-lending” is a natural offer in the digital age. Publishers and booksellers fear it could unbind their business.
Worries about the effect of libraries on the book trade are not new. But digital devices, which allow books to reach readers with ease and speed, intensify them. As Brian Napack, president of Macmillan, a big publisher, put it in 2011, the fear is that someone who gets a library card will “never have to buy a book again”.

A printed book can be borrowed only during opening hours and at the library, so many readers save themselves the hassle and buy their own copy. But e-lending is frictionless: any user with the right privileges can download a digital file instantly (at the end of the borrowing period it self-destructs). This raises big issues: must libraries buy many copies of an e-book, or just one? And what about security? A hacker who cracks the library’s system could pirate everything it holds.
In publishers’ eyes librarians are “sitting close to Satan”, declared Phil Bradley, president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. He was addressing indignant librarians who recently gathered in London to swap tales of e-lending woe. Some publishers have refused to sell their e-books to public libraries, made them prohibitively costly or put severe restrictions on their use. Although 71% of British public libraries lend out e-books, 85% of e-book titles are not available in public libraries, according to Mr Bradley. In America the average public library makes available only 4,350 e-books (Amazon, an online retail giant, stocks more than 1.7m).

Under copyright law, anyone who buys a printed book can lend or rent it, but the same does not apply to digital works. Libraries do not own these outright. Instead they must negotiate licensing deals for each book they want to lend. They put the e-collections on servers run by computer firms such as OverDrive and 3M, which typically charge around $20,000 annually, plus a fee for each book.

No country has a settled policy on e-lending. Britain has ordered a review; the results are expected soon. Other governments are waiting for publishers to set their terms. In America, where around three-quarters of public libraries lend e-books, each of the “big six” publishers has a different policy. Simon & Schuster refuses to make e-books available to public libraries at all. HarperCollins’s e-books expire after they have been lent 26 times. At the 80 libraries where Penguin is offering a pilot e-lending programme, licences for its e-books expire after a year. Other publishers want to apply the limitations of printed books to digital ones. For example, some want public libraries to replace e-books periodically, just as they have to do with real books that get dirty and torn.

Several other experiments are in the works. Canada is planning a national e-lending platform, so libraries would not have to have their e-book collections hosted by third parties. Small Canadian publishers actually favour e-lending because the library market there accounts for as much as 40% of their business, says Paul Whitney, formerly of Vancouver Public Library. In America libraries make up only around 5% of sales.

New book, new story

Some libraries have tried paying publishers each time an e-book is lent out. In Denmark libraries used to pay around 17 Danish kroner ($3) per digital loan, but even with a price as high as that the country’s largest publisher pulled out. It feared that e-lending was cannibalising print sales. Besides, in some countries it is illegal to charge people for library use. Some want the industry to offer subscriptions for bundles of books, much as universities buy their academic journals. However, publishers worry that this may degrade customers’ and libraries’ perceptions about the value of books.

E-lending may reduce publishers’ control of their books, but it also takes power away from libraries. Relying on outsiders’ servers to host e-collections can mean legal hassles (it can be hard or impossible to switch providers) and worries about privacy. Alan Inouye of the American Library Association notes that libraries jealously guard data about users’ borrowing habits. But e-lending leaves new, digital traces that publishers could exploit.

An even bigger worry for both libraries and publishers is competition. In 2011 Amazon launched an e-lending programme in America. It has since expanded it to Britain, France and Germany. Customers who sign up for Amazon’s “prime” bundle of services, which offers free delivery and streamed movies for an annual fee, can also borrow a book each month on their Kindles, Amazon’s e-reading device. So far no works from big publishers are available. Librarians are irked by this, but not yet anxious. Laura Lent, the chief of collections at the San Francisco Public Library, notes that lending from her shelves, unlike Amazon’s, is free of charge.

Librarians and the book industry have different interests. But without getting future generations into the book-reading habit, both will perish, says Stuart Hamilton of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. Library lending plays a big if unquantifiable role in nurturing a love of reading.

Some even wonder if e-lending is in the libraries’ interests, since it encourages people to stay at home, rather than use them as a public space (one reason why they enjoy taxpayers’ backing). One critic privately calls e-lending the “Librarian Unemployment Act of 2013”. But Pew, a research firm, reckons 62% of American libraries are the only source of free internet access and computers in their communities. Many patrons also come in to ask for help with learning to use their e-readers. The libraries’ story has plenty more pages yet.

from: The Economist

Would More People Use the Public Library If It Had a Water Slide?

by: John Metcalfe

In 2010, Poland's National Library performed a survey to determine the reading habits of the Polish citizenry. The results were not buoying: 56 percent of Poles had not read a book in the past year, either in hard or electronic form. Just as bad was that 46 percent had not attempted to digest anything longer than three pages in the previous month – and this included students and university graduates.

But who's to blame here: The willfully non-literate masses for not trekking to the public library? Or is it the library's fault for not attracting these individuals, what with its classically stodgy, hermetic-cage-for-learning design?

At least one Polish architect believes libraries should bear some of the blame for a lack of reading. Hugon Kowalski, who runs UGO Architecture and Design, thinks that no matter how grand or inspiring a library's appearance is, many people will not flock to it unless it offers amenities other than plopping down with a book. “A modern building will not attract new users to a library, at least not in the long run," he writes. "People interested in its novelty will probably go there only once.”

So Kowalski conceived of a new kind of library that he hopes will one day be built in Mosina, a town just south of Poznań. On its first floor, it's all bibliotheca: Patrons squat on moddish stools among stacks and stacks of books. But then it gets weird: In the middle of the library is a glass column full of water and flailing human bodies. Go up one level and you're suddenly in the middle of a vast swimming facility, complete with a snaking water slide that takes whooping swimmers on a ride inside and outside of the building.

Kowalski got to thinking about his watery wonderland of reading after consulting surveys that showed Poles "rarely indicated" a desire to build new libraries. Rather, they wanted to see more sports halls, pools, kindergartens and retail shops. So the architect decided to supply the public with a fun reason to repeatedly visit a mixed-use library facility. If it so happens that bathers exit the pool's locker room with a fierce desire to consume Hans Fallada, that's just a happy side effect of the building's design.

The cost of operating the library could conceivably be subsidized with the above-ground pool, Kowalski believes. Such libraries would "parasitize" on their neighbor facilities, with the revenues generated from charging pool admission going toward librarian salaries, book repair and other things. The mixed-use library is an idea that a few cities over the world have already experimented with. The Hague's public library tries to throw a net over a large audience by offering jazz concerts, art shows and a piano-practice room. The Hollywood Library in Portland, Oregan, entices potential readers with an adjoining cafe offering coffee and buttery pastries.

Here are a few more renderings of the poolbrary from Kowalski's portfolio, which also includes this beehive-shaped parking garage and a Barcelona “rock hostel” that literally is a pile of rocks, meant for mountain-climbing practice. In this imagined scene, chlorinated patrons take to an open-air balcony to soak in the weirdly grayish Polish sunlight:

A view inside reveals columned book stacks, an outdoor reading area and the see-through bottom of the pool:

The works of Ryszard Kapuściński only get better when savored after a brutal, no-holds-barred pool-noodle fight:

Here are some of the other uses that UGO conceived for a mixed-use library structure, such as a skate park, grocery store, night club, etc., etc.: 

from: The Atlantic Cities

Canada's federal librarians fear being 'muzzled'

by: Margaret Munro

Federal librarians and archivists who set foot in classrooms, attend conferences or speak up at public meetings on their own time are engaging in “high risk” activities, according to the new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada.

Given the dangers, the code says the department’s staff must clear such “personal” activities with their managers in advance to ensure there are no conflicts or “other risks to LAC.”

The code, which stresses federal employees’ “duty of loyalty” to the “duly elected government,” also spells out how offenders can be reported.

“It includes both a muzzle and a snitch line,” says James Turk, executive director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents more than 68,000 teachers, librarians, researchers and academics across the country.

He and others say the code is evidence the Harper government is silencing and undermining its professional staff.

“Once you start picking on librarians and archivists, it’s pretty sad,” says Toni Samek, a professor of library and information studies at the University of Alberta. She specializes in intellectual freedom and describes several clauses in the code as “severe” and “outrageous.”

The code is already having a “chilling” effect on federal archivists and librarians, who used to be encouraged to actively engage and interact with groups interested in everything from genealogy to preserving historical documents, says archivist Loryl MacDonald at the University of Toronto.

“It is very disturbing and disconcerting to have included speaking at conferences and teaching as so-called ‘high risk’ activities,” says MacDonald, who is president of the Association of Canadian Archivists, a non-profit group representing some 600 archivists across the country.

She says the association’s board will ask Daniel Caron, deputy head of Library and Archives Canada, for clarification about the code and its “harsh” wording.

MacDonald says federal archivists are leaders in the field both nationally and internationally and have traditionally spent a lot of personal time on professional activities.

They have served as editors for publications such as Archivaria, a widely cited journal, written about developments and issues in the archival world and led workshops for historical and genealogy groups.

“Could someone from the LAC be on the editorial board of a journal that contains an article critical of LAC?” MacDonald asks. “The code appears to now rule out such activities, unless they are sanctioned by managers at the LAC.”

Given the wording of the code, she says it appears the government no longer trusts its professional staff. “It’s really tragic,” she says.

The code — “Library and Archives Canada’s Code of Conduct: Values and Ethics” — came into effect in January, says Richard Provencher, LAC’s senior communications adviser.

He says the code was written by LAC in response to the April 2012 Values and Ethics Code for the public sector, which called for federal departments to establish their own codes of conduct.

Provencher said by email that information sessions for employees are being held to ensure the new code “is known and understood by all.”

“LAC has invited all of its employees to provide feedback and suggestions during the ongoing information sessions,” Provencher said. The feedback will “ inform any future iterations of our code,” he said.

The 23-page document is to be followed by everyone at LAC from full-time staff to students, volunteers and contractors. It spells out values, potential conflicts of interest and expected behaviours, both on the job and off.

“As public servants, our duty of loyalty to the Government of Canada and its elected officials extends beyond our workplace to our personal activities,” the code says, adding that public servants “must maintain awareness of their surroundings, their audience and how their words or actions could be interpreted (or misinterpreted).”

It points to the dangers of social media. ”For example, in a blog with access limited to certain friends, personal opinions about a new departmental or Government of Canada program intended to be expressed to a limited audience can, through no fault of the public servant, become public and the author identified.”

“The public servant could be subject to disciplinary measures, as the simple act of limiting access to the blog does not negate a public servant’s duty of loyalty to the elected government,” says the code. “Only authorized spokespersons can issue statements or make comments about LAC’s position on a given subject.”

One of the most contentious sections of the code deals with “teaching, speaking at conferences, and other personal engagements.”

“On occasion, LAC employees may be asked by third parties to teach or to speak at or be a guest at conferences as a personal activity or part-time employment,” it says. “Such activities have been identified as high risk to LAC and to the employee with regard to conflict of interest, conflict of duties and duty of loyalty.”

The code says employees may accept such invitations “as personal activities” if six conditions are met: The subject of the activity is not related to the LAC’s mandate or activities; the employee is not presented as speaking for or being an expert of LAC or the Government of Canada; the third party that made the invitation is not a potential or current supplier or collaborator with LAC; the third party does not lobby or advocate with LAC and does not receive grants, funding or payments from LAC; and the employee has discussed the invitation with his or her manager “who has documented confirmation that the activity does not conflict with the employee’s duties at LAC or present other risks to LAC.”

MacDonald, Turk and Samek say the six conditions appear to rule out federal librarians or archivists interacting on their own time with academics or heritage or genealogy groups and associations, as they may lobby, collaborate and receive funding from the LAC.

“If I worked there and my kid’s school invited me to talk about my work as an archivist in Canada, I’m not sure I’d even feel comfortable doing that,” says Samek.

She says it is ironic, and disturbing, that the code is being applied at an institution meant to be dedicated to the preservation and sharing of information.

“This is a cultural icon we are talking about,” says Samek, who expects the code to have a “demoralizing, self-censuring” effect on the LAC staff.

Provencher had no comment when asked to explain why teaching and attending conferences are identified as “high risk” or why interacting with individuals or groups that interact with the LAC has been ruled out.

John Smart, who recently retired from archival teaching at Algonquin College and worked for almost 20 years at LAC, says it used to be considered an “honour” for LAC staff to be invited to talk at conferences. “It wasn’t seen as high risk but as high benefit,” says Smart.

Like MacDonald, he notes that staff from the LAC have worked on their own time over the years to help foster Canada’s national and provincial archivist associations and groups.

Smart suspects the new code reflects a “generalized suspicion of public servants” by the Harper government. And he says LAC managers are likely not keen to have staff fielding questions about funding cuts and changes at LAC, which are eliminating several specialist archive positions; moving to digitalize materials; and reducing public access to archival collections.

“My perception of Library and Archives Canada is that it’s an institution in great trouble generally,” says Smart. “It is making decisions and changing policies that are making both its employees and its clientele upset.”

from: Ottawa Citizen

Copyright Protection That Serves to Destroy

by: Terry Teachout

What is a library? Until fairly recently, the answer to that question was simple: It's a storehouse for books and manuscripts. The fact that books are increasingly "printed" on something other than paper doesn't change the fundamental purpose of libraries. They are our collective memory. Fortunately for posterity, a well-made book isn't hard to preserve. But in 1877, Thomas Edison invented a new way to preserve the past. He called it the phonograph, and it took a long time for librarians to figure out that the echoes of speech and music that Edison and his successors etched on discs were as important a part of our collective memory as the words that Johannes Gutenberg and his successors printed on paper.


Nowadays most people understand the historical significance of recorded sound, and libraries around the world are preserving as much of it as possible. But recording technology has evolved much faster than did printing technology—so fast, in fact, that librarians can't keep up with it. It's hard enough to preserve a wax cylinder originally cut in 1900, but how do you preserve an MP3 file? Might it fade over time? And will anybody still know how to play it a quarter-century from now? If you're old enough to remember floppy disks, you'll get the point at once: A record, unlike a book, is only as durable as our ability to play it back.


The Library of Congress recently issued a 78-page document called "The Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan" whose purpose is to ensure that our descendants will be able to listen to the sounds of the past long after we're dead and gone. It contains 32 recommendations, most of which, I suspect, will be filed and forgotten. Given the present state of the economy, I can't imagine that anyone on Capitol Hill sees the preservation of sound recordings as a top priority. But Congress can do one important thing that will help to save our sonic history without costing a cent: We need to straighten out America's confused copyright laws, and we need to do it now.

In Europe, sound recordings enter the public domain 50 years after their initial release. Once that happens, anyone can reissue them, which makes it easy for Europeans to purchase classic records of the past. In America, by contrast, sound recordings are "protected" by a prohibitive snarl of federal and state legislation whose effect was summed up in a report issued in 2010 by the National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress: "The effective term of copyright protection for even the oldest U.S. recordings, dating from the late 19th century, will not end until the year 2067 at the earliest.… Thus, a published U.S. sound recording created in 1890 will not enter the public domain until 177 years after its creation, constituting a term of rights protection 82 years longer than that of all other forms of audio visual works made for hire."

Among countless other undesirable things, this means that American record companies that aren't interested in reissuing old records can stop anyone else from doing so, and can also stop libraries from making those same records readily accessible to scholars who want to use them for noncommercial purposes. Even worse, it means that American libraries cannot legally copy records made before 1972 to digital formats for the purpose of preservation—not unless those records have already deteriorated to the point where they may soon become unplayable.

That's crazy.

As part of its preservation plan for sound recording, the Library of Congress has made three common-sense recommendations for copyright reform:

• "Bring sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972, under federal copyright law."

• "Enable recordings whose copyright owners cannot be identified or located to be more readily preserved and accessed legally."

• "Revise section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 in order to facilitate preservation and expand public access to sound recordings."

These recommendations are discussed in detail in "The Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan," which you can read online by searching for that title.

Yes, intellectual property rights have become a sensitive issue in the age of instantaneous digital distribution, and rightly so. But copyright law was never meant to allow such rights to be restricted indefinitely. A time eventually comes when all books pass into the public domain. That's part of what makes a great book classic—the power to reprint or quote from it at will. Each time we do so, we fertilize our own culture, thereby helping to preserve it for future generations. Why can't we treat sound recordings the same way?

from: Wall Street Journal

Stamping out poverty as well as books? How libraries can support development

With 230,000 libraries in developing countries, these institutions can be the difference between users simply accessing information or being able to use it

by: Stuart Hamilton

Development in the 21st century demands access to information – farmers need to connect to new markets, entrepreneurs need to find capital to start businesses, health workers need access to research to provide up to date care to patients. What these groups have in common is a need for information and public libraries can provide the answer.


There are over 320,000 public libraries worldwide, 230,000 of which are in developing countries. The potential of these institutions to support development goals is being underused. Public libraries, if properly supported, offer their users access to resources which can help improve their economic and social wellbeing.

Why public libraries? First of all, they already exist. It's that simple. Public libraries, whatever the level of their funding, are physical spaces that are incorporated into government frameworks and strategies. They have dedicated, ongoing budgets for staff and information resources and a positive feeling across communities that their potential could be unlocked with greater government attention. Publicly supported libraries offer sustainability that narrow, project-focused approaches do not.

Public libraries increasingly offer public access to the internet and all of the information resources it can provide. This is fundamental to understanding the potential they offer in terms of empowering people to meet their information needs. Despite massive growth in global internet penetration, we cannot pretend that the digital divide is a thing of the past. Worldwide only 35% of the global population are online, and public access will play a huge role in giving the remainder of the population access to the internet. A major forthcoming study on the benefits of public access makes this point effectively.

Public libraries also offer expertise. Dedicated staff provide advice which can be the difference between users simply accessing information or being able to use it. Staff are able to help farmers and fisherman use the Internet to better promote their products, or students improve their exam results. Public libraries can offer something for everyone in the community – the children and youth, women and girls, the vulnerable and marginalised, the entrepreneur and established businessman, the inventor or the health worker.

Policymakers, funders and development agencies need to start looking at the potential of libraries as partners in development activities, and libraries themselves must be doing more to draw attention to the services they can offer. My organisation, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, is the global organistion representing libraries and is an agenda-setting agency in this regard. Recently, we have been trying to raise awareness through the Beyond Access initiative. Last October, Beyond Access hosted a major conference in Washington DC that featured Dr Rajiv Shah, the administrator of USAid, and Ricardo Lagos, the former president of Chile. Chile benefited greatly from a major library funding programme in the last decade that connected all of its 368 public libraries to the internet and Lagos became a convert to the potential of libraries.

The Beyond Access conference bought three-person teams of librarians, development workers and government representatives from 19 countries to Washington to show a audience of 300 development organisation representatives, funders and policymakers the innovative projects libraries are undertaking worldwide. Library projects in Nepal, Bhutan, Serbia, Kenya and Uganda received awards for their work in the areas of civic participation, economic opportunity, community information and development, and public technology and innovation.

Projects like these need to be communicated to the donor community, as well as policymakers and workers in the business sector. Libraries have the ability to partner across multiple sectors and we can already see success stories in places like Ghana, where businesses are helping libraries provide public access to the internet, or in Serbia, where Belgrade City Library provides training in basic financial tools. Librarians themselves need to be more proactive in terms of raising the visibility of the work they do in the community – they are traditionally a little too shy when it comes to extolling the benefits of their work, preferring instead to keep their heads down and get on with things – but we also need the development community to be open to the idea of using public libraries as partners in projects to improve life in developing countries. The Electronic Information for Libraries Public library innovation project has many examples that show just what public libraries can bring to the table.

Let's finish with a high-level, big fuss example. The Open Government Partnership is rightly highlighting the benefits that open government data can bring to individuals and communities. But of the 47 governments who have so far signed up to the OGP only three have action plans that address the demand side of open government – who is going to tell citizens that there is data available, and who is going to give those without home computers access to it? Libraries can: in Romania, for example, over 400 public libraries helped 17,000 farmers access government portals to obtain agricultural subsidies that brought back over $20m (£13.3m) into their communities. Partnering with existing public library networks is an excellent way of delivering development-based initiatives at the local level. IFLA is convinced that at a time of tight budgets, public libraries offer a more efficient, smarter way of powering development.

from: Guardian

Pay-as-You-Go E-Reading Application Total Boox Launches

New E-reader Application Seeks to Revolutionize the E-book Market


Launching in mid-March, Total Boox (pronounced “books”) brings a fresh idea to the ebook world with the motto “read first, pay later.”

Break away from the dominant commercial model in the ebook market of ‘Buy first — Read later’. With few exceptions people are expected to pay for accessing a book, regardless if they actually read or enjoy it. Purchasing a book before you read it is a burdensome remnant from the world of printed books. It distorts the market for authors, hampers discoverability, stalls distribution and reduces reading.

Total Boox is introducing a novel and very advantageous model to the ebook space, based on removing all barriers to access and distribution, encouraging readers to try and explore. A reader no longer has to purchase a book upfront. Instead he downloads the book into his tablet device and pays for the portion he actually reads, when he reads it. Similar to the ‘Skype-out’ model, you create a balance using a credit card or PayPal. As you read, Total Boox deducts the value of your reading from the balance. When your balance is low, you are asked to inject more money into your account.

Total Boox presents a fresh, innovative publishing model which offers a win/win solution which both reflects the ever-changing tech landscape of the book industry and improves consumer satisfaction.

With Total Boox, Publishers Gain:

■Increased revenue

■Access to new valuable readers

■Accelerated person-to-person distribution

■Enhanced distribution through ‘crowd curating’

■Personalized and targeted promotion opportunities

■Detailed real-time analytics of ebook usage (see below)

■Well protected, piracy-free environment



With Total Boox, Readers Gain:

■Absolute freedom to choose and experiment

■A new and highly attractive business model

■An excellent reading experience

■Ability to use their taste and expertise as curators,

and profit from it

■Unique tools for managing their personal library

■Valuable add-ons enriching their reading experience


Total Boox also offers vast, useful, real-time analytics, never before available. This new data will enable major improvements within the publishing and reading communities, such as the following:

■Identifying understanding and interacting with current readers

■Reaching out for new readers, for the right readers

■ Better book discoverability

■ A recommendation engine far superior to anything known today (based on what people actually read, and on how, when and where they read it.)

■Greatly improve reader-book matching

■Locating and exploiting targeted and timely sales opportunities

■ Replacing ‘Best-Seller’ lists with various ‘Best-Read’ lists

The world of books is strewn with difficult purchasing decisions. They constitute the main obstacle for good reader-book matching. Total Boox relieves humanity, once and for all, from the confusing need to buy a book before reading it. Total Boox hopes to put as many books in the hands of as many people, encourage them to read and explore, while charging them just for real value the actually get.

from: DigitalBookWorld

24 hour library people: all work, no play?

Late night libraries offer busy students more flexibility. But do they create an unhealthy attitude to work?

by: Will Coldwell

Dreaded by some, revered by others, the "all-nighter" has always been a legendary feature of student life. It comes as no surprise then that many students have lobbied their universities to provide 24 hour library services. Leeds, Kings and Reading are just a few recent examples of this growing trend. All have agreed to cater for those who, either out of habit or necessity, choose to labour by moonlight.


But does this set an unhealthy precedent? Shouldn't universities be preparing students for a life of work, which, for the most part, takes place during the day?

"I think students are under more pressure than ever and we are seeing them study harder and longer," says Josh Smith, education officer at Leeds University. Leeds is set to trial 24 hour libraries for the first time during this summer's exam period.

"I've had a lot of positive feedback since it passed, but we'll see how the trial goes. They are fairly common, but I think we are seeing radical change all the time over the way students are studying."

While students at Leeds keenly await the moment when they can go into a library and never come out again, students at Bath University have been enjoying the privilege for some time.

Bath was the first university in the UK to test the idea, when they went 24 hour back in 1996.

"We were planning for a large and expensive extension to the library and the thinking was: if we're going to spend money on a big new facility why not keep it open for longer?" says deputy librarian Gavin Rea.

Although Rea admits the library doesn't get a huge amount of use at 3 or 4am, many students do come in very early during exam time, some arriving at 5am. The service is also popular with their international students, who tend to work late and often take the opportunity to contact family in another time zone.

They have a permanent security presence and use a range of energy saving devices, such as PCs that automatically power down and lighting activated by infra-red. As for misbehaviour, the biggest problem is students sneaking in takeaways and occasional drunkenness, although, according to Rae: "they rarely get past the turnstiles".

"It wasn't intentional, but 24 hour libraries became a major selling point for prospective students," says Rea. "Word got around extremely quickly and it's got to the stage now where many libraries offer some kind of 24 hour opening."

Despite the growing popularity of 24 hour libraries, proudly boasted in prospectuses, there is always a concern that students adopt unhealthy study habits.

Bridget O'Connell, head of information at the mental health charity Mind, highlights the pressure that students experience:

"While it is good that universities are allowing students to access libraries at a time that suits them, there is the concern that it could result in students feeling that they should be spending every spare moment studying. This is not a sustainable approach. Extended periods of pressure, including a lack of sleep, not eating properly, a lack of getting outdoors and exercising can all have a huge impact on mental wellbeing."

Jon Gleek, welfare officer at University of Sheffield's Students' Union, however, points out some of the positive reasons why students may require 24 hour libraries.

"It is always worth remembering that students are a hugely diverse group of people and the stereotype of the 18-year-old fresher who is pulling an all-nighter for a deadline doesn't reflect the range of needs and experiences of the whole student body," he says.

"Some students who take part in lifelong learning courses or some part-time degrees, for example, may only come onto the university campus later in the day and use the library after their evening classes. Many students have to take part-time employment during the day to fund their studies and living costs, so having a resource such as a 24 hour library can be a vital asset to their academic progress."

For student Charlotte Fuge at the University of the West of England, studying at 1.30am has been far more productive than at 1.30pm.

"It was quieter, there was a sense of calm about the place which helped when you were trying to get 2,500 words written by the 2pm deadline the next day.

"I always seemed to find what I was looking for during those early morning hours, journals would jump out at me and even internet-based research would prove more fruitful. I did all of my essays this way, and passed with a 2:1."

"There was a sense of camaraderie among those using the library during the dead of night. I know people who used it as somewhere to crash after a night out. It was fine, they were quiet."

Zoe Thomas, a history PhD student at Royal Holloway also finds them useful: "24 hour libraries are definitely helpful to students who are also having to work to fund their studies," she says.

"It is so frustrating when they are shut or in the summer when they have reduced opening times but postgraduate students still desperately need a range of access hours."

For Naila Missous, 22, studying English literature at the University of Manchester, all night libraries do not need to simply be a place for sleepy study.

"It almost creates another reason for students to be social - a bit like one huge educational sleep over...I've even been at the library in the early hours where students ordered in a pizza."

from: Guardian

Is this the world's smallest book?

 Japanese book of flowers called Shiki no Kusabana, with pages only 0.75 millimetres, is hoping for title of the world's smallest printed book.





A 22-page micro-book, entitled "Shiki no Kusabana" (flowers of seasons), contains names and monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers. It is on sale with a magnifying glass, and seen here next to a needle tip.  Photo: AFP/Getty

by: Martin Chilton
Japan has created what it is claiming is the smallest ever printed book, with pages measuring 0.75 millimetres (0.03 inches) which are impossible to read with the naked eye.


The 22-page micro-book, entitled Shiki no Kusabana (flowers of seasons), contains names and monochrome illustrations of Japanese flowers such as the cherry and the plum. Toppan Printing, who have been making micro books since 1964, said letters just 0.01 mm wide were created using the same technology as money printers use to prevent forgery.

The book is on display at Toppan's Printing Museum in Tokyo, and is on sale, together with a magnifying glass and a larger copy, for 29,400 yen (£205).

Toppan said it would be applying to Guinness World Records to claim the title of world's smallest book, presently held by a 0.9 mm, 30-page Russian volume called Chameleon, created by Siberian craftsman Anatoliy Konenko in 1996.

The smallest reproduction of a printed book is Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, a Canadian book that cost £10,000. It was 0.07 mm x 0.10 mm and the letters are carved into 30 microtablets on a polished piece of crystalline silicon.


from: Telegraph

E-book porn flourishes on Amazon's Kindle

Platforms for e-book self-publishing like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing let amateur porn producers slap together adult picture books and sell them online with ease.

by: Donna Tam

Amazon has a problem with pornography.
The company created technology to filter smut from its library of video and print offerings and it also pays humans to do the same thing. In spite of that, Kindle users can still download e-books with the same sort of raunchy images and titles normally seen in nudie mags sold at liquor store newsstands.

That's because these salacious e-books are self-published, spawned from sources with names like Camera Erotica Publications and ErotiPics. Some of the milder titles include "The Dirty Blonde 2," which comes with a self-prescribed adults-only warning, a weak attempt at a storyline, and more than 80 photos of a woman posing in various stages of undress. It's yours for only $2.99 or, like many of the titles, you can even borrow it through Amazon Prime's lending library.

Access to e-book porn isn't limited to the Kindle world. Searching for the term "adult picture book" on the Barnes & Noble Nook store also produces a list of hundreds of adult-oriented e-books created by the company's PubIt! Nook Books system.

Both companies, Amazon and Barnes & Noble, make it clear in their content policies that pornography is not allowed in self-published e-books. But whatever their official policies might be, searches by CNET have turned up no shortage of smutty e-book titles, available to browse in crisp, black-and-white e-ink or in full color on the Kindle Fire HD or the Nook HD+.

Porn is also available in Apple's iBook store, but the covers and titles are much tamer. Apple has a self-publishing system that is longer and involves an application process.

Lines of defense?
Amazon reviews books when they are added to the library, but clearly it doesn't catch everything. When CNET e-mailed an Amazon spokesperson a link to one of the Camera Erotica titles, the e-book was subsequently removed from the Kindle Store, though other titles from the same author remain. The company explained that it uses proprietary software to check for content and copyright issues when e-books are submitted.

For some books, a manual screening process is done by people, but Amazon wouldn't say what percentage of Kindle Direct Publishing books were screened this way or specifically how much porn is caught during screening.

"We have processes and systems -- both automated and manual -- to detect and remove books that do not adhere to our posted Content Guidelines," Amazon said in a written statement to CNET. The statement went on to add that Amazon has "rejected or removed thousands of such offending titles" and that it expects to "keep improving our approach. We are also continuously improving the customer experience for all the content we do sell."


Barnes & Noble did not respond to requests for comment.

So, how do hardcore titles, like "Terrific Tits: Volume 1," still manage to slip through the cracks? In part, that's because the system is designed to police itself.

After an author submits a book, it is usually live on the site within 12 hours. Hundreds of thousands of books are published through Kindle Direct Publishing in this way. Censorship is then left up to the readers to govern through reviews and feedback, but it's unclear how effective that is. A few days ago, CNET flagged pornographic e-books on both Amazon and Barnes and Nobles, but the titles are still available for purchase.

A disruptor of the traditional publishing platform, Amazon makes it easy for authors, illustrators, and photographers to sell their content without the discouragement, or the discerning eye, of an editor or publisher. The company has propelled the rise of e-books, a medium that's growing as interest in paper books decline.

This has created an opportunity for peddlers of e-book smut. These self-publishers aren't established pornographers, for sure; they can't be found via online searches or in business directories. And it's hard to imagine their titles -- like the 99-cent "Wife Pictures: XXX So Hot And Sweet To Turn You On," which an Amazon reviewer described as a "scrapbook of random Internet women" -- ever reaching anything near Jenna Jameson scale.

But it's still early days.

"The hardcore e-book porn business is fairly new and under the radar here in the U.S.," said Bob Johnson, the features editor of the adult entertainment industry trade publication XBIZ, adding that it was unclear how much money the burgeoning industry is actually making. "I imagine that people just see it as another opportunity to get porn into people's hands, similar to how adult [entertainment] has always been on the forefront of technology," he said.

At the forefront, more specifically, of finding new ways to make easy money.

from: CNET

Turning the subway into a digital bookmobile

by: Brian Anders

Ever wish you had something to read on the subway, other than that crumpled free commuter newspaper on the floor? Three students at the Miami Ad Schoolcame up with this idea to use ads on the New York subway that can bring a small library to your smartphone.


Responding to a revolution in the way we consume books, commuter ennui, and limited cell service on the subway, the idea is fairly straightforward. Use some of the advertising space on a train to display a number of current titles, and embed near field communication (NFC) chips behind each. When a title is swiped by a smartphone, it will send a 10-page preview of the book to your phone — just enough to kill some time and get you hooked — and let you know which library branches have a copy of the entire book. It could also include links to the library catalogue with up-to-date information on availability for when you next surface.

It’s easy to see how this idea can be adapted to Toronto, or any transit system, for that matter. There are a number of library branches a stone’s throw from subway stations — the Runnymede and Bloor-Gladstone branches are no more than a block from Runnymede and Dufferin stations, while the North York Central Library connects directly to North York Centre station. Extra copies of books featured on the subway could be stocked in nearby branches to ensure availability.

The TTC is also slowly rolling out cellular and wifi service in the subway, starting with station platforms, so new mini “e-branches” could eventually include links to complete eBooks available from the Toronto Public Library’s growing digital collection. Before iPhone users get too excited, though, Apple does not include NFC technology on its phones, so swapping NFC chips for QR codes linking to websites may improve accessibility when cell reception does make it underground.

Newfangled eBooks and wireless communications technology may be a bit much for Toronto’s typically low-tech transit system, but New York has taken a bricks-and-mortar approach and built a small 2,100-square-foot public underground library branch, tucked away just outside the turnstiles at the 51st Street station on the busy Lexington Avenue line in Midtown Manhattan. The library offers a selection of fiction and non-fiction books, and passing by a dozen times a week on the way to and from work, school or home means you’re not likely to pay overdue fines too frequently.

Is this something that could work in the subway? (Or in the métro, SkyTrain, Transitway or C-Train?) Where would you like to see new “e-branches”, or where might a new branch be squeezed in? Leave us your thoughts in the comment section below.

from: Spacing Toronto

New literary award The Folio Prize launches as 'Booker without the bow ties'

by: Nick Clark

 A new literary award styled as a “Booker without the bow ties” will go ahead next year after securing sponsorship.


The Folio Prize, which launches at the British Library in London tonight, will bestow its first award, along with a cheque for £40,000, next March.

It has taken 18 months to launch the prize, which was born out of controversy surrounding the judges on the 2011 Man Booker Prize demanding “readability”.

The new award was the brainchild of Aitken Alexander Associates managing director Andrew Kidd, who said securing the sponsorship had been the critical factor in making the prize a reality.

“We see this prize as a 21st century prize,” he said. “If there were too many prizes that might dilute their impact but I don’t think anyone feels there are too many.” Mr Kidd admitted he was one of the critics of the 2011 Booker.

He added The Folio Prize should be seen as complementary to other awards rather than rivalling them, adding: “A number of authors were universally supportive. More than one said: ‘No black tie’.”

The Folio Prize Academy has been set up with over 100 members including authors Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker, Bret Easton Ellis and Sebastian Faulks as well as culture editors and critics from newspapers and magazines.

Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, said it would be a “great addition to the current range of literary prizes”.

Using a football metaphor, Anthony Quinn, academician and film critic of The Independent, said that if the Booker was seen as the FA Cup “why isn’t there room for The Premiership?”

Each year, academicians will nominate up to three books each, and they will be judged by five judges selected from their number by lots. Any novels written in English are eligible.

There had been much speculation over whether the sponsor would be a conglomerate or an online retailer. Toby Hartwell, managing director of the Folio Society, said: “Who’d have thought a publisher would be sponsoring it?”

There is one particular difference between this award and the others: Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies, which has dominated most award ceremonies this year, will not win the inaugural prize. It falls outside the publication date to be eligible.

from: Independent

The Best Bookstores in Toronto Part 3: Independents and Established Names

by: Jeff Cottrill

Toronto is full of small, second-hand bookstores and specialized shops, which are perfect for discriminating book lovers or for those who want to save some cash. And then there are people who just want a fresh, new copy of the latest bestseller or award-winner or who want a lot of up-to-date choices to browse. That’s fine too – T.O. has several first-rate bookstore options that cater to everyday Joes and Janes. Behemoths like Chapters-Indigo can serve those needs easily, of course. But if they’re too slick and corporate for your taste, try one of these alternatives:


Type Books on Queen West may be relatively small, but it more than makes up for that with its selective, high-quality stock: numerous copies of current big sellers share space with titles from local, smaller presses, plus magazines, newspapers, cards and notebooks. The flowery wallpaper and the neat, organized layout help to give the store a casual yet sophisticated ambience, and the back room has a great selection of children’s and travel books. This well-regarded neighbourhood store has a second location on Spadina.

Another local book-selling success story is Book City, an independent franchise that began in the Annex in the mid-1970s and now has four locations throughout Toronto. Mixing a professional approach with a casual, indie vibe, Book City is known for its friendly, helpful staff, a wide-ranging magazine selection and a loyalty program that evens sends you birthday gift certificates. It’s also an ideal place to get sweet bargains, with considerable discounts on hardcover titles and remainder tables packed with gems.

You’ve got less than six weeks left to visit Nicholas Hoare, a St. Lawrence Village staple closing on April 1. This is one of the city’s most elegant and coziest bookstores, inviting you to make yourself at home with plush seating and decorative plants spread out among numerous classy wooden bookcases and stands. The inventory is disappearing, but there’s still enough left for a lengthy browse. When Hoare is gone, you can still check out a mildly similar vibe at Ben McNally. Oddly located in the Financial District, McNally has a friendly, professional atmosphere and a decent selection of fiction and biographies.

There’s another iconic T.O. book shop that may be closing soon: the World’s Biggest Bookstore. Owned by Chapters-Indigo yet with its own flavour, the thirty-two-year-old WBB is like a literary Honest Ed’s, albeit without as many bargains: a full warehouse of fresh new books. With more than twenty kilometres of shelves, it’s a great place for book lovers to lose themselves on a weekend afternoon, with the world’s largest selection of titles in just about every existing category.

It seems you can’t turn a corner in any of Toronto’s major neighbourhoods without coming across a fine bookstore of some kind. Unfortunately, the recent recession has seen the departure of many great independent shops, like Pages, The Book Mark and This Ain’t the Rosedale Library, as well as the pending closing of Nicholas Hoare. You can bid a fond RIP to the wonderful spaces that have come and gone, but don’t forget to celebrate the wealth of stores that remain by continuing to support them.

from: Toronto.com

The Best Bookstores in Toronto Part 2: Specialty Shops

by: Jeff Cottrill

A bookstore with a wide variety is always good, but sometimes you’re looking for something more obscure in a specific genre or theme. You’re more likely to find it in one of Toronto’s more specialized bookstores. Sadly, a few beloved institutions like the Toronto Women’s Bookstore and French-language shop Librairie Champlain have closed in recent years. But many others are still around, each of them contributing to the city’s famous multicultural identity by catering to a specific group of readers.

For example, A Different Booklist in the Annex is your ideal stop for books on African Canadian culture; with a friendly staff, this small store has an impressive collection of kids’ books, as well as fiction, gender studies and books from the Caribbean. A few doors away sits Alternative Thinking, your one-stop shop for books on New Age topics (spirituality, the occult, ESP, etc.) and related products. Masks, incense and crystals galore contribute to this store’s groovy vibe. And sci-fi/fantasy geeks have their base at Bakka Phoenix Books, recently relocated to Harbord near Spadina; it’s Canada’s oldest store dedicated to speculative fiction.

There’s even a bookstore devoted to boating – The Nautical Mind, a humble little shop on the waterfront, with all you could possibly need in terms of boating books, charts and T-shirts. For those with a globetrotting bent, the crowded but comprehensive Open Air Books and Maps is Toronto’s best place for travel books and city maps from all over the world. And if architecture and graphic design are more your thing, Swipe Design has three locations for its colourful collections of design-themed books, plus toys and kitchen items.

Downtown Yonge contains more unique places, such as the Cookbook Store, near Yorkville. It’s a small corner shop exclusively devoted to recipe books and anything else related to cooking and food, from popular titles by Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver to more obscure choices. Further south, closer to Wellesley, is the world’s oldest LGBTQ bookstore, The Glad Day Bookshop. This pioneering store, founded in 1970, is wall-to-wall with queer-themed books, DVDs, art and postcards; while there’s no shortage of erotica, Glad Day also has a good selection of biographies and literary fiction.

And for those who prefer superheroes in panels to mere words on pages, we mustn’t forget T.O.’s always flourishing comics scene. Former Queen West landmark The Silver Snail has moved to a smaller, second-floor location further down Yonge, near Dundas; while there’s a lot less room for its massive inventory of comics, books, toys and collectibles, they’ve added a small cafe. Other comics havens in the city include The Beguiling, known for its large selection and rare titles; The Comic Book Lounge and Gallery, a relaxing, homey venue that replaced Dragon Lady Comics; and Labyrinth Comics, a great place for anime, manga and graphic novels.

Whether you’re interests lie in race relations, gender and sexuality studies, outdoor sports and leisure activities or the latest zine… whatever your personality and persuasion, there’s a bookstore for you. Each of Toronto’s specialty bookstores is a thorough and comprehensive alternative to the bigger, mainstream stores that offer only a little bit from each category.

from: Toronto.com

The Best Bookstores in Toronto Part 1: Second-Hand Sanctuaries

by: Jeff Cottrill

Toronto is one helluva literary town. Ernest Hemingway lived here for a bit in the 1920s and in the decades since, the city has been closely associated with Margaret Atwood, Timothy Findley, Robertson Davies and other iconic scribes. From the annual Word On The Street Festival to high-profile readings at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto never hides its love of books.


And nowhere is this more evident than in the abundance of quality bookstores. Everybody knows about the bigger chains like Chapters, Indigo and Coles , but you’re likely to get a more personable experience and unique selection at the many independent shops. Big or small, new or used, specialized or wide-variety, Toronto has your book needs covered. Here’s the scoop:

Second-hand Sanctuaries

First, let’s look at T.O.’s feast of second-hand booksellers. Some stores offer you not only good deals on used books but also their own unique decorative choices. Some stores offer you not only good deals on used books but also their own unique decorative choices. Little Italy’s tiny Balfour Books, for instance, creates a quirky atmosphere by using Scrabble tiles to spell out the different genres and categories and by displaying a few popular titles on a replica of an antique chest of drawers. Seekers, hidden under Kilgour’s Bar, has that irresistably musty smell of old books, with a Kids’ Room in the back that feels like your book-loving buddy’s unfinished basement, complete with loose floorboards and exposed water pipes; here, you can browse through a remarkable collection of old Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys adventures.

In Little Portugal, The Monkey’s Paw grabs your attention immediately with the aging typewriters in the windows (one of which pays homage to Edgar Allen Poe). This charming, idiosyncratic store aims for a nineteenth-century ambience, with locked cabinets containing rare, antique books and shelves of uncommon titles, many long out of print. A creepy display of insect carcasses adds to the Poe-like vibe. But the store also has its own “Biblio-Mat”, a working vending machine that spits out random books for two dollars each.

Eliot’s Bookshop on Yonge offers thousands of used books of all kinds. Don’t let the simple, unassuming exterior fool you into passing it by; come inside and you’ll be overwhelmed by three neatly organized floors of bookstore goodness: sci-fi, literature, poetry, literary criticism, fine arts, history, sports and science. You can also find many historical Life magazine issues at the front desk and an old wooden wall clock near the entrance adds to a quaint, old-time feel.

Some of Toronto’s best places for used books lie in the west end. The Junction is home to the spacious Pandemonium, rife with books, vinyl, CDs and movies, plus a few historical issues of Rolling Stone and Life. Not far away is The Book Exchange, a small, laid-back shop that offers chocolate bars for charity. On Roncesvalles Avenue, you can find the excellent A Good Read, with a back area packed with rare books and signed first editions, along with the more hipster-oriented She Said Boom.

No list of second-hand bookstores is complete without BMV. With three downtown locations, BMV has earned its reputation as the place to go for a staggering selection of used books, DVDs and VHS movies. The Bloor West branch has three well-organized floors full of material, much of it in great condition. Although BMV buys used books and movies, don’t feel disappointed if yours get turned down – they can be picky.

That’s the cream of the crop, but there’s plenty more out there. You might also want to check out Willow Books, near U of T; ABC Books, on Yonge; or Dencan Books, next to the Book Exchange. Anywhere you go, you’re guaranteed to find a bargain on something good.

from: Toronto.com

At A Pakistani Mobile Library, Kids Can Check Out Books, And Hope

by: Jackie Northam

On a cold, rainy morning, a van pulls up outside a rural elementary school on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. The fluorescent green vehicle provides a flash of color on this otherwise gray day. There's a picture of children reading books under a large apple tree, and the words "Reading is fun" are painted in English and Urdu, the national language in Pakistan.


This is the weekly visit of the Bright Star Mobile Library.

Volunteer Ameena Khan starts pulling books from shelves on either side of the van.

"One is called Faces and one's an Urdu book," she says. "We're doing Bears on Wheels, which is a nice counting book. Fourth grade is going to read their own books."

The younger children gather to hear Khan read. The girls, bright-eyed and engaged, sit cross-legged on the floor in neat rows.

In Pakistan, rarely a day goes by without news of a bombing or an attack by militants. Many young Pakistanis have grown up in the grip of religious extremism, and there's little sign that that is likely to change in the near future. But the founder of the Bright Star bookmobile is trying to reverse that trend, starting at the most basic level.

Ripple Effect Of Poor Education

A few years ago, Saeed Malik returned to Pakistan after 35 years living in the U.S., Italy and elsewhere, mostly working for the U.N.'s World Food Program.

"I found [Pakistan] had changed a lot. Unfortunately, not for the better," he says. "The education had really tanked, gone down the tubes, in elementary education."

Malik says the poor quality of education is having a ripple effect on the lives of children. He remembers talking to a group of boys, 9 to 16 years old.

"And I asked them what were their plans when they grew up. And I was quite shocked with the reply," he says. "The majority of them said they wanted to become mujahed, which is a freedom fighter."

Malik says one boy told him he wanted to be a mujahed because if he died as a martyr, he, his family and friends would go to heaven. Malik says he was thoroughly disheartened.

"And I felt, in what way can we bring these kids back to the beauty of life, to the beauty of future, to be of value to fellow mankind and to themselves and to the country," he says. "And I started thinking in what way can we help the children."

Malik felt books were the way to broaden children's minds, to introduce them to a whole world of subjects, and to help build tolerance for others. But he discovered that virtually none of the public schools in and around Islamabad had libraries. A few keep a small selection of books under lock and key; others offer children religious pamphlets as reading material.

Bureaucratic, Funding Challenges

So Malik decided to take books to the children. He says the idea of creating a mobile library came to him after seeing a similar project at the San Francisco Public Library. But Malik says he soon encountered the type of bureaucracy that can choke the life out of a project even from Pakistan's Education Department.

He waited six months just to get a single letter from the department, granting access to schools

"There was absolutely no earthly reason to delay it," he says.

Malik called in some contacts to help get the project going. The U.N. World Food Program donated Bright Star's two vans, which were used previously as ambulances in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan's national library, the Asia Foundation and the San Francisco Public Library donated books. There are no religious books.

Like most nascent nonprofits, funding is fragile. The project runs on a shoestring budget, and it relies on donations and volunteers like Ameena Khan. She says she has seen a positive change in the children since they've had access to books.

"You would think, how can you fix so much [that] is wrong with education in Pakistan? We don't have a very big establishment," she says. "But we're reaching out to that many children in just a few hours, it does make a difference."

At the moment, Bright Star Mobile Library reaches 2,500 kids in Pakistan. Malik says that number is set to double in the next few months.

from: GBP (via NPR)

Do you truly own your e-books?

Amazon and publisher restrictions control your access, but a bookstore lawsuit could change that

by: Laura Miller

To the casual observer, the e-book revolution has produced two bumper crops: smutty trilogies à la “Fifty Shades of Grey” and lawsuits. First there were the authors (as represented by the Authors Guild), who sued Google Books for digitizing their work without permission. Then the Department of Justice sued five publishers and Apple for adopting a policy known as the agency model. Finally, a trio of independent booksellers filed a class-action suit last week against the six largest book publishers and Amazon, accusing them of collaborating to create a monopoly on e-book sales and shutting small retailers out of the market.


The booksellers — Fiction Addiction of Greenville, S.C., Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, N.Y., and Posman Books of New York City — are demanding the right to sell what they term “open-source and DRM-free” e-books, files that can be read on a Kindle or any other e-reading device. The publishers are accused of entering into “confidential agreements” with Amazon making this impossible.

The dispute and the situation that fostered it are confusing, and it can be difficult to suss out how either one affects readers. To put it simply: The Big Six publishers require that all their copyrighted e-books be sold with DRM (digital rights management) protection. DRM is coding designed to prevent the people who buy an e-book from making copies of it. A Kindle will only support DRM-protected books that are in a format that Amazon owns and that only Amazon can sell.

It is possible to import some non-Kindle e-books into your Kindle device or app, but only if those e-books have no DRM. DRM also prevents the purchaser from transferring his or her e-book to another proprietary device, such as moving it from her old Kindle to a brand-new Nook.

The upshot: As long as publishers insist that their e-books be sold with DRM, Kindle owners can only buy those e-books from Amazon. Many independent booksellers have online stores, but they can’t sell new e-books to their Kindle-owning customers. Since the vast majority of all the dedicated e-readers out there are Kindles, that’s a lot of customers.

Switching devices presents another headache for readers. Late last year, independent booksellers made a deal with Kobo, an e-book retailer that also sells its own e-reader devices. The indies now sell both the devices and Kobo e-books. People who want to support their local independent bookstore might contemplate switching from the Kindle to the Kobo, but if they do they’ll have to leave their (DRM-protected) Kindle books behind on their old device. If you are an early e-book adopter who wants to keep and reread the books you bought for your Kindle, you’re locked into the Kindle platform.

Tablets like the iPad are slightly different. The tablet’s owner can install numerous proprietary apps to read a variety of e-book formats, but the titles have to stay in their own walled gardens. You can’t move your Kindle books into your iBook library, for example. This is a minor annoyance, but annoying all the same! When I got my first iPad, I mostly bought Kindle e-books because Amazon’s app was more versatile. Since then, iBooks has outstripped the Kindle app, especially when it comes to working with books used for research, and I would much rather read and organize all my e-books in iBooks. I can’t. Given such restrictions, it’s debatable whether or not I truly own them.

If the bookstores prevail, Amazon may be forced allow Kindle owners to load non-Kindle e-books onto their e-readers. But, as Cory Doctorow pointed out over at Boing Boing, the booksellers in this suit don’t object to DRM per se. (They are using the terms “open-source” and “DRM-free” incorrectly.) They just want to be allowed to sell DRM-protected e-books that will work on any e-reader their customers might own.

No one enjoys being sued, but publishers have to be ambivalent about the booksellers’ action. At the time they agreed to Amazon’s terms, they viewed piracy as a bigger threat than the e-retailer’s potential dominance of the e-book market. Today, publishers desperately want to preserve bricks-and-mortar bookstores, and they have come to hate and fear Amazon and its plans to control all retail bookselling.

The more visionary option, and the one that most benefits readers, is to get rid of DRM entirely. Two imprints of Macmillan (whose CEO, John Sargent, has been exceptionally bold in standing up to Amazon), TOR and Forge, took this route last year. TOR and Forge publish genre books — science fiction/fantasy and crime/military titles, respectively — often popular with readers with the technological savvy to appreciate the advantages of DRM-free e-books.

It’s too early yet to know how well this experiment is working for TOR and Forge. However, many industry observers believe it’s just a matter of time before publishers realize that eliminating DRM is the best way to prevent the marketplace for books from being dominated by a single, mammoth, ruthless retailer.

Besides, DRM-free e-books already have a far more prominent proponent: J.K. Rowling. On her Pottermore website, you can buy Rowling’s e-books in a standard, DRM-free format (EPUB) that can be easily read on any device. Amazon customers are forwarded to Pottermore by the product page for the “Kindle” edition of a Rowling title. (If there’s one entity in a position to push the Seattle slugger around, it’s the woman who owns Harry Potter.) Should the e-reading device you’ve got break down or its format become obsolete, you still own a copy that can be read by whatever new gadget replaces it.

To combat piracy, Pottermore titles are”watermarked”: digitally tagged in such a way that if a copy is discovered being used illegally, it can be traced back to the original purchaser. (Apple uses a similar method to monitor the media sold through its iTunes store.) Rowling’s books were already being pirated, as any DRM-protected e-book can be if it falls into the hands of a determined and marginally competent scoundrel. Pottermore was founded on the belief that most of the potential readers of Rowling’s e-books are honest and believe she should be compensated for her work.

Another company, O’Reilly Media, has been selling e-books (primarily tech manuals) without DRM since 2008. Their founder and an outspoken critic of DRM, Tim O’Reilly, acknowledges that some people will pirate his company’s e-books — but then, e-books with DRM get pirated as well. At least with DRM-free e-books a publisher is giving the paying customers a better, more usable product. As O’Reilly put it in an interview with Forbes, his company has “taken the approach that it’s more important to establish social norms around payment. The way that you do that is by honoring people and respecting how they act. People pay us because they know that if we don’t get paid we don’t do what we do.”

from: Salon

EL James, author of Fifty Shades, has a new love rival

The Submissive, released this month as an e-book, chronicles the BDSM relationship between a wealthy CEO and young librarian. Sounds familiar? Catherine Scott despairs as publishers put profit before originality.
by: Catherine Scott

The news that publishers Headline have acquired a new trilogy of BDSM-themed Twilight fan fiction brings with it not only a wearying sense of deja vu, but also the conviction that even the pretence of originality is now superfluous to getting published. I seriously wonder if I’ve travelled back 12 months in time when I read that Tara Sue Me’s The Submissive depicts “a BDSM relationship between a wealthy CEO and a young librarian”. And yes nitpickers, I know that E L James’ ingénue in Fifty Shades of Grey was a student and not a librarian, but am I to believe this is the only detail one needs to change in order to score a three-book publishing contract?

The Submissive, published as an e-book this month and in print in June, actually pre-dates Fifty Shades... by a couple of years, first appearing on Fanfiction.net in 2009. But even the question of who is aping whom feels pretty irrelevant as we witness publishers abandoning all attempts to nurture original talent, and instead simply trawling the internet for the latest derivation of an already derivative work.

In this brutal market, perhaps I shouldn't blame Headline for being thrilled at the chance to replicate E L James’ sales figures. But where’s the thrill for readers who seek fresh ideas, innovation and at least an attempt at originality? And will publishers who dare to champion those qualities also see themselves fall by the wayside as others who wish to stay profitable increasingly turn to fan fiction as a "safe bet"?

To take entirely against fan fiction is pointless, not least because it’s clearly here to stay. (And, as the novelist and cultural commentator Ewan Morrison has pointed out, it has existed in some form throughout history – weren’t Matthew, Mark, Luke and John simply “non-professionals retelling the same story about the same character?”). Nor is being derivative necessarily a sin – after all, the writer who tries to create work from inside an influence-free vacuum would probably never type a single word.

However, as Gladstone of Cracked.com points out: “Using influences in a novel is a lot like using sampling in music. It’s absolutely fine to lift riffs and hooks from other songs as long as they are reverential building blocks of your work instead of being the appeal of your work.” And therein lies the difference between writing that pays homage to another’s work, and writing that robs that work wholesale of plot, theme and characters.

Game of Thrones author George R R Martin does not allow his work to be used in fan fiction, advancing on his website a domino theory whereby “once you open that door, you can’t control who might come in”. Fan fiction seems fine when its authors are “motivated only be sincere love of [an author’s] world and characters,” says Martin, “but Bill B. Hack and Ripoff don’t give a damn. They just want the bucks.” And that cold hard eye on "the bucks" is exactly what’s leading to the kind of audacious recycling that we’re seeing Headline perform with The Submissive, and eroding any chance of freshness or risk-taking amongst major publishers.
Perhaps we should blame Stephanie Meyer for not taking a similar stance to George RR Martin and calling her copyright lawyer the moment the tedious deluge of Twilight homages emerged. Instead Meyer has remained diplomatic, stating that although Fifty Shades “might not exist in the exact form that it’s in” if it weren’t for Twilight, E L James “obviously...had a story in her, and so it would’ve come out in some other way.” Writers who have been sweating blood to get a publisher to notice them may rightly bridle at the notion that writing fan fiction is automatically a sign that you "have a story in you" – surely the fact you’re using someone else’s story as a template implies the exact opposite.

Whether we view fan fiction as derivative or democratic, personally I’m just dreading another summer of teeth-grindingly awful prose and tired tropes of submissive women and powerful men. So, maybe it’s time to start writing some Hunger Games fan fiction and see if that gets picked up – either that or sit back and wait for another three-book contract to be awarded to "exciting new fan fiction based on the fan fiction of the fan fiction of Twilight".

from: Telegraph

Mississauga library makeovers ‘poetically expressed’

by: Beverley Smith

Big, blocky, bright tangerine chairs beckon. Natural light streams in. And in every corner of this public library in a suburb of Toronto, there is quiet bustle: a young mother reading aloud to her child; a man poring over a newspaper in front of floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Credit River; a gaggle of citizens scanning the Internet on a bank of computers.


The Port Credit Library is part of the Mississauga Public Library project that last month received a Governor-General’s Medal for architecture, honoured for its “astute and economical remodelling,” according to jury members. Its partners in the accolades included little Lakeview Library in a quiet enclave of the city, and the Lorne Park Library, the largest of the three, in a tony area of south Mississauga.


They were grouped together and redesigned under the hand of one building designer, Rounthwaite, Dick and Hadley Architects, Inc. (RDH) of Toronto. The three libraries appear to be part of a growing trend: retrofitting instead of rebuilding. This group of 1960s buildings may light the way for other communities seeking cost-effective ways of updating buildings of a similar period, some of them beloved, despite their tattered corners.

Lead architect Tyler Sharp says of the last six libraries he’s designed, five of them have involved renovations or renovation additions.

“One of the most sustainable things that you can do with a building is to adaptively reuse it, as opposed to demolishing and sending everything to landfill,” he says. “I think there is a tendency from an environmental point of view to see that it’s best to reuse what’s there and transform it.”

All three Mississauga library branches were “emblematic of the growing social and cultural importance of adaptive re-use,” the Governor-General’s jury noted.

Mr. Sharp adds, “All of the projects that won were very deserving, but it is very interesting when the project has quite a modest budget.”

The three libraries were made over for about $8-million, with the Lorne Park Library’s 12,000-square-foot structure getting a $3-million overhaul and the other two, at about 7,600-square-feet each, costing about $2.5-million apiece. The libraries benefited from the infrastructure stimulus fund, established by the federal government to generate activity during the recent economic slowdown.

All three branch libraries had been showing their age. Constructed during the 1960s, they were a bit down at the heel, had mechanical and plumbing issues – and they weren’t energy efficient. Lakeview even had a touch of “stable” asbestos. They all had to get in line with city accessibility guidelines to accommodate wheelchair patrons.

“The branches were of an age,” says Betty Mansfield, the acting director of library services in Mississauga. Although they were dated buildings and needed significant renovation, they had “strong bones,” she says. Their problems were not simple to address.

Ms. Mansfield says there was a cost saving to the retrofitting, although Mr. Sharp says it’s hard to judge. “Every time you open something up [in an old building], there’s a new series of issues that you have to deal with.”

But dealing with one architect for all three buildings brought an economy and cohesiveness of design. Given that the mid-century modern libraries shared similar designs and even floor plans, Mr. Sharp says the three were given the same design vocabulary with variations on the theme.

Now, all have exterior canopies that reach out to their communities with welcoming arms; all three are blessed by natural light with the addition of large windows, and particularly with the Lorne Park branch, the addition of interior glazed walls opened the building to interior vistas as well as the park out back. Stacks are kept low for better visibility. All three have quiet study rooms.

But all have a slightly different schedule of finishes, so each has a distinct personality. With Lakeview, the outside brick is washed in white, but the interior features Douglas fir.

The exterior brick at Port Credit is stained charcoal, but the rest of the exterior is white, including the canopy and concrete frame. Inside, the wood is stained white oak; it’s the library with the lightest colour scheme. It’s the most active library of the three, with 60,000 visitors a year.

Lorne Park Library, embedded in a leafy, well established and upscale residential neighbourhood, called for dark, rich materials. The canopy frame there is painted in a dark anodized colour. The curtain wall inside is dark grey. The wood is dark walnut. The blocky chairs are deep cobalt blue.

The idea was to accent the existing modernist style with vertical fields of brick and glass. The architect also integrated a series of solar shading devices (louvres) in the canopies that helped shade the expanses of glass.

Port Credit demanded a major change; architects took out one solid concrete wall of the building that faced the Credit River and created a wall of glass for a reading atrium.

Ms. Mansfield said the original plans for the Port Credit building, erected in 1962, included windows facing the river, but cost-cutting measures may have scuttled that plan. At one point, the city toyed with the idea of relocating the library, but local patrons made it clear: they wanted it to remain in its prime location, across the street from the Port Credit harbour and beside a wide expanse of river. It’s a gem of a location.

The view, glass and vistas, inside and out, have served a purpose: to bring people back to their libraries. Previous libraries that Mr. Sharp had done had lost their ability to function and draw in people.

“The biggest thing that we hope draws people in is the concept of visibility inside,” he says. “This concept of visibility also translates to the exterior. When you introduce these very large fields of glass all around the building, you are actually projecting the life and vitality of the library outward, to the street.”

The Governor-General’s jury members were impressed. “The dialogue between existing and contemporary parts is clearly articulated and poetically expressed,” they said, “revitalizing each library both as an individual building and wider neighbourhood focus.”

from: Globe and Mail

Retro Weird: Librarians' Workout Video from 1987

This was too hard to resist posting.
Enjoy!
Elizabeth

*****************************************************

YouTube member deneui made this bizarrely fascinating video in 1987 while attending Arizona State University. While snapping a riding crop for encouragement, librarian Betty Glover puts her staff through a vigorous workout using common pieces of library equipment.

Via: Neatorama

Good Fit for Today’s Little Screens: Short Stories

by: Leslie Kaufman

The Internet may be disrupting much of the book industry, but for short-story writers it has been a good thing.


Story collections, an often underappreciated literary cousin of novels, are experiencing a resurgence, driven by a proliferation of digital options that offer not only new creative opportunities but exposure and revenue as well.

Already, 2013 has yielded an unusually rich crop of short-story collections, including George Saunders’s “Tenth of December,” which arrived in January with a media splash normally reserved for Hollywood movies and moved quickly onto the best-seller lists. Tellingly, many of the current and forthcoming collections are not from authors like Mr. Saunders, who have always preferred short stories, but from best-selling novelists like Tom Perrotta, who are returning to the form.

Recent and imminent releases include “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” by Karen Russell, whose 2011 novel, “Swamplandia,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; “Damage Control,” a first collection by Amber Dermont, whose novel “The Starboard Sea” was a best seller in 2012; and another first story collection, “We Live in Water,” by Jess Walter, just off his best-selling novel “Beautiful Ruins” (2012).

“It is the culmination of a trend we have seen building for five years,” said Cal Morgan, the editorial director of Harper Perennial Originals, who until last year ran a blog called Fifty-Two Stories, devoted to short fiction. “The Internet has made people a lot more open to reading story forms that are different from the novel, and you see a generation of writers very engaged in experimentation.”

In recent decades the traditional outlets for individual short stories have dwindled, with literary magazines closing or shrinking. But the Internet has created an insatiable maw to feed.

Amazon, for instance, created its Kindle Singles program in 2011 for publishing short fiction and nonfiction brief enough to be read in under two hours. Although the list price is usually modest, a dollar or two, authors keep up to 70 percent of the royalties: welcome revenue for fledgling authors and a potentially big payoff for well-known writers.

In addition, a group of smaller Internet publishers, like Byliner, are snapping up short fiction and gaining traction as distributors of stories. And the shorter format, writers say, is a good fit for the small screens that people are increasingly using to read.

“The single-serving quality of a short narrative is the perfect art form for the digital age,” said Ms. Dermont, whose collection is due out next month. “Stories are models of concision, can be read in one sitting, and are infinitely downloadable and easily consumed on screens.”

Stories are also perfect for the digital age, she added, because readers “want to connect and want that connection to be intense and to move on.” That is, after all, what a short story is all about.

Mr. Morgan said that years of editing short fiction for his blog showed him that digital communication was influencing writers who are just coming of age.

“The generation of writers out of college in the last few years has been raised to engage with words like no generation before,” he said. “Our generation was raised on passive media like television and telephones; this generation has been engaged in writing to each other in text messages on a 24-hour basis. I think it has made them bolder and tighter.”

Mr. Perrotta, the best-selling author of “Election” (1998) and “Little Children” (2004), both dark novels turned into Hollywood films, edited “The Best American Short Stories of 2012” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). While sifting through entries, he, too, noticed a change in fiction from the previous generation, although he said he was not sure that technology played a part.

“I felt like the story form has started to loosen up some,” he said. “And I was intrigued by the fact that a number of the stories felt novelistic — they were not 20 pages, but 40, and had shifting points of view and complicated structures.”

He was intrigued enough that he became determined to finish his first short-story collection in nearly two decades, “Nine Inches,” which will be published in September.

Other collections from prominent writers that are being published this year include “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Ron Rash; “The Fun Parts,” by Sam Lipsyte; “The Miniature Wife,” by Manuel Gonzales; and “A Guide to Being Born,” by Ramona Ausubel.


Short stories have a rich history, of course, and many literary giants — Hemingway, Nabokov, Cheever and Welty, to name a few — have written memorable collections. But they were largely seen as exceptions that prove the rule: publishers and authors tend to be wary of short-story collections because of the risk of being critically overlooked and, worse, lower sales.

Now, however, besides warming to the growing artistic flexibility of the form, many writers and publishers are also sensing a market opportunity. Last year collections like Nathan Englander’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” and Junot Diaz’s “This Is How You Lose Her” drew both critical praise and good sales.

For well-known authors like Stephen King and Lee Child, who have both sold short stories or novellas through the Kindle Singles program, even small prices can add up to big money. For less established authors, the singles format means getting exposure by offering readers a sampling at an appealing price.

Ms. Dermont, for example, is selling “A Splendid Wife,” a story from her coming collection, on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble Web sites for 99 cents. The idea is to whet the appetite of potential buyers of the whole collection.

That ability to sell stories piecemeal, of course, is a big draw of short-story collections for authors. And in most cases, at least some of the stories have already been for sale. For instance, all but one of the tales in Mr. Saunders’s “Tenth of December” had been published earlier, many in The New Yorker, but that does not appear to have hurt sales for the collection, which is No. 5 on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list.

Andy Ward, the editor who acquired the book for Random House, said that when he bumps into colleagues from other houses, they all say Mr. Saunders’s sales are giving them encouragement.

“This give us a lot of hope,” he said. “People say people don’t want to read short fiction, but this seems to be working out really well.”

from: NY Times