March 27, 2016
by Aleksandra Sagan
Librarians fight spread of precarious work into white collar jobs
They’re part-time employees without health benefits or pensions who work split shifts at a number of different locations each week. From one paycheque to the next, their income fluctuates, as do their hours.
These aren’t workers hustling behind fast-food counters or holding down other McJobs. They’re aspiring librarians, often with at least one master’s degree.
A university degree is not a get-out-of-jail-free card from the perils of insecure employment. Precarious work, often associated with service-sector jobs, is spreading to jobs that were once considered realms of stable employment with benefits and pensions to boot.
“This type of employment has increasingly become the norm,” said Wayne Lewchuk, a McMaster University economics and labour studies professor, who co-authored a recent report on the impact of precarious work.
More than 40 per cent of people employed in the knowledge or creative sectors are in precarious or vulnerable work, according to the report. More than one quarter of precarious jobs require a university degree.
Aspiring librarians, for one, have felt the erosion of permanent employment for positions demanding a high education level.
“They’re basically trapped in entry-level jobs,” said Maureen O’Reilly, a librarian and president of the Toronto Public Library Workers Union. “They’re still waiting many, many, many, many, many years to get a full-time job.”
The average wait time for someone to be hired as a full-time librarian with the Toronto Public Library is a decade – and that’s for applicants who already have a foot in the door working other jobs at the library.
Eunice Rodrigues, who holds two university degrees, works part-time as a page. She anticipates it will be another three or four years before she snags an elusive full-time librarian job, Rodrigues says in a video commissioned by the union to highlight their workers’ employment issues.
It took Jorge Guevara 11 years to work his way up to a part-time library assistant position, he says in the video. He’s also hoping to move up to a full-time librarian gig.
Like Rodrigues and Guevara, more than half of the Toronto Public Library Workers Union members are precariously employed, said O’Reilly, adding the situation is similar in libraries across much of Canada.
Earlier this month, the Toronto union voted in favour of strike action, if necessary. The union is currently embroiled in contract negotiations with the library board, hoping to secure a wage increase and address this increasing precarity.
Libraries are not the only impacted workplace.
Newly certified teachers have been struggling to get a foothold into school boards for years in Toronto, said Sachin Maharaj, a teacher working towards his PhD in educational policy at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
In 2012, Ontario introduced legislation requiring public school boards to fill vacancies based on teacher seniority. New teachers must usually complete some supply and contract work before applying for full-time positions.
Coupled with teachers’ colleges churning out more graduates than teachers needed and declining school enrolment, “it’s just a really bad picture for teachers,” Maharaj said.
When Maharaj graduated with a teaching degree some eight springs ago, he started a full-time teaching job the following fall. Now, that would never happen, he said.
A 2015 Ontario College of Teachers survey on transitions to teaching shows some of the employment pressures easing, but overall a teachers’ college graduate’s job prospects appear grim.
Many teachers starting their careers still experience months or years of under-employment, according to the report. More than half of first-year teachers in the province supplement their teaching income with other jobs like tutoring or retail work.
Universities, media organizations, hospitals and governments have also increasingly moved toward more precarious contract employment, Lewchuk said.
This new normal is hurting the businesses and employees alike, he said.
Corporations that don’t commit to their employees can expect similar loyalty from their workforce, he said, resulting in higher labour turnover.
In the long run, the company is likely to have less skilled workers since firms don’t tend to provide substantial training to short-term employees, said Lewchuk. Eventually, that will make positions higher on the corporate ladder difficult to fill.
Employees without stable jobs and consistent income, on the other hand, he said, can be anxious and delay life’s milestones, like marriage, home ownership or starting a family.
Source: iPolitics
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Friday, March 25, 2016
Kobo CEO faces uphill e-book battle against Apple, Amazon
by Shane Dingman
February 19, 2016
February 19, 2016
Michael Tamblyn finds himself in an
unenviable position. He has a great job – he’s the new CEO of Rakuten
Kobo Inc. – but the easy days of e-book sales seem to be over, and
industry estimates suggest 2015 was a flat year for e-book purchases in
North America.
That said, Kobo has 26
million users and a library of 4.7 million e-books and magazines in 190
countries, and it appears to be making strides. “January was Kobo’s best
e-book sales month ever,” says Tamblyn, who estimates e-books make up
18 per cent of Canadian book purchasing. Kobo’s most dedicated customers
buy an average of one e-book a month and 16 print books a year. And
while industry-wide numbers can be tough to precisely pin down, Kobo is
regarded as the No. 3 retailer in e-books worldwide, behind Amazon and
Apple.
On Feb. 12, though, Rakuten, Kobo’s
Tokyo-based parent company, announced a goodwill writedown that wiped
out close to $95-million of the Canadian division’s value, thanks to
missed financial targets.
Tamblyn
“represents a company that’s clearly an underdog,” says Thad McIlroy, a
publishing analyst and author of the Future of Publishing blog. “They
have managed to innovate in the quality of the hardware, and are only a
step or two behind Amazon.”
Kobo, once
one of Canada’s hottest tech startups, became the country’s champion in
the e-reading space until it was sold. Now, although still based in
Toronto, it’s a division in a much larger Japanese e-commerce company
with many competing interests. And with limited resources, Kobo will
have to perform sales and technology miracles in order to keep pace in
the e-reading market and provide a meaningful third option to Amazon.com
Inc. and Apple Inc., behemoths that offer customers far more than just
digital books.
But people in the
industry say Kobo plays a vital role in the marketplace. It may not
produce hit TV series, but it does give readers and publishers something
the big guys don’t – a total focus on serving the e-reader and
improving the digital reading experience.
So
it’s okay with Tamblyn that Kobo is unlikely to overtake Amazon and
Apple. “Our goal isn’t to be the world’s largest manufacturer of
e-reading devices [Kobo is second-biggest],” he says. “It’s ‘Can we be
the best possible bookseller?’”
Tamblyn
was a crucial player in the rise of Kobo, but his history in online
book sales goes back to 1996, when he was part of a small team in
Guelph, Ont., that created Canada’s first online bookstore, a year after
Amazon.com was founded. But the story of how he started that project
goes back to his love of music and composing.
Raised
in Rockwood, Ont., Tamblyn was always surrounded by music. By day, his
father was a biochemist and teacher, and his mother was a guidance
counsellor; but after hours, dad directed choirs and mom played piano.
Tamblyn’s grandfather, a dairy farmer, played trumpet in bands during
the Depression, and his gigs were often his only source of cash. When
Tamblyn announced he was going to study music at Wilfrid Laurier
University, his grandfather took his side: “You’ll never starve,” he
said.
To put himself through school,
Tamblyn worked in the kitchen at a Guelph institution – the bookstore,
movie theatre and café known as The Bookshelf. One day, a composition
instructor asked Tamblyn about the kind of work he did, and whether he
might get hurt doing it. Cuts and burns could affect his ability to
perform in class, the teacher warned.
“‘If
that happens to you, you’re out, you’re gone,’” Tamblyn recalls the
teacher saying. “‘You’re out of the program.’” Shortly afterward, when a
manager announced that there was a job opening in the book store, “I
dropped my apron and went into bookselling,” Tamblyn says.
In
1996, The Bookshelf’s co-owner, Doug Minett, was approached by Scott
Remborg from Sympatico and asked if he might be interested in building
the first online bookstore for the portal’s burgeoning dial-up Internet
audience. Tamblyn, sporting dreadlocks and still going to Laurier
full-time, was one of three employees who stepped forward to help Minett
launch Bookshelf.ca.
“Our merry band
pulled off building this website in about six months,” Minett says.
“Everything [Tamblyn] touched … he understood the right way to do it.”
Minett
quickly realized the hard part of building an online bookstore was
managing the inventory and staffing needed run a national fulfillment
centre, and that required a bigger partner. Negotiations began with
Heather Reisman’s Indigo Books and Music in 1997, although the Indigo
people were astounded that the motley Bookshelf team from Guelph had
built the site without Bell’s help.
Bookshelf.ca
launched as an independent site, but it wasn’t long before it was
bought by Indigo and rebranded as Indigo.ca. The deal closed in 1998,
and Tamblyn went to work for Indigo. That marked the end of his musical
career, but he says he still draws inspiration from the discipline:
“Music is a craft. You start bad. You watch people who are really good,
you work really hard and at a certain point you start to try new things.
You start to innovate and you start to make your own work real.”
Tamblyn
left Indigo in 2000 for another tech startup, then returned to
publishing in 2003 as CEO of BookNet Canada, again with backing of
Minett, a board member of the new entity. BookNet was an experiment,
founded with help from the federal government with the mission to track
Canadian publisher sales data after the implosion of Chapters Inc.’s
Pegasus distribution centre in 2001 and the bankruptcy of distributor
General Publishing in 2002. (It still operates today, run by Noah
Genner, another veteran of Bookshelf.ca.)
By
2009, Tamblyn was a natural fit for another new book startup that was
being incubated inside the country’s last remaining big bookstore chain,
Indigo. Cofounded by Michael Serbinis, the company that would become
Kobo started as digital reading project called Shortcovers.
Tamblyn
joined the team of just 25 people who were working away on a device to
compete with Amazon’s Kindle, launched in 2007. When the company was
spun off as an independent unit in December, 2009, Tamblyn became a key
part of the global expansion team that sprinted off to international
markets in an effort to head off the Amazon colossus.
“I’ve
seen him step into big moments and just wow people,” says Todd
Humphrey, the former vice-president of business development at Kobo.
“I
was in Paris working on distribution deals –with retailers – some of
the publisher deals were going sideways,” Humphrey says. Thinking Kobo
had 24 hours to solve the issues or cancel the planned France launch,
Murphy called Tamblyn. “Within 12 hours he was sitting next to me in a
board room in Paris. It wasn’t just getting on a plane – anyone can do
that – he was getting in a boardroom nailing down critical publishing
relationships. Here’s a guy who really figured out what the partner
needed, and enabled us to get deals done super fast.”
Tamblyn
has scored points with publishers by presenting Kobo as a friendlier
alternative to Amazon. “At industry conferences, [Amazon] will show
graphs with no numbers to go with it. Michael will get up on the same
platform a few minutes later, and spend half an hour going into prices –
to the nth degree, down to which genre is selling better in which
country,” Humphrey says. “The hatred the industry has for Amazon is
incredible.”
But as Kobo’s partners in
the publishing industry see it, the challenge is not just that the
company’s rivals are huge; it’s also that they offer ecosystems of
digital products and services that make them more than just booksellers.
“Kobo
is competing with companies with massive resources that are building
out lifestyle platforms,” says Robert Wheaton, chief operating officer
at Penguin Random House Canada. “Amazon is commissioning television
[series] to bring people into their Prime platform, from which they can
also buy books, and Apple is innovating on phones where they can also
buy books. I would imagine that’s super-challenging to compete with.
Kobo’s backed away from the multimedia tablet industry. Their No. 1
customer is first a book reader.”
In
2011, after only a few years of breakneck growth and growing costs,
Indigo – the controlling shareholder – and its partners agreed to sell
Kobo to Japanese e-retailer Rakuten for $315-million. On its face, it
seemed like a win: Borders, an early Kobo investor and its only foothold
in the U.S. market, had gone bankrupt earlier in the year, and the
Rakuten deal represented a 10-times return on Reisman’s investment.
According
to McIlroy, the Future of Publishing blogger, selling was a huge
mistake that cost Indigo – and Canada – the opportunity to build a
global reading company. “Not only is Indigo not a digital player, as a
bookseller, it continues to drop market share. And since it gave up
Kobo, the percentage of its sales as e-books dropped from over 5 per
cent to under 1 per cent.”
Tamblyn
describes things differently: Because of Indigo’s early investment into
the project, “Canada remains as probably the only English-speaking
market where Amazon doesn’t run the table on books and e-commerce.”
The
sale to Rakuten also spelled the end to most of the founding executive
team. Serbinis and some of his closest collaborators left, and Rakuten’s
Takahito “Taka” Aiki became CEO. Tamblyn stayed on. “We had so much
great stuff still to do, and I wanted to see this turn into one of those
companies that actually goes the distance,” he says.
Things
changed, though. There were layoffs and, these days, with about 360
employees, the company is smaller than it was in 2012. Tamblyn was named
president and managed teams on sales, both publisher and retail
relations, and content acquisition, not to mention the overall
experience of Kobo’s web and mobile platforms. There were also
expansions into 12 more markets in the first 14 months. “I was 100 days
on the road last year,” he says.
Aiki
expanded Rakuten’s e-reading portfolio, acquiring Aquafadas (digital
publishing software) and OverDrive (it distributes e-books to
libraries), and lowered costs at Kobo to the point where the division is
essentially break-even. On Jan. 1, Aiki moved up to become chairman,
and Tamblyn was named Kobo CEO.
“He
should have been made CEO two years ago, and now they’ve gotten it
right,” says Humphrey, who admits he may be biased – he was the MC at
Tamblyn’s wedding. “When all of your peers leave a company, when you’re
the last man standing, he figured out how to keep that company running
forward inside the Rakuten walls … That’s a war story.”
Wheaton
describes Tamblyn as a “kinetic” speaker at events, and also a funny,
accessible business partner. “Everyone enjoys working with him, he’s
respected and trusted.”
Kobo’s problems
can’t be solved with charm. Its average customer is more likely to be
50 than 20, scary numbers for a technology company, even if it’s built
on reading. And losing a lot of money to grow is no longer an option.
Kobo is not a startup any more, so it’s not as easy to recruit talented
people and attract investors.
There are
bright spots. Self-publishing sales have grown rapidly, Tamblyn says,
and the Kobo Writing Life self-publishing imprint is now 15 per cent of
all the books it sells. But the per-unit revenue is often lower than
traditional publisher offerings. Kobo also has to compete with services,
such as Wattpad, that offer user-generated writing for free.
“Their
great Achilles heel is they don’t have a significant U.S. business,”
McIlroy says. And despite Kobo’s first-mover advantage in international
markets, competition globally is increasingly intense. “Apple, for a
long time, they were bozos,” McIlroy says. “In the last several years
they have recognized their bozo-ness and tightened up. I am worried for
Kobo. I don’t know how Michael is going to maintain Kobo’s market
presence.”
From Wheaton’s perspective,
while it may look like e-reading has settled into a niche of 20 per cent
of book sales in the U.S. and Britain – slightly less in Canada at
about 17 per cent – analysts shouldn’t assume the status quo will
continue. “The only time things truly seem stable is when there’s big
change around the corner,” he says. “Preparedness for and openness to
change has been and is going to be table stakes for anyone in the
industry.”
Creating a new channel for
growth and keeping up with Amazon and Apple won’t be easy. But Tamblyn
wants to remind Kobo fans that he’s not alone in the fight. He has a
team.
“You can’t do it by yourself,” he
says. “You’ve got to rope people in. Convince them that it’s
[something] worth spending their time on. You’ve gotta convince them to
bring their talents and their skill and work really, really hard to make
it a reality. And then you’ve gotta find an audience for it, too.
“I
love this business because it uses a great deal of technology that’s
implemented and designed very well to solve a very human, very cultural
problem. It’s one of such magnificent scope and scale, it will keep me
busy for a while.”
Even though Tamblyn doesn’t write music any more, it seems he’s still a composer.
Source: Globe and Mail
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Is it Piracy? How Students Access Academic Resources
by Laura Czerniewicz
March 16, 2016
Guest column: Laura Czerniewicz, an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town, discusses a recent study into how students access academic resources - both legally and illegally.
Academic textbooks are expensive and the cost of textbooks globally has continued to rise alarmingly even as other educational resources have become relatively cheaper. For students, open educational resources should make more sense – certainly financially.
But, globally, the uptake of such resources is low. There are not nearly enough relevant local open-source textbooks in countries like South Africa, where I work at a university. Where they do exist, academics and students barely know about them.
So how do students access the resources they need? We investigated this as part of a larger research project across six countries: Argentina, Brazil, India, Poland, South Africa and the US. How do students access resources like books? Do they consider copyright and what do they think about it? Do they pirate learning materials? How do they make sense of what they do?
This study concentrated on students at one of South Africa’s top research-intensive universities. We compiled a survey that was answered by 1,001 students and conducted six focus groups with students across three professional disciplines. These disciplines were chosen because students were likely to be prescribed textbooks.
It also emerged that accessing learning resources through a variety of sites requires a certain measure of expertise. Students admire their peers who know where to ferret out such resources, and such knowledge is unevenly spread. In this sense the notion of a homogenous student body whose members are all natural “digital natives” is challenged.
Another interesting part of the study was what it revealed about students’ attitudes to their own practices and actions. Many made a joke of their piracy or distanced themselves in an amused fashion by shifting responsibility to others or to the technology itself. For instance, some joked:
They also displayed a matter-of-fact pragmatism. For many, it is a matter of principle, with one saying: “Is it unethical to want to be educated or is it unethical to charge so much [for textbooks]?”
Others believe that they are doing the right thing: “… even though in my head I know it’s wrong, it’s just a technical thing. Substantively speaking, it’s the right thing to do,” one explained. Another said: “I am not worried about the consequences of illegal downloading. [I’m] worried about graduating.”
The respondents also made a distinction between downloading textbooks and other media forms, particularly music and books. They consider the educational aspect central and feel the pursuit of education justifies their actions. As one said: “It’s about access to education: it is huge! It’s the future of our country.”
An important distinction was also made between plagiarism and copyright. Plagiarism was considered unethical and risky, while copyright appeared to be less of an issue. Said one student: “Copyright – it does not even seem like an issue any more … I copy everything … But it almost seems like it isn’t copyrighted, it almost seems like it’s free for everyone.”
There was also a glimmer of an alternative perspective. Some students acknowledged the existence and value of open, free content, but did not know where to access it. They also said more of it is needed.
These quotes are just a taster. The students’ voices are articulate on matters of principle, plagiarism, piracy and access to textbooks and other academic resources. They raise critical issues for new models of publishing, for digital literacies and for open scholarship.
Through the literature review and the findings of this study, it is clear that there is a grey zone in the access of learning and academic resources that is now simply part of normal life in a new communication and information order.
The full paper, “Student Practices in Copyright Culture: Accessing Learning Resources” is in press in Learning Media and Technology and will be online here soon. The manuscript is also available. This article was adapted from a post on the author’s personal blog.
Source: The Digital Reader
March 16, 2016
Guest column: Laura Czerniewicz, an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town, discusses a recent study into how students access academic resources - both legally and illegally.
Academic textbooks are expensive and the cost of textbooks globally has continued to rise alarmingly even as other educational resources have become relatively cheaper. For students, open educational resources should make more sense – certainly financially.
But, globally, the uptake of such resources is low. There are not nearly enough relevant local open-source textbooks in countries like South Africa, where I work at a university. Where they do exist, academics and students barely know about them.
So how do students access the resources they need? We investigated this as part of a larger research project across six countries: Argentina, Brazil, India, Poland, South Africa and the US. How do students access resources like books? Do they consider copyright and what do they think about it? Do they pirate learning materials? How do they make sense of what they do?
This study concentrated on students at one of South Africa’s top research-intensive universities. We compiled a survey that was answered by 1,001 students and conducted six focus groups with students across three professional disciplines. These disciplines were chosen because students were likely to be prescribed textbooks.
What we found
Here are a few key findings from the survey:
- students are accessing learning resources in both print and digital forms – it’s not a case of “either/or”;
- they are accessing these resources both legally and illegally without necessarily knowing the difference. Many gave contradictory answers when asked what percentage of their resources were downloaded legally and illegally; and
- notably, only a fifth of students said that all their resources were legally obtained. The comment “we all pirate” was made several times.
It also emerged that accessing learning resources through a variety of sites requires a certain measure of expertise. Students admire their peers who know where to ferret out such resources, and such knowledge is unevenly spread. In this sense the notion of a homogenous student body whose members are all natural “digital natives” is challenged.
Principled pragmatism
Another interesting part of the study was what it revealed about students’ attitudes to their own practices and actions. Many made a joke of their piracy or distanced themselves in an amused fashion by shifting responsibility to others or to the technology itself. For instance, some joked:
It’s Google’s fault.
They also displayed a matter-of-fact pragmatism. For many, it is a matter of principle, with one saying: “Is it unethical to want to be educated or is it unethical to charge so much [for textbooks]?”
Others believe that they are doing the right thing: “… even though in my head I know it’s wrong, it’s just a technical thing. Substantively speaking, it’s the right thing to do,” one explained. Another said: “I am not worried about the consequences of illegal downloading. [I’m] worried about graduating.”
The respondents also made a distinction between downloading textbooks and other media forms, particularly music and books. They consider the educational aspect central and feel the pursuit of education justifies their actions. As one said: “It’s about access to education: it is huge! It’s the future of our country.”
An important distinction was also made between plagiarism and copyright. Plagiarism was considered unethical and risky, while copyright appeared to be less of an issue. Said one student: “Copyright – it does not even seem like an issue any more … I copy everything … But it almost seems like it isn’t copyrighted, it almost seems like it’s free for everyone.”
There was also a glimmer of an alternative perspective. Some students acknowledged the existence and value of open, free content, but did not know where to access it. They also said more of it is needed.
A grey zone
These quotes are just a taster. The students’ voices are articulate on matters of principle, plagiarism, piracy and access to textbooks and other academic resources. They raise critical issues for new models of publishing, for digital literacies and for open scholarship.
Through the literature review and the findings of this study, it is clear that there is a grey zone in the access of learning and academic resources that is now simply part of normal life in a new communication and information order.
The full paper, “Student Practices in Copyright Culture: Accessing Learning Resources” is in press in Learning Media and Technology and will be online here soon. The manuscript is also available. This article was adapted from a post on the author’s personal blog.
Source: The Digital Reader
The Big Question: Are Books Getting Longer?
A new survey of bestsellers and critics’ picks has concluded that the average book is now 25% bigger than 15 years ago. But not everyone reads things this way
by Richard Lea
December 10, 2015
by Richard Lea
December 10, 2015
Books are steadily increasing in size, according to a survey that has
found the average number of pages has grown by 25% over the last 15
years.
A study of more than 2,500 books appearing on New York Times bestseller and notable books lists and Google’s annual survey of the most discussed books reveals that the average length has increased from 320 pages in 1999 to 400 pages in 2014.
According to James Finlayson from Vervesearch, who carried out the survey for the interactive publisher Flipsnack, there’s a “relatively consistent pattern of growth year on year” that has added approximately 80 pages to the average size of the books surveyed since 1999.
For Finlayson, much of this shift can be explained by the industry’s shift towards digital. “When you pick up a large book in a shop,” he says, “you can sometimes be intimidated, whereas on Amazon the size of a book is just a footnote that you don’t really pay all that much attention to.” The rise of digital reading is also a factor, he adds. “I always hold off buying really big books until I’m going on holiday, because I don’t want to lug them around in my bag. But if you have a big book on a Kindle, that’s not a consideration.”
The literary agent Clare Alexander agrees that long books are more portable in electronic formats, but points out that much ebook reading is focused on genres such as romance, crime and erotica. For Alexander, the gradual increase in size is evidence of a cultural shift.
“Despite all the talk of the death of the book because of competition from other media,” she says, “people who love to read appear to prefer a long and immersive narrative, the very opposite of a sound bite or snippets of information that we all spend our lives downloading from Google.
“The Americans have led the way – think Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen, Hanya Yanagihara and most recently Marlon James (Jamaican but living in America) – but they are not alone. Hilary Mantel from the UK or Eleanor Catton from New Zealand have both written long novels, and if you look through that list you will see how many of these have won prizes. So clearly the literary establishment loves long books too."
The ManBooker prize has been a pillar of the literary establishment in the UK since the 1970s, and evidence of expansion can be found in the roster of winners. The first five years of Booker-winning novels average out at around 300 pages, but even taking into account Julian Barnes’s 2011 triumph with his 160-page novella The Sense of an Ending, the last five years of Booker laureates weigh in at an average of 520 pages. This year’s winner was brief only in name: Marlon James’s 700-page A Brief History of Seven Killings.
For Max Porter, the editor at Granta who published the 800-page Booker winner of 2013, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, it’s difficult to get a sense of a shift across the whole market but it’s “heartening to see these big, ambitious books appearing”.
“All across culture, people are trying to work out whether content is going to become mobile, what devices people are going to be using to consume it,” says Porter, “so I’m quite encouraged by the big, fat book sitting there saying: ‘read me’.”
The rise of the television box set, where viewers will commit to spending dozens of hours following a single narrative, has encouraged publishers to support writers exploring a bigger canvas, Porter continues. “It’s shown that people have the appetite, patience and stamina to stick with a plot and characters as they develop over a large span.”
Big books may be more convenient to carry on an electronic reader, but Porter isn’t convinced that digital reading is driving any increase in size, citing studies showing that only 60% of books bought electronically are ever begun, and completion rates that can fall as low as 20% for some titles. “A big book inhabits the space you’re in,” he argues, “it’s a physical embodiment of your intention to spend the time necessary to read it”. The contemporary novel’s increasing girth can instead be put down to a confident assertion of identity. “The novel has come into its own novel-ness. There so many demands on our attention, so many competing forms, that these novels have decided to relish being big and long, to demand that you sit in a chair, turn off your phone and devote some time to them.”
“This year has had its glut of big novels,” says Alex Bowler, the editor at Jonathan Cape who published Garth Risk Hallberg’s 900-page debut novel City on Fire in the UK. He says the increase detected by the Flipsnack survey isn’t reflected in what comes across his desk. “The high-profile books have seemed fairly long, but I’m not inundated with 200,000-word novels. Two-hundred-and-fifty to 350-page novels have been the majority of what I’m seeing on submission, and I suspect that’s also the majority of what’s out there.”
Bestseller lists have been dominated over recent years by series, ranging from Harry Potter to EL James’s Fifty Shades trilogy. “I suspect they’re chunkier on the page than in their word count,” Bowler continues. By altering the spacing on the page, increasing the leading or using a slightly larger font, publishers can choose to give a novel some additional weight. “It may be that a genre audience wants a chunkier feel to the books they’re buying.”
The sense of value for money offered by a longer book used to be a consideration in the days of commercial sagas, literary agent Clare Alexander admits, and may still influence some readers today – but she says this desire for a substantial read doesn’t explain the growth in the literary novel.
“I would argue that a countervailing force is also in play with the revival of interest in the short story (also reflected in a growing and excellent prize culture) or the brief but perfectly formed novel.”
These days, the real struggle is publishing an unremarkably-sized book. “As an agent, the most difficult area now appears to be the middle. Mid-list, mid-career, middle-sized – in fact anything that’s middling.”
Source: The Guardian
A study of more than 2,500 books appearing on New York Times bestseller and notable books lists and Google’s annual survey of the most discussed books reveals that the average length has increased from 320 pages in 1999 to 400 pages in 2014.
According to James Finlayson from Vervesearch, who carried out the survey for the interactive publisher Flipsnack, there’s a “relatively consistent pattern of growth year on year” that has added approximately 80 pages to the average size of the books surveyed since 1999.
For Finlayson, much of this shift can be explained by the industry’s shift towards digital. “When you pick up a large book in a shop,” he says, “you can sometimes be intimidated, whereas on Amazon the size of a book is just a footnote that you don’t really pay all that much attention to.” The rise of digital reading is also a factor, he adds. “I always hold off buying really big books until I’m going on holiday, because I don’t want to lug them around in my bag. But if you have a big book on a Kindle, that’s not a consideration.”
The literary agent Clare Alexander agrees that long books are more portable in electronic formats, but points out that much ebook reading is focused on genres such as romance, crime and erotica. For Alexander, the gradual increase in size is evidence of a cultural shift.
“Despite all the talk of the death of the book because of competition from other media,” she says, “people who love to read appear to prefer a long and immersive narrative, the very opposite of a sound bite or snippets of information that we all spend our lives downloading from Google.
“The Americans have led the way – think Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen, Hanya Yanagihara and most recently Marlon James (Jamaican but living in America) – but they are not alone. Hilary Mantel from the UK or Eleanor Catton from New Zealand have both written long novels, and if you look through that list you will see how many of these have won prizes. So clearly the literary establishment loves long books too."
The ManBooker prize has been a pillar of the literary establishment in the UK since the 1970s, and evidence of expansion can be found in the roster of winners. The first five years of Booker-winning novels average out at around 300 pages, but even taking into account Julian Barnes’s 2011 triumph with his 160-page novella The Sense of an Ending, the last five years of Booker laureates weigh in at an average of 520 pages. This year’s winner was brief only in name: Marlon James’s 700-page A Brief History of Seven Killings.
For Max Porter, the editor at Granta who published the 800-page Booker winner of 2013, Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, it’s difficult to get a sense of a shift across the whole market but it’s “heartening to see these big, ambitious books appearing”.
“All across culture, people are trying to work out whether content is going to become mobile, what devices people are going to be using to consume it,” says Porter, “so I’m quite encouraged by the big, fat book sitting there saying: ‘read me’.”
The rise of the television box set, where viewers will commit to spending dozens of hours following a single narrative, has encouraged publishers to support writers exploring a bigger canvas, Porter continues. “It’s shown that people have the appetite, patience and stamina to stick with a plot and characters as they develop over a large span.”
Big books may be more convenient to carry on an electronic reader, but Porter isn’t convinced that digital reading is driving any increase in size, citing studies showing that only 60% of books bought electronically are ever begun, and completion rates that can fall as low as 20% for some titles. “A big book inhabits the space you’re in,” he argues, “it’s a physical embodiment of your intention to spend the time necessary to read it”. The contemporary novel’s increasing girth can instead be put down to a confident assertion of identity. “The novel has come into its own novel-ness. There so many demands on our attention, so many competing forms, that these novels have decided to relish being big and long, to demand that you sit in a chair, turn off your phone and devote some time to them.”
“This year has had its glut of big novels,” says Alex Bowler, the editor at Jonathan Cape who published Garth Risk Hallberg’s 900-page debut novel City on Fire in the UK. He says the increase detected by the Flipsnack survey isn’t reflected in what comes across his desk. “The high-profile books have seemed fairly long, but I’m not inundated with 200,000-word novels. Two-hundred-and-fifty to 350-page novels have been the majority of what I’m seeing on submission, and I suspect that’s also the majority of what’s out there.”
Bestseller lists have been dominated over recent years by series, ranging from Harry Potter to EL James’s Fifty Shades trilogy. “I suspect they’re chunkier on the page than in their word count,” Bowler continues. By altering the spacing on the page, increasing the leading or using a slightly larger font, publishers can choose to give a novel some additional weight. “It may be that a genre audience wants a chunkier feel to the books they’re buying.”
The sense of value for money offered by a longer book used to be a consideration in the days of commercial sagas, literary agent Clare Alexander admits, and may still influence some readers today – but she says this desire for a substantial read doesn’t explain the growth in the literary novel.
“I would argue that a countervailing force is also in play with the revival of interest in the short story (also reflected in a growing and excellent prize culture) or the brief but perfectly formed novel.”
These days, the real struggle is publishing an unremarkably-sized book. “As an agent, the most difficult area now appears to be the middle. Mid-list, mid-career, middle-sized – in fact anything that’s middling.”
Source: The Guardian
Friday, March 11, 2016
Public Libraries Online: Flint Public Library: A Gateway to Critical Information
by Julie Hordyk, Mind Over Marketing, LLC | March 4, 2016
It seems that everyone in the United States is glued to the story about Flint and the water crisis. What role does a public library play in a civic crisis such as this? Flint Public Library (FPL) has defined three specific ways in which the library supports the local community. How does the library fit into the solutions for the longer term issues? First, and perhaps most importantly, FPL staff are actively engaged in the conversations about what to do and how to mobilize resources. “We are at the table,” says Kay Schwartz, Library Director. “We have to know who is doing what and how people can get help. Flint has a well-developed network of organizations that collaborate effectively. We don’t need to create the solution. We just need to know what it looks like and know how people can access it.”
Second, the library is a 24/7 gateway to critical information. “We are trusted and accessible,” continues Schwartz. “Two of our librarians are the go-to people during library hours for patron questions. We have also put a link on our homepage. Users can go straight to all the relevant sites for accessing resources and getting information.” New information pours in almost daily. Printed literature seems to be outdated almost as fast as it reaches the racks. The library helps ensure that people can immediately find fresh, current, and relevant information. An additional wrinkle in Flint is that many households do not have broadband service. The library has more than sixty computers, as well as building-wide Wi-Fi for patrons. “We are not only the doorway to information; we are the knob that allows people to even get into the door!” says Schwartz.
And third, Flint Public Library links generous people around the country into the community response system. Schwartz says the calls are amazing. “We just got a call from someone in Detroit who wanted to donate ten thousand bottles of water that had been collected from individual donors. He thought bringing it to the Library was the best solution. We were able to link him instead to the centralized distribution sources. In that way, he could merge into the existing system rather than creating something new at the library.” “Our community trusts us,” attests Schwartz. “We take that trust seriously, and want to provide information when and how people need it.”
Flint Public Library’s mission is to be the go-to place for learning across the lifespan. One of their three strategic priorities is supporting family literacy, with a special focus on early childhood literacy. “We are working very closely with the Flint and Genesee Literacy Network to create a web of solutions for children who have been permanently affected by lead,” continues Schwartz. “The library takes its commitment to early childhood literacy very seriously. We will take every step to support parents and children with evidence-based, appropriate tools and programs to nurture development.”
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. Director of Hurley Medical Center’s Pediatrics Program in Flint and the pediatrician who helped expose the water problem, says, “Lead is an irreversible neurotoxin. It actually drops a child’s IQ, and it causes behavior problems, problems focusing, problems doing schoolwork. Not every kid is going to have every problem, but in large-scale studies, this is what lead does. We are advocating for evidence-based interventions that work for all children who are at risk of developmental issues—so early literature programs and universal preschool, access to nutrition.”
“Most children will not become ready to read solely by coming to library story time once a week,” says Schwartz. “The best way for the Library to make an impact is to teach parents simple activities that nurture pre-reading skills and can easily fit into their home lives.” FPL has identified early literacy education as an area where it can expand its reach and leverage its current expertise. This fits nicely into the strategic vision, and very clearly supports existing and emerging community needs.
The library has begun implementing Every Child Ready to Read® —a parent education program for parents of children ages 0–5, both inside the library and in outreach settings. The program was developed by the Public Library Association in 2004 and has been widely adopted by other public libraries. Following research-based changes to the program in its 2011, it is now a platform for libraries to teach parents how to use five simple practices (talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing) in ways that can help their children become ready to read.
It seems that everyone in the United States is glued to the story about Flint and the water crisis. What role does a public library play in a civic crisis such as this? Flint Public Library (FPL) has defined three specific ways in which the library supports the local community. How does the library fit into the solutions for the longer term issues? First, and perhaps most importantly, FPL staff are actively engaged in the conversations about what to do and how to mobilize resources. “We are at the table,” says Kay Schwartz, Library Director. “We have to know who is doing what and how people can get help. Flint has a well-developed network of organizations that collaborate effectively. We don’t need to create the solution. We just need to know what it looks like and know how people can access it.”
Second, the library is a 24/7 gateway to critical information. “We are trusted and accessible,” continues Schwartz. “Two of our librarians are the go-to people during library hours for patron questions. We have also put a link on our homepage. Users can go straight to all the relevant sites for accessing resources and getting information.” New information pours in almost daily. Printed literature seems to be outdated almost as fast as it reaches the racks. The library helps ensure that people can immediately find fresh, current, and relevant information. An additional wrinkle in Flint is that many households do not have broadband service. The library has more than sixty computers, as well as building-wide Wi-Fi for patrons. “We are not only the doorway to information; we are the knob that allows people to even get into the door!” says Schwartz.
And third, Flint Public Library links generous people around the country into the community response system. Schwartz says the calls are amazing. “We just got a call from someone in Detroit who wanted to donate ten thousand bottles of water that had been collected from individual donors. He thought bringing it to the Library was the best solution. We were able to link him instead to the centralized distribution sources. In that way, he could merge into the existing system rather than creating something new at the library.” “Our community trusts us,” attests Schwartz. “We take that trust seriously, and want to provide information when and how people need it.”
Flint Public Library’s mission is to be the go-to place for learning across the lifespan. One of their three strategic priorities is supporting family literacy, with a special focus on early childhood literacy. “We are working very closely with the Flint and Genesee Literacy Network to create a web of solutions for children who have been permanently affected by lead,” continues Schwartz. “The library takes its commitment to early childhood literacy very seriously. We will take every step to support parents and children with evidence-based, appropriate tools and programs to nurture development.”
Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. Director of Hurley Medical Center’s Pediatrics Program in Flint and the pediatrician who helped expose the water problem, says, “Lead is an irreversible neurotoxin. It actually drops a child’s IQ, and it causes behavior problems, problems focusing, problems doing schoolwork. Not every kid is going to have every problem, but in large-scale studies, this is what lead does. We are advocating for evidence-based interventions that work for all children who are at risk of developmental issues—so early literature programs and universal preschool, access to nutrition.”
“Most children will not become ready to read solely by coming to library story time once a week,” says Schwartz. “The best way for the Library to make an impact is to teach parents simple activities that nurture pre-reading skills and can easily fit into their home lives.” FPL has identified early literacy education as an area where it can expand its reach and leverage its current expertise. This fits nicely into the strategic vision, and very clearly supports existing and emerging community needs.
The library has begun implementing Every Child Ready to Read® —a parent education program for parents of children ages 0–5, both inside the library and in outreach settings. The program was developed by the Public Library Association in 2004 and has been widely adopted by other public libraries. Following research-based changes to the program in its 2011, it is now a platform for libraries to teach parents how to use five simple practices (talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing) in ways that can help their children become ready to read.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
CBC News Edmonton: Green energy tool kits an instant hit at Edmonton Public Library
By Radio Active CBC News | February 22, 2016
Hundreds of people are currently on a waiting list for the Edmonton Public Library's hottest new item — and it's not the latest teen romance novel.
Around 400 people are waiting to get their hands on one of 16 Green Home Energy Tool Kits, available at EPL branches across the city.
The kits offer tools, tests and information to help measure your household energy use.
Other communities in North America, like Red Deer, already offer similar kits.
EPL stocks green living and home guides, but wanted to offer something "a little more hands on," said Robyn Webb, an environmental engagement coordinator with the City of Edmonton.
'We tried to make it as easy as possible'
The kit contains an instruction booklet and some handy tools for measuring energy efficiency, such as an infrared thermometer, a kilowatt meter and an LED lightbulb you can use to compare energy savings against an incandescent bulb.
"We tried to make it as easy as possible," Webb said.
"We took all the instructions from the different tools and integrated them into this book here that also will help you interpret some of the results of what you're seeing."
Kit users can use the infrared thermometer to detect air leakages around doors and windows, or other places where drafts and frost can occur, Webb said. A colour meter on the device will show temperature differences between different surfaces.
"Some people aren't quite convinced there's a huge difference. There really is."
- Robyn Webb, City of Edmonton
"I live in an old heritage building, (and) I took this to my house to do a little test," Webb said.
"I could see ... the thresholds around my windows and doors are pretty leaky. At one point we were checking and it got down to 1 C where the window sort of meets the windowsill.
"We were aware our that our windows weren't performing very well. This just helps people really understand what's going on.
"Some people aren't quite convinced there's a huge difference. There really is."
The kilowatt meter can determine whether electrical appliances are working efficiently, Webb said.
Used with the LED bulb in a lamp, it can show how power and heat differs from a incandescent or fluorescent bulb.
The kit's instruction booklet is also very user-friendly, Webb said.
Since stocking the kits in January, they've been so popular at EPL that the city is considering investing in more of them, she added.
A DIY way of saving energy in your home
The kit is mostly aimed at DIYers who can use it to find ways to save energy in their homes — things like putting up weather stripping and plastic over windows.
But Webb said the kit is meant only as a starting point and isn't meant to replace an official energy audit.
"If you use some of these tools and realize your house isn't performing very well, then get in touch with a certified energy advisor and get them to do a really official audit of your home," Webb said.
"This is kind of a first step in informing people," she said.
"They can take some of the interventions they can do themselves, then move on to the larger things, like insulating your walls or getting new windows."
To read the full article, please visit CBC News Edmonton
Hundreds of people are currently on a waiting list for the Edmonton Public Library's hottest new item — and it's not the latest teen romance novel.
Around 400 people are waiting to get their hands on one of 16 Green Home Energy Tool Kits, available at EPL branches across the city.
The kits offer tools, tests and information to help measure your household energy use.
Other communities in North America, like Red Deer, already offer similar kits.
EPL stocks green living and home guides, but wanted to offer something "a little more hands on," said Robyn Webb, an environmental engagement coordinator with the City of Edmonton.
'We tried to make it as easy as possible'
The kit contains an instruction booklet and some handy tools for measuring energy efficiency, such as an infrared thermometer, a kilowatt meter and an LED lightbulb you can use to compare energy savings against an incandescent bulb.
"We tried to make it as easy as possible," Webb said.
"We took all the instructions from the different tools and integrated them into this book here that also will help you interpret some of the results of what you're seeing."
Kit users can use the infrared thermometer to detect air leakages around doors and windows, or other places where drafts and frost can occur, Webb said. A colour meter on the device will show temperature differences between different surfaces.
"Some people aren't quite convinced there's a huge difference. There really is."
- Robyn Webb, City of Edmonton
"I live in an old heritage building, (and) I took this to my house to do a little test," Webb said.
"I could see ... the thresholds around my windows and doors are pretty leaky. At one point we were checking and it got down to 1 C where the window sort of meets the windowsill.
"We were aware our that our windows weren't performing very well. This just helps people really understand what's going on.
"Some people aren't quite convinced there's a huge difference. There really is."
The kilowatt meter can determine whether electrical appliances are working efficiently, Webb said.
Used with the LED bulb in a lamp, it can show how power and heat differs from a incandescent or fluorescent bulb.
The kit's instruction booklet is also very user-friendly, Webb said.
Since stocking the kits in January, they've been so popular at EPL that the city is considering investing in more of them, she added.
A DIY way of saving energy in your home
The kit is mostly aimed at DIYers who can use it to find ways to save energy in their homes — things like putting up weather stripping and plastic over windows.
But Webb said the kit is meant only as a starting point and isn't meant to replace an official energy audit.
"If you use some of these tools and realize your house isn't performing very well, then get in touch with a certified energy advisor and get them to do a really official audit of your home," Webb said.
"This is kind of a first step in informing people," she said.
"They can take some of the interventions they can do themselves, then move on to the larger things, like insulating your walls or getting new windows."
To read the full article, please visit CBC News Edmonton
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
CTV News Toronto: GTA library rolls out wooden library cards
CTV News Toronto | March 4, 2016
The Halton Hills Public Library is promoting a novel idea that officials say is part of the organization’s effort to go green.
The library has introduced wooden library cards made of 100 per cent Nordic Birch wood harvested from sustainably managed forests. The manufacturing of the cards uses 30 per cent less energy than traditional plastic cards.
Director of Library Services and CultureJane Diamanti said she'd love it if the estimated 20,000 plastic library cards in circulation were switched over to the wooden models.
"If we can replace those cards with something that's more environmentally friendly, I would be really proud of that," Diamanti told CTV Toronto.
Meanwhile, some library users are pleased to switch over to the greener cards, which were introduced late last month.
"We want to live in a healthy environment and I think going from plastic to wooden is safer for our environment," one Grade 8 student said.
To view the full article, please visit CTV News Toronto
The Halton Hills Public Library is promoting a novel idea that officials say is part of the organization’s effort to go green.
The library has introduced wooden library cards made of 100 per cent Nordic Birch wood harvested from sustainably managed forests. The manufacturing of the cards uses 30 per cent less energy than traditional plastic cards.
Director of Library Services and CultureJane Diamanti said she'd love it if the estimated 20,000 plastic library cards in circulation were switched over to the wooden models.
"If we can replace those cards with something that's more environmentally friendly, I would be really proud of that," Diamanti told CTV Toronto.
Meanwhile, some library users are pleased to switch over to the greener cards, which were introduced late last month.
"We want to live in a healthy environment and I think going from plastic to wooden is safer for our environment," one Grade 8 student said.
To view the full article, please visit CTV News Toronto
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
The Lawrence Public Library Is Getting A Monster Modular Synthesizer
It looks like the Lawrence Public Library of Lawrence, KS, may soon have its own monster modular synthesizer.
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