American Libraries lifts access restrictions

American Libraries, the flagship magazine of the American Library Association (ALA), celebrated the first Open Access Day, Oct. 14, by opening up its content on the Web and making its companion weekly e-newsletter, American Libraries Direct, available to anyone for the asking.

“Opening up American Libraries’ searchable PDFs at www.ala.org/alonline/ is just the first step toward making all future features and columns available on the site in HTML format in 2009,” said Leonard Kniffel, editor in chief. The current issue of the print magazine will be open to all, as will back issues through 2003; they were all formerly accessible only with a member log-in. The revamped AL website will link content to the AL online forum [hot link http://al.ala.org/forum/] where readers are encouraged to express their opinions about professional issues, news and controversies.

The decision to open up the magazine and the e-newsletter was made after consulting with key ALA member committees during this year’s ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim. “We’ve known for a long time that this is the direction in which magazine publishing is going,” said Kniffel, “but we have to be careful to counter the perception that member organizations rely on member-only perks to retain members.” The fact is, he said, “making your content difficult or impossible to find on the Web simply means that your members, especially those who are writing for your organization, get left out of all the conversations occurring online.”

“American Libraries Direct has been extremely popular with ALA members, and many have been forwarding it to nonmember colleagues,” said ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. “It’s the best library news aggregation in the profession, and we want the world to read it and see the kind of essential services that ALA and libraries across the country are providing.”

To subscribe to AL Direct, visit the AL Direct sign-up page [http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/aldirect/aldirect.cfm].

Source: American Libraries

Problem: Boys Don’t Like to Read. Solution: Books That Are Really Gross

Publishers are hawking more gory and gross books to appeal to an elusive market: boys — many of whom would rather go to the dentist than crack open “Little House on the Prairie.” Booksellers are also catering to teachers and parents desperate to make young males more literate.

“There has been a real revolution” in books that “have more kid appeal,” especially when it comes to boys, says Ellie Berger, who oversees Scholastic’s trade division. “It’s a shift away from the drier books we all grew up with.”

Last year, U.S. publishers released 261 new works of juvenile fiction aimed at boys, more than twice the number put out in 2003, according to Bowker’s Books in Print database. There were 20 nonfiction entries for boys, compared with just four in 2003.

Source: Wall Street Journal

You can review the complete list here. Btw, some revisions were also made. Info about these words can be found here.

Source: OED

Online Swap Meets for Books

Penny-pinching bibliophiles will revel in a new batch of Web sites for paperback swapping. The sites reinvent the classic act of trading summer beach reads and expand summer reading beyond the dusty bookshelves of friends and family.

We tested four Web sites devoted to exchanging books — Paperbackswap.com, Swaptree.com, Bookmooch.com and Bookins.com.

Unlike Amazon.com, users don’t have to pay for the actual book, just shipping. Unlike with a library book, there’s no due date (or late fee). These sites allow readers to browse the collections of site members across the country and unload books that they no longer want in their permanent collections.

Source: Wall Street Journal

You can preorder the book from the GPO (soft or hardcover) and/or read online/download/print the 100 page book from this link on the FBI web site. Online access is available at no charge.

This 130-page coffee-table book—The FBI: A Centennial History, 1908-2008—traces our evolution over the past century from a makeshift band of 34 investigators to a full-fledged national security and intelligence agency with 30,000 special agents and specialized professionals working around the globe to protect the nation.

The book takes you on a walk through seven key chapters in FBI history, showing how the Bureau has been there for our country every step of the way—from World War I and the early days of terrorism to the gangster-driven crime wave of the ‘20s and ‘30s…from the anxious age of World War II and the Cold War to the turbulent ‘60s and its burgeoning civil rights movement…from the systemic corruption of the Watergate years to the rise of global terror and crime and the transformative post-9/11 era.

Source: FBI

Special Issues Index (PDF; 1.8 MB)

The Hill Library Special Issues Index is a one-of-a-kind collection of industry overviews, company rankings, and more from hundreds of industry and trade journals. Individual articles can be ordered via the Hill Document Delivery service.

Dated January 14, 2008.

Source: James J. Hill Reference Library

See Also: SpecialIssues.com
A searchable fee-based database from Trip Wykoff. It’s also home to Price’s List of Lists.

From Editor’s Note:

Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors.

Now, in addition to such offerings as blogs, author dispatches, slideshows, interviews, and videos, readers can also browse issues going back to 1995, along with hundreds of articles dating as far back as 1857, the year The Atlantic was founded.

We’re pleased to bring The Atlantic before a broader online audience. We hope that the quality of its writing, the trenchancy of its insights, and the depth and thoughtfulness of its reporting will inspire many of our online readers to join the Atlantic family by becoming print subscribers.

The International Regional Magazines Association offers this massive directory of travel destination publications. From Arizona Highways to British Columbia Magazine to Vermont Life. All directly linked to actual publication.

Source: IRMA

ResourceShelf’s Virtual Magazine / Serial Newsstand #6: Special Edition: Newspapers for Senior Citizens and Mature Adults

This directory from the North American Mature Publishers Association lists publications aimed at mature/senior audiences in many states and the District of Columbia. Many can be read online. Some offer extra web-only content. The directory also contains contact, demographic, and advertising information.

Source: NAMPA

See Also: Review the Other 5 Posts in this Compilation

We’re thrilled so many of you are finding these occasional collections featuring web sites of print publications to be of value. Like we said before, many of these publications not only place a great deal of the print edition online but also add a lot more content to the web site.

This time we begin a collection of city publications including glossy monthlies and alternative weeklies. We will continue to build this collection moving forward.

1) New York

2) Los Angeles

3) Chicago

4) The Washingtonian

5) Philadelphia

6) Boston

7) D Magazine (Dallas)

5280 (Denver)

9) San Francisco

10) Seattle Magazine

11) Baltimore Magazine

See Also: Directory: Alternative Newsweeklies

See Also: Review other Listings in this Compilation

Our collection continues and we hope you continue find it useful.

+ Cookie Magazine
For parents.

+ Family Tree Magazine

+ Good Magazine

+ International Living

+ Organize
Office and home organization.

+ ReadyMade
DIY.

+ The Washington Diplomat

Review Other Publications in our Virtual Newsstand

Thanks! We’ve been happy to hear from several of you who are enjoying our collections (two posts so far, post three is below) of URLs to print magazines/periodicals. Remember, many of these publications offer additional info (often updated daily) as well as text from the print edition online, often available at no charge.

Compilation #3

+ 2600
The Hacker Quarterly

+ Alaska Magazine

+ BBC Focus
From the BBC. Science and Technology. Consumer Specialist Magazine of the Year Winner, 2007 PPA Magazine Awards.

+ Death+Taxes Magazine
Music

+ Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine Online

+ MentalFloss
Fun for fact junkies.

+ Monocle
A briefing on global affairs business, culture & design.

+ Spin
Music

+ Under The Radar
Music and Culture

Compilation #2 ||| Compilation #1

We continue our virtual magazine or, if you prefer, “periodical” rack with the URLs of several more print publication. Walk into any newsstand or large bookstore and you’ll quickly see plenty of print serials. Our goal with this feature is:

1) To Introduce You to New Publications or the Web Versions of Old Faves
Remember, if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.

2) Remind You that In Many Cases these Web Sites are Updated OFTEN and provide frequently updated blogs, specialty tools, databases, lists, etc.

Btw, we would welcome news about Vol. 1.1 publications.

Compilation #2

+ 1up.com
Video games

+ BlackBook

+ BookPage

+ Dwell

+ Details

+ IndustryWeek

+ LAUNCH

+ Nuts and Volts Magazine
From the electronics hobbyist.

+ The Politico
Daily Coverage from DC.

+ Radar
Pop, Politics, Scandal, Style

+ Scientific American Mind

+ Skeptic

+ Sky and Telescope

+ Sky at Night Magazine

+ SmartPhone and Pocket PC ||| Mobile Version

+ VenusZine
“Emerging Creativity (women in music, art, film, fashion, diy culture.”

Direct to:
Compilation #1

Murdoch May Make Wall Street Journal Free
Still no official word but look for the subscription fee to disappear.

From Doug Caverly’s article:

Murdoch hasn’t made any final decisions about access to the Wall Street Journal Online, but he told shareholders, “We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having 1 million (subscribers) having at least 10-15 million in every corner of the earth.”

Source: WebProNews

As we pointed ouit nine days ago, if you know where to look, you can find plenty of Wall St. Journal content at no charge even before Mr. Murdoch makes his final decision on the matter.

Another place to look for Dow Jones NewsWires copy is SmartMoney. Use the advanced interface and limit to news wires.

Online Tutorial: How to Read a Consumer Magazine Publisher’s Statement
A 14 minute (14:18 to be precise) screencast (using Camtasia) presented by Anthony Arena, manager marketing and sales, ABC. This might be of interest to librarians, advertisers, media professionals, and others who track consumer publications.

See Also: New: Industry Scoop (multimedia news compiled by the ABC)

Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations