ResourceShelf » Print Publications

Oxford University Press Dictionaries Preparing for Digital Overhaul this Summer

resourceshelf — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:42:35 +0000

Starting in June when you buy an Oxford dictionary, at least in England, you will get a free subscription to Oxford Dictionaries Online and Oxford Language Dictionaries Online. The subscription will be between 3 months and a year depending on the price of the dictionary purchased.

[Snip]

The subscription includes dictionaries, thesaurus, usage information, grammar, spelling, writing resources and a puzzle zone.

Judy Pearsall, senior publishing manager for dictionaries, said the offer would compete against the free online reference sites. “We know that people find the free resources poor, and there isn’t really a lot else for people to get apart from those.”

She said: “The really important thing to remember is that these are not just dictionaries online—it’s all the language resources you will ever need, so it includes a dictionary, thesaurus, usage information, grammar and spelling, writing resources and a word puzzle zone. It’s a total service that fulfils all your language needs in one place.”

New Yorker — Back Issues: The Ten Most Requested Articles

ResourceShelf — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:01:23 +0000

Back Issues: The Ten Most Requested Articles

Every year, we receive thousands of calls and requests for articles in The New Yorker’s archive. The most interesting requests, of course, come not from congressional offices or research institutions but from everyday readers who are moved by a particular story or article and want to pass it along to a friend. Over the years, certain pieces have proved so overwhelmingly popular that we often keep digital or paper copies on hand. In the last two weeks, we’ve gone back through our records and refamiliarized ourselves with the pieces that have demonstrated such enduring appeal to our readers.

Seymour M. Hersh’s “Torture at Abu Ghraib”
Laura Hillenbrand’s “A Sudden Illness”
Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Climate of Man”
Calvin Trillin’s “Alice, Off the Page”
Bernard Lewis’s “The Revolt of Islam
Jerome Groopman’s “A Knife in the Back
David Grann’s “City of Water”
Adrian Nicole LeBlanc’s “Landing From the Sky”
Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Naked Face”
Annie Proulx’s “Brokeback Mountain”

Includes brief description of each article and a link to the full text.

The most requested issue of the past decade is the September 11th commemorative issue, which featured a twenty-page report on the attacks by David Remnick and the editorial staff, and which was published in the issue of September 24, 2001.

Source: The New Yorker’s “Back Issues” archives blog

Hat tip: MK

U.S. Dept of Education Funds Bookshare, World’s Largest Accessible Online Library for People with Print Disabilitie

resourceshelf — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:17:09 +0000

From the Post:

Remember the California Free Digital Textbooks Initiative and how it resulted in 16 open textbooks, 10 of which met 90% of California’s standards. Well, since these textbooks were licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses that allows derivation (the licenses sans the ND term), they can not only be translated into various languages, but also modified and adapted into various contexts, including converting them into accessible formats, such as audio and Braille. No extra transaction costs have to be incurred by some middleman to allow these adaptations—any entity with the resources to adapt these textbooks may do so, since the rights for derivation are pre-cleared via Creative Commons.

Realizing this, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs has granted $100k to Bookshare, “the world’s largest accessible online library for people with print disabilities.”

Access Bookshare

Source: Creative Commons

E-Mail Books: DailyLit Announces Move to All Free

resourceshelf — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:41:59 +0000

From the Announcement:

…DailyLit is now 100% free. Starting now, any book, story or series featured on DailyLit is being made available for free.

DailyLit has always been about responding to our readers – any feature we’ve launched or change we’ve made has been in response to readers’ requests. We’re now listening to our readers once again, and it’s clear that they most appreciate the wonderful books, stories and installments available for free.

DailyLit depends on the support of sponsors to continue to offer high quality books and stories for free. We’re thankful for such sponsors as HarperStudio and Random House as well as Diane Von Furstenberg (who’s giving the gift of her favorite book, free through January).

Excerpts are delivered by mail or RSS. Some public domain titles are available in full text. You select the day(s) and time(s) you want to receive them. Read on a computer or mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, etc.)

According to PW, the service started in 2005 and charged about $5.00.

DailyLit FAQ.

Springer Partners with CreateSpace for Print on Demand

resourceshelf — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:44:35 +0000

From the Article:

Berlin-based Springer Science+Business Media has signed an agreement with Amazon’s print-on-demand arm CreateSpace through which Springer’s English-language paperback book catalogue will be made available via POD in the U.S. Springer said that in addition to moving a significant amount of its paperback selection to POD, it will also supply many new paperback titles only in POD format. “If a hardcover is suitable for print-on-demand, that is the format we’ll use,” said the company’s Mark Conmy. The goal, he added, is to make all of Springer’s titles available as quickly as possible. A large number of hardcover titles are being converted to paperback for inclusion, and Springer will also make new large-print paperback editions of some of its most popular selections available via POD. Currently, about 11,000 Springer titles are available through CreateSpace. Price of the POD editions will be close to that of the hardcover.

Source: Publishers Weekly

Cheaper Books Come at a High Cost to Worthy Literature

resourceshelf — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:38:59 +0000

From the Article:

In the digital age, hardcover books may seem like quaint anachronisms. They are heavy, expensive and do not run the latest apps or send text messages. If someone controls the market for them, does it really matter?

“When a book is released in hardcover, it signals its importance,” said Bridget Kinsella of Oakland, a bestselling author and veteran reporter for Publishers Weekly. Hardcovers affect the national conversation, dominating news coverage of books. The New York Times Book Review, Ms. Kinsella notes, rarely features paperbacks on its cover.

Source: NY Times

Book Review: The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future by Robert Darnton + Two Essays by Darnton on Libraries and on Google

resourceshelf — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:35:21 +0000

Access the Complete Review (The Observer, November 15, 2009)

This review was written by Dinah Birch, professor of English literature at Liverpool University and editor of the latest edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature.

Here are a Few Snippets:

In this motley collection of essays on the history and future of the book, Robert Darnton points out that they have many practical advantages. Portable and accessible, they require no power supply. They have proved their durbility, while today’s advanced tools for storing data will be tomorrow’s dinosaurs. A new technology does not always replace an older one. The internet has not yet obliterated newspapers. The printed page is not about to disappear.

[Snip]

“Whatever the future may be, it will be digital” — Robert Darnton

[Snip]

He worries about Google’s “monopolistic tendencies” and the risk that greed for private gain will block any aspiration to public good. How are the interests of authors and publishers to be protected? Should Google be seen as a publisher? How might research libraries fit into the operations of Google Book Search? Will we lose irreplaceable details in the rush to transform volumes into bytes?

[Snip]

He identifies more questions than he is able to answer. But he is eloquent on the dangers of digitisation – for instance, that the dizzying expense of subscribing to electronic versions of leading science journals (often more than $20,000 a year) has had such an effect on accession budgets that university libraries now find it hard to buy books in other fields

The challenges are huge and demand a coherent response. Darnton’s thoughts are provocative, but his assemblage of essays, reviews and scholarly articles, many previously published in the New York Review of Books, doesn’t quite measure up to the task.

[Snip]

Darnton is not clear about who should read this book and why. The result is a muddle.

Source: The Observer

Robert Darnton has been the Director of the University Library at Harvard since 2007.

See Also: Full Text The Case for Books via Amazon.com
Here you can search the full text of the book and view a limited number of pages (as determined by the publisher) using Amazon’s “Look Inside” Feature. Free.

See Also: The Case for Books via Google Book Search
Info only. No Preview is Available.

Amazon.com the Publisher: AmazonEncore Will Publish Three Books in February, 2010

resourceshelf — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:06:18 +0000

Yes, Amazon.com or a division of Amazon.com is publishing books. The first release from AmazonEncore occurred in August, 2009. Amazon has just started their PR machine for three new titles to be published in February, 2010.

What is AmazonEncore in the first place? What are they publishing?

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that AmazonEncore, the program that identifies exceptional yet overlooked books and works with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers, will be introducing three new books in February 2010: “Perfect on Paper: The (Mis)Adventures of Waverly Bryson” by first-time novelist Maria Murnane; “A Wish After Midnight” by Zetta Elliott, an American Library Association 2009 Notable Children’s Book author; and “They Never Die Quietly” by former book editor Daniel Annechino. These books were previously self-published via BookSurge [also part of Amazon.com].

Announced in May 2009, AmazonEncore is a program which identifies exceptional, overlooked books and authors that show potential for greater sales based on feedback gathered from Amazon.com’s readers, including customer reviews on Amazon websites. Amazon then works with the authors to re-introduce their books to readers by marketing and distribution into multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, www.Audible.com, and national and independent bookstores via third-party wholesalers. AmazonEncore has released one title, “Legacy” by Cayla Kluver, in August 2009. AmazonEncore is the brand owned by Amazon Content Services, LLC.

A New eReader from Intel Aimed at People Who are Blind, Have Weak Vision, or are Dyslexic

resourceshelf — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:01:41 +0000

From the Computerworld Article:

Intel Corp. today started selling a new e-reader that can snap pictures of books and newspapers and then read them back to people who have a hard time reading the printed page.

Called the Intel Reader, the $1,499 device assists people who are blind, dyslexic or have weak vision, said Ben Foss, the director of access technology with Intel’s Digital Health Group, who came up with the idea for the reader. “It’s designed to give them independence and access to reading.”

Intel estimates that there are as many as 55 million people in the U.S. who could use its device. Foss said the Reader will give many of them a new freedom to read books, magazines and newspapers that would otherwise be inaccessible. Users hold the Reader a few feet above the paper they want to read; it snaps a photo, and within seconds converts the page to text, which it can then display in a large font or read out loud.

Read the Complete Article and Review the News Release with Pictures.

See Also: Yesterday’s announcement from Intel comes only a few weeks (mid-October) after Ray Kurzweil in partnership with Baker & Taylor announced an eReader for the blind and others. We have a post about it here with a number of links.

Baker & Taylor announced a partnership with acclaimed scientist, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, CEO of Kurzweil Technologies, to supply digital content for K-NFB Reading Technology, a newly developed e-book reading software created by Kurzweil in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind. The software will be offered to consumers for free. B&T unveiled the software at the Frankfurt Book Fair with plans to launch the new reader in the U.S. at the end of November. (via PW)

While they are both aimed at the same used group both devices are quite different. The Intel Reader is an actual device that allows users take a pictures of something containing text ( say a restaurant menu) and then reads it to them out loud and/or displays the text in large print.

There is no actual eReader device from KFNB. The eReader software (which will be available for free) will run on several smartphones and operating systems including the iPhone, PCs, Macs, and Windows Mobile with more mobile devices to come. The eader will allow eBooks, articles and other textual material to be read out load on these devices. The software can handle many text formats including PDF and ePub. Elsevier Science and Technology Books is an early partner.

KFNB also offers other software, KReader Mobile and the knfbReader Mobile which, like the Intel Reader, allows users to snap pictures of text and then have it read back to them immediately. However, unlike the Intel product, these devices work on cell or smartphones.

Also in October, the U.S. Copyright office put out a call for public comment on, “possible solutions to enhance the accessibility of copyrighted works for the benefit of the blind or other persons with disabilities.” You can read the Federal Register with all of the details (3 pages; PDF).

Webcast: Preserving OSTI’s Printed Archive

resourceshelf — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:39:50 +0000

Webcast: Preserving OSTI’s Printed Archive
A three minute video from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information at the U.S. Department of Energy.

Here’s the Blurb:

The American public has invested billions of dollars in the atomic energy and subsequent related programs. This investment has mostly been in the form of the printed page. OSTIs historical preservation is described.

Direct to “Printed Archive” Video (via YouTube)

Direct to OSTI YouTube Channel

Direct to OSTI Home Page

While print preservation is essential, OSTI is home to many free online databases including:

+ Science Accelerator
+ Science.gov (Content from Many Government Databases, Search Tecnology from OSTI)
+ WorldWideScience (Global in Scope)
+ Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information (Includes over 210K Full Text Documents)
+ DOE Data Explorer
+ Energy Citations Database
+ E-print Network
+ Several Others Linked on the OSTI Home Page

Source: OSTI

Lists: Amazon.com Unveils Best Books of 2009, Including Editors’ Top 100 Books of the Year

resourceshelf — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:43:17 +0000

Well, it really is starting to be year-end list season. Just one post below this entry is the is the Publisher’s Week year-end list.

Now, it Amazon.com’s turn with numerous list, some from editors others from customers based on sales.

From the Web Home Page

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced its picks for Best Books of 2009. This annual feature includes the Editors’ Picks for the Top 100 Books of the Year, Top 100 Customer Favorites, Top 10 lists for both editors and customers in nearly two dozen categories, including Literature & Fiction and Cooking, Food & Wine, as well as videos of the year.

It’s worth noting that twice near the top of the document Amazon.com points out that a “majority” of the titles on their Top 100 Books of the Year list are also available for the Kindle. It will be interesting to see next year at this time how many 2010 books are available for both the nook [coming soon from Barnes & Noble] and Kindle and which titles (if any) will be exclusive to one reader or another. Of course, there are other (with more coming) eReaders out there so we will have to watch closely to see what content is available for each device.

“Our editorial team spends the whole year reading new releases with our Best Books of the Year lists in mind, and every year it proves to be our most popular feature among our customers,” said Tom Nissley, senior editor of Amazon.com Books. “Deciding on our Top 100 Books can often get a little contentious, but [our emphasis] this year our choice for the Best Book of the Year, Colum McCann’s ‘Let the Great World Spin,’ was the closest we’ve ever come to a unanimous pick across the entire Amazon.com Books team. Many readers have already fallen in love with this moving story of New York City in the mid-‘70s, centered around Philippe Petit’s audaciously graceful tightrope walk between the Twin Towers, and we’re looking forward to sharing it with many more.”

Access the Complete List

Categories Include:

+ Top 100 Editors’ Picks

+ Top 100 Customer Favorites

Our top 100 customer favorites are ranked according to customer orders on Amazon.com through October. (Only books published for the first time in 2009 are eligible.)

+ Editors’ Top 10: Literature & Fiction

+ Editors’ Picks: Children’s Books (Picture Books, Middle Readers, Teens)

+ Customers’ Top 10: Mystery & Thrillers

+ Best Books of 2009 on Your Kindle
Editors Picks ||| Customer Favorites

MANY more categories (both “Editors Picks” and “Customer Favorites”) can be found in the left margin of the 2009 list home page. In that same location you’ll find links to lists from 2000-2008.

Source: Amazon.com

Lists: Publisher’s Weekly Publishes Their Best Books of 2009 Lists

resourceshelf — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:54:45 +0000

From the Introduction:

It’s almost Thanksgiving, which is the beginning of the end of another year, and for us at PW that means our annual best books list. From more than 50,000 volumes, we valiantly set out to choose 100, and this year we’ve upped the ante with a top 10 list. A usually cooperative, agreeable bunch, we gave ourselves a reason to fight. We wanted the list to reflect what we thought were the top 10 books of the year with no other consideration. We expect you’ll be surprised: there’s a graphic novel, an adventure story, possibly the next Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a delicious biography that could bring Cheever back into the literary firmament. We ignored gender and genre and who had the buzz.

Categories (as they appear on the web page)

+ Top Top 10 Adult Books (we first posted this list last week with direct links to full PW reviews.)

+ Fiction

+ Poetry

+ Mystery

+ Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror

+ Mass Market

+ Nonfiction

+ Religion

+ Lifestyle

See Also: Best Children’s Books of 2009

Categories (as they appear of the web page)

+ Picture Books

+ Fiction

+ Nonfiction

Source: Publisher’s Weekly

The Complete Archive of National Geographic Magazine on Six DVD’s

resourceshelf — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:11:53 +0000

Every now and then a fee-based product comes around that we believe deserves your attention. The following is one of them.

Chris Pendleton on the Bing Blog reminds us that a major digitization project, every issue ever published of National Geographic from 1887-2008, is now available (it was officially released yesterday according to this media announcement) on 6 DVD’s or an external hard drive. That’s right, all of the writing, the legendary imagery, the supplement , even the advertisements are included. For many topics, Nat Geo magazine is a resource that documents people, places, and events, on a global scale. In other words, for all of the reasons just mentioned and many others, makes the magazine an important part of the historical record.

By the way, the reason it was mentioned on the Bing Blog is because Bing is providing some the technology that powers the digitized version this recently released collection.

From the Blog Post

Nat Geo uses Bing Maps in their Geobrowse functionality which allows you to browse a map anywhere in the world to find locations where relevant articles are referenced using geographic metadata.

Yes, we still love paper and those massive collections of past issues of the print version of National Geographic Magazine many people own (where are yours)? They’re also important.

That said, we also hear and read that for today’s student, it’s all about digital access. Yes, of course, that’s rather sad. However, a digitized archive of this size and scope can truly demonstrate the power of digital info technology for people of all ages and turn 120 years of content into important research and learning resources.

Another digitized archive of the magazine was released seven years abut this 120 year collection is the most complete version ever published with more content, more search options, saving/sharing tools, interactive maps, and more. One thing we noticed right of the bat is the that the new version is available for both PC and Mac. The “112 year version” was PC only.

Here are a few fast facts about the new collection. They were gleaned from Nat Geo site (including the video overview) and news release.

+ All Issues from October, 1888-December, 2008 are included

+ Six DVD’s include more than 200,000 pages; 300 wall map supplements, more than 8,400 articles; more than 250,000 photographs

+ All images scanned in high-resolution

+ Flip one page at a time, zoom, print

+ Geobrowse

A new Geobrowse function powered by Bing Maps that allows users with Internet access to search nearly 5,000 locations on a globe that are featured in the magazine’s archive of articles and maps.

+ Search by keyword, date, contributor, and topic; refine by date or content type

+ Browse by month or year

+ Create personalized reading lists; share these lists with other users in the Nat Geo community

+ Pre-loaded “favorite article lists” compiled by experts

National Geographic is selling the DVD’s for $69.95/US and the hard drive version for $199.95/US.

The lowest price we found as of Sunday November 1st was $42.78 from an Amazon.com Merchant. The DVD’s directly from Amazon.com are $44.99/US.

We’ve ordered a copy of the DVD’s and after spending some time with them we will report back.

Book War Continues: It’s Time to Ration Titles

resourceshelf — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:46:21 +0000

Remember the book war that broke out two weeks ago between Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, and Target and continues today? All three stores continue to sell the same 10 books (preorders) from major authors or personalities. Each book is selling for $9 (Amazon), $8.99 (Target) and $8.98 (Wal-Mart) and only available (for Wal-Mart and Target) online.

Now things are changing, the books are being rationed.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The limits will stop other booksellers from scooping up cheap copies in large quantities and reselling them.

[Snip]

The retailers are losing money on each copy sold because publishers charge them about 50% of a book’s hardcover price. The prices for the 10 books involved in the promotion are also lower than the wholesale price independent booksellers pay for the merchandise.

Arsen Kashkashian, head buyer at the Boulder Book Store, in Boulder, Colo., said he had intended to buy as many as 70 copies of Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Lacuna” from Walmart.com, Target.com or Amazon, because their prices are “more than $5 cheaper than what we can get it for from the publisher, Harper.

[Snip]

On Walmart.com, customers can preorder two copies of Mr. Koontz’s “Breathless,” while they can buy three copies on Amazon, and five on Target.com. A spokesman for Walmart.com said the retailer has “always limited the number of preorder book titles to two units per title.” An Amazon spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Target.com said the retailer “always reserves the right to limit the number of items that are purchased.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

Access the Complete Wall Street Journal Article

Publish Your Own Magazine With the Help of Wikia and HP; Out of Copyright Books Can Also be Printed On-Demand

resourceshelf — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:37:21 +0000

From the Article:

Perhaps you’ve heard that the magazine business is struggling? So amateur competition could not come at a better time, and it comes Wednesday in the form of a partnership between Wikia and Hewlett-Packard that will put a magazine printing press in the hands of anyone who wants to create a glossy book from the site’s user-generated content.

“We have no idea how popular this is going to be at first, but I see the potential for a huge future here,” says Wikia and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales on his blog — and then he gets personal.

[Snip]

HP itself says that the new technology could allow anyone “to publish a glossy, full-color magazine for friends, the coffee table or mass distribution” and asserts that there is a demand for “Wikia’s passionate communities of readers … to enjoy information on their favorite bands, hobbies, comic books and more in a tangible print format that is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.”

Source: Wired

The Sacramento Business Journal Has More.

H-P (NYSE: HPQ) is working with Jimmy “Jimbo” Wales, who started Wikipedia, on Mag Cloud, a service that lets people pay about 20 cents a page to create and print magazines from Wales’ for-profit San Francisco-based Wikia Inc. business. Someone can put together content from various Wikia pages and print them out as a magazine.

People can print books if the copyright has expired using another H-P service called BookPrep. To print a 250-page book will cost about $15, for example.

Book Price Wars: Target Joins Amazon.com and Wal-Mart

resourceshelf — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:54:24 +0000

Last week we posted about a price war going on between Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble over 10 pre-order titles by well-known authors. You can pre-order these titles online for $9/U.S. ($8.99 to be precise at Wal-Mart).

Today, we have a new player in this pricing war, Target.

From an Article:

Target says the price applies to pre-orders on Target.com of such books as “Breathless” by Dean Koontz, “Ford Country” by James Patterson and “Under the Dome” by Stephen King.

Here’s a complete list of Target’s 10 titles. You can find a list of the Amazon/Wal-Mart titles (the same ones) in last weeks post. Our post from last week also has some comparison pricing from B&N and Powell’s.

Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Price War Breaks Out Between Amazon and Wal-Mart over 10 New Books

resourceshelf — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:22:02 +0000

In this time of eBook, eBooks and more eBooks we think it’s worth noting that a price war has broken out over 10 pre-order hard cover titles. We wonder if it more books will be added to the list, the price keeps getting reduced, and if other online book providers will join in.

It began yesterday when Wal-Mart announced that they were reducing the price of ten titles to $10 for books purchased on Walmart.com. Then, Amazon.com came back by lowering the price for those same titles to $9. This morning (Friday), Wal-Mart returned the volley and is now selling the books for $9. Is it Amazon.com’s move again? Will have to keep checking the Amazon.com site.

The list of the 10 titles via the WalMart.com site.

Here are five $9 titles from the list with comparison prices from Powells and BN.com (Barnes & Noble). We did this check on Friday, October 16, 2009. 10am EDST and at 7pm EDST.

+ Going Rogue by Sarah Palin
$28.99 at Powells and $17.39 ($15.65 for members)
at Barnes & Noble

+ Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton
$27.99 at Powells and $16.79 ($15.11 for members)
at Barnes & Noble

+ Under the Dome by Stephen King
$35 at Powells and $21.00 ($18.90 for members) at Barnes & Noble

+ Ford County by John Grisham
$24 at Powells and $14.40 ($12.96 for members) at Barnes & Noble

+ Breathless by Dean Koontz
$28 at Powells and $16.80 ($15.12 for members) at Barnes and Noble

From the Wall Street Journal

Wal-Mart’s $10 promotion applies to the top 10 books coming out in November but the company is also selling 200 best-sellers for 50% of their list price.

The price war sent shivers through the publishing world. Wal-Mart’s move, and similarly low prices for electronic books, may ultimately condition consumers to expect new titles to cost $10, a price that would force the publishing industry to re-scale its entire business, including the advances paid to writers.

[Snip]

James Patterson, whose coming novel, “I, Alex Cross,” is being discounted from $27.99 to $10, said he was happy to be in Wal-Mart’s top 10. However, he warned any industry that sets low price points may later have a difficult time re-establishing those prices. “Obviously e-books have gotten this thing going,” said Mr. Patterson. “E-books are terrific and here to stay. But I think that people need to think through the repercussions….But I’m not taking sides….I’m not the endangered species here.”

Wal-Mart said it wasn’t trying to match the price of electronic books. Still, the $10 price tag coincides with the $9.99 that Amazon.com charges for its Kindle e-reader best-sellers

[Snip]

Wal-Mart declined to discuss whether it was losing money on the $10 book promotion, which includes free shipping. But the answer is almost certainly yes.

[Snip]

Diana Abbott, manager of the Bookworm, an independent bookstore in Omaha, Neb. said that some independents will likely lose some business on the titles involved. “We’ve been fighting deep discounting for a long time, although $10 is obviously an extreme,” said Ms. Abbott. “But there is a strong element of loyalty to independents….We’ll survive this.”

Author Dean Koontz is also quoted in the article.

Access the Complete Article

Source: WSJ

The Mobile Researcher: McGraw-Hill Professional Business Books Become iPhone Ready, Over 600 Titles Will Be Available by End of ‘09

resourceshelf — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:21:03 +0000

From the Announcement:

McGraw-Hill Professional, the world’s preeminent business publisher of print and electronic content, is partnering with ScrollMotion, a leading developer of original iPhone applications, to offer e-books as applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. ScrollMotion is the creator of the Iceberg Reader, an e-Book reader for the iPhone, which provides interactive functionality around content, including search functions, email sharing, multimedia, and more.

The first McGraw-Hill titles are now available on the iTunes Apps Store. This launch list of acclaimed e-Books covers must-have information for all aspects of business, including career development, management, innovation, entrepreneurship, communication, finance, investing, and more, designed to help consumers make better informed business and financial decisions. The first group of titles includes two recent best-sellers, How to Make Money in Stocks by William J. O’Neil and Leadership in the Era of Economic Uncertainty by Ram Charan.

More than 600 fully interactive McGraw-Hill titles will be added to this collection throughout the rest of 2009. E-books will be added on a rolling basis as new titles publish, and will cover other areas, including Medical, Engineering, Computing, Education, and more.

Source: McGraw-Hill (via PR Newswire)

Mandela Opens Archives for New Memoir & Related Mandela Web Resources

resourceshelf — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:32:35 +0000

From the Article:

Nelson Mandela plans to open his personal archives to create a new memoir that will reveal how he preserved his values during the fight against apartheid in South Africa.

British, European and international publishing deals for the memoir by the former South African president were announced Wednesday at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

[Snip]

The [Nelson Mandela F]oundation holds an archive of
diaries, notebooks and calendar jottings that include Mandela’s speeches and musings during his time as an activist, his time in prison on Robben Island and his time in office.

Source: CBC

+ Access the Nelson Mandela Foundation Web Site
+ Anti-Apartheid Movement Archives
+ Mandela Materials (Speeches, lectures, etc.) Database
+ South African Histories
+ Nelson Mandela Bibliography (Searchable)
+ Nelson Mandela Filmography (Searchable)
+ Nelson Mandela Timeline

The Bids Are In and the Auction is Over: Bloomberg Will Acquire BusinessWeek from McGraw-Hill

resourceshelf — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:59:00 +0000

From Reuters:

The announcement on Tuesday comes after several rounds of bids by various private equity firms and publishers. Bloomberg was long seen as the most likely winner of the auction.
[Snip]
Bloomberg would keep the magazines separate after the purchase. BusinessWeek journalists also would work as separate groups, but with much “cross-pollenization,” said [Bloomberg Chief Content Officer Norman] Pearlstine.
[Snip]
Other bidders included an investment firm run by Strauss Zelnick, chairman of videogame publisher Take Two Interactive Software, private equity firm OpenGate Capital and Boston Properties (BXP.N) co-founder and New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman.

From BusinessWeek:

Bloomberg LP, the global financial data and news empire created by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is the winning bidder for BusinessWeek. Terms of the offer will not be disclosed by Bloomberg and BusinessWeek parent McGraw-Hill Cos.
[Snip]
If the deal closes as anticipated by Dec. 1, it will be unprecedented for both buyer and seller. For Bloomberg, buying BusinessWeek will be its first major acquisition ever and a significant departure for a 28-year-old company nurtured on a “build, don’t buy” culture.
[Snip]
BusinessWeek, launched 80 years ago, will give Bloomberg entrée to a much larger business audience of corporate executives and senior government officials, beyond what has been its sweet spot of catering to Wall Street and the professional investor community.
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BusinessWeek, whose logo will eventually incorporate the Bloomberg name in some still-undetermined way, will continue to publish weekly in print and around the clock online. The goal will be to substantially boost the magazine’s editorial pages. It still hasn’t been decided whether Bloomberg and BusinessWeek will maintain separate Web sites or be morphed together as one

Sources: Reuters, BusinessWeek
Hat Tip: Library Stuff