Ralph Shaw was an academic librarian, an educator, and in 1950, the founder of Scarecrow press. He was known as an outspoken guy who forged his career more on the basis of saying what he thought than making friends. I first read about him in Ken Kister’s biography of Eric Moon, which is a great … Read more Remembering Ralph Shaw
Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age Authors: Michael Bugeja and Daniela Dimitrova Price: $18.00 Published: Summer 2010 ISBN: 978-1-936117-14-7 Printed on acid-free paper A decade ago, most research was done in the library rather than through its Web site, and scholars, editors, graduate directors and librarians … Read more New Book: Vanishing Act: The Erosion of Online Footnotes and Implications for Scholarship in the Digital Age
She Was a Booklegger: Remembering Celeste West Editors: Toni Samek, Moyra Lang and K.R. Roberto Price: $30.00 Published: June 2010 ISBN: 978-0-9802004-9-2 Printed on acid-free paper She Was a Booklegger: Remembering Celeste West is a compilation of reflections and tales from friends and other admirers who were influenced and inspired by this larger than life … Read more New book: She Was a Booklegger: Remembering Celeste West
The publishing industry has some very separate parts to it. Trade publishing is the biggest, and is what most people think of when they think of “book publishing.” In the trade book market, quantity is everything. The price point for a book is low and the profit margins are very small. Publishers often pay authors … Read more A note on the Library Juice Press pricing philosophy
Today’s New York Times has an informative little item comparing the environmental impact of producing an ipad versus that of a paper book: “How Green is My iPad?“
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As a small publisher in the library field I take inspiration from the history of Scarecrow Press, which I first learned about in Ken Kister’s biography of Eric Moon (Eric Moon: The Life and Library Times, McFarland Publishers, 2002). I’ve just dug up a 1985 article about the history of Scarecrow Press, written by Moon … Read more Scarecrow Press History
My friend Ramona Islam shared with me an interesting blog post by chemist Jean-Claude Bradley, discussing the reliability (or non-reliability) of scientific reference sources that are considered trusted within the discipline. I find it especially interesting in terms of implications for projects like Wolfram Alpha and other attempts to build automated reasoning systems around inconsistently-defined … Read more A chemist on “trusted sources”
Byron Anderson’s Bibliographic and Web Tools for Alternative Media has just been updated. This is a good collection development resource for librarians and others who want tools for going beyond the usual lists and collection development resources, especially for finding books on the political fringes or otherwise outside of the usual academic or corporate channels.
For fun on a Friday, a couple of recent New Yorker “Shouts and Murmurs” columns related to our world: Live Your Life and Subject: Our Marketing Plan
ITHACA, NY — Nominations for the 2009 Izzy Award are officially open. The annual award for special achievement in independent media — named after legendary muckraker I. F. “Izzy” Stone — is a project of the Park Center for Independent Media (PCIM) at Ithaca College. Last year’s inaugural award was shared by blogger Glenn Greenwald … Read more Nominations for the 2009 Izzy Award are officially open
Press Release Baker & Taylor Acquires Blackwell North America and James Bennett – Blackwell U.K. Acquires B&T’s Lindsay and Croft in the U.K. As Part of Deal. Customers to Benefit from More than 300 Years of Bookselling Excellence – CHARLOTTE, N.C. – December 7, 2009 – Baker & Taylor Inc. today announced it has acquired … Read more Baker & Taylor Acquires Blackwell North America
There’s a book idea we’ve been kicking around here at Litwin Books, and we need an author. I don’t want to completely disclose the idea for this book, but I want to say enough to potentially find the right author. It will be a reference book that takes a skeptical view of commonly-encountered statistics and … Read more Seeking an author with strengths in statistics and skepticism
This post presents a second look at the familiar story regarding the transformation of information consumers into information producers and the idea that this shift is making book publishing companies obsolete. While the effects of the technology revolution have certainly empowered individuals, this common story overlooks some important aspects of the role that publishers play, … Read more On the contribution of publishers
There is something that people in the book world often don’t understand about copyright. When I say book world I mean librarians, booksellers, reviewers, researchers, authors, and sometimes publishers. A question that people often want to know the answer to is “Who owns the copyright” to a work, because they may want to know if … Read more Something people in the book world often misunderstand about copyright
The Baffler is coming back! The Baffler was my favorite magazine during the years it was being published. Thomas Frank has announced he is bringing it back, and is involving some really great people. This is great news, especially for smart, critical, non-trendy Gen-Xers, whom I think the magazine really spoke to.
It’s easy to think that politics has no place in the production of reference materials and that objective reference works are by nature apolitical. Yes, solid reference sources tend to work against ideologically and rhetorically-based thinking and in favor of fact-based reasoning and questioning, that is true, but one should not conclude from that than … Read more Group Storms Greek-Macedonian Dictionary Promotion
Attempted Censorship by U.S. Attorney — A Book to Watch! By Ann Sparanese On June 16, the paperback edition of Triple Cross: How Bin Laden’s Master Spy Penetrated the CIA, the Green Berets and the FBI by Peter Lance will be released by HarperCollins. This is happening despite a prominent U.S. Attorney’s best efforts to … Read more Attempted Censorship by U.S. Attorney
Forthcoming from Library Juice Press Critical Library Instruction: Theories and Methods, edited by Emily Drabinski, Alana Kumbier, and Maria Accardi (978-1-936117-01-7) The Great Depression: Its Impact on Forty-Six Large American Public Libraries, by Robert Scott Kramp (978-1-936117-02-4) Greening Libraries, edited by Monika Antonelli and Mark McCullough (978-1-936117-08-6) Out Behind the Desk: Workplace Issues for LGBTQ … Read more Forthcoming books
I enjoyed this article from the May 1st issue of Library Journal by Barbara Fister: “Publishers & Librarians: Two Cultures, One Goal.” Barbara is an academic librarian in Minnesota and an author of mystery novels at the same time. Her work as a popular author gives her an insight into the world of publishing that … Read more Barbara Fister on librarians and publishers