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Publisher News
Nancy Pearl Teams with Amazon for “Book Lust Rediscoveries” Series
Amazon today announced that it has launched a new series with “America’s favorite librarian” (and PW columnist) Nancy Pearl.
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Publisher News
Publishers Back Bill to Ban Public Access Mandates to Federally Funded Research
A recently introduced bill in the House of Representatives would bar the federal government from mandating that the public have free access to the research it funds has the backing of the AAP.
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Publisher NewsBestsellers ’11: The Year in Bestselling Books
It seems almost retro to be writing an article on 2011 bestsellers focused on print only, especially in a year that saw major gains in e-book sales and when one of the hottest holiday gifts was a Kindle. Current estimates put e-book sales at about 20% of total book sales, with higher figures projected for this year. According to an online CNNMoney report, the Kindle e-reader was Amazon’s top seller in December, boasting more than a million Kindles each week during the gift-shopping season. The story also noted that 2011 sales of e-book readers at Amazon outpaced 2010 sales by more than 175%.
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Copyright
Google Files Motion to Dismiss Lawsuits
As expected, on Thursday Google filed a motion to dismiss the Authors Guild as an associational plaintiff from the long-running book-scanning case, and also moved to sever the American Society of Media Photographers from its related suit against Google.
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Copyright
SOPA Mark-Up Session Delayed Until Next Year; An Opening for OPEN?
With Congress embroiled in a fight over extending the payroll tax cut, House Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Kim Smith confirmed that Wednesday's scheduled Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) hearing has been delayed. Smith said the committee expected the bill to be taken up again "early next year."
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Copyright
SOPA Will Be Taken Up Again Wednesday
According to a tweet from House member Darrell Issa (R-CA) the House mark-up of SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 9 a.m., after an unexpected delay stopped the bill from coming to a vote in the judiciary committee last Friday.
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Content / e-books
The Library Alternative
PW contributing editor Peter Brantley on Amazon, libraries and the road ahead.
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Copyright
Register of Copyrights Addresses Legislative Efforts
At a Copyright Clearance Center panel held December 12 at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., Maria Pallante, the register of copyrights, expressed support for the broad strokes of two copyright bills now before Congress—the Senate’s PROTECT IP bill and the recently introduced companion bill in the House, SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act). “Copyright is a tremendous factor in our economy,”
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Copyright
SOPA Stalled: House Committee Adjourns Without Vote
A House Judiciary Committee adjourned Friday afternoon without voting on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), with no date set for a new vote, essentially stalling the bill despite what seemed like a fast track to approval. The delay comes as opposition mounts, including a scathing analysis this week from constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe who deemed the bill as written unconstitutional.
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Content / e-books
Cambridge University Press to Preserve E-books with Portico
Portico and Cambridge University Press have announced an agreement to preserve Cambridge Books Online content with Portico.
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Copyright
HathiTrust Answers Authors Guild Lawsuit; Trial Schedule Set
Lawyers for the HathiTrust, the digitization initiative of some 40 university libraries, filed its answer to the Authors Guild lawsuit, asking the suit be dismissed for a variety of reasons and suggests it possible defenses.
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Shows & Events
PW's Complete 2012 ALA Midwinter Preview
PW's complete ALA Midwinter Preview, our look at what to expect at this year's American Library Association Midwinter meeting, held in Dallas from January 20-24, 2012.
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Marketing
Pioneering Library-Publisher Relations
Even in tense times, there is far more that unites publishers and libraries than divides them. And if one needs proof that librarians and publishers share common goals and can work together to mutual benefit, they need look no further than the career of Marcia Purcell, Random House’s v-p of library and academic marketing.
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Nancy Pearl
Check It Out with Nancy Pearl: December 2011 - ALA and Digital Downloads
Q: As we head toward the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas, we’ve been thinking a lot about the state of the library profession. We regularly read stories in the press about the future of libraries and their relevance, about the impact of e-books and technological developments, as well as funding struggles and other difficulties. You teach in a library school—can you tell us a little about your students? What draws people to the profession, and despite the problems facing libraries, how do the students you encounter see the future of libraries, as well as their careers?
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Copyright
Use It, or Lose It
When it comes to copyright, the discussion today invariably focuses on piracy. For today’s large copyright-based industries, almost any unauthorized use of their content is considered stealing. But the real question may be what such a restrictive reading of copyright steals from the public. In Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (Univ. of Chicago, 2011) authors Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi look at the impact of today’s copyright policies on creativity and argue that fair use—that long-embedded if often misunderstood core principle of copyright—can help creators cut through the static of today’s confusing, contentious copyright environment.
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Shows & Events
Off the Shelf
More than 10,000 librarians, publishers, authors, and vendors will gather in Dallas, January 20–24, for the 2012 American Library Association Midwinter meeting. Among the meeting’s highlights: the announcement of the ALA’s Youth Media Awards, including the coveted Newbery and Caldecott medals; a bustling exhibit floor; and a strong author presence.
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Copyright
Monograph Wars
Back in 2000, at a meeting at netLibrary’s headquarters in Boulder, CO, then-CEO Nancy Talmey told a group of assembled university press publishers that one “medium-sized” university press had recently pocketed two sizable checks for its previous months’ e-book usage with netLibrary. One check exceeded $100,000. Could academic monographs really be so profitable? If it seemed too good to be true, it was. Within a few years, netLibrary was reduced from a campus in Colorado, to a few cubicles at OCLC.
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Copyright
In Fight with Amazon, Libraries Caught in the Crossfire
When Penguin announced last week that it was disabling library e-book lending on the Kindle and pulling its latest e-book titles from all library lending platforms, libraries and readers took the hit, but to some observers they were collateral damage in a fight between publishers and Amazon about the control of publishers’ titles.
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Soapbox
An Experiment
When Amazon began offering one free (ostensibly “borrowed”) e-book per month to members of its new Prime program, I was intrigued. I don’t know if a free digital book a month from Amazon is a good thing or a less-than-good thing, or whether the terms are good, bad, or indifferent. What I do know is that refusing to participate in Amazon Prime denies publishers, authors, and agents one thing they need most: data.
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Content / e-books
Penguin Restores 'Older' Titles to OverDrive
Late Wednesday morning, Penguin issued a statement in which it said that it is, at least temporaily, making its "older titles" available once again through OverDrive for distribution to libraries, though new titles will still not be available. The action came after talks between Amazon and Penguin in which Amazon said it had not been consulted by OverDrive about the terms of Penguin's agreement with OverDrive.
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