It has been fairly clear to the library community for a while now that the Google Book Search project is not going to deliver sufficient quality that ‘preservation’ is assured. There is now a rather detailed critique at First Monday, from Paul Duguid. His essay (noted via Peter Brantley) focuses on some editions of Sterne’s bizarre novel, Tristram Shandy, included in GBS in several editions. His conclusion:
… Keep ReadingThe Google Books Project is no doubt an important, in
There is a fascinating post from Adrian Hon and lots of good discussion on the revolution facing the book publishing industry (noted via Charkin blog). Adrian is amusingly rude, but spot-on, in his criticisms of the book publishers current web offerings:
… Keep ReadingMost of these sites are so awful that there’s plenty of room for easy improvement, providing that someone else smarter doesn’t step in and capture all the traffic first. Maybe that someone will be Amazon with Shelfari, or
A tool for cataloguing your own library and for sharing information with like-minded readers. Why would one need that? The Library Thing may seem pointless to people who don’t use the web, but to those who do, it is compelling and subtle — especially those of us who like to organise stuff. It is still quite young but has grown like topsy and has had a massive response. The Library Thing only encourages its users to organise books, not … Keep Reading
There are sound business reasons for using Digital Editions. The bottom line is what drives most publishing and distribution decisions, and an investment in digital technology can improve the performance of all magazines. Yet there are also sound ecological reasons for the appropriate use of a digital platform. Publishers who have a concern for the ecological impact of the magazine business should consider these five principles in forming their digital strategy:
Google is doing something very interesting with books (see Google Book Search), and it is likely that they are going to spring some surprises on us this year. The Guardian’s Vic Keegan had an insightful piece on this at the weekend. Keegan is the kind of journalist who gets behind the press releases (see his account of how to get your book self-published with Lulu). He gets his finger on the pulse.
But about one thing Vic Keegan … Keep Reading
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