The 'Loyalty Oath' controversy was the McCarthy-era communist witch-hunt that took place on the Berkeley campus in the late 1940's. It began when "hundreds of University employees refused to sign a special anti-communist oath mandated by the Regents."Dozens of tenured faculty and staff were fired and the ensuing protests eventually spread to every campus and garnered international attention.The California Supreme Court struck down the 'loyalty oath' in 1952 and all the the terminated employees were reinstated.The collection includes 3,500 pages of searchable text, 20 images and 15 audio clipsThe book on the subject is The California Loyalty Oath Controversy by...
The Internet and the Traditional Bookseller: A Failing Relationship
Here is my piece that runs in the latest issue of Amphora, the magazine of the Alcuin Society. I have been waiting on posting this in hopes that they would be putting the new issue online but with things changing so fast in the online bookselling world I thought it was time to get it out there.I wrote the piece back in August and since then both AbeBooks and Alibris have lost their Chief Executives. A telling sign that things are 1) not what they used to be and 2) significant changes are on the horizon. One of the first...
A Mess in Washington, D.C.
Granted, things are a bit of a mess in Washington but this is over the top.Capitol Hill Books in Washington, D.C.The owner, Jim Toole, admits the shop is “disorderly and confused,” luckily he has a good sense of humor.Sign above the law book section:Image 1 via DC BlogsImage 2 via DC TravellerImage 3 via DCist
Tidbits from the LA Times Piece "A dismal year for books?"
Scott Timberg has the customary 'look back at 2007 piece in the Los Angeles Times. The tag line is "Publishing has become a high-stakes game amid store closings, declines in sales, profits, book review sections -- even literacy.""The delivery of the content of a book in different forms and formats is making people nervous...So we're trying to publish in a lot of different formats because we don't know where the readers are going to be. A lot of us in the publishing industry started out when we still used carbon paper and manual typewriters.""The uncertainty around technological change is responsible...
Author wins Nestlé Children’s Book Prize. Refuses to accept the check
Author Sean Taylor won the 2007 Nestlé Children's Book Prize for When A Monster is Born.Taylor accepted the award but refused to accept the £2,500 cash prize due to "questions surrounding Nestlé’s marketing of breast-milk substitutes."Taylor consulted with campaign group Baby Milk Action(who urge you to boycott Nestle who they say are "responsible for more violations of the World Health Assembly marketing requirements for baby foods than any other company," Nestlé and "an authoritative third party with experience in the field," before making his decision to turn down the prize money. Taylor goes on to say that while "many of...