Another instant YouTube biblio classic.New York's Street Booksellers from Jason Rosette's movie BookWars (via Sean Flannagan)Flannagan, who among other things, is the associate web director for the seminal cultural establishment the 92nd Street Y in New York City.His website is Deeplinking.net.His post "The Big List of Bookish Social Networks" is the most comprehensive I've seen on the subject to date. From LibraryThing and Shelfari to Douban, a "bookish community site aimed at some of the world’s 1.1 billion Chinese speakers". Like Flanaghan "I’ve yet to find a book-oriented social network that’s inspired me to register".The comment to the post left...
Coming Soon: The First Annual Book Blog and Web Awards
Well after all it is the day after the Oscars.The Seventh Annual Weblog Award nominees were announced recently and for at least the fourth year in a row there isn't one book blog to be found.C. Max Magee at The Millions (A Blog About Books) had a great post this past week titled "The Assimilation of the Book Blog" were he addresses this annual snub of book bloggers.I have noticed that at times it seems difficult for sites to find the right category for the book blog. For example: Book Patrol posts are occasionally picked up by Reuters.com. The are...
Public Library Issue #1
Let's hope we can figure out a better way to deal with this issue.Someone told me the other day that they went to the library to get a recent bestseller. It was checked out. They were told there were something like 200 people already on the list for the book when it comes back in! Clearly an unacceptable situation. If that many people in your community are waiting for the book then the community is not being properly served by their library system. This is where POD (print on demand) technology can do the most good.I touched on this in...
When a University Bookstore Sells Out: The Battle at Sonoma State
This one has all the makings of a David and Goliath biblio thriller. Corporate giant infiltrates university campus.Book spies, stolen textbook lists, divided communities and tons of money at stake.In one corner is North Light Books & Cafe and Coppefield's, two independent bookstores, in the other the Barnes & Noble run Sonoma State University Bookstore.When the University was looking for new manager for the bookstore they sent out an RFP (request for proposal) directly to three national bookstore chains. There was no public announcement. The RFP also stated that the bookstore was "seeking to establish a business partnership with a...
Rent or Exchange: The Next Wave For Books Online
There has been lots of talk of late about the new rental model for audiobooks. The model which is basically the Netflix web-based, subscription format is being embraced by audiobooksonline in the UK and BooksFree in the U.S.In addition to the audiobooks, Booksfree also is an online book exchange.The deal:-80,000 paperbacks in stock- The number of titles you rent depends on your membership plan and how quickly you return each order.-Plans range from 2 books for $8.49 a month to 12 at a time for $35. Why they call themselves Booksfree is a little baffling.-Paperback books are shipped 2-3 books...