UPDATE : Luke Lozier, co-founder of Bibliopolis, has alerted me that Bookhound is now available for free to ALL booksellers not just Biblio.com members.**********************************************************************AbeBooks.com has Home Base, Alibris has its reincarnation of Bookmate and now Biblio.com has Bookhound.Biblio.com will begin offering the Bookhound inventory management tool for free to its sellers. The Mac version will be released first with the PC version to follow in July. Bookhound, a product of Bibliopolis, has been around for over 10 years and is currently used by many leading bookshops and booksellers both here in the U.S. and around the world.From the press release:"BookHound...
IndieBound or Bust
That's the title of Jim Milliot's piece for Publisher's Weekly on the unveiling of the American Booksellers Association (ABA) new marketing “movement/revolution” initiative, IndieBound.The good news is that it replaces Book Sense which has failed miserably in helping independents remain competitive in the fast changing world of bookselling. The bad news is that IndieBound won't fare much better.What is IndieBound? Here is their Declaration:When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for individuals to denounce the corporate bands which threaten to homogenize our cities and our souls, we must celebrate the powers that make us unique and declare...
I have a confession to make…
I bought a Kindle.It arrived today.I feel a bit like a pastor caught with a Playboy under his arm.I've been considering (albeit rather idly) a purchase for some time. After all, the reviews and press have been largely positive. Yes, I love gadgets and technology (I'm not quite sure how I checked email before my iPhone). And I really like the idea of being able to carry around enough titles to satisfy most any reading mood that strikes me, as well as the ability to get a book immediatelyfor those times I don't. And I'm as curious as anyone to...
Library a-Go-Go Gets Going
The first public library book dispensing machine in the United States has arrived. Beginning today commuters with a Contra Costa County library card will be able to check out items from a book lending machine at the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Pittsburg/Bay Point station. The machines are built by the Swedish company Distec and cost about $100,000 each. How it works:"A touch screen, similar to an ATM screen, is used to select from up to approximately 500 items that are delivered through an opening in the front of the unit. Materials are returned in a similar way. A robotic...
Screen vs. Book
Gary Frost, at his blog FotB (Future of the Book), offers up "ten popular fallacies of screen reading advocates" with his take on each one. 1. There is an analog/digital divide in the technologies of information transmission. (If there is any divide it is between paper and screen based reading.)2. There is something distinctive about being "born digital". (All information is born digital. How it grows up provides the distinction.)3. We are experiencing a one-way transition from paper to screen. (Its actually a two-way, not a one-way transition.)4. Screen based books can be equivalent to print books. (This assumption overlooks...