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Google is allowing newspapers and other media sites to limit free access; culture ministers in the EU want a coordinated alternative to private-sector digitization schemes; the rise in e-reader sales is expected to spur a piracy boom; one of Britain’s classic red phone boxes has been reborn as a lending library; and other news.
In October MTV’s college network, mtvU, surprised some of its more literary-minded viewers when it named Iranian poet Simin Behbahani as its next poet laureate. She is only the second poet, following John Ashbery, to hold the honorary post.
Officials are assessing damages after a fire ripped through a New Jersey public library; a literary landmark in Seattle is facing a choice between relocation and closure; a Massachusetts bookstore marked Black Friday by raising prices; Bloomberg Press is closing its doors; and other news.
High demand is keeping the Nook out of stores for another week; a major literary center will open next year at Melbourne’s State Library; one of the United Arab Emirates has an ambitious plan to hand out free books; the cash-strapped Washington Post is experimenting with an online bookstore; and other news.
Amazon has treated the six-inch Kindle to a pre-holiday upgrade; a book once owned by the girl who inspired Alice in Wonderland is going up for auction; “tweets” need no longer be lost to posterity, thanks to a new publisher; potential customers will soon get an in-store look at the Nook, B&N promises; and other news.
British publishers are celebrating a bill that calls for tougher digital copyright rules; a prospective buyer is offering hope for the employees of a troubled Arizona paper; Steve Almond’s new publisher is Harvard’s print-on-demand bot; and other news.
Experts continue to warn about the implications of the new Google deal for “copyright orphans”; a museum of storytelling is planned in Oxford; Albert Camus’s son is fighting the “Panthéonization” of his father; the troubled Sun-Times Media Group has a new head; Apple is keeping mum on whether it has e-reader ambitions; and other news.
Critics have charged that the new Google deal still lacks pricing and privacy protections; a slew of award-winning authors are in the running for this year’s Bad Sex in Fiction award; an online authors’ directory now has a Scribd tie-in; the ALA is at work on its annual Library Design Showcase; and other news.
A literary collective has revamped its online magazine; preorders for Sony’s new wireless e-reader are already causing delays; agent Irene Goodman is raising money for charity by auctioning off her critical services; a new Web site examines how libraries can stay relevant in the digital age; and other news.
Mystery maven Otto Penzler will publish an eponymous imprint next year; new technology allows e-books to be converted en masse to the popular ePub standard; cuts to library funding in Massachusetts have met with protests; Aussie booksellers are miffed at the persistence of import regulations; and other news.
