‘Open access' move puts thousands of UK jobs at risk STN News reports that up to £1billion of income and thousands of jobs could be placed at risk as a result of a move by Downing Street to allow Google and other digital search engines ‘open access' to the nation's best academic and scientific research.
Links of the week July 2 2012 (27)
Our new feature links to interesting blogs or articles posted online, which will help keep you up to date with what's going on in the book world:
9 July 2012
Up to £1billion of income and thousands of jobs could be placed at risk as a result of a move by Downing Street to allow Google and other digital search engines ‘open access' to the nation's best academic and scientific research.
A report commissioned by 10 Downing Street sociologist Dame Janet Finch will say that open access to public-funded research ‘offers significant social and economic benefits'.
Authors Guild Sees Return of Predatory Pricing if DoJ Deal Stands The US Authors' Guild argues that the Justice Department needs to rethink its settlement and to find a new way to "stop the alleged collusion without requiring publishers to allow Amazon to resume predatory pricing.
With the time to submit comments to the Department of Justice about its settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster over its e-book pricing fixing case almost up, the Authors Guild filed its comments late Monday and minced no words in saying that the agreement would be a huge victory for Amazon. %u201DThe Guild does not support the DOJ%u2019s proposed e-book settlement. We believe it will allow Amazon to resume its predatory pricing practices, discouraging competition in the e-book marketplace,%u201D was how the Guild summarized its view of the deal.
British bookseller Tim Waterstone shares his fond memories of where people used to buy books in New York in 1979-and how that led him to launch his eponymous bookstores in the U.K.
I first lived in New York in 1979. Used as I was to British bookselling of that time, which was dominated by the century-old chain of WH Smith%u2014newspaper, magazine, tobacco, and toy sellers, as much as books%u2014the Manhattan bookstores struck me as cultural treasures. Certainly, the Barnes & Noble flagship store on Fifth Avenue was just a vast remainder outlet (as were all their stores in those days), but the Doubleday chain%u2014yes, a chain%u2014gave the city a quality of bookselling I thought then unmatched anywhere else in the world. The stock was eclectic and intelligent, the staff opinionated and knowledgeable, and the opening hours, reaching deep into the evening, perfect for the bustling evening life of the city.
2 July 2012
E-books are for porn but real books will survive, says award-winning author Telegraph article on Joan Brady.
E-books are for porn but real books will survive, says award-winning author E-books are "worthless" and have become the preserve of soap stars%u2019 biographies and soft porn, while physical books will survive because people use them as status symbols, a Whitbread Prize-winning author has said.