The Scholarly Kitchen
Joseph Esposito
Amazon, PDA, and Library Sales for Books
Amazon’s sales to libraries and patron-driven acquisitions have many interesting marketplace parallels, but Amazon works only with print for libraries, whereas PDA is mostly digital. This could lead Amazon to enter the PDA market through acquisition. Continue reading
Predicting the Present
The text of a presentation delivered at the recent NFAIS national conference, covering various scenarios for the future of publishing. The argument is that these future scenarios are already evident in the world of the present day, though in embryonic form, and that by studying the “embryos,” we can make reasonable predictions as to where things are headed. Continue reading
PDA and Inter-library Loan
Patron-driven acquisitions programs may supplant inter-library loans for ebooks, which in turn could get more publishers to support both PDA and ILL. Continue reading
The Preemptive Publisher
In a business environment characterized by risks, upstart innovations, and even contempt for the law, publishers have to ward off threats the old-fashioned way, by out-innovating their rivals and preempting new services. Continue reading
The Bookstore in the Library
PDA programs set up a kind of bookstore within library OPACs. It is possible to expand the range of these programs to enable the purchase of books by individuals on their own account–a new service for patrons and an income stream for libraries and publishers alike. Continue reading
Hawking Radiation: Figuring Out How Many Books Are Sold to Libraries
An odd circumstance of the book business is that no one really knows which books are sold to libraries and how important libraries are to overall book sales. At the heart of the problem is the fact that Amazon, which sells books to libraries, does not share any sales data. This post suggests a couple ways to get at that data in the face of Amazon’s obstinacy. Continue reading
The Bookstore of Last Resort
When on-demand systems for bookselling, such as patron-driven acquisitions, are set up, they create an unexpected problem: How do you know the book will still be available when you finally get around to ordering it? The bookstore of last resort is a preservation-based commercial venture to ensure that books are always available. Continue reading
The Faculty’s Role in Patron-driven Acquisitions
As patron-driven acquisitions (PDA) becomes more widespread, the question arises as to the role of faculty in developing these plans. Continue reading
Rediscovering Discovery — How We Find Things, and Its Implications
A recent ALA panel on discovery prompts some musings about the direction that local search will take and the likelihood that one vendor will control access to almost all library collections. Continue reading
The Four-step Program to an Academic Web Site
Academic publishers that are seeking to enhance their consumer-facing Web sites should follow these four steps and be sure to anchor the site in the company’s strategy. Continue reading
Authors
The mission of the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) is "[t]o advance scholarly publishing and communication, and the professional development of its members through education, collaboration, and networking." SSP established The Scholarly Kitchen blog in February 2008 to keep SSP members and interested parties aware of new developments in publishing.
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The Scholarly Kitchen is a moderated and independent blog. Opinions on The Scholarly Kitchen are those of the authors. They are not necessarily those held by the Society for Scholarly Publishing nor by their respective employers.
