My Name Is Ozymandias, King of Kings
There’s no such thing as “too big to fail,” and this applies to libraries as much as it does to car makers, steel companies, and search engines. My guess is that Ozymandias never saw it coming.
The Art of Making a Book
An appreciation of the book as physical object.
Well, That About Wraps it up for Clayton Christensen
Clayton Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation is critically examined by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker. If he is wrong, why is the idea of disruption such a compelling one?
How Ink is Made: A Beautiful Reflection of the Analog World we still inhabit
A YouTube Video, How Ink is Made, reminds us of the art and craft that goes into creating the physical products that remain a significant fixture of the publishing world.
Data Detectives: Investigating What is, and What is Not, Measured
Businesses are using more data than ever to inform decision making. While the truly large Big Data may be limited to the likes of Google, Amazon, and Facebook, publishers are nonetheless managing more data than ever before. While the technical challenges may be less daunting with smaller data sets, there remain challenges in interpreting data and in using it to make informed decisions. Perhaps the most daunting challenge is in understanding the limitations of the dataset: What is being measured and, just as importantly, what is not being measured? What inferences and conclusions can be drawn and what is mere conjecture? Where are the bricks and mortar solid and where does the foundation give way beneath our feet?
The Future (?) of the Scholarly (?) Monograph (?)
As the scholarly communication environment changes, so does the monograph–and the nature of scholarship itself. A few years from now, what will these terms even mean?
The Making of a Book, 1925
A set of short films illustrating the state of the art in publishing technology, circa 1925.
The Last Bookshop
A surprisingly charming short film about a world where books have gone extinct.
Book Review — "Academic and Professional Publishing"
A new book for scholarly publishers updates a classic, and shows just how diverse, interesting, and promising scholarly publishing has become.
A Call for Participation — A Survey on Book Discovery
A call to participate in a survey on how books are discovered and ultimately purchased. The survey is being conducted in cooperation with O’Reilly Media.
What Can Publishers Learn from Indie Rock?
While the recording industry generally gets a bad rap for managing the transition to online distribution, there is one niche that has flipped the model and uses old distribution techniques to sell music across multiple formats. That niche is indie rock and there are some lessons for publishers.
Why E-book Distribution Is Completely and Utterly Broken (and How to Fix It)
A recent incident involving Amazon and a Norwegian reader has highlighted the sad state of ebook distribution on many levels.
Bury Your Writing — Why Do Academic Book Chapters Fail to Generate Citations?
Books and book chapters have a competitive disadvantage in citations, but it’s not accessibility that makes the difference — there are more reasons, and more changes needed.
E-books and the Personal Library
Moving from the West Coast to the East prompts some thoughts on personal libraries and e-books, as it no longer makes economic sense to carry a lifetime of books around with us. But maybe economic sense isn’t the only sense bibliophiles possess . . .
The Joy of Books — A Short, Inspired Film Full of Passion
Passions die harder than businesses, and when passions energize a business, little miracles can happen, as this short film demonstrates.