All Episodes
Copyright for Literate Robots
What is it that robots cannot do? In 2015, robots not only build our automobiles, but they also can drive them. Robots vacuum floors and work alongside human beings in warehouses. And sleepless, tireless robots read everything they find on the web. When they are found...
For Sale Sign Up For Perseus
The business side of books dominated headlines this week. At Perseus Books Group, a “For Sale” has returned to its front lawn, after it went away a little over a year ago. At Barnes & Noble, the most recent quarterly sales report makes for grim reading material....
Is Open Access Coming for Scholarly Books?
Most academics today expect to find Open Access research in scholarly journals, yet there are a growing number of OA books published each year, too. Is Open Access the answer to the question, “What is the future of long-form scholarly publishing?” A recent survey from...
A New World of Subsidiary Rights
Long ago, publishers built the first global networks, even if they didn’t call them that. They were bookstores and warehouses. Publishing still relies on interlocking networks and exchanges, but in 2015 they are virtual and digital. Rights are the essential links in...
Best of BTB: Books Invented Everything
In 1968, Andy Warhol prophesied that, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” The era of Pop Art and pop music saw the erosion of boundaries between high and low art, as well as the collapse of hierarchy in general. Warhol cannily recognized...
Good News, Bad News For Self-Publishing
The book world this week is full of news from the ranks of “indie” or self-published authors: Good news for one children’s author, and bad news for several who feel cheated. And for another, the news is definitely in shades of grey. “A potential class action lawsuit...
Digital Age Not Golden For Writers, Artists
On Sunday in The New York Times Magazine, author Steven Johnson pointedly asked, “How is today’s creative class faring?” His own analysis of available data drew Johnson to conclude that the much-threatened “creative apocalypse” hadn’t materialized. That contrarian...
Open Access: Which Direction? (II)
This spring, the Research Councils UK, on behalf of the Global Research Council (GRC) and working together with the British Library, hosted a London workshop that brought together publishers, funders, libraries and other stakeholders from across the world to discuss...
Best of BTB: Altmetrics Under The Microscope
Scientific research seeks answers to questions large and small – from the composition of atoms to the age of the universe. While scientists, funders and institutions may value research for its own sake, they are practical, too. The answers that research yields can...
“Secretive” Amazon Brings Out The Worst
What do the capitalist titan Jeff Bezos and communist kingpin Kim Jong-Un have in common? Very likely, they have absolutely nothing in common, but we will never know because both Amazon and North Korea are kingdoms of secrecy. This week, owing to a lengthy New York...
Open Access: Which Direction?
Fast and furious: That describes the change underway in scholarly publishing. Keeping up with the pace – and preparing for what lies around the corner – are critical challenges. Across a wide range of journals and houses, Open Access business models have grown common...
A Prescription for Self-Published Textbooks
A field of study like medical informatics is in constant flux. Indeed, technology and healthcare have become so intimate and entwined, they are almost inseparable. Conveying that dynamic relationship to students demands textbooks and other instructional materials...