From Library Journal 

Revolution or Evolution by Andrew Richard Albanese

The latest statistics from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) paint a rather grim picture. From 1986 to 2000, serial unit costs have risen a staggering 226 percent. Monograph unit costs rose 66 percent. In contrast, the Consumer Price Index, the standard measure of consumer inflation, increased just 49 percent over the same period of time. Serials cancellation exercises have become routine. The scholarly monograph, once the hallmark of academic achievement in the humanities and social sciences, has withered.

The arrival of the Internet, however, has fostered enormous change, and academic librarians are playing a prominent role in directing that change. Enabled by technology, fortified by their vital role in the academic community, academic librarians have joined forces with faculty members, societies, foundations, and even publishers to devise new ways to reshape scholarly communications. At a recent gathering at Johns Hopkins University's Welch Medical Library Kansas's Shulenburger and an impressive lineup of speakers told librarians that indeed challenges in scholarly communication remain. But the prognosis is getting better every day. [read more]

From CLIR 

CLIR releases Strategies for Building Digitized Collections by Abby Smith

Abstract
In this report, Abby Smith synthesizes the nearly 10 years' experience that libraries have had digitizing items from their rare, special, and general collections, and making them available online. The learning she uncovers is distilled in and extended by several case studies conducted in leading digital libraries with very different digitization programs. Smith demonstrates that digitization programs work best where their role within a library's collection development strategy is clearly understood, and she identifies several roles that such programs can play. Smith also asks a number of searching questions. She muses about the extent to which digitally reformatted special and rare collections can actually support scholarly research. Probing further, she wonders whether leading research libraries in particular might more usefully focus on digitizing general as opposed to special and rare collections. In this way, they would make important holdings available in new ways while taking a first step in avoiding costs associated with their redundant management. The report is consequently much more than a strategic guide for individual institutions; it is a route map that points important directions for the library community as a whole.

On Digital Library Standards: From Yours and Mine to Ours by Daniel Greenstein

If you ask people in research libraries to identify the most significant digital library challenge facing them, it is likely that most will respond with the same answer: the absence of standards. These people are not referring to the formal standards emerging from the International Standards Organization (ISO) or the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Such standards are plentiful. Instead, they are bemoaning the lack of a consensus about when and how to apply those formal standards in a digital library. [read more]

New York September 11 

Acme Bookbinding is proud to be a contributing company to the forthcoming New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers, from powerHouse Books.

View some of the images from the book: New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers

Magnum Photographers' Website

powerHouse Books Website

A portion of the proceeds from the book will be donated to The New York Times The Neediest Cases Fund.

New York September 11 by Magnum Photographers Press Release (in pdf format). Html text version of the press release is here.

Libraries in the Digital Age 

As Students Work Online, Reading Rooms Empty Out --ÝLeading Some Campuses to Add Starbucks

... Clearly, the burgeoning use of electronic databases has sent the buzz of library activity onto the Internet. The shift leaves many librarians and scholars wondering and worrying about the future of what has traditionally been the social and intellectual heart of campus, as well as about whether students are learning differently now --Ýor learning at all. Library journals are publishing articles about the roles of the "old" and "new" libraries, and the tension expressed in those pages is almost palpable.

Some librarians are fighting back --Ýwith plush chairs, double-mocha lattes, book groups, author readings, and even music. That mix works for Barnes & Noble, and it seems to be working at some colleges, too. But it costs money, and no one is sure whether it helps students learn. [read more]

Bookstores in the Digital Age 

Amazon losing ground in core area: Books

Not long ago, Amazon.com stunned the publishing industry by seizing a huge part of its business seemingly overnight.

Now, as the company continues to struggle with a vastly expanded retail strategy that includes such mass-market stalwarts as Wal-Mart, the e-commerce pioneer from Seattle is losing ground in the business that the company was created for: selling books. [read more]