Online bookstore browser reading mode 

amazon.com has a introduced new feature called "look inside". It allows a potential buyer to view scanned pages of the book including:

• dust jacket covers and flaps;
• introductory pages of the book;
• the table of contents;
• multi-page excerpt from the book.

Roger Ebert say thumbs down 

Don't Confuse Fans With Pirates by Roger Ebert

This year, Universal's music division plans to use a new copy-protection scheme that excludes its discs from being played at all on "Macs, DVD players, and CD-compatible video game consoles." This according to Peter Cohen of MacCentral, who also reports that the plan will block discs from being copied to other CDs or being saved to the hard drives of most PCs in the MP3 format. The first disc to get this treatment is More Fast and Furious: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture, a title that will live in infamy.

That the CD itself has been ripped off from other CDs (it is a compilation of tracks having little connection to the movie or one another) is a delightful irony. That Universal has copy-protected it, and blocked out Macs and DVD players altogether, has to be the worst marketing decision in consumer electronics since the original DivX format (which was Circuit City's widely hated, intrusive pay-per-view system). It confuses fans with pirates. My guess is that no musician or band still actively engaged in trying to build an audience will want to come anywhere near it. [read more]

It may not seem important or relevant--but it is 

Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand by Dan Gillmor

This is a quiz about your future. It's about how you view some basic elements of the emerging Digital Age.

1. Do you care if a few giant companies control virtually all entertainment and information?

2. Do you care if they decide what kinds of technological innovations will reach the marketplace?

3. Would you be concerned if they used their power to compile detailed dossiers on everything you read, listen to, view and buy?

4. Would you find it acceptable if they could decide whether what you write and say could be seen and heard by others?

Those are no longer theoretical questions. They are the direction in which America is hurtling.

Media conglomerates are in a merger frenzy. Telecommunications monopolies are creating a cozy cartel, dividing up access to the online world. The entertainment industry is pushing for Draconian controls on the use and dissemination of digital information.

If you're not infuriated by these related trends, you should at least be worried. If you're neither, stop reading this column. You're a sheep, content to be herded wherever these giants wish. [read more]

A cure, worse than the disease 

Guard Copyrights, Don't Jail Innovation by Alex Salkever

U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) has earned a reputation over the years as a fearless contrarian, speaking the truth as he sees it. So it was a bit of a surprise to hear his folksy doublespeak on Mar. 21, when the senator solemnly introduced the Consumer Broadband & Digital Television Promotion Act.

The legislation would mandate that copyright-protection mechanisms be embedded in PCs, handheld computers, CD players, and anything else that can play, record, or otherwise manipulate digital information. The law's stated goal is to stop rampant digital piracy. ...

... In this case, however, the proposed cure is far worse than the disease. Introducing copyright-protection mechanisms into almost all digital hardware clearly flouts the interests of consumers. And it's more evidence that, when it comes to delivering content in the 21st century, the entertainment industry is hell-bent on stifling technology, rather than using it in ways that eventually could become highly profitable. Hollings' proposal hands control over the innovative forces that drive tech development to some of the most change-resistant companies in the world. [read more]

Read it online or download and print it 

The Transition from Paper: Where Are We Going and How Will We Get There? edited by R. Stephen Berry and Anne Simon Moffat

Summary
The world of communication is going through a transition unlike any that humans have ever experienced, with far-reaching consequences possibly greater than any prior advance since the invention of written language. Now communications are faster, cheaper, and potentially more accessible than we could have imagined even just a decade ago. Information of traditional and very nontraditional kinds is available, in principle, for anyone with a link to the internet. The scientific community has been at the vanguard in developing and using the new modes and in experiencing the consequences, both positive and negative, of the transition. We are still in the early stages of that transition, trying to feel our way ahead. The project that produced this set of essays has been an attempt to anticipate changes and to feel our way ahead in the process. [read the entire text online]

Print vs. digital publishing 

Critics attack net journal initiative by Ivan Noble

Critics of a project to set up alternative open-access scientific journals on the internet say the idea is ill-conceived and will undermine quality.

Financier George Soros announced in February that he was giving a $3m grant to the Budapest Open Access Initiative to set up open-archiving systems.

But, says Sally Morris, of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, open-access initiatives will undermine existing journals without replacing them.

"People value peer review and they value research being gathered together in things called journals," she told BBC News Online. [read more]

Not to discount the merits of their arguements, but the critics seem to be largely the publishers.

Film vs. digital photography 

Digital cameras click with consumers by Tiffany Kary

... The study found that most households now use their digital cameras as their primary means of photography, according to Slaughter, and 19 percent have stopped using film cameras altogether.

"The growth in market penetration will have a noticeable impact on the entire photo industry," she said. [read more]

For cryin' out loud, KEEP THE LIBRARY!!! 

Preserving our Heritage: The Case to Keep the Washington State Library by Secretary of State Pam Reed

Since 1853, we've honored and preserved our state history under one roof at the Washington State Library. Virtually any background a researcher has needed on history, state government and public policy issues has been available in one place, free-of-charge.

Now, picture Washington State in 100 years. It is the only state in America without a state library. A researcher is looking for facts on a particular issue that transcends generations. Maybe it's the environment or healthcare. Maybe it's our state economy. Maybe it's transportation. What happens to the research? What happens to pending legislation of the 22nd Century that demands a historical perspective? In 100 years, who exactly will have had the money and/or interest in preserving Washington State history in its entirety? To our knowledge, there's not a single organization in the state that could afford to shoulder the costs even with the collections moved to separate locations. Will our heritage then sit on shelves in the collections historians thought would prove most vital to their predecessors? How could they possibly have known?

Should a proposal to close the state library solidify, researchers, legislators, historians, and the state of Washington will go without the help, history, and perspective they need to improve the quality of life in the Northwest. [read more]

Price point 

High book prices force students to photocopy by Lai Ting-ming

... As long as Taiwan remains marginalized and dependent on Western countries, the big bucks we have to pay for foreign-language books will only increase, not decrease. As the schools pursue internationalization, the demand for foreign-language textbooks will only rise, as will the cost of book purchases -- commensurately.

Few people photocopy books from China and Taiwan except when they are out-of-print editions, because books from China are cheap and Taiwan's book prices are in keeping with our standard of living. Foreign publishers should ask themselves whether it is reasonable to sell books to students in developing nations at prices set according to their own living standards.

The piracy situation will never be eliminated if this problem is not resolved. If foreign publishers take into account the living standards of developing countries and adopt more reasonable price-setting policies, then I believe the piracy problem will abate. [read more]

Freelance librarian 

Jessamyn West: Freelance Librarian The Ultimate Antistereotype

If Jessamyn West was what people thought of when they thought of the word "librarian," our profession would be unbelievably cool. Visit West's web site (librarian.net) and you will find quickie reviews of the books she read in the past four years; her journal, "Abada abada"; her research projects (including surveying the literacy programs in America's public libraries); and an actual formal rÈsumÈ where she recounts her many jobs as researcher, reference librarian, writer, newsletter editor (Social Responsibilities Round Table of the American Library Association), ThinkQuest judge, and now coeditor for Revolting Librarians Redux. [read more]

More interesting stories about great librarians in the Library Journal special feature, Movers & Shakers.