LISNews: Librarian News

What kind of role Barnes & Noble will play in the digital future became a little clearer this morning with the retailer’s announcement that it has acquired Fictionwise, one of the largest independent e-book retailers, for $15.7 million plus incentives over the next two years for achieving certain performance targets.

Full story here.

Today's By Design/Shelf Life in the NYT celebrates real books in a real bookstore. You might be reading this online, but an architectural bookstore in San Francisco is a reminder that there’s nothing like beautifully printed matter.

Author Allison Arieff writes, "I felt so fortunate to attend a special presentation the other night: William Stout, owner of the eponymous architecture and design bookstore in San Francisco, had been invited to talk about his favorite books at Linden Street, a casual salon of sorts that aims to foster the design community in the city.

Bookstore owner Stout began with his favorite quote from Balzac: “I seldom go out but when I feel myself flagging I go and cheer myself up in Pere Lachaise … while seeking out the dead I see nothing but the living.”

It was evident that, surrounded by these volumes — some slim, some massive, some lush with color photography, some filled with impenetrable academic jargon — Stout felt inspired, in love, in awe, much as Balzac did wandering past the tombstones in that Parisian graveyard.

Some interesting comments including the fact that you can't use a Kindle as a doorstop.

From Shelf-Awareness, a discussion of e-books and print books from booksellers.

From Rachel Whang of Atomic Books, Baltimore, MD: I don't understand why anyone would go to a bookstore to download e-books, as some have proposed. Do people go to record stores to download music? No. People don't go to places to download anything. That's why they like it. And that's why music-selling stores are going away.

From Jodi Kaplan who runs Squidoo lens: For print and bookstores to survive, they have to add value. Bring authors in, host book groups, have authors blog on their sites (or connect to the authors' blogs). Send e-mails to loyal customers informing them of new books they might like to read. Invite people into the store to form connections with the store, the authors and other readers.

Michael Herrmann of Gibson's Bookstore, Concord, NH: As not only a bookseller but a booklover, I can see why e-books would be priced lower than real books. Not only do you not have printing, storing and distribution costs at the producer's end, but you also do not have a permanent artifact at the consumer's end. That is to say, e-books are not collectible. They are ephemeral. There is no guarantee that they will be readable or retrievable in two, 10, 50 years. They have less value than a real book. So perhaps they should cost less. -- Read More

Arnie Birren writes in the UWMLeader :

"Just imagine, one day we'll tell our kids about books. The way they smelled when first purchased, the graceful aging of the yellowed volumes that lined the shelves of resale stores and the satisfaction of turning that final page.

Start saying goodbye to the paperback. Say farewell to off-tune punk ballads bleeding through the low-ceilinged basements of Riverwest. Kiss your art goodbye Milwaukee. It's leaving you behind.

March 31 will mark the final day of operation for Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, a Milwaukee staple since 1927. Not only a bookshop, Schwartz also serves as a venue for book and poetry readings. It connects the loose network of local readers and writers to nationally touring authors. It has been a place to talk about books."