LISNews: Librarian News

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression is challenging a new Indiana law which requires dealers of sexually explicit materials to register and file a statement with the secretary of state. Full story at the Bookfinder Blog.

A Short Fool.com Column takes a look at Borders and Barnes & Noble. Peddling books is a tough business, relying on a relatively small number of best-sellers to grow sales (and competitive forces have forced a lot of margin-killing discounts).
Barnes & Noble hasn't had quite as difficult a time as Borders, although its fourth-quarter net income dipped 9.2% as the competitive climate led to lower margins. However, in contrast to Borders' tidings, Barnes & Noble was able to increase its dividend and said that it will be profitable in the first quarter, even though it's by no means indicating an easy year ahead. It's guiding for annual earnings about flat compared to 2007.

Pretty shocking news: Borders is putting itself up for sale or may sell divisions. It has suspended its dividend. It is borrowing some $42.5 million from the hedge fund that is its largest shareholder. That fund may buy parts of the company and is being granted warrants for Borders stock that represent about 20% of the company.

Borders has hired J.P. Morgan Securities and Merrill Lynch to explore the sale of the company or of its divisions "for the purpose of maximizing shareholder value."

News from the daily newsletter of of Shelf Awareness. Another report from the Detroit Free Press. Borders is headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI.

As the folks over at the Wyoming Arts blog recently noted, a few weeks ago Publisher’s Weekly featured Torrie Rice’s Wheatland Mercantile Book Nook in Claire Kirch’s article, ”Wild West Bookseller.” Kirch writes:

“According to Rice—a self-professed ‘bookaholic’—Wheatland, a primarily agricultural community adjacent to a desolate stretch of I-25, halfway between Cheyenne and Casper, had always lacked a bookstore. The local library ‘didn’t have much,’ either, for the town’s 3,500 residents.”

So in 2003, Rice started a bookstore, but that’s not all she sells:

“This being Wyoming, where a Wild West mentality still thrives, Rice sells the 4,000 titles in her inventory alongside products made and sold by her husband, Jef Rice: custom-built handguns and rifles.

Full story here.

At the store's website they have a link to an author's website. Notice that the author's website has a certain theme to it. What do you see on every book cover?