LISNews: Librarian News

Bob Dyer, Akron Beacon Journal columnist writes: At many area Walmarts, the book section is extremely well-organized. The self-help books are here . . . the religion section is there . . . cooking and diet books farther down . . . and right over here is the black section.

You think I'm kidding? At Walmart, apparently, skin color trumps all.

The ''black section'' contains everything written by and about blacks: romance novels, self-help books, religion, sports, even an autobiography by the current president of the United States.

Now, whether or not you're a fan of Barack Obama, can't we at least agree that the thing that defines him is not his skin color but his job title? We have lots and lots of African-Americans in this country — about 38 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — but during this country's entire 234-year history we have had only 44 presidents.

Yet there he is, right in the middle of six monochromatic shelves, peering out at us from the cover of The Audacity of Hope.

The reporter of this piece in the Ohio.com asked WalMart to respond to book placement. When asked why many of its stores have a ''black section'' that lumps together everyone from romance novelists to preachers to the president of the United States — even though they have little in common beside skin color — WalMart Stores Inc. responded without really responding.

San Jose Lesbian and feminists mourn loss of Sisterspirit

Bookstore beloved of Lesbian and feminists to close. Online bookstores and the acceptance of Gay literature in chain bookstores are blamed.

(Sorry to censor, but this site's spam filter wouldn't accept this submission otherwise.)

"Saying that bookstores won't be around in the future because Wal-Mart and Amazon sell books is like saying Italian restaurants will go out of business because we have canned spaghetti sauce."--Michael Norris, a senior analyst at Simba Information, in a Houston Chronicle piece headlined "Booksellers buck e-trend: Analysts say there's a place for stores that do their job well."

Blog entry by publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin

There are two questions about the impact of digital change on publishing that are just about impossible to answer.

One is: how much of the sale of ebooks is incremental business and how much of it is cannibalization of prior print sales?

The other is: what will be the fate of independent bookstores?

The two are connected.

Full blog post here.