LISNews: Librarian News

A breakthrough in book publishing is hitting print at a time we need most: RAND Publishing introduces The Skinny On(TM) - a series of books that give the "skinny on life's most important lessons." Inspired by the Japanese literary form, Manga (whimsical, illustrated story-telling) and easily read in an hour.....

Says President of RAND Publishing, Katie Rose Hope, "We're conforming to the technology-centered Twitter-and-Facebook-Age. Readers are updated once an update to the book has been made via a medium that they choose - email, text, Twitter, any new form of technology.. We intend to keep our content up to the minute. Our books will evolve with the times."

Full press release here.

Website: The Skinny on

Publicly-funded research doesn't seem so public when taxpayers must pay to read the results in a journal. A new law may help publishing companies preserve their business models, but will limit public access to the research.

Story on Marketplace

I needed advice before I tried to write a novel. The usual axiom — write what you know — wasn't helpful. I spend my days driving my older children to school and changing my younger one's diaper — not exactly best-seller material.

So I turned to experts. Three books gave me invaluable writing advice. One, by a best-selling writer; one, by a top New York agent; and one, by a guy who struggled for years to learn how to write a book and wanted to make it easier for the rest of us.

Full story on NPR

From the Chronicle of Higher Education comes an article about possible price freezing for libraries.

"LET'S MAKE A DEAL (MAYBE): The publishers' hall at the recent Association of College and Research Libraries conference, held in Seattle in mid-March, was a study in give-and-take: how much publishers such as Elsevier and Oxford University Press will give in this lousy economy, and how much budget-strapped librarians can take."