LISNews: Librarian News

Article in the NYT

From offices about a mile off campus, in the shadows of the state capitol in Lincoln, the University of Nebraska Press and its imprint, Bison Books, publish four to eight books a year for the hard-core hardball fan. Via its partnership with the Society for American Baseball Research, or SABR, Nebraska also distributes the organization’s wonkish publications, The National Pastime and The Baseball Research Journal.

Full article here.

With the Statistical Abstract of the United States slated for extinction following the release of the 2012 edition, ProQuest said Thursday morning that it will take over publication of one of the best known and respected reference works beginning with the 2013 edition.

More at Publisher's Weekly

'Even the bad books are awesome': Meet the woman behind $45m empire that allows anyone to become a published author (talented or not)
Most people harbour a secret desire to be a singer, an actor or a novelist but aspiring writers and artists looking to publish their material need no longer dream.

Thanks to Eileen Gittins, the founder and CEO of Blurb, creative types can see their work in print for as little as $3 by filling out a simple template and printing the requisite copies.

In search of a 'cathartic, creative outlet' herself, the former Kodak executive and technology start-up guru launched the business after discovering there was no way to print a book of photography on which she had been working in her spare time.

This is a story in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Jeffrey Beall, metadata librarian at the University of Colorado at Denver, keeps a running list on his blog Scholarly Open Access of what he calls "predatory" publishers and journals. He said he has identified about 50 so far, and comes across a new one nearly every week.