Vendors

The Best of Book Sense From the First Five Years.

An Anonymous Patron writes "Book Sense celebrates their five-year anniversary in 2004, and they've put together The Best of Book Sense From the First Five Years.
The list is the result of voting by independent booksellers across the country, who cast ballots for the titles they most enjoyed hand-selling over the past five years."

MSN and Amazon Reveal Search Strategies at WWW conference

Search Engine Optimization writes "Microsoft Has Announced Microsoft and Amazon will embelish and add a new dimension of Esoteric Searching capabilities in their quest to FINALLY develop their own search engines. Relevancy SERPs is not the only priority - it seem ease of use and non-standard searching will also be prioritized. This was revealed at The 13th annual World-Wide-World Conference currently taking place in New York CITY and their prestigous keynotes."

Beware of 'dark side' of database

Anonymous Patron writes "Ancestry.com, the largest thing going in the for-pay genealogy world, inspires many genealogists to swear by it and some researchers to swear at it.

But some of the 2 billion names contained in its databases primary sources turn out to be difficult to pin down.

The Lebanon, PA, Daily News has the article. Though the issue isn't really explored much here, they raise a good point, always check your sources."

At Avenue Victor Hugo, remembrances of good books past

The Boston Globe Reports On a second-hand bookshop on Newbury Street in Boston called Avenue Victor Hugo. On June 1, after nearly three decades in business, the shop will close.

It's a sad time for the bookseller, whose shop has given him much pleasure over the years and provided him with a refuge where he can ply his trade in peace.

McCaffrey offers many reasons for the failure of his shop and other small, used-book stores: People would rather watch television than read; they would rather go to a well-organized Barnes & Noble at the mall than a cluttered bookstore off the beaten path; and they would rather buy used books on the Internet, where the prices are often cheaper.

Small booksellers get big picture

Bob Cox writes Ann Arbor news has this story on a new technology to help small booksellers compete with the "big guys."
"One of the firm's first and most satisfied customers is Karl Pohrt, owner of the Shaman Drum bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor, who calls the technology nothing short of "revolutionary."

"I think it's essential for independent booksellers to move up to the next level," Pohrt said."

Slashdot | Amazon Search Bar Will Track Your Browsing

To update our recent story on Amazon.com's search engine, Anonymous Patron sends us some concerns by way of Slashdot. AP writes "You install the toolbar, then all your Web browsing, as well as all your searching, is stored as well." Slashdotters ask, "Where is all the media hype about this privacy issue?"

NLW-generosity-dept.

phoenix04 writes "For National Library Week, April 18-24, Gale is offering free trials of many databases including specialized not-usually-offered-except-for-cost. Go to www.gale.com for details. I already use Times Digital Archive, which is _The Times of London_ - back to mid-1700s!!! Truly awesome times for librarians. End-users haven't a clue till we lead 'em. Of course, Gale benefits because of the registration process."

No-shows at the Great Ontario Book Break

Here's an opinion piece from the Globe and Mail about the benefit (or lack thereof) of author signings. The failed event, called "the Great Ontario Book Break", sponsored by a collective of Ontario book publishers was badly organized, a waste of money and in fact resulted in "hours of acute public humiliation" in the opinion of author Russell Smith.

Little Sisters equivalent in Littleton, Colorado

Fang-Face writes "Speaking of Little Sisters, here's a story about the U.S. equivalent in Littleton, Colorado. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today to throw out a Denver zoning law that prohibits situating a sex-themed business within five hundred feet of schools or day care centers. Z.J. Gifts opened Christal's in 1999 and went to federal court that same year, arguing that the bookstore not a sex shop because only a portion of its merchandise is adult in nature. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case last October because different appeals courts have disagreed on the issue.

(Why are such laws a bad thing? Because such laws have been unethically exploited. In North Charleston, South Carolina, which case the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear,
and by the City of New York.)"

Gay bookstore asks for funding as court fight against book seizures continues

Anonymous Patron writes "This Article Reports a Vancouver, BC, gay book store is asking the Canadian courts to fund its next case.
Mark Macdonald, spokesman for Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, said the store has spent more than $500,000 fighting against seizures deemed to be obscene. The store is now fighting seizures of a series of adult comics entitled The Meatmen. "The Meatmen comics are not obscene," Macdonald said. "They are gay male erotica and it has to do with (sadomasochistic) practices. They're certainly not for everybody's tastes and we've never insinuated that they are."

Syndicate content