LISNews: Librarian News

Martin writes "Lexis-Nexis has begun installing kiosks in prisons and so far, everyone likes them. They save shelf space in cramped prison libraries, librarians no longer have to file updates in the books, and they make it easier for prisoners to find informtion. Prison oficials wanted to be sure that the kiosks were tamper-proof. The touch-screen monitors are covered in shatterproof glass inside a steel box bolted to a wall. "We've taken a crowbar to it. It doesn't shatter," said a company official.

AP Has The Story"

An Anonymous Patron writes "This Story Says

Amazon.co.uk has teamed up with the British Library so that information on rare, antiquarian and out of print books can be made available to buy online.

The British Library has added details of more than 2.55m books to the Amazon.co.uk books catalogue, with 1.7m of these dated before the 1970 introduction of ISBN." One hopes the BL was richly remunerated.

Oxford University Press USA has laid off 35 employees as part of a reorganization. According to Publishers Weekly, the target was largely the print reference department, which the publisher is said to have "consolidated in favor of its expansive online efforts."

Publisher Laura Brown stated that OUP is "making significant investments in our higher education and professional publishing and our on-line activities, areas where we see exciting growth opportunities."

As part of the reorganization, Casper Grathwohl was named publisher, reference division, while Karen Day assumes the title of associate publisher, reference. Ms. Day previously held the publisher's position.

Don Saklad shares with us This bostonphoenix.com Piece on Harvard Square’s Grolier Poetry Book Shop, one of only two stores in the US devoted to poetry. The Grolier has been in business since 1927, and, in the intervening years, its shelves have been browsed by the likes of T.S. Eliot, Robert Lowell, e.e. cummings, Allen Ginsberg, and Marianne Moore. Today, the store hosts a well-regarded reading series, and is the "engine" — as owner Louisa Solano puts it — that drives the annual Grolier Poetry Prize. But now, to put it bluntly, Solano finds herself in a hole, she might have to close down.