This Press Release from Ipsos-Insight says consumer demand for general trade books held steady during 2003 compared to 2002, however spending on a per-book basis slipped, resulting in lower 2003 consumer expenditures.
BookTrends found that while Americans bought nearly the same number of books in 2003 as they did in 2002—1.176 billion books in 2003 versus 1.177 billion books in 2002—overall spending on books decreased 2%, falling from $11.3 billion in 2002 to $11.0 billion in 2003.
April 2004
Why Books Are the Hot Medium
Blake writes From the New York Times – Week in Review
From the article; “former government officials have committed their recollections to books at least since 1934, when a former White House usher, Irwin Hood Hoover, published the memoir “Forty-Two Years in the White House”…
But seldom, if ever, have as many volumes thick with inside details of an administration appeared as fast as they have during the presidency of George W. Bush.
A shelf-load have become best sellers in the last five months, even before the end of Mr. Bush’s first term.”
High school transcript study
nbruce writes “The High School Transcript Study: A Decade of Change in Curricula and Achievement, 1990-2000 is available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Summary: “This report presents findings from the 2000 High School Transcript Study (HSTS 2000) and examines the trends and changes in high school curriculum and student course taking patterns for the past decade. This publication allows policymakers, researchers, education agencies, and the public to examine the current status of the curricula being offered in public and non-public high schools. The HSTS 2000 collected 20,931 transcripts of students graduating from 277 American high schools. Results from the HSTS 2000 are presented with respect to earned course credits, grade point average, and education achievement, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000 Mathematics and Science assessments. In addition, results are compared across the four High School Transcript Studies between 1990 and 2000 (HSTS 1990, HSTS 1994, HSTS 1998, and HSTS 2000). Findings are presented throughout the report by selected student and school characteristics, including student gender, student race/ethnicity, school type (public vs. nonpublic), and region of the country.�
It is available in various pdf formats but a print version will eventually follow.
In 2000, high school graduates earned an average of 26.2 course credits, compared to an average of 23.6 in 1990. Interesting.”
Cleveland Library, union not on the same page
Just A Little Bit More on the troubles at Cleveland Public. Administrators and the union were to return to the bargaining table Wednesday. If Williams was optimistic, Hajzak didn’t seem to be. She expressed doubts the system’s contract offer would change drastically.
Hajzak also blasted the library’s posting of a news release regarding contract negotiations on the system’s Web site.
European Council proposes data retention law
Pete writes “The Register reports that the European Council has quietly proposed pan-European data retention laws that will require communications service providers to keep user data for a minimum of a year, and possibly indefinitely.
The draft framework will apply to data generated by an exhaustive list of comms architectures and protocols: phone, text, MMS, email, Voice over IP, and Web communications among them.
The stated aim is not to store content, just the data generated by the flow of traffic, and its associated user information. However, as Joe McNamee of lobbying group Political Intelligence points out, at no point does this draft specify exactly what consitutes content, and what constitues traffic data.”
Nude pics pose problem for library
A SELECTION of nude paintings has been banned from an exhibition at Redditch, England, Library because bosses decided they were too graphic.
Modern Classical Nude by Dermot Hannon went on display in the library’s gallery on Saturday (April 24), but three of the pictures – depicting a naked woman – were deemed unsuitable for children.
“The whole point of the collection was to define the difference between erotic and beautiful, and I tried to make them as tasteful as possible.
“I know the staff are covering their own backs, but come on, it’s 2004. I think they’re being a bit prudish.”
Results of the Second River Cities’ Reader Short-Fiction Contest
Bob Cox writes
“The number of entries in this year’s River Cities’ Reader short-fiction contest jumped to over 120, up more than 25 percent from last year. There was one significant rule change – the word limit was cut from 250 to 200 – but that didn’t seem to affect the quality of entries.
Writers from the Quad Cities and beyond gave us interesting, provocative, and dense narratives, and winnowing the list down to the finalists was difficult. The subjects ranged from religion to relationships to murder, with just about everything in between.
We present 15 of the best entries here, five winners and 10 other finalists. While they’re disparate in tone, content, and style, most share a few traits: They’re full of idiosyncratic detail, the authors have breathed life into the characters, and they have a ring of authenticity.” See the
Internet history, design, advanced use…
Bob Cox sends “us this awesome, and, yes, elegant website that gives a nifty and well-organized overview of the the Internet and all its offspring.
Thumbs up for library fingerprint scheme
The Office of the Commissioner for Children, down in New Zeland, has belatedly approved a fingerprinting system for school library borrowing.
Librarians hail it as highly efficient but Children’s Commissioner Cindy Kiro last month said it was “over the top”. She was concerned children were being linked with technology used for criminals.
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