In the UK, Woolworth’s–which has been headed for bankruptcy over the past two months–is now perched right on the edge. “Unless a deal is agreed in the next few days the entire Woolworths group looks poised to collapse into administration – putting 30,000 jobs at risk,” the Sunday Times writes. They add, “City sources say that Woolworths is fast running out of cash amid torrid trading conditions on the high street. It is thought that the company only has sufficient funds to last until about the middle of next month.” The banks hold the controlling cards in negotiations, according to […]
International News
European Library Site Closes as Quickly as It Opened
After a busier-than-expected first day, the EU’s Europeana web site closed back down for scaling. The home page says they will be return “in a more robust version as soon as possible. We will be back by mid-December.” Their development/preview site is still online at http://dev.europeana.eu/.
Europe Launches Digital Library
The European Commission has launched their Europeana project, meant to provide a collection of digitized cultural resources from across Europe. But the NYT notes that “more than half of its two million items will come from just one of the 27 countries in the European Union: France…. Only 1 percent of the content has information about Germany, 1.4 percent about Spain and only 10 percent about Britain.” The site draws on the archives of over 1,000 museums, libraries and archives, presenting books, paintings, maps, videos, and newspapers, all free of copyright restrictions. The EU’s goal is to present 10 million […]
UK Sales Down Over 4 Percent
Even as holiday sales volume picks up in the UK, as compared to last year sales are consistently down 4 percent or more. According to Nielsen Bookscan figures, total expenditures for the four weeks ending November 15 were down 4.1 percent, while unit sales declined 4.5 percent. For the recent week by itself, total spending dropped 3.9 percent compared to last year.Bookseller
Ricci Takes GG as Hage Is Shut Out; Costa Gives Barry Second Chance
Nino Ricci won Canada’s Governor General’s award for fiction for his just-published novel ORIGIN OF SPECIES, and journalist Christie Blatchford won the non-fiction award for her book FIFTEEN DAYS: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army. (Both titles were edited by Doubleday Canada Editorial Director Martha Kanya-Forstner.) Rawi Hage’s COCKROACH was the only work of fiction nominated for all three of Canada’s top fiction prizes, but failed to win any of the top honors. Click below for all 14 Governor General winners (with prizes for writing in both English and French).CBC In the UK, […]
Toews Wins Writers' Trust Prize
Miriam Toews has won the Rogers Writers’ Trust prize–one of Canada’s big three awards for fiction–for her fifth novel, THE FLYING TROUTMANS. CBC