Baker & Taylor announced yesterday they are buying Blackwell Book Services North America to integrate with YBP and Australia-based James Bennett bookseller (also owned by Blackwell). In turn, they are selling their UK unit Lindsay and Croft to Blackwell UK. Also, “Baker & Taylor’s YBP Library Services and Blackwell U.K. have entered into a strategic sourcing agreement under which YBP Library Services will source all U.K.-published academic material from Blackwell U.K., and Blackwell U.K. will source all U.S.-published academic material from YBP Library Services.”Release
Libraries
Google to Partner with France's National Library
Even as opposition swirls, Google Books continues to make deals with national libraries, the most recent being the Bibliothque Nationale de France (BNF) after a four-year battle. BNF director of collections Denis Bruckman described the decision to La Tribune as “purely financial”, as France provided only ¬5 million a year for digitising books for Gallica, the national digital library, yet the national library needed up to â¬80 million (£68 million) just for its works from 1870 to 1940. “We will not stop our own digitising programme, but if Google can enable us to go faster and farther, then why not?”Times […]
The Librarian's Role in the Digital Age
Motoko Rich continues her series on “The Future of Reading” by looking at P.S. 225 librarian Stephanie Rosalia, part of “a growing cadre of 21st-century multimedia specialists who help guide students through the digital ocean of information that confronts them on a daily basis.” These new librarians believe that literacy includes books, but also exceeds them via Powerpoint presentations and social networking sites. “The days of just reshelving a book are over,” Ms. Rosalia said. “Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.” Yet school librarians are often the first […]
NY Considers Library Funding Cuts
One more story on the economy: New York’s budget division has recommended to the governor a $20 million cut in library support as part of proposed statewide reductions of expenses. That represents abou 20 percent of the currently allocated $99 million, a number already slimmed by $4 million from the 2007 allocation. The NY Library Association says the proposal “would bring library aid down to a level not seen since 1993.” Executive director Michael Borges says in a statement that “no other educational institutions have been targeted for a 20 percent cut in state funding. There seems to be no […]
Big Library Cuts in Philadelphia
As municipalities across the country face large gaps in their budget, Philadelphia is taking “drastic new steps” to face the “economic storm” that include closing 11 of the 54 branch libraries that comprise the Free Library of Philadelphia. Three other branches will have Sunday hours eliminated. Mayor Michael Nutter said the branches were chosen “after careful review of building conditions, utilization and distance to other libraries in the Free Library system.” Cutting 220 jobs throughout the city government, approximately one third of those layoffs will come from the library staff.ABC News