Vancouver Public Library opens new branch in Winter Games venue

The first full-service library branch in Vancouver’s Riley Park­ and Little Mountain neighbourhoods opened last week, thanks to the city’s Olympic legacy planning. Vancouver Public Library’s new Terry Salman Branch is located in the Hillcrest Community Centre, site of the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Centre during the 2010 Winter Games. The building also houses an NHL-size ice rink, curling club, preschool, field house, fitness centre, plus indoor and outdoor aquatics facilities.

Branch manager Cathy Wang (front row, centre) and library staff opened VPL's new Terry Salman Branch on Oct. 13.

According to VPL chief librarian Sandra Singh, the new branch will finally allow the library to offer a range of children’s and teen’s programming, additional technological materials and Internet terminals, and community-specific services and collections, such as Chinese-language resources, to this service area. “We just weren’t able to do it [all] in the previous branch,” Singh says.

The 7,500 sq. ft. branch, named after the chair of the VPL Foundation Board who recently donated $300,000, is six times bigger than the VPL’s former Riley Park Storefront Branch, which closed its doors on Sept. 17.

Terry Salman branch manager Cathy Wang says the timing of the opening couldn’t be better. “In the near future they’re talking about developing a market and low-cost housing nearby, so it’s a good time to replace our little storefront branch with a bigger facility because [the area is] going to be more densely populated.”

In June, city council voted unanimously to increase VPL’s 2011 operating budget by $391,000 in order to ensure the fall opening, as well as a $957,100 increase in the 2012 budget to staff and operate the branch 78 hours a week (up from 43 hours a week at the storefront location).

A grand opening celebration will take place on Oct. 29.

Ontario designer turns David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” into a digital kids’ book

Andrew Kolb's digital prototype

David Bowie’s 1969 song “Space Oddity” isn’t the most likely source for a children’s book, given that its main character, Major Tom, ends up alone, stuck in space while floating in his tin can (also, some music fans believe it’s an ode to heroin). But when Andrew Kolb, a freelance illustrator and design instructor from Kitchener, Ontario, wanted to create a children’s storybook as a portfolio piece for his website, he gravitated toward the classic tune.

“There are a lot of songs that have that clear visual flow from start to finish for me, but I really like the imagery of this song in particular,” he says.

Kolb’s clean, vintage-inspired imagery has struck a chord with music and design fans, too. On Saturday he posted the prototype Space Oddity as a free, downloadable PDF on his website. By Tuesday, it had received more than 30,000 unique visitors, and had been covered on various high profile websites, including Slate, i09, and Wired, causing Kolb’s website to occasionally crash.

“I usually get a slow, steady pace of hits, but this is like a monsoon,” says Kolb, laughing.

The 28-page book concept – the first kids’ title he’s worked on – took Kolb three to four months to design in his spare time. “I could have done half a dozen pages and put it up on my website to show people if they were interested,” he says, “but I did the whole thing just on a whim thinking maybe one day this will catch on.”

Kolb’s dream is to see Space Oddity turned into an actual print book, something his new fans are already asking for. But that, of course, will depend on Ziggy Stardust himself. Kolb hasn’t been able to get the book to the iconic rock star, yet. He says, “By pure saturation of the Internet, hopefully we can reach him.”

Publishing: not always a downer

There’s some funny book stuff floating around the internets today. Lest the trolls be confused or angered by humour, this is indeed an attempt to offer some Friday afternoon levity:

Eye Weekly columnist Sarah Nicole Prickett defends Chapters as her favourite bland non-space to rest without people judging her:

They don’t complain about how many magazines I’ve read for free and possibly ripped things from. They don’t look askance at my taste. Their eyebrows don’t say, “Oh, you’re just getting into Murakami now?” They make no suggestions, having nothing to prove; they work at Chapters. “Are you sure you want The Paris Review?” says absolutely nobody to me. “What about The Believer?” I never feel like I have to buy anything, the way I do everywhere else books are sold, as though upon walking in I’ve been handed a bucket, and now I must scoop out my share of the water to prevent us all from drowning. Not here. This ship will float on.

Those crazy kids at CBC Radio’s Day Six provide us with an audio track of Giller winners reading from Snooki’s debut novel, A Shore Thing:

Linden “Giller Gorilla” MacIntyre is a journalist with CBC’s The Fifth Estate, the winner of eight Gemini Awards, an International Emmy, and the 2009 Giller Prize for his novel, The Bishop’s Man.

Johanna “Skib-WOWW” Skibsrud is the 2010 Giller winner for The Sentimentalists, and the author of several collections of poetry.

The New York Times points to a project by a group of history teachers with an inventive and bizarre way to engage students. They produce music videos for altered versions of their favourite songs that replace the original lyrics with lyrics based on classic books and historical figures. Witness – for serious -  “Jenny From the Block” as Mary, Queen of Scots.

Aussie readers asked for input about future of publishing

Last week, the Internet behemoth Google launched its e-book sales site, Google eBooks, in the U.S. The e-book market is now crowded with offerings from Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Sony, which in turn has spawned a cottage industry for articles about the future of reading and the future of publishing. Amid all this cacophony, it’s small wonder publishers have responded to the rapidly diversifying marketplace with a mixture of fear and confusion.

In Australia, a consortium called the Book Industry Strategy Group is directly petitioning readers about their reading habits, desires, and preferences as a way of gaining clearer insights into the way forward. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Barry Jones, chair of the BISG, states that the group is “seeking ideas from all Australians on how to face the challenges of the digital age, and to turn them into opportunities.” Jones suggests that opportunities lie in the flexibility and ready availability of e-books as against their print counterparts:

Where Amazon and Apple have got it right is the immediacy of purchasing an eBook. Both the Kindle and the iPad come with wireless connectivity to the Amazon and Apple stores, respectively. In the case of the Kindle, if you have an Amazon account, the Kindle comes preconfigured with your details so you can buy a book at 3am if you so desire. New York Times technology writer Nick Bilton calls this Me Economics, which is really just instant gratification in book buying. But it beats late-night television.

And although Jones throws a bone to those of us who still enjoy reading printed books (which he refers to as “pBooks”), it is clear that the digital arena is where he and his group are most invested:

And what about people who like the smell of books or the feel of books, or the cover artwork, or who just want to scribble over the pages? No, these sorts of people will mix up their reading habits and buy both pBooks and eBooks.

Public libraries are starting to offer access to eBooks via downloads or by access, by borrowers, to subscriptions taken out by the library. We want to hear about these initiatives and your experiences with them.

School kids will agree that carrying an eReader with all their textbooks on it beats carrying a heavy school bag with all their textbooks in it. And textbooks form a large part of the book industry in Australia. Can we hear your thoughts?

The public can submit comments and suggestions to the BISG until Jan. 31, 2011. One hopes that they will be slightly more innovative and nuanced than the sort of shopworn analysis Jones allows himself above.

Daily book biz round-up: Arthur Slade wins $25,000; U.K. to review copyright laws; and more

Today’s book news:

• Arthur Slade scores $25,000 with the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award
• Mysterious Press to return via Grove Atlantic
• British government announces review of copyright laws to make them “fit for the Internet age”
• Adult hardcover book sales drop by 40 per cent
• Meet the new Spider-Girl

Cough up some dough, Campbell!

D.C. Reid, a past president of both the Federation of B.C. Writers and the League of Canadian Poets, has taken B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell – and, by extension, the province’s librarians and publishers – to task for greenlighting the B.C. Books Online project. As you may recall, the project, which debuted in beta form last May, took 650 non-fiction titles by various B.C. publishers and made them available for free online through 12 library websites. Here’s Reid’s open letter to Campbell:

I am writing to let you know that if you want B.C. writers to be positive about your Beta Project that took 650 of our books – most for free – and put them on the internet, you will have to pay us. A digital book can be loaned to anyone on the planet, and the author will never sell another book.

I suggest $10,000 per book and $2,000 per year per book. This works out to a $6.5 million initial payment, with a further $1.3 million per year. This is fair for a project that reputedly cost $13 million, and because everyone else involved with this project gets paid. None of the writers I contacted have been paid. Most have not heard of the program. You need to pay us, too.

Reid’s points on the lack of financial support for writers are well taken, but it should be noted that all of the authors involved were contacted by their respective publishers and (presumably) agreed to take part. Also, once the beta period is over, the authors will receive the usual library royalty payments. In any case, the suggestion that the province hand out $10,000 per book is so removed from reality that it kind of undermines Reid’s argument, no?

The changing face of DIY

In a recent column in The Globe and Mail, Russell Smith makes an excellent case for dismantling the stereotype of traditional publishers as obstinate elitists resistant to change:

Of course, everyone wants to get into selling e-books. No one is resisting this idea. The problem is that not everyone wants to buy them yet. Furthermore, no one has yet agreed on who will be in control of these sales, and in particular of how much each of these books is going to cost. Both the publishers and the booksellers want to set the prices, and the booksellers will want to set the prices much lower than the publishers will.

Smith goes on to discuss how e-books are helping change the face of self-publishing; he thinks that, in the age of PayPal, vanity presses may not be considered inferior to traditional publishing, despite continued lack of support from arts councils and awards juries:

Some of the most popular writers on the Internet are unpaid and unpublished in print. Furthermore, even successful published authors are beginning to experiment with putting their own works up for sale online. In this case, it’s not a lack of renown that causes authors to self-publish, but the opposite: If an author is a really big name, she knows she already has the following to generate sales without the help of a publisher’s marketing and sales departments.

The National Post examined the phenomenon of DIY publishing in a recent article:

It’s a curiosity of modern culture that an indie CD or film is cool, while a self-published book still carries a whiff of stigma. Don’t believe it? Just try to get your indie book reviewed in most publications that habitually fawn over indie music and film.

Michael Geist’s covert ties to Amazon

[This post has been updated]

The debate surrounding Amazon’s planned Canadian expansion has produced many arguments both for (the editorial boards at The Globe and Mail and National Post) and against (the Canadian Booksellers Association, the Association of Canadian Publishers). While such polarized opinions are to be expected, one of the most surprising voices to come out in support of Amazon is copyright activist and University of Ottawa academic Michael Geist, known for his anti-corporate stance on many copyright issues in the digital age.

In Monday’s Toronto Star, Geist went after the Canadian Booksellers Association, arguing that the “CBA’s attempt to cloak the issue as a matter of Canadian culture is unsurprising, but [Heritage Minister James] Moore should recognize this for what it is – a transparent attempt to hamstring a tough competitor that ultimately hurts the Canadian culture sector.” Geist went on to suggest that Amazon’s (theoretically) unlimited selection of books is a good thing for Canadian culture and that the “scarcity of space in brick-and-mortar stores has long been a key concern for Canadian authors and publishers, who fear that their titles might get squeezed off the shelves.”

In the wake of Geist’s op-ed, U.S. blogger Christian L. Castle, described on his blog as a Los Angeles–based journalist, has unearthed ties between Amazon and an Internet think tank headed co-created by Geist:

First of all, it should not be overlooked that Geist’s U.S.-backed Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, the Alcan of IP with its almost 100% American board, “was established in 2003 with the aid of a start-up grant from an Amazon.com Cy Pres fund, received by Prof. Michael Geist.” Now I’m sure that Geist would deny that he personally received any money, but if that’s true, they might want to revise that sentence on the SG-CIPPIC website.

It’s entirely possible that Geist, in his ignorance of book retailing and the publishing sector, truly believes that independent booksellers are a threat to Canadian culture. If that’s the case, however, he should have been above-board about his past dealings with Amazon.

[Update] Michael Geist responds: “The Amazon grant was money that came via a court order through a class action settlement. It was used to establish the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic in 2003. Being part of a Cy Pres Fund, Amazon did not oversee or make the award. A court did. There is no conflict and nothing hidden. In fact, look back at my earlier columns criticizing them for the Kindle to see how much influence they have over what I say. None.”

Daily book biz round-up, March 18

What’s the buzz? What’s a happenin’? Here’s what’s a happenin’:

• Having had its butt kicked by the major publishers, Amazon starts beating up on the weaker kids
• Harper government flip-flops on funding for Internet access at libraries. We think. (We had to read this story a few times…)
• Amazon releases beta version of Kindle app for Mac
• Stanza has disappeared from the Apple app store! Oh wait, no it hasn’t. Never mind
• Gerald Posner: dirty plagiarizer times two
• Some new Just So Stories
• Who’s at fault for the joylessness of the Orange Prize titles? It’s the publishers, stupid!
• U.S. library full of dead bats! City brings in “professional bat exclusionist”

What is Kobo?

Remember that rumour from this past summer that Indigo was planning to unveil a dedicated e-reading device? Well, some intrigue at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office is reviving such speculation.

Yesterday, blogger Mark Bertils noted that the Shortcovers app had gone AWOL in the Apple store. And a little digging from the Association of Canadian Publisher’s Nic Boshart has unearthed that Indigo-owned Shortcovers has taken out a trademark on the name Kobo, described as a portable e-reading device “for receiving, downloading, displaying, providing access to and reading text, images and sound and other digital content through wireless Internet access.”