Future of Bibliographic Control

Biblio data providers will be beating a path to the Library of Congress site in the next few days in their collective effort to foresee the future of bibliographic data. The Report is now available for review and certainly the commercial providers, who did not participate in the development of the report, will be anxious to know what the library community sees in their crystal ball.

Here is a sample from their executive summary:

The Working Group envisions a future for bibliographic control that will be collaborative, decentralized, international in scope, and Web-based. The realization of this future will occur in cooperation with the private sector and with the active collaboration of library users. Data will be gathered from multiple sources; change will happen quickly; and bibliographic control will be dynamic, not static.

The Report is based on the key premise that the community is at a critical juncture in the evolution of bibliographic control and information access/provision. It is time to take stock of past practices, to look at today’s trends, and to project a future path consistent with the goals of bibliographic control: to facilitate discovery, management, identification, and access of and to library materials and other information products. Libraries must work in the most efficient and cooperative manner to minimize where possible the costs of bibliographic control, but both the Library of Congress and library administrators generally must recognize that they need to identify and allocate (or, as appropriate, reallocate) sufficient funding if they are serious about attaining the goals of improved and expanded bibliographic
control.

The report also states that they want the report to generate a wider discussion - a "call to action" that will lead to more specific plans and recommendations.

Cruising for a Lawsuit

Readers in Australia, UK and New Zealand will not be able to read the new Tom Cruise bio written by Andrew Morton. Fearing a threatened $100mm lawsuit, the Pan Macmillan business units in those countries are backing off. According to the book, Cruise is not gay, is second in command of the church of Scientology and (more bizarrely) his current wife was impregnated with the sperm of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. Through a combination of web reports and Youtube, readers in the UK, Australia and New Zealand will be able to get the essential elements of the book without actually having to buy it. In that respect, they might have an advantage. Having said that, there is so much 'leakage' in the antipodean market that booksellers will continue to import the title direct from the US. The Dymock chain said earlier this week that they would not stock the title but many other retailers are likely to order it.

SMH

Edge Boston (Where they name the author 'Thomas' Morton).

Pearson Near Sale of FT Deutchland

Pearson invested in a German language version of the FT in 2000. The company reports that the edition has had some success but remains steadfastly unprofitable and for the past year they have been trying to off load it. Late last year, the company appeared to have a sale (Spiegel) but that deal fell through. German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is reporting that the German partner in this deal with Pearson will buy them out. According to reports Gruner + Jahr will pay next to nothing for the deal. Reuters.

Bloomsbury Guidance

Bucking the trend in yesterdays stock melt-down, shares of Bloomsbury Publishing rose on the back of a report from the company that operating results would be better than anticipated. The company is the publisher of Harry Potter but has invested broadly over the past 12 months in advancement of the series' denouement. The company reports that several specific titles, investments in the US and Germany and a number of key rights sales have contributed to the expected full year performance.

Full year results will be released on April 1st.

Bloomberg
Guardian

LiveMocha Update

I wrote recently on a social networking approach to language learning which I thought we quite innovative. LiveMocha, the site I looked at had launched at an innovators conference in September last year and the company just announced they have received over $5mm in equity funding to expand the business. Noted in the announcement is that the lead investor is Maverson which is the vc firm of Starbucks founder Howard Schultz.

Seattle Post

Prior Post

(I am personally interested in this due to my work at Berlitz many years ago).

Amazon: The law est un idiot

Per expectation, Amazon's operations in France have elected to pay the silly amount of $1500/day as a fine for continuing to provide free shipping to French customers. You know, this is how revolutions get started...

As the Trib notes, this fine will be reviewed after 30 days and if the government(court) really wants to penalize them the fine will be raised substantially and so will end this symbolic effort. However, perhaps the court will recognize the ground swell of support (after all who wants to pay for something they could get for free - even the French agree that) and take the view that this is a archaic rule. Perhaps they will be enlightened and lower the fine.

From the Trib:

The 1981 Lang law was passed at a time when booksellers were losing sales to supermarkets and other new competitors. It was meant to assure that the French public had equal access to a wide variety of books, both high-brow and low-brow, not just heavily marked-down publications. The law has twice come before the European Court of Justice and both times it has been affirmed. The law is not considered anti competitive because all book retailers are held to the same standard, Manara said. In the Amazon case, a union of French bookstores won its lawsuit against the company last month over the free-shipping offer, which applies only to deliveries within France on book orders of more than €20.

Stay tuned to this riveting story.

Quebecor Gains Lifeline

Predictably, the Canadian printing giant Quebecor World has received a life line from their corporate owner Queborcor Inc and private equity firm Tricap Partners. Quebecor will receive $400mm in funding which will enable the company to focus on an operating and financial reorganization. Quebecor is by no means out of the woods as they are carrying an estimated $2.5billion in debt and they have some significant operating issues to address.

Some analysts had suggested that declaring bankruptcy would have been both a better course of action and a recognition of the inevitable. Management and the primary owner believed bankruptcy to be the worse possible option. According to The Canadian Press, Tricap has been involved in a similar rescue in Canada when they stepped in to provide funds for Steelco which was in administration at the time.

Globe and Mail - Updated

Other posts

Queen Victoria On The Hudson

Interupted by the persisent whine of the helicopters, I looked up from my newspaper around 7am to see this thing sliding up the Hudson on its maiden visit to NYC. It is quite a monster.

Serves 8 to 10

I have often said that caramel is the desert equivalent of bacon but I never thought you could put the two together. Apparently, this is a dish that can't be ruined. You got that right! From The New York Times magazine:

Caramelized Bacon
You can make this up to 3 days in advance. Keep in a tightly sealed container at room temperature. This is a dish that can’t be ruined. You can freeze the leftovers. But why are there leftovers?

1 pound bacon
1 1-pound box light brown sugar (about 2 ¼ cups).

1. Go to a butcher and spend as much money as you have on very good bacon. Cut it into medium-thick slices, say, 3\16 of an inch.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a large, rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper. Dump a box of brown sugar into a big bowl. Light brown sugar is best, but if you want to use dark brown, I won’t stop you. Add ¼ cup of water, so that the sugar becomes more than damp but less than soupy. Some bacon caramelizers add a dash of cayenne pepper, but I think this makes the dish too nutritious.
3. Dredge the bacon in the sugar, one slice at a time. If the sugar isn’t sticking to the bacon, add some more water a teaspoon at a time until it sticks. (By the way, you won’t use all of the sugar, but it’s good to have extra.) Place the bacon strips on the paper. I then smear some sugar on top of the bacon, on the theory that if a little sweet is good, more is better.
4. Place the bacon in the oven. It’s impossible for me to tell you how long to cook the bacon because it depends on whether you like it chewy or crispy. Some recipes tell you to keep it in the oven for 8 to 13 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the bacon. I keep it in on the longer side. You should take yours out when it resembles the kind of bacon you would like to eat. Cut it into roughly 1 1/2-inch triangles. Serve at room temperature. Serves 8 to 10.

Of course, had I been more inspired I would have pictures; but it is just a matter of time.

Borders Reports Holiday Sales

Borders reported consolidated sales increased 3.9% for the nine week holiday period versus the same period last year. Domestic superstores sales increased 6.5% and same store sales increased 2.4%. Books increased a "solid" 3.4% on a comp basis and the company saw large increases in Seattle Coffee and Paperchase revenues. Compatible with the holiday results reported by B&N, Borders also saw a significant drop in Music. Same stores sales at Walden were essentially flat but the group was significantly lower in total due to an aggressive program of store closures. The company has 136 fewer Walden outlets than at the same time last year.

These results reflected 'continuing operations' and the company included international operations in the press release. International revenues increased 36% including currency gains. Sames store comps were driven by strong performance in Australia. (It makes one wonder why they need to sell up down-under but I've already made that observation).

The real crux of these results is the impact they have on operating margin and as B&N were sanguine about their full year results and adjusted eps accordingly, this is what George Jones had to say about Borders results:

Still, the overall holiday shopping environment was intensely promotional and impacted the bottom line more than we anticipated. As a result, we anticipate fourth quarter consolidated operating earnings per share from continuing operations (excluding non- operating charges and discontinued operations) to be flat to down slightly compared to last year's $1.45 per share (excluding non-operating charges and discontinued operations). Overall, we continue to move forward with confidence in our strategic plan for a turnaround of the company and are encouraged by the progress we are making."

Borders will report in March.

The Riverdeep Deal

The Irish Independent takes a look at the Riverdeep deal and concludes that if all the pieces fall into place Barry O'Callaghan's stake in the business could soar to $2.2bn. Davy, which is the broker for Riverdeep, comments in their offering document that "equity investors could potentially double their investment over the next two years". They go on to explain how this may occur via various an exit strategy options:

While the broker said it is too early to discuss how investors will realise gains, potential exit strategies over the next two to five years include a stock market flotation in America or a trade sale "to a large international publishing company such as Newscorp or Viacom". It said a third option of refinancing the group is the least likely route, given the current state of the debt markets and EMPG's relatively high existing debt.

In the Independent article all so notes the potential for cost and efficiency gains that are assumed in the combination of HM and Riverdeep.

BISG Wants Your Comment on Digital Content

Michael Healy, Executive Director of BISG has announced the publication of a discussion paper on the Identification of Digital Content. The paper was written by Michael Holdsworth who is working as a consultant in the UK and was with Cambridge University Press.

Here is the executive summary and I encourage you to contact BISG with comments. (Report)

The identification of digital book content A discussion paper commissioned by the Book Industry Study Group and Book Industry Communication and prepared by Michael Holdsworth.Executive summary Although there are strong similarities between the identification needs of physical books and of digital book content in the supply chain, new business models and new delivery channels challenge existing practice. There is a pressing need for clarity on the use of standards for the identification and description of digital products.The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is considered fit for purpose for trading,discovery and reporting of digital products within the supply chain.Every digital manifestation traded separately should be assigned an individual ISBN and publishers should adopt the principle that products should be separately identified to the extent that they need to be so identified.The Digital Object Identifier (DOI), though not in any way a substitute for an ISBN, is a valuable additional identifier which enables content to be “discovered” on the Web.Publishers and others should explore the possible opportunities for using the International Standard Text Code (ISTC) as a means of collocating different manifestations of the same textual work.Publishers should review their practices relating to the assignment of identifiers, particularly where a digital product is traded through an intermediary and accurate reporting of sales is required for royalty payments or management information.The practice of using a single ISBN for all digital manifestations of the same work is strongly discouraged.The use of “ISBN‐like” 13 digit identifiers other than those properly assigned by the ISBN agencies is strongly discouraged in all circumstances.