It is an Uphill Battle

Change is not for the lighthearted. Just ask anyone in the publishing business. Today change is occurring faster than it ever has before. Technology’s pace of change continues to increase, yet humans are much slower to adapt. It is difficult to change our habits and that is what makes adapting to technological change so difficult. This…

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Can the Wizard Cast His Spell Again?

The book industry has to be holding their breath on the latest Harry Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, that was released recently. CBS News brought this subject to our attention in their article, “Can a middle-aged “Harry Potter” revive the book industry?” Given that past Harry Potter releases have been credited with lifting…

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New Ways to Collaborate

Kristen Ratan and Adam Hyde have launched the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation (CKF), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to evolve how scholarship is created, produced and reported. This interesting information came to us from The Scholarly Kitchen in their article, “Can You Coko? An Interview with Kristen Ratan of the Collaborative Knowledge Foundation.” The Collaborative Knowledge Foundation (CKF), also known as Coko,…

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Publishing Reports Show Growth

The United States book and journal publishing industry generated $27.78 billion in net revenue for 2015. This represents 2.71 billion units. The American Association of Publishers brought this interesting news to our attention in their release, “U.S. Publishing Industry’s Annual Survey Reveals Nearly $28 Billion in Revenue in 2015.” StatShot Annual is a yearly statistical survey of…

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Monographs in the Digital World

A daughter’s interest in monographs spurred her mother to learn more than she ever thought she needed to about this declining literary form. This interesting information came to us from Against the Grain in their article, “Reading and Writing Monographs: the Dual Role of Researchers and the Demand for Dual Formats.” The long-form scholarly monograph is…

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Navigating the Access Obstacle Course

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the security and business discipline that enables the right individuals to access the right resources at the right times and for the right reasons. This interesting news came to us from Research Information in their article, “Sharing expertise for a successful future.” Because it addresses the need to ensure appropriate access to…

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Dealing in the Dark

We have all heard about the darknet, the Web content that exists on overlay networks which use the public Internet but which require specific software, configurations or authorization to access. A similar version of libraries – called pirate or shadow libraries – have been created. All around the world these libraries are filled with banned…

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Augmented Reality Provides Perks to Reality

Let’s face it: book stores are having a tough time of it. With e-books and the generation of digital content, those still interested in perusing book stores are getting fewer by the day. In their efforts to attract more customers to their stores, a golden egg may have landed at their door. This interesting news came…

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Open is Not Free

The proponents of open access argue that the taxpayers have paid the invoice and therefore deserve the product. They are referring to the scientific research supported by the federal government and the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR) Act, which would make all federally funded research articles freely available to anyone who wants to read them. This information…

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Protecting Your Own Work

The impact of Sci-Hub continues to be realized as copyrights and Creative Commons issues play out in the real world. The Scholarly Kitchen brought us this interesting information in their article, “Copyright, Expectations, and Economics — Can Taylor Swift Help Us Find Our Backbone?” Sci-Hub’s founder supposed that she was reacting to a poorly managed economic situation in academia…

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