Blogs join books at British Library

Blogs join books at British Library as UK sets out to preserve its digital domain
Vancouver Sun (blog)
The library has kept for centuries a copy of every book, pamphlet, magazine and newspaper published in Britain. Starting Saturday, it will also be bound to record every British website, e-book, online newsletter and blog in a bid to preserve the nation ...

Vancouver Sun (blog)

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Google, Inkling, and Amazon

Amazon May Seem Unstoppable, But Google Is Powering the Counterattack | Wired Business | Wired.com:

San Francisco-based Inkling is specifically shooting for Amazon’s book business. Founder and CEO Matt MacInnis observes that the Kindle isn’t especially well suited to the oversized, graphics-intensive layouts of many textbooks. Inkling seeks to overcome this limitation of traditional e-book formats through a layout engine specifically designed to re-envision textbooks for tablets, smartphones and the web. But elegant design doesn’t take you far if most online shoppers are going straight to Amazon to buy books. That’s why Inkling has developed an information architecture based on the concept of “cards.” Each of the books is divided into chapters, and each chapter is divided into cards. A card contains what amounts to one quantum of useful information. Cards themselves are viewable for free on a limited basis; readers can buy Inkling’s books by the chapter. Each card also has its own URL, which means Inkling’s cards are what Google indexes. Inkling is banking on the quality of the information in its cards to rise to the top of Google search results (and generate attention on social media) to get Inkling’s books noticed. People aren’t going to discover content through Inkling, MacInnis says. They’re going to discover Inkling through content.

Google Defeats Publishers Over Web Copyright in German Vote - Bloomberg: "Google Inc. (GOOG) and other news aggregators may continue to show short news items on their Internet sites without being required to pay, German lawmakers decided in a parliamentary vote today in a blow to publishers including Axel Springer AG (SPR) and Bertelsmann SE. A majority of lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition allowed companies such as Google to display “single words or very small text excerpts” referring to publishers’ websites at no cost. For content exceeding these limits, publishers retain the exclusive right of use, according to the bill. . . ."



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Britain's first centre for book arts

Book as artifact--

New chapter opens with Britain's first centre for book arts | Art and design | The Guardian: " . . . Simon Goode, on the other hand, roamed the country to explore the joys of papermaking, typesetting and bookbinding. "The trip was like a holy grail," he said, rhapsodising over three months travelling from New York to Los Angeles on a mission that has helped result in Britain's first ever centre for a craft that is in danger of disappearing: book arts. That term may be a mystery to some. . . Essentially, it is creating art in book form. "Then you've got the question, what is a book?" he added. "My experiences define it as using traditional techniques, like bookbinding and letterpress making – but not wholly, and not exclusively – for artists to produce their own works." . . . Richard Long, David Hockney and Ed Ruscha, whose first artist's book was Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations, which featured 26 photographs . . . In the UK, the largest number of artists' books is held by the V&A, while Tate has about 5,500. It could be said that book arts have been around since medieval illuminated manuscripts, but the craft as we know it emerged from the French tradition of the livres d'artistes, or livres de peinture, around the turn of the 20th century. Since then there have been futurist artists' books, surrealist artists' books, conceptual artists' books and more. . .  in the US, where the first book arts centre opened in New York 38 years ago, with others following in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Goode said his trip to the US "visiting these incredible institutions" was a complete eye-opener and that it was these experiences which led him to create the London Centre for Book Arts in a 365-square metre space in Fish Island, Hackney, which has been funded by membership fees and benefactors. The centre will offer classes and workshops for both beginners in search of a hobby and professionals who just cannot easily access the specialist equipment needed to create their own artists' books. . . ."

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