An Activist Returns To The Novel

 

by Randeep Ramesh

 

Published on Friday, March 9, 2007 by The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) Distributed by Common Dreams http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0309-09.htm

 

MANY HAD WRITTEN off the chances that Arundhati Roy would return to the world of fiction. Her astounding first novel, The God of Small Things, won the Booker in 1997. Ten years and 6 million copies later there was still no repeat of the lyrical, whirling debut. Instead Roy turned to lobbing literary Molotov cocktails at Enron, George Bush's war on terror and the World Trade Organisation in the form of incendiary polemics. No one could accuse her of having writers' block: she churned out six books, collections of her essays with titles such as Power Politics and An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire.

 

Dispensing with story-writing, she pursued a career in social activism, appearing at anti-war rallies and using her celebrity to raise the profiles of unfashionable causes - Kashmiris on death row, the rights of tribal communities in India, hardscrabble suicides in the country's farming belt.

 

But recently the 45-year-old quietly announced that she would be stepping back from the public stage to write her second novel. The last person to know, apparently, was her agent, David Godwin, who had negotiated for her a million-dollar advance for The God of Small Things. "David rang me saying, 'Why did you not tell me? I have had hundreds of calls from publishers.' I thought it was so funny, I mean let's have a bidding war for a non-existent book," Roy says.

 

Sitting in her Delhi rooftop flat, whose dark tiled and light wood-lined interior the former architecture student designed, Roy says she has already begun writing the new novel but has no idea when it will be finished. The whisper was that it would be about Kashmir, the revolt-scarred Himalayan state, but Roy shakes her head sending ripples through her grey-flecked curls. "It is not true. My fiction is never about an issue. I don't set myself some political task and weave a story around it. I might as well write a straightforward nonfiction piece if that is what I wanted to do."

 

A clue about where Roy is heading may be gleaned from her current reading. On her coffee table rests a book by Bono, while at her bedside are works by the radical American founding father Thomas Paine and Victorian novelist Charles Dickens. What these two writers share is their defence of the French Revolution, and an empathy with the lower classes who pulled down the ruling elite. "In so many ways Paris then could be Delhi now. It is a conceit to think that all that we say is new and original."

 

Roy says India today, like pre-revolutionary France, is poised "on the edge of violence". As she sees it, the country of her birth is not coming together but coming apart - convulsed by "corporate globalisation" at an unprecedented, unacceptable velocity. "The inequalities become untenable."

 

Roy says she is not taking refuge from her politics in the world of literature. She answers her own door and makes guests tea herself, remarkable in a country where even middle-class households have servants. She is still married to filmmaker Pradip Krishen but the flat is "her space". He lives in another house.

 

"Living with my own contradictions is hard enough - forcing my political views on someone else, on their lifestyle and the choices they make is not something I want to do. It distorts a relationship beyond redemption. So, I decided to have my own place."

 

Roy's dire predictions about India have left her isolated when mainstream opinion seems convinced that the country, with its nuclear bombs and slick Bollywood movies, is the next superpower-in-waiting. Roy says some parts of the country, such as the western state of Gujarat - the scene of a bloody pogrom against Muslims five years ago - are off limits to her because of her campaigning.

 

A few years ago she was briefly imprisoned for contempt of court while protesting against the country's controversial Narmada Dam project. The God of Small Things produced obscenity charges and a court case that ran for a decade, only to be dismissed last month.

 

She first shot to prominence in 1994 with a scathing film review entitled The Great Indian Rape Trick, about the movie Bandit Queen, in which she questioned the right to "restage the rape of a living woman without her permission".

 

Roy has been consistent in her view that writers have a responsibility to their subjects. She says she could not read the blockbuster Maximum City, a portrait of Mumbai by expatriate Indian writer Suketu Mehta, because the book contains a passage in which the writer is a bystander while people in custody are beaten and tortured by the city's police.

 

"When you witness torture you are seeing someone humiliated. In front of you. It is not a neutral act. Certainly you have the permission of the torturer, but you do not have the permission of the tortured (to record it)."

 

Unlike other Indian-born writers who have relocated to the US and Europe, Roy is determined to remain a thorn in the side of the establishment in India. "Here you see what's happening. People are driven out of villages, driven out of the cities, there's a kind of insanity in the air and all of it held down by our mesmeric, pelvic-thrusting Bollywood movies. The Indian middle class has just embarked on this orgy of consumerism."

 

But she admits that the kinds of non-violent protests she has taken part in for a decade have failed in India, a republic founded on the Gandhi-ite principles of peaceful resistance. "I am not such an uninhibited fan of Gandhi. After all, Gandhi was a superstar. When he went on a hunger strike he was a superstar on a hunger strike. But I don't believe in superstar politics. If people in a slum are on a hunger strike, no one gives a shit."

 

Roy says activists have been "exhausted" by their attempts to influence the courts and the press and now says she does not "condemn people taking up arms" in the face of state repression.

 

"It would be immoral for me to preach violence unless I were prepared to resort to it myself. But equally, it is immoral for me to advocate feelgood marches and hunger strikes when I'm not bearing the brunt of unspeakable violence. I certainly do not volunteer to tell Iraqis or Kashmiris or Palestinians that if they went on a mass hunger strike they would get rid of the military occupation. Civil disobedience doesn't seem to be paying dividends."

 

Instead of the Indian state caving in to the moral righteousness of the numerous causes Roy supports, she says it merely moved to co-opt its adversaries. The power of argument, even in the world's biggest democracy, has been shrunk by the argument of power.

 

Roy says she was aghast to learn that a fellow Indian environmental campaigner accepted a million-dollar award from the transnational metals firm Alcan, which has been accused of grabbing tribal land in eastern India. The tentacles of big business have learned to embrace non-government organisations. The result, she claims, is that the charitable trusts of Tata, India's largest private company, fund "half the activists in the country".

 

She feels frustrated by the state's ability to brush aside non-violent resistance movements. "This has sapped the energy from people's movements. The very Gandhian Narmada movement (the grassroots group which campaigned against big dams in India) knocked on the door of every democratic institution for years and has been humiliated. It has not managed to stop a single dam from going ahead. In fact the dam industry has a new spring in its step."

 

Roy says she had given ideological opponents a handy hate figure. "In India I'm portrayed more as a hysterical, lying, anti-national harridan.

 

"In this adversarial game that goes on, you can get pinned down to spewing facts and numbers, but those are not the only truths ... I've done that. I've fought that battle," she says. "But the distillation of those things into literature is a different kind of intervention."

 

Copyright (c) 2007. The Sydney Morning Herald

 

(c) Copyrighted 1997-2007 www.commondreams.org

 

 

 

 

 

Book City celebrates 30 years of not succumbing to big box stores

 

(Posted Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2006)

 

By Karolyn Coorsh

 

Frans Donker relies on book smarts to maintain a successful retail business on the Danforth and beyond. Not just his own book smarts, now, but those of an entire city.

 

Torontonians’ insatiable interest in literature has helped keep his Book City bookstores in business for the past 30 years. But other factors have contributed to buoying the enterprise at a time when city streets have become saturated with big box bookstores.

 

Donker credits an intriguing inventory of titles and the personal touch by his staff for Book City’s durability.

 

"I do believe it’s because we’ve stuck to what we know best — that is, books," he says. "We’ve never added yoga mats or candlesticks (to our stock)."

 

Full:

http://tinyurl.com/yetlon

 

 

 

Fresh EPA Library Cuts May Limit Safety Scientists' Knowledge

 

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/3840

 

by Megan Tady

 

Nov. 1 - Critics of the Environmental Protection Agency's latest downsizing of scientific library materials say it threatens to strip access to information from the very people who help develop environmental policies.

 

The Agency this month closed the library that its own scientists use to research and evaluate new and existing chemicals before approving them for public use.

 

With no public announcement, the EPA shuttered the Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances Chemical Library as part of its 2006 plan to "modernize and improve" its network of 26 libraries by closing some physical spaces and digitizing library holdings. The plan, released in August, was spurred by the Bush administration's proposed cuts to EPA library funding.

 

The Agency has already closed or is planning to close three regional libraries in Chicago, Dallas and Kansas City. The EPA's library headquarters was also closed to "walk-in patrons and visitors" this month, and is now being used as a repository for library collections.

 

The EPA maintains that "unique" holdings of the Chemical Library will be made available on-line, while "sensitive" data will be available to EPA scientists through "internal mechanisms." Critics worry, however, that access to information will be difficult and elusive, and could severely threaten scientists' ability to thoroughly research the effects of chemicals before approving them.

 

Internal e-mails reviewed by The NewStandard also suggest that much of the Chemical Library's collection was being dispersed to other libraries haphazardly, and the closure of the library was done hastily. The environmental watchdog organization Public Employees for Environmental Protection (PEER) received the e-mails from EPA staffers.

 

TNS is providing anonymity to the authors of the emails in order to protect the employees involved, who fear retribution.

 

The e-mails indicate that EPA library personnel were confused and upset by the hasty library closure. In one message, dated October 20, an EPA staffer urged other Agency libraries to claim materials by the next day.

 

In reference to a list of chemical journals another EPA library employee wrote, ".I hope we get more than 2 days also.. We have dropped everything and have reviewed the Chemical Library holdings this past week so that we can get what we really need before it is discarded."

 

A second email from another EPA library staff person complained about the "scattered disbursement, short time frame and minimal communications coming from on high."

 

The dispersal of library holdings to other facilities is outlined in the EPA's 2007 library plan. However, the Agency itself warned: "Although it may be tempting to dispose of library materials quickly, the loss of important and unique materials could have serious future consequences if the Agency cannot document scientific findings or enforcement actions."

 

The EPA refused to comment to TNS on why the Chemical Library holdings were being dispersed, or why the dispersal was happening so quickly.

 

But Jessica Emond, a spokesperson for EPA, defended the library closure program.

 

"Staff walk-ins to the libraries have declined dramatically over recent years as the rise in electronic communications has made it easier and quicker to obtain information," she told TNS. "In response, EPA has been examining ways to streamline the system while continuing to ensure that staff has access to library services needed to carry out the agency's mission."

 

Bill Hirzy, a senior scientist with the EPA for 25 years and vice president of the National Treasury Employees Union, the union which represents EPA employees, told TNS that the union believes the library closure has dangerous implications for public health.

 

Hirzy said when evaluating a chemical, scientists must look at such things as "toxicity to humans and other mammals. Will it be an ozone-depletor? Will it travel through groundwater?" He continued, "And where this information resides is, guess where? In the library."

 

One arm of the EPA that uses the library, the Office of Pollution, Prevention and Toxics, regulates testing of new and existing chemicals.

 

Hirzy also said he is not convinced that the EPA will quickly and efficiently transfer all of the library's hardcopy information into electronic databases.

 

He said scientists will have to "hope that they can track the information down through some system of computers instead of being able to take the elevator down to the third floor and find the information right there in front of you."

 

The EPA's library plan warned that "some disruption to access" to library collections may occur "until funding for dispersion is available."

 

"To preserve accessibility, a minimal level of staffing will be necessary to retrieve, reshelve and mail items," the plan said.

 

Because it is unclear whether scientists will have the same access to information previously afforded at the Chemical Library, Hirzy warned that the general public could be affected if scientists are making decisions about chemicals with less information at their disposal.

 

The EPA would not comment to TNS on how soon all of the Chemical Library's holdings would be digitized, and if funding was available to do that work. However, the library plan says, "The digitization process is proceeding smoothly and has the funding necessary to continue."

 

Hirzy said having an online library does not ensure the public will continue to have access to EPA information.

 

"The other wrinkle is that the general public right now, when they go into the library, there are librarians that can guide them through the search process," he said. "If you can't navigate your way through the electronic maze, too bad, you're on your own."

 

In the EPA's library plan, the Agency said it will create a plan to manage public inquiries and provide answers to frequently asked questions on the Agency's website. Additionally, the EPA says it will develop an "expert" list to facilitate the referral of more detailed questions.

 

Hirzy continued, "In general, the whole idea that the richest country in the world can't afford libraries for its environmental staff is pretty crazy."

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"Your movement (fascism) has abroad rendered a service to the whole world...Italy has shown that there is a way to combat subversive forces." - Winston Churchill

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Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003

 

NEW TITLE

by Tanya Reinhart

 

The Road Map to Nowhere is a devastating and timely book, essential to understanding the current state of the Israel/Palestine crisis and the propaganda that infects its coverage. Based on extensive analysis of information in the mainstream Israeli media, it argues that the current road map has brought no real progress and that, under cover of diplomatic successes, Israel is using the road map to strengthen its grip on the remaining occupied territories. Exploring the Gaza pullout of 2005, the West Bank "separation wall", the rise to power of the Kadima party and Hamas, Reinhart examines the gap between myth - the Israeli leadership's public affairs achievement that has led the West to believe that a road map is in fact being implemented - and bitter reality. Reinhart shows that throughout, Ariel Sharon's goals, and those of his successor Ehud Olmert, have stayed the same; to maintain Gaza as a closed prison, to transform the West Bank into a system of sealed enclaves and to annex Palestinian land under cover of the construction of the "separation wall". The army, which represents the true power in Israel, will forcibly ensure the legacy of Sharon is applied - Hamas' election success represents an ideal pretext to do so. This powerful new book is written with the rigor and sharp anger of one of the rare Israeli intellectuals who had long predicted and explained the prolonged stalemate of the successive "peace processes" initiated by the 1993 Oslo accords.

 

Praise for Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948 -

 

'Tanya Reinhart's Israel/Palestine is the most devastating critique now available of Israel's policy toward the Palestinian people. Written with urgency and an unflinching clarity, it deserves to be read by every American.' Edward W. Said

 

'Tanya Reinhart's informative and chilling analysis could hardly be more timely. It should be read and considered with care, and taken very seriously.' Noam Chomsky

 

AUTHOR: Tanya Reinhart is Professor Emeritus of linguistics and media studies at Tel Aviv University and, from January 2007, a Global Distinguished Professor at New York University. She has had a regular column in the biggest Israeli daily, Yediot Aharonot, is the author of Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, and contributes regularly to Counterpunch and Zmag.

 

. Title: The Road Map to Nowhere . Author: Tanya Reinhart . Publication: September 4th 2006 . Binding: Paperback . ISBN: 1 84467 076 7 . Price: £8.99 / $18

 

To order: http://tinyurl.com/ltg9s (Versobooks.com)

 

 

Canadian author barred from book reading

 

http://tinyurl.com/ez5xm (dailyindia.com)

 

MONTREAL, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Canadian author David Bernans plans to defy Concordia University's refusal to let him read from his book, "North of 9/11," at the Montreal campus bookstore.

 

His request for the reading on Sept. 11 was initially approved, but was revoked four days later by Concordia's risk assessment committee, the Canadian Broadcast Corp. reported.

 

The committee gave no explanation for its decision, but the book's publisher, Cumulus Press, said the reading was blocked as a security risk.

 

Bernans said he will go ahead with the reading from "North of 9/11" on Sept. 11, but will change the venue to Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore.

 

"North of 9/11" is a fictional account of political activism at Concordia, including a Palestinian solidarity group, after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

 

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

 

 

Steep prices of college textbooks get lawmakers' attention

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4158604.html

Sept. 2, 2006, 10:11AM

By SARAH VIREN Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

 

One student at the University of Houston compared it to a car payment, another to health insurance premiums.

 

They were both talking about the price of college textbooks.

 

Though the rising cost of college tuition generates the most ire, college textbook prices have gotten as much attention from elected officials and student groups in recent years.

 

So far this year, at least 18 states have considered more than 30 pieces of legislation aimed at bringing down book costs for college students, according to the National Association of College Stores.

 

This week, state Rep. Scott Hochberg announced plans to submit legislation with the same intent next year.

 

The Houston Democrat wants to limit so-called bundling, which forces students to buy CDs and workbooks along with textbooks, and ban gifts from textbook marketers to university employees, among other measures.

 

Meanwhile, an Austin-based student government group is pushing for a tax-free textbook law, a proposal under consideration in a handful of states.

 

The University of Texas organization has planned a rally across from the campus bookstore Tuesday, when they'll pass out ramen noodles for financial "relief" to students and get them to post their textbook costs on a "Starving Student Speak-Out Wall."

 

Spotlight on the industry The flurry of attention on the subject follows the 2003 creation of the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign, a collection of college student advocacy groups critical of the textbook publishing industry, and a 2005 Government Accountability Office study that concluded textbook prices rose at twice the rate of inflation in the past 20 years. The average student spends about $900 a year on books and other supplies, the study found.

 

Textbook publishing companies dispute the accuracy of these findings and other critiques of the industry, but acknowledge the attention is taking its toll.

 

Bruce Hildebrand, director of higher education for the Association of American Publishers, said he has had talks with more than 20 state legislatures about the issue in the past year.

 

He argues that many proposed laws would end up costing students more for textbooks, but acknowledged that growing grass-roots efforts to share or rent textbooks could affect industry profits.

 

Cost-cutting alternatives Ashley Taylor, a UH psychology major, spends about $400 a semester on books.

 

When she can, the 19-year-old cuts costs by sharing textbooks with friends or printing out chapters of books from the Internet. Conversations among her friends about book costs are common at the semester's start.

 

"They can't afford them," she said Thursday, leaving the campus bookstore with $147 in books.

 

Student groups are beginning to organize alternatives to buying new textbooks. Web-based book-swapping networks and programs to rent texts are either under way or under consideration at a number of campuses, said Sabrina Case, campaign coordinator for Student Public Interest Research Group, which runs the Make Textbooks Affordable campaign.

 

Some publishers, including Rice University's press, have also begun publishing online, an option that allows free or cheaper access to texts and also lets authors update their works without requiring another, costly edition of a published work, she said. Rice's press is just getting started this year.

 

Gathering support Hochberg's plan also calls for a pilot program on renting books, an option other states are considering, and a requirement that textbooks be used, when possible, for at least three years before a new edition is ordered.

 

He said he has a few colleagues' support so far and hopes to get the backing of Texas colleges before introducing legislation in January.

 

But it is unclear how easy it will be to pass regulatory laws. Only three states did so this year, and at least one had to water down the language before getting lawmakers' approval, according to a history of proposed bills kept by the National Association of College Stores.

 

Abel Daniel, a business marketing junior at the University of Houston, last year had to buy a bundled workbook and textbook for an accounting class that cost $240. He said he never used the textbook.

 

"I put it on my credit card," said Daniel, while at the campus bookstore Thursday morning with friends. "But it's like a car payment."

 

sarah.viren@chron.com

 

'Google Library' to world: give us 'all books in all languages,' free of charge

 

 

 

August 25, 2006

 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/index.php?p=384

Posted by Donna Bogatin @ 5:10 pm Digg This!

 

DMM82506GB.jpg

 

Google proudly announced that it is helping “bookworms everywhere find gems in the libraries around the world” with a new Library Catalog Search feature in Google Book Search.

 

Google continues to set its sights on the content of others in furtherance of its mission to “organize” all the world’s information.

 

Google takes its mission literally; For Google, all the world’s information includes “all books in all languages.” Google aims to be the world’s single virtual depository for access to every single book in the world:

 

Our ultimate goal is to work with publishers and libraries to create a comprehensive, searchable, virtual card catalog of all books in all languages that helps users discover new books and publishers discover new readers.

 

How does Google plan on obtaining “all books in all languages”?

 

• Is it purchasing every single book in the world to compensate every single author in the world?
• Is it paying not-for-profit libraries for the right to obtain the books they have paid publishers to acquire?

 

NO. In today’s Google world, it is the Google way, or the highway. What is the Google content acquisition way? Obtain content cost-free and exploit others’ content to Google’s financial advantage.

 

Google’s uncanny ability to present every one of its encroachments on content ownership, use and distribution as a benevolent gesture at the service of the public good is one of the reasons that Google always “gets a pass” (see “Google: just like your favorite sports team?")

 

Google’s desire and means to control “all book in all languages,” however, ought to cause pause for even the most ardent of Google fans.

 

Does Google set content free, or does it restrain, monopolize and commercialize content it obtains, cost-free?

 

David Eun, VP Content Partnerships for Google, recently entered into an agreement with Robert Dynes, President, University of California providing that:

 

Google will digitize works from the University Libraries’ collection to include them in Google’s services, and provide access to the digitized works to the University… University agrees to commit no less than two and a half million volumes to the Digitization.

 

WHAT DOES GOOGLE GAIN?

 

Ownership of 2.5 million Content Volumes, Cost-Free to Google

 

Google shall own all rights, title and interest in and to the Google Digital Copy.

 

Use of 2.5 million Content Volumes, Cost-Free to Google

 

Google may use the Google Digital Copy, in whole or in part at Google’s sole discretion, subject to copyright law, as part of the Google Services.

 

WHAT DOES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GAIN?

 

No-Fee Digitization Services

 

Google agrees to provide to University access to one copy of all Digitized Selected Content that has been ‘Successfully Processed’ within thirty days after the Selected Content is Digitized.

 

Ownership and Use of Individual Digitized Volumes

 

University shall own all rights, title and interest to the University Digital Copy.

 

WHAT USE and DISTRIBUTION LIMITATIONS IS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SUBJECT TO?

 

University shall develop methods and systems for ensuring that substantial portions of the University Digital Copy are not downloaded from the services offered on University’s website or otherwise disseminated to the public at large.

 

University shall not share, provide, license, distribute or sell the Image Coordinates to any entity in any manner.

 

University shall have the right to distribute no more than 10% of the University Digital Copy (but not any portion of the Image Coordinates)…for academic purposes.

 

Any distribution by University to a Recipient Institution is subject to a written agreement.

 

What are the implications?

 

CNET cited Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle earlier this month in “Google and U.C. sign contract to digitize books”:

 

he criticized the school for ‘privatizing its library system’ by agreeing to Google's limitations on distributing and sharing copies of digitized books. ‘They're effectively giving their library to a single corporation. Having a public institution decide to go with Google's restrictions doesn't help the idea of libraries being open in the future.’

 

ALSO SEE: "Google roaylty-free content: fair-use, or foul play?" and "Google to content owners: you will be compensated, maybe"

 

MORE ON GOOGLE Comments Blog This E-mail This Print This Permalink Categories: Business Models, Advertising, Culture, Legal, Google, Government

 

 

==========================================

 

Booksinternationale has recently acquired two substantial collections:

 

1) Social research and Aging (approximately 175 volumes) from the private library/estate of former University of Manitoba professor and senior researcher Betty Havens.

 

2) Approximately 800 volumes in 19th and 20th Century French literature (all of which is in the French language) from the private library/estate of Paul Fortier, former distinguished professor in the French & Spanish Department, University of Manitoba.

 

The social research and aging catalogue is nearly complete, and data entry has just begun on the Fortier collection. When completed both catalogues will be made available electronically for anyone interested, and we may also provide a link here to view them. Feel free to email us if you wish to receive either list. Please direct all inquiries to Richard Ménec at menecraj@shaw.ca

 

Springer Launches Springer_Link

 

22 August 2006

 

http://www.managinginformation.com/news

The organisation says that the platform gives students and researchers electronic access to the recently-launched Springer eBook Collection.

 

The Collection consists of more than 11,000 eBooks -- to which approximately 3,000 new titles will be added each year. Springer will showcase the new SpringerLink and eBook Collection at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in Seoul, 20-24 August 2006, and the Beijing Book Fair from 30 August to 2 September 2006.

 

The new SpringerLink, launched in beta version earlier this summer, now integrates Springer content in one single user interface – more than 11,000 eBooks, millions of articles from Springer’s peer-reviewed journals as well as eReference Works. In addition, SpringerLink now features a new, more powerful search engine to help researchers, librarians, and students find exactly the information that they need. Users can also enhance their research via the “My SpringerLink” personalization features which include, saved searches, RSS feeds of searches, saved articles and eBooks, etc.

 

“With the newly launched SpringerLink, users can easily access books and journals on one integrated platform to find exactly what they need to further their research. In addition, for our many Asian customers, the SpringerLink interface can switch to simplified Chinese language with the click of a button,” said Peter Hendriks, President Global Sales & Marketing, Springer. “As more and more researchers and students grow comfortable with accessing and using digitized content – eBooks and articles - for their research, we’ve worked hard to deliver a platform to meet their needs. We look forward to demonstrating the new SpringerLink at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress and the Beijing Book Fair.”

 

Springer will allow unlimited simultaneous access to eBooks for members of the purchasing library community. The eBooks’ PDF and HTML documents are fully searchable and can be downloaded and printed. In addition, once a library purchases Springer’s eBook collection, they own the book content for their use in perpetuity.

 

Libraries can purchase a complete collection of all Springer titles from a copyright year or they can choose to purchase one or more of 12 distinct topic categories (e.g., engineering, medicine, computer science, mathematics, etc.). Individual eBooks are available from retail partners.

 

Springer’s new eBooks program will link to the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), an instructional tool that enables students to quickly search a library’s catalog from a computer station either in the library, or from an off-site computer. Finally, Springer has incorporated a wide variety of library and information standards into the new SpringerLink, including COUNTER Compliant, CLOCKSS Member, MARC 21 Records, Portico, and Federated Searching Compliant.

 

www.springerlink.com

 

 

500-year-old choral manuscript at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.

 

From Sheppards Newsletter

 

Within the pages of a rare 450-year-old manuscript sitting in a vault at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia lie hundreds of lines of music that haven't been performed for centuries.

 

The choral chants, illustrated with elaborate full-page illuminations, were written between 1554 and 1555 at a convent in present-day Belgium. By next June, the 440-page book and its deteriorating calf-skin covers will be restored, and a group of Australian singers will perform its songs of worship at Halifax's St. Mary's Basilica.

 

The 18-kilogram manuscript is in remarkable condition, with the 60-centimetre-long pages completely intact. The 12 illuminations -- colourful paintings of biblical scenes, historiated initials and the nuns of the Abbey of Salzinnes -- are still vibrant and detailed.

 

Aside from the six full-page illuminations and six smaller paintings, most of the pages simply feature four-line bars of notation with Latin words below.

 

 

 

 

Underground bookstore opens in Taipei

 

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?GRP=B&id=88268

2006/8/19

The China Post staff

 

The world's longest underground bookstore that stretches one full kilometer opened at the Zhongshan and Shuanglien MRT stations yesterday.

 

There are 45 booths offering an exceptionally wide selection of books at the underground street on the Tanshui MRT line which is open from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

 

The underground street covering two MRT stations at first used to be a place for stores selling clothing and then a wide variety of restaurants but it failed to attract enough customers.

 

Book trader Lu Chin-cheng decided to rent the whole area and turn it into a large bookstore selling products from all top publishing houses on the island.

 

He said all the books are displayed by subjects and categories of titles from different sources.

 

This is one of the three largest concentration of bookstores in Taiwan, he said. The other two are on Section 1 of Chonqing South Road and the area adjacent to the National Taiwan University.

 

To save customers' time, Lu promises to provide the "most complete" selection of books than anywhere else so that they can make one-stop shopping for books they need.

 

He plans to add special areas for books published in China, Japan, Korea and Western countries for tourists who like to spend time in the Zhongshan District of Taipei.

 

For promotion, people using EasyCard for MRT rides will be given a 25 percent discount for a one-month period.

 

Many publishing houses are also offering discounts for their books. One publisher is giving a deep discount of 61 percent to people who buy five books.

 

Zhongshan is just one station away from the Taipei Main Station.

 

 

Rumpole author claims UK is selling out to fascism

 

PHIL MILLER, Arts Correspondent

The Herald, August 17 2006

 

Britain is in danger of "selling out to fascism" in the way it is dealing with the threat of terrorism, according to John Mortimer, the QC and popular author.

 

Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which is sponsored by The Herald and Sunday Herald, the creator of the Rumpole of the Bailey series of books criticised the government's response to terrorism.

 

Mortimer said his next book was to be called Rumpole and the Reign of Terror and would feature Rumpole defending a suspect, a hospital doctor accused of being a terrorist.

 

"The book's about terrorists, but it's not really about terrorists - it's about this wonderful government, who have given away all our civil liberties," he said.

 

"They've cancelled the Magna Carta, they've stopped trial by juries, and removed the presumption of innocence just because the terrorists are around, which is a certain way of changing our life - which is what the terrorists want to do.

 

"One of the things that Rumpole inveighs against is that his client does not know the charges against him.

 

"The changes have put us back way before 1215 AD, Mr Blair has removed us back to the Dark Ages. God knows who advises him on legal matters: although he is very near to God apparently."

 

He also disapproved of the use of "summary justice" he felt was part of the government's legal policy.

 

"If you get the policemen being judge and jury then you've really sold out to fascism," Mortimer added.

 

Earlier in the day, the lauded Irish writer John Banville, who won last year's Booker Prize for The Sea, at an event in the festival's main RBS Theatre.

 

Asked by a member of the audience who he thought would win this year's Booker Prize, the long list of which was revealed this week, he admitted he had not read any of the books on it.

 

He said winning the £50,000 prize was often down to chance. "It's a lottery, and someone on the day will just say: 'Oh, just give it to him.' Which is exactly what happened last year."

 

 

 

UC may join Google book-scanning project

 

http://tinyurl.com/lbgxt

 

Posted on Wed, Aug. 02, 2006

 

The University of California is in talks to join Google's controversial project to digitize great libraries and offer books online.

 

Google is keen to have access to UC's 34 million volumes from 100 libraries on 10 campuses, which is described as collectively the largest academic research library in the world. UC wants a deep-pockets partner like Google paying the costs of scanning books.

 

UC President Robert C. Dynes and UC librarians are negotiating a contract to follow six other prestigious library systems, including Stanford's, which allow Google to scan and post online at least summary references to books.

 

Older volumes in the public domain can be put online in full, but debate surrounds how much material can be used from books still protected by copyright.

 

A UC deal with Google could be announced within a month, officials said.

 

IBM to put AMD chip in business computers

 

Advanced Micro Devices, the Sunnyvale chip maker rival of Santa Clara-based Intel, won a strong endorsement Tuesday from IBM that could give AMD a further lift in the corporate computer market.

 

IBM said it would offer five models of computers powered by AMD's Opteron microprocessor intended for use in corporate data centers for mainstream business tasks. Previously, IBM used AMD chips only for high-performance, scientific computing.

 

IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems and Dell have signed on to use AMD chips.

 

Nasdaq sets deadlines for Altera to report

 

San Jose programmable-chip maker Altera, which is under federal investigation for the timing of stock-option grants, said the Nasdaq Stock Market has given it September deadlines to file financial reports and give more information from an internal investigation.

 

The company has until Sept. 14 to file a quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the three months ended March 31 and until Sept. 28 to file for the quarter ended June 30.

 

Altera's listing on the Nasdaq is also conditional on information from an internal investigation.

 

Apple replies to query about iPod exclusivity

 

Apple Computer met a Tuesday deadline to respond to Scandinavian regulatory claims that the Cupertino company is violating their laws by making its market-leading iPod the only compatible portable player for iTunes downloads.

 

Apple's response, however, was not immediately made public as regulators considered the company's request to keep parts of it confidential. Authorities would not comment on the content of the 50-page response letter.

 

Spokeswoman Natalie Kerris confirmed Apple filed a response to the Scandinavian agencies. From the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Associated Press and Bloomberg News

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