Copyright Clearance Center's Beyond the Book program explores issues facing the information content industry and helps creative professionals realize the full potential of their works, while encouraging respect for intellectual property and the principles of copyright.
BTB #176: Interactive Textbooks: Poised For Success?
An emerging new generation of interactive textbooks stands to change fundamentally the way students, instructors and authors use, share and create academic texts. Advanced digital tools make possible the convenience of online and downloadable access options, and can mean a much lower-priced textbook. At last month’s annual conference of the Text & Academic Authors Association (TAA), Clancy Marshall of Dynamic Books and Jeff Shelstad of Flat World Knowledge detailed the opportunities and advantages for authors particularly.
A ‘Virtual Book’: CCC’s Google Seminar Series
To help keep rightsholders fully informed and up-to-date with the latest developments in the proposed class action settlement between Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, Copyright Clearance Center has offered a special educational series of interviews, seminars and presentations on the topic.
The attached PDF in “virtual book” form gathers together transcripts from six of these program presented from April 2009 to February 2010 and featuring Lois Wasoff, Esq.
All programs remain available for listening at copyright.com.
We hope you find these resources valuable to you and your work.
Cheers,
BTB #175: E-Magination: What’s Now & What’s Next in Ebooks (Part 2)
On Monday, May 24, 2010, CCC’s Christopher Kenneally moderated a panel for the Independent Book Publishers Association at their annual “Publishing University” program. Featured guests discussing E-Magination: What’s Now & What’s Next in Ebooks were Mark Coker, Smashwords; Jack Sallay, Vook; David Hetherington of Baker & Taylor’s Digital Service Group; and Sara Nelson, Books Editor, O Magazine (formerly Publishers Weekly editor-in-chief).
Beyond the Book is pleased to present an audio transcription of the program in two parts (this is part 2).
A complete video recording is also available at http://beyondthebookcast.com/live-webcast/
BTB #174: E-Magination: What’s Now & What’s Next in Ebooks (Part 1)
On Monday, May 24, 2010, CCC’s Christopher Kenneally moderated a panel for the Independent Book Publishers Association at their annual “Publishing University” program. Featured guests discussing E-Magination: What’s Now & What’s Next in Ebooks were Mark Coker, Smashwords; Jack Sallay, Vook; David Hetherington of Baker & Taylor’s Digital Service Group; and Sara Nelson, Books Editor, O Magazine (formerly Publishers Weekly editor-in-chief)
Beyond the Book is pleased to present an audio transcription of the program in two parts (this is part 1).
A complete video recording is also available at http://beyondthebookcast.com/live-webcast/
Best of BTB: Beyond Print & Paper
The flow of e-reader devices onto the consumer market has quickly shifted from a trickle to a flood. With consumers captivated by the iPad, nook, Kindle, Skiff Reader, and QUE, a massive surge in demand for digitally distributed content is inevitable. As a result, those who write and publish are struggling with a new wave of questions. How will device pricing models affect contracts and content ownership? How will copyrights be enforced in increasingly blogged, socialized, and cross-linked world? How can an author distribute their own work without compromising themselves or their publishing agreements? What will the e-book wars mean to writers and publishers? How can publishers broaden distribution without increasing risk?
On May 20th at the Samsung Experience in New York’s Time Warner Center, Chris Kenneally examined these and other questions with Andrew Richard Albanese, writer and features editor for Publishers Weekly; Rachel Chou, Chief Marketing Officer for Open Road Integrated Media; and attorney Kathleen Conkey (former in-house attorney at MTV Networks,CBS and King World Productions).
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BTB #173: An Information Dream
Dennie Heye of Shell in the Netherlands, and Stephen Kizza, a librarian with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in Kampala, Uganda, began their information sharing adventure with just two shelves and two computers. Working together, and with the help of Special Libraries Association colleagues around the world, they continue to supply Kizza’s remote library with online resources. In a “Beyond the Book” episode from November 2009, the two email correspondents first heard each other’s voices.
Beyond the Book’s Chris Kenneally moderated a discussion about best practices in global information sharing at SLA 2010, with Dennie Heye, and Guy St. Clair of SMR Knowledge who is also an SLA past president and had ecently returned from a six-month assignment in Nairobi. “Probably the most humbling and the most exciting prospect that I see is the passionate desire of our colleagues in developing countries to match as closely as they can the work that we?re able to do in our knowledge centers, our specialized libraries, information centers,” St.Clair said.
And while Stephen Kizza could not attend this month’s annual SLA conference in New Orleans, his voice was heard in a moving presentation on the needs and challenges he and so many librarians in developing countries face.
BTB #172: Publishing ‘Indies’ To Seek Certification
Digital technology and changing consumer habits are helping drive growth in independent publishing. But as Scott Flora sees it, that success can be made stronger with an educational program that “creates a [new] class of independent publishers who are recognized for their professionalism and the excellence of their product.”
Certification is a common way for trade associations to show who’s professional in that trade: CFPs, RNs, MDs., etc. “Our idea,” says SPAN’s Executive Director, is to establish “a class of publishers that stand above the crowd.” With a working designation of Professional Independent Publisher (PIP), the program aims to overcome a number of problems well-known to the industry. “With the dilemma facing the media and the supply chain in identifying quality publishers and the difficulties of independent publishers in finding publicity and distribution, I am excited to have SPAN leading this important work,” Flora tells Chris Kenneally.
Winoca Book & Media founder Barbara Brannon seconds the notion. Certification, she hopes will inform “booksellers, and reviewers, and libraries, and ultimately readers that we’re in this, not only for the creativity, but for the purpose of producing a professional product.”
BTB #171: ‘Obama Book Club’ Meets At BookExpo
White House administrations generate books like leaves grow on trees. Only 18 months into the Barack Obama presidency, and already the titles are flourishing in publishers’ catalogs. Two of the most anticipated such books – THE PROMISE: President Obama, Year One, just arrived from Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter, and the forthcoming OVERHAUL: Inside the Obama Administration’s Mission to Save The American Automotive Industry by Steven Rattner who led the federal government’s restructuring of Chrysler and General Motors – were feted at the recent BookExpo America.
In a special “Author Stages” discussion, Alter and Rattner spoke with Chris Kenneally about how President Obama tackles the myriad challenges he has faced since his historic inauguration.
BTB #170: Copyright & Corporate Culture
The challenge of the Digital Age is the ubiquity of content. And for businesses and research institutions, what you don’t know about copyright when it comes to digital content can create problems. Robin Neidorf, lead researcher and general manager for Free Pint Ltd., a UK-based publisher of resources, publications, sites and reports serving the global information industry, has just published a 
“Copyright Policies and Practices” research study to learn how organizations today are training employees to minimize infringement risk… or not (the report is available here for free). She spoke with Chris Kenneally about the gap in corporate culture between practice and policy.
Best of BTB: Cory Doctorow Plays ‘The Price Is Right’ For E-Books
Sounding more like a college economics professor than a bestselling sci-fi author, Cory Doctorow offers his suggestions for how publishers should arrive at the “right price” for e-books. As for copyright, he defends “fair use” and questions strict interpretations of the phrase, “all rights reserved.”
For publishers, authors and their readers, 2010 will likely go down as the year when e-books finally and decisively won a permanent place in the literary hierarchy. At Beyond the Book, we’re following this story from a number of angles, and we will continue this special coverage in coming weeks with a focus series on e-books.
Meanwhile, our regular reporting on the publishing and media industry continues here at Beyond the Book.
