Connecting Librarian

I was fortunate enough to be invited by Patricia Genat to attend the ALS Breakfast during the ALIA Dreaming 08 conference. Over a lovely pancake breakfast we had a casual conversation with Margie Seale from Random House on publishing trends and the scene in the Australian industry.

Margie began by saying that she was impressed by our library websites and what we do with them, that they are not just about information.

The retail market for books has 3 major segments: discount department
stores like Kmart and BIg W, with 22% of the market, chain bookstores like Dymocks, Borders and A&R with 50% of the market and independent bookstores with 25%. The latter is a fast disappearing breed in the US, due to price competition, which has also resulted in a lack of diversity. In Australia, our markets is very vibrant, generally successful and still very diverse.

The Book Scan service has helped suppliers and publishers to recognise
trends and ajdust their business strategy on the fly as the trends are revealed.

The 2008 top sellers in Australia so far are: Ingredients, Underbelly, Change of heart by Piccoult and Breath by Winton. Last year it was The Secret, ahead of the adult edition of Harry Potter and the deathly hallows. For childrens books, this year so far has been Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers and last year was Harry Potter. Interestingly, many of the attendees
were not aware of many of these titles, because they were mainly managerial staff.

At present, the big sellers in each of the markets are; Breaking Dawn in the chain bookstores, Very hungry caterpillar in the discount department stores and Gallup in the independents. The US top titles at present are New Earth – a republishing of Eckhardt Tolls book an the Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. The same titles will follow here as our markket is similar to the US. In the UK, the top titles are A thousand splendid suns and the latest Delia Smith cookbook.

Across all 3 markets there are only 3 books in common in the top 10 bestsellers – Atonement, Kite runner and A thousand splendid suns. Australia and UK have 5 titles in common, Australia and US have 8 in common and the US and UK only have those 3.

The Australian market leans slightly towards the US in trends. If a title is going to work here though, it does so quickly. However, UK covers and formats work better here. Why? Margie believes because it is better quality, more stylish, more anglo is design. Our covers are more subtle, not so blatant.

An issue of interest to the book industry at present is the 30/90 rule, which is under review. The rule was introduced in the 1990s to allow certainty of copyright and to provide consumers with titles in a timely manner. Publishers buy rights for a territory so only they can bring the title in. This means that publishers had to publish that title within 30 days of it being
published in English anywhere else in the world. If it goes out of stock, publishers have 90 days to restock. If neither of these conditions is met the copyright is lost and the title goes back to the open market.

The government is reviewing this and looking at making Australia a totally open market, where anyone can bring in titles from anywhere at any time. The UK and US markets are not considering doing this at present.

Booksellers say that it will bring book prices down. Publishers are concerned that they will not be able to invest in new authors, because they wont have the certainty of their protected business to support the risk. It may also put Australian book printers out of business.

Drivers for this change? US currency makes US book prices look cheap. The
Australian Booksellers Association is in support of the change, although not necessarily all of its members. As for the book printing business, although colour printing is done overseas, 50-60% of Random Houses black and white printing is done in Australia. The rule has been reviewed several times over the years, so this is only the lastest in a series. It will be interesting to see what develops.

Margie Seale was an engaging speaker. It was interesting to hear the publishing perspective and see how it matched with the borrowing behaviours we see in our libraries.

I have learnt a lot about writing in the nearly 3 years that I have been blogging, much of which I haven’t realised until I started writing for other avenues.

I am in the process of finishing up one conference paper, reviewing a journal article on the basis of peer review and researching for another conference paper. Both conference papers have to be submitted for publication in the proceedings, so a full paper is required.

Lesson number 1 – writing is not as easy as it may seem. Or rather, good writing isn’t. I have come to the conclusion that I need to be inspired, or at least greatly motivated to be able to write half-way decently. Which probably explains why my blogging tends to be sporadic, rather than regular posts, as I am not always motivated to write.

Lesson number 2 – I can write when the pressure is on, but generally its not very good. Point in case, the paper I am polishing now I had trouble starting, but I got it down. When I went back to review it, I was amazed to see how bad it was – of course, I went back to in a time of motivation, so I was seeing it through more creative and critical eyes.

Lesson number 3 – good writing will take you over. When I feel like writing, I will write everywhere. So not only am I working on those three things, but I’m blogging here and I will be going off to post on some other blogs as well, with items that have been sitting in my to-do pile for a while.

© 2008 Digital Inspiration

Lesson number 4 – I can be as temperamental as any artist. Writer’s block seems to happen for me on a regular basis and in those times (with arm across forehead and dramatic flair) I just can’t work!

Lesson number 5 – Distractions are a problem only if my writing motivation is lacking. If I’m having trouble writing, then anything will distract me, but television and a book – any book, are key distractors. When I’m motivated, nothing will distract me, in fact it will be hard to keep me away from the computer.

Lesson number 6 – I create best on computer. I learnt to touch type in high school, one of the best skills I ever learned. Now, all those decades later and still with a healthy typing speed, I find I write better with the keyboard than with pen and paper. My fingers type well with the thoughts flowing through my head and they don’t get as tired as they do if I am writing the same amount with pen and paper.

Lesson number 7 – I review better on paper. Again back to the paper I am polishing. It was created on computer, but when I went back to re-read it, I was better able to do so on paper. Then out came the red pen and I went to town on it. Don’t know why that is, but that’s the way it is.

Lesson number 8 – I have to believe that what I am writing will be good. I can put out some good content, not from the very word go obviously, but I can get down what I want to say in a way that people call relate to. Not that I am anywhere in the same league as great authors, in either the wider publishing world or even the library publishing sphere, but unless I believe that I can communicate in a way that people will be engaged by, then its not going to happen at all.

Lesson 9 – I am enjoying writing more than I thought I would. Despite the anxiety caused by writer’s block and fast approaching deadlines, when the mood takes me I really enjoy putting my hands to the keyboard and creating content. Not that I think I would ever make a career out of it, but rather it gives me the ability to express my passion for what I am doing and to share that with an audience who hopefully relates to it.

Lesson number 10 – there will be many more lessons as I continue to learn about writing. I am very fortunate to have a range of opportunities to hone my craft. As I continue to look for and take up these opportunities and learn from my experiences and those of others, my writing will continue.

So these are my learnt on the fly lessons. Would love to hear of your writing experiences and other lessons you have learnt. By doing so, you help me with lesson 10! Thanks!

I was getting tired by now at the conference, like I am now with these writeups, so the notes are getting briefer – hang in there with me now!

Shauna Hicks from the Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV) spoke on “Archives in the 2st century”. In the new PROV reading room, each desk has power and computer outlets, enabling researchers to research online, take and upload photos of archival items and more. Their help desk uses a 1800 phone number, which users can call to preplan their trip or even to avoid their trip altogether. Records can be located through the website and copies ordered for mailout. Alternatively they can find out exactly what they need first and only have to make one trip instead of several.

Derek Whitehead from Swinburne, presented “Publish and perish – the meaning of publication in the online world” and what a can of worms that is?

Can something be “accessed, read and used” and not be published? Yes! Copyright, defamation, legal deposit and online content laws all have different definitions of published. Book publishing is different again and includes editing control, review, acceptance as a publication and commercial distribution.

Web publishing is putting information or transactions online – accessible on a web server. Published to the web (not “on”). Can we be online and published? Much debate about this. Theses are available through online depositories, but they are still not published. These are now running into copyright issues, with regard to cleared content, but the only thing that has changed is the delivery mechanism.
Archives and scholarly communication also fall into these grey areas? Is YouTube a publisher?

There is confusion over the broad and specialised meanings of copyright. Is everything now published because of the web? Online is more than a publishing medium. Think conversation, dialogue……

Questions/Thoughts:
- Do we need a word for online but unpublished?
- How will we determine ownership? (mashups, sharing etc)
- Online is not a digital version of analog. What rules apply?
- Copyright applies fully to online as a default. There is no Copyright 2.0.
- Metaphors are dangerous.
- Web helps capture an fix activities for commercial purposes – need to watch this.

What to do?
- Paper days laws threatens the online world.
- 3 actions – law reform
– need a new word for online but unpublished
– sue the appropriate copyright licensing (ie. creative commons, all rights etc).

The final paper this session was Jim Alexander from CAL on “Copyright and the Online Library”. Accessing content is changing by: changes to the traditional supply chain, entry of new intermediaries (search engines), culture of free use and rise of free content repositories.

Digital Rights management comes in 2 forms: technological including passwords, encryption, hardware/software controls. Rights Management Information: copyright, watermarks, digital signatures, metadata and now Digital Object Indentifiers (DOI0, which are growing in the publishing industry. 3 key principles of DRM are:
- identification of works and copyright of owners
- monitoring of access to and use of works
- facilitating payment
DRM must be of minimal burder to rights owners and users.

CAL is working on DRM, offering new services such as Digital Course Material (DCM), an online custom publication system for course support. Provides licensed content from over 40 publishers and can also incorporate institutions own licensed content.
Also Document Delivery Service – aimed at health/medical industry, giving access to content with rights cleared, quickly and conveniently.

Future: interoperable DRM for international online content access
- common rights management infrastructure
- choice for creators and quality for consumers