Cites & Insights Volume 12, Issue 1 (January-February 2012) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ12i1.pdf

The 20-page issue, PDF as usual, contains three sections, each separately available in HTML form (the subheadings are links):

Bibs & Blather    pp. 1-7

Announcing The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing and why (almost) every public library and (many) academic libraries need it–and some notes on the virtues of professional editing. Also announcing the availability of Cites & Insights 11 (2011) in book form and offering some numbers for Cites & Insights readership in 2011, some not-very-meaningful notes about most-read posts in Walt at Random (which increasingly seems to be “read” mostly by spiders and spammers), and repeating my Prospectus: An Ongoing Public Library Social Network Scan.

Making it Work: It’s Academic (or Not)    pp. 7-12

Why I don’t plan to write much about academic libraries in future Cites & Insights issues and some of my beliefs about academic libraries. Also some notes on “Academic Libraries in Facebook: An Analysis of Users’ Comments,” an article I had lots of trouble with, after finding that the only discussion of that article I could find was by a certain pseudonymous blogger (who increasingly appears to be named Spencer, unless that’s the snarky-comment-responder lackey).

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Box Office Gold, Part 1   pp. 13-20

I did pay attention to the handful of people who expressed sadness about the hiatus and possible termination of this ejournal–and the parts they liked. So if you were hoping that Offtopic Perspectives and My Back Pages would go away, well, guess again. Not quite the first half of a 50-pack of all-color, mostly recent, movies, all with fairly big stars: A combination of TV movies, movies with no real US distribution, and other oddities. (Not quite the first half because it’s discs 1-6 of a 13-disc set.)

This two-page unnumbered issue consists of one brief essay:

Not With a Bang …  (pp. 1-2)

Going on hiatus.

There will be no more issues in Volume 11. If and when there is an index, it will only be part of the annual volume available at Lulu, if and when that volume is available.

That may be a bad formulation. Here’s a better one:

I’ll keep writing (in a particular area, in a particular manner) as long as it continues to be relevant and rewarding.

“People keep reading what I write” is one measure of relevance and reward, to be sure, but it may not be one that works very well at this point. It worked fine when I earned my living doing something else that was both relevant and (usually, and always financially) rewarding. It worked great when the combined package of paid columns and articles, paid speaking invitations, citations and discussions based on what I was writing, and other linked measures made it clear that my writing (and speaking) was relevant to a reasonably large group of library folk.

Now? I’m wondering.

Relevance?

I hadn’t thought about it explicitly, but when I lost my full-time position, I was as much concerned about remaining relevant as I was about financial rewards.

At that point, Cites & Insights still seemed pretty clearly relevant to a fair number of people (based on feedback and the extent to which items were cited elsewhere). While speaking invitations were on the decline, there were still some of them–and I still had two paid columns in print magazines.

And I was offered a part-time position that, while never well paid, yielded results I considered highly relevant and valuable to the field, doing something I thought I could do exceptionally well. So, all in all, I was happy enough with relevance, and there were enough rewards overall to keep me reasonably happy.

Rewards…

The last 18 months or so have been a little more difficult. The part-time position went away and, in the process, the work I’d done was scrapped entirely, as though it was of no importance to anybody.

Look: My day job was library systems analysis, design and programming for five decades. I knew that very little I did would survive long after I left. I doubt that any of the code I wrote anywhere is still being used; I’m not sure much of the design work survives in any fashion. That’s OK–it comes with the territory. Abruptly deciding to deep-six an entire interlinked body of professional literature with no real warning, two or three months after updating of that body has ended: That’s something different.

Cites & Insights has always been a little tricky. It was sponsored for several years (continued thanks to YBP!); it was clearly being quoted and cited for several years. Apparent readership (based on Urchin statistical reports) was strong, and each issue or essay continued to gain readers over time.

Meanwhile…well, speaking invitations dried up completely. (That might change–given at least one of the books that’s coming out, I hope it will.) The “freemium” model wasn’t working: C&I wasn’t yielding speaking invitations and attempts to produce something special for a fee were essentially useless. (Four copies of the hardcopy limited edition sold. Four.) And, while the numbers still seem reasonably strong, I’m not seeing much of any secondary recognition–not much sign that C&I is part of the ongoing professional conversations. And, of course, there’s essentially no revenue (I believe donations this year total two digits before the decimal point).

I tried something mildly interesting in producing the Library 2.0 Reader for a PDF and hardcopy price that yielded a nominal $4 in revenue–and adding a slight speedbump to the original C&I issues, both of which were still being downloaded–apparently–hundreds of times each month. The speedbump, a substitute PDF, suggested buying the book, but also gave the very brief URL for the continued free copy.

That’s been extremely discouraging. Not only has the Reader barely sold at all–five copies in June 2011, two in July 2011, zero copies (also true for all C&I books) in August, September, and so far October 2011–but Urchin statistics show that, while there have been 783 downloads of the stub issue since July 1, there have been only 16 PDF downloads of the new version of the original essay and 7 or fewer of the more recent ones. HTML hasn’t done much better: 17 of the original, 13 of the followup, 11 of the more recent essay. In essence, not only won’t people pay a nominal sum for these essays, all but a handful aren’t even ready to copy-and-paste a URL. I can only assume that, for 90+% of the downloads/clicks on the PDF, there’s no real relevance there.

Oh…and my print magazine columns dried up, one at the end of 2009, the other at the end of this year. In both cases, I think the editor’s decision was right: The column had run or has run its course.

I’ve said most of this before

True enough, including the Bibs & Blather in the August 2011 C&I. There I talked about relative priority of various projects, with C&I going back to a lower priority level.

I also said “It’s still here. I’m still here” and that C&I was likely to continue, “Possibly with less regularity. Probably with less intensity.” I said I was nearly certain to reach issue 144 (one somewhat natural stopping point, a gross of issues) and better than 95% likely to reach issue 150. (I also made some changes and, I believe, improvements in the layout and in the HTML versions. For what those changes are worth…)

C&I has reached issue 144: the current issue, dated October 2011. It actually appeared on September 17, 2011; that’s on the late side for relation of actual appearance to issue date, but not by much.

What’s changed?

Maybe nothing. On the other hand, it’s now October 19, and not only isn’t a November issue imminent, I haven’t written anything toward such an issue.

Something curious happened toward the end of last week and early this week. I turned around a second round copyediting draft of The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing, the book (to be published by Information Today, Inc.) that I regard as something every public library would benefit from–and yes, “every” does include some very small libraries–and possibly the most important and relevant book I’ve ever written in the field, up to and including MARC for Library Use, although it’s a very different kind of relevance. I won’t be doing anything on that book for at least another week and a half, and remaining steps are quite small…

Meanwhile, work’s well begun on my 2012 book for ALA Editions, on public libraries’ use of social networks. I’d completed the first pass survey of libraries in25 states. As of the end of last week, I was about a third of the way through the draft of the book itself.

It would have been a perfect time to turn some attention to Cites & Insights, printing lead sheets for an essay and starting work on the actual writing during breaks in working on the new book.

Instead, I decided to expand the social network project: Building a new spreadsheet with public libraries in another 13 states (all the remaining states with readily-available spreadsheets of library names and service areas), some 3,600 of them, and starting a slightly more efficient survey of social network use in those libraries. That, combined with an already-planned “quarter later” rescan of the original 25 states (which may now become a four-months-later rescan), pretty much takes up library-related energy, one reason there have been so few posts.

Where does that leave Cites & Insights?

Caught in relevance-and-reward limbo, at least for now.

I  know Open Access: What You Need to Know Now is and should be relevant, even if it’s gotten a lot less attention than I was hoping.

I know The Librarian’s Guide to Micropublishing is relevant and should be rewarding.

I know Libraries on Social Networks (working title) will be relevant and, I hope, rewarding.

Doing the substantial amount of additional research for that project will add slightly to its value. “Slightly” is probably the operative term. And yet, when faced with the choice of working on that slow, slogging, slow process or working on C&I essays, I chose the research.

Is C&I defunct? No, at least not yet. Is it on indefinite hiatus? I honestly don’t know at this point. (You could put that another way: Will there be a November/December 2011 issue? Damned if I know…)

Could this change? Of course. But for now, that’s where things stand. Or sit.

Relevance matters. So do rewards, of which relevance itself is an important (but not the only) one.

The 28-page issue (PDF as usual, with HTML versions of each essay available, either from the C&I home page–which will, incidentally, remind you that contributions or sponsorship are both welcome and might help keep this nonsense going–or from the title links below) includes:

Making it Work: Websites and Social Networks   pp. 1-17

Some notes on sampling public library websites (2,406 of them in 25 U.S. states) as part of the research for my 2012 book, a few idle thoughts on public library websites, and a Making it Work roundup and commentary on librarians and social networks.

T&QT Retrospective: Far-Away Services with Strange Sounding Names   pp. 17-22

Remember Cuil? Remember Knol? Oddly enough, the latter’s still around–but the former may have been a Bigger Deal as a one-week web wonder. Looking back and sideways with a little bemusement.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Kings, Part 1  pp. 22-28

Better than the Legends of Horror multipack, with occasional flashes of brilliance (and occasional flashes of stereotyping and schtick).

Now, back to the research and book writing…

Hey, it’s Saturday. Want profundity, you’ve come to the wrong day (and the wrong blog).

Lack of a caveat

The primary essay in this C&I is long–31 pages–and, as is even more the case with the new & improved HTML template, considerably longer if you download and print the HTML version. I make it 44 pages as print-previewed by Firefox.

In the past, although less so in recent months, I’ve cautioned against using and printing the HTML version when it’s that long–it’s a waste of paper.

I didn’t do that this time, partly because I doubt that many people actually do that (that is, download and print a big HTML version when a nicely-printable PDF version is available–I assume most people use the HTML version for on-screen/on-device reading), partly because the PDF version’s hyperlinks don’t work (an issue that won’t be resolved until/unless my “financial rewards from doing C&I” picture improves).

Item count

I don’t keep count of the source items used in long essays such as this one. I have Diigo’s initial count, but I sometimes decide not to discuss items I’ve tagged–and some items tagged in Diigo lead to other itmes.

But that annoying penultimate step is a good time to count the source items. This time around, if I count correctly, it’s an even 50.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition

And, for the third and fourth in this pair of items:

• Oops. I’ve fixed the two errors (spotted so far) in the post announcing this issue, at least the version on this blog–that is, the bad hyperlink and the claim that Writing about Reading occupies pages 1-4 rather than pages 2-32.
• What’s that annoying penultimate step? Indexing–never done very well, to be sure. I use a dummy document which makes it a lot easier, but it’s still a pain. Yes, I do appreciate the skills and patience of professional indexers. No, I don’t ever want to be one.

The 32-page issue (PDF as usual, but each essay is available as an HTML separate) includes:

Bibs & Blather   (pp. 1-2)

Requests for help if your public library uses Facebook, Twitter or both, and a quick note about another tweak to C&I.

Writing about Reading: A Future of Books and Publishing  (pp. 2-32)

The Diigo tag for the items discussed here was “eb-vs.-pb,” but that’s not quite right. The bulk of this lengthy Perspective considers items that, to one extent or another, either favor ebooks over print books, vice-versa, or–better yet–compare the two complementary textual forms of book (not that there aren’t others, e.g., audiobooks).

As lagniappe, the first 3.3 pages offer a future of books and publishing (not the future, but a future)–one set of possibilities that I might personally find desirable, looking ten years out and “while I’m still alive”–say 35 years out.

The rest of you will think HarperCollins or maybe #hcod. You may think a lot of other things as well, informed partly by where you are in the library community. Even filtering more actively than usual, I started out with close to 100 source documents (blog posts and others), an astonishing number for what was largely a three-week wonder.

For the rest of the story…

Yes, I know: Based on the role this essay seems to have played in what is clearly an ongoing discussion, it might as well not have been written. But it’s still there, this time in somewhat cleaner HTML.

How Ebooks Will Change Reading and Writing

Some of the items discussed here may not really belong, and some may be admirable—but you’re going to see a higher percentage of what I might charitably call meretricious nonsense. In any case, here’s a whole bunch of determinism for your reading pleasure—if you still read, that is. (An audiobook version is not yet available, but I have never disabled the text-to-speech functions of PDF or, for that matter, your PC’s operating system. Would this all seem more amusing if “read” to you by, for example, a young Scottish woman? Make it so.)

For the rest of the story...

All of the issues published this year have been heavy on long essays, light on shorter features. (The January 2011 issue, which has seven relatively short sections, was actually published in December 2010.) In every case, I felt that the long essay was worthwhile, and for most issues, readership in the first two or three months seemed to be solid, indicating that I was reaching an audience. During that time, I was still discussing a possible sponsorship, one that would put C&I’s future on a more even keel.

Two things happened in April 2011. One is that the discussions moved in a different direction, one that apparently will not yield sponsorship for Cites & Insights. The other is that an essay I had high hopes for, and one that was much more timely than is typical for C&I, was downloaded less often than is usual—and was entirely ignored by the online community (that is, neither linked from nor mentioned by bloggers and others).

For the rest of the story… or read Bibs & Blather as part of Cites & Insights 11:6.

And I’ve already been told by a reader that they don’t work.

That’s true, in one area: Hyperlinks in the PDF version of Cites & Insights do not work at this point. That’s a weakness in both Acrobat 9 as a PDF printer and in Office2010′s “Save as PDF” function: Neither one turns Word hyperlinks into PDF hyperlinks.

“So what’s the problem? Just use the PDF tab on the menu bar instead.”

Sure…except that Acrobat 9 will not install an operational PDF tab in the Word2010 menu bar.

I suspect that Acrobat X will do so.

But, of course, that requires upgrading to Acrobat X, which takes money.

Revenue received from Cites & Insights: $0, for all intents and purposes.

So, y’know, just not gonna happen at this point: since I don’t need hyperlinks in other PDF situations, there’s no justification for me spending a couple hundred bucks of my own money.

The hyperlinks do work in the HTML versions of the essays. I’ve tried them.

“Well, then, you should be maintaining two entirely separate versions of C&I: One with hyperlinks for HTML, one with plain-text URLs and without annoying blue underlines for PDF.”

Not. Going. To. Happen. I can’t justify the effort at this point, given the diminished reception and importance of C&I in the community.

One solution: Drop the hyperlinks altogether. If there’s enough uproar, I’ll do that. Maybe adding them was a bad idea…

If I’ve missed something–if there’s a handy-dandy trick for printing to PDF, or Saving as PDF, that maintains hyperlinks–I’d be delighted to hear it. If it involves upgrading Acrobat, I’d be less delighted.