Walt at Random

Interesting. I originally planned to publish the centenary issue of Cites & Insights toward the very end of February. Then, with all the copy ready, I moved that up to February 19 or so. Then, Friday, when I’d double-checked the draft printed version twice, after doing all the editing and copyfitting, I said “Oh, what the hey,” and published it right around 6 p.m. on Friday.

Including Perspective: Tracking High-Def Discs, in which I finally offered as firm a projection as I’ve ever offered:

• That the format war might very well end this year, although there was also a chance it wouldn’t.
• That the most probable outcome was Blu-ray as the sole commercially-viable high-def disc format, with that happening “sometime in 2009 or possibly late 2008.”

Good thing I published it Friday night. I was way too cautious (I don’t claim to be a futurist or to have any inside knowledge), but at least I got the right direction.

It’s not entirely official yet, but apparently Toshiba isn’t quite as “stubborn and profitable” as I thought–or at least not as stubborn. It’s been reported, and apparently confirmed by a company official (although not a named one), that Toshiba’s pulling the plug on HD DVD in the very near future. (At a loss of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars: If you believe some observers, Toshiba’s been losing money on every player it sells, and one can only assume that Toshiba forked over a big chunk of the $150 million that helped Paramount & Dreamworks to say they’d only release HD DVD versions, a decision you can expect to see reversed in a few weeks or months.) Understand: I like Toshiba. My wife is delighted with her Toshiba Satellite notebook; the only real flaw (a tendency to drop WiFi once in a while when running on battery) is a Windows Vista power-management defect, not a Toshiba defect.

So maybe “sometime in 2009 or possibly late 2008″ becomes “in the first half of 2008″–although there’s a second part to that probable outcome: “Blu-ray as the sole commercially-viable high-def disc format.” Whether that will be true in the first half of 2008, or any time, probably depends on your definition of commercial viability.

No, I don’t buy Wired’s latest (and wholly predictable) note that it doesn’t matter because it’s all going to be downloads. As I imply in the Perspective, true high-def downloads aren’t really practical on a mass scale–and in any case a lot of us actually like to own some of the movies and programs we expect to watch more than once.

It seems highly probable that Blu-ray will be a total market (combining players, drives and discs) in the hundreds of millions of dollars this year (actually, it may have been in 2007, depending on what percentage of PS3 sales you consider to be Blu-ray sales). I think that counts as commercially viable, although still a relatively small percentage of overall video disc and player sales.

So: I was too cautious–but at least I got it right (and I’d been saying since the get-go that Blu-ray had the edge.)

Oh…and yes, I know it’s “Samsung” not “Samsong.” Even reading in print, twice, I still manage to miss at least one typo in every C&I. Such is life.

Cites & Insights 8:3 (March 2008) is now available.

This is the centenary issue–#100–a nice round number that I’m a little surprised to have achieved. Naturally, that milestone affects the issue–but not as you might expect.

The issue’s long–36 pages–and PDF as usual, although all but the last section (My Back Pages, always exclusively PDF) are also available in HTML form from the home page.

This issue includes:

• 100 Reasons for Doing Cites & Insights - an introduction
• Trends & Quick Takes - ink costs, life without software, the significance of good sound and more: six trends, ten quicker takes.
• Perspective: Tracking High-Def Discs - including a prediction for the likely winner in the format war.
• Making it Work - the biggie: 19 pages devoted to aspects of making libraries better, including reading (reader’s advisory, slow reading, etc.), philosophy, hassles, balance, and “Library 2.0 debased.”
• Interesting & Peculiar Products - flashy labels, green PCs, supercheap laptops and more: 19 items in all.
• My Back Pages - 16 mini-perspectives, none of them terribly serious.

Ignore them, or at least most of them.

It was pointed out to me (indirectly) that, of the thousands of dead links to the old Cites & Insights site, some were under my control–that is, links in W.a.R. posts prior to July 2006.

So I’m fixing those links. I’m never quite sure what causes a post to look changed enough to trigger a feed. If these changes–which, with one minor exception, are nothing but URL changes–do that, then my apologies. I’m partway through, and will finish as soon as possible…

Sigh. At one point, C&I had a pagerank of seven (although I think Google’s generally adjusted pageranks downward). It’s at five now, and I wonder whether it will ever get back even to six, much less seven. Such is life on the open web.

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Update: I’m done. I’m hoping that the URL changes were too minimal to cause new feeds, but I’m not sure. If not, my apologies: There are a lot of W.a.R. posts mentioning Cites & Insights (imagine that!).

Well, at least they’re cleaned up before the centenary Cites & Insights appears–which is likely to be this weekend or shortly thereafter.

I received an email a day or two ago from a person who purchased Cites & Insights Volume 6 (2006) and Volume 7 (2007), noting that his motive was partly to support Cites & Insights.

Earlier, Mark Lindner noted that his reason for purchasing both volumes was partly to support Cites & Insights..

To Steve (it was private email, so first name is all you get) and Mark: Thank you.

If anyone else has the same idea–well, thank you as well. It’s certainly a concrete way of supporting my occasionally-waning morale and drive to keep C&I going. (Even though each print volume has three or four times the text of a typical C&I book, the odd economics of Lulu and page size are such that, while you get a bargain in these oversized volumes, I don’t take a beating on net revenue.)

I’d like to think that each volume is a pretty good package on its own merits. The cover photographs (one wraparound for 2006, two–one on each cover–for 2007) are, I think, first-rate, but of course I’m biased (my wife took them). Volume 6 has the two big Library 2.0-related essays, the “great middle” study of liblogs, and a whole lot more (and the print volume has a bonus section telling you what’s happened to some of those liblogs). Volume 7 has loads of good stuff, and the print volume is the only way you can get Cites on a Plane.

I prepared the two print volumes for my own benefit; even two sales of each count as more than I was expecting. I turned off the PayPal and Amazon tip jar routes when I got partial sponsorship for Cites & Insights, but I sure do appreciate the support.

Cites & Insights 8:2 (February 2008) is now available. The 24-page issue (PDF as always, but all articles are also available as HTML separates) includes:

• Announcing Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples - The latest from Cites & Insights Books, a $29.50 289-page paperback that complements Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples. Included are brief notes, the list of academic institutions represented, examples of blog coverage for both books, the announcement of $20 PDF downloads for those who just can’t stand print books–and a few notes on the status of Cites & Insights Books.
• Trends & Quick Takes: Trends and Forecasts - Time to look at some pundits’ scorecards and forecasts, along with some of the trends from the LITA Top Tech Trendspotters, with some of my comments interleaved.
• Bibs & Blather: Midwinter Musings - Notes on a much warmer Philadelphia Midwinter, along with a special essay based on an odd but not unique occurrence: “Leadership and Initiative: The Case of the Empty Chairs.”
• Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Western Classics, Part 1 - Roy Rogers is riding tonight, as are Tex Ritter, Gene Autry, John Wayne and a slew of others. A bunch of one hour “oaters” and a handful of pretty good pictures.

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When I chatted with a few of you at Midwinter, I may have expressed concern that the February issue might be some combination of late, short and peculiar, since I didn’t think I had any of it written (I forgot about the Offtopic Perspective). Well, one out of three ain’t bad: It’s not late and it’s not short. Enjoy.

My copy of Cites & Insights 6: 2006 arrived today.

It looks great. You can see a tiny version of the front cover in this post or an even tinier version at the bottom of the blog–but that doesn’t show you the spine and back, all part of an 11×17 3/4 whole. (Color rendition will always vary a bit from copy to copy. My copy is a bit more muted than what appears here, but still very nice.)

The inside of the book looks great, too.

I won’t make a pitch for you to buy it. The other post (linked just above) does as much of that as I’m inclined to. Other than the preface and the cover (my wife’s photography, my addition of type), I didn’t really do any new work on it, and it will be much easier to deal with in the future than the Velobound version. Someone’s already purchased one copy; that’s one more than I was counting on. Sure, it’s a reasonably-priced way to get my major Library 2.0 essays, the big liblog examination and a quarter million words of other great stuff, but that’s another story.

As to the forthcoming Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples, just how forthcoming is it?

Well, both Lulu and CreateSpace sent messages either yesterday or today saying that the proof copy was produced and on its way. (I cheated for C&I 6: I approved it for open purchase without actually seeing a proof copy.) I’m guessing both will arrive while I’m at Midwinter or shortly thereafter. As soon as they do, and I do the usual cursory examination, I’ll post about it–and, of course, plan to publicize it in the February 2008 Cites & Insights when that finally gets written. (”When,” not “if.” My lassitude will cure itself sooner or later.)
(If you’re wondering, the wraparound cover for the new book is also from Ephesus, but not the library.)

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Now to do last-minute chores (for PLN and around home) tomorrow, pack, and get up way too early to fly off to Philadelphia Friday morning. See some of you there, I’m sure…

Call it ego, but I don’t think I can let this go unremarked, although I apparently tried for three days…

“This” is a really interesting post by Dorothea Salo about the power of blogging in specific situations–but that’s not the reason I’m linking to it. (It might be the reason it turns up in a C&I piece–or might not–but that would be because of the real content.)

Nope. It’s this paragraph:

Over the last couple years I’ve learned that I can do professional writing, though it takes a hell of a lot out of me and I don’t think I will ever find it easy. Speaking is worlds easier, and whole universes more fun. (Combine Walt Crawford, to whom good writing comes as naturally as breathing, and me and you’d have one frighteningly effective public-figure librarian.)

Thanks, Dorothea. Not that I wasn’t a pretty good speaker back when I was in demand, but “to whom good writing comes as naturally as breathing…” Wow. Them’s kind words.

And, as I noted back to her in email, “Sometimes I have trouble breathing.” Which, fortunately, is not true (although if I ate a banana I might have terminal trouble in that regard)…but there are certainly times I have trouble with (some forms of) writing. Naturally, I’ve written about that too. When I had two monthly print columns, a bimonthly print column, and Cites & Insights, I managed to use “if you’re not ready to write X, write Y instead” to keep from missing deadlines. With two bimonthly print columns and a supposed state of semi-retirement, it’s easier to say “if you’re not ready to write X, read something instead–you’ll get around to it.”

Which I usually do, but it can be painful. When life offers a range of excellent excuses to avoid writing, it can be really painful.

Which is another way of saying that I haven’t written any of the essays for C&I 8:2 yet–and by now, I should have about a third of an issue ready. (Well, I do, but it’s another Offtopic Perspective.) As acute observers of C&I 8:1 may guess, I haven’t really focused on the range of usual C&I topics for a while now, making an exception for book digitization projects… I’m sure that will change after Midwinter. It had better. Of course, now that I’ve published a January issue on January 1, I could theoretically publish a February issue even a little later in February…

What was that slogan from a six-book trilogy (which we saw as a not-all-that-good flick)? Don’t Panic? I won’t. Of course, writing this post (and another one to come) is one way of procrastinating… (I’ve already done the “do Y”: I’m my usual month early on “disContent” with what I think is a tightly focused 850 words that came about partly because I wasn’t ready to work on C&I. And, for that matter, I finished writing Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples partly to avoid working on C&I; it will be available in two or three weeks, after I receive and approve proof copies from Lulu and CreateSpace. $29.50, of course, and just a few pages shorter than Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples. So far, I’m disinclined to combine the two into Walt’s Big Book of Library Blogs, but if I thought there was a market for that $50 580-page combination…)

Serious rambling here. Short form: Thanks, Dorothea. It ain’t always as easy as it looks–although, once I’m ready to write something, the words do flow. (No, I can’t and don’t do “15 minutes every day regardless.” For me, at least, that would yield choppy writing that read like it was written in little pieces…and probably take a lot longer than just not writing on Those Days and settling in when the time is right. My practice. Not suggested or recommended for anyone else.)

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I didn’t really do a “here’s what I did last year and am going to do better this year” post, except by inference here and there. Fact is, last year was traumatic in some ways, enormously productive in others, and I don’t regard it as emblematic of any sort of succession. At least I hope not: I’m not sure I could cope.

One motto that popped up at several key points last year and that resounds in my mind when I read certain bits of advice these days does apply–for me, at least.

Life is too short.

Yes, I’ve turned down an invitation because it would put me on the same program with someone who I really couldn’t abide (worse, it would have me introducing someone as a principal speaker, someone who’s insulted me in writing and in public). Either I was being asked to increase the audience size, in which case I’d be lending my cachet (my cachet? I have a cachet?) under false pretenses, since I fundamentally disagree with this other person’s approach and persona–or I was being asked either to create a controversy or out of ignorance as to my stance. Either way, I lose. I’d do the same thing again with no apologies. Life is too short.

Oh, and yes, I’ve avoided some situations because I was pretty sure they’d put me in contact with one of maybe three people in the whole field who I really find grating on a personal level, and the situations didn’t have enough going for them to overbalance that. Why not? Life is too short.

That’s also getting to be my internal response when I see someone with a high-profile speaking or writing gig and think maybe I could have done a better job on it, if I was more of a go-getter. Life is too short, and since I’ve made a deliberate practice of encouraging new writers/speakers and treating people as people regardless of their highfalutin’ reputation or lack thereof, it’s absurd to grump when other people do well. I should celebrate their successes. Mostly, these days, I do. Life is too short to do otherwise.

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The trifecta section: Why I’m not posting a Midwinter schedule.

Oh, I’ll be there–from Friday afternoon through Monday night (leaving way too early Tuesday morning, to match my middle-of-the-night drive to SFO on Friday), at the Embassy Suites Center City. I could even say “Of course I’ll be there. Midwinter 2008 is the formal launch of the PALINET Leadership Network. How am I not going to be there?”

But that formal launch also means my schedule will be changing up to the last working hour on Thursday and quite possibly beyond. If I can talk to people from library publications about PLN (open to all English-reading [potential] library leaders, free, great stuff), I will, and those who are trying to set things up know that. I’ll probably spend some time at the PALINET booth as well, although maybe not a lot–PALINET has a lot going on this conference, what with VuFind, Villanova University’s “open source discovery tool that replaces the traditional online public access catalog (OPAC) without requiring a new integrated library system (ILS).”

What I think I know so far, all subject to change:

• I hope to make part of the LITA Happy Hour Friday, and maybe head off with some strange colleagues (you know who you are) afterwards, but it’s a hope, not an expectation.
• I plan to attend the ALCTS Medium Heads DG on Saturday morning, since it’s on a topic of particular interest for PLN (succession planning).
• I will most definitely attend PALINET’s member reception, which probably means I’ll miss another reception that I would normally make a point of attending.
• I might hit LITA Public Library Technology IG on Saturday morning and NextGen Catalogs IG Sunday afternoon. I might not.
• I’ll probably be at part or all of that saloon thingy–oh, wait, Blogger’s Salon, not saloon. Or not: There may be conflicts there as well.
• So far, Monday’s wide open. I imagine that will change.

I anticipate having at least two and maybe four or more other meetings scheduled while I’m there. I also anticipate lots of time in the exhibits–and if the weather turns out to be nice, Philadelphia is a great walking town.

Want to get together? Send me a note before Thursday evening. I’ll have a cell phone, but only outbound and only for emergencies–and no, I’m not Twittering.

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Ah, what the heck. Now that I’ve killed three birds with one post, why not go for a foursome?

I don’t carry a portable computer. My wife owns one, but it’s one designed for good value rather than light weight.

I’ve thought about the possibility that what I’m doing might make it much more desirable at some point to change that practice–to have “something” along when I’m traveling so I can do web-based things and maybe a little lightweight writing. I’ve also thought about my desire for traveling light, my sometimes-frugal nature, and my bad habit of leaving valuable things sitting around places (otherwise known as “Why I carry a $5 compact umbrella, not a $20 Totes”).

If I did need access on the road, I’m pretty sure I know what I’d buy, at least in today’s market. Hmm. Inexpensive. Semi-decent full keyboard. Decent screen. VERY lightweight and fairly rugged.

Nope, not that one. I’d give you the reasons, but only in person.

This one, silly as its name is: eee–by Asus. Two pounds, 7″ screen, not touch-typable but a plausible undersize keyboard, wifi built in, 4GB memory (flash, of course) for $400…

Yes, it runs Linux (Ubuntu, I think). That seems like the sensible thing to use on this kind of cut-down, hard-diskless PC.

Am I likely to get one of these (or some equivalent)? Unless someone’s in a silly mood, only time will tell. Frankly, all else being equal, I really rather like being off the air when I’m traveling.

For perhaps the first time, the January issue that begins a new volume of Cites & Insights is available in…January.

Cites & Insights 8:1 (January 2008) is now available for downloadingThe 30-page issue (PDF as always, but HTML separates for each essay are also available) includes:

• Announcing Cites & Insights volumes 6 and 7 in book form

Cites & Insights Books at Lulu.com (http://lulu.com/waltcrawford/) now offers these volumes in paperback form, $29.50 each, with a bonus in each case (and full-color cover photos). The bonus for Volume 7 is Cites on a Plane, the phantom issue from January 2007. For Volume 6, it’s a brief preface including “where are they now?” notes on liblogs studied in 2005 and 2006 that have either moved, changed names or apparently gone silent.

• Bibs & Blather: Thinking about Leadership

Some thoughts after a few weeks working on the PALINET Leadership Network, including my current take on “Who’s a leader?”

• Perspective: Discovering Books: An OCA and GBS Retrospective

A full year after the previous coverage of Open Content Alliance and Google Book Search, it’s time for some updates, but also a quick retrospective of C&I coverage of these projects.

• Perspective: A Time of Limits?

Does “everybody” actually use Netflix? Have we all become upper middle class? Is there some limit to disposable income–and are some of us disposing of income we don’t really have? Some thoughts on ubiquity and reality.

Next month? Maybe back to “normal,” whatever that might be–and maybe, just maybe, the academic library companion to Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples.

At one point, a few of you (well, one) expressed interest in a book version of Library 2.0 and “Library 2.0″, presumably including the followup Finding a Balance: Libraries and Librarian. I started on that project but didn’t finish it: Adding the perfect, fully-vetted, Chicago-style citations and bibliography for all of the blog quotes and reindexing the essays just seemed like more work than it was worth.

But you can get both those essays in book form now, indexed and everything–together with another 330+ pages of great content, including Looking at Liblogs: The Great Middle, my study of 213 liblogs. And for the same price as I would have charged for the Library 2.0 material alone: $29.50, the (so far) standard price for Cites & Insights Books. Just go to Lulu and pick it up. (It’s only available from Lulu: CreateSpace doesn’t do 8.5×11″ books.)

Volume 6 had more “regular” pages than Volume 7, but the bound volume’s slightly shorter (388 pages instead of 405 pages), thanks to the extra phantom issue in 2007.

Extra: There’s something extra for buyers of the bound volume, in addition to a great wraparound cover picture (the Golden Gate Bridge from the deck of the Crystal Harmony, passing through on our way to Alaska in, I think, 2001…or 2003…or 2005). A four-page preface offers a few notes about Volume 6, but mostly offers an update on the liblogs covered in the 2005 and 2006 studies–which ones have moved and which appear to be gone.

The short version: of the 60 blogs in 2005, 10% may have shut down and 17% have changed URLs and/or names. Of the 213 blogs in 2006 (there’s a little overlap), 21% may have shut down and another 12% changed URLs and/or names, sometimes more than once (hi, Mermaid!) The preface details all of the changes I know about as of December 22, 2007–and clarifies what “may have shut down” means, giving the last post date when it’s even possible to get to the blog.

Yes, I’m still planning to do a new and much larger study that takes a “lateral look” at liblogs–but that won’t happen until next summer (and then only if things calm down). Until then, the only way to get the details on what happened to 86 liblogs since the summer of 2006 is to buy the book.

Will I do bound versions of Volumes 1-5? I’m not sure. It depends partly on whether Word will open issues before I changed typefaces without modifying them in a way that changes pagination; it depends partly on finishing the Academic Library Blogs book and getting other things on an even keel. Update, later in the afternoon: Doing a checktest, it’s clear that opening issues prior to 5:2 is a mess–some of the text reverts to the older typeface, most doesn’t. Therefore, it’s highly unlikely that I’ll do any more bound versions: It’s possible but not easy. (No, I can’t just put together the existing PDFs–they don’t embed some typefaces, so Lulu can’t accept the result.)

Meanwhile, Volume 6 is a keeper, and I can’t think of a better way to keep it (and to show your support for Cites & Insights).

Hmm. The combination of Cites & Insights 6: 2006 and Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change make a great package on Library 2.0. No package price yet, though (unless I can figure out how to offer a discounted bundle at Lulu).
Here’s the cover.

If I do a “year in review,” it would come a week or so from now–but I’m unlikely to do one anyway. You’ve already heard enough here and in Cites & Insights. Meanwhile, a few random notes…

• We’d always been ones to get stuff done at work over the “missing week” (between Christmas and New Year’s). With no place of work to go to in any case, that’s gotten a little stranger. Still, we’ll go spend the day with my immediate family tomorrow and go celebrate the new year (and our 30th anniversary) a week from tomorrow with an old and dear friend…and in between, well, carry on.
• One or two of you might be surprised that the first 2008 Cites & Insights isn’t out yet, given past history. It’s mostly written (and an odd one it is), with one probable exception (see next bullet). My current plan is to publish it very early in the new year–say January 1 or 2. After all, most of you aren’t around anyway, and if you are, the last thing you want to do is read a 15,000-word retrospective and commentary on Google Book Search and the Open Content Alliance (and a couple of shorter essays). Right?
• The exception: I’m almost certainly going to do a book version of Cites & Insights 6: 2006; I really like having a paperback instead of a Velobound cumulation, even if nobody else buys it. There will be something extra for those who do buy it, though. With Volume 7, it’s the phantom issue. With Volume 6, it’s a prefatory essay that I’ll start writing today, and which will include some details on losses and major changes among the liblogs profiled in 2005 and 2006. I’ll probably do a summary post, but the details will only be in the book. Of course, it’s also a neat packaged way to get both of my major essays on Library 2.0, and it will cost the same as (or less than) that separate package would have, if I’d had the will to do all the footnotes and bibliography/index needed to make it a book. (Which is to say: $29.50, only from Lulu. I’ll post an announcement when it is available.) If I do the book version, I’ll probably open C&I 8:1 with an announcement for both book versions…and, as time permits, see whether it’s feasible to do earlier volumes in book form.
• I am going to Midwinter, and other than Saturday evening and Sunday early evening, my schedule’s still pretty much open. If you’d like to get together for something, send me a note. Given that I didn’t have a big network of local friends, telecommuting can be a trifle isolating–Midwinter will be a nice chance to spend some face-to-face time with people.
• If you’re wondering about the Academic Library Blogs project (is anyone?): The research portion is done. Now it’s a matter of crunching numbers, writing the first few chapters, editing the blog-based chapters, choosing a cover image…possibly sometime in January. Possibly later.
• You’re still invited to join the PALINET Leadership Network; go to PLN and click on “Log in/Create account” and create an account. Good stuff!

Have a good whatever it is you have. Enjoy; life’s too short not to.

Based on the overwhelming response to the availability of Cites & Insights 7: 2007 in book form (including the otherwise-unavailable Cites on a Plane phantom issue), I’ve decided to

Reduce the price!

It’s now the same price as other Cites & Insights Books: $29.50. Which, in this case, gets you a 405-page 8.5×11″ trade paperback.

I’m still thinking about doing previous volumes in book form–but certainly not because of anticipated sales (”overwhelming response” continues to add up to zero). For Volume 7, I finally figured out that the beautiful book version actually cost me less than doing another Velobound volume would. For earlier volumes, I already have the Velobound volumes, of course–but the book version’s a whole lot nicer and easier to use.

Is it worth it to have better versions of earlier volumes? Maybe. Not this week or next, but maybe. (Of course, given response, it’s unlikely that I’d write the promised introductory essays to earlier volumes.) Will sales eventually arise? Who knows? (Note that, if I did extract the two Library 2.0 essays from Volume 6 and publish them as a standalone volume, that volume would also cost $29.50.)

Meanwhile, work on the academic library blogs project has crawled nearly to a halt; given the response to the public library book, it’s hard not to prefer, say, taking another walk or reading a book to working on it. First priority, to be sure, other than home and family, is the PALINET Leadership Network–and that’s going just fine, with new content starting to appear in the next two days. I’ll be blogging more about that, I’m sure.

When I posted C&I Volume 7: Buy the book!” it was partly a leap of faith. Given past experience (and that I expected/expect fairly low sales, but thought a few libraries and people might spring for it), I didn’t wait for my own copy to arrive before opening it up for sale.

My copy arrived today. It looks great–with a couple mild caveats:

• As you can sort-of see if you look really closely at the small cover illustration, my attempt to blend the rest of the cover in with the sky color in the photo didn’t entirely work. There’s a band just above the picture and at the very top of the page that’s a little less greenish than either the sky in the picture or most of the upper part. Not sure how that happened, but I’m certainly not a CorelDraw expert (or Gimp expert, and don’t have enough use for photo-editing to spring for Adobe Elements). Let’s call it a feature rather than a flaw: A slight difference in decorative bands. (Hey, there’s still a little programmer/analyst in me…) On the other hand, the spine (type on that same background color) and back cover look great–the sign in front of Molokai Public Library against a partly-cloudy deep-blue and light-blue sky is, I think, a great shot.
• The book cover photos on page 1 of the April and October issues are grayscale because they had to be (I changed them before packaging up all the PDFs): You can’t have two color pages without having everything in color, which would be prohibitively expensive. The grayscale versions turn out very well, though.
• On my copy–but not necessarily anyone else’s–there are occasional signs that this is laser printing, that is, slightly irregular darkness at points. Not enough to be troublesome, or I’d ask for a replacement.

On the other hand: It is indeed bright-white 60lb. paper, the print is quite crisp, the margins are enough for the binding–and it makes the four Velobound and two tape-bound volumes look pretty sad by comparison. If there was any plausible reason to do so, I’d be tempted to try to put previous volumes out as paperbound books–they’re considerably easier to handle this way.

But given that zero sales volume, I can’t see any way to justify doing the work… Of course, it’s early yet.

Meanwhile, it looks great. And, to be sure, it’s the only way to get Cites on a Plane…

If you want it, it’s still $35, exclusively from Lulu.

Appreciate Cites & Insights? Want to support it? Why not pick up this year’s issues in a single, convenient, indexed, perfect-bound package?

Cites & Insights Volume 7, 2007 is available now, for $35 plus shipping, only from Lulu. (Amazon/CreateSpace doesn’t do full 8.5×11 books, so it’s not feasible to do a duplicate edition there.)

It’s a 405-page volume including everything you’ll find at the website–but also something you won’t find there: The 38-page phantom issue, Cites on a Plane, which was only available for ten days in January 2007, right around Midwinter. I believe it’s on bright white book paper, so it should read very well.

Oh, and as a bonus you get two library pictures–one from Alaska covering about half of the front cover, one from Hawaii covering the whole back cover.

I’d be delighted to autograph this or any of my other books during Midwinter, if you want them defaced. Chances are, I’ll be at the PALINET booth for some stretches, but I don’t know when–and, of course, I’ll be focusing on the PALINET Leadership Network then, but you can come look at the network and get a book signed.

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As noted earlier, I’d consider putting out book versions of (some) earlier volumes if there’s some demand for them, probably with a bonus essay in each volume. I’m not sure it’s feasible to do volumes of the pre-2005 volumes (there may be a PDF issue), but…

The Index to Volume 7 of Cites & Insights is now available for downloading. This 19-page document combines a title sheet and 17-page indexes, for those wishing to prepare a bound volume.

On the other hand, why bother?

For the low, low price of $35.00 (plus shipping), you can acquire Cites & Insights 7, 2007 in paperback form, including full-color cover. (Two library-related photos, one from Alaska, one from Hawaii.)

But wait! There’s more! The book version of C&I includes an exclusive bonus, not available anywhere else (as far as I know): Cites on a Plane, the phantom 38-page non-issue that was only available for two weeks in January 2007. It’s not in the index–but it is in the book.

What’s in COAP? Five moldy golden oldies:

• Perspective: Predicting the Future of Academic Libraries
• Net Media: Analogies, Gatekeepers and Blogging
• Perspective: You Just Can’t Comprehend
• Trends & Quick Takes: The Long Tail’s Thick Head
• Perspective: [40 of] Seventyfive Facets (the 40 actually written for Issue 75)

and an interesting example of Microsoft Word’s artificial stupidity at work,

• Library 2.0 for Short Attention Spans

or what you get when you ask Word XP for a 10% summary of the Library 2.0 special issue and half-issue followup essay.

Note: If there’s enough interest in having other print volumes of C&I, I’d certainly consider it, probably working back from Volume 6, possibly including a special prefatory essay in each volume.

What’s “enough interest”? Indirectly, if Volume 7 sells at least 50 copies over the next six months, I’ll take that as indication of some interest. Directly, if ten people send me email or leave comments saying “sure, I’d buy Volume X for $35,” I’ll consider it–but not until after Midwinter 2008.

And if nobody buys Volume 7 at all? Well, here’s the truth: I need a bound copy of each complete volume. The only place I know of to get a set of printouts bound at a reasonable price no longer offers perfect binding, and I’m not that fond of the Velobind results (although it’s better than spiral binding). When I added up the total cost of reprinting the issues on good paper, even with the relatively low per-page costs of my new Canon MP610, plus Velobind costs…it turns out that, at my lower author’s price, the Lulu perfectbound paperback won’t cost me much more and should look a whole lot better and be easier to use in future years. If some of you find the book version worthwhile, so much the better.

Cites & Insights 7:13, December 2007, is now available.

This 22-page issue–PDF as usual, but each essay is also available in HTML form, is another All-Perspectives Issue:

• Bibs & Blather Perspective: On Charting New Courses

In which I write off five decades in library automation with a 1.5-page non-memoir, summarize the start of an ongoing career in another 1.5 pages, and discuss new directions and what they may mean for the near-term future of Cites & Insights.

• Following Up: On the Literature

Various threads on the state of the professional literature of librarianship.

Note: It has been pointed out (thanks, Dorothea!) that a few words are missing at the very bottom of page 9. “If so, perhaps the answer is ejournals” should make the sentence more coherent (thanks, Pete, for the suggested wording).

• Trends & Quick Takes Perspective: On Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

With the help of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, a baker’s dozen assorted mini-perspectives on such topics as out of print in a PoD world, disk storage “too cheap to bill,” the means of creativity, the benefits of liblogs…and many more.

• Making it Work Perspective: On the Middle

If you’re not 100% with us, you’re against us. If you believe that to be true, you should just skip this essay altogether.

Note: While this is the final issue for 2007, it is not the end of Volume 7. There will be the usual volume index and title sheet, for those who might be binding C&I as a print publication. When? Hard to say; see Walt at Random for reasons why.