I said I’d post as soon as Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples was available at Amazon.
It seems to be available now, although it might not ship until September 14. (CreateSpace requires a formal publication date, which can’t be changed once assigned…similarly, it’s possible that Amazon copies of Balanced Libraries won’t ship until September 1, but that’s the day after tomorrow.)
At the moment, I think the only way you can find the book is by its ISBN, either 10-digit (143480559X) or 13-digit (978-1434085591). I’d guess that other search terms–Walt Crawford, Public Library Blogs, etc.–should work in a day or two, since that was the pattern with Balanced Libraries. Saturday, September 1: Other search terms now retrieve the book.
So far, the footer here and on my two other sites links directly to the Cites & Insights Books page at Lulu and the individual estore pages at CreateSpace, for those who prefer the bright-white interior paper and don’t mind slightly poorer cover quality.
I’ll probably leave it that way. I certainly understand why you might prefer to buy the books from Amazon–free shipping, you probably already have an Amazon account, you’re more comfortable with the firm–and that’s fine: Whatever way you choose to buy the book (or books!) is great. I get less revenue from Amazon copies (about $3 less per copy), but that’s OK too–actually, if you’re saving $3 on shipping, we’re square.
Which to buy? Your call, and I’ll probably discuss this in the October C&I (which may be delayed to very late September, for “job”-related reasons). The covers seem to be better at Lulu. The paper from Lulu is prettier and more traditional…but the paper from CreateSpace/Amazon (OK, BookSurge, which is the agency doing the production) may result in better readability. I think Amazon production cycles are shorter. As an author, I appreciate the fact that Lulu lets me have one customized storefront for multiple books–turns out CreateSpace won’t do that.
Anyway: It’s there. It continues to be a book that would benefit most public libraries (and absolutely belongs in every library school library!) and maybe some academic libraries.
First cut on the Academic Library Blogs project, incidentally: 211 blogs from 169 libraries (not quite that many institutions)–and yes, England is represented this time. So are Wales and Scotland and Australia and Botswana and New Zealand. And, of course, several provinces in Canada–more than in the current book.
