Notes: No Outsourcing for Brown Bookstore
The Brown Bookstore will not be outsourced by Brown University.
Yesterday, according to the New England Booksellers Association, the university, in Providence, R.I., issued a "memorandum" that indicated the bookstore review committee has ended plans to lease out the store. "[T]he Administration has decided that the Bookstore will continue to operate as an independent store," the memo said, adding that the strong campaign supporting the bookstore in its current form impressed upon the committee "that there is strong campus community support for maintaining the independence of the Brown Bookstore."
In the end, NEBA said, the committee agreed that the decision wasn't just about two competing economic models, both "viable" options, but something deeper, rooted in character: "the committee also believes Brown's values, culture and customers can be best represented and successfully served at this time in a self-operated store."
For its part, the Save the Bookstore Coalition, which mounted a strong defense of the store, wrote to its supporters: "With your help, we have become the first institution among our peers to prevent our university bookstore from being outsourced to an outside vendor. This is no small accomplishment, and we could have never done this without all of your support. Together, we have ensured that the Brown Bookstore will continue to serve the Providence community as an independent retailer."
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Henriette D. Avram, credited with "developing the automated cataloging system that rendered printed cards obsolete," as the New York Times put it, died on April 22. She was 86.
After learning computer programming and data processing, Avram, who was not a librarian by training, joined the Library of Congress in 1965 and headed the MARC (machine readable cataloging) project. By 1969, the Library began sending bibliographic records on tapes to libraries. In 1971, Marc became the national standard for electronic cataloging, and in 1973 it became the international standard.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington called her as "a pioneer of the information age at the Library of Congress," the Washington Post wrote.
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Barnes & Noble has signed a lease agreement for a new store in Florence, S.C., in the Magnolia Mall at I-20 and I-95. Scheduled to open in April 2007, the new store will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a cafe serving Starbucks coffee.
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Unbridled Books, which is trying a new way of distributing Golem Song by Marc Estrin--posting a chapter a week on its Web site until its traditional pub date in November and offering author podcasts on his Web site, as outlined here yesterday--is taking a different tack with another aspect of the book.
In lieu of printing galleys, the publisher has decided to offer booksellers a free subscription to the online postings, which otherwise costs $8. Booksellers should e-mail Caitlin Hamilton Summie at Unbridled to sign up.
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Congratulations to another bookseller/author: Elizabeth Bluemle, owner of the Flying Pig in Charlotte, Vt., whose first picture book has just been released. My Father the Dog illustrated by Randy Cecil (Candlewick Press, $15.99, 0763622222) is a Book Sense children's summer pick. Kirkus Reviews called it "Tail-wagging hilarity that's simply doggone funny--and a perfect Father's Day gift."
In June, Bluemle will tour some of northern New England's best bookstores, including the Book Rack, Essex Junction, Vt., Toadstool, Milford, N.H., Norwich, Norwich, Vt., the Book Cellar, Brattleboro, Vt., Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., and the Country Bookseller, Wolfeboro, N.H.--not to mention the Flying Pig.
[Thanks to Tracy Miracle of Candlewick!]
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In its entirety, here's an item from yesterday's Washington Post about celebrity sightings:
"Donald Rumsfeld, drawing stares Sunday afternoon as he browsed at Politics & Prose on Connecticut Avenue. 'He's not a member, is he?' a customer asked a clerk, referring to the discount program at the chattering-class clubhouse. The clerk assured her he was not."
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The PEN American Center has announced its 2006 literary award winners, who include Philip Roth, winner of the $20,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for lifetime achievement and author most recently of Everyman (Houghton Mifflin, $24, 061873516X), and Linda Gregg, winner of the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. For the full list of prizes, winners and finalists, go to PEN's Web site.
Yesterday, according to the New England Booksellers Association, the university, in Providence, R.I., issued a "memorandum" that indicated the bookstore review committee has ended plans to lease out the store. "[T]he Administration has decided that the Bookstore will continue to operate as an independent store," the memo said, adding that the strong campaign supporting the bookstore in its current form impressed upon the committee "that there is strong campus community support for maintaining the independence of the Brown Bookstore."
In the end, NEBA said, the committee agreed that the decision wasn't just about two competing economic models, both "viable" options, but something deeper, rooted in character: "the committee also believes Brown's values, culture and customers can be best represented and successfully served at this time in a self-operated store."
For its part, the Save the Bookstore Coalition, which mounted a strong defense of the store, wrote to its supporters: "With your help, we have become the first institution among our peers to prevent our university bookstore from being outsourced to an outside vendor. This is no small accomplishment, and we could have never done this without all of your support. Together, we have ensured that the Brown Bookstore will continue to serve the Providence community as an independent retailer."
---
Henriette D. Avram, credited with "developing the automated cataloging system that rendered printed cards obsolete," as the New York Times put it, died on April 22. She was 86.
After learning computer programming and data processing, Avram, who was not a librarian by training, joined the Library of Congress in 1965 and headed the MARC (machine readable cataloging) project. By 1969, the Library began sending bibliographic records on tapes to libraries. In 1971, Marc became the national standard for electronic cataloging, and in 1973 it became the international standard.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington called her as "a pioneer of the information age at the Library of Congress," the Washington Post wrote.
---
Barnes & Noble has signed a lease agreement for a new store in Florence, S.C., in the Magnolia Mall at I-20 and I-95. Scheduled to open in April 2007, the new store will stock close to 200,000 book, music, DVD and magazine titles and include a cafe serving Starbucks coffee.
---
Unbridled Books, which is trying a new way of distributing Golem Song by Marc Estrin--posting a chapter a week on its Web site until its traditional pub date in November and offering author podcasts on his Web site, as outlined here yesterday--is taking a different tack with another aspect of the book.
In lieu of printing galleys, the publisher has decided to offer booksellers a free subscription to the online postings, which otherwise costs $8. Booksellers should e-mail Caitlin Hamilton Summie at Unbridled to sign up.
---
Congratulations to another bookseller/author: Elizabeth Bluemle, owner of the Flying Pig in Charlotte, Vt., whose first picture book has just been released. My Father the Dog illustrated by Randy Cecil (Candlewick Press, $15.99, 0763622222) is a Book Sense children's summer pick. Kirkus Reviews called it "Tail-wagging hilarity that's simply doggone funny--and a perfect Father's Day gift."
In June, Bluemle will tour some of northern New England's best bookstores, including the Book Rack, Essex Junction, Vt., Toadstool, Milford, N.H., Norwich, Norwich, Vt., the Book Cellar, Brattleboro, Vt., Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, Vt., and the Country Bookseller, Wolfeboro, N.H.--not to mention the Flying Pig.
[Thanks to Tracy Miracle of Candlewick!]
---
In its entirety, here's an item from yesterday's Washington Post about celebrity sightings:
"Donald Rumsfeld, drawing stares Sunday afternoon as he browsed at Politics & Prose on Connecticut Avenue. 'He's not a member, is he?' a customer asked a clerk, referring to the discount program at the chattering-class clubhouse. The clerk assured her he was not."
---
The PEN American Center has announced its 2006 literary award winners, who include Philip Roth, winner of the $20,000 PEN/Nabokov Award for lifetime achievement and author most recently of Everyman (Houghton Mifflin, $24, 061873516X), and Linda Gregg, winner of the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry. For the full list of prizes, winners and finalists, go to PEN's Web site.
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Frederica Hatch, sixteen years old in the late '70s, has been raised in a brick dormitory on the campus of a women's college outside Boston. Her parents, liberal-to-a-fault professors David and Aviva ("two bleeding hearts that beat as one"), supervise the dorm, and Frederica was not only born to instant celebrity, but grows up the center of attention for each successive class. In her early teens, she was taken for a baby-faced classmate at the school, which distressed her: "I had no intention of blending in. I wanted to be who I'd become, the Eloise of Dewing College." At the same time, she chafes against her privileged status and her politically passionate parents: "While I spent a good deal of my own time cultivating a prematurely sardonic view of life, I secretly longed to be what my parents scorned the most--conventional."