Cites & Insights 9 available as trade paperback

Cites & Insights 9 (2009) is now available as a 434-page, 8.5x11, trade paperback, exclusively from Lulu.

The volume includes all 13 issues, exactly as published (typos and all), except that the two book covers in the January issue are in grayscale, not color.

It also includes a contents list showing the articles and pages in each issue, and a volume index.

The price is $50, for either the paperback or a PDF download; a portion of that price goes to support the ongoing publication of Cites & Insights.

The book is printed on bright-white 50lb. paper (my copy looks great!).

As to the cover (a wraparound color photo--you're only seeing the front part here):

Taken by my wife on Molokai, years ago, on the Kaluakakoi golf course running alongside our room at what was then, I believe, a Sheraton at the Ke Nani Kai resort on Molokai's isolated west coast. (The hotel's been closed for some time...tourism on Molokai is an iffy thing.) The only manipulation done to the picture (scanned from a 3x4 print) was to flip it horizontally, so most of the tree would be on the front cover rather than the back. Crappy type position is entirely my responsibility.

Cites & Insights volume 9 indexes now available

The indexes and title sheet for Cites & Insights volume 9 (2009) is now available.

The 16-page PDF consists of a title sheet, a three-page index of articles and blog posts quoted, and an 11-page general index.

This completes Volume 9.

A paperback version of Cites & Insights 9: 2009 will be available some time in the next few weeks. (I need to choose a photograph, prepare a cover and prepare the book for print-on-demand publication, and a few other things have higher priority.) It will cost $50 and be available exclusively through Lulu, as with each of the previous three paperback volumes.

Cites & Insights 9:13 now available

Cites & Insights 9:13 (December 2009) is now available.

The 32-page issue (PDF as usual, but HTML separates are available--see the links below, and also the caveat about the second item) includes:

Bibs & Blather

It's the end of a volume (except for the index, later in November) and the end of an era--YBP's five-year sponsorship. I'm looking for a new sponsor. Also, But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009 should be out some time this year...

Making it Work: Purpose, Values and All That Jazz

Commentaries on library values and purpose, including some upbeat commentaries. What's not here: any commentaries on Taiga, Darien or 101. Caveat: The HTML version is provided for online reading--but if you print it out, it will almost certainly be longer than the PDF of the entire issue. Save paper: If you want this printed, do the whole issue.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Classics, Part 2

From "comedy in the classical sense" (that is, most characters survive throughout the film) to little-known but quite funny British films and two versions of a Ben Hecht play, with different genders playing the same lead.

Reminder: This isn't quite the end of Volume 9. Some time later, probably in November, I'll publish the index and title page--but for those who want a bound set of Volume 9, there's a better route: Some time after that, I'll publish the whole volume (by far the longest to date, and that was not intentional) on Lulu, for the same $50 as volumes 6, 7 and 8.

Cites & Insights 9:12 now available

Yes, I know it's pretty early in October for the November issue--but it's ready, and I wanted to stay well out of the way of Open Access Week, so...

Cites & Insights 9:12 (November 2009) is now available

This 34-page issue (PDF as usual, but an HTML version is available if you plan to read it online) consists of one essay:

Library Access to Scholarship

A year's worth of source material and commentary, organized into:
Mandates, Policies and Compacts
The Colors of OA
Numbers
Scandal!
Framing and Mysteries
The Problem(s) with Green OA
Quality, Value and Progress
Miscellany
Conclusion

Chances are, this is the last hurrah for Library Access to Scholarship and my semi-active independent commentary on open access. To coin a phrase, this may be the optimal and inevitable conclusion to close to a decade of work in this area.

One note (repeated at the start of the HTML version): Please don't use the HTML version if you plan to print more than a small portion of the essay. The PDF issue prints out as 34 pages. Depending on your browser and other settings, the HTML version will require 48 to 51 pages, possibly more. (I happen to think the PDF version is a lot more readable as well, but that's probably only true if you're reading in print--which is why I make the HTML version available.)

Cites & Insights 9:11 now available

Cites & Insights 9:11 (October 2009) is now available.

The 30-page issue is, as usual, PDF, with HTML separates available for most of the essays. The issue includes:

Bibs & Blather

Sponsorship still needed, status reports on Cites & Insights Books (one book gone, one going soon...and a new project underway), and one more chance (11 days) to help me decide whether to keep Library Access to Scholarship.

Perspective: Writing about Reading 4

A variety of perspectives on that long-time favorite, The Death of (Print) Books.

Trends & Quick Takes

Seven mini-commentaries and six quicker takes...including a slightly skeptical take on Wolfram|Alpha and fanboy commentators.

Copyright Currents

Musings on fair use--and why it's important that it's an exception to copyright protections, not just a defense against infringement. (Would'ja believe dancing babies?)

My Back Pages

Always a bonus for full-issue readers (it's never available in HTML), this brief installment includes five brief snarky commentaries.

Cites & Insights 9:10 (September 2009) available

Cites & Insights 9:10 (September 2009) is now available.

This 28-page issue includes the results of two followup "research" projects and a certain amount of summer silliness. The issue is PDF. While three of the four essays are available in HTML form (as links from the essay titles below), I really don't recommend viewing either of the research projects that way--they're heavy on tables, and it's fair to say that Word's HTML converter was overzealous in its preparation of tables: They may or may not look very good, and they result in quarter-megabyte downloads. The PDF version is much easier to read...

Here's what's in the issue--and yes, some of the "regular" features may return soon:

Perspective: Public Library Blogs: A Limited Update

I looked at May 2009 posts and comments, and the most recent post prior to May 31, 2009, for all of the public library blogs in the book Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples (based on blog activity March-May 2007). This update considers currency, frequency, comments and conversational intensity and how those have changed from 2007 to 2009--and includes brief notes on pioneer blogs and some of the blogs I found particularly intriguing. (The HTML is large and may not look all that great.) With this update, my work on these blogs is complete--and the spreadsheet's yours for the taking, if you're so inclined.

Offtopic Perspective: Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins

I didn't buy this 4-disc, 20-movie (actually 18 movies, two TV episodes, and a great hour's worth of trailers); I received it as a gift. The usual little reviews on a bunch of movies that you might find unusual if you only know the Hollywood Hitchcock.

Perspective: Academic Library Blogs: A Limited Update

Similar to the public library blogs update noted above, this looks at currency (prior to May 31, 2009), posting frequency, comments and conversational intensity for May 2009 of the same 231 academic library blogs included in Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples--or as many of those blogs as I could still easily find. The discussion includes brief notes on pioneers and some of the standout blogs in 2007--how they're doing in 2009. Again, this ends my work in this area; the resulting spreadsheet is yours for the taking.

My Back Pages

As usual, this section is a "print bonus"--it's only available in the full-issue PDF. That's particularly relevant for one of the eight little essays in this section (discussing the typeface that spawned a worldwide movement to ban it). For those who've felt My Back Pages spent too much virtual ink on audio matters: Only the two shortest of these eight commentaries have anything to do with audio, and in one case that connection is a stretch.

That's it for this issue--which, as Whole Issue 120, would have been the final issue of C&I's first decade if I'd stuck to the original frequency.

Meanwhile, do note that Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples (currently available as a download from Lulu or a trade paperback from Amazon/CreateSpace) will go out of print and off sale on or about September 1, 2009. Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples will probably follow, a month later.

Cites & Insights 9:9 (August 2009) available

Cites & Insights 9:9 (August 2009) is now available--just in time for the 2009 ALA Annual Conference. That's not a coincidence, to be sure; although the issue may not be directly relevant to the conference, if I didn't publish it now, it wouldn't be out until at least July 19.

This one's 32 pages, PDF as usual, but those who detest PDF or otherwise really need HTML can download the three articles separately.

The issue includes:

Perspective: Writing about Reading 3

The theme for this installment: Rethinking books and rethinking reading. Which means most of the long essay is about ebooks and ebook devices. (How long? A little more than half the issue, that's how long.)

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Classics, Part 1

What's funny is generally in the eye of the beholder, although I suppose there may be objective criteria for labeling a flick a comedy. Watching the many early shorts and early movies in this first half of a 12-DVD collection was sometimes hilarious, frequently a little painful. (If I never see another East Side Kids "comedy" that will be just fine with me.) There's some gold here--and some dross as well.

Making it Work: Library 2.0 Revisited

A large handful of items spread out over almost two years--very much a once over lightly. (Yes, Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0" continues to be downloaded almost as often as any current issue. $0.25 for each copy downloaded would nicely cover sponsorship for the next 18 months...)