Cites & Insights January 2011 now available

Cites & Insights 11:1 (January 2011) is now available for downloading.

The 32-page issue is a PDF download as usual. HTML separates--or, in one case, PDF separate--are available for most essays; follow the links below.

This issue includes:

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Announcing The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 (and a pre-Midwinter early-bird discount) and Cites & Insights 10 in book form (also with a pre-Midwinter discount).

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pp. 2-9)

Sixteen products and eight roundups/Editors' Choices, from USB 3.0 to Windows 7 on an 11-year-old PC.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010: Chapter 3: How, Where and When (pp. 9-18)

[Note: This link is to a 6x9" PDF.] Six aspects of most or all of the 1,304 liblogs in this massive study: How they're created (blogging software), where they're written (country of origin), how visible they are (Google Page Rank), when they began, how long they've lasted and currency (a timed snapshot of freshness of posts).

Trends & Quick Takes (pp. 18-24)

From scientific articles as stories to asking professional writers for favors: five mini-essays and another five quicker takes.

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 22-24)

Three title CD-ROMs related to national parks--and a somewhat downbeat group of mini-reviews. Well, except that nps.gov is such a great contemporary resource.

Offtopic Perspective: Legends of Horror Part 2 (pp. 24-29)

Great and very good films: None. Films I wasn't willing to watch all the way through: Two. I'm done with this set, in more ways than one.

My Back Pages (pp. 29-32)

A bonus for those who download the issue as a PDF. Nine snarky little writeups on various topics--including an ingenious (but dumb) way to attempt to evade copyright.

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There will not be a special Midwinter issue of Cites & Insights, particularly given the early timing of ALA Midwinter 2011 and the fact that I won't be attending.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 now available

One of the occasional exceptions to the "just announcements of C&I" rule for this blog--because C&I Books and the ejournal are closely linked.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010

The most comprehensive study of liblogs (and, I suspect, the most comprehensive study of blogs in any specific field) is now available--and discounted from now through the end of ALA Midwinter 2011.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 looks at every English-language liblog

[that is, blog by a self-identified library/archives/museum person, or blog about library/archives/museum issues, that isn't an official blog offering an institution's or groups views]

that had a presence on the open web in early summer 2010 and at least one post before June 1, 2010.

That's 1,304 liblogs in all, from more than two dozen countries.

Even though this book doesn't include profiles for individual liblogs (unlike The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008, now out of print, and But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009, still available), it covers so much ground and with so much analysis of the recent history of English-language liblogs that the book is still a fairly thick paperback--241 print pages (including 4 pages of front matter and a 20-page index of blogs).

The book looks at key metrics for March-May 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010: Primarily number of posts, average length per post and average comments per post, as well as changes in those metrics and patterns of metrics, but also total length and total comments.

Additionally, the book includes discussion of the overall lifespan, number of posts, and posts per month for most of the blogs--and other secondary metrics such as the software, country in which the blog was (apparently) written, when blogs began and how current the most recent post was (as of May 31, 2010).

On sale now

The 241-page 6x9" (trade) paperback, on 60# cream book paper, costs $35.00--or you can buy the PDF download for $22.50.

From now through the end of ALA Midwinter 2011, both versions come with an early-bird 25% discount, for a final price of $26.25 (plus shipping and handling) paperback, $16.88 (no shipping or handling) PDF.

But wait! There's more...

I didn't include individual liblog profiles this time around because the book would have been far too thick (at about three profiles per page, that's another 430+ pages!) and because the profiles are too much work for the apparently limited audience.

But the profiles are also interesting. So here's an offer:

For each copy sold, I'll post four individual blog profiles on Walt at Random...doing them in absolute alphabetic order. (I'd probably post four profiles at a time.)

"Absolute alphabetic order" is the sort order Excel provides including initial articles, punctuation and all.

So if the book sells 326 copies, I'll post all the profiles...sooner or later.

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Wondering when the first Cites & Insights for 2011 (volume 11) will appear?

The most I can say at this point is: Almost certainly before ALA Midwinter 2011. Certainly not this week, almost certainly not next week, maybe not in 2010.