Cites & Insights 13:11 (November 2013) available

The November 2013 Cites & Insights (13:11) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ13i11.pdf

The issue is 36 pages long. The "online version," designed for reading online or on a tablet or large-screen ereader, is 69 pages long.

This issue includes:

The Front: Erehwon Community Library: A $4 to $1 Example pp. 1-4

An example of what a library could derive from $4 to $1: Public Library Benefits and Budgets, using a mythical "median library" that's the average of the two public libraries with precisely median service population. (This essay is very similar to a September 27, 2013 post at Walt at Random, except that the post misspells the library name.)

Words: The Ebook Marketplace pp. 4-30

It's been a while since I've looked at a range of ebook-related issues. This roundup covers up to four years--and it's really Part 1 (of at least two and maybe three or four parts). It includes items related to ebook devices, competition, collusion, DRM, stupidity, ebooks going beyond narrative text, "what's a book?" and miscellany. (Part 2 will include sales, pricing, software, history and future--and probably lots more.)

The Back pp. 30-36

Sixteen mostly-snarky little essays on a range of topics--including one that's really not snarky: What if a stereo magazine had three successive reviews of three different speaker systems, found all of them excellent--and the three were priced (per pair) at $106,800, $29,800 and $159.99 respectively? (Yes, that's a decimal point in the third price.) Oh, and what if the second and third were designed by the same designer--who added his signature to the nameplate of the $159.99 version?

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Reverting to form

For the last few issues, announcements didn't link directly to the PDF(s). Instead, announcements linked to the C&I home page, which now has the "Pay What You Wish" section just above the current issue table of contents and links. I was hoping this speed bump--adding one click to the process of getting to the issue--would encourage a few more people to contribute. I think it worked. A little bit. For a while. But it's now one day shy of three months since there's been a donation. So, at least for now, I'm reverting to the direct links. Of course, I'd still very much appreciate donations. Of course, donations would still encourage me to keep going with C&I. Oh, and it's still the case that donating $50 or more will get you a PDF version of Your Library Is... if you want it.