Ah yes, the internet's favorite pastime: digitizing a 372-year-old snooze fest under the guise of "Project Gutenberg" to make sure no one in the 21st century ever reads it. 🤓📜 Bless those brave #transcribers for valiantly preserving every yawn-inducing detail while we all pretend to care. 😂
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm #digitization #ProjectGutenberg #bookpreservation #internetculture #HackerNews #ngated
Leviathan | Project Gutenberg

Hungary's oldest library is fighting to save 100,000 books from a beetle infestation

A rare beetle infestation is threatening 100,000 historic books at Hungary’s 1,000-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey.

NBC News

hey, so I scanned the manual and schematics for the TYK 91 D camera and post processed it using scantailor but I'm having a hard time actually turning the tiff files it generates into a PDF.
I had kinda assumed scantailor could do that but it can't? Any tips here for how to go about that? I tried pdfbeads cause I read about that online but I can't get the thing to install and I really don't feel like fucking around with ruby…

Any help would be great appreciated.

#bookpreservation #preservation #digitalpreservation

Book friends, did I miss something? Why does only one of my usual retailers still sell any paper/Mylar dust jacket covers at all? My libraries and my bookstore are still using them, so where are they getting them? Simple Mylar sheets aren't what I need, but it's all Gaylord seems to be offering.

#bookConservation #libraries #booksellers #bookPreservation

#bookpreservation question: I have access to a book collection that needs cleaning but I need to identify the contaminate. It shows as reddish dots all over the paperback spines and shelves. Do any of my #librarian contacts know?

Big publishing houses often buy out small, independent publishers, just to push them (and their books) into oblivion! The #internetArchive was helping to keep those books from being lost to history!

The End of Progressive Book Publishing in the Age of Monopoly Capital?

Tom Engelhardt 09/28/2022

"After all, like Pantheon, at the moment of its demise, it was a lively, deeply progressive operation, churning out powerful new titles — until, that is, it was essentially shut down when Sara, a miraculous publisher like André, was shown the door along with her staff. Bam! What did it matter that, thanks to her, Metropolitan still occupied a space filled by no other house in mainstream publishing? Nothing obviously, not to Holt, or assumedly Macmillan, the giant American publishing conglomerate of which it was a part, or the German Holtzbrinck Publishing Group that owns Macmillan.

"How strange that we’re in a world where two such publishing houses, among the best and most politically challenging around, could find that there simply was no place for them as progressive publishers in the mainstream. André [Schiffrin], who died in 2013, responded by launching an independent publishing house, #TheNewPress, an admirable undertaking. In terms of the #DispatchBooks I still put out from time to time, I find myself in a similar world, dealing with another adventurous independent publishing outfit, #HaymarketBooks.

"Still, what an eerie mainstream we now inhabit, don’t we?

"I mean, when it comes to what capitalism is doing on this planet of ours, book publishing is distinctly small (even if increasingly mashed) potatoes. After all, we’re talking about a world where giant fossil-fuel companies with still-soaring profits are all too willing to gaslight the public while quite literally burning the place up — or perhaps I mean flooding the place out. (Don’t you wonder sometimes what the CEOs of such companies are going to tell their grandchildren?)."

#Libraries #Publishers #Books #Corporations #Monopoly #Censorship #Copyright #Authors #BookPreservation #History #Culture #SmallPublishers #IndepedentPublishers #ProgressivePublishers

https://www.juancole.com/2022/09/progressive-publishing-monopoly.html

The End of Progressive Book Publishing in the Age of Monopoly Capital?

( Tomdispatch.com) - No one listened better than Studs. For those of you old enough to remember, that’s Studs Terkel, of course. The most notable thing about him in person, though, was this: the greatest interviewer of his moment, perhaps of any moment, never stopped talking, except, of course, when he was listening to produce one of his memorable bestselling oral histories — he essentially created the form — ranging from Working and Hard Times to The Good War. I still remember him calling my house. He was old, his hearing was going, and he couldn’t tell that my teenage

Informed Comment

Want to borrow that #ebook from the #library? Sorry, #Amazon won’t let you.

May 10, 2021

"Its #monopoly is stopping public #libraries from lending e-books and audiobooks from Mindy Kaling, Dean Koontz, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Trevor Noah, Andy Weir, Michael Pollan and a whole lot more"

#Libraries #Publishers #Books #Corporations #Monopoly #Censorship #Copyright #Authors #BookPreservation #History #Culture #InternetArchive #IA
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/amazon-library-ebook-monopoly/

Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you.

Its monopoly is costing public libraries e-books and audiobooks from Mindy Kaling, Dean Koontz, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Trevor Noah and a whole lot more.

The Washington Post

Hold the presses: Feds say #publishing merger would create #monopoly

by Alexandra Jones / November 2, 2021

"The Department of Justice went to court Tuesday to stop the creation of one large book publisher, 'towering over its rivals,' that would result if Penguin Random House is allowed to merge with Simon and Schuster.

"Just five major publishers control the U.S. publishing industry today, and each regularly offers authors high advances and extensive marketing, as well as editorial support, to create best-selling books. While smaller publishers occasionally sign anticipated top sellers, they often can’t shoulder high author advances required and face greater financial turbulence when such books that don't sell as expected.

"The merger was arranged by the publishing groups’ parent companies last year when Penguin Random House’s owner, German media group Bertelsmann, agreed to buy Simon and Schuster from ViacomCBS. The acquisition would give Penguin Random House access to a barrage of Simon and Schuster’s bestselling authors, such as Stephen King and Bob Woodward, as well as classic titles like 'The Great Gatsby' and 'Fahrenheit 451.'

"'If the world’s largest book publisher is permitted to acquire one of its biggest rivals, it will have unprecedented control over this important industry,' Garland said in a press release rolled out alongside the complaint. 'American authors and consumers will pay the price of this anticompetitive merger – lower advances for authors and ultimately fewer books and less variety for consumers.'"

#Libraries #Publishers #Books #Corporations #Monopoly #Censorship #Copyright #Authors #BookPreservation #History #Culture

Read more: https://www.courthousenews.com/hold-the-presses-feds-say-publishing-merger-would-create-monopoly/

Hold the presses: Feds say publishing merger would create monopoly

The Department of Justice went to court Tuesday to stop the creation of one large book publisher,

Today, with the lower court decision against the #InternetArchive, the #USA took another step toward complete and total #Fascism. What can you do? TAKE ACTION!

- Stand up for libraries ✊
Stand up for the digital rights of all libraries! Join the Battle for Libraries: https://www.battleforlibraries.com/

- Support the Internet Archive 📚
Support the Internet Archive to continue fighting for libraries in court! Donate at the link below.
https://archive.org/donate

- Stay connected 🔗
Sign up for the Empowering Libraries newsletter for ongoing updates about the lawsuit and the InternetArchive library.
https://empoweringlibraries.org/get-involved/

#Libraries #Publishers #Books #Corporations #Monopoly #DigitalLibraries #Censorship #Copyright #FairUse #PublicCommons #DigitalCommons #Authors #BookPreservation #History #Culture #CDL

Battle for Libraries

Don’t let libraries die. As the future goes digital, major publishers are suing to cut off libraries’ defense of digital books from censorship. It’s time to fight back.

Fight for the Future

Update about the court decision regarding the #InternetArchive

March 25, 2023 by chrisfreeland

"Today’s lower court decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve. This decision impacts libraries across the US who rely on controlled digital lending to connect their patrons with books online. It hurts authors by saying that unfair licensing models are the only way their books can be read online. And it holds back access to information in the digital age, harming all readers, everywhere.

"But it’s not over—we will keep fighting for the traditional right of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books. We will be appealing the judgment and encourage everyone to come together as a community to support libraries against this attack by corporate publishers.

"We will continue our work as a library. This case does not challenge many of the services we provide with digitized books including interlibrary loan, citation linking, access for the print-disabled, text and data mining, purchasing ebooks, and ongoing donation and preservation of books."

#Libraries #Publishers #Books #Corporations #Monopoly #DigitalLibraries #Censorship #Copyright #FairUse #PublicCommons #DigitalCommons #Authors #BookPreservation #History #Culture #CDL

https://blog.archive.org/2023/03/25/the-fight-continues/

The Fight Continues - Internet Archive Blogs

Today’s lower court decision in Hachette v. Internet Archive is a blow to all libraries and the communities we serve. This decision impacts libraries across the US who rely on controlled digital lending to connect their patrons with books online. It hurts authors by saying that unfair licensing models are the only way their books […]

Internet Archive Blogs