So many Rumors and I am way behind. Here are a few.

Was interested to see that, in the midst of all the gloom and doom about newspapers, Amazon has launched a wireless Kindle DX with a tabloid-fomat for ease of reading digital newspapers and magazines. Apparently, The New York Times and The Washington Post are planning to launch pilot editions for the Kindle DX this summer. As they say, the South will rise again!
See—“The Rise and Rise of e-readers,” by Michael Fitzpatrick. May 7, 2009, BBC News.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/technology/8037058.stm
And watch for Cris Ferguson’s upcoming article in ATG, June 2009 (v.21#3), “The Demise of the Print Newspaper.”

And, speaking of the NY Times, see this recent article from the New York Times --
Google Book-Scanning Pact to Give Libraries Input on Price,” by Miguel Helft. Apparently Google has signed an agreement with the University of Michigan that gives some libraries input over the prices that might be charged for the digital library that could be the outgrowth of the proposed book-scanning settlement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/technology/companies/21google.html
See also – “Google to Give Libraries Say on Prices for Scanned Books,” by Nancy Gohring, Computerworld, 5-22-09. http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=6CF2D981-1A64-67EA-E4C691C6FE23AC3A

The amened agreement is reproduced here. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwyaLgbe76jYT67hjn_0es...

Also worth looking is the excellent ALA Website on the Google Book Settlement. http://wo.ala.org/gbs/

Y’all. I have lots more, but grandson Trifon is awake and I have to go … Have a good Memorial Day. And I will try to be back tomorrow.

Was recently reading in the Chronicle of Higher Education (November 20, 2008) that Google is pulling the plug on its virtual world called Lively December 31, 2008. Google unveiled Lively in July 2008. The winner in the virtual world so far seems to be Second Life. I have been invited several times to join friends in Second Life, but, frankly, I don't have time to fool with the virtual world. The real world is enough for me and it includes plenty of virtual business. That's my minor rant. Would be interested in hearing your comments about virtual worlds.
http://www.chronicle.com/
http://www.lively.com/html/shutdown.html

Interesting article in The Wall Street Journal for November 17, 2009 discussing the Google settlement and its focus on the five million books that are still in copyright but are no longer in print. As part of the settlement, Google will offer to sell these books and share the proceeds with publishers and authors. As we all know, this differs from Google's usual method of making content available free with advertising-supported links. See -- "Markets Declare Truce on Copyright Wars, Google concedes that information isn't free," WSJ, 11/17/2008.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1222688619008032339.html

Some encouraging news! The Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers (AAP), and Google have just announced a settlement agreement on behalf of a broad class of authors and publishers worldwide that would expand online access to millions of in-copyright books and other written materials in the U.S. from the collections of a number of major U.S. libraries participating in Google Book Search. The agreement, reached after two years of negotiations, would resolve a class-action lawsuit brought by book authors and the Authors Guild, as well as a separate lawsuit filed by five large publishers as representatives of the AAP’s membership. The class action is subject to approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Under the agreement, Google will make payments totaling $125 million. The money will be used to establish the Book Rights Registry, to resolve existing claims by authors and publishers and to cover legal fees. The settlement agreement resolves Authors Guild v. Google, a class-action suit filed on September 20, 2005 by the Authors Guild and certain authors, and a suit filed on October 19, 2005 by five major publisher-members of the Association of American Publishers: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MHP); Pearson Education, Inc. and Penguin Group (USA) Inc., both part of Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO); John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa and JWb); and Simon & Schuster, Inc. part of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS). These lawsuits challenged Google’s plan to digitize, search, and show snippets of in-copyright books and to share digital copies with libraries without the explicit permission of the copyright owner. Holders worldwide of U.S. copyrights can register their works with the Book Rights Registry and receive compensation from institutional subscriptions, book sales, ad revenues and other possible revenue models, as well as a cash payment if their works have already been digitized. For more information on the settlement, including FAQs and remarks from AAP Chairman Richard Sarnoff, please see http://www.publishers.org