EBSCO Publishing has purchased NISC, Inc. NISC databases include Family & Society Studies Worldwide, Gender Studies Database, Woman’s Studies International, and Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide. Many of the databases acquired from NISC are already available on EBSCOhost and several others will soon migrate to the EBSCOhost platform.
www.ebscohost.com/academic.

The author and playwright Alan Bennett is presenting his papers as a gift to the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. The comprehensive archive comprises materials, letters, and manuscripts relating to a distinguished literary career which began with the revue Beyond the Fringe in 1960 and has spanned nearly five decades.

After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor will abandon its weekday print edition and appear online only. The paper is currently published Monday through Friday, and will move to online only in April, although it will also introduce a weekend magazine. John Yemma, The Monitor’s editor, said that moving to a Web focus will mean it can keep its eight foreign bureaus open. Despite its reputation, the Monitor's circulation had slipped to 52,000 from 220,000 in 1970. Under the new system, reporters will file stories to the Web and update them severall times a day plus write longer pieces for the weekend magazine. "We certainly know that newsmagazines are cratering," Mr. Yemma sais. "We're under no illusions about it being a growth vehicle." See "Christian Science Paper to End Daily Print Edition," by Stephanie Clifford, The New York Times, October 29, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/business/media/29paper.html?hp
And many thanks to John Riley for pointing this out!

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

Thanks to Ann Okerson and Liblicense for pointing out The Elsevier Article 2.0 Contest! Elsevier Labs is inviting creative individuals who have wanted the opportunity to view and work with journal article content on the Web to enter the Elsevier Article 2.0 Contest. Each contestant will be provided online access to approximately 7,500 full-text XML articles from Elsevier journals, including the associated images, and the Elsevier Article 2.0 API to develop a unique yet useful web-based journal article rendering application. What if you were the publisher? Show your preference!
http://article20.elsevier.com/contest/home.html

If you aren't at the Charleston Conference and you are in the San Francisco area instead, try this event! Rumors of the book's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Reportedly, there's been a resurgence in interest in books and bookmaking which is a welcome tune to this librarian's ears! The San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB) will host the 5th Annual SFCB Gala Party and Live Auction to take place from 6pm until 10pm Friday, November 7, 2008, at SFCB, 300 DeHaro Street in San Francisco. All proceeds from this annual fundraising event support the programs of the San Francisco Center for the Book. The SFCB provides both a home for Bay Area book artists and a place where the wider community of experienced practitioners and newcomers alike can discover book arts. SFCB workshops foster learning at all levels – from introductory classes to yearlong courses, traditional bookbinding to cutting-edge printing techniques and experimental book forms. Exhibitions also run year round at the Center, each designed and curated to inform and intrigue visitors. As a service to the community, free public programs abound at the Center, from poetry readings, to book signings to gallery talks. Event Details: 6:00pm: Wine and hors d'oeuvres reception, silent auction opens; 7:00pm: Live auction begins; 8:00pm: “Forbidden Fruits” decadent desserts served (until 10pm); 9:00pm: Silent auction closes. General admission: $80 per person; Sponsor: $125 per person. Email contact: dyana@sfcb.org; PHONE: 415-565-0545 x 15
www.sfcb.org/

Golly gee whiz.I wish I could be there! Frankenstein Day at the Bodleian Library will take place on 7 October 2008. Events include: a special display of Mary Shelley's original manuscripts; a lecture by Charles E. Robinson, the author of the new edition and a book launch with Brian Aldiss as guest speaker. The Original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (with Percy Shelley) edited by Charles E. Robinson, (448 pp, Hardback, £14.99, ISBN: 1 85124 396 8 / 978 1 85124 396 9) is a new edition of the first and most popular work of science fiction, allowing Mary Shelley's pure authorial voice to be heard for the first time since 1817, when the book was initially written. The Bodleian publication uses the unique handwritten draft of 1816-17, held at the Library, to distinguish Mary's own words from the additions written in by her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. For years, scholars have debated the degree to which Percy Shelley influenced his wife's novel, but no one has been able to read what Mary Shelley herself initially wrote in this original draft of the novel. Going back to the unique draft manuscript of the text held in the Bodleian Library, Charles E. Robinson has identified up to 5,000 edits in Percy Shelley's handwriting. Both texts -- with and without Percy's interventions -- are presented in this edition.
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/
http://www.bodleianbookshop.co.uk/

Swets has completed the acquisition of Boekhandel E. Frencken B.V., the Dutch based book and journal seller. According to the conditions of the acquisition agreement, the business name Boekhandel E. Frencken B.V. will change to Frencken Information Services B.V., keeping the reputable Frencken name and continuing to offer the same level of service from its location in Eindhoven. Boekhandel E. Frencken B.V. handles books and subscriptions for businesses, institutions, and municipalities in the Netherlands and elsewhere for more than 50 years. In addition to maintaining the family-branded name, Mr. Frencken and his son, Mathieu, will remain with the company and continue to run and operate their business in Eindhoven. The 28 full-time staff currently employed by Frencken will also remain in their existing positions. Boekhandel E. Frencken B.V., based in Eindhoven just across from the PSV Football stadium, was founded in 1951 by the parents of the current director, Mr. Eugène Frencken. The bookseller which was at first mainly aimed at private sales has become more and more specialized in commercial supplies of books and subscriptions.
http://www.swets.com

How can scholarly publishers deliver monograph content digitally and still make a profit? This article is about two new models that are striving toward that goal. Bloomsbury Publishing, J.K. Rowling’s British publisher, is expanding into scholarly publishing with Bloomsbury Academic. All titles (50 by the end of 2009, focusing on humanities and social sciences initially) will be made available online free using Creative Commons licenses. Meanwhile, the AAUP (Association of American University Presses) will give member presses access to Tizra’s Publisher platform. Tizra Publisher is a “web-based software service that lets content owners create branded commerce websites from existing content, with complete control over branding, merchandising and sales terms.” -- See – “2 New Digital Models Promise Academic Publishing for Profit,” by Jennifer Howard,, Chronicle of Higher Educaiton, October 2, 2008.
http://www.chronicle.com/free/2008/10/4842n.htm
http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/
http://tizra.com/

ABC-CLIO and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have announced an agreement granting ABC-CLIO a perpetual license to use
the imprints and publish the titles of Greenwood Publishing Group,
including Greenwood Press, Praeger Publishers, Praeger Security
International and Libraries Unlimited. In addition, Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt will transfer certain assets, including copyrights,
contracts and inventory, of Greenwood Publishing Group to ABC-CLIO.
This agreement is effective immediately.
http://www.abc-clio.com.
http://hmhpub.com