a public/private partnership I can get behind

Divine marketing opportunity. Collect donations for people not to buy your book, but to put your book in a public library. The indie press No Media Kings crowd would like you to do just that in their NO MEDIA KINGS, YES LIBRARY BLING drive. Don’t miss their how to make a book section.

I’m interested in strengthening the ties between indie culture and public libraries, because it’s a political alliance: we both fight corporate power. Just by being there we provide an alternative to our increasingly commodified culture and preserve the diversity of the public sphere. I think there’s a lot of really interesting things that can be done between these two communities, once we become aware of each other’s intersecting mutual interests.

what’s being printed this year?

A book I read about books discussed the paper shortage [apocryphal?] that occurred in NYC when the latest Harry Potter book was being published. This led me to think of the paper situation given the first printing of 1.5 million copies of the 900 page My Life, Clinton’s memoirs. For more data on what is being printed this year, you can read Bowker’s statistical 2003 round up. I can’t tell if this press release is the statistical data they have released or of there’s a more fleshed-out report somewhere, anyone know?