Merriam-Webster

Today the reference industry is undergoing another transformation -- a shift from large desktop screens to small mobile displays. Reference users expect dictionary access on their smartphones and within their ereaders, which has spurred Merriam-Webster's meticulous development of dictionary apps and ebooks.

What does your e-reader know about you? More than you think, according to a new study by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The EFF, a nonprofit group that advocates for consumer rights and privacy, combed through the privacy policies of a number of e-readers and e-book platforms, including Google Books, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo, and Indiebound, and found many devices track book searches, monitor what and how readers read downloaded books, record book purchases, and in some cases, even share information without a customer’s consent.

Scores of our generation's most celebrated authors have famously waxed poetic about the joys of using the original 20-volume "Oxford English Dictionary." David Foster Wallace, for instance, had a well-documented obsession with the OED. Simon Winchester wrote not one, but two nonfiction books about the dictionary's history. Even J.R.R. Tolkien, who briefly worked on the OED (he was assigned to the letter "W"), spoke fondly of his time there. But the simple fact is this: When I need to know the correct spelling of, say, "onomatopoeia," or "conscientious" or "hierarchy," there's a decent chance I'll be heading straight to Dictionary.com.

(Book Business editor's note: Keep your eyes peeled for the September issue of Book Business magazine for a feature on the dictionary business in the digital age)

Although she's philosophical about the matter, Kory Stamper says it's technically wrong to call her the F-bomb lady.

The title fails to appreciate the collaborative nature of her work. But Stamper was the associate editor picked to tell the world how the colloquialism F-bomb made the cut. The Collingswood word maven found herself quoted from here to the Philippines about the flipping phrase.

My friends who love food, who always know about the latest, hippest restaurant and whose idea of fun is spending three hours in a cheese shop, have a name for their passion: they are “foodies.”

Kobo today announced that the new Kobo Vox eReader, the world's first social eReader, is now available in stores and online at leading retailers

In a time of significant flux in the industry, publishing executives are faced with more pressure than ever to examine their businesses and make decisions that will lead them to a profitable future. Book Business checked in with the leaders of publishing companies of various sizes and scopes—from Scholastic to Springer to Merriam-Webster to Triple Crown—to find out what their best business decisions of the year have been.

So what is the definition of "book"? If we can agree upon a very broad starting point of the book as a delivery mechanism for content, then we can move forward.

Book Business asked several industry executives who have hiked the mobile mountain successfully to share their insights on how to develop a successful mobile strategy.

In the feature "21 Tips for Developing Your Mobile Game Plan," Merriam-Webster President and Publisher John Morse makes a really interesting point.