Rick Anderson

This week we've featured two posts (here and here) which discuss the impact that large commercial publishers are having on libraries. The question was raised in our Comments-if "big deals" and sometimes ruthless business practices are problematic for libraries and the academic community as a whole, then why continue to do business with them? As Rick Anderson responded, the marketplace remains somewhat distorted, with poor signaling between those paying for journals and those using journals (his post discussing this in detail is worth reading).

This month we're asking the Chefs about customer focus. The question was inspired by a comment that Rick Anderson posted in August in which he wondered if the enhancements and features publishers implement are truly focused on customer needs. Seeing all of the Chefs' responses, and having opinions of my own, I find it very interesting that almost everyone, in one manner or another, took a step back and pondered: Who are the customers? 

In the comments section of a recent Scholarly Kitchen posting by Rick Anderson, a now-familiar point of controversy was raised: to what degree do university presses rely on libraries as customers for their books? It's a commonplace assertion that, contrary to longstanding popular belief, libraries are not in fact the primary customers of university presses, and this assertion was made again in the comments. Rick expressed his belief that while this is true of university press publications generally, it's probably not true of scholarly monographs specifically, and that the decrease in libraries' share

Amazon Rival Shoprunner Offers Free Shipping for a Year to Ex-Amazon Prime Members (The Digital Reader) This shipping service, which offers free two-day shipping across 85 retail sites including GNC, PetSmart, Neiman Marcus, and Toys R Us, launched a new offer today that is available only to Amazon Prime members. *** Rick Anderson at the [...]

The post Morning Roundup: Competing offer aimed at Amazon Prime members, Zuckerberg pissed at NSA surveillance and more appeared first on TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics.

As 2013 draws to a close, it's time for a quick look at the state of The Scholarly Kitchen. Pardon us this indulgent navel-gazing, it's in the nature of blogs and social media in general to spend a certain amount of time staring admirably at oneself in the mirror.

University presses publish plenty of books that are read only by academics. They also publish plenty of books that are read by no one. Inventory research has suggested that as much as half of a library’s holdings never circulate.

“We are very good at figuring out what kinds of books our patrons are going to want,” said Rick Anderson, associate dean for scholarly resources and collections at the University of Utah, at the annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses here on Tuesday.

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