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AAP strikes back at Ripoff 101| WASHINGTON, January 31, 2004 -- The president of the Association of American Publishers, Pat Schroeder, criticized a report on textbook industry pricing and practices from the California Public Interest Research Group as "totally one-sided and fatally flawed." Schroeder said the report scapegoats an array of complex issues of publishers. "Scapegoating publishers and instructional materials will not help any of us find constructive ways to deal with this crisis," she said. The report, provocatively titled Ripoff 101, has received wide attention in California news media. |
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Libel suit challenges book's accuracy| NEW YORK, January 30, 2004 -- A national organization of electroshock therapy patients, the Committee for Truth in Psychiatry sued Houghton Mifflin and writer Daniel Smith for a book that includes Smith's investigative piece on electroshock treatment. The organization asks $20 million. Smith's work, which originally was in the magazine Atlantic Monthly, appears in Houghton's The Best Science and Nature Writing, 2002. The Committee for Truth in Psychiatry contends that many of Smith's assertions are statements are factually incorrect and libelous. The Committee's director. Linda Andre, said the magazine had been advised that the statements in question were false prior to publication but the magazine refused to correct them. |
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HOUGHTON MIFFLIN |
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Lissa Warren. The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity. Carroll & Graf, 2004. Warren, publicity director at Da Capo Press, gears her advice to trade-book authors, but some tips can be adapted for academic works.
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California study: College texts a ripoffSACRAMENTO, California, January 29, 2004 -- In a report called Ripoff 101, the California Public Interest Research Group called on textbook publishers to make books more affordable, specifically calling for supplements instead of new editions. Also, the report suggested putting textbooks online. Merriah Fairchild, author of the report, accused publishers of driving up textbook costs with frequent editions and "expensive bells and whistles," such as workbooks and CD-ROMs. CalPIRG, which calls itself a consumer group, recommended several changes:
Publishers should issue low-cost supplements to aging editions rather than new books.Professors should be both quality and price conscious in adopting textbooks..Colleges should start student book exchanges and rental programs.
CalPIRG researchers questioned more than 500 University of California students and examined the 33 the most assigned books. For 25 of the books, new editions were issued within three or four years. Frequent new editions render used books obsolete and drive up costs, Fairchild said. The report said that University of California students paid an average of $898 last year on textbooks, up 24 percent from seven years earlier. |
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Oxford shifting more to online| NEW YORK, January 29, 2004 -- Oxford University Press is reorganizing to place more emphasis on online products and less on print reference products. Publisher Laura Brown there would be "significant investments in our higher education and professional publishing." The change means the loss of 35 positions, mostly in offline reference department in all three of Osford's offices, in North Carolina, San Francisco and New York. |
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McGraw lauded as well managed| NEW YORK, January. 28, 2004 -- The business magazine Forbes named media giant McGraw-Hill as one of the best managed companies in the nation. Chief executive Harold McGraw was credited with strengthening the company with new emphasis on enterprises that are not advertising-dependent. As a result, Forbes said, the company is less vulnerable to ups and downs in advertising. Besides book publishing, McGraw has long been in the ad-dependent magazine business. |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
| Karen Day, Oxford University Press, was named associate publiusher, Reference Division. |
| Casper Grathwohl, Oxford University Press, was named publisher of the Reference and School Publihsing Division. |
 | Ellen Kozak (law), wrote the updated third edition of Every Writer's Guide to Copyright and Publishing Law (Henry Holt). |
 | Robert E. Rakel (family practice), Houston, Texas, and Edward T. Bope (family practice), Riverside Methodist Hospitals, Columbus, Ohio, wrote the 2004 edition of Conn's Current Therapy (Saunders). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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R.I.P: Franklin H SilvermanMILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, January 27, 2004 -- A textbook author known in the authoring community as an author's author, Frank Silverman, died peacefully Dec. 10 of a brain cancer, it was learned. He was 70. His widow, Evelyn, confirmed the death, which had been expected after Silverman was diagnosed with a terminal malignancy last spring. In his final months he was working to complete seven books, all under contract, and hadn't take time from his keyboard to draft a list of whom to notify when the end came. The publisher of one of Silverman's last projects, Mary Ellen Lepionka of Atlantic Path Publishing, learned of the death from Evelyn when she caught her at home after several weeks of unanswered voicemail messages. The Atlantic Path book, Self-Publishing Textbooks and Instructional Materials, is due out in a few weeks.
Survivors include Evelyn E. Silverman (nee Behling and Chanda), the widow; Catherine (Matthew) Thomas, a daughter; Mark (Vicky) Chanda, Jody (Scott) Brunelli, Kori Chanda, Stacy Herman, Adam (Tina) Chanda and Aaron Chanda, all step-children; Ruth Block, a sister; and 11 grandchildren, other relatives and friends. Services were Dec. 14 in surburban New Berlinwith private burial Forest Home Cemetery.
Silverman's academic home for 34 years was Marquette University and later also the Medical College of Wisconsin. His field was speech pathology. He was a tireless leader at workshops nationwide on authoring. |
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FRANK
SILVERMAN
1933-2003
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Publishers target San Diego copyshops| DANVERS, Massachusetts, January 25, 2004 --Five publishers, acting through their rights agency, the Copyright Clearance Center, sued KB Books, a college bookstore chain in San Diego, California, alleging that coursepacks were created and sold without paying permission fees. KB Books produces coursepacks designed by professors at Mesa College, San Diego City College and San Diego State University. The suit was filed in San Diego federal court in the name of Harvard Business School Publishing, New York Times, Elsevier, Pearson and Wiley. In recent months the CCC has accelerated its filing of coursepack suits after the failure of showcase suits to chill the practice. Meanwhile, the CCC continues to expand its for-fee service of providing permissions for coursepack producers. |
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INDEXING:
DOING IT WELL
One mark of a textbook, a scholarly book or a professional book, in contrast to many trade books, is an index. The index is geared to helping readers make use of the book. Over the years standards have been devised for presentation and format. Another essential back matterfeatue is a bibliography.
HIS COMPLETE COLUMN |
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SILVERMAN
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Bertelsmann chief extended in job| GÜTERSLOH, Germany, January 24, 2004 -- The board of the global media company Bertlesmann unanimously extended the contract of chief executive Gunter Thielen through August 2007. He became chief executive in 2002, following Thomas Middelhoffıs departure. "Under Gunter Thielenıs leadership, Bertelsmann ... has significantly improved its operating return on sales," said board chairman Dieter Vogel. |
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William J. Bennetta. "Reviewing a Fraudulent Curriculum Manual: Page for Page, This Is the Most Malignant Product That I've Seen in All My Years as a Reviewer," Textbook Letter (September-October 2000). Pages 16-20. Bennetta, editor of the Textbook Letter, cites anachronisms in Islam: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture (Interact, 1991) that render it "ahisorical and indeed antihistorical." Among problems, he notes, is an exercise in which pupils race camels to the Islamic center of Demascus at the time of Muhammad and are inspired by the Great Mosque. But, he says, Damascus wasn't Islamic at the time, and the mosque wasn't built until a century later.
Lila Guterman. "The Promise and Peril of 'Open Access,'" Chronicle of Higher Education (January 30, 2004), Pages A10-A14. Guterman, a news reporter, offers an extensive assessment of the movement to create subscription-free academic journals. Downsides include the financial structure not only of journal publishing companies but also the academic societies that rely on the revenue.
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Gale president exits: What next?| FARMINGTON HILLS, Michigan, January 23, 2004 -- The president of education and reference publisher Gale, Allen Paschal, resigned amid growing pressure from parent company Thomson Learning to reinvent Gale more as a school publisher. Paschal's departure left an opening being filled temporarily by Charlie Siegel, senior vice president of operations for Thomson Learning. A few weeks ago Gale eliminated 180 positions and announced that it would from New York to Michigan and shift from the library market, which is weak at the moment, to the K-12 market. Paschal had been president of Gale since the company was formed in 1998. |
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THOMSON
GALE
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Editorial: Book should not beget violenceNEW DELHI, India, January 23, 2004 -- The Indian Express, which circulates nationwide, called for an end to violence aimed at a scholarly book on a 17th century Hindu hero. The book, by Macalester College professor James Laine in the United States, has provoked attacks on personnel at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, where Laine did research, and the destruction of ancient manuscripts. In an editorial, the Express said:
"By vandalizing the Bhandarkar institute, these cultural zealots were destroying their own history that an institute like this one had panstakingly endeavored to preserve. This monkeying around with history for political dividends must be put an end to, once and for all, if India is to be taken seriously in the academic world." |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | Ralph Hanson (mass communication), West Virginia University, wrote Mass Communication: Living in a Media World (McGraw-Hill). |
 | Peter K. Kaiser (ophthalmology), Cleveland Clinic Foundation Eye Institute, Neil Friedman (ophthalmology), Stanford University, and Roberto Pineda II (ophthalmology), Harvard Unicversity, wrote the second edition of The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary Illustrated Manual of Ophthalmology (Saunders). |
 | Frank A. Schubert (law), Northeastern University, wrote the eighth edition of Introduction to Law and the Legal System (Houghton-Mifflin). |
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Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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India authorities want author arrested| PUNE, India, January 23, 2004 -- A religious scholar at Macalester College in the United States, James Laine, was charged with provoking a riot for his book on an ancient Hindu hero. If Laine returns to India, he will be arrested, police said. Provoking a riot carries as much as a three-year prison sentence. At Macalester, Laine said he does not plan to test the resolve of Indian authorities. The charge was filed after extremists, angry at Laine's book, raided Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. Laine had named several institute staff members as helpful in his research. |
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Why Elsevier eased California pricingBERKELEY, California, January 22, 2004 -- Under pressure from scholars objecting to journal pricing, the giant Europe-based publisher Elsevier agreed to reduce the California univerity system's subscription to its massive Elsevier Science package by 8.7 percent, records show. The contract is $7.3 million the frst year, ratcheting up gradually over five years to account for inflation. In 2003 the California college system had paid $8 million -- roughly half its entire journal budget. Elsevier has been under widespead pressure from critics who frequently use the word "gouging." The company did not detail the terms of the California deal in announcing the new contract. In the announcement, Daviess Manefee, manager of library relations for North and South America, said only that negotiations had been "challenging for both parties." The package includes 1,200 online journals, with one hard copy of each, but drops 200 little-used journals from the usual Elsevier package. None of the California campuses had ever subscribed to the 200 deleted titles. Elsevier sweetened the deal by throwing in titles from Cell Press and Harcourt Health Sciences. The deal was negotiated amid growing resentment among scholars and librarians about journal pricing, incuding these California developments:
Two UC-San Francisco scientists had organized a boycott of six molecular-biology journals from Elsevier.UC-Santa Cruz faculty had called on "serious and careful consideration" to cutting ties with Elsevier. |
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ELSE-
VIER
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Author: Don't blame India museum staff| ST. PAUL, Minnesota, January 21, 2004 -- A religious studies scholar, James Laine, said he was horrified that his book on a 17th century Hindu king had triggered the ransacking of a museum in Pune, India. Laine said immediately sent letters to major Indian newspapers to say the the museum staff people whom he thanked in his preface were not responsible for what he put in the book. On January 5 about 150 religious extremists in the Sambhaji Brigade, armed with bats and chains, attacked the Bhandarkar Institute and destroyed rare Sanskrit manuscripts, smashed equipment and broke windows. Twenty-five ancient books are missing. It was not the first attack. In December, extremists broke into the office of Skrikant Bahulkar and tarred him. Bahulkar was among institute staff members whom Laine had credited for their assistance. In the book, Shivaji: Hindu King In Islamic India, Laine explores stories that have evolved about the revered Shivaji and that, he says, have come to be accepted as the reality. Laine said that Shivaji, a great hero for defeating Muslim occupiers and creating a Hindu kindom, is revered in mythic proportions. About the Sambhaji Brigade and Shaivaji, he said: "What they are saying is that n one is allowed to criticize him. There can be nothing associated with his life that besmirches him in any way." Laine is on the faculty of Macalester College. |
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The highly regarded Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute was created in 1917 to care for 20,000 Sanskrit manu-
scripts. It is located in Pine, 75 miles southeast of Bombay. |
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Booksellers petition against Patriot ActTARRYTOWN, New York, January 21, 3004 -- The American Booksellers Association called on its bookstore members to collect one million signatures from customers and others for a petition to repeal Section 215 of the Patriot Act. Section 215 of the anti-terrorism law authorizes federal agents to probe into bookstore sales records to identify customers and their reading habits. The petition reads:
Tell Congress
to Restore Reader Privacy Today!
The USA Patriot Act threatens your privacy in bookstores and libraries. It gives the FBI power to apply to a secret court for an order compelling the surrender of records of the books you purchase or borrow. The government does not have to produce any evidence that you are a terrorist -- or even that you are suspected of a crime! The order also gags booksellers and librarians, making it illegal to reveal that your records have been searched. We, the undersigned, urge our representatives in Congress to support legislation that amends Section 215 of the Patriot Act to restore the privacy of our bookstore and library records. |
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Regulators OK Lagardere-Vivendi deal| BRUSSELS, January 20, 2004 --With major conditions attached, the European Commission approved the sale of Paris-based Vivendi's French-language book business, Editis, to rival Lagadere. The approval requires Lagardere to sell 60 percent of Editis to avoid undue dominance of the market. Lagardere is expected to fold Vivendi's Anaya, Armand Collin, Dunod, Dallos and Larousse units into its Hachette Livre subsidiary and to sell the rest. Vivendi has been divesting its far-flung media empire to meet payments of loans from an acquisition binge that put the company near bankruptcy in 2001. The U.S. publishing unit Houghton Mifflin was among the first to go. |
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VIVENDI |
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McGraw-Hill sells 5,000-title el-hi unit| NEW YORK, January 20, 2004 -- Education publisher McGraw-Hill agreed to sell its Children's Publishing Group to Wisconsin-based School Specialty Inc. Dave Vander Zanden, president of School Specialty, said the McGraw-Hill supplementary products unit will remain in Columbus, Ohio. Some support jobs will move to Wisconsin, he said. The McGraw-Hill unit has a backlist of 5,000 titles. The unit was formed in 2000 when McGraw bought the Tribune Company's educational dvision. |
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Chicago ruling seen as authoring victory| CHICAGO, Illinois, January 20, 2004 -- The chief attorney for the Chicago School Board praised a federal court for siding with the board against a former teacher who printed standardized test questions in his newspaper. Said Nancy Laureto: "This is a significant victory for anyone who is in test and material development." The school board's interest in keeping the questions confidential was ruled by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit to outweigh the public's interest in full access to the tests. The decision upheld a 2003 U.S. District Court decision, which had followed an injunction against the teacher-editor. |
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Californian drives for Bible as textbook| SACRAMENTO, California, January 20, 2004 -- The secretary of state, Kevin Shelley, approved a petition drive for a state consitutional amendment to permit the King James version of the Christian Bible as a K-12 literature textbook. The drive is headed by Matt McLaughlin, who says that he wants the Bible installed in curriculums for neither doctrinal nor devotional purposes. McLaughlin needs 598,000 signatures by May 24 for his proposal to make the Novmber ballot. |
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A&B launches peer psych project| BOSTON, Massachusetts, January 19, 2004 -- College publisher Allyn & Bacon launched a search for peer-psychology training leaders, "faculty advocates," it will call them, who will share their insights with its MyPsych adopters. Sales reps will nominate adopters to be advocates, said Pamela Laskey, executive marketing manager for social sciences. Nominees will be considered by a review board, she said. Advocates will be faculty "who are using MyPsychLab in creative ways, to pass on their insights to colleagues," Laskey said. MyPsychLab is an interactive to supplement traditional lecture courses or as an online course itself. The program includes multimedia, tutorials, video, simulations, animations, tests and quizzes. |
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& BACON |
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DUMBING DOWN
REVISITED
Too often the catchy and pejorative phrase "dumbing down" is used to defend obscure writing and weak argument-building. Textbooks need to address student readers where they are at. This does not require leaving out either big words or big ideas. That's what glossaries and pronunciation guides are for.
HER COMPLETE COLUMN |
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LEPIONKA |
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Oxford withdraws book after protests| LONDON, January 19, 2004 -- Responding to religious rioting in India, Oxford University Press recalled James W. Laine's Shivaji: Hindu King In Islamic India from vendors in what a company source called "senstive regions.". A group decribed as "hard-line Hindus" ransacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and destroyed rare Sanskrit and Tibetan manuscripts to protest the book. Local authorities then banned the book. The issue, according to skeletal press reports, was a perception that Laine, a U.S. scholar, had somehow insulted the mother of the 17th century king. |
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KnowledgeBox shipped on Apple Xserve| SAN FRANCISCO, California, January 18, 2004 -- The digital learning system KnowledgeBox, developed by Pearson Digital Learning, is is being shipped with the rack-optimized Apple Xserve software, Pearson announced. The upgrade means more processing power, input-output bandwidth, and storage capacity , Pearson said. KnowledgeBox is a K-6 system for reading, language arts, math, science and social studies. |
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| | PEARSON
DIGITAL
LEARNING |
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| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 | James R. Andrews (orthopedics), University of Virginia, Kevin E. Wilk (physical therapy), Marquette University, and Gary L. Harrelson (athletic training), University of Alabama, wrote the third edition of Physical Rehabilitation of the Injured Athlete (Saunders). |
| Robin Gunn, vice president of education services at PeopleSoft USA, was named senior vice president of contract testing programs at Harcourt Assessment. |
 | Gary Robert Muschla (English) wrote the second edition of The Writing Teacher's Book of Lists with Ready-to-use Activities and Worksheets (Jossey-Bass). |
 | James T. Shipman (science), Ohio University, Jerry D. Wilson (science), Lander University, and Aaron W. Todd (science), Middle Tennessee State University, wrote the 10th edition of An Introduction to Physical Science (Houghton-Mifflin). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
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CCC adds reprint permission clients| DANVERS, Massachusetts, January 17, 2004 -- A licensing agency for text reproduction rights, the Copyright Clearance Center, added seven new academic and techincal publishers as clients for its Rightslink content licensing system. The publishers include Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Marcel Dekker, Issues in Science and Technology, SAGA Publications, IEEE, The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery and Scientific Societies. With Rightslink, reprint permissions are available directly web sites. |
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Copyshop won't fight infringement suit| KATY, Texas, Janaury 16, 2004 -- A copy shop being sued for copyright infringement in producing coursepacks, Medical Review Services, won't fight the suit, according to a report in the trade journal Publishers Weekly.The small company is preoccupied with a bankruptcy proceedings, a spokesperson said. The shop was among the latest to be sued on behalf of technical publishers for coursepacks that contain copyright-protected materials that the publishers say were reproduced without permission. |
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Pearson improves SASIxp compatibility| MESA, Arizona, January 16, 2004 -- The Pearson Digital Learning student information system SASIxp now is available with the Schools Interoperability Framework Agent to interact and share information with diverse software programs, the company announced. "Seamless data sharing between various programs will allow school systems to streamline operations through more efficient information management and increased data accuracy," said Kelly Goodrich, marketing vice president. |
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DIGITAL
LEARNING |
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Judge gigs publishing of testsCHICAGO, Illinois, January 16, 2004 -- A federal appeals court ruled against a newspaper editor who claimed that standarized tests used in public schools were public documents that he could publish in his paper. Writing for the three-judge panel, Judge Richard Posner said copyright law protected the tests. The decision overruled the argument of the editor, George N. Schmidt, that public interest should supercede copyright interests. He also argued that he neeed to exhibit the exams in their entirety to support his editorial analysis of them. Schmidt vowed to appeal. The school district said Schmidt ruined the pool of test questions, delayed the test program by a year, and cost the district $400,000. The district also fired Schmidt, a teacher. He ran the paper, Substance, as a sideline.
What this means for authors: The decision whacks at the argument that public comment can proceed intelligently only if learning materials, including textbooks, can be legally reproduced in their entirety for public examination. The upshot of the argument is that learning materials should not be protected by copyright. Had it been upheld, the argument could have eroded the financial incentive for publishers, authors and others to create and distribute learning materials. |
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Judge Posner said Schmidt "does not have the right ... to destroy the tests by publishing them indiscrim-
inately, anymore than a person who dislike a Michael-
angelo's stataue has a right to take a sledge-
hammer to it." |
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Study: Supplemental sales up| ROCKAWAY PARK, New York, January 16, 2004 -- Sales of supplemental education products grew 4.6 percent in 2002, according to a new report from Education Market Research. The sales passed $1.5 billion. The report, based on data from 63 member of the Association of Educational Publishers, said the total was boosted by major increases in bookstore sales. |
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Software award nominees chosenWASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2004 -- The Software & Information Industry Association released its list of finalists for the annual Codie Awards for corporate achievement and philanthropic efforts. More than i00 nominations from more than 600 companies were submitted, a reford, the associatio said:
Best Elementary Education Instructional Solution
Kinetic City: Mission to Vearth (American Association for the Advancement of Science)EasyTech (Learning.com)You Are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving (Plimoth Plantation)Starry Night EDU (Space Holding)TimeforKids.com (Time For Kids New Media)The Graph Club 2.0 (Tom Snyder)
Best Secondary Education Instructional Solution
Blackboard Learning System (Blackboard)Skill Navigator Online (TestU)netTrekker (Thinkronize)MY Access! 4.0 (Vantage Learning)Reel Society, WILL Interactive, Inc. / (McGraw-Hill Higher Education)
Best Education Administration Solution
e*Assessment (Harcourt Supplemental / Wireless Generation)GPS smartPortal (iAssessment)Maple T.A. (Maplesoft / Brownstone Research)PowerSchool 3.6 (PowerSchool / Apple)SCT Banner (SCT)
Best Educational Special Needs Solution
Kurzweil 3000 (Kurzweil)LearnStar SC -- ESL Module (LearnStar)deafplanet.com (marblemedia)NEARStar (Pacific Resources)TIENET (TIECorp)
Best Educational Total Comprehensive Solution
Blackboard Learning System (Blackboard)Discourse (Educational Testing Service)
Mapping Our World: GIS Lessons for Educators (ESRI)The Achievement Planner (Kaplan)Yearly ProgressPro (McGraw-Hill Digital Learning)
Best Education Technology Solution for Home/Consumer
Ology (American Museum of Natural History)Encyclopaedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2004 (Encyclopaedia Britannica) Hotmath.com (Hotmath,)Typing Instructor Deluxe 16 (Individual Software)Math Missions: The Amazing Arcade Adventure (Scholastic)
Best Lifelong Learning Product or Service
Professor Teaches Microsoft Office XP 3.0 (Individual Software)Certified Business Manager (South-Western)Starry Night Enthusiast (Space Holding)Zondervan Bible Study Library 5.0: Scholar's Edition (Zondervan)
Best New Education Solution
Connected Educator Reading (Classroom Connect)RoboPresenter eLearning Edition (eHel)Teaching Reading: Stages & Strategies (Lexia)Macromedia Studio MX K-12 Site License Solution (Macromedia / Course Technology)SAT Online Course (Peterson's / NETg)Sanako Lounge (Sanako Corporation)
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