Wildy's new book RSS feeds

Today I learned you can keep up-to-date with new law books via Wildy's RSS feeds.

All you need to do is choose "browse by subject" on the Wildy & Sons home page and you are presented with a list of subjects to choose from. The list includes new and forthcoming titles. This can be a useful way of being updated with details of new books in your field, and a good alternative to subscribing to the feeds of individual publishers. Of course Wildy's won't have everything, but they will be pretty comprehensive for UK law.

Wildy & Sons Ltd website:
http://www.wildy.com

Love Charing Cross Road Festival 30 June 2012

Today I learnt what to do if you love Charing Cross Road and want to support high street bookshops -attend the Love Charing Cross Road Festival on 30 June 2012!

For those of you who don't know, London's Charing Cross Road is somewhat of a cultural hub. It is also home to the bookshops Foyles and Blackwells which will be hosting various cultural activities and events on that day. Events include poetry readings and story telling, author talks, live jazz, a literary treasure hunt and pub quiz to name a few.

According to the Bookseller* both Foyles and Blackwells have seen a 10% drop in footfall and sales because of the Crossrail roadworks that have restricted access routes to the area from Oxford Street so that's good reason to attend. The date also marks the start of Independent Booksellers Week and National Reading Group Day.

Bookseller Article:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/love-charing-cross-road-festival-30th-june.html

Love Charing Cross Road Festival:
http://lovecharingcrossroad.com/charing-cross-road-festival-2012/

Virtual Tour of Wildy & Sons

It's a random one today.

Today I learnt that you can take a virtual tour around the Wildy & Sons bookshop courtesy of Google Maps. Perhaps it's not that useful but it is good if you are a bit nosy or have ever wondered where your books are dispatched from. I wonder who that chap at the desk is?

Wildy:
http://www.wildy.com/

Virtual Tour
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=&layer=c&z=17&sll=51.515217,-0.112847&cid=11595960215898088358&panoid=fRmNc1Ninyz98vCNuQAtJg&cbp=13,24.366199721917241,,0,0&ved=0CDYQ2wU&sa=X&ei=DVSpTq7pKIWIjwfrkrT-Dg

The British Library has Reinstated the Amazon Link on its Catalogue

Today I learnt that the British Library had removed the link to Amazon.co.uk from the Integrated Catalogue when I wrote my post about it on 20 October, following criticism from booksellers. That would explain why I couldn't find it. It has now been reinstated "because of its usefulness for library users seeking further information about collection items".*

My previous blog post about it:
http://ladyinladywell.blogspot.com/2011/10/british-library-integrated-catalogue.html

*Article on the Bookseller website about it:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/british-library-reinstates-amazon-link.html

British Library Integrated Catalogue:
http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-list

British Library Integrated Catalogue Links to Amazon

Today I learnt that the British Library’s Integrated Catalogue now includes links to Amazon.co.uk. As well as the usual bibliographic details, each catalogue entry has a field called “This item in Amazon.co.uk” which redirects the user to the page on Amazon where they can buy the book. A British Library spokesperson said that they were providing links to Amazon (on a trial basis) so that users would be able to access a book if it wasn’t available in the BL’s reading rooms.

According to an article on the Bookseller.com, booksellers are, unsurprisingly, unhappy about this. James Daunt (Waterstones) has criticized the BL for driving the public away from public libraries and high street bookshops. Johnny de Falbe (Sandoe) commented:

"The British Library, a public institution, should not be offering this link to Amazon, which is not (last I heard) a public institution. And if the British Library, of all people, are not supporting British bookshops, and positively steering business away from independents, then why should anyone else have any faith, or interest, in independents?"*

The spokesperson explained that the links were to Amazon (rather than another bookseller) because the links come built-in to their library software supplied by ExLibris, and that the British Library wasn’t making any money out of the arrangement.

Since reading the article on the Bookseller website, I thought I'd take a look at the British Library Integrated Catalogue myself. However I have been unable to find a record which has a link to Amazon.co.uk so either I am doing something wrong, or BL has removed the links.

*The Bookseller article:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/british-library-attacked-amazon-link.html

British Library’s Integrated Catalogue:

http://catalogue.bl.uk/

I read about this in CILIP’s Weekly Information World.

CILIP

http://www.cilip.org.uk/

Waterstone's is ending its 10 year old 3-for-2 promotion

Today I learnt that Waterstone's is ending it's 10 year old 3-for-2 promotion.

James Daunt, Waterstone's MD since June this year, is axing Waterstone's famous (and profitable) 3-for-2 offer. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph he calls the promotion "daft". Why? Daunt disagrees in principle with the idea that books are selected for 3-for-2 promotion on a financial basis, he doesn't believe price should be the number one factor when choosing a book to buy, he believes it demotivates staff and causes customers to lose "the ability to focus on a particular book".
The article suggests that the task of saving the high street bookshop falls soley on Daunt's shoulders. He admits the tactic may cause Waterstone's sales to fall, but only at first. What he is aiming for is "much nicer bookshops for the consumer to buy books in. They will come back more often and, ultimately, sales will go up". Hope so.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/8802588/Waterstones-starts-a-new-chapter-in-bookselling-under-James-Daunt.html