The Accessibility Paradox | Peer to Peer Review - 10/29/2009 - Library Journal
"Interesting article in Library Journal ... 1st paragraph here for more wander over to LJ" -- HSM
The Accessibility Paradox -- Library Journal, 10/29/2009
The book world has been harrumphing about a battle among big box stores to sell the season's biggest books at the cheapest price. In order to draw customer into their stores, Target and Wal-Mart are making ten bestselling author's books available for under ten bucks. (Wisconsin is missing all the excitementthey have a law against dumping goods below wholesale prices but Amazon has joined in the fray, so Wisconsinites can still go online and pre-order bestsellers at low-low prices.) The American Booksellers Association has even asked the Department of Justice to intervene. I'm somewhat bemused to see a Barbara Kingsolver book among the discounted booksattention shoppers! Critique of corporate greed and US imperialism on sale in aisle three! But I'm also taken aback by the horrified response of the book industry. I thought the big crisis was that nobody reads. Now it turns out the problem is that books are so popular with the masses they're being used as bait to draw in shoppers. Come on, guys, get your story straight! Which is it?
The Accessibility Paradox | Peer to Peer Review - 10/29/2009 - Library Journal