From a Newspaper Article: ...LSU Libraries recently announced the availability of six historical Louisiana newspapers online through its Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project. The six newspapers – The Carrollton Sun, the Louisiana Democrat, the Ouachita Telegraph, The Morning Star and Catholic Messenger, the West Feliciana Sentinel and the Feliciana Sentinel – are available for searching online at the Chronicling America website. The newspapers are the first installment in a collection that, by September 2011, will include 100,000 pages from more than 50 Louisiana newspapers. Learn More About the Digitizing Louisiana Newspapers Project and Access a List of Papers Source: The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) See Also:Chronicling America Homepage...

Update: Two Mechanical Translations of the Guide (Discussed in the Article Below) by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP). 1. via Microsoft Translator 2. via Google Translate From a China Daily News Story: The country's first regulation to guide the development of the electronic-book industry was released by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) over the weekend. The "e-book" addressed in the regulation is specifically digital content - formatted as print, images, audio and video - that is downloaded over the Internet and read on handheld devices, such as the Amazon Kindle or the Apple iPad. The regulation, designed to improve the development of...

Yesterday, we posted that Bing/Microsoft and the National Library of France (Bibliothèque nationale de France) announced a deal allowing Bing to index and provide greater visibility to the contents of the Gallica database of digitized books, maps, manuscripts, images, periodicals, etc. If you're interested in reading the complete news release (with a few additional details)it's available here in French (PDF). If you don't read French, simply select your favorite mechanical translation and the cut, copy, and paste the text. More info including some stats about what's in the Gallica database here. Via Resource Shelf ...

From an Announcement on the Project MUSE Web Site by Melanie Schaffner: The newly confirmed participants include Catholic University of America Press, Columbia University Press, Fordham University Press, Georgetown University Press, Syracuse University Press, University of Hawaii Press, University of Michigan Press, University of Texas Press, and University of Wisconsin Press. These presses bring to eighteen the current number of not-for-profit scholarly publishers committed to the planned [e-books collections]. Other publishers already announced as participating in the program are Baylor University Press, Brookings Institution Press, ELT Press, Indiana University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, Kent State University Press, Penn State University Press,...

From a Europeana News Post: Over 1 million items showcasing Sweden’s cultural and scientific heritage can be now explored on Europeana, including architectural plans, photographs, paintings and maps. “There are many exciting discoveries to make. Europeana is an obvious platform for this information, and we are pleased that we are doing our bit to make heritage more accessible,” said Johan Carlström, project manager for Swedish Open Cultural Heritage (SOCH). SOCH is a web service that works with Sweden’s National Heritage Board to collect content from Swedish institutions. You can take a look at the new material by clicking this...

From The Scotsman: Edinburgh University Press has posted a 16 per cent rise in income to £2.7 million in the year to 31 July following strong sales in the UK and United States and rising orders from online retailer Amazon. Pre-tax profits rose from 154,000 British Pounds to 430,000 British Pounds following "tight cost control" and were boosted by a growing contribution from the company's electronic books division. Access the Complete Article Via Resource Shelf ...

+ "Ebooks and Academic Libraries: Toward a New Best Practice" (by Sue Polanka, No Shelf Required) + "Tipping Points and Moments of Zen" (by Barbara Fister, LJ/SLJ) + "Ebook Summit Kicks Off with Library Ebook Survey Results" (by David Rapp, Library Journal) Findings in the areas of: e-book availability; circulation; e-reader loans; and budgets. + " Ebook Summit: R. David Lankes Keynote, "The New Librarianship in the Age of the Ebook" You can access the slide and audio files from the closing keynote here. + "Ebook Summit: Academic Acquisition Models Reconsidered" + "Ebook Summit: Academic Acquisition Models Reconsidered" (via LJ) + "Ebook Summit Webcast...

 + "University of California Libraries Academic eBook Reader Survey Begins On October 11th" (by Jacqueline Wilson, CDLINFO News) The UC Libraries charged the Springer eBook Task Force to create a survey to collect the opinions of UC faculty, staff, and students about their preferences for print, ebooks, etextbooks and their experiences using the Springer eBook pilot collection. Information on the Springer eBook pilot can be found at: http://www.cdlib.org/services/collections/springerebooks/ + Video: "Andrew Malkin Explores eBook Content at Zinio" (GalleyCat) + Xerox to Sell and Service Espresso Book Machines (by Chris Meadows, TeleRead) + "Indigo’s Kobo eReader Best Digital Book Play" (by...

From the WIPO Lex Web Site: WIPO Lex is a one-stop search facility for national laws and treaties on intellectual property (IP) of WIPO, WTO and UN Members. It also features related information which elaborates, analyzes and interprets these laws and treaties. It provides streamlined access to reference material of key importance for optimal information on the global IP System. Access the WIPO Lex Database Source: World Intellectual Property Organization Hat Tip and Thanks: UN Pulse/United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library Via Resource Shelf ...

From a Ghent University Library Announcement: Ghent University Library today became the first in Europe to contribute public domain works scanned by Google to Europeana, Europe’s culture heritage. Readers using Europeana can now enjoy more than 30 million newly-added pages of historical, scientific, anthropological and literary works, from over 100,000 volumes, spanning four centuries, in French, Dutch, German and other languages. Joke Schauvliege, Flemish Minister of Environment, Nature and Culture and chair of the European Council of Environment is pleased that the unique and large collection of Ghent University leads the way....

 + AAP Reports Publisher Book Sales for July (American Association American of Publishers) E-book sales continue to grow, with a 150.2 percent increase over July 2009 ($40.8 million); year-to-date E-book sales are up 191.0 percent. Downloaded Audio Books also saw an increase of 38.4 percent over last year, with sales of $6.6 million this July; and the category was also up 35.3 percent year-to-date. Physical Audio Book sales decreased 35.6 percent in July with sales totaling $8.7 million; sales for the year to date are down 0.6 percent. + "The US eBook Market For 2010? $500...

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) Annual Members Meeting took place on Friday in New York City. Here are a few updated stats that were presented by Kelly Gallagher, vp of publishing services for Bowker. From Publisher's Weekly: In August, e-books accounted for 5.8% of all unit sales compared to 2.8% at the beginning of 2010. The percentage of consumers likely to by an e-book in August was 16%, up from 13% in January, while figures in August showed that women now accounted for 68% of Kindle purchases. Access the Complete PW Article See Also: In this tweet from the...