|
|
|
Thomson, Lulu in course-pack deal| RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina, March 31, 2003 -- The Lulu.com online service will create coursepacks in an agreement with reference publisher Gale and business publisher South-Western, the companies announced. Professors will be able to create custom course-packs for their students. Students then will go to Lulu.com to purchase the course-packs in electronic form. Centerpieces of the Lulu.com source packs will be Greg Mankiw's Principles of Economics, a South-Western best-seller in its third edition, and Boone/Kurtz's Contemporary Marketing, another perennial South-Western best-seller in its 11th edition. Thomson, the corporate parent to Gale and South-Western, said available content includes more than 3,000 full-text titles covering subjects from general interest magazines, refereed academic journals, business publications and technology periodicals. Business content includes more than 450,000 company profiles, as well as company histories, rankings, market share, associations, and industry overviews. A collection of case studies will be included, as well as nearly 200,000 biographical profiles. | |
Scott Foresman, NASA in new partnership| UPPER SADDLE RIVER, New Jersey, March 30, 2003 -- Schoool publisher Scott Foreman and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration entered an agreement to collaborate on elementary and middle school science curricula. Scott Foresman editors and authors will draw upon NASA archival material and research in biological, physical, earth and space sciences for the Scott Foresman K-6 science series. NASA experts will review the content, and Pearson Scott Foresman will ensure that the curricula reflects the National Science Education Standards, Project 2061 Benchmarks, and specific, targeted state standards. Paul McFall, president of Scott Foresman, described the goal as "a highly engaging, standards-based science curriculum that encourages students to want to learn more about science, exploration, and the possibilities of human endeavor." |
|
| 
SCOTT
FORESMAN |
Albert N. Greco. The Price of University Press Books, 1989-2000. American Association of University Presses, 2003. Greco, a book industry analyst, reports on his data on university press book pricing, which lagged both inflation and the prices of comparabale trade titles. The report was the first in a series on the accessibility of academic information.
Earl Hautala. "Textbook-Writers Promote Religious Tales as 'History'." Textbook Letter, Volume 11, Numbers 1 and 2 (March-April and May-June 2000), Pages 1-4. Hautala, research manager for the Textbook League, a watchdog organization, criticizes both Human Heritage: A World History (Glencoe) and Joy Hakim's A History of US (Oxford University Press), for picking up religious fables and folk tales, mostly from the Bible but some, he argues, from whole cloth, and passing them off as verifiable historical fact. Many assertions in both books have long been debunked by biblical scholars, he says. The Glencoe book is marketed for high school use, Hakim for upper-elementary and midle school use.
John G. Herlihy, editor. The Textbook Controversy: Issues, Aspects and Perspectives. Ablex, 1992. A collection of articles treating diverse issues related to textbooks. |
West buys Andrews litigation line| EAGAN, Minnesota, March 29, 2003 -- Legal publisher West bought Andrews Publications from Haights Cross Communications. Located near Philadelphia, Andrews publishes litigation reporters, newsletters, special reports and online services. Terms were not disclosed. West said the acquisition will strengthen its product line for litigators. West will maintain Andrewsą office in Wayne, Pennsylvania. | |
Skolar folding into Kluwer| NEW YORK, March 28, 2003 --Mega-publisher Wolters Kluwer purchased Skolar, an online provider of clinical information and distance learning for medical professionals. Skolar will become part of Wolters Kluwer Health, which includes Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Ovid Technologies, | |
Mississippi adopts LeapFrog series| JACKSON, Mississippi, March 27, 2003 -- The Mississippi Board of Education adopted the Literacy Center series for K-1 from LeapFrog SchoolHouse. Leapfrog had touted Literacy Center as a research-based structuring approach to teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and other early reading skills. The series is correlated to Mississippi Language Arts Competencies and incorporates findings from the National Reading Panel. | |
Rowecom vanishing act perhaps $65 million| CHICAGO, Illinois, March 26, 2003 -- An estimated $65 million in pre-paid subscription fees, mostly from academic libraries for academic journals, has disappeared in the financial mess of library subscription vender Rowewcom, which has sought bankruptcy protection. The $65 million figure has been extrapolated from documents in a lawsuit against its Chicago-based parent company, Divine Inc. The suit alleges that Divine fraudulently transferred more than $73 million of Rowecom funds. Divine officials have denied the charge. Meanwhile, some journal publishers are fulfilling subscriptions even though it's possible they will never see the fees due from Rowecom. Other publishers aren't sure they can take the loss. Eavon Lee Mobley, journals manager at the Ohio State University Press, which publishes five journals, told the Chronicle of Higher Education: "We have to figure out if our budget can take the financial hit of publishing the same number of journals for this year." |
|
|
|
 |
|
| Scholastic: Sales grew 1 percent to $433.7 million in the third quarter, compared to a year earlier. Even so, the company had a net loss of $500,000, compared to net income of $11.9 million a year earlier. Educational publishing sales grew 5.1 percent to $64.3 million.
|
 |
|
| Taylor & Francis: Sales rose 7 percent to U.S.$230 million in 2002, compared to a year earlier. Profit grew 23 percengt to $51.4 million, mostly due to academic books and journals. U.S. represent 42 percent of T&F's total sales.
|
Greco study: U-press prices lagging| NEW YORK, March 25, 2003 -- University presses generally have not raised prices to keep pace with either inflation or the price of trade books in recent years, book industry scholar Albert Greco of New York University said in a report. In effect, Greco said, university presses are "leaving money on the table." Greco's report, The Price of University Press Books, 1989-2000, was issued by the American Association of University Presses. Greco said the presses have been hesitant to raise prices because libraries, a major customer, have cut acquisition bugdets. Even so, he noted, trade publishers have been able to increase sales of comparable titles. |
|
| |
Meteorology:
Understanding
the Atmosphere |
|
| | Publisher:
Brooks/Cole
Editor:
Keith Dodson
|
Meteorologists' book wins visuals award| WINONA, Minn., March 24, 2003 -- A college meteorology textbook by Steve Ackerman and John Knox won a William Henry Fox Talbot Prize for excellence in visuals from the Sociey of Academic Authors. The book, Meteorology: Understanding the Atmosphere, published by Brooks/Cole under the editorshop of Keith Dodson, was praised by one member of the SA2 panel of judges as an "exceptional job pulling together relevant data to be presented in original graphic formats." Said other judges: "The text is visually sophisticated, truly interesting, and up-to-date, with always apt and sometimes ravishing images, figurative models, and tables used to support its thoughtful pedagogy." "This book has some of the most pretty and apt graphics that I have ever seen in a textbook.""Quite simply, the production quality is superb." "Visuals are integral and are used generously." Learning of the award, Knox said: "I'm excited to see that the judges appreciated our efforts so thoroughly -- especially since Steve and I are both first-time authors. Knox is a research scientist and lecturer at the University of Georgia. Ackerman is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The announcement in the fourth in a series on the 2003 Talbies. |
|
|
| Fourth of the 2003 Talbys to be announced |
|
|
Publisher eyes titles that others drop| SAN DIEGO, California, March 21, 2003 -- Authors whose titles are not being revised by their publishers may find a new outlet in Collegiate Press, said editor Jackie Baker. "We would like to explore with you the possibility of publishing your book in a new, revised edition." Baker said. Collegiate Press publishes in all fieldss except math, foreign language, and science. Baker said interested authors should send the title of their book, the course title it was written for, the name of the current publisher, the copyright date of the most recent edition, whether the book is in hardcover or softcover, and whether the current publisher has granted a release. Contact: Collegiate Press |
|
| |
| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 |
|
| Marilyn K. Pelosi (statistcs), Western New England College, and Theresa M. Sandifer (statistics), Southern Connecticut State University, wrote Elementary Statistics: From Discovery to Decision (Wiley). |
 |
|
| Daniel S. Hamermesh (economics), University of Texas at Austin, wrote Economics Is Everywhere (McGraw-Hill Irwin). |
 |
|
| Rebecca M. Valette (romance languages), Boston College, and Jean-Paul Valette revised their three-level secondary school French series Discovering French Nouveau: Bleu, Discovering French Nouveau: Blanc, Discovering French Nouveau: Rouge (McDougal Littell). |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
|
Hakim turning her story-telling to science| DENVER, Colorado, March 24, 2003 -- Story-teller Joy Hakim whose Story of US became a million-seller history textbook is applying her unorthodox touch to a new science series tentatively title The Science Story. Hakim, a former teacher and journalist, said she has three books drafted. They focus on key scientists from the early Greeks to today, explaining how scientific thought has changed. Hakim said she hopes to have a publisher signed in a few weeks. Oxford University Press published her U.S. history series. Hakim's approach to science is the same she used for history: Building stories on each other to explain the progression of scientific thought. In an interview with the Washington Post, Hakim said: "Science is a process, it's not static, and so many books don't explain that. I try to help students understand that through stories, showing the way ideas and knowledge have changed through the ages. I want kids to become detectives, so I try to get them interested enough to want to learn more." |
|
| |
|
| 
HAKIM |
|
McGraw looks to China school market| ALEXANDRIA, Virginia, March 24, 2003 -- A multi-volume study to identify elements of the English language that Chinese students can reasonably be expected to learn their schools is being developed by Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Inc. and publisher McGraw-Hill. The academic component of the project will be coordinated by Barbara Agor, an educational writer and consultant from Rochester, New York, the companies announced. Agor described the project as "committed to serving and respecting the needs of Chinese teachers of school-age learners and the teacher educators who work with them." The TESOL-McGraw partnership will develop content standards for English-as-a-second-language classes in primary and secondary schools. The partnership is designed to train more than 2 million teachers in China in the next decade. |
|
| |
|
| 
MCGRAW-
HILL
EDUCATION |
|
Publishers, libraries urge digital rules| WASHINGTON, March 23, 2003 -- Standards for e-book products are needed to make them more user-friendly, the Association of American Publishers and the American Library Association said in a joint statement. Standards should allow individual e-books to be readable on a variety of devices and software formats, the statement said. The standards also should allow printing of all or a portion of a work; accessibility for blind and print-disabled persons, including automated read-aloud capability; and lending. Publisher- lawyer Hill Slowinski wrote the AAP-ALA document. The proposal: The proposal |
|
| |
 |
|
| Wolters Kluwer: Revenue grew 1.5 percent to U.S>$4.2 billion in 2002, comapred to a year earlier. Growth was led by a 10 percent increase in health publishing. Education sales fell 3 percent, which the company attrbuted to cyclical adoption declines mostly in Europe.
|
School Specialy buys Sunburst Video| NEW YORK, March 23, 2003 -- Supplemental distributor School Specialty bought Sunburst Video, a developer of videos and other curriculum materials pre-K-12 materials in character education, health and guidance. The cost: $7.8 millon. |
|
| |
Overseas leakage: Publishers reply kinda, sorta| WASHINGTON, March 23, 2003 -- The federal law that forbids unfair or derceptive trade practices doesn's apply to export sales, the president of the Association of American Publishers said. Pat Schroder made the statement in a letter responding to concern expressed by the National Association of College Stores about deeply discounted textbooks being sold to U.S. students from overseas. A NACS attorney had said that selling doemstic books at lower prices overseas would violate the Robinson-Patman Act, which forbids decrptive practices like blaming higher domestic prices on growing costs while selling some products at lower costs. Schroeder said she could not address factual allegations in the NACS letter because, as president of a publishers trade group, she isn't privy to pricing decisions. She noted that anti-trust laws prohibit publishers and other companies from discussing pricing among themselves. |
|
Bowker posts K-8 super card-catalog| NEW PROVIDENCE, New Jersey, March 22, 2003 -- The bibliographic company R.R. Bowker created a web site for K-8 teachers and librarains to search for books and materials. The site has access to 200,000 titles, Bowker said. Address: Children's Books in Print. |
|
| |
McGraw launches hand-held writing aid| NEW YORK, March 22, 2003 -- Software that gives composition students immediate access to solutions for their writing problems has been introduced by McGraw-Hill Higher Education as a supplement to its textbook A Writer's Resource. "With Catalyst, students now have instant support at their fingertips for writing assignments in composition class and all other subjects," the company said. Catalyst is downloadable for hand-held and other computers. It also is available on CD-ROM. |
|
| |
|
|
MCGRAW-
HILL
HIGHER
EDUCATION |
|
| Chemistry: The Molecular Science |
|
| | Publisher:
Brooks/Cole
Editor:
John Holdcroft
|
Chemistry authors win SA2 visual prize| WINONA, Minn., March 21, 2003 -- A college chemistry textbook by John W. Moore, Conrad L. Stanitski and Peter C. Jurs won a William Henry Fox Talbot Prize for excellence in visuals from the Sociey of Academic Authors. The book, Chemistry: The Molecular Science, was originally published by Saunders College Publishing under the editorship of John Vondeling and is now under the Brooks/Cole Publishing imprint and edited by John Holdcroft. The book was praised by one member of the SA2 panel of judges as "superb" for "outstanding use of visuals to relate the application of chemistry to everyday life." Said other judges: "Many visuals were not what I would normally expect to see in a chemistry text. These unexpected visuals are very effective in relating the importance of chemistry to one's life." "The photographic capture of several quick chemical reactions is admirable." Learning of the award, Srtanitski said: "We were very fortunate to work with John Woolsey, a gifted scientific artist and illustrator." Moore is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Stanitski at the University of Central Arkansas, and Jurs at Pennsylvania State University. |
|
| Third of the 2003 Talbys to be announced |
|
|
New chief at McGraw School Group| NEW YORK, March 21, 2003 -- Former Pearson and Wiley textbook executive Bill Oldsley moved to McGraw-Hill to lead the School Education Group, which produces pre-school through secondary educational materials. Oldsey most recently was group president for Pearson Education's publishing operations outside the United States. He also served as: group president of Pearson's elementary and supplemental publishing operations, president of Silver Burdett Ginn; and president of Prentice Hall's Business Publishing Division. Earlier, he served as an editorial director in Wiley's college program. |
|
| |
|
|
MCGRAW-
HILL
HIGHER
EDUCATION |
|
Rowman buys NCUP's 150 titles| ALBANY, New York, March 19, 2003 -- Humanities and social sciences publisher NCUP was purchased by Rowman & Littlefield. Rowman will close NCUP's Albany office and integrate the company's 150 titles into its own lists. NCUpP founder Lee Kmieciak is retiring. | |
| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 |
|
| David S. Kidwell (finance), University of Minnesota, Richard L. Peterson (finance), Texas Tech University, David W. Blackwell (finance), PricewaterhouseCoopers, and David A. Whidbee (finance), Washington State University, wrote the eighth edition of Financial Institutions, Markets, and Money, Study Guide (Wiley). |
 |
|
| Campbell R. McConnell (economics), University of Nebraska, retired, Stanley L. Brue (economics), Pacific Lutheran University, and David Macpherson (economics), Florida State University-Tallahassee, wrote the sixth edition of Contemporary Labor Economics (McGraw-Hill Irwin). |
| Mostafa Mehrabani, vice president and chief information officer for the TRW aerospace, defense and automotive systems company, was named executive vice president for information management and chief information officer at McGraw-Hill. |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
|
New Jefferson Lecturer: David McCullough| WASHINGTON, March 18, 2003 -- The National Endowment for the Humanities named historian David McCullough, whose work has been honored with the Pulitzer Prize, as the 2003 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. The lecture is the federal government's highest individual honor for scholars in the humanities. |
|
| |
C.J. Kramsch. "The Cultural Discourse of Foreign Language Textbooks," in A.J. Singerman, editor, Toward a New Integration of Language and Culture, Pages 63-88. Northeast Conference, 1988. Analyzes the culture of the textbook in the context of education and publishing. Discusses the kind of culture contained in textbooks and suggests directions for the future.
Valerie Strauss. "A Radical Formula for Teaching Science," Washington Post (March 18, 2003), Page A08. Strauss, a Post reporter, asks whether Joy Hakim's story-telling approach in K-12 history and science texts is the new wave. Strauss explores pros and cons but seems to side with Hakin discioples that committee-written school books are esoteric and bland and don't reach today's students.
Academics, writers sign anti-war notice| NEW YORK, March 17, 2003 -- A full-page advertisement in the New York Times, condemning the pending U.S. war on Iraq, was signed by 14,000 intellectals, mostly academics and authors. Joshua Cohen, co-editor of the Boston Review magazine, who coordinated the campaign for signatures, said the $50,000 to place the ad came from the signatories. The ad called the war "morally unacceptable" at this time, saying that no copelling evidence of an imminent threat to the United States had been produced: "A war with Ira will be a war of choice, not necessity." |
|
| |
Attorney: Overseas pricing gap a legal breach?| ST. LOUIS, Missouri, March 16, 2003 -- An attorney for the National Association of College Stores said U.S. college publishers might be violating the Robinson-Patman Act if they're selling textbooks overseas at lower prices. In a report at a NACS meeting, Marc Fleischaker noted that the law prohibits deceptive practices, in which, he said, publishers are surely engaging if they are selling identical books overseas at different prices while arguing that domestic prices are being pushed up by higher costs. Fleishaker said he wrote to eight major publishers about their books creeping into the U.S. market from overseas at deep discounts. None of the publishers responded, he said. Nobody has data on how many books enter the U.S. retailing stream from overseas, but Fleishaker called it "an increasingly more significant problem." Booksellers are especially rankled that cheaper texts from foreign sources reinforces a peception among student customers that college store prices are gouging them. | NATIONAL
ASSOCIATION
OF COLLEGE
STORES |
|
| | Publisher:
Prentice Hall
Editor:
Halee Dinsey
|
Anatomy authors' book wins visuals award| WINONA, Minn., March 18, 2003 -- A college anatomy textbook by Frederic H. Martini, Michael J. Timmons and Robert B. Tallitsch won a William Henry Fox Talbot Prize for excellence in visuals from the Sociey of Academic Authors. The book, Human Anatomy, published by Prentice Hall under the editorshop of Halee Dinsey, was praised by one member of the SA2 panel of judges as "flawless." The book was singled out for original photography and line art. Said judges: "These kinds of photos in an oversize-format book represent a new kind of anatomy textbook -- very strong." "The large format assists the reader in moving through the dense material." "I would highly recommend it to any beginning student of medicine." "The combination of lineart and photography in the skeletal anatomy is highly effective, as are the many radiologic images and histological photomicrographs." Martini is with the University of Hawaii, Timmons with Moraine Valley Community College, and Tallitsch with Augustana College. Their Human Anatomy is in its fourth edition. The anatomical paintings were created by William Ober and Claire Garrison, who also assembled the final illustrations for the textbook by combining their artwork with anatomical photographs by Ralph Hutchings. The illustrations won a previous award from the Association of Medical Illustrators. The first edition holds a Texty from the Text and Academic Authors Association. The fourth edition just won two awards at the New York Book Fair, one for cover and another for interior design. |
|
|
| Second of the 2003 Talbys to be announced |
|
|
Scott Foresman buys visual arts program| AUSTIN, Texas, March 16, 2003 -- School publisher Barrett Kendall sold its Portfolio visual arts curriculum for kindergarten through middle school to Scott Foresman. Terms were not announced. The purchase represents Scott Foresman's entry into the K-8 visual arts education market -- in adition to its existing presence in language arts, math, music, reading, science and social studies. Kendall's interdisciplinary program focuses on aesthetics, art history, art criticism, and creativity. Each unit integrates the elements of art and principles of design with social studies, reading and language arts. |
|
|
SCOTT
FORESMAN |
Course Tech in joint college training project| MESA, Arizona, March 16, 2003 -- Thomson's Course Technology has teamed with Microsoft and the American Association of Community Colleges to provide advanced training to 1,300 info-technology instructors who teach up to 100,000 students at 1,150 community and technical colleges in the United States. This spring and summer, Course Technology will provide funding and educational materials to more than of the 400 colleges. | |
WRITING YOUR FIRST BOOK: Peggy Blanchard, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, tells freshly credentialized scholars that they need look no further than their dissertation for start in writing a good book. "Book proposals are not exactly identical to dissertation proposals, but you still must know what you are doing." For starters, Blanchard says ou need a viable and exciting idea, solid research questions, and a plentiful resources. You also need a literature review aimed at showing where your manuscript would fit in the literature and how it differs from the competition.
BLANCHARD'S COMPLETE COLUMN |
|
| 
BLANCHARD |
|
Death claims Lagardere leader| PARIS, March 16, 2003 -- The chief executive of the French conglomerate Lagardere, Jean-Luc Lagardere, died from a rare neurological disease. The company includes a major French educational publishing unit that, with its pending acquisition of Vivendi Publishing, will control 90 percent of the nation's textbook adoptions. The company has extensive other media holdings. It also is a weapons manufacturer. |
|
| |
University press sales up -- a turn-around?WASHINGTON, March 17, 2003 -- After months of declining sales, university presses logged a major turnaround in January, according to the Association of American Publishers. Hard-bound books from university presses were up more than half from a year earlier. Soft-bound sales were up significantly too. El-hi also rebounded from a slump, up 6.8 percent. Here are the year-to-date AAP data for January, extrapolated from 74 member-publishers, for genres in which academic authors write:University press (hard)
University press (soft)
Professional, scholarly
El-hi
College | 52.5 percent
24.7 percent
6.8 percent
6.8 percent
-2.7 percent |
|
|
|
| ACADEMIC AUTHORING PEOPLE |
 |
|
| Alex Himonas (math), University of Notre Dame, and Alan Howard (math), University of Notre Dame, wrote Calculus: Ideas and Applications (Wiley). |
 |
|
| K. Elayn Martin-Gay (math), University of New Orleans, Lakefront, wrote the second edition of Basic College Mathematic (Prentice Hall). |
 |
|
| Ansel M. Sharp (economics), University of The South, Charles A. Register (economics), Florida Atlantic University-Boca Raton, and Paul W. Grimes (economics), Mississippi State University, wrote the 16th edition of Economics of Social Issues (McGraw-Hill Irwin). |
| Stefanie Von Borstel, trade marketing manager at Harcourt, joined the Lennie Literary Agency in San Diego, California. |
| Please
tell
us
about
your
latest
project:
EDITOR |
|
Prentice Hall calls iText a success| UPPER SADDLE RIVER, New Jersey, March 16, 2003 -- The iText interactive electronic textbook pilot program from Prentice Hall has met with "overwhelming success" in five separate schools for Grades 7, 9 and 11 in Miami-Dade County Public Schoolsthe publishing comopany announced. Prentice Hall quoted English teacher Rey Delgado: "It is nice that the iText looks exactly the same as the book, because the kids did not have to re-familiarize themselves with the text." Teacher Shernett Alexander added that her students "will get better grades than usual in the course, because they completed all the assignments. Enthusiasm improved when students were allowed to go online." iText is available for middle school writing and grammar, and science; high school biology; high school writing and grammar; and middle and high school literature. Math and social studies will follow, the company said. |
|
|
PRENTICE
HALL |
E-book sales grow 1,400 percent| WASHINGTON, March 16, 2003 -- Citing growing consumer interest in electronic books, the Association of American Publishers has begin tracking e-book sales along with conventional ink-on-paper books. In January, AAP said, e-book sales reached $3.3 million -- up 1,447.4 percent from a year earlier. |
| |
|
