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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including COVID-19 pandemic; online work; and remote learning.

An interview is presented with John T. Nardini, Postdoctoral Scholar, SAMSI & N.C. State University. Topics discussed include his experience of teaching Foundations of Advanced Mathematics at the college; his preparation for teaching online; and use of library resources by him in the class. It also informs in platform or software used by him for the online classes.

The article presents an interview with Katherine Daniel, lead author of the report "Library Acquisition Patterns" conducted by Ithaka S+R. Topics discussed include her internship at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), her work at Ithaka S+R of conducting research for publication, the Library Acquisition Patterns project, and her new job as a business analyst at a company called SumZero.

The article discusses an announcement by Harvard University that their faculty scholarship would be free for all. The move represents an opportunity to change the way academic collaboration works by promoting the widest possible dissemination of scholarly works. The announcement was made after a unanimous vote by Harvard's faculty of Arts and Sciences. The author discusses the reasons that this unanimous vote was noteworthy and the potential ramifications of this new paradigm in academic publishing.

The article discusses information concerning the relationship of the academic libraries and vendors in terms of electronic books. Serials librarian and serials vendors find themselves conspiring to capture the deal of purchasing electronic books. It is indicated that most selectors for electronic books are looking for the smallest possible package and libraries favors a publisher who is offering a strong science package. The great issue about electronic books is that nobody wants to read an academic library's print books cover-to-cover, thus prefering to purchase electronic books.

The article reports on the issue that many envy Google company and its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin for his genius. Librarians and library vendors envy Google for its fast searches and for bringing new items so quickly. Google employs 100 chefs to create sumptuous and appetizing dishes free for its employees. Employees are composed of young professionals who enjoy good perks such as massages, gyms and lava lamps to name a few.

This article offers a look at conferences and meetings of the American Library Association (ALA). ALA, or any large gathering of any sort, has the potential to devolve into chaos and meaninglessness. The reason organizers and attendees impose structure. At a certain point, the structure becomes the experience. Programs, meetings, appointments, dinners, lunch, receptions, drinks, demonstrations, bed, start over. Librarians consider ALA as a professional conference. However, vendors know it is really a trade show. To the associations and professional groups staging them, they are serious business indeed, since the money taken in often accounts for half of a group's overall annual operating revenue. The industry is highly organized, complete with Web sites, strategic planning consultants, trade journals, its own conferences and seminars, its own associations of trade show organizers, and its vendors. The most recent ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts drew 13,000 attendees. However, it was not as good as the 2003 Midwinter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania attended by 13,664. ALA Annual Conferences, held in the summer, can draw over 20,000 as 2002 in Atlanta did. A typical ALA meeting has over 2000 scheduled events. They are listed in a master schedule, which features a dense grid of acronyms, start times, end times, room numbers and venue codes.

This article comments on the expansion of the International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) to 13 digits starting January 1, 2007. The ISBN is comprised of a group identifier, a publisher's prefix, an item number and a check digit. The check digit is calculated through an arithmetic formula and is used by computer systems to validate the preceding 9-digit core. With ISBN-13, all current 10-digit ISBN will be getting a prefix of 978. This will cause the check digit to be recalculated so that last digit of the ISBN will change also. The check digit will be calculated using a different arithmetic formula, and the X found in the last position of some ISBN will be eliminated. When all available blocks of 978 ISBN have been assigned, prefixes of 979 will be assigned. ISBN with 979 prefixes will be expected in 2007. There are two reasons why this is happening. The oft-cited opinion is that the industry is running out of ISBN and that this will add to the pool of available numbers. The sometimes overlooked reason for migrating to a 13-digit ISBN has to do with the plethora of product identifier numbers in use. Clearly a system that had but a single product identifier for each item would save an inordinate amount of time, money and energy.

The article discusses papers published within the issue, including one by Rick Lugg on a recap of how the academic bookselling business has evolved since the 1980s, another by Stephanie Church on the purchasing power of librarians and lastly by Alan Jarvis on the need for scholarly publishers to justify how their budgets are spent.

The article offers the insights of the authors on the switching of American University Library to primary book vendor Coutts in improving customer service. Topics mentioned include the first school to switch from book retailer Blackwell to Coutts, the communication written on world document for Couts, and the transition on the academic bookselling business.

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses articles in the issue dedicated to the relationship between publishing by academic libraries and by university presses in the U.S., including publishing at the University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, and Pacific University.

The author discusses his experiences at the 2013 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana. He provides details on traveling to the conference by automobile, his conversations with other librarians and former colleagues, and the benefits of attending the conference for librarians in training.

A personal narrative is presented in which the author discusses his experiences visiting the libraries of universities in Scotland such as the University of St. Andrews and the University of Glasgow.

The article focuses on library service prior to the use of computer technology. The author notes that using libraries in pre-digital times were quite a task. One has to carry borrowed books to a tedious check-out process then carry them back to one's place of study. Looking for books was reportedly a struggle due to maze-like buildings, partly to poor signage, and partly to ancient classification. Buildings were said to be not large enough to hold print collections. Patrons have to contend with tight shelves and remote storage locations if an old book is desired. Academic libraries are bent on serving patrons, providing cafe's, nice study spaces, and friendly Google-like search boxes on library Websites.

The author discusses people's reliance on global positioning systems (GPS). He suggests that people possess an inner GPS, which programs them to participate in routine activities such as driving to work without being consciously aware. The author reveals that his inner GPS has led him to the American Library Association (ALA) conference in the past, but that he will be missing the 2012 ALA conference.

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's 2011 experience driving from Tennessee to New Hampshire, using his laptop and his Blackberry, a smartphone designed by the telecommunications company Research In Motion (RIM), to work from the car.

Information is presented about a book-related conference called "Future of the Book" (FOTB) held in 2012 in Tallahassee, Florida. The author discusses a talk by English professor Elaine Treharne entitled "You Kant Touch This: The Immanent Book in the Digital Age" about interactions between early manuscripts and their users, and a talk entitled "McLuhan Was Right" by media expert Bob Stein about digital communication and digital books. Also discussed is the open-source software called Sophie.

The author compares changes in book sales for libraries to changes in the steel industry. He comments on job losses at steel mills in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and suggests approval plans by book vendors will become obsolete. He describes book selection processes in libraries and suggests approval plans will need to offer both print and electronic books. He comments that approval reviews processes may be conducted online and suggests librarians should created online approval plan profiles. The role of library users in selecting books is noted.

The article discusses changes in library acquisitions since the advent of online resources such a Google Book Search, Amazaon.com and Barnes & Noble booksellers. It notes that what was once called Collection Development became Collection Management and then Information Resources. It finds that almost anything is available online for free or a nominal fee except new books. It notes that book stores are struggling, publishers are cutting back, and libraries are cutting their new book budgets. It states that at one time libraries bought new books because they would be difficult to obtain later on, but that is no longer true. It suggests seeing new books as investments and questions whether they will hold their value in an increasingly digital world.

The author discusses the role of marketing in library management. He notes that Thomas Dawes, a former member of the musical group the Cyrkle, wrote advertising jingles and suggests Dawes represents the importance of marketing. He discusses awards given out for library public relations that are named for former library director John Cotton Dana and comments on how the Internet has changed marketing for libraries.

Information about several papers discussed at a symposium of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control. Some of the topics tackled include consortium, special library, public library, and abstracting and indexing service including various concerns in vendor and library relations of 400 catalogers of the Library of Congress. Some of the notable persons present in the meeting include Beacher Wiggins, Deanna Marcum, and Rick Lugg.

The author reflects on the issues on Library weblogs among librarians. He pointed out that the nonsensical names blogs on the web have created a bad impression on the library columnists. He argued that columnists offers readers a point-of-view, way of thinking and expressing oneself but seldom to interact with readers. He explained that columns can be kept for a long time unlike blogs that can be deleted easily.

The article discusses the issue that affect the Vendor/Library relations. It has been said the some features of Microsoft Corp.'s new Office 2007 has been loathed by customers due to some options that literally did nothing. According to the author, somewhere in the lineage of every software feature, useful and useless ones alike, there was some kind of encounter between customer and company. Moreover, for libraries and their vendors today, there is no more important point of connection, or missed connections, than this partly covert area, which is systemmaking.

The article presents an argumentation between Google Inc. and various book publishers on the issue of digitization of the books in the libraries. In December 2004, Google announced that it had entered into agreements with five major libraries--the New York Public, the Bodleian at Oxford, and the University Libraries at Harvard, Michigan and Stanford--to digitize their book collections, index them electronically, and make them searchable online. In return, the libraries received a digital copy of all the books they loaned to Google for this purpose. Ever since Google announced the project though, publishers have been objecting to what they regard as a massive infringement of their rights, since Google intended to digitize copyrighted works without seeking permission. Google responded that publishers could "opt-out" if they wished by withdrawing individual titles from the project. Opted-out books would still be digitized, though, a copy of them kept in Google's database, and digital copies still given to the participating libraries. Opt-out would only mean that those titles would not be displayed in the search results.

The article highlights The Book & the Scholar a public symposium held at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee in September 2004. The event was designed to emphasize the relevance of the university press to the academic community and to focus attention on its importance in faculty publishing and scholarly communication. The first day of the symposium focused on the relationship between university presses and universities. Peter Givler of the American Association of University Presses gave a historical overview of university presses. According to Givler, there are approximately ninety to ninety-five university presses in the U.S. and Canada. The mission of university presses is to publish scholarship, with the decision to publish based on whether a work will make a significant contribution. The second day of the symposium was a Writers Workshop. At the final session, the topics discussed were book contracts, the book summary and marketing questionnaire, advertising, book signings, appearances at scholarly meetings, book reviews and prizes and awards.

This article focuses on vendor and library relations. Computer hacks and systems librarians are not uncommon characters in the casts of academic libraries. But it is not everywhere systems and acquisitions librarians work within sight of one another. Cornell's Head of Acquisitions, Bibliographic Control, and Government Documents is Scott Wicks. When Cornell University selectors thought about electronic distribution of records from the Library of Congress, together with Peter Hoyt, librarian at the Cornell University, they began hour upon hour of thinking and talking about how to design online selection workflows. All of Cornell's major book vendors had developed selection and ordering databases. Those vendor databases, in fact, were part of the problem for Wicks. Training selectors and acquisitions staff in half a dozen separate vendor interfaces and devising workflows to accommodate each one, while also processing the paper-based selections that still accounted for the bulk of Cornell's orders, seemed like a reinvention of too many wheels. The idea became a project. And after more than a year of planning and development, the project became a database when it was launched on February 13, 2004.

This article provides information on the price structure of books published by Walter de Gruyter Publishers. Walter de Gruyter is not just one company, with one program and one price structure. Rather, it consists of many entities, with two primary divisions. The first is Walter de Gruyter,the parent company with its humanists departments including theology, Classics, Philosophy, Archeology, Literature and Linguistics and the Natural Sciences and Medicine divisions. All of the aforementioned departments publish mainly in German. Second, there is Mouton de Gruyter, which was known as Mouton Publishers until acquired by Walter de Gruyter in 1976. More than 90 percent of this division's publications are in English. Mouton de Gruyter is therefore the only division comparable to Kluwer and Benjamins. Both Benjamins and Mouton are scholarly publishers with a core program in linguistics. It is presumptuous to belive that the circulation of a German-language book in a U.S. library would be as high as an English-language book in the same library. Although Germans sometimes choose to ignore this fact, the ability to read in the language of the Philosophers is lower than the German writing academia acknowledges.

This article focuses on the expensiveness of high-quality books published by some European presses. The average price for a De Gruyter title in 2003 was $128. Kluwer and Benjamins averaged $120 and $114. Bibliographers point out that de Gruyter is known for the quality of its publications. It may be one of the last great academic publishers in private hands, giving the presumption and expectations that their publication decisions a re based on scholarly considerations than on the bottom-line performance of a title. It backlists almost every title ever published, production standards are high. Generally with a de Gruyter imprint, one can have confidence that it will be a well-edited and attractively set and bounded book that is an important contribution to scholarship. Frequently one hears faculty and other bibliographers complain about books from Peter Lang. Scholars choose to publish with Lang for a variety of reasons however. The average price of a Lang imprint is around $46. Of 37 Benjamins titles held in the main library, 11 have never circulated, ten have circulated once, eight have circulated more than two to four times and one has circulated more than four times. Foreign language is hardly an issue, only three Benjamins tiles were not in English.

The article focuses on the criticisms made by Edward R. Tufte against the PowerPoint computer software. Tufte is a Yale emeritus professor who in retirement has become something of a cult figure through several books about analytical design published by his own Graphics Press. "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information," the first of these, gave Tufte a platform which he uses to demonstrate how complicated phenomena can be beautifully and clearly presented. On his Website, Tufte offers for sale a 27-page booklet entitled "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint." In this essay, parts of which were published in "Wired" magazine, Tufte elaborates on what he considers the program's defects. Along the way, Tufte shows how decisions informed by PowerPoint presentations contributed to the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster, skewers a witless series of Harvard School of Public Health PowerPoint slide templates, compares PowerPoint to a drug meriting worldwide product recall, lavishes attention on a PowerPoint parody based on the "Gettysburg Address," displays a hilarious parody of his own, and in a brilliant mini-critique within his larger critique, refers to PowerPoint much of the time as "PP."

This section presents information on locations suited for vendor/library relations. The set of activities known as library-vendor relations are not usually thought of as a place-bound phenomenon. But these relations do unfold, in certain places, or rather types of places such as: conventional hall exhibit floors, the sidewalks of convention cities, library meeting rooms, off-campus restaurant tables or tables at on-campus dining facilities. To cite an example, airport boarding lounges become a twice-yearly venue of library-vendor relations under an ironclad schedule surrounding American Library Association Conferences. To get to the heart of things, where the place-bound element of our mutual business really is defined, it is necessary to discuss offices. No rule says a librarian has to let a vendor representative into their office. An office is quasi-personal space, and to share it even momentarily with an outsider is a welcoming gesture, possibly an implicit statement that the librarian is open for business. For a vendor there is no more intimate customer moment than when a librarian says please come into my office and sit down, then with a touch of drama closes the door and turns to you.

Reports on the release of the "AALL Guide to Fair Business Practices for Legal Publishers," by law librarians, which was approved by the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) in November 2002. Establishment of a special committee for the AALL; Members of the AALL Task Force; Major principles of the AALL guide.

The article discusses the difficulties of marketing self-published books as well as having such titles acquired by libraries. According to the authors, the lack of publicity given to many self-published books prevents them from appearing in title lists, announcements, and approval plans provided to libraries from vendors. Additional information is provided on Ingram Content Group, a company that distributes printed and electronic books.

The article focuses on the pilot programs of libraries related to academic electronic book (eBook) price indexes. It states that creating or using a price index for eBooks will be challenging as publishers, aggregators, vendors and libraries have a specific approach when interacting with one another for eBook prices. It notes that pilot programs for eBooks that have been launched by publishers, aggregators, vendors and libraries need to be controlled in which they need to collide. It stresses that such programs need to have a destination beyond conference presentations or the goals and objectives of an individual for the year.

The article presents the methods of counting ISBNs by Bowker, the official International Standard Book Number (ISBN) agency in the United States. It counts and record bibliographic entities. Methods such as double-counting and counting books of any kinds was said to be unhelpful for librarians who are engaged in planning and budgeting. The difference between the numbers produce by Blackwells and YBP book counts compared to that of Bowker's was also presented. U.S. book production number rely on Bowker's book counts.