Every day Poets & Writers Magazine scans the headlines—from publishing reports to academic announcements to literary dispatches—for all the news that creative writers need to know. Here are today's stories:
Critics of the Google Book Search settlement filed a letter with the court last week complaining that the rules and timeline governing objections to the still-unresolved deal are unfairly stringent (Publishers Weekly [2]).
Barnes & Noble is partnering with software firm Adobe to support the “standardization” of the ePub and PDF e-book formats (Press Release [3]).
More than a year after it was first commissioned, a government review of Britain’s library system is expected to be released next month (Bookseller [4]).
Forward-thinking librarians in the U.K. have begun including e-books among their public offerings, and some are witnessing a surge in patronage (Telegraph [5]).
In other library news, a multimillion-dollar injection of federal stimulus cash is helping the expansion of one of Toronto’s largest libraries (Globe and Mail [6]). Eight hundred miles away, the government is also lending a hand in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the city is planning to triple the size of its central library with a new LEED-certified building (Library Journal [7]). Meanwhile, a collective called Libraries Nova Scotia [8]—which comprises all public and academic libraries in the province—has launched a free “Borrow Anywhere, Return Anywhere” program (Library Journal [9]).
Sticking to the Maritimes, the long-lost final volume in Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series is set to be released tomorrow (CBC [10]). The saga’s heroine is also the subject of a controversial new art exhibit on religion and torture, which depicts the fictional martyrdom of famous figures (CBC [11]).
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that the Kindle is now his company’s best-selling item (AFP [12]).
Suspicious that he might be a Cuban agent, Mexico’s spy service kept tabs on Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez for decades, according to newly declassified files (Guardian [13]).