Printed catalogs are vital to the publishing process

American Association of University Presses (AAUP) President Alex Holzman recently sent an email message to his colleagues concerning seasonal catalogs where he states he is “utterly befuddled” by why his fellow university presses bother to print them. The color ink used in the catalogs is pretty, Holzman says, but is a complete waste of money, and he castigates the university presses for being behind the times by still issuing catalogs on paper. “Do folks genuinely find that more beautiful catalogues lead to better sales? To better acquisitions? To better university relations? Can you quantify that somehow?” The economic rationale of Holzman’s argument seems to hinge on the fact that university administrations would applaud the cost savings of eliminating catalogs, therefore slashing marketing budgets, and there would be very little collateral damage because independent bookstores are going the way of the Dodo, and the reps who call on these bookstores are just as behind the times as the marketing departments at the university presses whom they represent for continuing the use of paper catalogs as essential sales tools.

I am one of the sales reps for Temple University Press where Holzman is currently the director. I have no recollection of howling in protest over his suggestion, as he stated was the case with his reps, but I have to say that with all due respect that paper catalogs reflect the essential character of a university press, and I have yet to see a better alternative for selling books than the use of a catalog, color or not. Furthermore, the catalog transcends the mundane process of selling books to retailers, librarians, wholesalers, and teachers: it serves multiple purposes such as list development, publicity, and public relations. A catalog enhances the personal expression of the authors whose books are listed there. A catalog expresses the worldview and outlook of the publisher, be it programmatic or a special series of books that the publisher is developing. It’s there for the world to see in a cohesive, integrated format that has stood the test of time.

A publisher can lose creative control over the development process when you take catalogs out of the mix. One could argue that the dissemination of information is now relegated to the Internet, ceded to Google, to Microsoft, to Intel, to Amazon.com, and to the electric utilities powering computers, polluting the air with coal-burning power plants. There is a political element to this that should not be ignored. How are various books represented in culture? Who controls the process of how books are distributed, digested, and reviewed in the greater quotidian? The cost to the publisher should not be measured here in money saved or set-aside, but in something greater, something more important, and something akin to saving their souls.

My guess is that the bound book itself will be next on the digital hit list, and university presses will be harshly criticized down the road for not saving money by going exclusively digital with their offerings. With Pandora’s box thrown open, ultimately we need to ask: what is the role of a university press in the world today?

Midwest Book Review cites Tom Palazolo's At Maxwell Street

The Photography Shelf
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/feb_09.htm#photography
At Maxwell Street
Tom Palazzolo
Wicker Park Press PO Box 5318, River Forest, IL 60305-5318
9780978967611, $45.00, http://www.wickerparkpress.com/

Chicago's Maxwell Street had its beginnings as an old-world style European market place in the 19th century and evolved into Chicago's official open-air market in the 20th century as a tri-part combination of sidewalk storefront shops, curbside vending sheds, and vending plywood table-tops on wooden horses lining each side of the street. A pedestrian only area because of the density of vendors, Maxwell Street was a true Chicago and enduring cultural landmark. Now in "At Maxwell Street: Chicago's Historic Marketplace Recalled In Words And Photographs" by Tom Palazzolo, we are provided with a wealth of black-and-white captioned images along with informative commentaries by Lori Grove, Jack Helbig, Lionel Bottari, Linda Platt, and others. Enhanced with an accompanying DVD, At Maxwell Street is an especially recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library Photogaphy and American History reference collections in general, and Chicago History supplemental reading lists in particular.

St Lawrence Seaway’s 50th Anniversary Inspires Two New Books

You can look at the St Lawrence Seaway from a number of perspectives. You can see it as a spectacular feat of engineering, a brash and bold opening of world trade routes across the North American continent, or as an unmitigated ecological disaster. Jeff Alexander takes the last view in his book, Pandora’s Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway ($29.95, 416 pages, ISBN 978-0-87013-857-7, Michigan State University Press). Alexander pulls no punches in his book, and shows how the opening of waterways reeked havoc on the Great Lakes as invasive foreign species moved in along with the trading vessels from the high seas. Eric Reeves, a former Coast Guard Staff Officer for the Great Lakes ballast-monitoring program, says Alexander’s book, “tells the twisted story of this exotic disaster – and the story of our abject failure to prevent it.”

In a 2004 article in the Star Tribune, Few ships checked for invasive species, writer Tom Meersman spells it out, “These untested ships -- nearly 3,500 since 1995 -- are loaded with cargo, rather than ballast water. In theory, their nearly empty ballast tanks shouldn't be teeming with foreign creatures. But they are, scientists have discovered. Even ships with nearly empty ballast tanks can carry millions of tiny invaders in residual water and mud that can end up dumped into Great Lakes ports. Once established in the world's largest freshwater lake chain, an invader like the European round goby can become a permanent resident, out-eating, out-reproducing and overpowering native species. Two-thirds of the 79 non-native species discovered in the lakes since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 almost certainly arrived in ballast tanks, according to recent U.S. and Canadian research analyzed by the Star Tribune.” http://www.greatlakesdirectory.org/ny/061604_great_lakes.htm

And so it seems that ocean freighters are laying waste to the Great Lakes ecosystems, and little was done has been done about it. Alexander is an award-winning writer, and author of a previous Michigan State book, The Muskegon: The Majesty and Tragedy of Michigan’s Rarest River. He blends science with first-hand accounts in a readable, journalistic style.

The St Lawrence Seaway may be bad news for the wondrous lakes on both sides of the United States-Canadian border, but the story of its construction is well-told by Calire Puccia Parham, a history instructor at Siena College in Loudonville, NY. The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project: An Oral History of the Greatest Construction Show on Earth ($34.95, 328 pages, 40 b/w illustrations, ISBN 978-0-8156-0913-1, Syracuse University Press) is a vivid tribute to the hard work and dedication of the project’s 22,000 workers. It was a phenomenal feat of engineering and manufacturing, and involved unprecedented cooperation between the governments of the United States and Canada.

The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project consisted of a series of locks, canals, and dams that tamed the ferocious St Lawrence River. Perham’s book draws on first-hand accounts of various engineers, laborers, and carpenters who built the Seaway in 1959. This book offers a human side to the massive international public works project. Perham is an expert on the history of the area, and she wrote a previous book on two towns that are separated by the St. Lawrence River: in Canada, Cornwall, Ontario, and in the United States, Massena, New York. The book is From Great Wilderness to Seaway Town (State University of New York Press) and offers various perspectives on the people inhabiting the area. Her new book is tells an important and almost forgotten story of how the St. Lawrence Seaway came to be built, and vividly recounts the experiences of the people who labored to make it a reality.