The Bennett Blog

We launch our new website

2012-01-21T22:10:00.000+11:00

Well, it's been a long time coming, but we're pleased to announce the launch of our new website. As you know, we were acquired by Baker & Taylor in December 2009 and re-branded when we moved to our Brookvale premises in May 2010. But alas the website was not able to be refreshed at the time. It had become old, tired, and hard to update. So we decided to look at other options.....

One of them was Silverstripe, which was eventually chosen as the content management system for the site. We worked with b-side design on the look and feel, and a few months later - TA-DA! - we have our new website.

www.bennett.com.au

IT Staff working on JBO took the opportunity to give it a facelift at the same time. Gone are the old Bennett greens:

Replaced with the new palette

The website itself has progressed. Here's a "shocker" from 2006. We were obviously trying to put a lot of information on the site, including bestsellers from one of the major book chains. And there was even an online version of Suduku posted there!

Over the years we've modified and updated, but nothing this major. We're proud of the new site which is much cleaner, fresher, and professional:

For our marketing staff, the new website means they can add files and content quickly for our customers - whether it's a special promotion or a selection list. Look closely - there's even the odd Look Inside the Book there and we'll be working with our publishing partners on more features as we go along.

You can read the official welcome from Mr Chris von Hinckeldey, our Managing Director here. And if you would like to provide some feedback on the new website, we encourage you to fill in our online form here.

The blog itself will be moving to the new website - you'll find the new Bennett Blog at:

http://www.bennett.com.au/the-bennett-blog/

but we'll work out a way to keep you informed on blog posts on this existing site. We thank you all for following us here on Blogger. In a relatively short time we had over 14,000 views so we were obviously doing something right! Let's hope we can continue doing that over at the new website. Come and play with us there.

James Bennett to offer collectionHQ to libraries

2011-12-01T10:03:00.001+11:00

MEDIA RELEASE

Baker & Taylor acquires CollectionHQ Software from Bridgeall Libraries to Improve Library Collection Performance

BROOKVALE, New South Wales – Thursday, December 1, 2011 – James Bennett, the Australian subsidiary of U.S.-based book distributor Baker & Taylor, Inc., will soon offer customers in Australia, New Zealand and Asia the popular collectionHQ library collection performance improvement software, following today’s announcement of Baker & Taylor’s purchase of Scottish technology company Bridgeall Libraries.

The agreement unites two companies that provide critical services to libraries: Baker & Taylor, the leading supplier of products and services for libraries worldwide; and Bridgeall Libraries, developer of innovative software that helps libraries manage their collections more efficiently. Together, and in conjunction with James Bennett, the companies can help libraries provide the best and most appropriate content to the communities they serve.

“This partnership with Bridgeall Libraries is the perfect complement to the innovative and integrated products and services Baker & Taylor is known for. It strengthens the breadth of products and services we offer libraries worldwide and ensures that we can provide the most innovative workflow solutions in the industry. collectionHQ gives libraries the information and analytical tools they need to put the most relevant content in the hands of their patrons,” said George Coe, President, Baker & Taylor’s Library & Education division.

“As evidenced by the rapid growth of smartsm over the past four years, we are very proud to have delivered a tool that is hugely popular to libraries. Baker & Taylor has the global reach, vision and expertise to deliver smartsm –as well as new developments – for even further benefit of libraries worldwide. We are very pleased that Baker & Taylor has become the custodians of our very exciting technology,” said Stephen Beer, Managing Director of Bridgeall Libraries.

By adding Bridgeall Libraries’ collection-analysis technology to its portfolio, James Bennett can better serve the full range of its library customers’ needs, which include selecting, acquiring and managing printed and digital content.

Bridgeall Libraries’ popular software, known as smartsm in the U.K. and collectionHQ in the rest of the world, empowers libraries to more efficiently manage their holdings and allows them to assess and improve the performance of their collections. With smartsm libraries can better select, acquire and manage printed and digital content, and ultimately serve their patrons better.

In just four years since it was introduced, more than half of the U.K. libraries have subscribed to the service. In the U.S. and Canada, many top library systems have subscribed since the software was introduced there in 2010.

Software development, sales and customer support will remain headquartered in Glasgow, and the office there is poised to grow as Baker & Taylor helps introduce the technology to library systems in North America and around the world. The Glasgow office will work closely with Baker & Taylor’s U.S. headquarters for customer support operations and future development.

About Baker & Taylor
Baker & Taylor, Inc. (www.baker-taylor.com) is the world's largest distributor of books, digital content and entertainment products. The company leverages its unsurpassed worldwide distribution network to deliver rich content in multiple formats, anytime and anywhere. Baker & Taylor offers cutting-edge digital media services and innovative technology platforms to thousands of publishers, libraries and retailers worldwide. Baker & Taylor also offers industry-leading customized library services and retail merchandising solutions.

About James Bennett (www.bennett.com.au)
James Bennett Pty Limited is a major Australian based library supplier and has been servicing libraries since 1964. Based in Brookvale, NSW., James Bennett offers a total package of products and services designed to complement all supply arrangements. As a part of the Baker and Taylor group, James Bennett offers competitive pricing and supply time, with unmatched global resources and cutting-edge technologies.

About Bridgeall Libraries Ltd.
Based in Glasgow, U.K., Bridgeall Libraries Ltd. has developed smartsm® and collectionHQ®, the world leading Evidence Based Stock Management (EBSM®) solutions. EBSM® is the complete library stock improvement methodology, which analyses historic and current information about stock use, to help librarians save time and eliminate waste, improve stock performance and align stock with local demand. smartsm and collectionHQ are the software applications that implement the EBSM® methodology to help libraries achieve stock performance excellence. It is implemented using the Software as a Service model of application deployment. For more information, see www.smartsm.com or www.collectionHQ.com.

Media Contacts:

Baker & Taylor
Kimberly Kuo
Kimberly.Kuo@baker-taylor.com
704-998-3118

James Bennett
Andrew Hocken
ahocken@bennett.com.au
61-8-9364-1964

Bridgeall Libraries
Stephen Beer
stephen.beer@bridgeall.com

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Know it All Find it Fast for Academic Libraries

2011-11-08T17:52:00.001+11:00

We were absolutely delighted to see this new book from Facet Publishing arrive on our desk today! The Know it All, Find it Fast books for the enquiry desk are quite popular - and here we have one specifically designed for Academic Libraries. Naturally, being published in the UK, the book's listings are skewed towards the UK, however they also list International resources to help guide librarians as to "where to look" for information.

Know it All, Find it Fast for Academic Libraries, is a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide developed specifically for information professionals working in academic libraries.

Tackle the questions most commonly asked by students, academics and researchers!

A broad cross-disciplinary A-Z of themes including topics such as literature searching, plagiarism and using online resources are covered helping you to address any query confidently and quickly. Each topic is split into four sections to guide your response:

typical questions listing the common enquiries you’ll encounter
considerations exploring the issues and challenges that might arise
where to look listing annotated resources in print and online
tips and pitfalls outlining useful suggestions and common problems.

This will prove an indispensable day-to-day guide for anyone working with students, academics and researchers in an academic library.

About the author

Heather Dawson is an Academic Support Librarian in the Information Services Department of the LSE Library

Now available from Inbooks / James Bennett

387pp; paperback; ISBN 9781856047593; £49.95 (approx AUD $88.68 GST Inclusive)

Competitive library discounts apply.

Order your copy on JBO today!

Not a James Bennett customer but would like to order a copy of this book? Contact jbmarketing@bennett.com.au and reference this blog entry to receive free freight within Australia. Offer applies only until 14/12/11. Please note we take Mastercard, Visa, and cheque only.

You can contact Inbooks, the exclusive Australasian distributor for Facet Publishing, on (02) 8988 5082 or email orders@inbooks.com.au

Staff Focus-Customer Service Co-ordinator

2011-10-24T12:10:00.001+11:00

This month we focus on......

This month's Bennett Blurb newsletter focuses on customer service. Whether you are a public, academic, specialist or government library, James Bennett is renowned for our superb customer service in the library supply chain. We have the service - and the experience - you need to provide your own patrons, colleagues and staff with a successful and popular library service.

This month we're introducing you to Claire McManaway. She answered some general questions in the Bennett Blurb but she also allowed us to do our own profile of her, here in The Bennett Blog. How did she get to where she is now? What makes her tick? Read on and discover for yourself.

Name: Claire McManaway
Position: Customer Co-ordinator (Academic)

When did you start at James Bennett? A few years ago...about 11-12 years!
What were your previous roles (here or elsewhere)? Inbooks Customer Service, Data entry (Order Services), Operations, Binner in the Warehouse. I was about 15kg lighter - all that walking helped!
Describe your job: Answering to the needs of all our wonderful customers. We are here to help!
What do you enjoy most about your job?Completing that email. Finishing things off and getting a result. It’s great when you get a reply back thanking you for your efforts. We are stars and angels with a couple of awesomes in between .
Describe James Bennett in five words? OMG, we are the best!
What would you like customers to know about the work you do? That we are reliable as individuals and as a team. Finding those hard titles that you know are out there somewhere - it’s just putting your finger on it and hopefully being able to purchase it on behalf of the customer. We do source far and wide and are always looking for the best possible price. Getting results is always great. And things do take time…
What are the challenges you are facing? Keeping up with Claims!
What gets you excited about your day? Coming to work at James Bennett is great, we have a great location, friendly staff. We do have lovely customers from all walks of life, most of them I have never meet, but when we speak to them on the phone or via email it like I have known them for years. Most of my customers are listed on my phone so I know when you ring…
What books do you like to read? Suspense and action.
Do you have a favourite author? Robert Ludlum.
Last book you read? The Help.
Currently reading? The Most Wanted Man.
On the wishlist? (Keeping in mind this was a book question.....) That the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup 2011

(Well, Claire, they did - by a point!)

We hope you enjoyed reading about Claire and what it's like to work behind the scenes in Customer Service. What staff member would you like to see a Focus On here on the Bennett Blog or in our newsletter service? Contact Marketing and we'll see what we can do!

JAMES BENNETT

Your Library Vendor of Choice in the Australasian marketplace

BOOK REVIEW: ANZACS on the Western Front: The War Memorial Battlefield Guide

2011-10-24T11:11:00.004+11:00

BOOK REVIEW

This month's guest reviewer is Chris Epple, our Customer Co-ordinator, Academic. Chris recently joined our Customer Service department and we are delighted he was so interested in this forthcoming Australian book from Wiley. Here is his review of ANZACs on the Western Front: The War Memorial Battlefield Guide written by Peter Pedersen with Chris Roberts:

A quick search for Western Front battlefield guidebooks produces a very short list of mostly out of date titles. In a time when battlefields tourism is on an increase and more and more people are becoming interested in visiting the Australian and New Zealand battlefields of Gallipoli and France this book is a well timed introduction to the travel guide market. Even more so when you realise the 100th anniversary of the Great War is less than three years away!

Peter Pedersen has produced a thoroughly well researched guide to the battlefields of the Western Front from the ANZACS 1916 baptism of fire at Bois Grenier/ Fleurbaix to the final campaigns of 1918 and all the battles in between. The guide covers the battles of Fromelles, the Somme, Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, Bullecourt, Ypres, Messines, Menin Road, Polygon Wood, Passchendaele, Villers-Bretonneux, and many many more.

Pedersen describes each battlefield in intricate detail using pictures taken at the time of each battle, maps, present day photographs, and by pointing out current landmarks in the landscape. These are all used to good effect so that you can orientate yourself on the battlefield to get a glimpse of how each battle unfolded. You can really get a sense of how the battlefields must have looked like to the ANZACS.

He introduces each battlefield by chapter, outlines the conflicts with a narrative of the events of that particular confrontation to place the battle within the wider strategic theatre of operation in the war. Then goes on to describe the key moments of the battle, who won or lost ground, and the Australian and New Zealand units involved at each point as the battle ebbed and flowed. The reader is then instructed on how best to drive and walk each battlefield. The reader is taken through the battlefield and explains the layout of the battle on the present day landscape, pointing out where opposing lines and trenches were and the objectives of the attacks. You then follow the attacks and counterattacks as each battle progresses over the countryside.

The number of cemeteries located at each battlefield makes the brutality and horror of war clear. The guidebook includes every ANZAC cemetery and memorial on the Western Front, which should not be overlooked, as they are the lasting testament to so many lives lost.

As Pederson notes in the introduction “this guide cannot fully bring their words alive. You have to breathe life into them by putting your imagination to work. You will then gain some understanding of what it must have been like to be there and to appreciate the battlefields as places where ordinary men achieved great things.”

ANZACS on the Western Front is not just a guidebook, but a rare mix of a history book and travel guide that documents the battles of the ANZAC soldiers and given the reader a blow by blow account of how each encounter unfolded. For anyone wanting to visit the Western Front this is a must have. Touring the battlefields with Peter Pedersen’s assistance will allow you to gain a greater appreciation of the shocking events of WW1, as if you had your own personal guide travelling with you.

ISBN 9781742169811 | November 2011 | Paperback | 600 pages | AU$49.95
Competitive library discounts apply

Alex Miller and how he came to write Autumn Laing

2011-10-03T09:00:00.003+11:00

My first encounter with the work of Sidney Nolan was when I was a boy working on an Exmoor farm. An Australian gave me a book on the outback. The book was illustrated with black and white photographs of a vast silent land that was mysterious to me and which compelled my imagination. Although I didn’t know it at the time the haunting photographs in the book were the work of the Australian artist Sidney Nolan. I came to Australia on my own at the age of 16 in search of Sidney Nolan’s outback. It was the most important decision I have ever made. I still revisit Central and North Queensland and have many friends there. That strange and beautiful country photographed with the imagination of Nolan has been a deep and lasting influence on my life as a writer.

My second (recorded) encounter with the work of Nolan was in 1961 when Thames and Hudson published in London the first major monograph on the Australian artist’s work. Though I had very little money at the time – I was earning a living in Melbourne cleaning cars while studying at night for my university entrance exams – I thought this expensive book so important that I bought a copy and sent it to my father as a Christmas present. Nolan’s art, it seemed to me, would reveal to my father more about Australia than my letters ever could. It was through my father’s encouragement that I had first developed what proved to be a lifelong interest in art. He wanted me to be an artist. I did the next best thing and became a writer.

When my first novel, The Tivington Nott (Robert Hale 1989) was distributed in Australia Sidney Nolan’s old friend the poet Barrett Reid wrote to tell me he thought highly of the book and that he wished to meet me. Barrie, as his friends knew him, lived at Heide, the home of the Reeds, where Nolan’s art had found its first and most important champion in Sunday Reed. When I told Barrie about the inspiration of the book given me by the Australian in Somerset all those years ago it was he who told me it was Nolan’s photos I’d been looking at. On more than one occasion during the years of our friendship Barrie suggested to me that I write a novel based on Nolan’s life. Barrie revealed Nolan’s art to me in a way I could not have done for myself and he educated me about its sources and the life of art Nolan had lived at Heide. Barrie remained a dedicated friend and champion of Sunday Reed to the end of his life.

In Autumn Laing, the resident poet laureate of the group of artists whose work is favoured at Old Farm is Barnaby. Like Barrie, Barnaby was born and raised on a cattle station in the Central Highlands of Queensland. Barnaby is my private homage to a dear friend who is no longer with us. The connection of Nolan and the Queensland cattle station that I made through my friendship with Barrett Reid was a compelling one that was rich in those emotions that make us feel as if we not only belong to a certain place but that we are in some sense fated to belong to it. Sooner or later I knew I would attempt to write about Nolan. What I wrote was not, however, what I expected to write. Novels are a kind of dream for the novelist. Although they are based on reality the writer is not in control and must follow the compelling prompts of imagination. For me it has never been possible to plot or plan a novel beyond a few very basic elements. The story reveals itself to me as I proceed with a book and is nearly always a surprise. This book, Autumn Laing, was no exception.

I first wrote what is now chapter two, Autumn’s portrait of the artist’s first wife, Edith. After writing this chapter I had to leave it while I spent a month on tour in the UK with my previous novel Lovesong. At the end of the tour (the end of September 2010) I was sitting on a bench in Holland Park watching squirrels and remembering my boyhood in London’s parks when the idea for the present form of the book suddenly occurred to me. I hadn’t given the book a thought for a month. As I was sitting there that lovely September afternoon watching the squirrels diving about the place I suddenly heard the voice of Autumn Laing, ‘They are all dead,’ she said, ‘and I am old and skeleton-gaunt . . .’ It was a realisation. The realisation that the character I had originally based on Sunday Reed, Nolan’s muse and lover and his greatest supporter during his early years, might have lived on until the age of 86, alone, deserted, betrayed. This woman was no longer the Sunday Reed of history but was my own fiction, a fiction of how such a person might have become had she lived another ten years and had she decided to tell her story, telling it at a time of her life when she had nothing left to lose.

When I got home to Castlemaine from London in early October I wrote for ten hours a day six days a week for five months in the voice that I had heard in Holland Park – the voice of Autumn Laing. It is the longest novel I’ve ever written and the quickest. I loved every minute of it and was sorry when she finally left me. I don’t think I will ever find anyone like her again. She is confident, well informed, passionate, cultivated and very down to earth. She is, in some ways, the personification of a cultivated Australian woman. She couldn’t possibly be English or French. Her commitment was always to Australia and to our art. She was never tempted to live in England or Europe. In her person my own early life as a stockman in North Queensland is connected to my life as a writer in Melbourne, just as these aspects of my own life were connected for me by my friendship with Barrie Reid, a faithful friend of Sunday Reed until the end, and a faithful admirer and interpreter of the art of his old friend Nolan. It is the experience of the artist and of Autumn in this book while they are visiting Barnaby’s parents’ cattle station in North Queensland that changes them both forever.

Autumn Laing
Alex Miller
Allen & Unwin
ISBN 9781742378510 | Hardcover | 456 pages | ARP $39.99

Order your copies from James Bennett today!

We launch a new partnership with ebrary

2011-09-07T09:15:00.002+10:00

MEDIA RELEASE

September 7, 2011 – Palo Alto, CA, USA – ebrary ®, a leading provider of e-books and research technology, today announced it has partnered with James Bennett, a leading library acquisitions services supplier, to make e-books more readily and efficiently available to libraries throughout Australasia. Libraries may now seamlessly integrate ebrary’s e-books into their acquisition workflow by ordering titles directly through James Bennett Online (JBO).

Additionally, ebrary has signed new publishing partner Australian Academic Press, a highly respected publisher in the Australian academic market. ebrary also offers e-books from James Bennett’s top publisher list including Aboriginal Studies Press, University of New South Wales Press, University of Queensland Press, Wiley, Oxford University Press, Allen & Unwin, and many others.

“As e-books are critical to scholarly research, we are pleased to offer our customers titles from ebrary, which include the vast majority of university presses and other esteemed academic publishers throughout the world,” said Nada Stanojlovic, James Bennett’s General Manager, Library Services & Business Development.” We believe researchers will find great value in ebrary’s content as well as their technology that makes it easy to discover, use and share valuable information.”

“ebrary is a trusted and well-known brand in the academic and other library markets,” said Stephen May, Managing Director of Australian Academic Press. “We are excited to make our e-books available on the ebrary platform through James Bennett and other global distribution channels, and we expect to see an increase in revenue as a result.”

“The e-book market is growing rapidly in many regions throughout the world, so it is critical that we partner with leading distributors such as James Bennett as well as expand our publisher partnerships outside of North America to enhance our products and extend our reach,” said Matt Barnes, Vice President of Marketing at ebrary. “We look forward to working with James Bennett to meet the specific needs of libraries in Australia.”

About Australian Academic Press (www.australianacademicpress.com.au)

Australian Academic Press is a niche academic publisher for the behavioral sciences, specialising in psychology. Established in 1987, the press publishes a range of books, evidence-based clinical treatment and prevention resources, scholarly monographs, and journals, for both the academic and trade markets.

About James Bennett (www.bennett.com.au)

James Bennett Pty Limited is a major Australian based library supplier and has been servicing libraries since 1964. Based in Brookvale, NSW., James Bennett offers a total package of products and services designed to complement all supply arrangements. As a part of the Baker and Taylor group, James Bennett offers competitive pricing and supply time, with unmatched global resources and cutting-edge technologies.

About ebrary (www.ebrary.com)

ebrary is a leading provider of e-books and research technology to libraries worldwide. Founded in 1999, the company offers more than 273,000 e-books from over 500 trusted publishers under flexible models including subscription, perpetual archive (purchase), patron driven acquisition, and short-term loans. ebrary is the only e-book provider that enables customers to upload and integrate their own digital materials right from their computers with DASH!™ (Data Sharing, Fast) technology as well as apply cross-referencing with multiple online resources with InfoTools™ technology. A member of the ProQuest® family of companies, ebrary is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, USA.

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For more information please contact:

Rachael McDiarmid
Publisher Relations & Marketing Communications Manager
Tel: (02) 8988 5000
Email: jbmarketing@bennett.com.au

A Better Guide to Subcontracting

2011-08-24T12:36:00.000+10:00

Malcolm Varty, the Director of "A Better Guide to Subcontracting" is The Bennett Blog's special guest blogger this week. He kindly gives us some of the background to his online product and how it came into existence. Enjoy the read.....

MALCOLM VARTY THE DIRECTOR OF

“A BETTER GUIDE TO SUBCONTRACTING PTY LTD”

CRACKS A BIG ONE

The big one being the answer to subcontractor’s woes. Never before or at least not after Malcolm Varty and Chris White produced a video in 1999 called “A Guide to Better Subcontracting” - which sadly expired due to legislative changes almost two weeks after it was produced by the Bond University in Queensland - has anyone tried to put it all together for ordinary trades people.

Most tradesmen are expected to carry out a business appreciation course before they may apply for a trade licence. In my view these so called courses provided nothing to the applicant apart from basic business practices, which are not designed specifically for the Building and Construction Industry.

TAFE centres for learning provide imaginative and helpful information for their students but are limited in many areas, due to government cut-backs, to fully prepare their students for all possible outcomes when dealing with head contractors.

Registered Training Organisations have their curriculum set by the governing bodies who are mainly the Master Builders Association, the Housing Industry Association and the Unions.

Call me silly but aren’t the above organisation's members the ones that tradesmen have the problems with in the first place?

The only way to afford yourself of real education and help is to subscribe to “A Better Guide to Subcontracting”. We come from a trade background and have spent the last 18 years fighting for legislative changes to protect subcontractors. We have achieved great outcomes legislatively and also provide a service which applies a professional touch to your specific needs.

With your help www.abgts.com will be available free in all state and TAFE libraries soon.

LIBRARIES WISHING TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT "A BETTER GUIDE TO SUBCONTRACTING" SHOULD CONTACT OUR DEDICATED E-TEAM AS PER THE DETAILS LISTED BELOW:

Tel: (02) 8988 5000

Fax: (02) 8988 5031

Email: eresources@bennett.com.au

Request a trial today!

Why you should purchase your EBL titles through James Bennett

2011-08-15T22:14:00.003+10:00

As the first — and most experienced — EBL provider in Australia, we deliver EBL titles in the shortest and most efficient timeframes for libraries and their patrons. Here are just some of the reasons for choosing to purchase EBL titles through James Bennett:

One single, familiar acquisitions workflow for both print and electronic materials
You receive James Bennett invoices in Australian dollars (or your preferred currency)
We are currently integrating ebooks into our New Title Services
We deal direct with EBL on your behalf if you have questions about technical matters or licensing
You can use JBO to see acquisitions information on all your purchases, whether they are print format or ebooks
Separate accounts may be set-up to track ordering, invoicing, and selection method (short term loans, demand driven selection, and standard ordering or non-linear lending)

Contact our eResources team today for a brochure on EBL workflows through James Bennett. We've been partnering with EBL a long time and are still the most experienced of the library vendors in the ANZ marketplace. Go with a vendor you trust. Contact James Bennett today:

Tel: +61 2 8988 5000
Fax: +61 2 8988 5031
Email: eresources@bennett.com.au

Want to know more about using James Bennett as your print, digital and multimedia library vendor? Click here for 10 reasons why. If you want to add to the list, feel free to do so. We've worked in library supplies since the 1960s and work with public, academic, specialist, government and reference libraries. There's a reason why we are the leading supplier in the ANZ marketplace. Use us to find out why!

Read it! Love it? Add Peter James to your Profile

2011-08-09T17:18:00.002+10:00

As many of our blog readers know, we have a service called Read it Love it Add it to Your Profile. Designed for public libraries comfortable with an outsourced model for profiling & selection, it's a way to bring authors to the attention of the libraries and adding them to their existing profile with us. That way, the next book published by that author will be automatically sent to them and everybody wins - the reader, the library, the author, the publisher, and us as their library vendor of choice.

This month's selection for Read it Love it Add it to Your Profile service is an author already established in the marketplace, particularly in the UK. Peter James was born in Brighton, England. He was educated at Charterhouse then at film school. His novels, many of which have been "Sunday Times" top 10 bestsellers, have been translated into thirty languages and, not surprising considering his background, three have been filmed. He actually has a very impressive resume. We would encourage you to visit his website and read more about him here.

International best-selling crime thriller novelist published in 34 languages doesn't begin to cover it!

Once you realise what an interesting man Peter James is, have a look at his books! His website presents his titles in a way that filters just the novels featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace of the Sussex police force. Seven books have already been written featuring DS Roy Grace and in an interview with Shots Magazine, Peter James had this to say about his creation:

Roy Grace has indeed been through the grinder, in his private life, both with his beloved Sandy’s disappearance and now Cleo’s perhaps endangered pregnancy… and professionally with a boss who disliked him, largely for his maverick behaviour and tried hard to undermine him. But he’s a survivor, and above all, he is a good man in a dark world.

We also liked what Lee Child had to say about one of Peter's earlier books - Dead Like You - "Sinister and riveting, Peter James is one of the best British crime writers".

So with that background information, we'd like to introduce this month's title for Read it Love it Add it to Your Profile - Dead Man's Grip by Peter James.

“ I want them to suffer, and I want them dead ... ”

Carly Chase is traumatised ten days after being in a fatal traffic accident which kills a teenage student from Brighton University. Then she receives news that turns her entire world into a living nightmare.The drivers of the other two vehicles involved have been found tortured and murdered. Now Detective Superintendant Roy Grace of the Sussex Police force issues a stark and urgent warning to Carly: She could be next.The student had deadly connections. Connections that stretch across the Atlantic. Someone has sworn revenge and won't rest until the final person involved in that fatal accident is dead.

The police advise Carly her only option is to go into hiding and change identity. The terrified woman disagrees - she knows these people have ways of hunting you down anywhere. If the police are unable to stop them, she has to find a way to do it herself. But already the killer is one step ahead of her, watching, waiting, and ready ...

Is it his most nail-biting thriller yet? You tell us! Request a copy at your local library today.

ISBN 9780230747241 | Paperback | 408 pages | published July 2011 by Pan Macmillan Australia

Ebrary, ebooks and libraries

2011-07-22T08:12:00.000+10:00

James Bennett will shortly be representing ebrary in the Australasian marketplace. As many of our libraries would know, ebrary has had a close working relationship with our parent company - Baker & Taylor - for years. James Bennett has been working with ebrary on integration for the ANZ region for several months now and we're pleased to be adding another market-leading ebook platform to our stable. Contact us today to discuss James Bennett selecting, profiling and purchasing ebrary titles on your library's behalf. You can call your nominated Customer Co-ordinator or email our dedicated eResources team.

For those of you wanting to know what took us so long - well, it's been a challenge integrating ebrary into the James Bennett system. This is not due to our close and long-standing relationship with our other ebook vendor, EBL, but due to the use of the ISBN as the primary identifier in the James Bennett database. Publishers generally use one e-ISBN across multiple ebook systems and platforms. Our database links one ISBN to a vendor and our IT team has spent years working their way through all the e-ISBN issues including pricing, markets, special prices, loans/rentals, and more. We won't go into details today but you can probably imagine our relief this project is nearly finished and we can represent many more digital products in future.

That said, we have represented ebrary's subscription product for public libraries for over 12 months. That was easy to manage in the database and through our Standing Orders area. Contact your account representative for a demo or contact the eResources team to set up a trial for you.

So, want to know more about ebrary? Here's just a snapshot!

Key features and benefits

Works on multiple devices
Contextual linking across multiple online resources with InfoTools™
Unique ability to upload and integrate a library’s own digital content with DASH! and Software as a Service (SaaS) Shareable bookshelves that automatically store links
Notes and highlights
Multiple options for searching and navigating
Automatic citations when text is printed or copied and pasted into Word or any text applications. Citations include an automatic URL hyperlink back to the source
Ability to transform text into a hyperlink to a URL of the end-user’s choice
Text-to-speech and other keyboard shortcuts to assist end-users with special accessibility needs

Platform Overview

Available in multiple languages including English, Arabic, Chinese (simplified), French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Swedish, and Turkish, with additional languages in the works
Compatibility with a range of discoverability and technology services including the ProQuest platform, SerialsSolutions Summon™, Ex Libris SFX, Doody’s Core Titles, Eduserv OpenAthens, Shibboleth®, Blackboard, RefWorks, EndNote, Moodle, and moreFree on-demand MARC records
COUNTER-compliant usage statics

Request a soft copy of the ebrary Pocket Guide for Academic Libraries and the Pocket Guide for Public Libraries, contact Marketing today!

And of course, order your library's ebrary titles through your trusted library supplier, James Bennett. We aim to provide you with the best from the digital world with our renowned - and superior - local service.

A formal media release will follow in due course.

An Update on the Course eTextbook Trial

2011-07-01T09:25:00.000+10:00

We've recently sent out an update on the Course eTextbook Trial we are conducting with our ebook partners, EBL. For those not subscribing to the service or participating in the trial, we thought we'd share some news with you here.

Firstly, we are hopeful we can get the trial off the ground in time for 1st Semester 2012. We know it's ambitious, but we like a challenge! Subscribers have been told who is on the Steering Committee, which as you know, is being co-ordinated by our Publisher Relations & Marketing Communications Manager, Rachael McDiarmid together with colleagues at EBL.

We have representatives from 20 academic libraries on board for the trial and half a dozen publishers willing to explore eTextbooks in libraries. Those publishers participating in the trial have asked to review core textbooks that are adopted at the participating institutions. The Steering Committee has suggested focusing on business & economic titles, nursing, health sciences and law but will consider other subjects. Local textbooks are the primary interest - afterall, we are working with Australian based publishers on this trial! Their content is the most relevant to students and we hope there won't be too many hurdles ahead for them with regards to contracts and content management.

Each publisher will be looking at business model (access/loans) and other considerations like chapters, rentals, purchase (print/electronic version), supplementary materials, downloads. There is much work to be done. Much to think about but we will endeavour to keep you informed on the more important decisions and models as they develop.

We all need to consider what it is we are testing with this Course eTextbook Trial - what books, what criteria, and how we are going to measure the impact. As a pilot, we also need to look at how the information regarding the eTextbook is actually conveyed to the student, how is it promoted to library patrons, how do we engage them in the electronic version so we can measure their behaviour?

Do you have any thoughts on these issues? If so share them here! Remember, this is an industry trial and something we all have an interest in. What is it we are testing? How are we going to do that so the results are meaningful to all?

In the meantime, these are the keywords cropping up in our teleconferences. No doubt they will ring true for everyone:

academics, access models, Adobe Digital Editions, awareness, booking time with the textbook, books on reserve, booksellers, bookshops, budgets, business case, campus booksellers, chapter level, chapter purchase, communication, compatible devices, course book, downloads, EBL, ebook purchase, ebooks, eTextbook, James Bennett, libraries, limit of concurrent users, limited loans, loan restrictions, loans per hour, measurement of turnaways, minimum number of concurrent users, no limits on overall use, patrons, print book purchase, print sales, project, promotion, rental, sales impact, shorter access, stakeholders, students, supplementary materials, testing, testing competing textbooks, testing supplementary materials, textbooks, unique loans, universities, unlimited access.

Staff Focus - Profiling & Selection Executive

2011-06-10T12:16:00.004+10:00

Focus On......

This month's Bennett Blurb focuses on Profiling & Selection. Whether you are a public, academic, specialist or government library, James Bennett can assist with all your collection development needs. Need support with subject profiles? Opening Day Collections? Spending funds? In a nutshell, we have the service - and the experience - you need.

One of our most experienced staff is Julie Buckroyd, Profiling & Selection Executive. She answered some general questions in the Bennett Blurb but she also allowed us to do our own profile of her, here in The Bennett Blog. How did she get to where she is now? What makes her tick? Read on and discover for yourself.

Name: Julie Buckroyd
Position: Profiling & Selection Executive

When did you start at James Bennett? 6/6/1994. D-Day. (I don't know if that was significant!)

What roles have you had in your 17 years with James Bennett? I started in the Kit area and moved to the Allocation area. Now all the New Title areas have combined under me!

Describe your job: My role is extremely busy, but very rewarding. Overseeing a team of people and ensuring we have the best coverage of New Titles in all areas and in a timely manner. Making sure that our customer’s profiles are offering them the most appropriate titles. Always looking at the best workflows within the team to make sure that we are covering all the titles that we can and should be.
What do you enjoy most about your job? It is always changing!
Describe James Bennett (as an organisation) in a few words: Dynamic, Local, Knowledgeable
What would you like customers to know about the work you do? We work hard to ensure full coverage on your profile. We have a great system now that has enabled us to have a better matching and non subject coverage. But the real work happens when the team “find” the first available, or be the first to let you know about a forthcoming best seller.
What are the challenges you are facing? Local offices of international publishers. Bringing out titles here in Australia months after the US or UK release, and inflating the prices. There have been improvements but we spot every title that doesn't meet our customer's requirements. And we have to review each and make the best buying decision for our library.
What gets you excited about your day? Waking up! Seriously you can’t make plans about how your day will go, as it will always change.
What books do you like to read? True crime, crime fiction, and biographies
Do you have a favourite author? It changes with every book I read but Jodi Picoult stays there at the top.
Last book you read? Violent Exposure by Katherine Howell
Currently reading? The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez.
On the reading wishlist? Probably Cloudstreet so I can make more sense out of the mini series!

If Customers are considering Profiling & Selection Services what are the things they need to consider? What they will do with their spare time! (laughs) No the main things are: what sort of areas they are interested in. Should I just start with an author profile and build up to a full profile? How much money should I commit to Profiling? Do I need to know expenditure in certain areas ie: Adult Non Fiction, Adult Fiction or just overall expenditure? There's lots of questions but we can assist them along the way.

And if they have any further questions? Contact me or their sales representative.

What staff member would you like to see a Focus On here on the Bennett Blog or in our newsletter service? Contact Marketing on jbmarketing@bennett.com.au and we'll see what we can do!

Read it! Love it? Add Andrew Nicoll to your James Bennett Profile

2011-06-08T17:26:00.000+10:00

Before we tell you about this month's selection for the Read it, Love it, Add it to your Profile service, we'd like to congratulate the publisher. Quercus (UK) was recently awarded Publisher of the Year at The Bookseller Industry Awards. The company was co-founded in 2005 by CEO Mark Smith and Wayne Davies and they beat seven other nominated finalists, including industry giant Penguin, to win the prestigious award. Past winners have included Little Brown and Faber & Faber, so they are in great company.

Now that is out the way, we'd like to introduce you to this month's featured author on the Read it, Love it, Add it to your Profile service - Andrew Nicoll. His second book, The Love and Death of Caterina has us spellbound. Sebastian Barry calls Nicoll "a life-enhancing storyteller, of stellar wit and intriguing depth...pure gold' and we can see why. We're hooked!

The protagonist is Chano Valdez, a celebrated writer in his South American country. He pens not just novels, but works of such astounding quality that he is known as the finest of his generation.Unfortunately he's suffering from writer's block and his latest great work comprises the words ‘The scrawny yellow cat crossed the road’. He’s tried all his usual tricks to get back on track - he’s had a few debates with his trusty colleagues at the university, he’s had an affair with the banker’s wife, nothing will work. Until he meets Caterina. Beautiful, young and one of his biggest fans, she has idolised him since she was a child and he has inspired her to write. Convinced that falling in love with her, spending every minute he can alongside her, moulding her to his world, will unlock something and enable him to write, he pursues her and soon enough, he falls headlong into her arms. But it’s only a matter of time before he murders her.

This book is a great library read. Andrew Nicoll's first book - A Good Mayor - sold close to 15,000 copies in Australia and won the the Saltire First Book Award. It has been translated into 20 languages.

Naturally we're expecting great things from this second book. With promotion on the Macquarie Radio Network, reviews and promotion in Woman's Day, Sun Herald, Courier Mail, Hobart Mercury and West Australian, as well as some radio interviews with the author - it will be a popular request in your library.

Make sure you have plenty of copies available for your patrons!

Of course, to ensure you automatically get his third book, add him to your adult fiction profile today! You can email jbmarketing@bennett.com.au or contact your local sales representative to set this up. We'd highly recommend it.

ISBN 9781849164719 | Paperback | 358 pages | RRP $32.99

Bibliographic data: helping customers make informed decisions

2011-06-01T16:38:00.000+10:00

Bibliographic data. It is something so important to our organisation and to our customer base. We source product information from bibliographic agencies, we process thousands of files from publishers and even our parent company in the US keeps us well informed of what is being published in their part of the world. And of course, there is book-in-hand.

Good, solid, and reliable bibliographic data makes our business run smoothly - from order placement to receipt to cataloguing, processing and despatch to our customers. As Australia's leading library supplier, we expect to receive accurate, timely information on both new releases and backlist titles for our customer base. It is an important part of our trading relationship and the request should not be a surprise for our many publishing partners.

James Bennett has a database approaching some 10 million titles thanks to the growth in ebooks, formats, and the important role of Print on Demand (POD) in the supply chain (which has resulted in a growth of scanned documents and facsimile editions of varying degrees of quality). More ISBNs make their way to our database every day and some days there is no stopping it. We are reliant on this information yet trying to set "protection rules" and "exclusions" can be a headache for all involved. Our customers for example don't want to know about a "dump bin" or "spinner" that has been given an ISBN to help distribution centres get the right POS materials to the right customer. We don't want colouring-in books and similar materials. We work on getting the mix right, but sometimes those ISBNs pass right by us no matter how hard we try to implement solid business rules for data.

But there is a way our customers can make informed decisions when looking at JBO.

For some time now we have a simple icon next to the data. That icon tells our customers the edition listed is the one we are promoting, it's the one we are ordering, that we are selling. The JB icon identifies the product that has been selected for New Titles Services and promoted in the Sales Kits. Our talented and experienced Profiling & Selection staff work with our publishing partners on the "right" editions to promote. And of course, they also make business decisions based on other factors in the supply chain - availability etc - which would also come with a icon and this brings us back to bibliographic data....

Dirty data is the bane of our lives yet there are still too many people in the book supply chain simply don't "get" how important bibliographic data is. Catalogues are still printed with wrong ISBN, price, binding, and publication date information. You can almost forgive a printed catalogue or Advanced Information Sheet - they are prepared in advance and changes to the publication process cannot be accommodated in time. But Electronic files, that's another story. We have the ability to keep up-to-date with these changes - as long as publishers provide the latest information, even if it's reliant on manual data entry.

We have to interpret book information in a way that produces the best outcome for the customer. That includes websites and ecommerce sites from our many publishers and distributors - where correct title information is essential. Display the correct information and more than likely you will get the order. Display the wrong information and you will have additional costs for your business while you work out how to best handle the non-conformances. Thanks to the internet and ecommerce developments, we believe that what we read on screen is correct and we get disappointed when our expectations are not met.

Whether we are talking bibliographic files or information sourced over the internet, James Bennett staff have to select the most appropriate title so the library gets the correct book (with the correct binding, price and release date) that they ordered for their patrons. It isn't rocket science, but no matter how the industry tries to improve their service and information sent, there are roadblocks, exclusions, and errors that we have to work with. But trust those "in the know". Let our experience guide your selection.

Our library customers should trust the icon. It provides peace of mind and a degree of certainty with their purchase. If in doubt, always contact your James Bennett Customer Co-ordinator on their direct email or phone, or send us an email at info@bennett.com.au We want to help you make the most informed purchasing decision.

The icon is just one of the ways we do that.

_______________________________________________

And if you are a publisher reading this, wondering if you are giving us good data - just ask us! For specific data enquiries please email and we will do our best to answer your questions. We also have Guidelines we can send you that covers our requirements for AI title information, images, and electronic bibliographic files. Email our Publisher Relations & Marketing Communications Manager for your copy.

Library & Information Week

2011-05-23T08:30:00.000+10:00

Congratulations to all librarians - this is your week!

We so love the tagline this year: "We Find Stuff". It says it all really. We read somewhere it was considered controversial, which was a little surprising. Isn't that what you do?!! You find stuff, you catalogue stuff, you look up stuff, you research stuff, you know stuff! What an amazing thing you do.

We were reminded of the important role librarians play when we came across a wonderful website recently that had gift ideas for librarians. No doubt many of our customers will have already discovered it (afterall, you "find stuff"!) but the reason we mention it here is the fun t-shirt and other promotional items they had listed that said "Librarian: the original search engine". The word itself was often made to look like the Google logo. Clever. But true wouldn't you say?!

We also liked "be nice to your librarian, it could mean the difference between a right and wrong answer" and we couldn't help chuckling at "Librarian by Day, Deadly Ninja by Night". Needless to say, a wide range of materials were on offer and there's many more sayings we could share with you, but we digress.

It's Library & Information Week. And as Australia's largest and leading library supplier to public, academic, specialist, government and reference libraries, we're celebrating with you. Afterall, as your support network, don't we help you "find stuff" or at least source the raw materials on your behalf? We work with thousands of suppliers locally and internationally and sometimes we know what it's like to be finding a needle in a haystack. But we do it. You expect it of us. And together we can put the workflows and systems in place that help you "find stuff" for your patrons every day.

Library and information services are important to us. And we are here to support your efforts. Tell us about what you're doing. If you're on Facebook, Twitter or here on Blogger, link your site to us. And that goes for our publishing partners too. We're all in this industry together, let's have some fun, share the joy of reading, spread the word about our products and services, and ensure future generations love books, their libraries and the world in which they live.

WIN LIBRARY SCIENCE BOOKS THIS WEEK!

For those of you reading this blog during Library and Information Week 23 - 29 May 2011 click on our Facebook page, follow us, and comment on our Library & Information Week post by telling us What Library & Information Week means to you. The winning entry will receive $200 worth of nominated library science books from Facet Publishing, Libraries Unlimited, ALA, Neal Schuman - thanks to our Inbooks business unit, also proudly supporting Library and Information Week. The winner will be announced the following week and naturally some conditions apply. Make sure you let us know what library you are from when you comment and keep an eye on those Facebook feeds for news on this and many more promotions from James Bennett.

Archiving and Recordkeeping

2011-05-20T10:00:00.001+10:00

As many of our customers know, we have been representing Library & Information Science presses for many years. These days they are managed by a separate division, a business unit that specialises in book distribution to the broader trade called Inbooks. If you are after a library science book, fingers crossed they distribute it and have it in stock at our Brookvale facility. And of course, James Bennett receives wonderful terms of trade from them which we can pass onto our library customers!

With Information Awareness Month, the Inbooks team wanted to make sure they were part of the blog particularly when IAM has, according to the website, grown into a collaborative event between various bodies within the records/archiving/information management community including:

Records and Information Management Professionals Australasia (RIMPA)
Australian Society of Archivists (ASA)
National Archives of Australia (NAA)
Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA), Institute for Information Management (IIM)
Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA)
Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV)

When they read about the first few bodies above, the Inbookers begged me to tell our blog readers about books we have just for those that work in archiving. Seeing we love books from Facet Publishing, we thought why not!?

Here's a few titles you must have on your shelves for Information Awareness Month:

The Future of Archives and Recordkeeping: a reader

Things you need to know. The book is:

- A clearly structured approach to developments in archives and record keeping
- A timely reader that asks where the discipline has come from and where it must now go to remain professionally relevant in the 21st century.

The changes of the past few decades have occasioned a review of what it is that archives are doing as a discipline. These changes have come from several quarters: interdisciplinary engagement with the notion of the archive; technological developments, not least the advent of Web 2.0; and the information explosion and the growth of several allied disciplines, including records and information management. This timely reader asks where the discipline has come from and where it must now go to remain professionally relevant in the 21st century, by negotiating the complex boundaries and borders of the ‘state of the archive’, in terms of geographical borders and nationalities and disciplinary borders.

The book is divided into four primary sections covering the following key themes:

defining archives
shaping a discipline
Archives 2.0: archives in society,
archives in the information age: is there still a role for the archive professional?

This book offers a clearly structured approach to developments in archives and record keeping and will prove an invaluable resource for students following postgraduate training courses in archive administration as well as for archive professionals wishing to refresh and update their understanding of the profession.

ISBN 9781856046664 | Hardback | 256 pages | £49.95
Log into JBO today for your library price

Archives: principles and practices

An authoritative handbook from an experienced archives professional. Divided into four main parts addressing the contextual, strategic, operational and practical issues associated with creating an archival institution, the text covers everything the archivist needs to know: establishing principles, policies and procedures; managing day-to-day operations; caring for different types of archival materials; enhancing outreach and public access; and ensuring the growth and sustainability of the institution and its services.

Whether an institution has a collections orientation or whether it is primarily responsible for managing institutional archives in conjunction with an organizational records management programme, those responsible for records and archives management in the establishment and operation of an archival facility need specialist practical guidance.

The key chapters are:

understanding archives
the social and cultural context of archives
the legislative and organizational context of archives
the professional context of archives management
the theoretical framework for archives management
establishing a policy-based framework
managing resources
ensuring physical protection
acquiring archives
appraisal of archives
arrangement of archives
processing archives
describing archives
providing reference services
enhancing access
ensuring sustainability

The accessible language ensures that the fundamental principles and practices are outlined clearly for novice archivists and non-specialists; and experienced professionals, will find the work of immense value in validating or updating their understanding of archival operations. The issues addressed are relevant to archival practice in all developed English-speaking countries, and concepts in place in different parts of the world are examined in order to provide a global context.

ISBN 9781856046732 | Hardback | 256 pages | £44.95
Log into JBO today for your library price

Customers can request LIS catalogues from the Inbooks marketing team via email by clicking here.

Read it! Love it? Add Christine Stinson to your James Bennett profile

2011-05-18T18:26:00.000+10:00

The first book on the new James Bennett Read it, Love it, Add it to Your Profile service is Christine Stinson's It Takes A Village. It's also our Book of the Month for May.

Christine Stinson's second book, it is an absorbing, witty coming-of-age story set in postwar Sydney. And we loved it.

Published by Pan Macmillan Australia this month, we found it to be very Maeve Binchy-esque in the way it explores community and family. A perfect read for many of your library patrons.

We're introduced to Sophie Barton when she's eight years old. It's the spring of 1952 and she's just been told she's a "bastard". Who is her father and why did her mother never tell anyone who he was? Sophie is being raised by her reclusive grandfather and a wonderful community of Australian characters, many of whom we'd recognise from our own upbringing. Compared to today, post-war Australia was a much simpler time - but not for our Sophie. Life is full of complications. She gets into all scrapes and along the way she learns about herself, her family, and the agony and ectasy of falling in love.

"Sophie wasn't sure why catching a husband was so important but a lot of grown-up people seemed to think that it was. Just the other week she'd heard Mick's mother and Mrs Salter talking about how Shirley Harris was out to catch herself one. The two ladies had been standing on the footpath outside of Mick's house; they didn't see Sophie but she'd been able to hear them from Grandpa's front porch. Shirley Harris was the new girl Mr and Mrs Carmichael had hired to help them in their chemist shop. Sophie had seen her when she went in to pick up some things for Mrs Hogan and she'd thought Shirley Harris was beautiful, almost as beautiful as Angela Dimarco, Luc's older sister. But Sophie's neighbours didn't seem to think much of Shirley Harris at all."

We shouldn't give too much away but you'll enjoy reading about Sophie, Mick, Mrs Hogan, Luc and all the wonderful characters that Christine Stinson brings to life in this book - you'll have to experience that pleasure all for yourself.

In a time when experiences are shared around the kitchen table, over the back fence or up at the corner shop, Sophie learns that life is rarely simple, love is always complicated and sometimes it takes more than blood ties to make a family.

Check out a copy at your local library today.

About Christine Stinson

Christine is a former language teacher who has been making up stories for as long as she can remember. Her first novel Getting Even with Fran, was also published by Pan Macmillan Australia. She is currently working on her third novel, Epiphany and lives in Pymble, Sydney. You can find out more about Christine Stinson on her website: http://www.christinestinson.com/

Read it Love it Add it to Your Profile

We'd like to add Christine Stinson to the profiles of all libraries using our Profiling & Selection Services. Make sure you've got a copy of It Takes a Village on order through James Bennett and then contact jbmarketing@bennett.com.au to add Christine to your profiled orders. We'll ensure all future books from this talented author are then sent to you on publication.

It Takes A Village

ISBN 9781405040273

ARP $32.99 - usual library discounts apply

Order your copies today on JBO, contact your Customer Co-ordinator on (02) 8988 5000, fax your order to (02) 8988 5090 or email info@bennett.com.au

Managing Information Services - emphasising a sustainable future

2011-05-15T09:00:00.002+10:00

The latest edition of Jo Bryson's highly regarded Managing Information Services is about to publish in the UK and we're pretty excited about it. Not only is it a good book, the timing for Information Awareness Month couldn't be better!

The third edition of Managing Information Services has been thoroughly revised with an emphasis on managing for a sustainable future. We are all aware that libraries and information services are facing uncertain times. How do you tackle the challenges of planning and managing change? Future-proof for tomorrow? Lead the transformation to a sustainable future? Published by Ashgate, the book also addresses the integration of information services including librarianship, records management and ICT.

A comprehensive and detailed reference on the key management topics for information service managers, it really is a must have book.

Rather than supply the typical author bio, why don't you check out Jo's LinkedIn profile by clicking here.

And then once you've done that email jbmarketing@bennett.com.au and say in 25 words or less why you think you should have a copy of this book. Ashgate has kindly offered one for Bennett Blog readers so think how this book can help you in your professional career and enter now. We'll review the responses on the 10th June 2011 so tell your colleagues and enter now.

Of course, make sure you've got a copy on order anyway!

ISBN 9781409406945 - hardcover
ISBN 9781409406969 - paperback
Login to JBO today to see your library price or contact your Customer Co-ordinator on (02) 8988 5000

Contents: Preface; Part I Management Influences in a Changing Landscape: Managing in an uncertain world; Strategic influences. Part II Strategy and Planning: Strategic planning: positioning for a sustainable future; Attracting and retaining talented people in challenging times; Ensuring value for money and enabling a cost-sustainable future; Knowledge and information management – a key to survival; Strategic technology and asset management – a smarter approach. Part III Leadership and Innovation: Leadership; Utilizing a values-driven culture for sustainability; Innovation and creativity; Engaging change in positioning for the future; Group dynamics and team building; Effective negotiation and conflict management; Managing the political arena; Policy making; Personal communication and networking; Managing yourself and others in challenging times. Part IV Governance and Social Responsibility: Ensuring good corporate governance; Using authority and influence; Encouraging transparency; Managing for sustainability; Managing risk; Sustaining trust and continued operations; Evaluating benefits and performance. Part V Customer and Market Focus: Competitive strategies; Corporate image and communications; Ensuring service quality. Part VI Success and Sustainability: Bringing it all together. Index.

Information Awareness Month - celebrating the second week with a giveaway!

2011-05-08T12:37:00.003+10:00

As you know from our last post, we're committed to bringing important titles from our LIS publishers to your attention. And what better time than during Information Awareness Month! Last week we focussed on James Herring's Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy: A Guide for Teachers and Teacher Librarians as well as Information Policies and Strategies by Ian Cornelius. Both were published by Facet Publishing and both are on campaign at present (log-in to JBO for special price information or contact Marketing if you are not a James Bennett customer). This week sees another interesting book from Facet:

DIGITAL INFORMATION order or anarchy?

If the vision for the future of digital information is order, ease of access, discoverable resources and sustainable business models, how might this be achieved?

In an information environment shaped by an ever-growing and persistent demand for more and more digital content from every direction, it has become increasingly important that publishers, libraries, and information professionals understand the challenges and opportunities of the Google environment. This book addresses these issues and carves out a strategy for the future of digital information. Put together by an international, cross-sectoral team of contributors, each authored chapter provides a snapshot of where we are now and considers how the barriers to success might be overcome and what the digital information environment might look like if these issues are - or indeed are not - addressed.

They include:

digital information: an overview of the landscape
scholarly communications: the view of the library
scholarly communications: the publisher's view
ebooks and scholarly communication futures
digitising the past: next steps for public sector digitisation
resource discovery
who owns the content in the digital environment?

Edited by Hazel Woodward & Lorraine Estelle, and contributions from Rick Anderson, Alastair Dunning, Ian Russell, Wilma Mossink, Colin Steele, and Graham Stone, this book is essential reading for all library and information professionals, researchers and library students. It will also be of interest to publishers wishing to reconcile their own digital strategies with those of both information consumers and providers.

We've also got a copy of Digital Information: order or anarchy? to giveaway! Simply email us before Sunday 15th May and tell us why you'd like a copy. Are you on the publishing side or are you a library professional? What are the digital issues and strategies that are most important to you. Share with us and you might just win a copy (if not we've got a great price to offer you!).

James Bennett, proudly getting behind Information Awareness Week in the library community and publishing environment.

Information Awareness Month - May 2011

2011-05-01T10:36:00.061+10:00

It's Information Awareness Month!

As the website for the event says "the purpose of Information Awareness Month is to increase public awareness of the breadth of the information industry". From the individual to a small business to global corporations, IAM holds a series of events focusing on maintaining good records and information. By doing so information and people are connected.

As Australia's leading library supplier, James Bennett takes information seriously. Afterall, our customers do! And one of the ways we support the sharing of information in the library community is through our long-standing partnerships with library science publishers - Facet Publishing, Neal-Schuman, ALA, Libraries Unlimited to name but a few. These LIS publishers produce a wide range of publications for library professionals covering collection building, information studies and reference, management and professional skills, communication, information technology, archives and records management. They are also leaders in their field.

To help promote Information Awareness Month, we'd like to introduce a number of important publications to you each week. What's more, for the whole month of May, these titles will be discounted for all James Bennett customers! Special prices will be displayed on JBO so log-in or contact your Customer Co-ordinator (as these titles will be heavily discounted, no further discounts will apply).*

"All Librarians and Libraries have information policies. The big issues like censorship, intellectual property, freedom of information, privacy and data protection, crowd our minds, but the process of decision making is the same at every level and in every context whether we are concerned with government secrets, advertising standards or our own children's reading and viewing habits." So says Ian Cornelius, author of Information Policies and Strategies from Facet Publishing.

Covering the key areas - contexts for information policy, globalisation and information societies, information rights and information policy, information policy sectors - the book helps the working librarian to justify every stock purchase and information access decision. Helping to legitimate the library, the discussion of issues in this book will give librarians the context and arguments they need to identify and apply appropriate information policies and strategies. Essential reading for library students, researchers, policy makers, and all LIS practitioners wishing to widen their awareness of the important issues surrounding information policy.

9781856046770 | 2010 | Paperback | 209 pages | Facet Publishing | ~~OUR RRP $84.95~~ now on campaign! See JBO for this month's special price

Improving Students' Web Use and Information Literacy is a guide for teachers and teacher librarians but the audience is much wider than that. A practical guide to using the web effectively in order to enhance learning and teaching, it also focuses on how to use Web 2.0 tools to create learning resources for students to develop them as reflective web learners as well as web users. The book is full of helpful tips and guidance, good practice, examples and more. In the chapter on Finding and Using Information on the Web the author provides information on search engines, features like Google Advanced Search, Google Images, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google News, Google Scholar and Google Books, information on metasearch engines, visual search engines, directories and effective search techniques.

James Herring is one of our bestselling LIS authors. He is an internationally acclaimed authority on information literacy and ICT in schools. James is also a lecturer in Teacher Librarianship at the School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University, and teaches from his home in Scotland for most of the year.

Make sure you bookmark The Bennett Blog for updates throughout May. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook (we heard a rumour there will be a giveaway of LIS books on Facebook as part of both Information Awareness Month AND Library & Information Week) so "like" us today!

* Not a James Bennett account customer? No problem! We will accept credit card orders. Contact marketing for further information. Make sure to mention The Bennett Blog and we'll pass on a special IAM discount on your order. A small freight and handling charge will apply on direct orders.

Keesing's World News Archive: providing your library with a trusted comprehensive source for research and fact checking

2011-04-12T16:46:00.001+10:00

James Bennett is pleased to announce that Keesing's World News Archive has been added to the eResources stable.

Scholars and librarians agree that Keesing’s World News Archive is the most efficient and cost effective way to research world events. Published since 1931, Keesing’s has been serving scholars, students, writers and reference librarians with factual information on the most important political, social and economic events by providing carefully vetted, accurate, objective and concise reports from every part of the world.

Written for the permanent record and with no political or advertising masters to appease, Keesing’s is a uniquely neutral and accurate source of information. Keesing’s is used in more than 80 countries by academics, businesses and governments seeking to get quick access to important historical background. The entire 80 year, 100,000+ article archive is available with either an annual or perpetual license. And it’s updated each month with more than 55,000 words in at least 150 articles.

IN RESEARCHING THE NEWS AND IN WRITING THEIR ARTICLES THEY ARE GUIDED BY FOUR ESSENTIAL EDITORIAL PRINCIPLES:

Internationalism: Keesing’s is committed to providing comprehensive information on all regions of the world, covering all major developments in all countries.
Accuracy: their reputation for accuracy, preserved and nurtured since Keesing's was first published in 1931, is their greatest asset. They work with the benefit of greater hindsight than that enjoyed by newspapers or the electronic media and thus have more time for checking facts and authenticating information.
Objectivity: Keesing’s aim to be as objective as is humanly possible. They do not editorialise and they do not pass judgement upon the events which they record. The organisation is totally independent, with no political agenda to promote and no external commercial interests to placate.
Permanence: Keesing’s is not producing disposable news. They are writing "for the record", and thereby providing a "first take on history". They do not sensationalise or distort for the sake of creating a eye-catching headline. Their aim is to establish the truth, to present it clearly, and to preserve it for future generations of researchers.

The result of this process is that the Keesing's World News Archive contains a wealth of hard information: news upon which you can rely.

We are delighted to represent this product in the Australasian marketplace so if you would like to set up a 30 day FREE trial for Keesing's please contact our e-team on eresources@bennett.com.au

If you would like to keep up-to-date on new e-Resources via email, please send your contact details and subject interests to jbmarketing@bennett.com.au

We look forward to being of service to your library.

Help your library deliver new services and remain relevant in the digital age

2011-04-06T14:28:00.003+10:00

The Tech Set, created and edited by Ellyssa Kroski and co-published by Facet Publishing and Neal-Schuman Publishers, was recently awarded the 2011 Greenwood Publishing Group Award for Best Book in Library Literature by the American Library Association. As per the press release from CILIP the Award committee praised the “creative, innovate approach” of this ten-volume set that shows librarians how to employ new technologies to create, deliver, and market new user services.

Covering topics such as social networking, mobile technologies, blogging, webcasts, gaming, and other current technologies that aid and improve libraries, each book is supported with an author wiki containing new advice and recommended resources and a podcast where authors discuss their books, current research, and the latest developments in their fields.

These practical, fast-paced guides will have librarians ready to implement all the essential technologies and tools they need to deliver outstanding new services and remain relevant in the digital age.

A full list of titles is provided here:

Next-Gen Library Catalogs Marshall Breeding
Today’s web-savvy users often bypass traditional library catalogues for more interactive, tech-friendly interfaces. Help your library stand out within the crowded landscape of information providers with this new, highly practical guide to interactive next generation library catalogues. ISBN: 9781856047210

Mobile Technology and Libraries Jason Griffey
Mobile technology is fast becoming the preferred method for connecting to the Internet. Librarians must keep pace with this trend and integrate themselves into the mobile realm if they wish to deliver enhanced user services. This is a practical, easy-to-follow new resource that will walk you through the start-to-finish steps for strengthening your library’s mobile presence. ISBN: 9781856047227

Microblogging and Lifestreaming in Libraries Robin M Hastings
Microblogging and lifestreaming applications like Twitter, Tumblr, and FriendFeed are all around you and your users in everyday life. This is a practical primer to help any library transform these cuttingedge, budget-friendly services into highly effective professional tools. ISBN: 9781856047234

Library Videos and Webcasts   Sean Robinson
Online video and imaging software gives you the opportunity to communicate with your library users 24/7—but getting started can be intimidating. This book has the building blocks you need to effectively, affordably, and easily create and broadcast highquality webcasts to your library users, staff and the social networking sites beyond. ISBN: 9781856047241

Wikis for Libraries Lauren Pressley
Wikis have emerged as powerful platforms for facilitating and improving communication and collaboration between library staff, users, and professional peers. Whether you are a wiki novice or a seasoned pro, this book will enable you to build wikis to support special events, serve as a library instruction tool, create valuable online resources—to name a few applications of this popular collaboration tool. ISBN: 9781856047258

Technology Training in Libraries   Sarah Houghton-Jan
Your library plays a crucial role as your community’s epicentre for technology whether you provide skill building resources, free access to the Web, or both. To deliver top service to your web-savvy users, you and your staff must stay up-to-date with the latest technology skills and trends. This book presents practical guidance so you can implement a low-cost, comprehensive staff technology training program. ISBN: 9781856047265

A Social Networking Primer for Libraries Cliff Landis
Social networking is rapidly infiltrating the information environment, and it is essential that librarians understand how best to use these sites and tools with their work to better serve their users and reach people who have never before used the library. This book provides easy-to-follow guidelines for using MySpace, Facebook, and other prominent sites as a way to expand and improve crucial library functions. ISBN: 9781856047272

Library Camps and Unconferences Steve Lawson
More and more libraries are working to organise their own library camps or ‘unconferences’ - open, friendly and refreshingly informal gatherings for librarians to unite, exchange ideas, and share knowledge. This book provides you with the guidance you need to bring your vision of organising a library camp to life. ISBN: 9781856047289

Gaming in Libraries   Kelly Czarnecki
Whether gaming is already a crucial part of your library’s core services or it’s only just been introduced, this do-it-yourself new resource will give you the practical tools you need to organise, implement, and market successful gaming events for users of all ages. ISBN: 9781856047296

Effective Blogging for Libraries   Connie Crosby
Renowned library blogger, speaker, and educator Connie Crosby shares her experience and expertise in this step-by-step guide to successful library blogging. This is the go-to resource for any librarian in search of practical, easy-to-implement instruction for creating and managing a winning library blog. ISBN: 9781856047302

The Complete 10 Volume Set (ISBN 9781856047777) is currently on campaign. Libraries please login to JBO today to see our special price which is valid until the 31st May 2011. Order today and take advantage of these great savings.

Tel: (02) 8988 5000
Fax: (02) 8988 5031
Email: info@bennett.com.au

Don't have an account with James Bennett and would like to place a credit card order? Please email orders@inbooks.com.au and let them know you've seen this on the James Bennett blog or quote reference TECHSET11 for your discounted price.

Ever had a product you can't get enough of?

2011-03-28T10:19:00.001+11:00

...well for James Bennett staff, that product is Library PressDisplay. We've been representing it for several years now and it's been a winner on soo many levels. Firstly the product is great. We'll tell you about that in a minute. The service has been excellent. Our account manager at Library PressDisplay is reliable, helpful and supportive of our business. We feel like it's a team effort and we're very proud to be representing Library PressDisplay in the ANZ marketplace.

There's something very special about having a wonderful relationship with a supplier. Our Publisher Relations & Marketing Communications Manager, Rachael McDiarmid recently said "we work with thousands, if not tens of thousands of suppliers on a regular basis. There's nothing better than having one that works with you and is aware of the service level expectations of your customers. PressDisplay is definitely one of those suppliers. It's a must-have product for libraries and the service from them todate has been nothing short of exceptional. I can't recommend them highly enough."

So, what exactly is Library PressDisplay?

More than 1700 newspapers from 92 countries in 48 languages

Library PressDisplay is a web-based portal which provides anyone, from the casual reader to the formal researcher, access to over 1700 newspapers and magazines from more than 92 countries in 48 languages. The easy-to-use interface allows patrons to access the most current editions of international and local newspapers and magazines. Your patrons can search any newspaper, use instant translation, select articles in a table of contents and share them with other patrons.

Library PressDisplay automatically allows you to serve a wider audience with a variety of newspapers and magazines, complemented with a variety of digital tools, accessible from home or within your library. No installation of any software or plug-in software is required. The product would saves delivery costs of print subscriptions, staff resources and shelving space.

Interested? You can contact your sales executive or you can email the dedicated eResources team at James Bennett on eresources@bennett.com.au We're more than happy to answer any of your Library PressDisplay enquiries and to set you up on a free 30 day trial. Contact us today!

Bookseller & Publisher: The e-textbook dilemma (full text)

2011-03-11T11:56:00.000+11:00

The April 2011 edition of the Bookseller & Publisher magazine features a story on the e-textbook forum James Bennett and EBL hosted on the 31st January. This is the full text article for your reading pleasure.

James Bennett and EBL (Ebooks Library) have been partners since 2004. Much has changed with digital content in libraries during that time. As part of the EBL User’s Group Meeting held on 31st January 2011, the two companies organised a forum between academic librarians and publishers to discuss e-textbooks. Rachael McDiarmid, Publisher Relations Manager at James Bennett was on the organising team for the event and filed this report for Bookseller & Publisher.

The e-textbook dilemma

Ebooks and libraries. Throw publishers into the mix and it’s a fascinating relationship, particularly when you are on the library supplier side! The rest of the book industry may not be aware that many academic libraries have moved to “e-preferred” or “e-only” over the years and library suppliers like James Bennett have had to rise to the many challenges of supplying ebooks with regards to acquisitions workflows and profiling & selection services. James Bennett partners with EBL for their ebook platform and has done so for the last seven years. As part of the overall product mix available, we’ve often discussed e-textbooks with academic publishers and their resistance to providing them to libraries. Six or seven years ago the answer to our request for e-texts was a resounding “no way” but in this digital age it’s become a case of saying “I hear you, but…”, “when it happens, not if it happens” and more recently “how are we going to make this work?”. As you can appreciate, there are many issues: from the role everyone plays in the traditional book supply chain to multiple user access models in libraries, print sales cannibalisation, piracy, DRM, and most of all pricing models.

With that in mind, we held our e-textbook forum at Darling Harbour prior to the ALIA Information Online Conference. Around 100 representatives from the publishing and library communities attended.

Our first speaker was Pam Freeland, Manager: Humanities, Creative Arts and Social Sciences at UNSW Library who did an overview of previous e-textbook studies. UNSW has an “e-preferred” policy and they currently have approximately 100,000 ebooks. Some of the drivers for them have been physical – the space required for books. Others include improved access for remote users. The question asked by Pam was “E-book vs. E-textbook: is there a distinction between the two and is that distinction the same for all disciplines? She spoke about the Quloc Study, LaTrobe University Study, JISC (which was referenced multiples times during the two hour meeting), the Horizon Report, and more. (If you haven’t already read it, we would encourage you to review the JISC findings and recommendations at http://www.jiscebooksproject.org) Some of the studies suggested students want access to both print and electronic versions but found DRM confusing. At the user level, there were difficulties accessing the content they need and their overall experience with “e” needed to be improved.

The next speaker was Sue Dowling from Murdoch University Library. Sue’s presentation got everyone thinking, particularly of what academic libraries want – and don’t want - for their ebook collection. Simultaneous print and ebook release was high on the list. In fact, she suggested e first. She spoke about metadata, DOI to chapter level, search and discovery, ebook portability across a range of devices, built-in thesauri and dictionaries, unlimited usage without paying the earth, read-aloud options for those with disabilities, the ability to copy chapters for other libraries, usage stats/COUNTER compliance, perpetual access so the content was preserved, social network links. On the “don’t want” list was of course “plug-ins” and the biggie - DRM. She made the comment that DRM “was an invitation for those who like a challenge but what we really needed was a system that made it inconvenient to pirate but not inconvenient to use”. That was echoed by many around the room. Sue suggested textbooks in “e” is not the overwhelming preference at present so what could make e-textbooks attractive to students? And of course, acquiring these was not solely a library responsibility. The whole institution needs to be involved with all the stakeholders. Who pays for textbooks was a theme throughout the afternoon particularly as some libraries have a strategic alliance with their campus bookshop.

Jinny Jones from the University of Melbourne library then spoke about space constraints and occupational health & safety issues at the Reserve desk. She spoke about contacting EBL to see if 19 economic and commerce titles were available in e-format (for the record, they weren’t). For these 19 titles, some 247 physical copies were being constantly re-shelved. What’s more, they had an incredible 13,000 loans during their lifetime. The physical demands on staff as well as the lack of space were an ongoing concern. It was a plea for someone on the frontline to digitise – there is simply not enough space to keep handling and re-shelving.

After a short break it was the publishers turn to respond and the dialogue started to get really interesting! As I joked with Elizabeth Weiss from Allen & Unwin, no ebook industry discussion is complete without her, and today was no exception. Her first question was "what group of people today are the most highly motivated not to pay for books?" which elicited a few laughs from those present. The answer is, of course, undergraduate students. The second hand textbook market, piracy, stealing, use of a different textbook rather than the set text, were highlighted as some of the strategies students already use to avoid paying for their often expensive texts. Publishers are concerned that students would also go to great lengths to access e-textbooks through their libraries. She spoke about the growing interest in ebooks and the media reporting "ad nauseam" on e-reading devices and the relatively low uptake of e in the Australian retail market so far as opposed to the US. The concern for Allen & Unwin with placing e-textbooks in libraries is the potential loss of sales - a few students not purchasing a textbook here and there all add up for a publisher of their size. In smaller academic disciplines local textbooks might sell 500-700 copies a year. Take away just 5-10 sales at each of a few universities due to the availability of the book in the library, and it hurts the bottom line. There's no way around it unless libraries are prepared to pay enough to cover the lost sales. Furthermore, textbooks are often highly formatted and aren't suitable for delivery in all ebook formats and in a library setting. Research shows resistance from student textbook users to the "e" experience in this case however there are exciting developments with ebook enhancements - multimedia, for example, can enhance the learning experience. Where the library fits into the equation remains to be seen - and of course, what are they prepared to pay to compensate publishers for lost sales?

Maryce Johnstone, Sales Manager for Gale, represented Cengage Learning and spoke about testing e-textbooks in the UK. “A lot of pain, a lot of work, but it was an interesting place to be” The JISC study was invaluable as were developments in the enhanced-ebook market, the “bells and whistles” but much of what was being done was purely experimental. Maryce spoke the business model for higher education in Australia. We need to retain the revenue of print and ensure the sustainability of the local publishing industry otherwise the risk is there will only be US content available.

Lucy Russell, General Manager for Higher Education at Wiley then summarised the local business models for textbooks, particularly the important role of the academic bookseller. Wiley Australia employs some 350 people and 60% of their textbooks are locally published. Development costs for textbooks are high, student motivation to purchase is low, and many resources for the lecturer (and students) to support teaching and learning are given away! People costs are a considerable cost as publishers are required to curate all content, sell it, market it and distribute it. Lucy shared the financials about adoptions in the ANZ market and pricing of textbooks. As she said “we know print will move to digital” but the people costs of developing student and teaching resources remain the same, if not increasing with the requirement for more engaging media. With regards to libraries, publishers were aware of the pressure to provide alternatives to print and they can’t keep their head in the sand - it was time to experiment without risking revenue. The question for everyone was how do you make e-textbooks available in libraries and stay in business?

Needless to say healthy discussion between publishers and librarians resulted! Responses from the forum indicated it was a timely discussion and a good subject to address. All stakeholders know the main areas of concern but also where there are joint interests. What we need to work on now is more “discussion, debate, action” among stakeholders – the academic publishers, library suppliers, ebook vendors, and the libraries themselves.

James Bennett will be working on developing pilot programs with EBL for e-textbooks. Publishers and librarians interested in being part of the trial should contact Rachael McDiarmid on (02) 8988 5046 or email rmcdiarmid@bennett.com.au at the earliest convenience.

Reasons to choose James Bennett as your vendor of choice

2011-03-01T09:23:00.002+11:00

Are you looking for a new supplier to manage the acquisition needs of your library?

Here are 10 reasons to choose James Bennett as your vendor of choice:

Global reach—local service
Competitive and flexible terms for customers
Speed of supply—the right book at the right price in the quickest timeframe
Expertise in working collaboratively with libraries on profiling & selection services
Single representation for consistency and knowledge of your library workflows
Proven track record in workflow development and liaising with libraries to streamline their supply chain
Full service supplier
Experienced and professional staff
No compromise in quality, range, or price
WE AIM TO REDUCE YOUR ACQUISITION COSTS

Contact us today to see how the services we offer will help you meet your collection development needs.

Tel: (02) 8988 5000 or email: info@bennett.com.au

In a future edition of The Bennett Blog we're going to share some information about our Profiling & Selection Services. Profiling and selection is the fastest growing part of our business, particularly in public libraries, and our new system JBS has been custom-built with library requirements in mind. We look forward to telling you all about it!

Welcome

2011-02-22T13:47:00.000+11:00

I'm the first to admit it. I never thought we would have a company blog. What message do we want to send? Will anyone read it? Is it an appropriate forum to engage our customers? What about our suppliers - is this something that publishers will embrace?

In this digital world, all businesses are supposed to have an online presence. I took this to mean a website, and more importantly for our customers, JBO - our online selection and acquisition interface. Anything other than the primary services to our customers was not high on my priority list. Yet here we are. We have The Bennett Blog. We're also now on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook so if you use these sites for business communications please "follow" or "like" us to stay up-to-date with news, special promotions and other offers.

Do we have a message that is relevant to all those we have the privilege of doing business with? Well the answer is a resounding YES. Afterall James Bennett has been recognised as an industry leader by many in the publishing and bookselling world. We have staff who are incredibly knowledgeable on all parts of the supply chain, particularly ebooks and digital reference. We have a stable Management Team who continue to lead the organisation through an ever-changing industry. Our sales representatives, profiling & selection staff, and operations people work hard to deliver a uniquely James Bennett service that supports the acquisition needs of our customer base. And our customer service staff receive more accolades than we sometimes know what to do with! In a nutshell: we know our business, we know our industry. It's a continually changing world out there. And we have much to share with you.

So where do we go from here? The first thing is to have someone look at the broader communications plan. I've already appointed an experienced marketing communications champion to look at relevant subject matters, the timing, the delivery mechanisms. We're excited about new product offers, eResources, business developments and how the James Bennett business will deliver new and competitive services in the year ahead.

As always, let us know your expectations. How would you like to engage with us? We've been partners for many years. Let's take it to another level.

Chris von Hinckeldey
Managing Director