Newsletter: September 2005

Greetings everyone. Here's your monthly round-up of news from the UK book world...

In a partnership between librarians in Manchester and Salford, and local literature development agency Commonword, a follow-up to the BBC's The Big Read campaign has been launched recently. The Big Gay Read aims to find the nation's favourite gay or lesbian novel, with contenders from a recommended list including books by Sarah Waters, Alan Hollingshurst, Jeanette Winterson and Colm Toibin. The winner will be announced next May. To find out more check out the Guardian's coverage of the story, or go to www.biggayread.com.

August also saw the launch of a new purpose-built centre celebrating the work of children's writers and illustrators. Seven Stories opened in a converted mill in Newcastle, showing exhibitions of illustrative material, inviting visitors to meet writers and artists, and hosting a series of exciting events. Check out the centre's own website for more information.

It was bad news though this month for search engine giant Google, which had received lots of publicity surrounding its plans to create a massive digital archive, freely accessible over the internet, of books from some of the leading libraries in the UK and US. The company has now suspended the project after concerns were raised about copyright issues.  Meanwhile though, Google Print currently allows users to search for a book by entering information contained within its covers (i.e. not just the title, author, etc). I must confess that my attempts to use this facility didn't yield much fruit, but you might find it useful. Find out more.

That's all for now. Please stay in touch and keep on sending in your book reviews, comments and contributions to the discussion boards. It keeps me busy!

Best wishes,

Susan

Susan Tranter, Reader in Residence

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