BTW News Briefs

Google to Create Online Library

On Tuesday, December 14, Internet search service Google announced an agreement yesterday with Oxford University and some of the leading U.S. research libraries to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web, the New York Times reported. The Times noted that while "it may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global virtual library ... the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford, and the New York Public Library is a major stride in an ambitious Internet effort by various parties."

Google's mission is to expand the Web "beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers, and special collections," the Times reported.

David Cole to Receive Free Speech Award

On December 16, at a ceremony at the U.S. Supreme Court, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression will award the William J. Brennan, Jr. Award to Georgetown University Law Center Professor David D. Cole. "The award honors the legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brennan's extraordinary commitment to the principles of free expression and is given to an individual or group whose commitment to free expression is consistent with the late Justice's abiding devotion," noted former Brennan clerk and Thomas Jefferson Center director Robert M. O'Neil in a statement.

As an attorney, Cole has litigated a number of major First Amendment cases, including Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, which established that flag burning was protected under the First Amendment, and National Endowment of the Arts v. Finley, which challenged the constitutionality of content restrictions on federal art funding. The William J. Brennan, Jr. Award, which includes a $5,000 gift, is given not more than once a year or less than once in five years.

Online Retailers See Rise in Holiday Buying

Though the year is far from over, many online retailers have already declared this holiday season a success, the NRF reported this week. The 2004 Shop.org/BizRate.com Online Holiday Mood Study found that 91 percent of merchants have seen online growth this holiday season, with 17 percent experiencing sales more than twice as high as a year ago.

The rise in online sales reflects rising satisfaction among consumers. According to the survey, 95 percent of consumers have been satisfied with their online purchases this holiday season, nine percent more than the same time last year.

The relationship between catalogs and online sales has also been reinforced this year. According to the survey, 45 percent of consumers use a catalog to conduct research, then buy online. Another 21 percent of consumers research products online, then purchase from a catalog. Merchants recognize the importance of catalogs to their business, with over half of retailers (53 percent) reporting that catalog mailings have been the most successful in driving consumers to their Web site.

John Barstow Named Chelsea Green Editor-in-Chief

Chelsea Green President and Publisher Margo Baldwin recently announced that John Barstow would join the independent book publisher in January as editor-in-chief. Barstow comes to Chelsea Green from W.W. Norton & Company, where he acquired a variety of frontlist and backlist titles and was editor of Norton's "Outside Books" imprint, a line of books published in conjunction with Outside magazine. Barstow brings 28 years of magazine and book publishing experience to Chelsea Green.