Started almost forty years back, Teksons Bookshop with its first book store at South Extension I Market, a posh south Delhi locality in New Delhi ( India ), has come a long way. Teksons at South Extension is still home to an endless number of booklovers, who visit the store not just plainly to buy books but to experience books shopping and one of the most customer-focused books retailers in the country.
As per Subhash Arora, the man behind the Teksons Bookshop, the reading habits have changed tremendously over time. “Initially, when we stated Teksons, lot of fiction used to sell. We were the number 1 in Delhi to sell fiction books and used to stock atleast 3,000 copies of a single title. But now, the scenario has changed, people are no longer interested in fiction. I stock just combined number of 500 copies of a title at all my bookshops. The trend started shifting in 1985, when a book titled ‘In search of excellence’ came. It was a book related to management and how people excel and what they do. It sold very well and then people shifted to non-fiction, management, business, etc. And then, the trend for self-help book came into being,” he told as a matter of fact.
“Earlier, the trend for coffee table books had come up and I used to sell atleast one coffee table book everyday and a few on weekends but now the sales have dropped to ten percent of what they were before. Similarly, though Teksons do not stock books on sex but sales of such books has almost diminished as people find such information on the internet,” informed Subhash.
So what are the topics that sell most? “Today, people want to know more about successful people like the CEOs of top multinationals, etc. So, they are hungry for such kind of titles. Today, people want to buy books to gain knowledge, they want to preserve them for future reference and to get ideas from them. Besides, books on English language learning, cookery (reasonably priced ones), self-help, reference and off track books are in big demand. Actually, price is a big criterion and people do not want to spend much on books,” told Subhash.
As per Subhash, the customers at his bookshops are mostly above the age of 25 years. “We also have ‘Happy Hours’ wherein customers can buy books at 25% discount, which is much appreciated. Teksons, today, is present at eight prime locations in Delhi and NCR and another one is all set to open at Greater Kailash. We have around 600 titles which are distributed all over India. Earlier, all my bookshops worked on the branch model but when it became difficult to manage and operate, I shifted to the franchisee model. Today, I have five own stores (South Ex, Malviya Nagar, Vasant Kunj and two in Noida) and three franchisees (two in Gurgaon and one in Connaught Place). I am now planning to convert my business into franchisee model only as running a bookshop needs a lot of personal attention to customers. The salesman should be helpful, courteous and ready to go an extra mile to after the books people need. So, whether it is a branch or a franchisee, it entirely depends on the person who is running it,” told Subhash.
Talking about the trends in the Indian book industry, Subhah told that people in India do not give much importance to the authors. “We invited a few renowned authors like Sunil Gavaskar, Bejan Daruwalla and Chetan Bhagat at different times but the response was not at all satisfactory. People are not crazy about meeting the authors, though they enjoy their books. This concept is more appreciated in other countries but not in India,” he told.
“However, we do sell tickets for literary events, musical events, plays, etc (free of charge) at our stores for which the response is good if the publicity is planned effectively by the event organisors,” he added.
Teksons is not just concentrated into retail, they also have a marked presence as distributors, wholesalers, stationery, children’s books and imports. “Infact, we import and supply a lot of foreign textbooks to schools all over India including states like Kerala, UP, etc. These are high content and good quality textbooks,” told Subhash. “Then we also retail stationery items for children based on their favourite toon characters or daily soaps. The favourite one these days is Hannah Montana.”
Talking about the future of book reading, Subhash feels that it is not very bright. “ebooks will takeover once the price of kindle comes down. But, yes, books will continue to sell as some people would still like to hold a physical book while going to bed or traveling and then in areas, where people are not tech-savvy, printed books will rule the roost. Also, textbook section is bound to stay for very long time. Nevertheles, the bookshops would definitely shrink in size. But, it will still take 6-7 years to come to that level,” concluded Subhash.
Friday, April 23, 2010
The future of bookshops is bright for next 10 years
“The future of bookshops is bright for next 10 years”
Apr 19th, 2010 | By All About Book Publishing | Category: Book Shops
says Indresh Sachdeva of Indra Book Depot, Roorkee (Uttrakhand)
in conversation with Varsha Verma.
Tilak Raj Sachdeva, Indresh and his uncle.
Tilak Raj Sachdeva, Indresh and his uncle.
Indra Book Depot is a 22-year-old bookshop catering to the students in and around the city of Roorkee. This city is located on the banks of the Ganga canal on the National highway between Delhi and Dehradun and is better known for the IIT College (formerly Roorkee University). With so many elite students in this small city, the need for good quality books is understandable and Indra Book Depot has been serving the students for over two decades.
Established in 1988 by Tilak Raj Sachdeva as the one stop shop for all technical books for B.Tech and I.T. and reference books, Indra Book Depot has come a long way. From father to son, the business became a family business and his sons Hitesh and Indresh joined it, at a tender age. “Infact, I and my brother Hitesh joined my father when we were in sixth standard. I went on to pursue my M.Com., all the while taking care of the shop as well. We all worked together for some ten years and then Hitesh took up a different business and I continued working with my dad,” shared Indresh.
“Anticipating the change in reading habits, we diversified into general books like self-help books, personality development, etc. Then, we also started selling competitive books for AIEEE, IIT, etc,” told Indresh. “And the books on English communication are very much in demand, the best of them being ‘Word Power Made Easy.’”
So what have been the trends in this business? “Earlier, there were limited readers and limited publishers. We used to stock more of foreign books but now we have a major chunk of Indian books as well. Last five years has been an upsurge in the number of private colleges, which has increased the demand for technical books. Besides, a lot of local authors are there to cater to the needs of the syllabus based books for schools and colleges. So, we have a lot of books on each and every topic. Ofcourse, just thirty to forty percent of local authors are competent but still, they give good competition to their counterparts,” he replied.
Sharing his views on the impact of ebooks on traditional books, Indresh said that ebooks will not change the demand for traditional books majorly. “Earlier, it was predicted that CDs would take over the books but gradually, they became a part of the books. Similarly, I don’t think ebooks will take over the traditional books.” In a city like Roorkee, has he mulled over the prospect of setting up a bookshop cum café for readers? “Yes, we had few offers as well from some colleges, and we may come up with that set-up in future. But we are still not sure if this kind of concept would sell in Roorkee,” he added.
“The future of book shops seems bright for atleast the next 10 years or so and with many colleges coming up, the demand would substantially increase in near future. Ofcourse, the discounts are more now but when we talk in volumes, the returns are not bad,” concluded Indresh.
Apr 19th, 2010 | By All About Book Publishing | Category: Book Shops
says Indresh Sachdeva of Indra Book Depot, Roorkee (Uttrakhand)
in conversation with Varsha Verma.
Tilak Raj Sachdeva, Indresh and his uncle.
Tilak Raj Sachdeva, Indresh and his uncle.
Indra Book Depot is a 22-year-old bookshop catering to the students in and around the city of Roorkee. This city is located on the banks of the Ganga canal on the National highway between Delhi and Dehradun and is better known for the IIT College (formerly Roorkee University). With so many elite students in this small city, the need for good quality books is understandable and Indra Book Depot has been serving the students for over two decades.
Established in 1988 by Tilak Raj Sachdeva as the one stop shop for all technical books for B.Tech and I.T. and reference books, Indra Book Depot has come a long way. From father to son, the business became a family business and his sons Hitesh and Indresh joined it, at a tender age. “Infact, I and my brother Hitesh joined my father when we were in sixth standard. I went on to pursue my M.Com., all the while taking care of the shop as well. We all worked together for some ten years and then Hitesh took up a different business and I continued working with my dad,” shared Indresh.
“Anticipating the change in reading habits, we diversified into general books like self-help books, personality development, etc. Then, we also started selling competitive books for AIEEE, IIT, etc,” told Indresh. “And the books on English communication are very much in demand, the best of them being ‘Word Power Made Easy.’”
So what have been the trends in this business? “Earlier, there were limited readers and limited publishers. We used to stock more of foreign books but now we have a major chunk of Indian books as well. Last five years has been an upsurge in the number of private colleges, which has increased the demand for technical books. Besides, a lot of local authors are there to cater to the needs of the syllabus based books for schools and colleges. So, we have a lot of books on each and every topic. Ofcourse, just thirty to forty percent of local authors are competent but still, they give good competition to their counterparts,” he replied.
Sharing his views on the impact of ebooks on traditional books, Indresh said that ebooks will not change the demand for traditional books majorly. “Earlier, it was predicted that CDs would take over the books but gradually, they became a part of the books. Similarly, I don’t think ebooks will take over the traditional books.” In a city like Roorkee, has he mulled over the prospect of setting up a bookshop cum café for readers? “Yes, we had few offers as well from some colleges, and we may come up with that set-up in future. But we are still not sure if this kind of concept would sell in Roorkee,” he added.
“The future of book shops seems bright for atleast the next 10 years or so and with many colleges coming up, the demand would substantially increase in near future. Ofcourse, the discounts are more now but when we talk in volumes, the returns are not bad,” concluded Indresh.
“We are not just publishers, we are in all media”
says Dr Tomas Seng, president, Tessloff Verlag in conversation with Varsha Verma at the stand of Sterling Publishers at the New Delhi World Book Fair.
thomasTessloff is a well-known German publisher for non-fiction books for children in the age group of 8-12 years for over half a century. “We have 126 titles and all these are on TV, DVDs, audio books and online as well,” told Dr Thomas Seng. “In India, we have a joint venture with Sterling Publishers called Tessloff Sterling Publishers Private Limited. We have released eight titles so far and the response has been very promising.”
Interestingly, Tessloff Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd is the first of its kind Indo-German joint venture in the area of book publishing. This co-operation is set to bring together the philosophy and skills of two of the leading children’s book publishers to present a wide range of quality books for infants, kids and teenagers. “Whetting the appetite to learn and providing the initial spark for reading on and thinking beyond are the principals on which our books are based,” he added.
What’s more? All the books are originally in English language as the ‘How and Why’ series was originally from US but the rights of which were bought by Tessloff in Germany and the company has been exporting these titles worldwide.
“We have books for these segments – knowledge, playing and learning and we plan to offer all the titles to the Indian market,” told Dr Thomas. “And after two years, we may even come out with these titles in Hindi.”
Currently, Tessloff is negotiating with popular TV channels in India for coming up with their programmes on TV as well.
thomasTessloff is a well-known German publisher for non-fiction books for children in the age group of 8-12 years for over half a century. “We have 126 titles and all these are on TV, DVDs, audio books and online as well,” told Dr Thomas Seng. “In India, we have a joint venture with Sterling Publishers called Tessloff Sterling Publishers Private Limited. We have released eight titles so far and the response has been very promising.”
Interestingly, Tessloff Sterling Publishers Pvt Ltd is the first of its kind Indo-German joint venture in the area of book publishing. This co-operation is set to bring together the philosophy and skills of two of the leading children’s book publishers to present a wide range of quality books for infants, kids and teenagers. “Whetting the appetite to learn and providing the initial spark for reading on and thinking beyond are the principals on which our books are based,” he added.
What’s more? All the books are originally in English language as the ‘How and Why’ series was originally from US but the rights of which were bought by Tessloff in Germany and the company has been exporting these titles worldwide.
“We have books for these segments – knowledge, playing and learning and we plan to offer all the titles to the Indian market,” told Dr Thomas. “And after two years, we may even come out with these titles in Hindi.”
Currently, Tessloff is negotiating with popular TV channels in India for coming up with their programmes on TV as well.
Making children’s ‘dream’ come true
As the name suggests, Dreamland Publications take children to a dream world, where they can learn things through beautiful and colourful pictures in a book. The company recently launched jumbo sized books for pre-schoolers, which have been well received by the market.
dreamNew Delhi based Dreamland Publications caters to children’s literature. Their books are beautifully designed and printed on 4-colour printing machines which use state-of-the-art technology, and the paper used in these books comes from top-of-the-line paper mills. For them, books are the toys which children use to learn. Little wonder then that they have more than 1000 titles in their kitty.
The company recently launched five titles in jumbo size – My Jumbo book of Animals, Birds, Numbers, ABC and Words. “This is the first time that books in this series are published in this size. The response has been good, especially from overseas buyers, and we are planning to bring out more titles in this series,” told Aman Chawla, director of Dreamland, who looks after the exports.
“We take great efforts in making our books world-class. We buy the rights of the pictures from US and UK. Sometimes, we also get the photo shoot done for the images ourselves,” he told.
“Dreamland Publications is the brain-child of my father Ved Chawla. He started with children’s books and then added textbooks to the portfolio. Right now, we are just focusing on the children’s books,” he told.
The reach of the books from their stable is also nation-wide through well-known retail chains like Wal Mart, Reliance, Big Bazar, Landmark, More, etc. “We also have distributors who directly deal with the schools, etc,” he added. And their policy is simple; they give limited number of copies to the retailers, which ensure that the returnable is miniscule.
Besides, these good-quality books have good market in gulf countries, South-East Asia, Philippines, etc. “The content of our books is universal, hence can be used anywhere in the world. We export our books through distributors,” told Aman. “Almost sixty to seventy percent of our production is for exports. We even export books in Arabic, Malay and Sinhalese languages. While the translation of these is done in respective countries, printing is done in India itself,” he added.
On asking about the rights for children books from foreign publishers, Aman replied that they have two series from Russia for the Indian sub-continent. They also publish laminated charts for exports. “And we may come up with educational CDs next year,” he told.
Aman feels that the biggest challenges in the book publishing industry are competition from China and local publishers who deliver low quality books obviously at low rates. “Our books are quality-oriented and hence are priced accordingly. In India, only five percent schools go for quality books, rest compromise on cheaper variants and it is this five percent which is our target audience,” he said. “We have 5-6 quality printers on our panel and they are delivering real quality products.”
Aman, however, felt that this year the New Delhi World Book Fair was dull as compared to the previous one as the overseas buyers were few. Nevertheless, he was glad to be a part of the fair and was glad to bag some new overseas buyers at the show.
–Varsha Verma
dreamNew Delhi based Dreamland Publications caters to children’s literature. Their books are beautifully designed and printed on 4-colour printing machines which use state-of-the-art technology, and the paper used in these books comes from top-of-the-line paper mills. For them, books are the toys which children use to learn. Little wonder then that they have more than 1000 titles in their kitty.
The company recently launched five titles in jumbo size – My Jumbo book of Animals, Birds, Numbers, ABC and Words. “This is the first time that books in this series are published in this size. The response has been good, especially from overseas buyers, and we are planning to bring out more titles in this series,” told Aman Chawla, director of Dreamland, who looks after the exports.
“We take great efforts in making our books world-class. We buy the rights of the pictures from US and UK. Sometimes, we also get the photo shoot done for the images ourselves,” he told.
“Dreamland Publications is the brain-child of my father Ved Chawla. He started with children’s books and then added textbooks to the portfolio. Right now, we are just focusing on the children’s books,” he told.
The reach of the books from their stable is also nation-wide through well-known retail chains like Wal Mart, Reliance, Big Bazar, Landmark, More, etc. “We also have distributors who directly deal with the schools, etc,” he added. And their policy is simple; they give limited number of copies to the retailers, which ensure that the returnable is miniscule.
Besides, these good-quality books have good market in gulf countries, South-East Asia, Philippines, etc. “The content of our books is universal, hence can be used anywhere in the world. We export our books through distributors,” told Aman. “Almost sixty to seventy percent of our production is for exports. We even export books in Arabic, Malay and Sinhalese languages. While the translation of these is done in respective countries, printing is done in India itself,” he added.
On asking about the rights for children books from foreign publishers, Aman replied that they have two series from Russia for the Indian sub-continent. They also publish laminated charts for exports. “And we may come up with educational CDs next year,” he told.
Aman feels that the biggest challenges in the book publishing industry are competition from China and local publishers who deliver low quality books obviously at low rates. “Our books are quality-oriented and hence are priced accordingly. In India, only five percent schools go for quality books, rest compromise on cheaper variants and it is this five percent which is our target audience,” he said. “We have 5-6 quality printers on our panel and they are delivering real quality products.”
Aman, however, felt that this year the New Delhi World Book Fair was dull as compared to the previous one as the overseas buyers were few. Nevertheless, he was glad to be a part of the fair and was glad to bag some new overseas buyers at the show.
–Varsha Verma
Charts and maps: the indispensable learning tools
Charts and maps not only add colour to the dull wall of the classroom but also help children learn things in an easy way. Here’s more on one such company behind these illustrative learning tools.
Hyderabad-based Victory Graphik, an ISO 9001:2000 company, has established itself as a trustworthy science charts manufacturer and exporter. They provide best quality charts at the most reasonable and affordable prices. The team behind this interesting company is of brothers Jitendra and Praveen A Jain.
“To make learning easy across schools and colleges and across syllabi, we have come up with a unique scheme of publishing educational charts on various science subjects. No such work was done hitherto, and not on such large scale using such state-of-art technology to make science learning easy, innovative and interesting,” told Praveen.
“In 2004, a huge requirement of charts cropped up with the initiation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Earlier, paper charts were used. But, we started producing charts on LDF synthetic sheet, which is water proof, weather proof, and tear proof, too. The matter is offset printed using highly sophisticated imported and computer aided machinery. Our charts naturally were well-accepted in the schools,” he explained.
“In Andhra Pradesh itself, we sold about 5 lacs charts to almost 2000 schools. For nationwide reach, we deal through a set of dealers,” told Praveen. But, the production of these colourful and easy to understand charts to decipher science to the ordinary student has been no easy task. “In this endeavor, some of the best brains and artists of our R&D team were totally involved. No less important has been the untiring support from experts in language editing at every stage making the work truly world class, offering maps in English and Telugu,” he added.
“It is perhaps for the first time in India that within a span of three years nearly 600 subjectwise charts and 200 portraits of great scientists & Indian Leaders were published which is a record in itself. Designing itself has spread over more than three full years and latest technology was adopted,” he added. The company has also ventured into maps on continents, India and world. “At present, we have fifteen designs in maps; which are drawing huge demand from schools and colleges.”
The sizes of charts and maps is standard 100 x 70 cms while portraits are available on canvass laminated on board with brief sketch, available in sizes of 17.5x 11.5” and 16 x 24”. Another product offered is the lab safety posters which are multicoloured and fully illustrated on 230gsm imported art card and laminated.
So, is Praveen not perturbed with the rise in e-learning solutions and other multimedia options for learning? “The use of maps as a teaching aid still has a long way to go. In urban area, it may be replaced with other option, but will still remain the basic learning tool in rural areas,” he replied.
They generally have a print run of 2000 copies for each chart and even export them to countries like Mauritius, Nepal and Pakistan. “We are planning to launch another 200 charts in the next 2-3 years time. The first one of these would be charts for Mathematics in June this year,” disclosed Praveen. With the need of setting up of Maths laboratories in schools, the demand for charts for Maths will definitely be huge and we wish Victory Graphik the best for making learning so easy for the children.
- Varsha Verma
Hyderabad-based Victory Graphik, an ISO 9001:2000 company, has established itself as a trustworthy science charts manufacturer and exporter. They provide best quality charts at the most reasonable and affordable prices. The team behind this interesting company is of brothers Jitendra and Praveen A Jain.
“To make learning easy across schools and colleges and across syllabi, we have come up with a unique scheme of publishing educational charts on various science subjects. No such work was done hitherto, and not on such large scale using such state-of-art technology to make science learning easy, innovative and interesting,” told Praveen.
“In 2004, a huge requirement of charts cropped up with the initiation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Earlier, paper charts were used. But, we started producing charts on LDF synthetic sheet, which is water proof, weather proof, and tear proof, too. The matter is offset printed using highly sophisticated imported and computer aided machinery. Our charts naturally were well-accepted in the schools,” he explained.
“In Andhra Pradesh itself, we sold about 5 lacs charts to almost 2000 schools. For nationwide reach, we deal through a set of dealers,” told Praveen. But, the production of these colourful and easy to understand charts to decipher science to the ordinary student has been no easy task. “In this endeavor, some of the best brains and artists of our R&D team were totally involved. No less important has been the untiring support from experts in language editing at every stage making the work truly world class, offering maps in English and Telugu,” he added.
“It is perhaps for the first time in India that within a span of three years nearly 600 subjectwise charts and 200 portraits of great scientists & Indian Leaders were published which is a record in itself. Designing itself has spread over more than three full years and latest technology was adopted,” he added. The company has also ventured into maps on continents, India and world. “At present, we have fifteen designs in maps; which are drawing huge demand from schools and colleges.”
The sizes of charts and maps is standard 100 x 70 cms while portraits are available on canvass laminated on board with brief sketch, available in sizes of 17.5x 11.5” and 16 x 24”. Another product offered is the lab safety posters which are multicoloured and fully illustrated on 230gsm imported art card and laminated.
So, is Praveen not perturbed with the rise in e-learning solutions and other multimedia options for learning? “The use of maps as a teaching aid still has a long way to go. In urban area, it may be replaced with other option, but will still remain the basic learning tool in rural areas,” he replied.
They generally have a print run of 2000 copies for each chart and even export them to countries like Mauritius, Nepal and Pakistan. “We are planning to launch another 200 charts in the next 2-3 years time. The first one of these would be charts for Mathematics in June this year,” disclosed Praveen. With the need of setting up of Maths laboratories in schools, the demand for charts for Maths will definitely be huge and we wish Victory Graphik the best for making learning so easy for the children.
- Varsha Verma
“We still do not know how long we can maintain and store digitally preserved library materials,”
says Deanna Marcum, Ph.D., associate librarian for library services, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. at the recently-held talk at American Center, New Delhi. The Library of Congress, Washington DC, is actively working towards making it a traditional and digital library, which seems to be the need of the future. So, what are the challenges and how are they overcoming these? Excerpts.
Pix courtesy: Gaurav Sharma, American Centre
Pix courtesy: Gaurav Sharma, American Centre
The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in US and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library’s mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. A talk on ‘The Library of Congress Looks to a Digital Future” was scheduled in February 2010 at the American Centre, New Delhi, which was attended by over hundred people.
As per Deanna Marcum, Ph.D., associate librarian for library services, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., the Library is actively working towards audio-visual conservation. “The digitization process is on and 1000s of videotapes are being converted into the digital format. We have developed an automatic process for it, which is much speedier, but we have many video and audio tapes still to be converted,” she told.
The Library of Congress also redesigned its preservation research and testing lab and conservation lab in 2009, with an investment of $2 million on equipments and a team of seven new scientists. “We also have a fellowship programme wherein we take ten scientists a year to work on preservation research. We have hyperspectral imaging capacities which help us in deciphering the text on age-old documents which have deteriorated over the years,” she told.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with nearly 143 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 22 million books and other print materials, 6 million recordings, 15 million photographs, 6 million maps, 6 million pieces of sheet music and 62 million manuscripts. But, since the items are increasing every single day, they are planning an off-site storage facility for collections. “For this, we have rented space from US military, where there is a tall building with storage modules at Ft. Meade. Modules 1 and 2 are already functional and house 3 million items. We plan to move 30 million items to modules 3 and 4 over the next three years. And in our future plans we would like to have as many as 13 such modules for safely and securely managing the collection,” she added.
Telling more about the digital library, Deanna told that they are continuously building their collection by web harvesting and e-journals. The library has already done digital deposits for digital newspapers and the second on the league is e-journals, for which they have identified 600 titles of electronic journals to begin with. “We want to expand our legacy to build same kind of digital library as we are known for in the pre-digital era. But, we still do not know that how long we can continue to keep the digitally preserved materials. Besides, the websites are growing exponentially and we have to really work very hard to preserve the information on net,” she said as a matter of concern. She mentioned about National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP) which works with other institutions in US and will soon expand to work with international organizations. “The library originally funded with $100 million but due to financial difficulties, had to refund back $47 million. Nevertheless, the library is investing $6 million a year for the next few years,” she added.
Deanna also informed about a new project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to identify and scan frequently used material in the Library’s general collection in the public domain (published before 1923). “We have digitized 65,000 titles and made them available free of cost with Amazon.com for general use. We are also providing our scanning services to federal agencies.”
Previously, the Library of Congress catered to people above 18 years of age, but now to encourage young readers, they reduced the age to 16 years. Besides, they have a separate Young Readers Centre where children can come with their families and read together. “We are also encouraging young readers through exhibits, tours and programs,” she added.
Fire is one hazard which all libraries should take precautions for and at the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia, they are well-equipped for that. “We have 124 nitrate film vaults in the library and in the case of fire, only one of the vaults will be destroyed, while the rest will remain intact. This is the safeguard against fire, which could destroy this rich heritage,” she told.
“Nevertheless, it is challenging to have a digital library along with the legacy collections of the Library of Congress, but it is really exciting to imagine the possibilities of the future digital library,” she concluded.
–Varsha Verma
Pix courtesy: Gaurav Sharma, American Centre
Pix courtesy: Gaurav Sharma, American Centre
The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in US and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. The Library’s mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. A talk on ‘The Library of Congress Looks to a Digital Future” was scheduled in February 2010 at the American Centre, New Delhi, which was attended by over hundred people.
As per Deanna Marcum, Ph.D., associate librarian for library services, Library of Congress, Washington D.C., the Library is actively working towards audio-visual conservation. “The digitization process is on and 1000s of videotapes are being converted into the digital format. We have developed an automatic process for it, which is much speedier, but we have many video and audio tapes still to be converted,” she told.
The Library of Congress also redesigned its preservation research and testing lab and conservation lab in 2009, with an investment of $2 million on equipments and a team of seven new scientists. “We also have a fellowship programme wherein we take ten scientists a year to work on preservation research. We have hyperspectral imaging capacities which help us in deciphering the text on age-old documents which have deteriorated over the years,” she told.
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with nearly 143 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 22 million books and other print materials, 6 million recordings, 15 million photographs, 6 million maps, 6 million pieces of sheet music and 62 million manuscripts. But, since the items are increasing every single day, they are planning an off-site storage facility for collections. “For this, we have rented space from US military, where there is a tall building with storage modules at Ft. Meade. Modules 1 and 2 are already functional and house 3 million items. We plan to move 30 million items to modules 3 and 4 over the next three years. And in our future plans we would like to have as many as 13 such modules for safely and securely managing the collection,” she added.
Telling more about the digital library, Deanna told that they are continuously building their collection by web harvesting and e-journals. The library has already done digital deposits for digital newspapers and the second on the league is e-journals, for which they have identified 600 titles of electronic journals to begin with. “We want to expand our legacy to build same kind of digital library as we are known for in the pre-digital era. But, we still do not know that how long we can continue to keep the digitally preserved materials. Besides, the websites are growing exponentially and we have to really work very hard to preserve the information on net,” she said as a matter of concern. She mentioned about National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP) which works with other institutions in US and will soon expand to work with international organizations. “The library originally funded with $100 million but due to financial difficulties, had to refund back $47 million. Nevertheless, the library is investing $6 million a year for the next few years,” she added.
Deanna also informed about a new project funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to identify and scan frequently used material in the Library’s general collection in the public domain (published before 1923). “We have digitized 65,000 titles and made them available free of cost with Amazon.com for general use. We are also providing our scanning services to federal agencies.”
Previously, the Library of Congress catered to people above 18 years of age, but now to encourage young readers, they reduced the age to 16 years. Besides, they have a separate Young Readers Centre where children can come with their families and read together. “We are also encouraging young readers through exhibits, tours and programs,” she added.
Fire is one hazard which all libraries should take precautions for and at the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Virginia, they are well-equipped for that. “We have 124 nitrate film vaults in the library and in the case of fire, only one of the vaults will be destroyed, while the rest will remain intact. This is the safeguard against fire, which could destroy this rich heritage,” she told.
“Nevertheless, it is challenging to have a digital library along with the legacy collections of the Library of Congress, but it is really exciting to imagine the possibilities of the future digital library,” she concluded.
–Varsha Verma
Delhi Public Library: striving to be truly modern
The sixty years old Delhi Public Library is now revamping its infrastructure and changing with the needs of the modern society. The idea is to make it a place where anybody can come, read and gain knowledge. Shailaja Chandra, chairman, Delhi Public Library shares the insights in a tête-à-tête with Varsha Verma.
Shailaja Chandra
Shailaja Chandra
Delhi Public Library is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, started as a UNESCO project in the year 1951 by the Govt. of India. The library is well stocked with collection of over 14 lakh books in Hindi, English, Urdu, Punjabi & other Indian Languages- almost all subjects are represented in its collection.
So, what are the readership trends in the Delhi Public Library? “Today, younger generation aspiring for jobs or career, in the age group of 20-35 years, who doesn’t have the freedom of a room to themselves to study, use the libraries for their studies. Sometimes, it is a challenge for us to accommodate them along with other visitors to the library. Another important trend we have seen is that visitors like to use internet at libraries for browsing and searching. They find it much better than the cyber cafes,” told Shailaja Chandra, chairman, DLB, Delhi Public Library.
Besides, the Delhi Public Library also offers DVDs, which is a big hit amongst visitors as they can rent DVDs virtually free, just by depositing a security fee. “Not only this, we have digitized forty rare gramophone records which are not available anywhere. The library has over 4,000 such records including classical, devotional, film music, etc. Visitors can use headphone and hear their favourite numbers at the kiosks in libraries.”
When everybody is talking of ebooks, can Delhi Public Library be far behind? “We are also planning to have ebooks in our library. It will help us to know the reading preferences. For example, readers can browse through our website and read little content of a particular book. If ten or more people like the book and would like to read it, we may purchase the same for our library. As of now, we have book committees who decide which books to buy for the library. Sometimes, we might not do justice to all the books as it is not possible to read every book but with this concept in place, we can have a better judgmental call on the books to buy,” added Shailaja.
“Also we are planning to buy kindles for our libraries where visitors can browse through the books on it and if they like the concept, we might add more in near future,” she told.
So, doesn’t the large bookstores with cafes a competition to the libraries? “Well, the concept of library is very different from the bookstores. Book stores are there to sell books while we are just a facilitator to general public. Our clientele is different. They come here to read books as they are not able to buy these,” she replied.
The Library has already revamped its Old Delhi branch and is now busy revamping the Sarojini Nagar one. “We will have kiosks for coffee etc in corridors to facilitate users. Then, there would be open reading areas where people can sit and read the books, which would be specially appreciated in sunny winter days,” told Shailaja.
“We are also planning to provide vocational guidance to students as to what are the new courses available, what books are available for them, etc. Besides, there will be a publishers’ corner where the publishers can display their books for a week or two. They can organize reading sessions by their authors. Sometimes, we can have a few publishers displaying books subjectwise. People can come and see the books and buy them if they wish so,” revealed Shailaja.
Not only this, Delhi Public Library is also planning some events in evening, where street children can learn some skills while other visitors can opt for some hobby classes or English fluency course for a nominal or no cost. “We have already got the Board’s approval for that,” told Shailaja.
When all other libraries are going in for digitization, what is Delhi Public Library’s take on it? “The library is keen to go digital but the Board is not very enthusiastic about it. They feel that most of the book at our libraries are easily available and hence do not need to be digitized. As it is, it is a public library and not a reference library. But, we may soon start a programme to selectively digitize the books,” replied Shailaja.
With all such modernization plans in place, the Delhi Public Library is geared to attract more visitors. “The membership of our libraries had come down to 40,000 but in the last two years, we have added 20,000 new members, which is an achievement in itself and we are sure we will add up more as our new infrastructure is ready,” told Shailaja.
“This is our 60th year of existence and we are promoting our library as a place relevant in today’s time. We are organizing events and exhibitions in various parts of Delhi. A display was hosted at Lalit Kala Academy and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) to showcase the library’s role as an institution that provides the public with information and insights into India’s policy, society and culture. More such events will be planned from time to time to make people aware of our offerings,” concluded Shailaja.
Shailaja Chandra
Shailaja Chandra
Delhi Public Library is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, started as a UNESCO project in the year 1951 by the Govt. of India. The library is well stocked with collection of over 14 lakh books in Hindi, English, Urdu, Punjabi & other Indian Languages- almost all subjects are represented in its collection.
So, what are the readership trends in the Delhi Public Library? “Today, younger generation aspiring for jobs or career, in the age group of 20-35 years, who doesn’t have the freedom of a room to themselves to study, use the libraries for their studies. Sometimes, it is a challenge for us to accommodate them along with other visitors to the library. Another important trend we have seen is that visitors like to use internet at libraries for browsing and searching. They find it much better than the cyber cafes,” told Shailaja Chandra, chairman, DLB, Delhi Public Library.
Besides, the Delhi Public Library also offers DVDs, which is a big hit amongst visitors as they can rent DVDs virtually free, just by depositing a security fee. “Not only this, we have digitized forty rare gramophone records which are not available anywhere. The library has over 4,000 such records including classical, devotional, film music, etc. Visitors can use headphone and hear their favourite numbers at the kiosks in libraries.”
When everybody is talking of ebooks, can Delhi Public Library be far behind? “We are also planning to have ebooks in our library. It will help us to know the reading preferences. For example, readers can browse through our website and read little content of a particular book. If ten or more people like the book and would like to read it, we may purchase the same for our library. As of now, we have book committees who decide which books to buy for the library. Sometimes, we might not do justice to all the books as it is not possible to read every book but with this concept in place, we can have a better judgmental call on the books to buy,” added Shailaja.
“Also we are planning to buy kindles for our libraries where visitors can browse through the books on it and if they like the concept, we might add more in near future,” she told.
So, doesn’t the large bookstores with cafes a competition to the libraries? “Well, the concept of library is very different from the bookstores. Book stores are there to sell books while we are just a facilitator to general public. Our clientele is different. They come here to read books as they are not able to buy these,” she replied.
The Library has already revamped its Old Delhi branch and is now busy revamping the Sarojini Nagar one. “We will have kiosks for coffee etc in corridors to facilitate users. Then, there would be open reading areas where people can sit and read the books, which would be specially appreciated in sunny winter days,” told Shailaja.
“We are also planning to provide vocational guidance to students as to what are the new courses available, what books are available for them, etc. Besides, there will be a publishers’ corner where the publishers can display their books for a week or two. They can organize reading sessions by their authors. Sometimes, we can have a few publishers displaying books subjectwise. People can come and see the books and buy them if they wish so,” revealed Shailaja.
Not only this, Delhi Public Library is also planning some events in evening, where street children can learn some skills while other visitors can opt for some hobby classes or English fluency course for a nominal or no cost. “We have already got the Board’s approval for that,” told Shailaja.
When all other libraries are going in for digitization, what is Delhi Public Library’s take on it? “The library is keen to go digital but the Board is not very enthusiastic about it. They feel that most of the book at our libraries are easily available and hence do not need to be digitized. As it is, it is a public library and not a reference library. But, we may soon start a programme to selectively digitize the books,” replied Shailaja.
With all such modernization plans in place, the Delhi Public Library is geared to attract more visitors. “The membership of our libraries had come down to 40,000 but in the last two years, we have added 20,000 new members, which is an achievement in itself and we are sure we will add up more as our new infrastructure is ready,” told Shailaja.
“This is our 60th year of existence and we are promoting our library as a place relevant in today’s time. We are organizing events and exhibitions in various parts of Delhi. A display was hosted at Lalit Kala Academy and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) to showcase the library’s role as an institution that provides the public with information and insights into India’s policy, society and culture. More such events will be planned from time to time to make people aware of our offerings,” concluded Shailaja.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Foreign publishers should bring in more money and not just content to the Indian soil
Indian publishing industry is a high potential industry which is growing at a rate of fifteen to twenty percent per annum. “When we talk about the international publishing industry, we refer mostly to the US and UK publishing industry, which is now growing at a minimal rate and has already reached a saturation point. Little wonder then that these publishers are eyeing the Indian market. They are liasoning with Indian players and trying to set up a network for themselves through such link ups,” told Dr Ashok Gupta, managing director, Pustak Mahal and Unicorn Books Pvt Ltd, New Delhi.
So, what are the challenges these foreign publishers are posing to the Indian counterparts? “First, the foreign publishers have deep pockets as some of the major ones have billion dollar turnover in foreign countries while the Indian publishers are mostly family-owned enterprises, serving the industry for over fifty years. Second, the foreign publishers have readymade content, some of the big players even having more than 7500 titles with them. On the other hand, most of the Indian publishers have 500-1500 titles only. Thus, they automatically pose a big competition to their counterparts. Third, since they get the titles printed here in India, they are able to sell these at competitive rates,” told Dr Ashok.
He says that though the Indian publishers are not against the entry of foreign publishers in India, but they do feel that there should be some restriction on the number of titles printed in India by foreign publishers. “Other books can be imported but the production in India, poses a big competition for Indian players. Besides, they do not invest money in India, the publishing industry at large is not benefiting from their entry,” he added.
So, what other reforms does Dr Ashok would like to see in the Indian publishing industry? “The reading habits are going down and I feel that it should be encouraged by government or bodies like NBT. On a personal level, even we can encourage it by gifting books to children rather than gifting them toys or clothes on their birthdays, etc. Besides, there can be sale of gift coupons which can be redeemed at bookstores,” came a prompt alternative from Dr Ashok.
He also feels that there is no definite database of books published in India. “There are only hypothetical data with the federation as well as the government. This certainly needs to be improved,” he added. Besides, he also feels that the mailing cost of books should be reduced to make it more economical for people to order books.
As far as piracy is concerned, Dr Ashok feels it is not a big issue. “Piracy occurs only when the demand for a particular book is high and its cost is prohibitively high. To counter piracy, publishers should price their book reasonably. Even our bestseller Rapidex has been pirated many a times. To counter it, we had to reduce its price, ofcourse within the profitable limits,” he told as a matter of fact.
Talking about the quality of authors available in India, Dr Ashok said that there are good quality authors in India while the editing standards were poor at the publishing end. “Last ten years has seen a drastic improvement in the level of editing and hence the quality of books have gone up. Earlier, fiction Indian authors got their works published outside due to better marketing opportunities. But now, even English-language publishers in India are experimenting with budding fiction authors. We, at Pustak Mahal, have also started ‘Cedar Press’ for publishing fiction and have come out with 15 titles so far,” he added.
Established in 1974, Pustak Mahal has over 1,500 titles, with at least 500 titles on the active list. Rapidex remains one of the most successful brands ever created in Indian publishing history with over 25 million copies under the Rapidex imprint. Coming to the issue of ebooks, Dr Ashok told that they have started digitizing their books and have done hundred titles so far but they have still not launched them as they wish to develop a specialized portal for the same and he feels that in the next 10-15 years, ebooks will have their own share but yes, the traditional books will still rule the roost. He feels that ebooks have an advantage of its own as they can be available anywhere in the world 24×7. “Also, high reference books with low demand and high cost will definitely go the e-way,” he added.
Revealing more about their future plans, Dr Ashok told that they are also entering into illustrated colour children’s books and may go for competitive books segment as well in future. With their plans well charted out, Pustak Mahal is gradually moving towards new publishing areas to create newer milestones.
- Varsha Verma
So, what are the challenges these foreign publishers are posing to the Indian counterparts? “First, the foreign publishers have deep pockets as some of the major ones have billion dollar turnover in foreign countries while the Indian publishers are mostly family-owned enterprises, serving the industry for over fifty years. Second, the foreign publishers have readymade content, some of the big players even having more than 7500 titles with them. On the other hand, most of the Indian publishers have 500-1500 titles only. Thus, they automatically pose a big competition to their counterparts. Third, since they get the titles printed here in India, they are able to sell these at competitive rates,” told Dr Ashok.
He says that though the Indian publishers are not against the entry of foreign publishers in India, but they do feel that there should be some restriction on the number of titles printed in India by foreign publishers. “Other books can be imported but the production in India, poses a big competition for Indian players. Besides, they do not invest money in India, the publishing industry at large is not benefiting from their entry,” he added.
So, what other reforms does Dr Ashok would like to see in the Indian publishing industry? “The reading habits are going down and I feel that it should be encouraged by government or bodies like NBT. On a personal level, even we can encourage it by gifting books to children rather than gifting them toys or clothes on their birthdays, etc. Besides, there can be sale of gift coupons which can be redeemed at bookstores,” came a prompt alternative from Dr Ashok.
He also feels that there is no definite database of books published in India. “There are only hypothetical data with the federation as well as the government. This certainly needs to be improved,” he added. Besides, he also feels that the mailing cost of books should be reduced to make it more economical for people to order books.
As far as piracy is concerned, Dr Ashok feels it is not a big issue. “Piracy occurs only when the demand for a particular book is high and its cost is prohibitively high. To counter piracy, publishers should price their book reasonably. Even our bestseller Rapidex has been pirated many a times. To counter it, we had to reduce its price, ofcourse within the profitable limits,” he told as a matter of fact.
Talking about the quality of authors available in India, Dr Ashok said that there are good quality authors in India while the editing standards were poor at the publishing end. “Last ten years has seen a drastic improvement in the level of editing and hence the quality of books have gone up. Earlier, fiction Indian authors got their works published outside due to better marketing opportunities. But now, even English-language publishers in India are experimenting with budding fiction authors. We, at Pustak Mahal, have also started ‘Cedar Press’ for publishing fiction and have come out with 15 titles so far,” he added.
Established in 1974, Pustak Mahal has over 1,500 titles, with at least 500 titles on the active list. Rapidex remains one of the most successful brands ever created in Indian publishing history with over 25 million copies under the Rapidex imprint. Coming to the issue of ebooks, Dr Ashok told that they have started digitizing their books and have done hundred titles so far but they have still not launched them as they wish to develop a specialized portal for the same and he feels that in the next 10-15 years, ebooks will have their own share but yes, the traditional books will still rule the roost. He feels that ebooks have an advantage of its own as they can be available anywhere in the world 24×7. “Also, high reference books with low demand and high cost will definitely go the e-way,” he added.
Revealing more about their future plans, Dr Ashok told that they are also entering into illustrated colour children’s books and may go for competitive books segment as well in future. With their plans well charted out, Pustak Mahal is gradually moving towards new publishing areas to create newer milestones.
- Varsha Verma
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
