Walt Crawford

I am not sure what more I can say other than people need to read this. Walt Crawford provides an excellent, well-balanced look at the issues of open access. This book really is "what you need to know now." If you do not know much, or anything at all, this is the book for you. If you know a little, but you need to clarify some things, this is the book for you. If you need a handy guide so you can make your points and help advocate for open access, this is the book for you. As far as I am show more concerned, every library should have a copy of this, especially every academic library.

The book has an easy organizational scheme. It starts with answering "why you should care?" Then it goes into basic definitions of terms. This is followed by issues and then controversies. After, Crawford provides some ideas and suggestions on getting involved, and a small list of resources to keep you going. Given issues of constantly rising costs in academic journals, among others, librarians cannot afford to be clueless about open access. With this book, they no longer have ignorance of what is open access as an excuse. This book will get you started. This is also a good book to keep handy for faculty who need to be educated on this topic as well.

A strength of this book is in the language. Crawford writes a book that is easy to read and gets to the point unlike many other LIS books that dwell too much on theory or wishful thinking. He explains things clearly, strives for balance and fairness, and he will even tell you when you need to read elsewhere to learn more. I honestly wish more LIS literature was written like this. I can say I was able to get a basic understanding of open access, and this is a book I may reread for reference as needed. A must read in our profession and in higher education. Librarians need to put this book (after they read it) in the hands of faculty and administrators right away. There is a lot of work when it comes to open access; education is a first step, and you can begin educating with Crawford's Open Access: What you need to know now. show less

What a fantastic resource! The title should be Everyone’s Guide to Micro Publishing with Notes to Librarians. Walt Crawford gives step-by-step instructions for producing paperback and hardback books in small quantities — just one, if that’s all you need — at amazingly low prices (under $9 for a paperback, about $18 for a hardback, and $75 for a full-color coffee table book on luxury stock). Don’t laugh at that last one. I produced one of those books for a birthday gift. The price show more tag was $300!

Crawford’s primary tools are Microsoft Word and other commonly used programs. But if you don’t have these programs and you don’t want to buy them, he also includes instructions for using free software available on the Internet. A very valuable feature of the book is the detailed instructions for using Lulu and Amazon’s CreateSpace to produce your book-on-demand, including point-by-point comparisons of the two that will help you decide which of them is best for your project. (Did you know that Lulu and CreateSpace will take orders and send out books for you?) The advice for libraries that want to become community or academic publishers will hold for anyone who wants to become their own small press. Whether your aim is to produce a book of family stories or to test the market for your how-to book on underwater basketweaving, you will want this book. Not one useless word in it.

Unfortunately, the book is priced for libraries who will take advantage of its offer of copyright-free photocopying of certain chapters. Even at $49.50 (ouch!), I recommend it to the individual seeking to produce a few copies of a book (or at least one at a time, as needed). As well as great instructions, you get templates for producing a professional-looking book. P.S. Amazon shows the names of several sellers that sell for about half that. show less

I'm not a librarian, but I am interested in micropublishing, and I found this book fascinating and informative. It addressed more topics than I would have thought I might need in putting a book together for self-publishing. I read the entire book, even the details on fonts and pagination, and I think I'm much better prepared than I would have been otherwise. The price is daunting, but if libraries indeed buy this book (and I hope they will), then I'd urge writers with an interest in show more self-publishing to check it out of whatever library is available to them. My particular interest is in putting together an anthology of articles from a quarterly journal related to Sherlock Holmes -- I'm one of the journal editors and have previously done a couple of anthologies with a publisher. This book gave me the confidence to get out there and "do it myself." My only reservation is all the information on MS Word; I vastly prefer MS Publisher. I'd love to be able to add in-text illustrations, but it doesn't sound like that's really an option at this point. That said, I still think this volume is wonderful...I just wish it cost half the price that's listed, so that it could be a little more accessible to readers/writers/editors and anthologists. show less

Why should librarians be involved in micropublishing? That's a question Walt Crawford asks in his first chapter, but then never really answers it satisfactorily. Instead, through the remaining chapters, he addresses the soon-to-be author of a family history or a writing club's compilation (in other words, library users, not librarians). In very clear detail, Crawford shows how to start micropublishing; he singles out CreateSpace and Lulu -- while too briefly dismisses vanity presses. show more Aspiring authors are then given a long tutorial on templates, fonts, and layout -- it's a bit pedantic in spots, but there's a lot of very helpful information compressed into a few pages. It's clear what the focus of the book is when the ending barely mentions distributing the book (Crawford notes other books that discuss marketing in more depth, and his comments about them are fantastic, if sometimes scathing). Ultimately, if you're interested in self-publishing, this is worth a read before you start, even if you're not a librarian.

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LT Haiku:

Have a tale to tell?
Learn about fonts and layout.
Book might sell better. show less