Online Books Page
A great resource that lists more than 25,000 books freely available on the world wide web. Its possible to search by title, author, or by subject. There are also some special features celebrating women writers and highlighting banned books online. So if you wake in the night wanting a quick fix of Emily Dickinson, Keats, or Etienne de La Boetie this is the site to have bookmarked. Created by the Penn Library.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

Publishers - Small is Beautiful
Tara Mulholland hits the spot in an article on the publishing scene in Britain: "The bigger, the better? The British small publisher begs to differ" published last Friday in the International Herald Tribune. The article sets the appearance of two new small publishers, Pushkin Press and Alma Books against the general trend towards centralisation. Thanks to the Literary Saloon for mentioning it.
www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/24/arts/idside25.php

Samuel Johnson - one book at a time!
One of the joys of surfing is the way in which it is possible to stumble across fascinating resources without really trying - it is a completely different process and experience from the serendipity encountered when browsing in a library, but just as rewarding (thinks - is it possible to have different kinds of serendipity?). Today's revelation is the Hyde Collection Catablog. The Donald and Mary Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson is a comprehensive collection of the works of Samuel Johnson, his associates and contemporaries, and the literary world of 18th century London. John Overholt, cataloguer of the printed book portion of the collection, is using the blog to share his discoveries as he examines each book in the collection. The result is a marvellous collection of frivolous and serious information about Johnson and his 18th century world.
There is more about the Hyde collection in this article from the Harvard Magazine:
www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/110493.html

John's blog can be found here:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/hydeblog/

Reference Online
The Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) has announced its latest initiative Reference Online which will provide "library managers with easy access to 26 electronic subscription based products, including directories, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, newspapers and business information. MLA has brokered deals with 14 separate suppliers, which will see libraries benefiting from savings of up to 50% on some titles and potential cost efficiencies of over £1million could be achieved."
www.mla.gov.uk/webdav/harmonise?Page/@id=90

Pierre Pinoncelli
There is a fascinating profile of Pierre Pinoncelli, the man who took a hammer to Marcel Duchamp's "ready-made" urinal in today's Independent.
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article345086.ece

Affinities
The birth of an exciting new journal has just been announced. Here's an extract from the editorial blurb:

"From pirate enclaves to utopian communities, from communal republics to occupied zones, the history of constituted power has always also been the history of radical experiments in spaces that are other than, alternative to, within and against."

Affinities: a Journal of Radical Theory, Culture and Action "is dedicated to a critical discussion of the contemporary manifestations, and future prospects of, autonomous spaces around the world. We are seeking submissions not only from those who "study” such spaces, but also from those who are actively engaged in their creation."

"Recent years have offered us manifold examples of autonomous spaces,
including the occupation of old factories in Argentina, the
occupation of rural land by the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement,
and spaces or caucuses created by those marginalized within broader
radical movements, including Anarchist People of Colour and the
Zapatista Revolutionary Law for Women.

Yet everywhere these experiments are constantly imperiled, suffering
repression, recuperation, or simply exhaustion. Furthermore, careful
attention to power relations suggests that these spaces themselves
are not islands free of oppression, untouched by the micro-practices
of domination."
Anyone interested in contributing or subscribing should contact:
info(at)affinityproject.org
[Please note that this email address is not been set up as a link, please substitute @ for (at)]

Index Translationum
This useful site contains a database of books translated and published in about 100 of the UNESCO states since 1979 and totalling more than 1.500,000 entries in all disciplines : literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history and so on. It also provides some surprising statistics about the world's most translated authors.
http://databases.unesco.org/xtrans/xtra-form.html