MITPressLog

Neuroscience 2009

Promotions Coordinator, Allison Hoch, was one of four MIT Pressers manning our booth at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Chicago last month.   Here are some highlights:

Society for Neuroscience is one of my favorite meetings to attend as an exhibitor. The folks at this meeting - all 30,000+ of them - spend plenty of time on the exhibits floor and especially along publisher's row. Our reputation seems to proceed us - our strong history in this field garners us a lot of attention. I love getting to interact with our customers who seem as equally passionate about buying our books as I am about selling them. It was a thrill to attend this conference for the fourth time and be greeted by familiar faces returning to our booth to purchase new titles and beloved favorites for their friends or students.

 
This is the largest conference we attend and one of the longest; my co-workers and I spent a week in Chicago where this year's Society for Neuroscience meeting was held. Two days of travel, one day to set-up, four days of selling, and one day off in-between. The days in the convention center start for us at 8:30 am when we arrive early to set-up our computers and end at 5:30 when we finally close up shop and usher the last straggling customers out of the booth. This year things were so busy that we even brought packed lunches to eat between sales. And we celebrated successful work days with hot pastrami, deep-dish pizza, or one of the famous Illinois "Horseshoe" sandwiches.

This year was a record one for us - we practically sold out of every title we brought. Whether it was our new 30% conference discount or just a hunger for knowledge, we'd be hard-pressed to say, but the economy did not seem to waylay the majority of our customers. As always, our bestseller was Ramon y Cajal's Advice for a Young Investigator but we also saw a lot of interest in our new titles: Charles Gross' A Hole in the Head, Why We Cooperate by Michael Tomasello,  Computational Modeling Methods for Neuroscientists by Erik De Schutter, Wednesday is Indigo Blue by Richard Cytowic and David Eagleman, and of course Michael Gazzaniga's new book (4th) editon of The Cognitive Neurosciences.

Special Issue of Innovations

In conjunction with the clean energy address that President Obama is delivering at MIT today, MIT Press is releasing essays from the soon to be published fall special issue of Innovations journal on energy and climate solution. The pre-released essays are authored by White House Science Adviser John Holdren, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Economics Thomas Schelling, and the Director of MIT’s Washington office, William Bonvillian.

 

In his introducing to the special issue, Holdren states that the forthcoming publication is “as thorough a survey of energy and climate solutions as has yet been compiled.” Of the climate challenge, he writes:

 

“Without energy, there is no economy. Without climate, there is no environment. Without economy and environment, there is no material well-being, no civil society, no personal or national security. The overriding problem associated with these realities, of course, is that the world has long been getting most of the energy its economies need from fossil fuels whose emissions are imperiling the climate that its environment needs.”

 

Schelling, a leader in the study of climate change for over three decades, advances a new proposal for international coordination. Writing with reference to next month’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Schelling states,

“Among the ideas that I do not believe will get serious attention in Copenhagen is one I see as critical to addressing the climate challenge: creating a new institutional structure to coordinate assistance from advanced industrialized countries to developing countries with the objective of transforming the way that people in the developing world produce and utilize energy.”

 

Bonvillian’s essay, co-authored with GeorgetownUniversity’s Charles Weiss, summarizes and advances the core arguments presented in the authors’ MIT Press book title Structuring an Energy Technology Revolution. Bonvillian and Weiss argue that the transformation of the energy technology infrastructure represents an unprecedented challenge for policy-makers as well as for technological innovators:

“Where complex technology sectors like energy are involved, we need to have Congress legislate standard packages of incentives and support across common technology launch areas, so that some technology neutrality is preserved and the optimal emerging technology has a chance to prevail.”

 

The Director of the MIT Press, Ellen Faran, states that “The Innovations special issue reflects the commitment of MIT and the MIT Press to promote innovative solutions to global issues and to encourage the widest dissemination of its scholarship.”

 

Sample articles from the issue follow below. Members of the media wishing to see an advance copy of the issue should contact: editors@innovationsjournal.net.

Expanding Access to Books: Implications of the Google Books Settlement Agreement

Journals Senior Editor Karie Kirkpatrick chimes in on the recent Google settlement event in Boston: 

 

On Wednesday, the Boston Public Library hosted a lively panel on the Google Book Search settlement, the approval for which is currently in the hands of the court. Authors, librarians, publishers, scholars, and other stakeholders packed the Rabb Lecture Hall to hear firsthand about the particulars of the settlement and how it would impact them.

Engineering Director Daniel Clancy started the engaging discussion by providing a brief history and mission of the Google Book Searchproject, highlighting events leading up to the lawsuit settlement (Google's partnerships with libraries, claims of fair use, and the Authors Guild and Association for American Publishers lawsuits). Clancy noted that this project, which has fundamentally changed access and discovery to book content as Google seeks to digitize the world's library, has brought a lot of exposure to publishers and to content that would not otherwise be used. Ann Wolpert, Director of MIT Libraries, called the settlement a "phenomenal change" and noted that Google Book Search is "wonderful as a product," but like the other panelists she expressed several concerns about the the project going forward.

Perhaps the word of the evening was "queasiness." Wolpert discussed her queasiness about commercialization, Google's control over institutional subscription costs for the product, as well as its control over orphan works with the establishment of the Book Rights Registry. Hal Abelson, MIT Professor of Computer Science and Technology, expressed his queasiness about the overwhelming "transformation of written culture" and his uneasiness surrounding the road Google could take regarding privacy and censorship. Harvard Law School Professor John Palfrey, who initiated the term "queasiness" for the evening, asked the audience, "are we going to be OK with [Google] having control over this in ten years?"

And yet, the overall message of the evening was the importance of access. Google is fundamentally transforming libraries, the publishing industry, and the way people search and discover information. As queasy as the panelists and any audience member may be about Google's strong hand in digitizing the world's books, as Palfrey strongly notes, no one else had the "chutzpah" to take on this impressive feat. His message to librariansand publishers: "We blew it. Google got it first. . . . It's game over."

After listening to the details of the plan and pondering all of the viewpoints presented that evening, all parties involved must now sit back and see what the court decides. If the settlement is approved, it will be interesting to see how the stakeholders help shape Google Book Search's future. Stay tuned.

PS: The Boston Globe's D.C. Denison also wrote about the event. 

View from the Booth - ICRA

Recently, Senior Editor Ada Brunstein attended the International Conference on Robotics and Automation where she promoted our robust robotics and and artificial intelligence titles as well as to scope out what is new and exciting in the field.  In addition to working our booth, there was definitely a lot to see.  Here's a taste:

This year’s ICRA was held in Kobe, Japan where my most challenging task of the week was ordering food in a restaurant with no English speakers or English writing anywhere. I dined with four roboticists (and if the question is how many roboticists does it take to order dinner in Japan, the answer is way more than we had there). After much pointing and gesturing (and with some help from a few very friendly locals) we ended up with a basket full of dead fish on the table. From there we had to choose the ones we wanted, easy enough, and explain how we wanted them cooked – really not so easy.

Next to the food, robots were definitely the highlight. This conference has quite a few robotic displays, from those that will one day roam the surface of other planets to those that will one day roam the surface of our living rooms. My favorite by far is Keepon, a little bot that looks like two yellow nerf balls sitting on top of one another. There’s a Wii-type application where you hold a remote control kind of thing and when you bop up and down, he bops up and down with you. When you sway side to side, he sways with you. It’s quite endearing and is meant to ultimately be used to enhance social skills and interaction among kids with various disabilities.

Casual Friday - Ode to the Barcode

This morning's Shelf Awareness pointed to a New York Times story about the 35th anniversary of the barcode.   Designed to speed up checkout and control inventory, the committee at MIT who reviewed the barcode thought it wouldn't last more than a few years. 

Boy, were they wrong.  Today, barcodes are used for most products--including the books we publish with our sophisticated 13 digit ISBN. A colleague here at MIT Press laughed as he recalled the controversy surrounding the decision to put barcodes on all of our books.  Now something that we barely notice, many designers and authors were upset about the barcode disrupting the design of their jackets. We've even managed to make them part of the design of our jackets on some occasions. 

MIT Press Bookstore Loading Dock Sale

---------------------------------------
The Fall 2008
MIT PRESS BOOKSTORE LOADING DOCK SALE
---------------------------------------
DAY:    Saturday & Sunday
DATE:    October 18th & 19th
TIME:    10:00am to 7:00pm
ROOM:    MIT E38, 292 Main Street, Cambridge
MAP:    http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E38
---------------------------------------

"a feeding frenzy for the brain"

On October 18th & 19th The MIT Press Bookstore will hold its legendary Loading Dock Sale. Literally *tons* of books will be on sale at drastically reduced prices--up to 90% off their original retail price. Can't come in the morning? Don't worry--new items will be added throughout the course of this two day extravaganza. Come visit our lovely loading dock to enjoy Huge Savings!

In order to make the sale a more pleasant experience for everyone, we're going to try something new this year:

Saturday - "no-book-dealers" day
Saturday will be the "no-book-dealers" day that many of you have requested. Student, MIT or other University id will be required for admittance. One additional guest admitted per id. There will be a 40 
book per purchaser limit. We reserve the right to refuse admittance to anyone purchasing for resale.

Sunday - "open-to-all" day
Sunday will be the "open-to-all" day. All are welcome, no purchasing limits. The tables will be fully restocked before the start.

For parking or event information call 253-5249, email books@mit.edu, 
or check here.   

Good Deeds

This week, over 5700 books will be shipped from TriLiteral, the warehouse that houses inventory for Harvard University Press, The MIT Press, and Yale University Press, to help replenish the Iraqi National Library. The three presses have partnered with the Sabre Foundation (Humanitarian Aid for the Mind), whose Book Donation Program has a long history of helping get educational materials to countries in need—often those engaged in or recovering from conflict.  The Sabre Foundation (working with a grant from the Unites States Embassy in Baghdad) will cover the logistics and shipping of the titles. 

From left to right, Colin McCullough, Book Donation Program Manager, Sabre Foundation; Rebecca Schrader, Assistant Director, MIT Press; Bill Lindsay, Associate Director, Harvard University Press; Sheila Lilja, General Manager, TriLiteral; John Rollins, Deputy Director, Yale University Press.

Libraries are one of the cornerstones of Iraqi culture.  By the 1970s, Iraqi higher education was widely considered to be the best in the region.  Due primarily to the war with Iran in the 1980s and the US invasion in 2003, higher education and the libraries that serve it have been devastated.  An effort like the Sabre program to rehabilitate principal Iraqi library collections is necessary if Iraq is to re-establish a high standard of education and knowledge.

This initiative is focused on the Iraq National Library and Archive (INLA), and the libraries of Baghdad University, Mustansiriyah University, and Baghdad Technical University, whose heads have committed themselves to act in concert in this process. Harvard, MIT, and Yale each provided a list of titles to the Iraqi Librarians and allowed them to choose the titles—up to three of each book selected—they thought would be the most appropriate.  They chose over 5700 titles—roughly 1700 from MIT Press.  The books chosen cover a wide range of subjects and disciplines: from Philosophy, Law, History and Art, to Environmental Studies.  They include textbooks, new titles, and classic monographs from all three Presses.  “Good things come from collaboration,” commented MIT Press Director Ellen W Faran.  “In this case, the three TriLiteral partners—Harvard, MIT, and Yale university presses—working together to respond to a request from four Iraqi libraries jointly seeking to rehabilitate their collections.”

Leonardo/ISAST Elects a New Board Chair

During elections in the 40th Anniversary Retreat held by the Board of Directors of Leonardo/ISAST, Jeffrey N. Babcock was elected Chairman of the Board, and Roger F. Malina was named Chairman Emeritus while continuing to serve as a voting member of the board.

Jeffrey N. Babcock is a composer, producer, and arts executive, currently serving as Executive Director of San Francisco State University’s International Center for the Arts. He has served on the Leonardo/ISAST Board of Directors since 2007.  Babcock co-founded and served as president and CEO of the New World Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. He was formerly the Dean of Fine Arts at Boston University and Executive Director of the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

I am indeed honored to be asked to serve as Chairman of Leonardo/ISAST,” stated Babcock. “I look forward to working to strengthen and broaden the organization's programmatic scope while sustaining and building upon a 40-year foundation and legacy of pioneering publications and initiatives at the intersection of art, science and technology.

Chairman Emeritus Roger F. Malina is an astronomer and space scientist who has served as Chairman of the Board for over 25 years. He is the former director of the Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale CNRS, Marseille, France, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He writes and speaks on the relationship between the arts, sciences and technology.

TURNING THREE

As any experienced parent can tell you, kids make a developmental leap between ages two and three. One minute they’re running wild, refusing to eat dinner, and babbling incoherently; the next minute they’re running wild, refusing to eat dinner, and babbling coherently.

And so it is, we think, with our beloved PressLog, whose third birthday is today. We can hardly believe that for three whole years, the little toddler has been doing its utmost to keep you informed about the comings, goings, and fast times of MIT Press books and authors.

So has the PressLog not only endured, but matured? It’s completely unscientific, but we think there was a big step up in focus for this year’s posts. Case in point: We started off the third year talking about the Olympics and ended on the same topic: Last year it was China's pollution; last month it was that country's internet censorship. As Eliot famously wrote, "In my end is my beginning."

Not one to grow up too quickly, though, the PressLog wanted to have some fun this year, and for us fun means games – games that help explain climate change and fight childhood obesity. We also introduced our podcast series, where our authors take to the microphone and talk about their books with Heron & Crane’s Chris Gondek. For those who prefer visual stimulation, robot designer extraordinaire Maja Mataric took her craft not only to YouTube but to broadcast news as well. And there was movie-related madness, like Vin Diesel starring in Babylon Babies and Tarleton Gillespie providing incisive commentary on the Hollywood writer’s strike.

And we won! Awards, that is – lots and lots and lots of them.

Sure, there were posts on other high-flying topics, like aliens, shoes, sex and, well, sex again. But the PressLog was equally intent on letting readers in on the advanced scholarship we publish that takes on heavy ideas and gives them the heft they deserve – like the nature of inner experience, how human nature affects foreign policy, and why anyone should care about a fifteenth-century architectural manuscript.

If there’s one thing our three-year old creation still has to learn, it’s the virtues of longevity. Our friend Leonardo could probably help with that – the art/science journal has just celebrated 40 years on the cutting edge. If the PressLog is around for that long, it’ll be largely because of the loyalty of our wonderful readers. Thank you all so much for your attention – next year we swear there’ll be cake. Promise.

ASA II - A View From the Booth

As promised, here's the follow-up post from our adventures at the American Sociological Association conference.  We also heard rumors that there were several infants sporting a "Future Sociologist" onesie, but we're still waiting on confirmation on that. 

One of the things I found most interesting were the books that people came to us looking for. Some of the more interesting ones: sports, drugs, and emotions. The books that seemed the most successful/popular books at our booth were those on sustainability, community/urban studies, and internet/communications. We tested out our new computer system for taking orders.  Overall, it worked great, with very few mishaps, and many people were impressed. One gentleman commented that our computer system seemed very MIT, while our books didn't (he was an alumni and seemed to be referring to the breadth of our list and the lack of engineering/physics/technical type books represented). It was the sociology conference, after all. 

We also got several compliments on how beautiful our books are. I also heard one woman comment that she had just finished reading Resisting Global Toxics by David Naguib Pellow and it was her new favorite book. Her companion quickly purchased a copy and added himself to our mailing list.