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Today in books and publishing: A possible Ray Bradbury museum; Google settles their French book-scanning dispute; Oprah's Book Club 2.0 may not have the same touch; the future of books on demand.
Is there a Ray Bradbury museum in the works? According to Sam Weller, author of two books on Bradbury, the writer "had badly wanted a personal museum established in the city where he spent his early years." That's Waukegan, Illinois, which currently has two festivals, a library conference room, and a park named after the man. A museum for Bradbury has actually been in the works, or at least, a visitors center with a portion dedicated to him: "Waukegan Main Street, a nonprofit economic development group that is working to restore the city’s downtown, plans to turn the long-closed Carnegie Library — the brick and limestone building where Bradbury’s childhood imagination got much of its fuel — into a visitors center that would include a section dedicated to the author." This restoration would cost several million dollars, and the group is trying to raise money for the project. As for a museum, Weller "said he would be willing to raise money for it, hitting up wealthy authors and Hollywood filmmakers who have cited Bradbury’s influence on their own work." [Chicago Tribune]
Google vs. France. Facing legal action over scanning copyright-protected books without permission, Google has settled a legal dispute with French groups The Syndicat National de l’Edition and the SGDL Society of Authors. Financial terms have not been disclosed. "Google plans to sell some of the scanned copyrighted works as electronic books and will share the proceeds with publishers under individual deals where the 'majority of the revenue comes to the publisher,' said Philippe Colombet, Google Books’ strategic partner development manager in France." [Bloomberg]