e-books celebrate their 40th Birthday

I'm hoping that one day I'll be sitting in a Quiz when they ask 'What year was the first e-book published ?'

Unbelievably e-books have now been around since 1971 when Michael Hart (who died recently) typed the American Declaration of Independence into the mainframe computer at the University of Illinois.

Thus was born the first digital library : Project Gutenberg, named after the inventor of the first printing press. Hart's aim was to make books as widely available as possible, and to "break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy"

Project Gutenberg is still going strong, making freely available out of print materials.

Wot no bookshop ?

I was disappointed when Luton's only bookshop (Waterstones) closed recently. The site is still unoccupied.

However Luton is, of course, not alone.

Nearly half of the UK's High Street bookshops have closed since 2005. A total of 580 towns do not have a single bookshop.

Campaigners warned yesterday that the loss of bookshops, coupled with threats to close thousands of libraries as part of council cuts, will lead to "book deserts" across large areas of the country.


Hall, J (2011) Internet and supermarkets kill off 2,000 bookshops, Daily Telegraph
2nd September

British Brands not the only ones to get taken over....

If you are doing the piece of work on British brands which are disappearing spare a thought for Foster's lager...

The company is currently facing a hostile bid from SAB Miller ( formerly South African Brewers ). They make Peroni and Grolsh....

Charter Airlines - Have they a future ?

Students studying the Airline Industry ( in particular Monarch )should be aware that the journal Tourism and Hospitality Research contains some useful information. It is available both in print and electronic formats.

Overall the picture seems glum (as the above title indicates)

Other sources of information (all electronic) include
FAME ( Financial data available to compare Monarch and it's competitors )
Keynote and Marketline Use Airline and Airport reports, but also consider related areas such as trends in Travel & Tourism
Newsbank Particularly useful statements from Monarch's CEO about the company's strategic direction