Catch Up

I took an unintentional sabbatical from the blog, mostly due to real life events that kept me busy or away from a computer. First, my mom and brother came and brought me kitchen chairs, thus making it possible to eat like a real person and not a frat boy. Then my friend Lucas came to visit, and we spent lots of time eating and catching up. Finally, I went to Michigan for the wedding of two dear friends. It was so much fun and so full of laughs and reunions that I didn't check my email for two. whole. days. Insanity.

It seems more people than I thought read this blog, because I've gotten an amazing number of real, paper based, awesome letters in the last week. I'm responding to each one, as promised. Thank you to all of those who wrote and all of those who read this blog; I had no idea people actually cared what I thought. Well, maybe you don't, but it is nice of you to check in and read it anyways.

On to a more relevant idea: publication. I had an interesting conversation with a friend's boyfriend at the wedding about publication and what that means. He teaches debate and one of the categories requires that the piece being performed be a "published" piece. As of right now, that has been defined as "between covers." This presents an interesting debate, as many formerly print journals, magazines and newspapers are moving to a web-only publishing format. Is anyone with a blog a "published author?" (Yikes, that means me. Any forensics kids who want to perform my pieces--good luck placing! HA!) How do you deal with vanity publications?

These are questions we deal with in library land when selecting materials. There are so many titles that come out it is impossible to know everything about each one, so we rely heavily on reviews in a few trade journals and respected sources. These publications, however, review titles published almost solely by large publishing houses. Authors that are self-published (ie, use a vanity printer) or are signed to a smaller house often are not reviewed and so libraries never hear of them, much less buy them. For libraries that have collection development policies requiring reviews for purchase decisions, this means these titles will likely never be collected.

This is a big, thorny issue that libraries and library thinkers have been dealing with for a long time, but I want to get some non-librarian perspective. So, dear readers, what is your definition of a published work?

I know you are out there now, so you have to comment. :)