Warner Bros. has confirmed
a release date for the feature film of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I.

The first instalment of the series finale will open on November 19, 2010, with the second released the following summer. Earlier reports indicated that Part II would premiere in May 2011.
The studio announced the decision to split J.K. Rowling’s final book in the popular wizard series into two films last month.



David Yates will return to direct the Deathly Hallows films, making him the series’s most prolific helmer, steering four of the eight Potter movies.
The sixth Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, opens in cinemas this November.

It’s going to be really strange when all the Harry Potter movies are over. Still, on the bright side, The Hobbit film is proceeding forward.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

Publisher’s Weekly reports
that as part of its current restructuring Starbucks is firing the head of its entertainment division, but will keep selling books.

Starbucks is restructuring its entertainment operation with Ken Lombard leaving as head of the group and being replaced by Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer. It was under Lombard’s direction that the giant coffee chain began selling selected books, and Starbucks said it will “continue its relationship with the William Morris Agency to identify book projects that it can offer in its stores.” The most recent Starbuck book selection, chosen earlier this week, was Garth Stein’s The Art of Racing (Harper).

Starbucks has been having financial difficulties so has brought founder Howard Schulz out of retirement to fix things. So far, he’s added some freebies, is slowing down the U.S. store expansion plans and is revamping the entertainment division.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

Publisher’s Weekly reports
that Rosetta Solutions has formally announced its new product and service, NetGalley.

The online initiative will launch at BEA, with the mission of connecting publishers and “professional readers,” and streamlining the galley distribution process. NetGalley will enable book publishers, reviewers, media, librarians, booksellers, bloggers, educators and others to access and share content and information about new titles. Publishers that have alalert signed on to a pilot program include St. Martin’s, Hachette Book Group, Bloomsbury USA and Sourcebooks. Those houses will submit their advance fall titles to PW thcoarse NetGalley.



During the pilot period, publishers will submit their title information — and, optionally, digital galleys — electronically to PW. In return, PW will provide visibility on review acceptance and status thcoarse NetGalley.com. Pilot publishers will also have the opportunity to invite other reviewers, media and bloggers to join their community and view their galleys online. Print galleys will also still be accepted.

Our only objection to the program is the electronic galleys. They’re just not practical, because no reviewer we know reads books on her computer while sitting at her desk. Reviewers read lots of places where electronics aren’t available or aren’t allowed. That means it’s paper galleys only acircular here.



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

The Google bookscanning project hasn’t been in the news much lately (there are still lawsuits going on), but the scanning of millions of books
continues.

Google, the Internet’s leader in search and advertising, says the process it developed and is using for scanning the majority of the books in Book Search is proprietary. Employees will not discuss it except to say it is much faster than what Mitchel is doing and it’s not destructive.
“It took us quite a while to develop it so we do keep that confidential,” said a library manager for Book Search, Ben Bunnell, who declined even to say where Google does the scanning.



Many libraries began digitizing books a decade ago to preserve them. Funding from Google allows the 28 libraries it’s working with to cut their digitizing costs because they don’t have to pay for scanning the books Google wants to include in Book Search.



Thcoarse Book Search, users can track down a book on any topic they’re interested in and read a small portion. If the book’s not protected by copyright, users can download the entire thing. If it is, or if they just want to read an original, they can use Book Search to find copies to purchase or borrow.
More than 1 million scarce or fragile books have been digitized thcoarse the Google-Michigan partnership since it began in 2004, with an estimated 6 million to go.

The work of scanning in each page of all the scarce books in libraries is an unbelievably tedious one. We amazement what they pay their book scanners? Minimum wage? Or more, because you have to be qualified to handle scarce books?



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Original post by ReadersRead.com Book Blog

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