While moseying around Book Expo in New York on Friday, I came across a wondrous sign on the OUP USA stand. I managed to persuade a passing Japanese with a camera to snap the sign and gave him my email address to send me the photo. It hasn't arrived, but fortunately the OUP website has the same phrase in its description of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary:

The world's most comprehensive, thorough, and up-to-date unabridged dictionary, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is an essential resource for every library.

I encouraged the sales guy on the stand to look up the word 'unabridged in the Shorter' and of course it means unshortened.... But it's still a great dictionary.

Here's a worrying statistic from one of our international sales people. A campus bookstore manager showed him a breakdown of the shop's sales in the first three months of 2007 (the peak college season in that country) and 45% of revenue came from selling mobile airtime to students (and at very low margins).

As I've just spent thirty hours travelling from New York to Chennai (lesson - avoid Emirates like the plague) I'm a little behind with the news but I think this Irish initiative to find new non-fiction writers deserves a mention. The biggest problem was for the editor having to sift through more than 2000 submissions and now there's talk of making it an annual event.

The other bit of news I've only just tripped over is the decision by Reed-Elsevier to sell off its defence exhibition business because of pressure from various pacifist organisations and individuals. I'd be very interested in people's views on this. The danger is a form of creeping censorship where it is very difficult to draw the line between moral and non-moral activities when the activity is entirely legal. I suppose (and hope) that Reed-Elsevier's decision was entirely pragmatic - by selling they can make more money than by not selling. At least that is consistent with their philosophy. Any other reason would be a big worry for shareholders.