Whilst there is no diminution in the debate about public library maladministration in the UK it is always encouraging to see some parts of the library business addressing the challenges of the future with determination and optimism. Against the Grain is a journal which 'links publishers, vendors and librarians' and consistently adds transparency and understanding to what can be fraught relationships. Just check out their latest contents list for a flavour. They also organise the successful Charleston Conferences and run a newsletter which has just landed on my desk, The Charleston Report. A regular feature is a column called By the Numbers and I hope they don't mind my lifting a few statistics from it:

50% of web visitors don't scroll down to view the portion of a web page which is not visible on their monitor screen.

45% of people use Google for search, 28% Yahoo, 12% MSN and 6% ask.com. (What I find strange is that Google is not higher).

1.5 million people have joined the online social network Second Life already.

136 million people have registered with Skype.

And after all these wonderful numbers I was shocked to find a truly depressing number. One of our books which was identified as in the top ten best books of the year by the New York Times has managed to sell fewer than 1500 copies in the UK - an indication of the problems of publishing high-quality non-fiction successfully in a UK high street market dominated by celebrity biographies. Perhaps the fog-induced chaos at Heathrow Airport may stimulate book sales.

But publishers must remain optimistic and today is the birthday of the 32nd Nature branded journal, Nature Photonics. Its editorial team is spread between Tokyo, San Francisco and London and already it is attracting the very best research papers in what is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific endeavour. Fingers, toes and optical fibres are all crossed.