Teaching resource books

If you have ever wondered how publishers plan, publish and adapt teaching resource books, you may find this talk by Mark Bloch (who used to be a teacher himself) from Pearson interesting.  The 30(ish) minute talk discusses how Pearson's ActiveTeach evolved from photocopyable, spiral-bound books, to CD-Roms and onwards to interactive whiteboards etc.

Diversity in children's books

If you are interested in children's books, you should make time to listen to this thought-provoking presentation on how ethnic minorities are poorly served by children's publishers, authors, booksellers and librarians.  This talk is part of a research seminar series given to publishing students on following masters courses at Oxford Brookes University.

It is about 45 minutes but the questions Laura Atkins raises will stay with you a lot longer.  She quotes a statistic that says in the UK 1 in 5 school children will be from a minority background, but the publishing industry overlooks their needs and interests.