The list of authors who opted out of the Google Books Settlement has been published, as Annex C of this court document. The document is non-searchable and alphabetised by first name. It also seems to treat estates and companies in varying ways. Still, it's all there for a keen reader.

Although I haven't read the whole list carefully, even picking a few randomly out of the nearly 7000 names shows that a striking range of authors and their heirs have decided they would rather they, not Google, should control the online presentation of their work. Simply by turning a few pages, I spotted:

Thomas Pynchon, Theodore Dalrymple, Susie Orbach, Bret Easton Ellis, Madeleine Bunting, Ben Schott, Mark Helprin, Louis de Bernieres, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Lauren Child, the Rogers and Hammerstein companies, the estate of Arthur Hailey …..

The tireless Gill Spraggs comments:

“Estates are particularly strange: some have been opted out under the name of the deceased author, (eg Robert Graves), a few as 'the estate of x', some under the names of particular companies that control them, and others, I think, under the names of the heirs: thus, I imagine Stephen James Joyce has opted out both as the heir to the Joyce estate and as an author in his own right. Interestingly, John Prescott appears on the list. The only author of that name whom I can trace is the politician (Prezza: My Story: Pulling No Punches).”

To join the mailing list for updates from her, go to the Authors' Rights website.

The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris was favourably reviewed in the New York Times. I haven't read it but it sounds a good companion to Joel Mokyr's marvellous history of the part ideas played in Britain's Industrial Revolution, The Enlightened Economy. (I reviewed it here recently.) Besides, I'm a sucker for books with a cover using one of Joseph Wright of Derby's paintings.

Interested in the use of public value as a process for getting better outcomes in public services? My book Public Value in Practice: restoring the ethos of public service (written with Chris Woolard, now at Ofcom) has been published by the BBC Trust. It's an every-day tool for the Trust, so I hope others working to improve public services will find this interesting.

We look at the theoretical underpinnings of the concept of public value, from political science and economics and describe some other examples of its use, as well as explaining in some detail how we've implemented public value in BBC Trust decisions. The decision-making is inevitably judgmental but the framework ensures that relevant evidence is brought to bear on them, making for accountability and transparency without the rigidity which undermines decisions based on target-setting or on output measures. (Some of the relevant evidence in our case comes from audience research – that's now all gathered together on the Trust website.)

Anyway, I know some other organisations are now looking at using the public value framework. I'd be very interested in hearing of other experiences or feedback on this.