Boosts in Technology Help Desktop Publishers : A reference guide has just been released, describing for entrepreneurs all aspects of putting out books.

Self-publishing was considered a vain indulgence some years ago. Too often, most self-published books had amateur stamped all over them: They were obviously computer generated, badly printed and bound by authors who were either cash poor or ignorant about the publishing process. No distributor would handle them, no book section would review them.

On rare occasions, a friendly neighborhood bookstore might take a few copies by a local writer on consignment. The remaining copies were stacked and stored in spare rooms, garages, attics, basements.

The process was usually a disaster that damaged the author emotionally and financially. However, book publishing technology has taken a huge leap and now the entrepreneur/self-publisher has access to the most sophisticated tools of the trade. New publishing houses and individual authors are successfully creating professional-looking books, which are accepted by distributors, reviewers and bookstores.

Summa Books of Thousand Oaks has just released “The Complete Dictionary of Graphic Arts and Desktop Publishing Terminology” by Harvey R. Levenson, head of the department of Graphic Communication at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. According to publisher Tom Kinsey, the reference guide describes all aspects of the new technologies in electronic and desktop publishing, graphic arts, printing, computers, multimedia and digital photography, scanning and typesetting, and it includes detailed information on industry associations. The guide, at $19.95, is available in bookstores and from the publisher at 560 N. Moorpark Road, Suite 134, Thousand Oaks, 91360. Or call 524-2944.

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Tim O’Brien, author of the intriguing mystery “In the Lake of the Woods” will be interviewed on radio by Bookworm host Michael Silverblatt at 2 p.m. Monday. The show is heard in Ventura at KCRU 89.1 FM; in Santa Paula, Moorpark and Fillmore at 102.3 FM and in Ojai at 102.1 FM.

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Linda Shaw is the volunteer who will read to children at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Table of Contents, 208 E. Ojai Ave., Ojai.

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Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library sponsor an ongoing Friendly Book Discussion event. Diana Meisler will lead the group in discussing Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”’ at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Goebel Senior Center adjacent to the Thousand Oaks Library, 1401 E. Janss Road. For additional information call Madeline Hess at (818) 706-1830.

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Before you start worrying about the strange new weather patterns foretelling worldwide upheavals, consider this item as reported in the Ventura County and Coast Almanac. On Feb. 1, 1862, a torrent of water rushed through San Buenaventura, washing out the streets to a depth of 15 feet.