University Presses and Ebooks: A New Horizon by Sue Polanka, Wright State University, Online (Feb)
Online Magazine has added Ebook Buzz as a new column about ebooks in libraries and scholarly publishing - and we hope it will be free to view.
eBooks have arrived at universities - and they will soon be well integrated into online scholarly research.
"No fewer than four different nonprofit entities—Project MUSE, JSTOR, Cambridge University Press, and the Oxford-sponsored University Press Scholarship Online—now offer online distribution options to university presses."
Review of 2011 and Trends Watch 2012 , Paula Hane, Newsbreaks (Jan 5)
Paula Hane asks what do you remember from 2011?
Before reviewing her answers, let me throw in my one recollection about 2011 regarding web search - Google regressed as a search engine, removing valued search features - especially the timeline - while it rejigged to fit in social search. On a positive note, LinkedIn is becoming a valued current awareness and networking tool, and Blekko holds more promise as an alternative search engine.
For Hane - and many others - it was the year of the ebook. Analyst Michael Wolf forecast that the US ebook marketplace would surpass $5 billion by 2016, up from $2 billion in 2011. But it hasn't been all peace and harmony - "Unfortunately, there was and still is an adversarial atmosphere among libraries, publishers, and aggregators. "
Beyond that there is seismic shift in IT to a new platform - "This new platform will be built on the strength of four foundation technologies: cloud services and cloud enabling technologies; mobile devices, applications, and next-generation broadband networks; big data/analytics; and social technologies."
And on the web - will there be a web? "Forrester Research believes that the world will move away from the web toward the App Internet—powerful local devices (such as an iPad) running programs that transparently link to resources in the cloud".
Onwards.
Amazon's Prime Lending Library Collection Now Viewable Online, Ian Paul, PCWorld (Nov 6)
Amazon Prime members ($79 / year) can run kindle from any device and access 5,300 Kindle books for free.
The Publishers Marketplace Automat
Springer digitizing entire book collection, VIP Livewire (Oct 6)
Google isn't the only one digitizing books. Springer has begun the Springer Book Archive project with the aim to ad 65,000 titles to its ebook collection by the end of 2012.
"The books in Springer’s book archives comprise a total of 17 different imprints, including German economics books by Gabler, the U.S. information technology publisher Apress and the U.S. non-fiction imprint Copernicus. Medical books account for the largest share of the book archives, at over 20 percent."
Books & Media Move to the Clouds; Apple, Amazon, and Walmart Fight for Market Share ,Nancy K. Herther , Newsbreaks (Aug 22)
Apple has music and books in the cloud, Amazon put Kindle in the cloud - and now Walmart has a digital video system. What is the cloud? What does it mean to you and your mobile devices?
The new capabilities have made sales of e-books soar.
"In recent data from the American Association of Publishers, ebook sales in the U.S. have grown 1274% in the past 3 years. “Ebooks have grown from 0.6% of the total Trade market share in 2008 to 6.4% in 2010. While that represents a small amount in the total market for formats, it translates to 1274.1% in publisher net sales revenue year-over-year with total net revenue for 2010 at $878 Million.”"
Of interest: Microsoft is closing its Microsoft Reader.
Google Book Search Adds Contextual Search, Define & Translate, Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Land (May 20)
Buyers of Google eBooks can do more than read now.
"Using the Google eBooks Web Reader, which works in all modern browsers, you can highlight words with your mouse and select from a contextual menu to Define, Translate, Search Book, Search Google and Search Wikipedia. "
New Lending Model for Ebooks in Libraries from Intenet Archive’s OpenLibrary, Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Mar 7)
More information about the In-Library eBook Lending Program from Open Library.
"The 85,000 ebooks in the program include mostly 20th century items, many in-copyright. Many items are ebooks digitized by libraries themselves; this content may not already appear in OpenLibrary’s own collection. Apparently the content digitized by libraries can include rare and fragile items, e.g., family histories of genealogical interest. The new service pools this content to broaden its accessibility."
The way the program works, a library patron seeking to tap into the collection must go to a library’s physical facility where they must have an OpenLibrary account. Only one person in the library can check out an ebook at a time."
Ouch - have to go to the library, limit to only one person using the ebook?
Participating libraries in Toronto: Robarts Library and Gerstein Science - both University of Toronto. University of Alberta has it in 8 of its libraries.
See In-Library eBook Lending Program Launched, Internet Archive blog (Feb 22)
Internet Archive Partners With 150 Libraries to Launch an E-Book Lending Program, Audrey Watters, Read Write Web (Feb 22)
"The Internet Archive, in conjunction with 150 libraries, has rolled out a new 80,000 e-book lending collection today on OpenLibrary.org. This means that library patrons with an OpenLibrary account can check out any of these e-books. "
University of Toronto is one of those libraries, and already I've been able to view "An Historical sketch of the Toronto Young Men's Christian Association." from 1913.
In-browser, pdf, and epub versions are available enabling users to read from any computer and of course an iPad.
The rise of the e-book lending library (and the death of e-book pirating) by John Barber, Globe and Mail (Feb 20)
One would have thought that digital rights management (DRM) systems would have made this sharing impossible, but not so.
There is an online Kindle Lending Club - "which already has 12,000 registered users making as many as 600 swaps every day. What began as a simple desire to share books with other Kindle users quickly became what [Catherine] MacDonald calls “a crowd-sourced virtual library,” one that functions much like the real thing and is quickly being replicated by similar clubs and startups, all of them inspired by the “lending feature” offered first to users of the Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader and then the Kindle. ""
BookSwim's eBook Fling allows sawpping of Amazon and Barnes and Noble ebooks.
Of course, first place to check for loans is the local public library.
"“The increased demand is tremendous, it’s really remarkable,” said Vickery Bowles, director of collections at the Toronto Public Library. E-book lending at the TPL increased 88 per cent in 2009 and 70 per cent in 2010 before going exponential after a Christmas that put millions of new e-readers in the hands of consumers. “E-book lending is still a very small percentage of the whole,” she said, “but that kind of increase in use is obviously very unusual, and a real signal of how things are changing.” "
DRM is at work - it allows the loan but erases the book after 14 days.
The Pitfalls of E-Book Buying: What to Look Out for Before You Purchase By Melissa J. Perenson, PCWorld Feb 10, 2011
The problem of incompatible formats would never happen with a print book.
"The issue of incompatible formats and the difficulty of organizing books that you buy from different e-book sellers are two things that you should consider before committing to a specific e-book platform."
Digital rights management technology is the cause. You'll need different apps (if not a different reader) depending on where you buy the e-book - "the e-books you buy are trapped in an association with a single software reader." Forget the idea of having a single "bookshelf".
My conclusion - only buy throw away e-books - those that have a temporary and passing interest - and be careful not to buy what you can't read easily - and be aware you could be spending a lot of time sorting out software apps. Exactly when will technology save us time?
Book industry starting to embrace digital chapter , Victoria Ahearn, CP via Globe and Mail (Dec 21)
"But industry experts say there's no doubt that 2010 was the year the e-reader went from being a rarely seen novelty item to an omnipresent device."
Press Review: Google's eBookstore (Formerly Google Editions) is Now Live Online, Resourceshelf (Dec 6)
If you have the reader, Google has the ebook at the Google ebookstore. There are 3 million books to choose from including around 2 million in public domain. Find out more from the reviews the Resourceshelf has listed.
Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic, Brooke Donald, AP via San Diego (May 5)
Internet Archive announced that it will be making "1 million books available to the visually impaired, using money from foundations, libraries, corporations and the government"
"The Internet Archive is scanning a variety of books in many languages so they can be read by the software and devices blind people use to convert written pages into speech. The organization has 20 scanning centers in five countries, including one in the Library of Congress".
See More Books for the Visually Impaired, ResearchBuzz (May 7) - has examples and overall description.
Concludes - "Though this Open Library relaunch was put in the context of more books being available for print disabled folks (and I agree that’s very important) I found it also the case that there’s plenty of material here for the non-print disabled. I find the layout of book search easier and friendlier than the regular Internet Archive, though there’s also plenty on the IA that you won’t find here (like the huge collection of ancient yearbooks, for example.) "
Google plans summer launch for digital bookstore, Tom Krazit, Relevant Results (May 4)
"Google Editions will offer digital books for sale through its Web site in late June or July, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal quoting Google's Chris Palma, strategic partner development manager for Google Books. The move will open up a new distribution channel for digital-book publishers and give Amazon and Apple a new competitor in the emerging digital-book market."
Why the Kindle and the iPad may change the way we search, Pandia (Jan 31)
The Pandia guy pits Kindle against iPad, describing the pros and cons of each, and pointing to a future of tablets that will also allow for search.
"What I would like to see, is a search tool that lets me search both the web and the content of the magazines and newspapers I am subscribing to at the same time. I want this tool to be able to search not only the downloaded issues of the Tribune (or the Economist, the New Scientist, Time or whatever it is I am subscribing to), but also the content of the online archives of the same publications."
The Future of the Magazine, Susan Krashinsky, Globe and Mail (Dec 17)
Magazines are suffering from reduced readership, reduced revenues, and generally more competition from the Internet. In response some are trying new digital tricks - such as Esquire's "augmented reality".
"Magazines are hardly leaping out at media buyers these days. The industry has been walloped by falling sales: In the first nine months of 2009, magazine ad pages in the U.S. dropped 27 per cent from the same period last year, and revenues were down 20 per cent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. The Canadian magazine industry fared slightly better, but ad pages still dropped 21 per cent from January to September of this year, according to Nielsen LNA."
The future seems linked to e-readers.
"Last week, five of the largest magazine publishers in the U.S. announced they were joining forces to create a “digital storefront” to make it easier for consumers to buy issues of their magazines for download onto laptop computers, smart phones and e-readers. The venture includes Condé Nast, Meredith Corp., News Corp., Time Inc. and Hearst Corp., which publishes Esquire. As part of the announcement, Time Warner's magazine Sports Illustrated released a video showing what its issue might look like on a full colour e-reader tablet, such as the one that is rumoured to be in the works at Apple. "
Video is a real eye-opener.
100 Useful Links for eBook Lovers, Online Courses (Nov 11)
+ Free sources of ebooks
+ eBook Readers - Kindle is here
+ About eBooks - following blogs
+ Audio Mobile - iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry, Palm or other mobile device.
+ Business and education - textbooks, classics, business books
+ Twitter - eBook news - follow these names
+ Tech eBooks
+ Poetry
+ Kids
+ Miscellaneous - includes Scribd which holds professional articles and resources on a great range of subjects.
ebook search engine Inkmesh, Altsearchengines (Nov 1)
Inkmesh is a meta-search engine for ebooks - free and for a fee.
Use keywords - Inkmesh shows titles in a window. Or browse by category - with facets on price, device, type of media (ebook, audio, newspapers, magazines, Blogs).
Inkmesh searches Amazon, Audible, Barnes and Noble, Project Gutenburg, Sony, Internet Archive and more
Webcast: Cory Doctorow Interviewed about Copyright and Libraries at Internet Librarian International, ResourceShelf (
Long entry about Cory Doctorow's thoughts on copyright, libraries, and publishers - keeping in mind his preference for public domain. Lots on ebooks.
New Archive Book Reader from Open Content Alliance Blog (June 9)
Many new features at The Internet Archive for reading ebooks. Try it on Libraries of the Future (1965) http://www.opencontentalliance.org/2009/06/09/new-archive-book-reader/
Resource of the Week: Roundup of Recent Posts About eBooks…and Some Kindle Stuff by Shirl Kennedy and Gary Price, ResourceShelf (July 6)
This round up was timed with the Fourth Annual World eBook Fair. Move quickly to take advantage of free downloads up to August 4.
Google Plans to Enter the E-book Business, by John Ribeiro, IDG News Service via PCWorld (Jun 1)
Google setting up to compete with Amazon on ebooks.
"Google plans by the end of the year to give publishers a way to sell online digital versions of their books through a partner program that now allows publishers to submit books for company's search engine results, according to a statement issued Monday.
The move will put the Internet company in direct competition with Amazon.com. It's also part of a Google strategy to promote an open platform for reading and accessing books."
Turning a New Page in Ebooks by Marji McClure, Information Today (march 2009)
Interest in ebooks has been rekindled thanks to Amazon's Kindle. And this time it might stick.
"Over the years, some publishers—especially those in the STM and IT sectors—have had success with ebook programs geared toward a scientific audience that values the searchability of electronic books. But that same success has eluded publishers who target both professional audiences and consumers. This customer base, at least until now, has seemed rather hesitant to read a favorite novel or even a business book on an electronic device."
Article refers to several publishers and their ebook activity.
Google Book Search Expanding Outlets in Deal With Sony by Barbara Quint, Newsbreaks (Mar 30)
Google and Sony Electronics' consumer operations have an agreement "by which 500,000 of the estimated 1.5 million public domain books now available for download directly at Google Book Search (books.google.com) will be formatted for delivery to two models of Sony's ebook Reader devices (www.sonystyle.com/reader)."
"As for Google's motivation, once again, virtue triumphs. The nonexclusive arrangement with Sony simply represents more ways to assist people in reaching the books-and still for free, according to a Google representative. Actually, Google initiated its own mobile access for the iPhone or its own Android phone earlier this year (http://books.google.com/m), one that opened up all 1.5 million public domain books to U.S. users and more than half a million for outside the U.S."
Sudden onslaught of articles about Kindle and reading ebooks on the iPhone.
Come on, Kindle, light my fire by Margaret Wente, Globe and Mail (Mar 5)
Margaret Wente sees a bright future for the Kindle - "The Kindle (or something very like it) could be to home libraries what the iPod was to people's music collections. It will make hard copies largely obsolete. It will expand the market for reading (as the iPod has for music) but dramatically shrink the market for books on paper."
Amazon Kindle 2 - Melissa J. Perenson,, PCWorld (Mar 5)
"The second-generation Kindle offers a significantly slimmer design and improved image quality--but little else--over its predecessor."
Why Kindle for iPhone Won't Hurt Kindle Sales by Jeff Bertolucci, PC World (Mar 5)
"Reading e-books on the iPhone's 3.5-inch display isn't a lot of fun. In fact, it's ergonomic hell. The screen is simply too small"
Kindle is not the best iPhone e-reader by Don Reisinger, Webware (Mar 6)
There are other ways to read Kindle 2.0. There is a Kindle for iPhone app, and also ereader and Stanza - described in this article. But you don't need any additional reader at all - just use the iPhone.
"The App Store has a relatively limited number of books for sale as apps. Since you don't need an additional e-book reader to read through them (the books have reader software built-in), it's an affordable way to get into the e-book market."
There are other readers for reading e-books besides Kindle.
well worth checking out:
Indigo launches e-book service, James Adams, Globe and Mail (Feb 24)
Indigo is launching Shortcovers as an e-book service for downloads of popular titles and magazine content to wireless smart phone or computer similar to the iTunes model.
"For its launch, Shortcovers is offering “a humongous” 50,000 book titles for sale, priced from $4.99 to $19.99, as well as individual chapters of books for 99 cents each. In addition, an estimated 200,000 sample chapters will be available free for potential users."
There is a Canadian version - www.shortcovers.ca; and a US - www.shortcovers.com.
Where have we heard this before?
"Users looking for Canadian titles on Shortcovers won't find much initially. Because of Shortcover's intent to break into the U.S. market, Serbinis has been dealing mostly with large multinational companies such as Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Harlequin to secure licences for titles to which these publishers have either North American or worldwide electronic publishing rights."
Although more Canadian content is said to be coming.
What’s in a (Domain) Name? A New “Gutenberg” Site Launches as an Ebook Resource by Paula J. Hane, Newsbreaks (Feb 19)
Oh dear - domain confusion (or the power of a word) - a new Gutenberg for ebooks, but not the Gutenberg we know.
"A new ebook resource has launched with a familiar sounding name—Gutenberg.com (www.gutenberg.com) . It bills itself as "a central resource for ebook lovers, ebook newbies, and the ebook industry." Note the .com domain—it is important. The site is not linked in any way to the well-known Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org or to gutenberg.net, gutenberg.cc, or gutenberg.us (the Project Gutenberg Consortia Center). If you thought keeping track of the Project Gutenberg sites and relationships was complex before, there’s definitely a new wrinkle. If you type that URL incorrectly using the .com, instead of finding free ebooks to download, you’ll end up at the new informational site run by marketing consultant and executive producer Chris Andrews, who made his name in the CD-ROM and streaming media businesses."
It has quite the history - read on.
A new chapter for digital books by Matt Hartley, Globe and Mail (Feb 10)
Lots of activity - Amazon's Kindle, Google's mobile book search, Indigo's new service, Shortcovers (to start in February) -- has the ebook really arrived or is this just a new flurry of activity that will die back?
"Wholesale revenue from digital book sales in the United States has shot up 183 per cent over the past two years, from $4.9-million (U.S.) in the third quarter of 2006 to $13.9-million in the third quarter of 2008, according to data from the International Digital Publishing Forum. Analysts, however, suggest the retail market for e-books could be worth as much as $100-million."
Come to the World eBook Fair! by Paula J. Hane, Newsbreaks (July 7, 2008)
Paula Hane bring us an update on the state of ebooks. Theme to this year's World eBook Fair is "Own Your Own Library and it promises 1 million-plus books free for the taking."
Specifically mentions free access to the World Public Library during July. It has over 500,000 pdf ebooks and documents. Has audio MP3 versions too.
Free Books On the Internet, Courtesy Freakonomics ResearchBuzz (Feb 19)
Tara Calishain gives some tips on how to find free e-book downloads from universities.
"If you’d like to explore how the world of the university press world is gettin’ free, try this search on Google or Yahoo along with your favorite keywords: “university press” free download site:edu . "
More tips in the posting.
The Freaknomics posting is about HarperCollins and Yale, but readers left many comments with more links.
Canadians are playing key role in `Books 2.0' by Michael Geist, Toronto Star (Feb 25)
Books 2.0 refers to new models for book publishing that involve collaborative tools on the Web. Michael Geist presents the example of Montreal-based Wikitravel where travellers post comments about places and their travel experiences.
"In less than five years, the site has accumulated more than 30,000 online travel guides in 18 languages, with more than 10,000 editorial contributions each week. The content is freely available under a Creative Commons licence that allows the public to use, copy or edit the guides."
Out of this grew Wikitravel Press - books based on the online content but available for a price in print; updated monthly with new contributions and edits; and uses "print-on-demand technology supplied by Lulu.com".
LibriVox (librivox.org) is another example, also in Montreal - an audio-book project - "LibriVox volunteers create voice recordings of chapters of books that are in the public domain. The resulting audio files are posted back on to the Internet for free." Now has 1,200 books in audio.
Publishers warm up to 'Net, sell chapters, give away books Nate Anderson, Arstechnica (Feb 11)
Two book publishers will be making more 'print' available online: Random House will sell selected chunks, and HarperCollins will make some titles free to read.
HarperCollins will give free online access to some popular books but these must be read at the site and on the screen - not copied, printed, downloaded or in any way carried away. There are a few books featured on the Browse Inside page.
Random House will sell chapters or chunks that can be downloaded and controlled through Adobe Digital Editions for DRM. At present there seems to be just the one title - Made to Stick. Random House offers several ways to preview a book but you must look at the book first: excerpt, browse and search through a viewer, and now the "buy chapter" option.
Reading habits are changing - more sampling, more online, wider acceptance of the iTunes meme - the experiments by book publishers, as Anderson concludes, are important.
eod eBooks - eBooks on Demand - is a European project to make millions of books in European libraries available electronically on demand.
From About eod: "Users will be able to order eBooks via the common library catalogues; the libraries will then digitise the requested item and send it to the user via the EOD service network. The books digitised in this way will simultaneously be incorporated into the digital libraries of the participating libraries and thus be accessible on the Internet."
Currently the project includes 13 libraries from 8 European countries. The UK and France are not on the list of participating countries: Austria and Germany are.
Universal access to books KMWorld (Dec 10)
"The Million Book Project, an international undertaking led by Carnegie Mellon University, has reached the milestone of having digitized 1.5 million books. The project seeks to digitize the published works of humankind so they are available electronically, free of charge. The ultimate goal is to make all published works available to anyone at any time and in any language."
Access these through The Universal Digital Library
Titles date back to the 1500s (though only a few). Over 362,000 of the books are in English. Other languages are Chinese, Arabic, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, Persian, Marathi, Urdu.
World Public Library -"The World Public Library Consortia is the world’s largest eBook provider. Founded in 1996, the World Electronic Book Library Consortia is a global coordinated effort to preserve and disseminate classic works of literature, serials, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in a number of languages and countries around the world."
The collection has more than 500,000+ PDF eBooks and eDocuments in 125 collections. "21st Century, Action Adventure, Biography, Classics, Drama, Education, Elizabethans, Esoteric, Fiction, Folklore, Children's, Gothic Tales, History, Liberal Arts, Mystery, Non Fiction, Poetry, Political Science, Pulp Fiction, Religion, Renaissance Thinkers, Science, Science Fiction, Western, Europa, Eastern, Professional."
Individual annual membership is $8.95 US / year.
There is also a free search of 75,000 web eBooks at http://worldlibrary.net/Public.htm
Amazon Works to Kindle Interest in Its New Digital Reader by Paula J. Hane, Newsbreaks (Nov 26)
Much print and many bytes have been expended discussing the new digital device from Amazon for reading Amazon's ebooks. Paula Hane describes Kindle and examines what it can do (or is allowed to do).
Are books passé? Web giants envision the next chapter by Brad Stone, International Herald Tribune (Sep 6)
Two new developments that represent two more kicks at the can to promote acceptance of ebooks.
Amazon will launch Kindle, an e-book reader that will connect wirelessly to an e-book store at Amazon. The innovation here is that the user will be able to download books and periodicals directly from Amazon, and browse the Web, without connecting to a computer.
Google will allow full online (for-fee) access to digital copies of books in partnership with publishers.
Search for e-books by title, subject or author at The Online Books Page. There are 25,000 free books - well organized.
"The Online Books Page was founded, and is edited, by John Mark Ockerbloom, He is a digital library planner and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. He is solely responsible for the content of the site."
Drink Recipes - askSam shows off its WebPublisher technology with this ebook of over 11,000 mixed drink and cocktail recipes. View this online or download to your computer and view it through some askSam free software.
Podcast: Christine Scheidegger on the Value of eBooks Versus Print, Econtent (Aug 17)
"EContent magazine editor Michelle Manafy discusses the value of eBooks versus print with Christine Scheidegger, who led the Elsevier team which commissioned an independent study evaluating the value of eBooks relative to print books."
Publishers allow book browsing on the Web, Reuters via Yahoo News (Feb 27)
Random House and HarperCollins will be letting people browse books online and connect to entries on personal pages. Random House will have 5,000 titles viewablt through Insight and is "also introducing a tool allowing users to add material from titles to personal pages on social networks such as MySpace or to a retailer's Web site." Harper Collins will also allow embedding of pages in networking sites.
Looks like these two publishers have seen the possibilities of viral marketing through the social networks.
BookSearch X3 - a meta search engine that claims to search inside books from Amazon (A9.com), Google.com and MSN Live Search - at the same time
Reviewed in Search Three Book Searches at Once, Researchbuzz (Jan 20)
Google Download: No iTunes for Books by Catherine Holahan, Business Week Online (Jan 23)
"The search leader faces big hurdles as it pursues an online e-book service; chief among them, consumers don't want to curl up with a laptop."
"Given that the digital book industry has only existed for several years, it is understandable that it would make up a small percentage of the overall market. However, the book industry is not showing the same rate of digital sales growth as other industries making the transition from physical to digital copies."
The Book as Place: The “Networked Book” Becomes the New “In” Destination by Paula Berinstein, Searcher (Dec 2006)
"We begin with a definition: “A networked book is social,” explains Vershbow. “It incorporates feedback mechanisms and discussion platforms in its overall structure.” Sounds like a blog. He continues, “It has the possibility of being distributed in its composition rather than being a discrete media object, which is the way we’re used to thinking about books or really any kind of media.” In other words, it’s collaborative:"
Google Allowing Some Books for Offline Printing BUT Don’t Forget About Other Sources (Free), ResourceShelf (Aug 30) -- reaction to Google Book Search offering downloads - lists many other sources for finding eBooks.
New program allows on-line book browsing, AP via Globe and Mail (AUg 3)
"HarperCollins, which announced last year that it was digitizing its vast catalogue, has set up a Browse Inside program that will allow readers worldwide to view on-line excerpts from books by Michael Crichton, Isabel Allende and several other writers."
E-Books: Why They Matter for Distance Education—and How They Could Get Much Better by David Rothman, Innovate (Aug/Sep 2006)
"In his assessment of the current state of e-book technology, David Rothman illustrates the value of e-books for educators, accounts for why the technology has not been more widely embraced, and discusses new developments that suggest a better future for e-books. "
Springer Launches eBook Program, EContent (June 30)
"Springer Science+Business Media, a science, technology and medical book publisher, is launching a new eBook initiative that will allow students and researchers electronic access to more than 10,000 books."
Browse the journals and titles at SpringerLink.
Groups to give free access to on-line books, Globe and Mail (June 3)
"Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library plan to make "a third of a million" e-books available free for a month at the first nameWorld eBook Fair. Downloads will be available at the fair's website from July 4, the 35th anniversary of Project Gutenberg's founding, through Aug. 4.
The majority of the books will be contributed by the World eBook Library. It otherwise charges $8.95 a year for access to its database of more than 250,000 e-books, documents and articles."
Looking for something to read on your iPod? Manybooks.net has free downloads for out-of-copyright books in several categories and languages. There are also recommendations and reviews. These will be older books - the classics. For example, the mystery category has several books by Arthur Conan Doyle and some by E. Phillips Oppenheim.
Google to broker online book sales. CNet (Mar 13)
"Still embroiled in controversy over its plans to digitize several of the world's largest library collections, Google is inviting U.S. and U.K. publishers to sell online access to their copyright texts through its book search site."
Ad-Supported Free Books Arrive, by Paula Berinstein, Newsbreaks (Feb 15) -- HarperCollins Publishers has published "Go It Alone! The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own", a busineess book by Bruce Judson, on the Web - free to view and supported by advertisements. Book is at the author's site http://www.brucejudson.com/. It's a page turner and there are ads on every page. Unclear if this experiment will pay off.
Free Resources: The Baldwin Online Children's Literature project, MMISchools.com (Dec) - Baldwin Online Children's Literature Project has English literature for children from the period 1880 - 1920. Article says,"you'll be charmed". REviewed in Internet Scout.
More Online Books Resources by Gary Price, SearchDay (Dec 5) - presents NetLibrary with 100,000 titles available through some public libraries. Also, for those looking for free public domain, the Online Books Page.
Note: Toronto Public Library offers patrons 3,000 ebook titles from NetLibrary. See TPL Unique Collections.
Amazon Jungle: Book Purchasing Models Struggle in the Digital Objects Era by John Blossom, Shore (Nov 8) - Amazon's announcement to sell digital parts of books raises questions for Blossom about book publishing and electronic distribution. "As new ways of developing, collecting and monetizing content are accelerating in popularity, the book industry needs to consider what it is that they can do best in this new publishing environment."
Busy Day for Digital Books: News from Amazon and Google Gary Price, SEW Blog (Nov 4) - lists many services for searching in-copyright books and some for books in the public domain - including accouncements from Google and MSN.
Ready for reading books in facsimile? Internet Archive continues its good work to make public domain books easily available with OpenLibrary.org.
There are several titles ready for viewing and downloading (if you wish). This is part of the Internet Archive's digitazation project with the Open Alliance.
Have a look; read a book.
Libraries offering audiobook downloads AP (Aug 26) - More public libraries in the US are offering e-books.
"Vendors such as OverDrive Inc. and OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc.'s NetLibrary have licensing deals with publishers and provide digital books using Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Audio format, which includes copyright protections designed to help audiobooks stand apart from the often lawless world of song swapping."
"Free Public Domain and Copyrighted e-Books Online" By Sam Vaknin in Freepint (Jul 13) - a guide to link collections of e-books on the web. Also mentiones Valnin's Yahoo Group where he posts articles about e-books - though you wouldn't know it from the name - linknfactoid
In Search Of: The Best Online Reading Experience -- Exploring the future of on-screen type, including 8 things you can do to improve readability and a preview of 6 new fonts. -- By Sara Quinn, Poynter Online (Mar 4)
Of interest: "Verdana, a sans serif, Georgia, a serif, and Trebuchet (which you are probably reading on Poynter Online right now) have become standards for readability on the Web."
The Future of the Digital Library: An Interview with Tom Peters by James Morrison and Tom Peters, Innovate - Journal of Online Education from Nova Southeastern University (Feb 2005) [subscription required]
About LibraryCity, a project to create a free online library of thousands of e-books in easy-to-read formats as well as an online community of readers.
Tom Peters, consultant to the project, states -- "Our goal is to construct a worldwide digital library of both public-domain and copyright-protected e-books. LibraryCity will focus in particular on the "last mile" issues related to helping individuals and groups access the content in extremely flexible, usable, interactive ways. When people use LibraryCity, we want them to feel that they are part of an online community, not just individuals in cyberspace accessing a digitized text. "
Comments on funding issues, technology options, stakeholders.
E-Books: Challenges and Opportunities John Cox, National University of Ireland, Galway Ireland, D-Lib Magazine (Oct 2004)
"Abstract: E-books are commonly perceived as offering great potential for learner support but also as struggling to compete with print due to poor on-screen presentation, restrictive licencing and limited range of titles offered. The experience of a group of Irish university libraries shows that, with the right combination of product and subjects, e-books can thrive among students and faculty, while librarians can create more dynamic, relevant and flexible collections than for print. Subscription management is demanding for libraries, however, and licencing issues remain highly problematic, representing a formidable obstacle to full exploitation. "
5 years ago: E-books make their appearance - And then their disappearance. Silicon. (September 15 2004) Story of UK publisher, Dorling Kindersley 1999 to 2004. E-book is not doing well.
Feature Creep: 500 Books In Your Gadget Bag Gizmodo (July 28) - Looks at what it will take to eBooks accepted.
Livewire: Comparison sites hook Web shoppers by Lisa Baertlein. Reuters (May 26) "Last month, 46.6 million Internet users -- or almost one-third of the total U.S. Web audience -- visited a comparison-shopping site, according to Nielsen//NetRatings (NTRT) ." Market leaders are shopping.com, bizrate.com, and nextag.com, but Yahoo Shopping and Google's Froogle are active too.
The Web for Book Lovers Pandia Post (April 30 2004) - finding good free books online. Also links to an article about searching inside books at Amazon.
Books24x7 Launches ExecSummaries to Bring Summaries of Top-Selling Business Books to Enterprise Users PR Newswire via CBS Marketwatch (April 27) Readers Digest for busy business people - just read the summary. "The ExecSummaries collection is fully searchable, allowing users to search across the collection for books by topic, author, or keywords. Individual summaries, each typically about 5,000 words, can also be searched to quickly pinpoint specific information, such as a specific quote or fact. In addition to viewing summaries online, subscribers can also choose to download summaries in PDF or MP3 file format to laptops or to handheld and playback devices for later use."
Adobe opens e-book store by David Becker. CNet via Globe and Mail (Dec 18) -- "The Adobe Digital Media Store offers books from major publishers such as HarperCollins Publishers, Simon & Schuster and Random House, plus links to electronic versions of publications such as Popular Science and The New York Times. All are published in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), the company's widespread standard for the electronic presentation and exchange of documents." But who will buy?
Cover Story: The Google book by Sharon Nelson. New Straits Times -- Dorling Kindersley (DK) has teamed up with Google to produce book and web site e.encyclopedia -- www.dke-encyc.com. Book has broad categories with stories, web site adds pictures, sound and more guided access to the web.
The web site seems to be open to all (there is no registration required). However, content is limited to examples of recommended links DK provides.
Older books available on Web By Fred Reed Washington Times (Nov 6) Project Gutenberg might have that older book when the local book store doesn't. Reed recommends that you read these e-books with a REB1100 electronic-book reader from RCA.
E-Book Scenarios Updated By Mick O'Leary, Online (October 2003)
Identifies four trends in e-books: they are used not read, preferred as an aggregation rather than individual books, are bought by institutional customers, and are subscription priced.
"To summarize, e-books are finally beginning to act like other forms of proprietary online content. They are available in large comprehensive collections that support powerful reference applications; institutions provide access to for most users; subscription pricing is the rule. I've referred to e-books as the "last mile"—the last major form of publication to become widely available online. We've long had journals, magazines, newspapers, broadcasts, etc., etc.—it's about time we're getting books. "
'E' in e-books doesn't mean everyone by Jack Kapica. Globe and Mail Technology (Sep 15, 2003) - Sales of e-books never lived up to hype. People proposed many reasons - copyright, computer display, accessibility being a few. Barnes and Nobles discontinued selling e-books but Amazon and Microsoft are sticking with it.
Of interest -- "My own belief is that reading on screen is too far removed from reading printed book to succeed in more than a niche market. The reader gadgets are too expensive (especially the Tablet PCs), or too heavy, or too expensively damaged if they slip into the bathwater. Also, a recent study by printer-maker Lexmark showed that office workers print out almost every official document they receive, suggesting a reverence to paper that goes beyond differences in age."
I must agree. I'd rather pay for a print copy of the Globe and Mail Weekend than read it at a fraction of the cost on my computer. E-books are good for reference where one might read just a chunk to answer a question or print out a longer section.
Barnes & Noble shelves e-books By Evan Hansen CNET News.com (Sep 9) B&N is no longer selling e-books. It had had deals with Microsoft and Adobe to sell in those formats.