In the well-attended “Do I Own These Ebooks or Not?” session, Kansas State Librarian Jo Budler spoke to the ALA Washington Office’s Carrie Russell about her experiences when the Kansas Digital Library Consortium’s ebook contract was up for renewal, and the vendor proposed a 700% cost increase, and more importantly, would have eliminated the consortium’s … Continue reading How Kansas Owned Its Ebooks
Being a school librarian, I am not as familiar with Elsevier's resources, but it was interesting to see some of the updates they are making to SciVerse ScienceDirect. The big news is the redesign to the article-page highlight at http://articleofthefuture.com. So that is the scholarly news . . . now on to the fun. Elsevier … Continue reading From the Floor: Elsevier
OITP (Office of Information Technology Policy) is receiving an update this morning from BilBary founder Tim Coates on the upcoming ebook service. In brief, the service will create an international marketplace for ebooks with some twists. Coates wants to lend books in addition to selling them. And BilBary wants to include public libraries as well. … Continue reading BilBary From the Source
All around us, the rapid shift from print to digital content is transforming libraries of all types. E-content offers rich and extraordinary opportunities for libraries to provide expanded access to information and to revolutionize, in positive ways, the relationship between libraries and library users. At the same time, these new forms of digital content pose … Continue reading Making New Connections
In 2011, the consumer market drove digital content. The Nook Tablet, Kindle Fire, and too many other Android tablets to mention all sought to replicate the astounding success of the Apple iPad line. E Ink-based readers finally dropped below the $100 price point, and two strong holiday seasons greatly increased the percentage of households reading … Continue reading E-Content 2012: Dichotomous Scenario Planning
There was a moment in ebook history when things could have gone either way. The Amazon Kindle was flying off the shelf, the Nook was just getting started, and everyone was pretty happy about $9.99 ebooks . . . and then Steve Jobs came along with iBookstore and the iPad. And really, all this mess … Continue reading It’s (Kinda) Steve’s Fault, Actually
The digital “revolution” has been a major topic of public attention and discussion among librarians this year, as we are confronted by daily developments, announcements, and headlines related to ebooks. The transformation being brought about by digital media has been a strong emphasis of the Association as well. During the fall meeting October 21–23 at … Continue reading Transforming Libraries, Transforming ALA
Last week was a busy week for e-content, so here is your quick Monday morning catch up on three trending topics: OverDrive was bad, Kindle was jailbroken, and iBooks was fontified (I think that is the correct word for when you add fonts to a device). Rumblings continue to plague OverDrive. After last month’s lost-and-found … Continue reading Last Week in E-Content
The past couple weeks have taken us on a wild ebook roller coaster ride. Penguin pulled Kindle access and then it was restored—but libraries still aren’t getting new Penguin titles for lending in a digital format. Despite the e-whiplash that seems to come from following the changes in ebook news, I am feeling very positive … Continue reading Finding the Positive and Saying Thanks!
The URL had barely expired November 27 on a bold online petition demanding the restoration of strong school libraries in every American school when another campaign got off the ground to gather 25,000 signatures within 30 days in favor of mandating quality education for America’s children through the provision of fully funded school libraries run … Continue reading Sign Here for School Libraries
[UPDATE: Scroll to end.] Loaning ebooks is like playing with some other kid’s ball on the playground. There is always a risk that the other kid will take back his or her ball and go home, leaving you and your friends empty-handed. Yesterday, Penguin took back its ebooks and left OverDrive and libraries who had … Continue reading Penguin Taking Ebooks, Going Home
If I can rip my CD to an MP3, why can’t I scan my book to an EPUB? That is the question running through my mind as I ponder the new iTunes Match service from Apple. Briefly, for $24.99 a year the service scans the music on your hard drive and then matches it with … Continue reading What’s Next? Book Match?
