“Resources and News on eBooks, eReaders, and Libraries”
Curated by
Buffy J. Hamilton
"Or news from the quagmire that is the e-book market….
In Kansas State librarian Jo Budler’s session at ALA Midwinter, “Do I Own These E-books or Not,” Budler summarized the issues that Kansas State had faced with Overdrive’s e-book contract, which in its earlier iteration, allowed libraries to “keep” their content after discontinuing Overdrive. The newer version of the contract uses different languaging so for many libraries, the experience she had is perhaps a moot point. But what I learned from the session was to be willing to negotiate with our e-book providers. We are the customers and we need to increasingly be pro-active and willing to ask our providers for what we need.""
Scooped on:
eBooks, eReaders, and Libraries
eBooks, eReaders, and Libraries
Yesterday, the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) announced that Amazon has removed all their Kindle editions from the site, totaling around 5,000 books. 
"As Steve Lawson observes, publishers can get away with limiting access, so they limit it. As Kate Sheehan points out in a comment on her own post, publishers can cut us out of the conversation, so they cut us out. Though it has been proven time and again that library reading boosts individual book sales, that’s not good enough for for the publisher-industrial complex. They smell an opportunity, and their greed is overwhelming any vestige of decency or sense of social fairness. Deep down, the publishing-industrial complex will not be satisfied until they can do away with those pesky librarians, they who broker reading as a public good, champion the right to read, and advocate for equitable access. Penguin invoked the term “friction,” in reference to the ease of checking out books; but I see the real “friction” as the Bonus Army of librarians, authors, and readers who are speaking truth to power. How convenient it would be if we were starved out of the reading ecology. We’re also back to my ancient observation about Google: “don’t be evil” does not translate into “do be good.” What is to be done?" 
"Bilbary is preparing for a soft launch of its ebook platform in early March, and four state librarians who constitute the ebook task force of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) are at least curious about its potential..." 
"Mobile devices and tablets are at the center of new debates on interactive textbooks and educational applications–and, thanks to the growing interest, there are many options for development tools. As Jason Farman described last week, there are lots of exciting ways to integrate mobile devices and tablets in the classroom. Developing your own mobile resources, or inviting your students to try it, is possible even without coding experience and is a great way to see for yourself the possibilities and limitations in these applications..." 
The music industry has shown that you need to offer consumers a universal format and content without rights restrictions. So when will publishers pay attention? 
Should OverDrive sell itself to America’s public libraries? Any foundation angels care to help? and No current K-12 librarians showed up in person despite invitations to three, and the DPLA let only 20 or so people attend. The 17-member DPLA steering committee lacks any current K-12 educators." 
Much as tablet computers went mainstream in the iPad's wake, Apple's latest educational project heralds an age of tablet-based schoolbooks. 
American Libraries Magazine, the magazine of the American Library Association, delivers news and information about the library community. |
Topics: Sue Polanka, Head of Reference and Instruction at Wright State University Libraries and Editor/Blogger of the No Shelf Required book series/blog, talks about ebooks and their future in our libraries. Other topics include streaming of econtent, Amazon's meteoric rise and more. 
Nico Vreeland's earlier post, which Teleread reprinted earlier, was one of many articles I have lately seen which explore the issue of the publishers versus... 
Portland Public Library eReader Lending Program 
Some third graders have been exploring how they can make their own ebooks. This group was a big exploration. We really didn't know what we were doing when we started, and we gave ourselves perm... IPADS INLIBRARIES TCEA 2012 Carolyn Foote Westlake HS... 
Three months of library drama are coming to a climax this evening as big-six publisher Penguin announced that it is ending its relationship with digital library distributor OverDrive. "So you want to acquire some e-books for your library? Overdrive isn’t the only game in town. There is a huge and growing number of ways for libraries to acquire e-books. I thought I’d compile a list. The main pathways I see (although the boundaries between them are by no means solid) are aggregators, vendors, and publishers. This list is far from complete. My knowledge is primarily in the North American academic library arena. If you have information to add, post a comment..."
American Libraries Magazine, the magazine of the American Library Association, delivers news and information about the library community. |
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