Category Archives: Ebook Readers

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Mobile Devices, Publishers, Surveys/Statistics/Reports, Textbooks

Articles of Interest – SOPA, Amazon & Local Bookstores, Digital Textbooks

Go To Hellman: Book Lending Ignorance

Go To Hellman: SOPA Could Put Common Library Software in the Soup

More controversy over Amazon price-checking versus independent bookstores | TeleRead

Amazon Doesn’t Care About Your Local Bookstore | Epicenter | Wired.com

Stop Treating $9.99 As The Magic E-Book Price | paidContent

E-Book Readers Face Sticker Shock – WSJ.com

New Mobile Connectivity Options at the Hillsborough Library | NJ.com

Libraries launching Chromebook check-out programs | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics

Goodbye Textbooks, Hello iPad | PCWorld

Kno Giving Away $10 Million in Free eTextbooks The Digital Shift

The Broader Context of Patron-Driven Acquisitions « The Scholarly Kitchen

Education Department releases new data on academic libraries | Inside Higher Ed –

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Mobile Devices, Public Libraries, Surveys/Statistics/Reports

92% of librarians say offline access to eBooks more or equally important than online access

ebrary has done a number of survey’s over the years.   They recently released the results of their 2011 survey of librarians regarding mobile and offline access.  The results are available (registration required) at http://www.tfaforms.com/222151.  Last June, I interviewed Matt Barnes, VP of Marketing at ebrary about the download survey and ebrary’s new PDA program. Feel free to have a listen.

According to the ebrary press release, “Among other key findings, the survey revealed that 92% of librarians find providing offline access to e-books more or equally important than providing online access.” Continue reading 92% of librarians say offline access to eBooks more or equally important than online access →

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Independent Publishing, Public Libraries, Publishers, Surveys/Statistics/Reports

Articles of Interest

The No Shelf Required Guide to E-Book Purchasing | ALA TechSource

US eBook Sales Doubled in September – eBookNewser

Penguin Restores Kindle Lending, but Still Not Providing Digital Editions of New Titles The Digital Shift

Cambridge U. Press Would Like to Rent You an Article – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Amazon Reports Best Kindle Sales EVAR on Black Friday – eBookNewser

What We Should Learn from the Collapse of Borders « The Scholarly Kitchen

The big list of free Kindle tools | freewaregenius.com

Max Basaraba Talks Digital Publishing – eBookNewser

So What Do You Do, Joshua Tallent, eBook Formatting Expert? – mediabistro.com Content

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Public Libraries, School Libraries

Accessibility and eReaders: functional requirements

eReaders aren’t designed with accessibility in mind. Ken Petri, Director of the Web Accessibility Center at The Ohio State University, contributed a chapter about eBook accessibility to the forthcoming No Shelf Required 2:  Use and Management of Ebooks title from ALA Editions.  Due to the need for currency of this topic, Ken has posted some material on a website.  This information includes:

Ken was interviewed by No Shelf Required back in October of 2010. The post about the interview contains links to many resources.

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Independent Publishing, Public Libraries, Publishers, Surveys/Statistics/Reports, Textbooks

Articles of Interest

Kindle Fire to Ship with Amazon Appstore, Access to Several Thousand Apps – eBookNewser

Wake Forest and Odigia collaborate on textbook alternative | TeleRead

All 50 State Librarians Vote to Form Alliance With Internet Archive’s Open Library The Digital Shift

BISG Press Release | More Than a Passing Fancy: Ongoing BISG Study Reveals E-Book Buyers Deepening Commitment to Digital Formats

Paying for first

How to Extend the Due Date of Your Library eBook on the Kindle | Librarian by Day

Ebrary Ebook Downloads: the First Time | Academic Librarian

Library With Free Online College Textbooks Makes Debut The Digital Shift

Major Medical Library Closing Its Doors to Patrons and Moving to Digital Model The Digital Shift

Can Amazon and Apple Peacefully Coexist? Probably, But As for Google… « The Scholarly Kitchen

Advocates say public money for open educational resources is smart investment | Inside Higher Ed

Self-Published Authors Need Success to Begin – WSJ.com

Douglas County Libraries Strikes New Deals With Publishers to Own Ebooks

Ebook Readers, Public Libraries

Kindle Lending Library launches with 5,000 titles

The rumored news of Kindle offering a lending library has come to fruition.  Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy from INFODocket shared this post this morning and gave me permission to repost in full.  INFODocket posts all type of in-depth industry news and reports, so check them out for more than eBooks. @INFODocket

UPDATE: Paul Biba at TeleRead has posted a breakdown of the titles (by category) currently available from the Kindle Lending Library.

The rumored Kindle eBook lending service is real and is now live. It will  add a new variable as libraries rethink their roles, collection building, eBook services for libraries, and many other issues.

First, some fast facts and links and then a few comments on first learning and digesting the news. As you’ll see there are a number of restrictions and limitations as of today. Of course, if this initial launch is successful, this will very likely change.

Fast Facts (As of Today):

  • The Kindle Lending Library is ONLY Available to Those Who Own a Kindle Device AND Subscribe to the Amazon Prime Service
  • The Service is Only Available for U.S. Customers
  • None of the Six Largest U.S. Publishers are Participating
  • Books Can Be Read on Multiple Kindle Devices, as Long as They’re Registered to the Same Eligible Account
  • Books CANNOT Be Read on Kindle Reading Apps (Android, iOS, PC, Mac, etc.)
  • One Book Can be Borrowed at a Time, and There are No Due Dates
  • You Can Borrow a New Book as Frequently as Once a Month, Directly on a Registered Kindle Device, and You Will Be Prompted to Return the Book That You are Currently Borrowing
  • If You Have Already Borrowed a Book in that Calendar month, You are Not Yet Eligible to Borrow a New Book Until the Next Calendar Month.  There is No “Roll-Over” or Accrual of Unused Borrowing Eligibility
  • Bookmarks, Notes, and Highlights are All Available on Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Titles, and Will be Saved to your Amazon.com Account  If You Borrow Again or Purchase the Book in the Future, Your Notes and Highlights Will be Available for You
  • A Few of Titles Available at Launch Continue reading Kindle Lending Library launches with 5,000 titles →
Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Open Access, Print on Demand, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Textbooks

No Shelf Required’s two new publications

No Shelf Required has been busy this past year exploring the many topics of eBooks and libraries.  Very soon, two new publications will be available from ALA Publishing which share the No Shelf Required name.  These new publications contain completely new content, expanding upon No Shelf Required: E-books in Libraries, ALA Editions, 2011. Details are below.  For a complete list of NSR publications, please visit our publications page.

The first publication will be the No Shelf Required Guide to E-Book Purchasing.  This guide will appear in the November/December (v. 47 n. 8)  issue of Library Technology Reports (direct URL coming soon).  Chapters and contributors in this double issue include: Continue reading No Shelf Required’s two new publications →

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Public Libraries

ebrary now offering eBook downloads

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Great news from ebrary about the ability to download eBook content to devices.  ebrary conducted a study early this year about downloading capabilities.  The results of this study discovered that 92% of libraries found offline access to be more or equally important to online access.  Matt Barnes, VP of Marketing discussed the survey results during an interview in June.  Here’s more from the ebrary press release about the new download functionality:

To further provide researchers with access to authoritative information whenever and wherever they need it, ebrary®, a leading provider of e-books and research technology, today announced the ability to download e-books onto multiple devices including the Kindle, iPad, iPhone, laptops and other devices.  Additionally, the company announced a dedicated mobile application is in development and slated to ship later this year. Continue reading ebrary now offering eBook downloads →

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Events/Conferences, Public Libraries, School Libraries

Articles of Interest

E-Factor: How E-books Are Making an Impact in Libraries, by Sue Polanka | Booklist Online

E-book acquisition based on use and demand could save libraries thousands | Inside Higher Ed

IL2011: E-Book Preservation | Spinstah

Pew Research Center releases study on tablets and news reading | TeleRead

Encyclopedia Britannica releases iPad app | TeleRead

Dan Cohen’s Digital Humanities Blog: The Digital Public Library of America: First Things First

Go To Hellman: The DPLA Muster

Getting Real About the Digital Public Library of America

Kindle Format 8 is On the Way | ALA TechSource

Copyright Office Announces 17 Policy Priorities

Ebook Readers, Events/Conferences, Public Libraries

Articles of Interest – Amazon, OverDrive, and Public Libraries edition

Amazon, Overdrive, and Other Reasons to Be Pissed

Libraries Got Screwed by Amazon and Overdrive | Librarian in Black Blog — Sarah Houghton

Public Library eBooks on the Amazon Kindle — We Got Screwed | Librarian by Day

Librarians Weigh Kindle Ebook Lending against Reader Privacy | American Libraries Magazine

Kansas Leading the Fight for Fair Ebook Access in Libraries

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Public Libraries, Publishers

Articles of Interest

Nuvem De Livros, New Ebook Online Brazilian Virtual Library | eBookanoid.com

E-Readers Gaining in Popularity (Infographic) | Kindle, iPad & Nook | Electronic Reading Devices | LiveScience

Liberal whingers are wrong — we should shut our libraries – Telegraph

Digital Public Library of America » Blog Archive » Digital Public Library of America and Europeana Announce Collaboration

14,000 DRM-Free Project MUSE Ebooks To Go Live in January

Amazon Rewrites the Rules of Book Publishing – NYTimes.com

How Amazon Makes Money From The Kindle

T. Scott: The Economics of Open Access

The Shrinking Orphan Works Problem « The Scholarly Kitchen

Information or Artifact: Digitizing a Book, Part 1 « The Signal: Digital Preservation

Kobo’s $199 Tablet ‘Kobo Vox’ Is On Sale – eBookNewser

Academic Libraries, Digital Rights Management, Ebook Readers, Events/Conferences, Public Libraries, Publishers, School Libraries, Surveys/Statistics/Reports

Internet Librarian – Ebooks: Putting the Issues on the Table

Internet Librarian Conference 2011 – Ebooks:  Putting the Issues on the Table

Presenters: Bobbi L. Newman – Learning Consultant and author Librarian by Day blog,  Sarah Houghton – Asst. Director San Rafael Public Library and author LibrarianInBack.net, Amy Affelt – Director of Database Research Compass Lexecon, and Faith Ward – Librarian Garrison Forest School

These notes are my interpretation of the presentation.  Best efforts were made to ensure accuracy.

Bobbi Newman – small percent of the US population owns an eReader according to Pew Internet Research study. Digital divide – not just about having an eReader to read eBooks – must have internet access at home and a computer capable of hosting Adobe Digital Editions.  2,000 titles is not an opening day collection – you need more titles and a long term plan for eBooks.  Kindle library borrowing – very happy about the smooth transition to getting books onto devices. We got a bad deal – Amazon has access to lots of statistics and they are not sharing those with us. Continue reading Internet Librarian – Ebooks: Putting the Issues on the Table →

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Events/Conferences, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Surveys/Statistics/Reports, Tech Updates & Upgrades

LJ/SLJ eBook Summit Summary Articles

The 2nd annual LJ/SLJ eBook Summit held on Wednesday offered some fantastic discussions on the implementation of eBooks in a variety of libraries.  Below are links to several articles and blog posts which summarize many of the sessions.

Keynote/State:  Dramatic Growth | LJ‘s Second Annual Ebook Survey

School Library Stas:  LJ/SLJ Ebook Summit: More School Libraries Offer Ebooks; Increased Demand, Rise in Circulation

Keynote:  LJ/SLJ Ebook Summit Panelists Remind Librarians of an Old Creed: Free to All

Academic Panel:  LJ/SLJ Ebook Summit: Academic Panel Tackles PDA, Ebook Discovery

Academic Panel:  LJ/SLJ Ebook Summit: Making Ebooks Visible at Academic Libraries

Public Library Panel:  LJ/SLJ Ebook Summit: Offering Patrons More Than One Delivery Platform

Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Independent Publishing, Public Libraries, Publishers, School Libraries, Surveys/Statistics/Reports, Tech Updates & Upgrades

Articles of Interest

This is a super long list – so much going on in the past week.

Amazon bites Apple, by Meredith Greene | TeleRead

Ebook sales doubled in July | TeleRead

Digital Public Library of America: Pro and Con

Four Librarians, Four Ereaders, One Month

EPUB 3 Becomes Final IDPF Specification | TeleRead

Peter Brantley on preserving digital copies | TeleRead

The Emergence of the Disposable E-Book Reader An Inflection Point in Ambient Computing? « The Scholarly Kitchen

Amazon Places Kindle Fire Products In New “Seesaw” Spinoff

Kansas State Librarian Can Transfer Thousands of Titles from OverDrive to 3M at No Charge

Store for safekeeping – DIGITAL PRESERVATION – Research Information

Which format has the cheapest eBooks? (infographic) – eBookNewser

Will the E-Book Kill the Footnote? – NYTimes.com

Perseus Creates New Service for Authors Seeking to Self-Publish – NYTimes.com

OverDrive: “A Note on Library Patron and Student Privacy” « INFOdocket

Lightening fast interlibrary loan

Authors Guild adds international writers groups to HathiTrust lawsuit; says universities acting as “pirates” | TeleRead

66% of Schoolchildren Never Plan to Give up Paper Books – eBookNewser

Amazon & Google Open eBookstores In France, UK – GalleyCat


Academic Libraries, Ebook Readers, Publishers

Copia releases a free, contextually annotated eBook – Pride and Prejudice

Enhanced eBooks are the future and Copia demonstrates this with their new annotated version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.  It’s a free download for the Copia desktop reader.

According to Seth Kaufman, VP of Marketing and Merchandising, “the Copia version offers a glimpse into the future of what an interactive eBook can be, of how educators can teach inside a book, of the possibilities for distance learning.” This new edition features 140 annotations from Professor Susan Fraiman of the University of Virginia. Kaufman also said of the annotated version, “It is also a way to demonstrate how authors and publishers can make old content new again. While it took Fraiman a while to write her commentary, adding the 140 annotations into the eBook took only a few hours, because Copia’s eReader is also a publishing tool that allows anyone to add content.”

Academic Libraries, Digital Rights Management, Ebook Readers, Public Libraries, Publishers, School Libraries, Surveys/Statistics/Reports, Textbooks

Articles of Interest

Online textbooks moving into schools – The Washington Post

Public Library eBooks on the Amazon Kindle — We Got Screwed | Librarian by Day

Amazon Kindle Fire: Tablet Product Strategy Done Right | Forrester Blogs

Mental Graffiti: Will Amazon Offer Purchasing and/or Donation Options for Library-Owed E-Books?

Ebook Summit 2011: “Don’t Buy Ebooks”

bepress CEO Thanking Subscribers – full text of letter « INFOdocket

Nottinghamshire library to charge for ebooks | TeleRead

The Pick Your Kindle Flowchart Helps You Decide Which Is the Perfect Kindle for You

iPad-enabled students get performance boost, says ACU study | TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Digitizing Community « PW

Ebook Readers, Mobile Devices

Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, and the $79 Kindle

Big news today from Amazon about the forthcoming release of the new Kindle Fire, a $199 tablet to be available on November 15th.  In addition to the Fire, Amazon also introduced  a touchscreen e-reader called Kindle Touch.  It’s black and white with no keyboard and will cost $99 for wi-fi version.  Finally, they announced the $79 non-touchscreen Kindle.  Plenty of news stories are covering the details.  Here is a sampling:

How does Amazon Kindle Fire stack up against competition? – The Washington Post Continue reading Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, and the $79 Kindle →
Ebook Readers, Public Libraries, School Libraries

OverDrive, Amazon, and Privacy – INFODocket explores the questions

Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy at INFODocket are asking some very important questions about end-user privacy when borrowing OverDrive  library books through a third party vendor site (Amazon). The post asks:

  • Is Amazon collecting download information?
  • Is Amazon saving library download info permanently?
  • If not, how long will they keep it? Is there a retention policy?
  • Can you provide any info about privacy as it relates to OverDrive/Amazon?
  • Will the library books you borrow be used by Amazon to provide recommendations of books for you to purchase?
  • Is there a link to scrub all of your personal “library” data from Amazon.com’s servers with a single click?
  • Do OverDrive and Amazon.com have any suggestions about how to make the entire process clearer to users?
  • How would they respond to the issue that, since the service is being marketed by libraries, users might incorrectly think library privacy policies may still apply?

More information about this issue is available via the INFODocket blog post.

Ebook Readers, Public Libraries, School Libraries

OverDrive Press Release about Kindle lending launch – sites up within days

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Just received this OverDrive press release in email:

In a move highly anticipated since its initial announcement in April, public libraries and schools in the U.S. can now lend eBooks for the Amazon® Kindle.  OverDrive (www.overdrive.com) announced today that it has begun adding Kindle compatibility to all of the U.S. public and school libraries in its network and expects to have all sites updated within days.  This is a very significant step in a series of OverDrive WIN platform enhancements to streamline user experience and help libraries meet the increased demand for eBooks.

OverDrive, the leading multichannel digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks and other digital content, supplies 15,000 public and school libraries worldwide and more than 11,000 in the U.S.  To see if your local library is a member of the OverDrive network, visit OverDrive Search. Continue reading OverDrive Press Release about Kindle lending launch – sites up within days →

Ebook Readers, Public Libraries

Kindle Books Now Available at over 11,000 Local Libraries

Picked up this news from Nate Hoffelder’s tweet (@thDigitalReader)

From the Amazon Press Release (9/21):

Amazon.com today announced that Kindle and Kindle app customers can now borrow Kindle books from more than 11,000 local libraries in the United States. When a customer borrows a Kindle library book, they’ll have all of the unique features they love about Kindle books, including Whispersync, which automatically synchronizes their margin notes, highlights and bookmarks, real page numbers, Facebook and Twitter integration, and more. For more information about borrowing library books for your Kindle or free Kindle apps, go to www.amazon.com/kindle/publiclibraries. To start checking out Kindle library books, visit your local library’s website. Continue reading Kindle Books Now Available at over 11,000 Local Libraries →