No Shelf Required

This Wednesday, Feb. 10th from 2PM – 3PM EST, Copyright Clearance Center’s Chris Kenneally will be hosting a special Beyond the Book live podcast (http://beyondthebookcast.com/live-webcast/) examining the eBook Wars, which are taking shape with MacMillan challenging Amazon and the rise of eReaders and the iPad. During the podcast, Chris and his panelists will look at all sides of the e-book story and what future battles may bring to the print and digital marketplace. The podcast will air live on BlogTalkRadio: http://bit.ly/drJipN

Joining Chris are:

·         Andrew Albanese, features editor at Publishers Weekly;

·         Sara Nelson, Books Editor, “O” Magazine;

·         Brian O’Leary, Founder & Principal, Magellan Media Partners; and

·         Mike Shatzkin, Founder & CEO, The Idea Logical Company, Inc.,

During the podcast, Chris will also be taking phone calls at 646-378-1949.

SPIE launches digital library

Authors Guild responds to Justice Department’s comments

Department of Justice objects to revised Google Books settlement

Textbook companies to partner with ScrollMotion to put content on iPad

Macmillan’s Amazon Beatdown Proves Content Is King

Future of eReading might not be iPad, but Blio

Apple unveils iPad. Your move, Amazon

The iPad to Ruin the Book Publishing Industry?

Steve Jobs Reveals Apple’s eBook Pricing

The Future of the Book Market, Part 3: Publishers Content Providers

FT.com / Media – Walls close in on e-book garden

Revised Google Books settlement pleases few

Article in the NYTimes today about Amazon purchasing the start up company, Touchco, based in NY.  Touchco’s touch screen technology is cheaper than the iPad/iPhone technology and is said to recognize an unlimited number of simultaneous  touch points.  Looks like Amazon is drawing the big guns.  Rumor has it they have finally open up the Kindle to development for applications – about time.   I’m thrilled with all of these new devices and technologies.  First generation readers just didn’t do anything for my taste, so I’m very excited to see how the device of the future unfolds.

Received this information from an OCLC Press Release:

Blue Ribbon Task Force to Host Symposium on Economics of Sustaining Digital Information

Government, Industry, Academic Leaders Featured in Public “Conversation”
April 1, 2010 in Washington, D.C.

The Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access (BRTF-SDPA) will hold a one-day symposium convening a diverse group of speakers from the academic, private, and public sectors to discuss one of the most pressing issues of the Information Age: identifying practical solutions to the economic challenges of preserving today’s deluge of digital data.

[Read more →]

For the last 7 years the New Media consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative have collaborated on the Horizon Report.  The report identifies key trends in higher education, critical challenges, and selects 6 technologies to watch.  Ebooks have made the top 6 technologies, in the mid-term horizon, which means 2 – 3 years for widespread adoption.   The study indicates that 3 obstacles to ebook adoption in higher education are now falling away – availability of titles, capability of readers, and problematic publishing models.   According to the report, more publishers are releasing textbook content electronically, ebook readers now have the ability to display graphics, bookmark, annotate, and more, and business models are changing to allow the purchase of the e without the p (and e is simultaneously being released with p).

The report sites several examples of ebooks in practice including the Penn State SONY project, Darden’s KINDLE project, DeepDyve, and Sophie.

Apple is Up to Something Publishers May Not Like

Erik Christopher follows up on “The strange case of academic libraries and e-books nobody reads”

Elsevier Introduces New Features For Online Health-Science Textbooks – Wired News – CHE

Four Universities Settle Suit over Accessibility to Kindle for the Blind – 1/28/2010 – Library Journal

Apple’s new $499-and-up iPad includes NY Times, Bookstore

Ebooks and Higher Ed – Platforms, an overview from inside, Part 2 by Erik Christopher

From a Credo Press Release:

Credo Reference adds prestigious National Gallery images to its reference collection

Oxford and Boston, January 26, 2010 – Credo Reference, the award winning online reference library, has signed an agreement to include National Gallery, London images and information in the Credo General Reference Collection.
[Read more →]

Today I had a lovely conversation with Author, Rita Toews, who is the Founder of “Read an Ebook Week.”  Read an Ebook Week is March 7 – 13, 2010.  More information can be located on their website.

Check out the NSR Interviews page for many more interesting interviews with publishers, librarians, and other information professionals.

Just posted a new interview with Patrick Moore from Ingram Digital on the interviews page. Patrick and I discussed Ingram’s audio-book program.  One slight correction in the interview – Patrick states that Ingram is adding approximately 100 titles per day.  The statement should have been “approximately 100 titles per week.” For more information on Ingram Digital see the following:

MyiLibrary Audio Information – product information – http://www.ingramlibrary.com/myilibrary

Ingram Library Services – public and K-12 libraries – http://www.ingramlibrary.com

Coutts Information Services – academic libraries – http://couttsinformationservices.com

Ingram Content Group – http://www.ingramcontent.com

Been watching the twits about the iPad – “extraordinary,”  “a dream to type on,” “much more intimate than a laptop,” “the best browsing experience you’ve ever had.”  Sounds like they are describing a dream date (sans the laptop and browsing). Oh wait, now they are talking about pinching folders, ouch.

Seriously – it appears to be a bigger and better iPod Touch.  Multimedia viewing, full keyboard, pictures, email, ebooks, music, google maps, existing apps, yadda yadda.  I’m sure I’ll own one soon, but it doesn’t sound like they’ve introduced anything we haven’t seen in other devices – it will just be better of course because it’s Apple.

Not too much on ebooks thus far and nothing on textbooks.  Anxious to find out more about that.

added later – just read a nice post on teleread about the ebook options on the new ipad.   iBooks – EPUB…this really is a dream date!