Great news from Elsevier about the new iSpeech Audio Reader application which instantly converts  any full-text article within ScienceDirect into a natural sounding voice file.  We see a lot of these mp3 files used for auditory learners, students with disabilities, and foreign language learners at my institution. More from the press release below: Elsevier, a [...]

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The Spring 2011 issue of NISO’s Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ) magazine has a special issue theme of Views of the E-book Renaissance. ISQ Guest Content Editor, October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions has pulled together a broad range of perspectives on what is happening today with e-books and particularly with e-book standards. As she states [...]

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Please note that the part two blog post has now been added to the New Jersey eBook Summit Summary. Today the NJ State Library, LinbraryLinkNJ- The NJ Library Cooperative, NJ Library Association and the NJLA Reference Section sponsored an E-book Summit in Eatontown, New Jersey.  The line-up of speakers included: Eli Neiburger, Ann Arbor District [...]

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ALA TechSource has just opened registration for the upcoming webinar series on e-books and e-readers.  I hope you can join us. Integrating E-Books and E-Readers into Your Library with Sue Polanka Two 90-minute sessions Thursdays 8/4/11 and 8/11/11 2:30 – 4:00 PM EDT | 1:30 – 3:00 PM CDT 12:30 – 2:00 PM MDT | [...]

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From an ebrary press release:  ebrary®, a leading provider of e-books and research technology, today announced the availability of usage-triggered Short-Term Loans.  Currently in beta, this groundbreaking model provides libraries with all of the benefits of traditional short-term loans with the added advantage of only paying if titles are used. ebrary’s new Short-Term Loans can [...]

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The Ohio Digital Bookshelf, Where will the 2nd Year Take Us?  A Webinar from the University System of Ohio TeachU, Presented by Stephen R. Acker, Research Director, The Ohio Digital Bookshelf The slides for the webinar are available on slideshare and the webinar archive. The following is a summary of my interpretation of the webinar.  [...]

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No Shelf Required II:  The Use and Management of E-Books is currently underway with ALA Editions.  The forthcoming book offers a look at digital only libraries, device lending programs, consortial purchasing, eBook access issues (digital divide, accessibility, archiving/preservation, and weeding/updating), digital textbooks, the use of ebook/ereader technology in the classroom, and much much more.  When [...]

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Jim Fruchterman wants to make the book truly accessible and feels we have a good start, but a long way to go. Bookshare is the largest online library for people with disabilities, they download more than 1 million books per year. His service only serves about 1% of the population, and they turn away so [...]

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EPUB 3 update panel included Robert Kasher (Book Masters), Keith Fahlgren (Threepress Consulting Inc.), George Kerscher (Daisy Consortium), Bill Kasdorf (Apex Content Solutions) EPUB 3 was just announced this morning by the IDPF.  The final draft of standard being readied for release at BEA 2011.  http://idpf.org/epub/30 – public release of standard here, ready for comment, looking for lots [...]

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Can you afford not to consider accessible publishing practices?, presented by Dave Gunn, Royal National Institute of Blind People. Dave commented on how TOC last year had no mention of disabilities and was appreciative of the discussions already happening this year.  More info on accessible publishing here:  rnib.org.uk/ebookguidance Dave provided an overview of accessibility and [...]

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