Those of you attending the ALA Midwinter Meeting may want to stop by for a demo of the OverDrive streaming services.  The One-Step Checkout (TM) sounds great to me. Washington Convention Center, Seattle—Jan. 22, 2013—Today OverDrive announced that it will enhance its industry-leading library service platform with streaming video and audio technology. The new services [...]

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Really pleased to see additional books becoming unglued through the Unglue.it crowdfunding program.  Congrats to all involved. January 21, 2013 — Unglue.it, the crowdfunding website for Creative Commons licensed ebooks, has funded and released two more free ebooks, now available for download. The most recent “unglued book” is So You Want to Be a Librarian, [...]

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Metadata is the key to eBook discovery.  I’m glad to see these publishers sharing their content with WorldCat. DUBLIN, Ohio, January 18, 2013—OCLC has signed new agreements with leading publishers around the world to add more e-book metadata to WorldCat, the most comprehensive online database of resources available through libraries worldwide. This new WorldCat metadata [...]

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This sounds like a great app for audio files. CHARLOTTE, N.C. – January 17, 2013 – Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of digital and physical books and entertainment products, announced the launch of its innovative Acoustik audiobook service for the Axis 360 digital media platform, enabling library patrons to borrow and download digital [...]

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American Library Association video, with a special message from ALA President, Maureen Sullivan – E-books and Digital Content  

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Scholastic recently released a new study on kid’s reading in the digital age.  The study found that kids reading of ebooks has nearly doubled since 2010. Full details are on the Scholastic site or you can download the full report with appendices here. Below are some highlights of the study from the Scholastic site: Kids, [...]

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ALA Editions recently announced the 2013 launch of a new online journal: eContent Quarterly, edited by Sue Polanka and Mirela Roncevic. The journal will offer practical, user-driven solutions and ideas for curating, integrating, and managing electronic content in rapidly-changing digital library environments. Each issue will consist of in-depth articles on the many facets of electronic [...]

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I’m a big fan of Douglas County Libraries.  They are innovative trail blazers.  This press release from December 27, 2012 is another example of their innovation.  They are partnering with Impelsys to create an acquisitions dashboard.  This sounds similar to the dashboards available at other vendors, where a publisher can send all title metadata and [...]

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Back in August, 2012, Smashwords announced a new product, Library Direct.  This is a service that allows libraries and library networks to acquire and establish large opening collections of ebooks, direct from Smashwords.  Douglas County was one of the first customers back in August of 2012, loading 10,000 of the top titles.  The last day [...]

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NSR 2012 Interviews With 2012 coming to a close, I wanted to take another opportunity to introduce you to the wide array of interviews NSR offered this year. The 2012 interviews highlight  innovative new products and services from librarians, publishers, and information professionals, a focus on information literacy and core competencies, and creative business models.  [...]

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