One of my favorite blogs is Teleread, an eBook blog started way back in 1992.  Yesterday I was able to speak with Paul Biba, Co-Editor of Teleread.  We had a great conversation about the blog, eBooks in the mass market, DRM and standards.  Check it out on the NSR interviews page.  Thanks Paul!

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Tim O’Reilly: Kindle needs open ePub-style standard to survive www.teleread.org – Posted: 23 Feb 2009 08:40 AM CST “Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like ‘epub,’ which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years.” – Tim O’Reily in Why Kindle should be [...]

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Just one of the findings from the Frankfurt Book Fair survey of over 1,000 industry professionals.  All of the survey results are in the press release. Here’s a snippet about the challenges, which I find interesting: Challenges facing the industry 70 per cent of respondents may feel ready for the digital challenge, but industry professionals [...]

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My recent discussion with Cynthia Cleto from Springer got me thinking about some issues.  I’m curious if Springer’s model – no DRM and ILL rights – is unique or if other ebook publishers and aggregators offer similar things.  To me, it’s a superior blend, but I’m thinking that most publishers and aggregators feel it’s a [...]

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From Publishers Weekly: Sony Adopts EPUB Standard for Reader By Jim Milliot — Publishers Weekly, 7/24/2008 7:16:00 AM The International Digital Publishing Forum’s epub e-book standard received a big vote of support this morning when Sony announced that effective immediately its Sony Reader will now support the standard. Beginning in August, all new devices shipped [...]

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.epub – an XML file extension for “reflowable” digital books and publications received a support letter from the AAP – Association of American Publishers at the Digital Book Conference on May 14th.  Check the IDPF website for the support letter and more information on ebook standards.

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I’ve been hearing lots of conversation about eBooks and the inability to use them for ILL requests.  With a shift in purchasing to electronic, how will this affect the ILL service? Should we be getting ILL rights with purchase?  How would that work in the world of authentication and proxy servers?  Are librarians thinking about [...]

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Mark R. Nelson’s new article on E-Books is a must read. Check it out in EDUCAUSE Review, link above. Highlights include: what is an eBook, recent eBook developments, eBook readers, standards, adoption and cultural acceptance of eBooks, and what all this means to Higher Education (and eventually all education).

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How do you think Kindle, Amazon’s wireless reader, will affect the development and sale of eBook content? Will Amazon’s enormous market and broad availability create a defacto eBook publishing standard?

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One question asked by many librarians, now that I’m purchasing my reference titles electronically, should publishers be updating those titles and fixing errors prior to (or rather than) releasing a new edition? How does this impact the print copy? Which copy is the official copy, print or electronic? Should the eBook title be an exact [...]

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