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Financial Aid
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Bobbi Newman at Librarian by Day offers advice about How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other Publishers Not Loaning eBooks to Libraries. This helpful post provides a suggested script for discussing ebooks with patrons, contact info for publishers, and plenty of resources on the topic.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
Kim Westad at the Times Colonist reports that Publishers Put the Squeeze on Library eBook Lending. This excellent article discusses the current state of e-books and libraries in Canada and provides a great list of 13 websites for free e-books. Here’s a short sample:
“In the Greater Victoria Public Library system alone, there has been an eightfold increase in the use of ebooks. In 2010, total ebook circulation at the GVPL’s 10 libraries was 3,699. That jumped to 29,741 in 2011. And that interest isn’t expected to dwindle…
…library users can’t download Steve Jobs’s biography. It’s published by Simon and Schuster, and they will not sell ebooks to libraries. You can download the Stieg Larsson trilogy at the library, but not the new Stephen King – different publishers, different rules.
Five of the titles on last week’s Globe and Mail fiction bestseller list were not available in ebooks, although they are in print. They are published by companies that are still struggling to find a way to deal with a way to sell ebooks to libraries.”
Monday, February 6th, 2012
I’ve been researching e-Books for my library and an upcoming talk I’m giving at a conference and I’ve noticed that not all e-book formats are compatible with all devices. As a matter of fact, it seems that most devices have their own set of formats that it reads and these are rarely congruous with other readers. To help sort this all out I’ve taken a crack at creating my first infographic which displays the most popular devices used for reading e-Books and which of the most popular formats they can read. Please let me know if you think I should include anything else!
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Stan Schroeder at Mashable reports that 29% of U.S. Adults Own a Tablet or Ereader. This brief post sums up findings from the latest Pew Internet & American Life study: Tablet and E-book reader Ownership Nearly Double Over the Holiday Gift-Giving Period.
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Carrie Russell writes for American Libraries about Threats to Digital Lending. This is a great article about e-books, licensing, and ownership.
“When the Kansas Digital Library Consortium’s contract with digital-content distributor OverDrive was up for renewal last year, two issues made Kansas State Librarian Joanne Budler decide it was time to move on and transfer the ebook titles to another vendor who could offer a better deal. First, OverDrive planned to raise license fees by almost 700% by 2014. But even more disturbing was a change to the contract that would have changed the consortium’s ownership of the ebooks to a subscription.”
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Christopher Harris writes for American Libraries about Ebooks and School Libraries. This informative article takes a look at the unique challenges which school libraries face when implementing an e-books program.
“In their efforts to implement ebooks, school libraries face a set of challenges that differ from those confronting their public and academic counterparts. In addition to the struggle they share with other types of libraries to offer current bestselling fiction ebooks, school libraries are also working to secure backlist fiction, curriculum-focused nonfiction, and multiple copies of books for group use. At the same time, however, they are fortunate to have a strong working relationship with many different publishers and vendors that work within the K–12 market.”
Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Andrea Fleck-Nisbet gives A Publisher’s Perspective on Ebooks in the latest issue of American Libraries. This is an insightful look at the digital revolution from the viewpoint of the publishing business.
“Although the possibilities for producing interactive ebooks and apps are now seemingly endless, resources for most publishers are limited and the market has been slow to keep pace with our enthusiasm for creating these new products. One of our biggest challenges today is deciding where to focus our time and energy as the digital landscape evolves and the consumer’s needs change. At Workman Publishing, we have always made it a priority to produce high-quality book content at retail prices that are friendly to readers. We must now figure out how to remain true to that mission while broadening our scope from creators of books to creators of content in multiple formats. This issue is only exacerbated from an operational perspective by constantly changing file formats and metadata specs, all of which need to be customized to some degree for each vendor.”
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
Alan S. Inouye writes for American Libraries about The Revolution Isn’t Just Digital. This thought-provoking piece talks about how libraries must reassess their missions, learn to share control, and start to take action to redefine old paradigms.
“The digital revolution in libraries is not exactly a secret. Every day we read about some upheaval in the ebook industry, a new development in digitization, or yet another service from Google. And the recent announcement of an ALA-wide initiative on digital content and libraries, while important and necessary, won’t exactly make media headlines.
It is natural enough to focus on digital content, whiz-bang technology, and how libraries should provide innovative services for our communities. Yet there is more going on than meets the digital eye.”
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
Friday, January 6th, 2012
Patrick Berry has written a great article for Code4Lib titled So you want to start a Kindle lending program. This useful guide provides a step-by-step overview of how to get up and running with an ebook reader lending program. These are the topics discussed:
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
I have just finished reading Sue Polanka’s extremely helpful No Shelf Required Guide to E-Book Purchasing. This timely Library Technology Report outlines the various ways to purchase e-books including directly from publishers, through aggregators, and buying through consortia. I was thrilled to see a whole chapter on open access e-books written by E.S. Hellman. If you’re going to be proposing an e-book initiative in your library you’ll want to check out this issue.
Chapters include:
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
2011 was quite a year here at iLibrarian! As usual, it’s been a great experience. I’ve been taking a look back at what was particularly popular in terms of posts this past year and I’ve rounded up the top 30 which were the most well-received. I’d love to hear suggestions for future content you’d like to see here at iLibrarian, and I also welcome guest posts! So please go ahead and leave some suggestions in the comments section.