Library Stuff

“With each passing month, more ebooks are becoming available to libraries for purchase. Patrons are asking for them; librarians, in turn, are trying to get them from publishers; and publishers, sometimes reluctantly, are selling their ebooks to libraries. Yesterday, Macmillan made good on its declaration from Sept. of last year to test selling ebooks to libraries. It will make 1,200 back-list titles available from its Minotaur mystery and crime imprint. They can be lent out 52 times or over two years – whichever comes first – before the library has to buy them again. They will cost libraries $25 each, about two-to-three times what they cost for consumers to buy them.”

via Digital Book World

“The popularity of digital textbooks may have hit a tipping point in 2012 as preference by college students climbed significantly, according to new research from the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)’s ongoing study of Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education. The first installment in Volume Three of the study, powered by Bowker Market Research, shows that students’ preference for print over digital texts dropped from 72 percent in November 2011 to 60 percent in late 2012. During the same period, preference for online homework systems (MindTap, MyLab, McGraw-Hill Connect, etc.) rose from 9 percent to 14 percent. The picture isn’t entirely rosy for digital texts: satisfaction with these works declined in 2012, with only 26 percent of students citing they were “very satisfied” with their digital text, down from 30 percent in 2011.”

via BISG

“For those who love to read, there is no such thing as having access to too many books. Bexar County commissioners’ plan to launch the first bookless public library system in the nation is commendable. It will expand the availability of books, albeit electronically, to sectors of our community that have long had to do without adequate access to libraries. For bibliophiles, nothing can replace the feel of holding a bound book and being able to physically turn the pages. But technology is changing the way we do many things.”

via San Antonio Express-News

“ebrary, a ProQuest business, is celebrating a pair of significant achievements as 2013 gets underway. This year marks the 10th anniversary of its flagship product, Academic Complete™, the original scholarly e-book subscription collection, now used in thousands of university libraries worldwide. The anniversary comes as the company closes another year of vigorous content development with more than 100 new publishers added to the ebrary platform, significantly building its e-book catalog and library capacity for strategic acquisition. New ebrary partners include Nova Science, Hackett Publishing, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Australian-based CSIRO, academic distributor International Specialized Book Service, and popular trade house Workman Publishing.”

via PRNewswire

“In the fourth edition of the Kids & Family Reading ReportTM, a national survey released today, kids age 6-17 and their parents share their views on reading in the increasingly digital landscape and the influences that impact kids’ reading frequency and attitudes toward reading.”

via Digital Book World

“As publishing giants and tech companies attempt to remake the humble textbook in their own image, McGraw-Hill Education on Tuesday offered up its latest take on the learning platform of the future. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the education-focused division of the McGraw-Hill Companies unveiled the SmartBook, an adaptive ebook that adjusts the reading experience to each student’s pace and mastery level.”

via GigaOM

“Lovers of ink and paper, take heart. Reports of the death of the printed book may be exaggerated. A 2012 survey revealed that just 16% of Americans have actually purchased an e-book.

Ever since Amazon introduced its popular Kindle e-reader five years ago, pundits have assumed that the future of book publishing is digital. Opinions about the speed of the shift from page to screen have varied. But the consensus has been that digitization, having had its way with music and photographs and maps, would in due course have its way with books as well. By 2015, one media maven predicted a few years back, traditional books would be gone.”

via WSJ

“Libraries and big six publishers are at war over eBooks: how much they should cost, how they can be lent and who owns them.  If you don’t use your public library and assume that this doesn’t affect you, you’re wrong. In a society where bookstores disappear every day while the number of books available to read has swelled exponentially, libraries will play an ever more crucial role.  Even more than in the past, we will depend on libraries of the future to help discover and curate great books.   Libraries are already transforming themselves around the country to create more symbiotic relationships with their communities, with book clubs and as work and meeting spaces for local citizens.”

via Forbes

“Want to lend a copy of a book you love to your friend, but you only bought the eBook? Check out Ownshelf, a new service that will let you share ePUB titles with your friends across devices. The tool, which is currently in beta, lets you show friends your digital book shelves and look at your friends’ bookshelves, and borrow and loan titles from these digital bookshelves. You can access the tool through Facebook. Like other apps, you have to give Facebook apps to login in. Using the shelf you can upload ePUB titles for sharing only to a select group of your personal friends. Then you can see which of your friends is using Ownshelf and you can browse the digital books that they have uploaded.”

via GalleyCat

“Simon & Schuster has signed a new ebook retail agreement with Amazon and other ebook retailers. Ebook prices were lowered for Simon & Schuster titles over the weekend on sites like Amazon and Nook.com to levels several dollars below what they had been earlier in the week. Amazon is no longer displaying its usual disclaimer for agency-priced ebooks, “this price was set by the publisher,” for Simon & Schuster titles. “We have entered new agreements with our ebook agents that are in compliance with DOJ settlement and we look forward to working with our retailers to expand the readership for our authors and grow the ebook marketplace,” said Adam Rothberg, senior vice president of corporate communications for Simon & Schuster.”

via Digital Book World