Recent Comments
- Amazon’s book city #1, Alexandria, VA, may cut library hours: Time for a digital-era national endowment to help ease U.S. libraries’ financial woes? | The Travelin' Librarian { [...] Read the full article @ LibraryCity.org. [...] }
- Promising DPLA debut—but please don’t confuse special-collection items, exhibits and APIs with a full-fledged ‘public library’ demo | The Travelin' Librarian { [...] Read the full article @ librarycity.org. [...] }
- Tom Peters { Excellent review of the nascent D(P)LA e-resource. I agree with all your major points. Tis a pity that the usual suspects (Twain, Fitzgerald, Cather, et... } – Apr 19, 11:28 AM
- Online la Digital Public Library of America, che vuole superare Google e Wikipedia | Tropico del Libro { [...] di questo ambizioso progetto. Non sono mancate, in questo senso, le polemiche di chi ha vivamente esortato i creatori della DPLA a preoccuparsi anche... }
- David Rothman { Thanks for such a prompt and classy reply, Dan---you're indeed giving #dpla its due! I truly truly hope that the DPLA succeeds, and meanwhile the... } – Mar 31, 11:58 AM
- Dan Cohen { Thanks for the great and helpful post, David. To be clear on #2, I'm very interested (as I know others are within DPLA) and plan... } – Mar 31, 10:40 AM
- David Rothman { Hi, Don. Nice to see such enthusiasm from a veteran school librarian. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, agree with your priorities, and will have more to... } – Mar 26, 4:57 AM
- Don Smith { If I might, I would like to propose a statement of purpose for the National Digital Library. Often times during my forty year career as... } – Mar 25, 8:54 PM
- David Rothman { Hey, Ralph, here's a belated but heartfelt reply to one of your points. Around here we love both libraries and librarians and are interested in... } – Mar 13, 9:58 AM
- Some news from LibraryLand | not so quiet { [...] this opinion piece, David Rothman makes a case for folks in the Warren Buffet and Bill Gates income bracket to support [...] }
- Bibliotecas públicas sin libros en EE.UU. ¿A la de tres? | Bibliotecas 2029 { [...] comunicada, tuvo una contestación pública demoledora. No sólo los profesionales de todo el país se escandalizaron por este proyecto sino que los propios usuarios... }
- A National Digital Library Endowment { [...] An interesting concept from blogger David Rothman, founder of TeleRead. He suggests that those who have signed The Giving Pledge (though he doesn’t mention... }
- David Rothman { Hi, Robert. Some quick replies… 1. I envision a variety of business models in use, but if nothing else, libraries could buy multiple e-copies (or... } – Feb 20, 2:05 PM
- Robert Nagle { Generally, a great proposal, but here are some practical issues which pop up in my mind. First, if everything is centralized, when I put a... } – Feb 20, 12:56 PM
- ATG Article of the Week: Need Library E-Books to Feed Your New Gadget? Here’s the Answer | Against-the-Grain.com { [...] Need Library E-Books to Feed Your New Gadget? Here’s the Answer, is an thought provoking article by David Rothman posted in TeleRead a few... }
- Reading about eReading this week 2/18/2013 « Allegany County Library System Director's Notes { [...] A national digital library endowment: How America’s billionaires could be modern Carnegies for rea... [...] }
- Reading about eReading this week 1/28/2013 « Allegany County Library System Director's Notes { [...] Dwarf-sized public e-libraries vs. abundance: Listen to veteran publishing guru Brian O’Leary and ... [...] }
- David Rothman { You're welcome, Anthony. Keep us posted if you can Amy-ize your new Fire without installing a full-strength version of Android. David } – Jan 19, 5:46 PM
- Anthony { Thanks Dave! } – Jan 19, 4:47 PM
- David Rothman { Hi, Anthony. Some possibilities: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/where-to-get-more-help-with-your-kindle.html Happy Kindling, David } – Jan 19, 4:00 AM
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Recent Posts
- E-book usability news: Adjustable line spacing now on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9” and perhaps other Fire HDs—although I still can’t narrow the spaces sufficiently
- Voice Dream e-reading app: Stellar for text to speech—and promising as a general reader
- Amazon’s book city #1 avoids cuts in library hours but still might reduce its library book budget—already below the U.S. per-capita average
- Cut in Alexandria, VA, library hours not needed, says city staff memo. Also: Councilman Justin Wilson endorses LibraryCity’s national digital library endowment plan
- Is your local library budget about to be slashed? Here’s an example of how you can fight back
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- eBookNewser
- Gary Price's INFOdocket blog
- Harvard's Robert Darnton
- Library Journal
- LISNews
- Mike Shatzkin
- NDPL discussion forum
- Save Our Rockford Library
- School Library Journal
- TeleRead
- The Berkman Center's wiki on national digital library policy
- The Digital Reader
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Tag Archives: ebooks
New easy-to-use iOS app works with library-owned e-books and eliminates need for browser-based downloads
The innovative Douglas County Libraries system in Colorado has done it again—with the release of a new iOS app for iPads, iPhones and presumably Touches and the forthcoming iPad Mini. Significantly, the app makes it a snap to check out library books, without forcing you to download through a Web browser. Talk about the path [...]
eBooks
Also tagged DCL, digital libraries, digital library, Douglas County Libraries, e-books, OverDrive
5 Comments
Stanza e-reader NOT a sure bet for iOS 6, alas (updated)
Update: I’m glad I used “apparently.” I had Stanza already configured the way I wanted it. So I didn’t mess extensively with “Settings.” Others did and had bad news to report. Stanza, one of the best e-reading apps around, was broken when Apple upgraded to iOS 4. Amid the uproar from the app’s users, Stanza’s [...]
ALA’s gripes to publishers dance around the e-library world’s Problem #1—not enough money for e-books
I’m still borrowing e-books from public libraries. I loved the digital edition of the late Louis Auchincloss’s memoirs that popped up when I was browsing the electronic stacks of a library system near me here in Northern Virginia. Public libraries at their best can be Serendipity Central. But I rely much less these days on [...]
Kindle Fire HDs apparently can’t change line spacing—and it appears that old Fires for now won’t be upgraded for text to speech
Kindle Fire HD tablets apparently can’t change line spacing when you’re reading an e-book. Is this part of a consumer-hostile niching initiative by Amazon to high-pressure my fellow Kindle addicts into buying more than one gizmo? Yes, I suspect—if we consider similar disappointments, such as the omission of sound in the Paperwhite E Ink reader [...]
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Also tagged Amazon, blind, blind people, disabilities, disabled, e-book, e-books, ebook, Jeff Bezos, Kindle, Kindle Keyboard, Len Edgerly, LibraryCity, Paperwhite
1 Comment
On e-books, better speech recognition, tablets, and libraries
Could stellar recognition of speech be The Next Big Thing for tablets and smartphones fit for e-books—well at least eventually? Imagine the possibilities. And I don’t just mean e-book apps set up for “Next page” or “Go to end of chapter” or “Find such-and-such word.” Nor do I simply have in mind the composition of [...]
The risks of cloud-based e-books—and the related need for a robust, well-secured infrastructure
As keen as I am on library e-books, I’m as much a booster of the buyable variety. I want people to be able to own e-books for real, ideally without DRM. More and more of our books, music, and even personal files, however, are in The Cloud beyond our direct control. Not on our desktops, smartphones [...]
Library Journal staffer and publishing gurus aid the cause of two well-stocked national digital library systems—whether or not that’s their intent
Library Journal’s Heather McCormack and book industry guru Brian O’Leary may or may not want two well-stocked national digital library systems for the U.S. I don’t know. A second publishing maven, Mike Shatzkin, has been skeptical about the basic national digital library idea. But accidentally or not, all three have recently buttressed the case, especially [...]
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Also tagged Brian O'Leary, Digital Public Library of America, e-book, e-books, ebook, Heather McCormack, John Palfrey, librarianship, Library Journal, LJ, Mike Shatzkin, national digital library system, national digital library systems, PLA, public librarians, public libraries
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Attn. DPLA! Pay attention to Colorado and California e-library bypasses of OverDrive and consider your own distribution as much as possible
No secret. LibraryCity wants libraries to take over OverDrive and slash middleman costs. And here’s a great twist—partial inspiration for this already exists. Douglas County Libraries in Colorado is dealing directly with some publishers. The system applies its own Adobe DRM even though OverDrive books are also still available for now (this isn’t a complete [...]
OverDrive gets loan of up to $1M from Ohio county with budget-challenged libraries: Taxpayers unwittingly encouraging online privatization of U.S. library system?
Related: More bargaining power via OverDrive bypasses? In recent years, the cash-strapped public libraries in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, have resorted to such economy measures as staff layoffs, trim-backs of branch hours, vexingly higher fines, longer waits for books, and, of course, reductions in acquired titles. The state of Ohio hasn’t boomed, either. Maybe the economy [...]
Hello, ALA? Open-mindedness and an e-book ecosystem would be the best responses to prices increases from Random House—and other challenges
I’ve warned libraries they’ve got too little to bargain with. Publishers have the upper hand despite the sales that libraries can drum up through exposure of titles from various houses. Notice that most of the biggest publishers have backed off from the public library scene—and now Random House has jacked up e-book prices as much [...]
OverDrive buys Booki.sh cloud service: A test drive of the app from a library patron’s perspective
OverDrive has bought a cloud-based e-book service, Booki.sh—increasing the U.S. e-book distribution company‘s fitness as a potential acquisition by America’s libraries. The Booki.sh buy demonstrates OverDrive’s willingness to upgrade its technology and comes just days after the corporation’s Harry Potter deal. Booki.sh is in Melbourne and is or was Australian owned, further strengthening OverDrive’s international ties, [...]