Friday, August 28, 2009
Libraries, are you feeling the love?
As was reported earlier, Sony and Overdrive have partnered to promote library e-book collections. Sony seems to be embracing the library world as its competitive edge. Why would one want to buy a Kindle and then have to buy content when you can buy a Sony and borrow much content for free?
It’s unlikely that Amazon will be interested in integrating the Kindle with library e-book collections, since the purpose of the Kindle is to act as a mobile storefront.
It’s been interesting to read blog comments related to the announcement. There’s a lot of love out there for libraries, and, it seems, a lot of potential customers who are interested in the remote use of library e-collections.
A large part of the integration of Sony and Overdrive is the “Library Finder” feature linked from the Sony Ebook Store. I’m rather disappointed in the execution of the service. Instead of being able to search for a title and see which libraries have it, which you can do from the Overdrive site, you first have to search for a local library and then search for a title.
I’m hoping for a Sony integration partner on the academic market side. There are academic e-book vendors who support the epub format who would be a natural fit for Sony integration. In the library where I work we’re planning to circulate Sony Readers to support our EBook Library collection.
The Sony press conference was held at New York Public Library. I’m still trying to figure out if the partnership with NYPL goes beyond the use of the Overdrive collection. If any NSR readers have some insight please post a comment.
Overdrive and Sony to cross-market
From an Overdrive press release:
(Cleveland, OH) - August 12, 2009 - OverDrive (www.overdrive.com), the leading global digital distributor of eBooks and audiobooks to libraries, announced today a joint marketing agreement with Sony Electronics, Inc., developer of the Sony Reader Digital Book (www.sony.com/reader). OverDrive and Sony will cross-market OverDrive’s library network and the Reader, the leading eBook device that is compatible with industry standard eBook formats offered by libraries. (more…)
OCLC announce agreements in Europe to extend coverage in WorldCat
(August 25, 2009). OCLC today announced four new agreements have been signed with European national libraries and affiliated institutions which significantly increase the coverage of records in WorldCat and the visibility of libraries in WorldCat.org within the Europe and Middle East regions. These latest agreements in Denmark, Switzerland, Slovenia and Israel show that libraries from around the globe are responding very positively to the opportunity that WorldCat offers to streamline workflows and increase visibility in WorldCat.org, a global destination web site for libraries, which surfaces to a worldwide community the collections they hold and the services they deliver.
Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren’t Ready
Josh Catone at Mashable suggests 3 Reasons Students Aren’t Ready for Digital Textbooks. And from his observations it seems that digital textbooks have some major hurdles to overcome before they’re ready for mass adoption such as:
- Cost Savings Must be Greater
- A Standard Format is Needed
- Questions of Ownership
Sony’s E-Reader vs. Kindle
Jared Newman at PCWorld takes a look at the two hottest e-book readers on the market right now with Sony’s E-Reader vs. Kindle: 5 Reasons Amazon Should Worry. The article discusses five features that may make Sony’s E-Reader the device of choice for e-book fans including:
- More Choice
- Touch
- It’s Cheaper
- Open Format
- Cool Features
Top 10 Most Usable Content Management Systems
Glen Stansberry at Nettuts+ writes about the Top 10 Most Usable Content Management Systems. The author lists each CMS along with a discussion of its best and most “usable” features. Based on my own experience, I heartily agree with the first two list entries as I have found both WordPress and Drupal to be particularly user-friendly as well as powerful content management systems.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Labeling Library Archives Is a Game at Dartmouth College
Marc Beja at The Chronicle of Higher Ed’s Wired Campus reports on a new social tagging initiative at Dartmouth College which challenges players to beat the clock as they add metadata to library images for free.
“Ms. Flanagan, a digital-humanities professor at Dartmouth College, is creating an Internet-based game in which users create descriptive tags for library images to improve searching through the library’s database. Although the program will be tested at the college’s library, Ms. Flanagan says the game will be open source and available for others to download and build upon.
What The F**k Is Social Media?
Below are a couple great presentations I came across via the Slideshare newsletter. The first one is from a year ago and does a bang-up job of explaining what social media is and why it's important. The second is a sequel of sorts that updates some of the information for today.
This is especially timely since I'm doing a presentation for a local service club in a couple weeks about...what social media is and why it's important.
But even though it's basically the same topic, I don't think I'll crib (too much) from these presentations. And I'm pretty sure I won't title my presentation "What The Fuck Is Social Media?"
This is especially timely since I'm doing a presentation for a local service club in a couple weeks about...what social media is and why it's important.
But even though it's basically the same topic, I don't think I'll crib (too much) from these presentations. And I'm pretty sure I won't title my presentation "What The Fuck Is Social Media?"
What The F**K is Social Media?
View more documents from Marta Kagan.
What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later
View more documents from Marta Kagan.
Obama’s Beach Reads
- Tom Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded”
- David McCullough’s “John Adams”
- Richard Price’s “Lush Life”
- Kent Haruf’s “Plain Song”
- George Pelecanos’s “The Way Home”
Only in America: Sony’s new wireless e-reader
There’s a lot of hubbub south of the border today about the launch of Sony’s new Daily Edition e-reader, the first Sony e-reading device to go wireless. According to The L.A. Times:
The Daily Edition has a 7-inch screen, can hold up to 1,000 books, and can be read either vertically or tipped horizontally to mimic the two pages of an open book. The Daily Edition will be available in December for holiday shoppers for about $399.
The Daily Edition will use AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband technology (just like the iPhone) which it can use for downloading new books. Amazon’s Kindle, which has made tremendous headway in the marketplace, is already wireless.
This is great news for Americans, but it looks like Canadians have once again been left out in the cold. According to a spokesperson from Sony Canada, the Daily Edition is, like the Kindle, only available in the U.S.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Online Trends
What do people do online every month?
Mashable is reporting that with "Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites growing rapidly, it’s not too surprising that on the whole, the number of social networking users has doubled since 2007.
Specifically, 55.6 million adults – or just less than 1/3rd of the population – in the US now visit social networks at least monthly, according to a new report from Forrester Research. That’s up from just 15 percent of adults in 2007, and around 18 percent last year.
At that level, social networking is now more popular than instant messaging among adults, which 54.3 million people report using. However, watching video, online shopping, and email (contrary to other reports we’ve seen) are still more widely used than social networks."
May eBook Sales +197%
The IDPF released May statistics on eBook sales. They are up $197%, approximately 23 million in revenues. See the IDPF site for the detailed stats.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sony Cuts eBook Prices to $9.99
NYTimes article on Sony cutting eBook prices from 11.99 to 9.99.This is my favorite section: ”Regarding the price cut for digital books, Mr. Haber said: “We have to offer value. It’s clear e-books should be less expensive than regular books, with the savings on printing and logistics getting passed on to the consumer.”and this is the worrisome part: ”Book publishers will still retain their traditional cut of every e-book sale — about half the hardcover retail list price. But they are concerned that as online retailers like Amazon and Sony gain market power, they will eventually tire of losing money on e-book sales and ask publishers for lower wholesale prices, a move that would cut into their profit margins.” To me this says less publishers and more publishing control by Amazon and Sony. Toss Google in that mix and we’ve got ourselves quite a trifecta.
eTextbook Article from EduCause Quarterly
Great article in the EduCause Quarterly “A Campus-Wide E-textbook Initiative.” Authors, Jon T. Rickman, Roger Von Holzen, Paul G. Klute, and Teri Tobin describes the process that Northwest Missouri State University followed to transition from a textbook rental program to an eTextbook rental program. eBook Readers, Laptops, and the NMSU implementation plan are discussed in detail. (more…)
50 Excellent Open Courses for Techie Librarians
Sarah Russel at BestCollegesOnline compiles a mega-list of 50 Excellent Open Courses for Techie Librarians. This guide to free online courses includes the following areas of study:
- Open Source
- Information & Research
- Engagement
- Technology
- Books & Writing
- Law
- Education
- Communication
- Operations
Library of Congress Talks Digital Initiatives
For this month’s Stacking the Tech column I had a chance to interview three Library of Congress librarians about all of their recent digital initiatives.
The Library of Congress (LOC) has established itself as one of the leading institutions making use of social media to engage audiences and build community. And they have made great strides since January 2008 when they first began their Flickr Commons pilot. They have since launched a blog, a Facebook Page, YouTube and iTunes channels, and a Twitter account which claims over 13,000 followers. Most recently they have begun experimenting with the Semantic Web/Linked Data and cloud computing. I was fortunate enough to have a chance to chat with three of their librarians about these initiatives.
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