Submitted by Patrick Hogan on March 13, 2012 - 5:15pm
A few miles from the Front Range of the Rockies in Colorado, Douglas County Libraries is blazing trails in e-books in libraries. As Director James LaRue described in a Public Libraries article, the library staff, while happy with OverDrive’s solution at the in the early days of e-books, now question the feasibility getting e-books only through an aggregator platform because of costs, licensing terms, and other factors. Read More »
Submitted by Jason Griffey on January 26, 2012 - 11:20pm
Apple has decided to attempt yet another media disruption, this time focusing on reinventing the textbook market. This move was foretold in the biography of Steve Jobs, where Walter Isaacson wrote about Jobs:
“He wanted to disrupt the textbook industry, and save the spines of spavined students bearing backpacks by creating electronic texts and curriculum material for the iPad." Read More »
Submitted by Patrick Hogan on October 14, 2011 - 12:39pm
OverDrive released 3rd quarter 2011 traffic and ciruclation statisics a few days ago. Through September 30, the 15,000 libraries in the OverDrive network showed nearly triple the number of eBook checkouts versus all of 2010, as well as more than 2 million new users. Below are details. Read More »
Submitted by Jason Griffey on September 28, 2011 - 10:36pm
That explosion you heard today? That was the sound of a thousand heads hitting a thousand desks over at Barnes & Noble HQ today as Amazon pulled the rug out of B&N’s temporary lead in eBook technology. For the last year Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color has stood alone on the tablet eReader front, and their more-recently announced Nook Touch was at the top of the technological heap of eInk devices. Amazon has always had the better ecosystem for eBooks, as well as a better catalog of books. Read More »
Submitted by Jason Griffey on December 29, 2010 - 10:40am
Since my November post was all about what was going to be hot for the holiday season, I thought it only fitting that the last post of 2010 for me would be looking forward to 2011. Here’s a short list of my guesses for the technology world in 2011, particularly the eBook and eReader realm. In no particular order:
1. 2011 is the year that eReaders enter the realm of commodity. I’ve been saying for the last couple of years that they were on the way, but I think that this is the year we’ll see the traditional eInk eReader like the Kindle drop to the $50 range. Read More »
Submitted by Jason Griffey on November 19, 2010 - 9:44am
With the Holiday season quickly approaching, I decided that I should try and condense the last few months of gadget craziness into something like a recommended list for that special someone in your life. Or just for you...
eReader Read More »
Submitted by Jason Griffey on October 7, 2010 - 9:15am
Amazon announced a new piece of their eBook strategy this past week, with the launch of Kindle for the Web. This allows you to:
- Read a book sample from Amazon.com without leaving your browser. No download or installation required.
- Share book samples with your friends via email or social networks.
- Embed a book sample in your personal blog or website and earn referral fees on sales.
This is the first step in what I think will be the logical progression of their “read your books anywhere” strategy, which will probably end with the ability to access your library directly in the browser. They haven’t announced this, but it seems like the natural endgame for accessing your Kindle books: you can already buy an ebook from Amazon and read it on your: Read More »
Submitted by Jason Griffey on May 20, 2010 - 9:29am
I decided that this month I wanted to share a couple of very specific tools that I find invaluable for dealing with information online. These two tools make reading long form text online so much easier and more convenient that I can't recommend them enough. The two tools are the Readability bookmark from Acr90 Labs, and the Instapaper service.
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Submitted by Jason Griffey on February 1, 2010 - 9:46am
 On Wednesday, the most anticipated technology product announcement of the last few years took place (video of the event here), and Apple finally showed off their tablet computer, the iPad. The iPad is going to dominate the technology discussion for the next several months, but here's a first-blush look at the tech specs and features that are going to be important for libraries and education. as well as what's missing and what we should be worried about.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on December 9, 2009 - 11:51am
When it comes to blind and low-vision members of our society, the stakes of the digital information revolution may be higher for than for the sighted population. Once a text has been created in or converted to a digital format, the accessibility options blossom and bloom, at least in theory.
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