Category: Books
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BYU suspends Kindle program over legal concerns
Sometimes it’s a problem pushing the envelope – seems that the BYU Library initiative to use Kindles instead of getting books via ILL has been suspended after “some buzz on library-related blogs for breaking ground in the uncertain area of lending books on the Kindle.” “We are playing it safe,” Layton said. “Two people here…
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Ready to try Summon? Go ahead!
Dartmouth, one of the first two (I think) libraries to sign on as beta partners with Serials Solutions’ Summon Unified Discovery Service, has opened the beta up to its entire campus community. And you can search it too! You’ll find a prominent link on their home page, or you can jump directly to the search…
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Brigham Young Library Tests Kindle as ILL Alternative
Gerrit van Dyk, Document Delivery Services Manager at Brigham Young University, blogs about their new initiative to loan Kindles to faculty members instead of trying to obtain new material via ILL. You can also read a brief article about this at Library Journal. Kindle, ILL, BYU
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Simon & Schuster to Sell Digital Books on Scribd.com
I looked at Scribd.com when it first came out and dismissed it as lawyer-bait because it appeared to be so easy to upload pirated content. Just did some searches and found lots of links to questionable content, but after clicking through, every one had been removed, so apparently they’re doing a good job policing that. …
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Do you love books or do you love reading?
Ann Kirschner has a thought-provoking piece in the Chronicle describing how she read a 1,000 page novel across four different formats; paperback, audiobook, iPhone and Kindle. You might be surprised at what she decided was the best format, at least for her. As an aside, I'm now reading my fourth book in the Stanza iPhone…
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This time we mean it! – Google to sell e-books
The New York Times is reporting that Google plans to begin selling ebooks by the end of 2009. "In discussions with publishers at the annual BookExpo convention in New York over the weekend, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct…
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More on Libraries and eBooks
Following up on my earlier post about licensing issues around ebooks and libraries, Sue at No Shelf Required discusses the same Teleread post: Is it possible to donate an eBook to the library? In the comments, Dan D'Agostino mentions he's got a new blog on his (collection development librarian) perspective of eBook reader technology at…
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First Impressions
I finally got around to reading a couple of posts I'd squirreled away, and they turn out to be somewhat related. Brian Mathews posts about 5 next-gen library catalogs and 5 students: their initial impressions. Important to us here at the UofC as we continue to beta test Summon. While admittedly not scientific, there are…
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In which the public learns about licensing
Teleread has an interesting post entitled How to give away an ebook after you’ve read it in which the author suggests people purchase ebooks for their local library rather for themselves, thus allowing multiple people to read the book (once the original purchaser has had a chance to read it). Sounds like a great idea,…
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Second thoughts on Shortcovers
Yesterday I blogged about the new Shortcovers service. Last night I read a short story and have the following observations. I like how I can browse the website from my desktop, bookmark titles, and then have them appear on my iPhone for reading. (I can also, of course, browse and bookmark from the iPhone). I…