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Are eReaders Environmentally Friendly?

June 29, 2011 - 4:25pm — birdie

Hmm, the jury is still out on that subject, but this blog post does point out an interesting statistic: for every five books that men read, women read nine.

After discussing the multiple considerations and the pros and cons of both delivery methods (e-books & paper), the author David Turnbull, an environmental law student, concludes this:

the only strong conclusion that can be gathered is that traditional print is the greenest option available today. The established consumer base, sustainable forested supply of paper, and paper recycling programs allow book purchases to be the greener option. However, in the near future, eReaders will in fact become more sustainable through the course of their lifecycle, eBooks will be much cheaper to purchase, and their lifecycle will be much longer. Perhaps we will have to wait until the distant future to find out the verdict once eReaders have achieved hegemony over old-fashioned print.

Read more: http://greenanswers.com/blog/244280/are-ereaders-environmentally-friendly#ixzz1QhN0msWD

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Kindles are Convenient, But They Just Aren't as Good as Books

June 28, 2011 - 4:39pm — Anonymous Patron (not verified)

Think Ebooks are the be all and end all? Here's a counterargument-
Kindle vs. books: The dead trees society-

LA Times Op-Ed By Sara Barbour-June 17, 2011

"In eliminating a book's physical existence, something crucial is lost forever. Trapped in a Kindle, the story remains but the book can no longer be scribbled in, hoarded, burned, given or received. We may be able to read it, but we can't share it with others in the same way, and its ability to connect us to people, places and ideas is that much less powerful." Read more-
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-barbour-kindles-20110617,0,5490224.story

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Lessons From the Gutenberg Bible for Publishers Going Digital

June 28, 2011 - 12:30pm — Blake

Lessons From the Gutenberg Bible for Publishers Going Digital
Gutenberg's reward for the invention of the printing press was financial ruin, but others figured out a unique way to keep the printing business afloat

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PEW Internet: E-reader ownership doubles in six months

June 27, 2011 - 2:18pm — Pete

According to the Pew Internet & Amercan Life Project, e-reader ownership outpaces tablets:

"The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011 from 6% in November 2010. E-readers, such as a Kindle or Nook, are portable devices designed to allow readers to download and read books and periodicals. This is the first time since the Pew Internet Project began measuring e-reader use in April 2009 that ownership of this device has reached double digits among U.S. adults.

Tablet computers—portable devices similar to e-readers but designed for more interactive web functions—have not seen the same level of growth in recent months."

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New Nook Touch vs Kindle 3 Comparison Review

June 24, 2011 - 12:06pm — Bibliofuture

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3M to Debut New Digital Library Platform This Week

June 20, 2011 - 6:01pm — Bibliofuture

Attendees are just about to depart for the ALA conference in New Orleans this week, and there’s a major announcement waiting for them. 3M plans to unveil the 3M Cloud Library at the ALA Annual Conference, which starts on June 23.

3m will be demoing the new system in its booth, and it plans to offer sneak peaks of the new hardware like the Discovery terminals and the 3M eReaders. 3M is also pleased to announce that it has added HarperCollins and Sourcebooks to its growing list of partners. This now makes 4 publishers announced so far, including IPG and Random House. More partners could be announced later this week.

Full piece

3M website:E-book Lending Service

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Kansas State Librarian Argues Consortium Owns, Not Licenses, Content from OverDrive

June 20, 2011 - 5:53pm — Bibliofuture

The state librarian of Kansas, with the backing of state attorney general's office, is planning to terminate the Kansas Digital Library Consortium's contract with ebook vendor OverDrive and is asserting the bold argument that the consortium has purchased, not licensed, its ebook content from OverDrive and, therefore, has the right to transfer the content to a new service provider.

Jo Budler, the state librarian, said she is in negotiations with other platform providers, and that the state consortium will become a beta tester of 3M's new Cloud Library eBook lending service, which will debut this week at the American Library Association's annual conference in New Orleans. (3M announced today several other beta testers as well.).

Budler is asserting ownership of all the consortium's content on OverDrive's platform, which represents a $568,000 investment from December 2005 to June 2010, with one exception: the MaxAccess subscription it has with OverDrive for audiobooks. Budler refused to sign a renewal contract with OverDrive not only because it would have raised fees nearly 700 percent by 2014 but also would have rewritten the clause upon which Budler is basing her right to transfer content.

Full article at LibraryJournal.com

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British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works

June 20, 2011 - 8:13am — Pete

The headline of this Engadget story pretty much says it all. Have a look at it here.

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Consumer Reports: Nook Beats Kindle For First Time

June 17, 2011 - 8:28pm — Bibliofuture

The new Nook is barely better than the Kindle.
So said Consumer Reports on Friday, marking the first time the esteemed product-review group has given Barnes & Noble's e-reader higher marks than its competitor from Amazon.
Apparently, more is less for Consumer Reports. The Nook Simple Touch Reader, released last month, scored one point higher than the latest Kindle and a few points higher than other models.

Read more: http://www.ketv.com/technology/28274663/detail.html#ixzz1PaCQ0kG5

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Library E-Book Checkouts Get a Major Boost

June 17, 2011 - 6:34pm — Bibliofuture

In anticipation of Amazon's lending library opening later this year, OverDrive has just made a number of announcements about its plans to work with libraries in order to facilitate e-book lending.

Full blog post at ReadWriteWeb at NYT.com

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