Electronic Publications

mdoneil writes "I just saw this link today. It ends on the 11th so run, don't walk to http://www.worldebookfair.com/ for free ebooks." "Due To High Demand the World eBook Fair will Remain Open An Extra Week, from August 11th to August 11th, 2006


Unprecedented Response Results In Expanded eBook Fair Availability!"

Search Engines WEB writes HarperCollins, which announced last year that it was digitizing its vast catalog, has set up a "Browse Inside" program that will allow readers worldwide to view online excerpts from books by Michael Crichton, Isabel Allende and several other writers. "Browse Inside" formally launched Thursday and the publisher expects to greatly expand its program over the following year"

Anonymous Patron writes "From Engadget Now that monochrome e-paper is a pretty standard affair, those at the forefront of e-ink technology have moved on to perfecting the real killer app, which is full-color displays. We've already seen a tiny color model from Fujitsu, and a larger, but only two-color offering from Bridgestone, and now Hitachi -- maker of the black-and-white Albirey e-paper -- is showing off a 13.1-inch version of this product will an impressive 4,096-color palette."

Anonymous Patron writes "Sony Reader Video Review by PC Magazine: The Sony Reader is the next generation of e-books. It has a crisp, high-contrast electronic display that uses E Ink. The Reader is only half an inch thick and about the length and width of a paperback novel. It also plays music and can display PDF files."

Anonymous Patron writes "From The New York Times New services allow print runs of a few, or just one, for customers ranging from aspiring authors to anyone who needs a bound document.
The print-on-demand business is gradually moving toward the center of the marketplace. What began as a way for publishers to reduce their inventory and stop wasting paper is becoming a tool for anyone who needs a bound document. Short-run presses can turn out books economically in small quantities or singly, and new software simplifies the process of designing a book."

Personal Computer World Says Hewlett-Packard is improving the techniques it uses to print electrical circuits on unconventional surfaces, which can then be used for flexible displays and epaper.

The circuitry isn't yet sophisticated enough to support a conventional CPU, said the company at its HP Labs event in Disneyland Paris, but will be used for TFTs.

HP's Large-area, Inexpensive Flexible Electronics (Life) research has resulted in many applications for such displays.

Roll-up electronic newspapers should be available in the future. In the shorter term, however, we're more likely to see the release of non-flat, flexible TFT displays.

Michael May writes "The editors of dLIST, the Digital Library of Information Science & Technology, are pleased to announce that the dLIST Classics Project has received permission from the Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS) to provide open electronic access to the following works by S. R. Ranganathan:

Five Laws of Library Science, 1931.
New Education and School Library, 1973.
Philosophy of Library Classification, 1950.
Prolegomena to Library Classification, 3rd ed., 1967.
Classification and Communication, 1951.
Documentation: Genesis and Development, 1973.
Documentation and Its Facets, 1963.
Library Book Selection, 2nd ed., 1966.
Reference Service, 2nd ed., 1961.

Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan (1892-1972) was a pioneer in the field of Library and Information Science. S.R. Ranganathan's The Five Laws of Library Science, the main premise of which is "books are for use," is arguably the most influential work in LIS to date. A preliminary scan of the prefatory matter and first chapter from the original 1931 edition of S.R. Ranganathan's Five Laws is now available at dLIST:

http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/1220/

dLIST editors thank the following individuals for making open access to S.R. Ranganathan's works possible: A. Neelameghan, K. N. Prasad, and K. S. Raghavan (SRELS, Bangalore, India, and Documentation Research & Training Centre, Bangalore), and S. Arunachalam, dLIST Advisory Board Member (MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India).

dLIST is a cross-institutional, subject-based, open access digital archive for the Information Sciences. dLIST Classics is a new project that is making fundamental and leading Library and Information Science texts openly accessible in dLIST. For more information, please visit dLIST at:

http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/

Michael May
dLIST Classics Editor
[email protected]"

One From Canada.com: For book lovers, no digital device has yet proven as cool or as user-friendly as the iPod has for more than 42 million music lovers. Most books are still printed on paper -- much like they have been since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450.

"They're not as aesthetically pleasing and they don't have the same tactile feel as paper," the 61-year-old Mr. Simpson said of e-readers, although he does like his machine's ability to do searches and look up words.

David Rothman writes "I'm curious if any libraries are using the Pepper Pad these days--you know, that funny-looking linux-based gizmo with the split keyboards on either side of the screen. The price is still high, some $650 even when steeply discounted, and I'd like to see the Pad smaller and lighter. But the screen is very good, and the scroll wheel is great for both e-books and Web browsing. Full review at TeleRead."

David Rothman writes "Here's one for John Updike--the latest in p-book technology: sideways book and the waterproof Bible (via Patti Thorn's column in the Rocky Mountain News).

Related: BedBooks and Thomas Nelson and J-Walk and LibrarianInBlack.net. I agree with the latter about the strained-neck problem: "eBooks potential here.""

http://search-engines-web.com/ writes "But as early as this year, the future may finally arrive.
Some of the world's top newspapers publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newspaper that will allow users to download entire editions from the Web on to reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than light-emitting laptop or cellphone displays

More Here"

Yesterday's Boston Globe looks at the current generation of eBook readers. Now the e-book may have a second shot. Sony has shown geeks its forthcoming Reader , which looks a lot like the old SoftBook but supposedly uses improved, Reader-friendly ``e-ink," developed by Cambridge's E Ink Corp . In a grandiose public relations flourish, e-book e-vangelists Project Gutenberg and World eBook Fair plan to ``publish," or make available for download, 300,000 free e-books starting July 4.

Flannery calls herself ``a big fan of the printed book" who now does more ``reading" of audio books on her iPod than between hard covers. ``I am part of a transitional generation," she says. What about digital books? ``I would think the reference collections would be target number one for being replaced by electronic sources. We are prepared to reduce their shelf space accordingly."

Article in the New York Times. When Mark Z. Danielewski's second novel, "Only Revolutions," is published in September, it will include hundreds of margin notes listing moments in history suggested online by fans of his work. Nearly 60 of his contributors have already received galleys of the experimental book, which they're commenting about in a private forum at Mr. Danielewski's Web site, www.onlyrevolutions.com. Read entire article.

Anonymous Patron writes "Precious few details, but, Engadget Is One Place that has a picture of The Quick Response Liquid Powder Display (QR-LPD) made by the tire company Bridgestone. They say it's the world's thinnest sheet of electronic paper (for its size) (and sparsity of colors) and performs all the same neat tricks as devices shown off by other companies, including the ability to maintain an image when bent or powered down. A Bridgestone Japan Press Release has more, assuming you can read Japanese."

From a Project Gutenberg press release:

1/3 Million eBooks Free from July 4 Through August 4

1/3 of a million books, or 10 times the number found in the average public library, will be available for free downloading via the Internet and World Wide Web beginning July 4, as Project Gutenberg and the World eBook Library act on their dreams of increased world literacy and education.

Such a collection, if printed out in standard format, would be large enough to outweigh elephant herds and to cover the sidelines at all 40 Super Bowl games.

Each year for one month, The World eBook Library and Project Gutenberg will team up to be major sponsors, planning to make ONE MILLION eBooks available in the World eBook Fair of 2009.

The Washington Post says a new breed of upcoming devices designed to hold thousands of text files and display them at the same resolution of a printed page — could change the landscape of how books are both purchased and read.


E-book readers are new and still somewhat pricey. But unlike the music industry — where at first underground sites were the only places to find downloadable tracks for the new MP3 players — a growing number of books are available for purchase and download. Sony Reader users will be able to browse through volumes available from Sony’s Connect eBookstore and download them to the reader.

Here's An Engadget Post on the "Albirey" from Hitachi. The Albirey should be available tomorrow. Hitachi will be joining the likes of display manufacturers iRex and Sony. CNet Japan has a report as well, it's in Japanese

Thanks to Mr. Backwage for This
One from the Chicago Tribune. They report that A month ago, the
Chicago Public Library quietly added a link to its Web site and waited
for the tech savvy bibliophiles. "New! Download Audio Books," the link
promised since March 15. That first day, 72 titles were downloaded to
home computers and MP3 players from chipublib.org. By the end of week
two, 617 titles were checked out, and the numbers were promising
enough that library officials doubled their initial $25,000 investment
to buy more titles. The collection jumped to 1,300 downloadable
titles.

Anonymous Patron writes "Playaway's MP3 players, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, each contain one audio book.
The New York Times reports In a world filled with complicated MP3 players and online audio stores, it's a wonder that anyone gets any listening done at all. Playaway hopes to change all that by making an audio book purchase as easy as plopping down a credit card at the airport gift shop."

Anonymous Patron writes "The NY Times Takes A Look at all the e-paper devices competing to become the iPod of the newspaper business. E-paper trials are being undertaken by the paper Les Echos, which is based here, by the newspaper trade group IFRA in Germany and, in the United States, by The New York Times, and De Tijd.

But after some highly publicized e-book machines failed to take off in the late 1990's, those long-held hopes have remained elusive.

The difference this time, developers and supporters say, is that the screens on the new hardware are made to reflect rather than transmit light, making them more like paper. The devices weigh about 13 ounces (light enough to be held in one hand while reading) and can be updated in Wi-Fi hot spots or through Internet connections (although they cannot be used to surf the Web yet). Their touch screens are also capable of doubling as notebooks to jot down information or to download books. Pages are turned with the touch of a button."