Electronic Publications

Blake writes "Want to publish an open access journal, but you don't want to license a commercial journal management system, develop your own system, or to do it all by tedious HTML hand-coding? Here's summary information about two existing open source e-journal management systems (and one emerging system) that may do the trick."

At CES last January, officials from Sony said the company's digital book reader device, based on E Ink's thin, very-high-definition "electronic ink" display, would be available in the US this spring. Sony took the next step in delivering on that promise, announcing a marketing deal to sell its Sony Reader portable electronic book device through Borders book stores in the US, though Sony did not reveal many other details. David Berlind says This is sort of the equivalent of you're local record store signing its death warrant by selling iPods.

The Book Standard has a bit more and >Brocktown News says Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest bookstore chain, is spurning the Sony Reader.

We just received our 2006 edition of the Thomas Register. I was pleasantly surprised to open the carton and see hardbound books, since last year's edition was a floppy paperback set that was nearly impossible to shelve. My pleasure faded, though, when I saw the enclosed announcement. After 100 years of providing the industry-standard directory of American manufacturers, Thomas will cease publication of its print edition in favor of its online product, ThomasNet.


The press release linked at ThomasNet leads to a blank page at press time, but the letter printed in the front of each volume paints this as simply an inevitable move toward digital publication. I can't help but see it as another sign of the fading of the U.S. as a world industrial power.

Bibliophiles find books on tape or compact disc the right medium to enjoy literature in situations where their eyes are already occupied. Madison.com reports People with sight problems are appreciative customers of audio books. The adaptability of audio books to so many environments has made audio books one of the fastest-growing segments of the publishing industry, reaching an estimated $832 million in sales in 2004, growing 75 percent since 1995 and capturing 10 percent of the book market, according to the Audio Publishers Association.

If you are going to digitize an item shouldn't you at least proof-read it to make sure you didn't miss something? I am going to provide a link to a book scanned by the Library of Congress. The link I provide goes to the last page of the book. Please tell me how the book ends? Here is the link. The book is titled "Plain Talk and Friendly Advice to Domestics". If your library has this book can you scan the last page and post it to LISNEWS? Then people can read the whole book at the Library of Congress site and then go to LISNEWS for the last sentence.

A Column From The USA Today says a new technology is now making it into consumer products that just might make electronic books a viable alternative to printed ones. It's called electronic ink, and it can make a computer display look like a page in a printed book as opposed to a glowing screen.
E-books are a boon for publishers. While the cost of the content (author, editors, layout artists) remains the same, the cost of production and delivery obviously drops significantly. There's no paper to buy, no shipping charges to pay, no worries about how big a production run should be.

Business Week reports Lighter devices, better displays, and the iPod craze could make ebooks best-sellers.

Geeky? For now, maybe, but not for much longer. Many experts are convinced that digital books, after plenty of false starts, are finally ready for takeoff. "Every other form of media has gone digital -- music, newspapers, movies," says Joni Evans, a top literary agent who just left the William Morris Agency to start her own company that will focus on books and technology. "We're the only industry that hasn't lived up to the pace of technology. A revolution is around the corner."

Interesting article from The St. Petersburg Times (Russia) on the future of books. The author says the myriad of new formats means the market of e-content (that at present basically means mobile content) is one of high growth potential. The hard-copy format is doomed to fall in its share of the market. The Internet University of Informational Technologies gives a few of its courses in the traditional way, despite their complete accessibility on the web site. The university's administration believes that free publication on the web in no way influences book sales, because those who read books and those who read books on a computer are different categories.

MJG writes "The blog of e-journal Information Research reports on the effectiveness of the 'blogosphere' in attracting readers to scholarly publications. Professor Tom (T.D.) Wilson writes:

Nahyun Kwon's paper on virtual reference service has been noted in a number of Weblogs and, as a direct result, the hits have soared to more than 2,400 in less than one month. By comparison, the other papers in the issue have an average hit rate of about 400.

Yet another indication that those involved in the process of scholarly communication would do well to consider such options as blogs and open access for sharing their work: to maximize readership and impact."

Jay writes "The University of British Columbia Library's UBC Google Scholar Blog earlier reported a compilation of open access historical digital collection of medical literature. Excerpt: 'The great medical texts of history - such as Harvey's Circulation of the Blood - are not yet digitized but others mention Harvey's landmark book or are translations. Text versions are available on Bartleby's as are writings by Lister and even Pasteur. Try an advanced search on the Web for specific digital versions.' Read the full article at:
Open Access to Digital Medical Atheneum."

Wall Street Journal writer Terry Teachout Says The e-book will transform reading -- and writing. Terry says the phenomenal success of the iPod strongly suggests that many, perhaps most, consumers are ready to start buying digital books on the Web and storing and reading them electronically. It goes without saying that the economic impact of the e-book on publishers and booksellers will be dramatic.

Even more interesting, it will change how we read and write.

gsandler writes "Here is a story from
Wired News about Sony's new e-book reader."

"Some people are even wondering whether the Sony Reader might be just the ticket to kick the e-book market into high gear."

The world of publishing stands on the cusp of the greatest innovation since Gutenberg. With cheap, portable electronic readers just around the corner, Robert McCrum Asks what is the future of the printed book?
He says E-books will not replace the old format any more than the motorcar replaced the bicycle, or typewriters the pen. When the e-reader emerges as a mass-market item, the shift will be very rapid indeed. It will soon be a dual-format market.

David Rothman writes "In the latest Cites and Insights, Walt Crawford attacks not just Library 2.0 but also the idea of a national library service--in effect, including TeleRead, the idea I've been espousing since the 1990s. He doesn't say "national digital library service," but based on other Crawford statements, I suspect that's very much on his mind.

Walt's little aside is a shame in that he also makes many excellent points. For example, Walt commendably thinks that libraries should play up their offerings in narrative, etc., rather than fixate on information-hunting alone. Walt needs to grasp that e-book technology is on the cusp of becoming much better for immersive reading of narratives and other content, thanks to wrinkles such as E Ink, even though the new gizmos still have a way to go in areas ranging from format standards to DRM.

As for the idea of a well-stocked national digital library system, the evolving TeleRead vision from the start has suggested that the national system be carefully phased in with participation from local librarians and with ways for local systems to remain responsive to local needs. Walt, as a traditionalist, is fighting the wrong battle. He should worry not about TeleRead-style approaches, but rather about such barbarities as the diversion of library money from books to DVDs. More on the Crawford piece via the TeleRead site."

Sony Reader targets book lovers from the BBC has a few more details on The Sony Reader. See Also stories at The Standard, Tablet PC Reviews, Geek Zone, and a discussion at Slashdot.

David H. Rothman writes "Libraries, beware. The Sony Reader in many ways shows signs of being Gemstar II, with its focus on a proprietary e-book format called BBeB. Libraries would do well to steer clear of the Reader unless Sony wises up. So confusing is the eBabel situation that both BusinessWeek and a Sony tech person screwed up on the issue of whether the Sony Reader can read DRMed PDF. It can't--so you're out of luck if you want to enjoy your existing "protected" books in that format.
More at TeleRead.

Reminder: I'm a ringleader of the OpenReader Consortium, which seek to raze the Tower of eBabel. OR welcomes library participation, especially in the standards-setting process."

Gizmodo Says Sony's new 'Reader' is fantastic and we want one immediately. The price point is going to be painfully high, with guesstimates in between $300 and $400, but it's everything the Libri, Sony's first-generation, Japan-only ePaper-based eBook reader (whew)should have been.

PC World Writer Yardena Arar says Sony today issued the latest electronic challenge to the printed page. She says The Reader, which Sony expects to ship in April with a price tag between $299 and $399, addresses all of the usual issues in a package that's only slightly taller and wider than most best-selling paperbacks and no more than half as thick. You flip open a cover to a screen that shows one page at a time using electronic-ink technology from a company named E Ink. You turn pages by pressing a button; you can also enlarge the text up to 200 percent, a boon for vision-impaired readers.

Other coverage @ The USA Today and the PR News Wire.

Jay writes "EContent: Digital Content Strategies and Resources earlier reported that CSA, a Division of Cambridge Information Group, has announced it has acquired Community of Science (COS) , an Internet site for the global R&D community. CoS helps researchers to find funding with COS Funding Opportunities database, Identify experts and collaborators worldwide with COS Expertise database, and helps promote research with ability to create a COS personal research profile.

CSA also publishes subject based Discovery Guides covering disciplines in Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Technology. CSA has also announced that, effective January 2006, it will publish and distribute the Ulrich's line of serials products--including Ulrich's Periodicals Directory and Magazines for Libraries, Ulrichsweb.com, Ulrich's Serials Analysis System, Ulrich's Resource Linker, and Ulrich's on Disc.
For more information, please refer to
CSA Acquires Community of Science; Will Publish and Distribute Periodicals."

David H. Rothman writes "Can you use a Nano or other iPod to read e-books, not just hear audios? Well, depends. I tested a Nano for TeleRead and found that the tiny screen was hardly optimal for reading the Brothers K. But if you're already begun a book and don't have your PDA or tablet handy, then, yes, you CAN turn to the Nano. What's more, there's a dandy free program for e-book reading on a Nano."