 |
|
|
|
What's New
OverDrive
The newest player on the block. They are primarily a library vendor with some direct sales to the public and packaging for publishers. Your library purchases book titles which OverDrive then makes available through your catalog to your patrons to read. They handle circulation etc., for the library.
Patron access is to the texts is all by downloads. Patrons check out a book and download it to their PC to read. They can also choose to download a PDA version of the book and then transfer that version to their PDA. In both cases the patron chooses an appropriate reader software either the Adobe eBook Reader or the Palm Reader. The downloaded book is automatically set to become unreadable at the end of the loan period. The circulation status travels with the text when it's downloaded to the patrons PC. The one patron at a time circulation model (apparently extremely important to publishers) is maintained.
The most prominent purchaser of OverDrive and now being used is the Cleveland Public Library. They bought 1,000 titles so far. Check it out at:Click on the eBooks link highlighted on the home page.
You can also see how Overdrive eBooks are integrated into the Cleveland OPAC at:
Search on the term "ebook" to find links to those versions listed.
Here's a link to a Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper article about OverDrive in the CPL:http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1049794378298380.xml
Here's the link to OverDrive
ePocrates, Medical Resources on PDAs
A surprisingly robust albeit small market is publication and distribution of medical reference texts in PDA formats. So for example a Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) type reference tool is made available with frequent updates that a doctor can put on their PDA device and carry with them any time they are attending a patient. A good example of this kind of eBook is ePocrates. Their web site including a free reduced feature version of their eText is:
ePocrates at: https://www.epocrates.com/index.jsp
Background Information
Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, Chapter 2, Electronic Books and Texts
Bailey, Charles W., Jr. Houston: University of Houston Libraries, 1996-2003
http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/toc.htm
Lynch, Clifford (2001). "The battle to Define the Future of the Book in the Digital World". First Monday, vol. 6, no. 6, June 2001
Go to WayBack Machine:
http://www.archive.org
Enter this URL:
http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/current_issue/lynch/index.html
Best overall web site for ebooks:
Electronic Book Web
http://12.108.175.91/ebookweb/
Evolving ebook standards information is at:
http://www.openebook.org
Final evaluative report on:
"Academic Libraries Take An E-Look at E-Books"
http://www.geocities.com/lbell927/index.htm
Evaluative reports from the WPLC project:
http://www.winnefox.org/wplc/reports
Electronic discussion group:
ebook-l@hawaii.edu, contact:
listproc@hawaii.edu
eBook Locator
http://www.ebooklocator.com
Digital Book Index
http://www.digitalbookindex.com
What's out there now
1) Public Domain Titles
There are a number of organizations that have created electronic text editions of books old enough to be in the Public Domain, generally speaking works over 80 years old. The work of these organizations in many cases underlie all electronic text development, nonprofit and commercial alike. Here are three organizations that are the most active and have significant sized collections.
Project Gutenberg
Started it all by creating digital text files of "classic" books. They digitize works in the public domain and operate on the volunteer and open source models. They are currently at about 4000 titles that are available for free. You load them into your word processor to read. These titles have become the backbone for the free offerings available from all the commercial vendors.University of Virginia Etext Center
It has two sections, one is primarily for campus users and contains 50,000 titles in twelve different languages. The second section has 1200 titles of classic literature, in the public domain, all available for free online using a web browser or off-line using the highly proprietary Microsoft Reader Software or in a Palm Reader format.Phoenix-Library
A worldwide multiformat ebook library, it provides thousands of titles in multiple electronic text formats. Members pay a very low annual administrative fee (US dollar $15) to be able to download and use all texts and formats freely. Most notable is Phoenix-Library has become the repository of thousands of Rocket eBook format public domain titles.2) Peanut Press
Now owned by Palm. They produce versions of ebooks for reading on PDAs, particularly the Palm format, but also for WindowsCE devices. They have freely available reader software to download onto your PDA. You can get free ebooks (see Public Domain Titles above) that have been formatted to work with the Peanut Reader, or you can buy new titles. They use a standard online bookstore model. They can now be accessed from either the Peanut Press address or the new Palm Address. The Palm Reader web site has proven to be the most successful commercial ebook venture of all with sales over 100,000 books in the last year.3) RCA REB 1100
A dedicated ebook reading device which has recently replaced the Rocket eBook Reader. There were two hardware reading devices in the marketplace, the Rocket eBook and the SoftBook Reader. They have both been acquired by Gemstar. The Rocket eBook device, now updated by the RCA REB 1100 is more common. They are the size of a trade paper back book and the Pro version can store between 20 and 30 novels. There are free ebooks formatted for the Rocket eBook see Public Domain Titles above. New titles are available from Powells Books and Gemstar. Recently distributor Barnes and Noble decided to no longer selling Rocket eBook format titles. However in a large change in approach by Gemstar you can now purchase titles directly from the Gemstar web site.
The Rocket eBook is linked to a particular PC you designate for obtaining, loading and organizing your ebooks on your reader. The new Gemstar REB 1100 readers are more proprietary. They have a built in modem that link directly with the Gemstar web site. You can also download to your PC from the Gemstar site with all the appropriate passwords. All the old Rocket eBook titles should work on the new RCA REB 1100. The most significant development is a drastic price reduction in both models of REB ebooks. The REB 1100 is now for sale for $149.http://www.rocket-ebook.com/enter.html
http://www.ebook-gemstar.com4) netLibrary
Primarily a library vendor. You purchase book titles which netLibrary then makes available to your patrons to read. They handle circulation etc., for the library. Patron access is all web based so patrons can check out a book on one PC and continue reading it on another. Patrons set up accounts that are linked to their libraries netLibrary collection. The off-line reader software package has been discontinued. The circulation status travels with the text when it's downloaded to the patrons PC. The one patron at a time circulation model (apparently extremely important to publishers) is maintained. The University of California System recently negotiated a multiple simultaneous user contract with netLibrary for primarily reference titles. This could indicate newly expanded access options for libraries. An actual printed copy of all titles is held for the purchasing library and a back up electronic copy is also held at OCLC for the library. Free and for sale titles number over 40,000.
netLibrary has recently been successful purchased by OCLC. This appears to be a very good match and bodes well for libraries purchasing netLibrary services.
Other Vendors and Vaporware
The not advertised as an ebook product, but in fact it is indeed a wonderful ebook collection is the new Google Catalogs website. Searchable online access to hundreds of mail order catalogs. These are the full displays of the actual pages of all these catalogs. An excellent implementation of ebooks. What might happen if this technology were used on a more library like collection? Check it out at:
Google Catalogs at: http://catalogs.google.com
There were competitors to netLibrary but so far all of them have very limited collections, mainly in the computer and technology fields, and they market directly to individuals or corporations. Two notables were, but now iBooks is dead:
Books24x7 at: http://www.books24x7.com
iBooks at: http://www.ibooks.com
There is a huge amount of Vaporware and new products out there. Almost every week there are new announcements about ebooks and new organizations that are going to create the perfect format or device or system for providing ebooks to the whole world, at a very low cost. Their economic models all involve direct billing to the users (we call them patrons). These have proven to be less than successful and have been trying to market directly to libraries. Beware. Big players with new products and organizations that have the most money behind them at the moment include:
Questia at: http://www.questia.com
Ebrary at: http://www.ebrary.com
In addition there are the potential electronic text format wars. Like web browser software the question is who will create the dominant software for reading eBooks on a computer. The competition between readers is heating up and add features such as a built in vocal reader to "read-out-loud". Many folks believe this will be fought by two of the major players in the computer world.
Adobe eBook Reader at: http://www.adobe.com/products/ebookreader/
Microsoft Reader at: http://www.microsoft.com/reader/
The bottom line is that none of the above, nor any of the other wannabes have actually delivered a product that works well for libraries. In addition the dot com economic downturn has hit all of these commercial efforts pretty hard.Another new product came from the textbook arena. GoReader announced an agreement with Harcourt College Publishers to develop textbook sales for the impending GoReader ebook device, which looked and acted quite a lot like a proprietary laptop. At $900 plus per unit priced liked a laptop too. Don't bother with their website, they're toast.
For a closer look at some of the other ebook reading devices on the market past check: http://lepton.wils.wisc.edu/ww2001dev
Future
In the future world many folks are talking about digital paper, or e-paper, or electronic paper. Some kind of device that's more like a newspaper or magazine of book, but the content is dynamic. There are two major projects ongoing, one even has a preliminary product. Here is a terrific article from Technology Review, the good folks at MIT, unfortunately it's a purchase only item.
Mann, Charles C. "Electronic Paper Turns the Page". Technology Review
The Xerox PARC Gyricon project has been spun off into it's own company, but no further news from them yet:
And there's E Ink, a company that is using technology developed at MIT Media labs to create digital paper. Both the E Ink web site and the MIT Media web site have great information on the technology and what might be coming.
http://www.media.mit.edu/micromedia/elecpaper.html
http://www.eink.com
Grant Information
A Wisconsin Advanced Telecommunications Foundation (WATF) Grant of $189,000 was awarded to seven Public Library Systems to provide access to electronically published books (ebooks) for Wisconsin citizens through their public libraries. This grant is the basis for the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium. Since the start of the grant additional Public Library Systems have joined the Consortium. See a complete listing of participating Systems at the bottom of this page. Any Wisconsin public library or group of libraries can join the Consortium for the purposes of obtaining ebooks for their patrons. Currently the project covers over three quarters of the public libraries in the state serving 4 million people.
The Grant Choices
The libraries involved in the grant have chosen to purchase ebooks from two vendors, Rocket eBook (now Gemstar) and netLibrary. The decision was based on standard library evaluation parameters, including cost, service, and availability. Particular attention was paid to fitting ebooks into existing services and collections.
