VALA and ebooks

Technology peeps ahoy,

The VALA 2010 conference is underway in Melbourne as I write.
Kathryn Greenhill, librarian 2.0 virtuoso is tweeting live from proceedings.
You can check her out here...
http://twitter.com/libsmatter

Also yesterday's Sunday Profile on Radio National was all about ebooks. Stephen Page of Faber and Faber is interviewed. As this happens to be the very subject we plan to explore with the public in just a few short weeks, I think we should check it out.
Download the podcast here...
http://www.abc.net.au/sundayprofile/stories/2811148.htm?site=greatsouthern

TTFN

iPad

Apple have finally released the iPad after so much hype, rumour and guess work. Although not available for purchase as yet it has caused a lot of people to tweet, blog, comment and many articles written about it already. Some of these comments have been positive while others scathing for a piece of technology they still haven't touched yet.

Architectures have even already started to design ideas on how the ipad can be used in libraries.

From these articles, blog posts and tweets people can definately start making decisions on whether this new piece of technolgy works for you.

The major points that I can find that will help make your decision are:-

• iBook app at time of release will not be available in Australia. Even when it is, given the Australian laws limiting what e-books can be purchased, we will be limited, as with iTunes, on the content we can purchase.


• Will iPad will be the death of the Kindle? If the Kindle does not continue to develop it is predicted that the iPad will become the piece of technology that will replace the e-book readers.
  
• Apple have made the decision to use epub as the e-book format. Maybe with Apple adopting this format this will urge publishers to finally make a decision on what the format for all e-books will be.
  
• The cost is reasonable from the cheapest to the most expensive. Will the 3G version work in Australia? Only time will tell.
  
• No allowance has been made for extra memory that could cause problems.
  
• No handwriting recognition. What about making notes on e-books is it possible? Why didn't they think of this as an option?
  
• The name - who thought the ipad was a good option? Must have come from a man!

One Library to rule them all

So with the increasing digitisation of books, one does have to ponder the belief that will there one day be a singular address that can provide materials to everyone? Project Gutenberg and many others have tried to achieve this in the form of free digitisation, but with advent of online ebook vendors becoming more prevalent, a recent article champions google books as putting up its bid to bring the end of the library age as we know it. But how successful will this be?

Current trends of the now generation may be in their favour, but what will the end result be? The article somewhat takes the narrow view that books are simply a hoarding place for paper knowledge, but it disregards that most are moving toward a gathering place to access information, not just within its walls but online as well. What do you think?

ereading@your.library.now

Ahh more bad titles.


Anyway I've been researching the use of online books and ereading services and devices, and came across a nice blog that is keeping tabs on the very subject. I'm currently supposed to be looking into Overdrive for our library but thought I better do some research first to get some actual user feedback form those in the know more than me about it category.


In this review at Teleread they reviewed Overdrive and Fictionwise e-lending libraries which you can read about here. It goes through the pros and cons of both systems and the experience a user has with each when browsing, borrowing and returning titles. Props of course go the wonderful convenience of being able to quickly access hundreds of titles quickly and relatively easy, but slops go to the DRM system that is not yet fully compatible with every ones mobile readers, at least for the moment.

Still, it is definitely an area of lending that all libraries consider as society moves further into portable digital technology.

Ebooks

List of websites for e-books and downloadable audio books.

I have checked out libraries from Australia and America they seem to either be using NetLibrary or Overdrive or a combination for both for customers.

Free ebooks - A blog post with 20 best websites to download Free eBooks

Overdrive Digital Media Services company

NetLibrary OCLC eBooks product

TumbleTalkingBooks online audio library