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Marmot is a consortium of Colorado public and academic libraries that uses VuFind, an open source OPAC on top of a Millennium system. Marmot had already been using OverDrive's Discovery APIs that were released last year, enabling patrons to search and discover eBooks and determine availability. The new Circulation APIs allow users to check out, hold or return eBooks and audiobooks all in one place, without leaving the Marmot website. Patron authentication and account integration are also available through the new APIs.
"Working with (OverDrive) developers was very gratifying because they were responsive, conscientious and fun to work with," said Jimmy Thomas, Executive Director of Marmot Library Network. "(With the implementation of the APIs,) you can find your physical books and your eBooks all in one handy place, and you don't have to learn two or 12 user interfaces."
The full complement of OverDrive APIs simplifies the user experience and promotes the discovery of digital media content on library and school websites, meeting the ReadersFirst guidelines. Find out more about how to incorporate OverDrive APIs with your OPAC at developer.overdrive.com.
Heather Tunstall is Public Relations Specialist at OverDrive.
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Monday, October 14, 2013
Marmot goes live with OverDrive’s library Circulation APIs
Frankfurt Book Fair Opens to the Public
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For the past few years, however, Frankfurt has opened its doors to the public towards the end of the event itself, which is typically a time when business meetings are concluded and executives have headed back home, leaving their exhibits staffed by company representatives or hired exhibitors, per Fair regulations. Not only do public attendees get to see some of the wide varieties of publishing industry businesses who make the books happen in some way, they can also get a glimpse at some of the titles and technology that are on the horizon. Of course, the opportunity to network with other authors drives self-published authors to the event, as does the chance to meet with some of their favorite bestselling authors in attendance. A guide put out prior to the event by Publishing Perspectives’ Hannah Johnson gave authors nearly forty pages of valuable advice for attending the event, and a recent Twitter chat put on by BiblioCrunch and featuring Porter Anderson let indie authors discuss the merits of this type of effort. For others though, the Fair has turned into a general spirit of book partying and cosplay fandom, with an outdoor stage and festival area focused on reading, live music, and more. For whatever reason people choose to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair, an event that practically overtakes the entire city for a week each fall, rest assured that there is no more book-centric spot on Earth at that time than the city of Frankfurt.
Frankfurt Book Fair Opens to the Public is a post from: E-Reader News |
Turn your Pi into a low-cost HD surveillance cam
| Local government CCTV is awful, and it’s everywhere in the UK. But I’m much happier about surveillance in the hands of private people – it’s a matter of quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchmen?), and I’m pleased to see the Raspberry Pi bring the price of networked motion-sensitive HD surveillance cameras down to be affordable by consumers. Off the shelf, you’re looking at prices in the hundreds of pounds. Use a Pi to make your own HD system, and your setup should come in at under £50, with a bit of shopping around. This is a great use case for the value bundle our distributors are offering at the moment, where a camera board and a Model A Raspberry Pi with an SD card is coming in at $40. Christoph Buenger has used a Pi and a camera board as the guts of his project, and, in a stroke of sheer genius, has waterproofed the kit by housing it in one of those fake CCTV shells you can buy to fool burglars. The fakes are head-scratchingly cheap – I just found one that looks pretty convincing on Amazon for £6.24.  Christoph’s camera, snug inside its housing Christoph has made build instructions and code available so you can set your own camera up. It does more than just film what’s in front of it: he’s added some motion-detection capability to run in the background, so if the camera spots something moving, it’ll start recording for a set period. At the moment, Christoph saves video to a Windows shared folder (you can, of course, save it wherever you like if you’re not a Windows person). The live stream is also available to be viewed online if you configure your local network.  A live (and topical) frame from the camera’s video feed Christoph’s looking at adding more functionality to the setup. He says: There are a thousand things you can do with such a surveillance cam basic setup now. How about sending Growl notifications when some motion was detected? This guide explains how to add this functionality easily. Or you could easily add a temperature-sensor to the cam. It’s only a few bucks and can be integrated very easily. We’re currently working on integrating the live stream into MediaPortal server so that we can switch to a TV channel to see the live stream from the cam in our office. If you want extra security, you could also add a battery pack to the camera. Be sure to buy one that is able to charge simultaneously while powering the Raspberry. This would enable you to detect if some bad guy cuts the power strips of your camera and send some alert messages to you (i.e. SMS or email) including the video of the disturber. Let us know if you set up your own security camera with the Pi. We’d love to see what adaptations you come up with! |
‘Like’ Your Facebook Page
| Many libraries do a great job engaging with their community through Facebook. Take it to the next level by leveraging the valuable space on your Facebook page to promote your OverDrive service. If your library is new to Facebook, you can reference the last section of our Best Practices Handbook for some social media tips.
Facebook Tabs At the top of your page, you can directly link to your digital collection with Facebook Tabs. We've added some Facebook Tab images to the Social Media section of the Partner Portal to make it easy to get started.
It is always great to remind users of your digital collection, whether it is a reminder that titles are available 24/7 or that new titles were added, don't be afraid to promote! We've created some Social Media Images that are optimal size for Facebook posts to jazz up your message.
Facebook Cover Photos Lastly, don't forget about that GIANT REAL ESTATE at the top of your page! That space is a great spot to promote your digital collection with our ready-to-use Facebook Cover Photos. We've added various options for every season, as well as some that can be used all year around! When you post a promotional photo to your Facebook page, don't forget to add a description that includes your digital collection URL so users know where to find the eBooks!
For more great marketing ideas, take a look at our Partner Portal.
Cassie is a Marketing Specialist with OverDrive  |
What Does the Future Look Like for eBooks?
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But on the other hand, is this excitement because we still aren’t there yet, because the industry keeps talking about innovation but is slow to follow through? Good e-Reader sat down with book futurist Kristen McLean, founder and CEO of Bookigee, on the very first day of the Frankfurt Book Fair to gauge whether or not her predictions for a frustrating industry would be prevalent at the event. “I really want to rethink what we do when we come together. I don’t feel like we’re progressing. I asked a question to a panel [at a recent publishing conference] that I probably would have asked three years ago. I have a joint venture going on right now with what I think is going to turn out to be a super disruptive partner who’s building a very large ebook reading and purchasing environment that’s going to be global, going out through the wireless providers and doesn’t require anything from the publishers. Publishers can play on it, but it’s not publisher controlled and there are no pinch points with the retailers because he’s just building this big retail platform. Because he’s coming from wireless, the things that we’re so used to fighting for he’s just like, ‘You want the data? It’s no problem.’ He’s building a large fluid, frictionless platform with many installs and versions of his app feeding data and pushing it back out again. It’s going to roll out this fall, is techinically super competitive with Kindle, and it’s got pricing that’s competitive because he’s doing direct deals. It’s going to become the Verizon ebook app that ships out on every phone, same thing with AT&T, T-Mobile, Cricket wireless. It’s built for 153 countries. I’m starting to mention it because direct to consumers is such a big deal.” “There’s all kinds of interesting opportunities. My big thing is I’m really going after three things, that I’m measuring against: bigger profitability for anybody, direct ownership of and authentic communication with your end user to own your consumer relationship, and real-time data so that you can make real-time business decisions and move at the speed of this business environment. And mobile has the ability to provide all three of these things.” “I went with this company, Page Foundry, because his vision for what he’s trying to do and his approach to the market is so disruptive.”
What Does the Future Look Like for eBooks? is a post from: E-Reader News |
Nook Touch on Sale for $59, Nook Glow for $79
| Barnes and Noble is offering a sale on their E Ink Nook ebook readers for what feels like the hundredth time. This is about as low as the prices have gotten, though, so they are definitely worth considering. Both Nooks are marked down by $20 at B&N.com and in Barnes and Noble retail stores until […] |
WHSmith Pulls Site Down After Accused of Selling Immoral Content Alongside Kid’s eBooks
| In what can be termed as a shocking revelation, a retailer as respected as WHSmith has been found promoting pornographic content among children by listing them alongside children's titles on their official website. The problem could well be deeply imbibed in the software as searching a terms as innocent as 'daddy' has been found to reveal some hardcore sexual content dealing with incest or violent sexual behavior along with the usual bed time stories for children. The retailer responded immediately to the allegations by bringing down the site altogether while also promising enough changes in its systems and processes to avoid a re-run of the same anytime in the future. WHSmith has been found to have on its lists more than 60 such titles dealing with immoral subjects, with most of them being self-published. The retailer has entered into a deal with Kobo and has stated they are working with the ebook company to deal with the issue. "We were made aware last week that a number of unacceptable titles were appearing on the Kobo website that has an automated feed to ours. “This is totally unacceptable and we in no way whatsoever condone them. “We are urgently working with our ebook partner, Kobo, to remove them from our websites as soon as possible,” the retailer revealed in a statement. WHSmith though blamed the recent spurt in self-publishing that led to the illegal content having slipped through their screening process. “This is an industry wide issue impacting retailers that sell self-published ebooks due to the explosion of self-publishing, which in the main is good as it gives new authors the opportunity to get their content published. “However, we are disgusted by these particular titles, find this unacceptable and we in no way whatsoever condone them. It is our policy not to feature titles like those highlighted and we have processes in place to screen them out,” said WHSmith sources. What should be equally disturbing is that several other big name ebook retailers such as Amazon, Waterstones and Barnes & Noble have also been found selling ebooks dealing with hardcore porn the majority of which are again found to be self-published. Barnes & Noble though assured users they have in place a robust system to tackle such issues. “When there are violations to the content policy that are brought to our attention, either through our internal process or from a customer or external source, we have a rapid response team in place to appropriately categorise or remove the content in accordance with our policy,” revealed B&N sources. Waterstones sources revealed in a statement: “As with other bookselling websites, Waterstones takes a feed from central databases of book publications, notably Nielsen. Any of these titles can then be ordered by a customer. We do not stock in our shops or in our warehouses for internet supply any of these titles and we have never had any ordered from us in the past. Now that we are aware of the theoretical ability of a customer to order such titles by fact of their listing by Nielsen, we will investigate with them how this might be avoided.” Meanwhile, there have been widespread protest from all quarters condemning the revelation.
WHSmith Pulls Site Down After Accused of Selling Immoral Content Alongside Kid’s eBooks is a post from: E-Reader News |
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Sony PRS-T3
| Sony and Amazon have a storied history in e-Reader production and both companies have been in the hardware game for a long time. Amazon started producing e-readers in 2007, while Sony started in 2006. The Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Sony PRS-T3 reflect the very latest generation in e-reader technology and today we look at how both fare head to head. The Sony PRS-T3 features a six inch e-ink Pearl display screen with a resolution of 1024×768. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ Freescale processor and 512 MB of RAM. Sony says that the built in memory is 2 GB, but when you take it out of the box for the first time, you only have a paltry 1.2 GB of storage space. If you are a voracious reader, you must invest in an SD Card. Sony has a number of things going for it that make it stand out in the crowd. It has physical page turn keys and is still able to be interacted with via the touchscreen. It also has Evernote integration to send notes right to your account. If you borrow eBooks from the library, Sony has a Overdrive app that allows you to borrow and read books. Speaking of reading, Sony has always offered amazing PDF support, and this model allows you to reflow the text or pinch and zoom. There is also a bookstore you can tap into via the built in WIFI. The Reader Store has undergone a facelift over the course of the last year and now has an excellent eBook rating system thanks to iDreambooks. The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 features a six inch e-Ink display screen with a resolution of 1024×768. Unlike the Sony, this model has a built in front-lit display that allows you to read in the dark. Underneath the hood is a 800 MHZ processor and 256 MB of RAM. There is 2 GB of internal storage and the majority of your content will be held in the cloud. Amazon has a number of things going for it, such as one of the best bookstores in the world with over 2.1 million titles. It has also Flashcards and translation support to assist in discovering new words and learning a new language. One of the things I like is the new way it handles what page you are on and how far you are in a book. X-Ray continues to have a wide appeal, with being able to come back to a book weeks later and check out the people, places and things. You can get a sense on who the main characters are and whats happened in the book. Over the course of this video tutorial we look at the GUI and what users can expect their home screens to look like. We also dive into the eBook experience with books purchased from their bookstores and also side loaded PDF’s. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 vs Sony PRS-T3 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Lack of Editing Is Only for Self-Published Authors? Think Again.
| To err is human, but to sweep it under the rug is completely corporate. With so much talk in recent news about the poor quality of indie authors’ works and data that shows that only about 59% of self-published authors go so far as to pay a professional editor before hitting that publish button, it’s easy to forget that the traditional publishing industry has its fair share of mistakes, too. The famous Twilight series has a glaring error in book one–we’ll skip the discussions of the other five errors–but apparently Bella liked to watch the “dust moats” instead of “dust motes” as they floated around in the vacuum in front of her face. But now, the highly anticipated release of a sequel in the Bridget Jones Diary series, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, has not only an error…it contains about forty pages of a different, unpublished book somewhere in the middle of it. According to sources in the publishing house, it’s the printer’s fault, and not the fault of the person whose job it was to send the printer the file. More importantly, Vintage enacted a swift recall of the printed book, which contains an excerpt of an as-of-yet unpublished book, the autobiography of Sir David Jason. Can’t we all just admit that mistakes happen, regardless of what side of the industry you’re on? As for the book itself, it seems to be a far cry from the lighthearted romcom that more filmgoers than readers may remember, as starring Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant.
Lack of Editing Is Only for Self-Published Authors? Think Again. is a post from: E-Reader News |
NYCC 2013: Jet City Takes Off
| Among the many, many booths at New York Comic Con was one for Jet City Comics, Amazon’s comics imprint, which launched last summer; the booth was also promoting their science fiction/fantasy imprint 47North. Jet City’s Justin Gollenbeck took a few minutes to talk to me about the new comics, which have already been showing up on our digital comics best-seller lists, on the strength of pre-orders alone. Three graphic novels were being promoted at the con; the first, Meathouse Man, will be released on Tuesday. Based on a short story by Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin and illustrated by his niece, Raya Golden, it is a “darkly subversive modern tale” set on a planet where “corpse handlers” somehow animate brainless bodies to do their will. This 36-page comic is a Kindle-only book and is currently priced at $2.99. The second title, also by Martin, is The Hedge Knight, a prequel to Game of Thrones, adapted by Ben Avery and illustrated by Mike S. Miller. In this graphic novel Dunk, a former squire, sets out to reinvent himself as a knight by winning a tournament, and along the way he picks up a squire of his own, Egg. The Dunk and Egg stories have been published as short stories and as graphic novels in the past, but the graphic novels are long out of print. Finally, Wool, due out later this winter, is a based on Hugh Howey’s prose novel, adapted by the veteran comics team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray and illustrated by Jimmy Broxton; Palmiotti and Gray were at the con signing posters at the Jet City booth on Saturday. While the first two comics mentioned here are done-in-one graphic novels Wool will be published as a Kindle Serial: Buy the first issue at $4.99, and the five subsequent issues are automatically delivered to your Kindle for free. If you happen to come in in the middle, all the previous issues will be automatically added for free as well. The first issue is due out in February, but you can download a preview for your Kindle now. NYCC 2013: Jet City Takes Off is a post from: E-Reader News |
Kobo Aura vs Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2
| Amazon and Kobo have some of the deepest digital ecosystems in the world and have millions of books, magazines, newspapers, graphic novels and manga. The Kindle Paperwhite 2 and Kobo Aura are the best e-readers currently in the world and have raised the bar with their innovative glowlight technology and showcasing the largest generation e-Ink internals. How do these two devices stack up against each other? Today we look at the hardware, software, front-lit display and ecosystems. The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 features a six inch e-Ink display screen with a resolution of 1024×768. The front-lit display has received a small upgrade and gives a better illumination experience then the previous model. One of the neat little features is a software enhancement called "Max" which instantly brings the brightness level to the maximum. Overall the touchscreen is more responsive and text has higher contrast to make text more legible. This is most noticeable on the homscreen when you are sweeping through the eBooks Amazon is trying to sell you. There is less flickering, which makes it a little more more responsive. This is due to e-Ink Regal, which is new technology. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ processor and 256 MB of RAM. There is 2 GB of internal storage and the majority of your content will be held in the cloud. Amazon has never included a Micro SD as an avenue to manually expand your memory. During our review session, we were actually having having storage issues with a three larger PDF files and a number of sideloaded eBooks. The Kobo Aura maintains the standard six-inch approach that the company made famous with their entire product line. It currently has a super high resolution e-Ink "Clarity Screen" with 212 DPI and sixteen levels of grey. Really, the resolution is the exact same on the Glo, and has not broken any barriers on using a next generation e-Ink display. This e-Reader has the exact same front-lite technology that was found on the original Kobo Aura HD. This will allow readers to adjust the brightness settings to suit their environment. Currently, Kobo has the best front-lit screen in the business and has surpassed Amazon in terms of quality. To turn the screen light on, there is a button at the very top and then a virtual slider bar to control the brightness. It is powered by the quintessential Freescale i.MX507 1 GHZ processor and has 1 GB of RAM. There are 4 GB of internal memory, which can be enhanced via the Micro SD Card. This is something that separates the two brands, as Amazon has never offered expandable memory via SD. Side by Side the front-lit display is better on the Aura then it is on the Kindle. The Kindle has a better storefront experience with Kindle Worlds, Singles, Serials and other interesting aspects. It also is designed better in terms of ease of use and intuitiveness. In the video below we document the entire hardware and software experience. We show you how both readers handle PDF and eBooks, and even sideloaded content. Kobo Aura vs Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Saturday, October 12, 2013
NYCC: Kodansha Comics Expands E-Books, Grabs More Attack on Titan Series
| Attack on Titan has been a sleeper hit for the manga publisher Kodansha Comics, and at their panel at New York Comic Con, editor Ben Applegate announced that they had sold over 500,000 copies of the series, which is currently at seven volumes. The series is set in a world in which giants roam the earth, eating people; to escape them, humans have retreated behind high walls. An intrepid group of teenage soldiers battle the Titans, with the help of vertical maneuvering gear that allows them to fly through the air and attack the Titans from above. The manga really took off in popularity after the anime began airing (you can see it on Crunchyroll), and last week, four of the seven volumes out so far made the New York Times manga best-seller list. So it’s not terribly surprising that at Kodansha announced the acquisition of a number of Attack on Titan spin-offs and tie-ins at their panel: Attack on Titan Guidebook: Inside and Outside, a 400-page guide to the universe of Attack on Titan, with concept art, character profiles, information about the setting, even Titan papercrafts. This came out as two volumes in Japan, but Kodansha is publishing it as a single volume. (June 2014) Titan Junior High, a comedy manga set in the world of Attack on Titan but featuring middle school hijinks. (March 2014) Attack on Titan: No Regrets, a spinoff that ran in the shoujo (girls’) magazine Aria, about the backstory of one of the more remarkable characters in Attack on Titan, the quietly competent, scrupulously clean Captain Levi. (August 2014) Attack on Titan: Before the Fall, a prequel that explains how humans first figured out how to fight the Titans, set 70 years before the current story begins. (March 2014) (Another publisher, Vertical, Inc., has licensed the light novels on which Attack on Titan: Before the Fall is based and will release them in 2014 as print and e-books.) Kodansha had two other new licenses to announce: The Seven Deadly Sins, the tale of a princess who must round up seven legendary warriors and bring them back to her kingdom in order to claim the throne. (March 2014) UQ Holder, a new series by Ken Akamatsu that is set in the world of his earlier manga Negima! but with a new generation of characters. (March 2014) All will be available in the Nook, Kindle, and iBookstore the same day as print. Kodansha’s first move towards digital comics was a dedicated iOS app, but in July they announced they would stop updating it and would make their books available on those three e-book platforms instead. (I talked to director of publishing Dallas Middaugh about that in August.) In addition, Kodansha is adding a number of other books to its e-book service: Shugo Chara, Shugo Chara-Chan, Sherlock Bones, Say ‘I Love You,’ My Little Monster, and Negima. Kodansha also has two digital samplers available for Nook and Kindle. In response to a question from the audience, Applegate said that Kodansha prices its books the same for print or digital and leaves it up to the retailer to discount them; the standard price for digital seems to be $7.99, which is currently the price in iBooks. NYCC: Kodansha Comics Expands E-Books, Grabs More Attack on Titan Series is a post from: E-Reader News |
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 1 vs the Paperwhite 2
| Welcome to another Good e-Reader Comparison! Today we check out the previous generation Amazon Kindle Paperwhite and one that just came out this week. We evaluate the hardware, software and glowlight. The hardware for both models is relatively the same with the second generation having a bit faster of a processor. Underneath the hood is a 1 GHZ vs the 800 MHZ on the Paperwhite 1. Both models have 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal storage. The majority of your content will be held in the cloud that you purchased from Amazon. The Glowlight seems more refined in the second generation model with the overall display being a tremendous upgrade. The original Kindle Paperwhite for its time blew away the Kobo Glo and Nook Simple Touch with its front-lit display. The second generation evenly distributes the light more evenly and its less blue then before on higher settings. One of the new software enhancements on the Paperwhite 2 is the ability to maximize the brightness with the click of a button. You also have the ability to completely shut off the light, which was lacking in the first iteration. One of the big new features on the Paperwhite 2 is called Vocabulary builder. Any singular word you highlight will be placed in this folder accessed from the settings menu. Each word when you click on it will give you the dictionary definition and usage. The usage aspect is very interesting because instead of using the standard thesaurus, it will use the usage from the book you are reading. If you have a bunch of Vocabulary words, you can make Flashcards out of them, and have a virtual slideshow of all your words. This is useful for academic textbooks, bookclubs and a myriad of other practical uses. The Paperwhite 2 will see a number of software upgrades over the course of the next month. Kindle Freetime will allow parents to setup accounts for their kids and manage permissions. Goodreads will also be available for a social book network, to talk and rate books. Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 1 vs the Paperwhite 2 is a post from: E-Reader News |
Dark Horse Announces Free Ninja Gaiden Z Digital Comic
| Dark Horse has just announced a free three issue series in conjunction with Team Ninja. Fans will be introduced to the world of YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z with an all-new digital comic revealing essential pieces of this stylized living comic book! The series will be a free download through the Dark Horse website and app for iOS and Android. It is is penned by writers Tim Seeley and Josh Eamons, with art from Rafael Ortiz. A physical comic will also be available at Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z’s launch. Dark Horse Announces Free Ninja Gaiden Z Digital Comic is a post from: E-Reader News |
How to Change Nook Backlight Color For Better Sleep
| The likes of the Kindle Paperwhite or the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight have endeared many an ebook addict to digital reading. The biggest benefit of those devices is their backlit display, which has come as a benefit to those who indulge in late night reading but do not wish to depend on an external light source. However, some readers have gone on to make some improvements to the hardware to achieve what a near perfect lighting system that is even more friendly to the eyes. The device in question is the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, which has been subjected to some modification by Vivek Gani. The main issue that Gani faced is the hue of the backlight, which with its bluish tinge has led to many a sleepless night for him (this he claims is a scientifically proved fact), enough to cause him to act on his own accord. Surprisingly, the remedy to the above problem is as simple (as well as cheap) as the kapton tape which offers a soft amber hue to it. Now the primary application of Kapton tape is to ensure electrical insulation but has been found to be surprisingly effective in allowing for a better hued glow light that is much softer on the eyes. The entire operation calls for disassembling the device, which is something that is to be done with some care. For this, Gani is referring to the ifixit guide which spells out the step by step guide to get to the internals of the device. In this case, one only has to strip the device to reach the display in its bare form and reveal its LED lighting source. The next thing that is to be done is to use the Kapton tape and to “cut it into small squares the width of each LED, and make it long enough to go into the side (where the led will be shining most of it’s light) and have enough area to stick on top. That is, you’re going to have small squares where each square is in an L-shaped formation.” The next step is going to be crucial as it involves sticking the Kapton tape. “The key here is to stick the tape in between where the led actually outputs light and the plastic ‘diffraction grating’ cover. This is a really thin space, so it may take a few tries,” reveals Gani in his web page. This pretty much sums up the entire operation, to be followed by putting the components back in the right order and with due care of course. In the meantime, Amazon has followed up its Paperwhite device with a new version that incorporates a lot of enhancements over its predecessor. This also includes a more responsive display that has a better contrast and better readability.
How to Change Nook Backlight Color For Better Sleep is a post from: E-Reader News |
3M and eBook Lending Make an Appearance at Frankfurt Book Fair
 Matt Tempelis and Heather McCormack of 3M eBook lending is in a state of frustratingly slow adoption, which is still a vast improvement from the initial phases when libraries struggled to adopt digital lending in light of back list or empty virtual shelves. A number of measures and the work of companies like OverDrive and 3M have allowed huge inroads in the lending market, and as 3M Library System’s Matt Tempelis explained from the Frankfurt Book Fair, it’s been a busy year for libraries and digital content providers. “First, the announcement at the show is that we now have a ‘buy and donate’ program through Kobo. It’s easy to do an affiliate program, but what we did was negotiate a deal with Kobo so that it was a significant donation. Proceeds of the profits will go directly to the library and they can use it to buy additional collections, and we can take it from there. What that allows us to do is additionally support some of the publishers who are interested in the market, but are skeptical. We think we’re going to get even more reciprocity with those publishers who are on the sidelines.” Tempelis spoke on the recent collaboration between digital media collection OverDrive and Sourcebooks, a project which sought to provide definitive numbers to the industry about how ebook lending impacts future sales of the title and of the author’s and publisher’s other books. “It’s been a busy year. If you think about it, diversity in the ecosystem has helped prod some publishers back into the market, and hopefully 3M has played a role there. I’m really excited to hear those that have come back in this year are seeing additional sales to their businesses, just like we always thought. They’re not seeing the erosion that was hypothetical at the time, which only means there’s going to be more impetus for others to join.” “We’ve always said, our first goal is to get everyone in the market and we can work out the details later. I always say there are going to be two or three models that are going to be prevalent, depending on the publisher.” One of 3M’s recent innovations is the ability for libraries to stock their collections on their own servers as well as allow other libraries to work within their collections to share content. “We have introduced our cloud-link functionality, and we’re rolling that out now with the Melsa group in Minnesota. It allows libraries to have their own private cloud, but they can share unused titles with sister or consortium libraries. The costs of a larger system means they buy more but there’s more cost, as we pay money every time there’s a circulation. The other thing we’re seeing a lot of is circulation of ebooks is really heavily skewed towards Kindle e-ink, whose users are still growing. But when they bring 3M on, they see another dramatic growth in circulation, literally doubling. It’s because, we think, that those people who’ve tried other systems and failed have kind of moved on. It gives people the opportunity to rediscover the platform. We’re really enjoying a dramatic circulation growth in the 3M cloud library as users are discovering our titles.” 3M and eBook Lending Make an Appearance at Frankfurt Book Fair is a post from: E-Reader News |
Story2Go AppBuilder Makes Digital App Books Easy
| Even as self-publishing continues to open doors for authors without the permission of a gatekeeper, there are still some realms of publishing that are not as easy for authors as uploading a Word document to Kobo Writing Life or Kindle Direct Publishing. Creators of children’s books, photography and art books, and even some forms of poetry that require a unique level of formatting often find it difficult to locate inexpensive yet professional options for publishing their graphics-intensive work for tablets. Story2Go, an exhibitor at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, offers a fairly user-friendly interface for content developers who need stand-alone app products across a variety of tablets, but who also want a level of full-color and enhancements like audio and graphics. “Story2Go is an interactive content builder which is designed for providing a bit more than ebooks or standard form of content,” explained Tomas Bonis, CTO of Story2Go, in an interview with Good e-Reader. “The editor itself is designed for the iPad, and you can create your content there. Insert your image, add your text, background, basic interactivity and audio, and once you put it together, you can see it on the editor on the iPad before you launch. Once you have everything together, you send the data to us and we create the stand alone application.” The content is created via an iPad app that can be downloaded upon full launch on November 1st. Authors of children’s books, graphic novels, educational content, magazines, and more can develop their content through the app, or rely on Story2Go’s team to create the content for them. The base price for the launch of the app is $99 for one platform, or $149 for all supported platforms.
Story2Go AppBuilder Makes Digital App Books Easy is a post from: E-Reader News |
Snapplify Talks on Filling Specific Needs in the African and Global Reading Markets
| The Frankfurt Book Fair, though situated in Germany, is a truly worldwide book event with entire halls dedicated to international publishing and rights, and vendors and exhibitors from literally all over the world. But one of the issues still plaguing digital publishing is that the world is still cutoff from ebooks in much the way the print rights must be secured on a country-by-country basis; this is compounded by a lack of cultural understanding in the ebook arena, and the impact that location has on book consumption in a particular country. Good e-Reader met with South African-based Snapplify at the Frankfurt Book Fair to talk about some of the issues and how they can be overcome, specifically in terms of the lack of news coming from markets that are leading their own innovations that work for their cultures of readers, rather than trying to simply recreate a US model abroad. “[Some conferences] are way too America-focused,” explained Snapplify CEO Wesley Lynch. “Not just for the sake of being representative, but if the market was a little more outward focusing, there’s opportunities that they can pick up, not just for access to other markets, but for improvements that other markets have been forced to address through innovations of necessity.” It’s not just a concern in Africa, either. As Lynch explained, “Only two percent of the members of the IDPF are represented by Africa and South America. “Everyone is carrying on about Brazil, and it seems like there’s almost a battleground in Japan, Brazil, and some of these other key markets, and they’re the guys who are pushing and innovating and contributing to the ePub Standard. But Korea has more IDPF members than anyone else. The spirit is the same in the world of collaboration.” One aspect of digital publishing that Lynch spoke at length about is the need for more awareness of cultural and geographical implications before advances can be made in some of the underrepresented book markets. For example, e-ink readers are still wildly popular as opposed to tablets in many outlying parts of Africa, due to their longer battery life and the ability to add ebooks via a USB cable in places with little or no internet connection. Other Asian markets, as an example, will not adopt a retail model similar to that of the US or UK when it comes to books, so adaptations have to be considered and put in place. “I’ve got this utopian view that we’re all going to get together and play nice, and for the greater good. We’ll all end up with better ePub readers.”
Snapplify Talks on Filling Specific Needs in the African and Global Reading Markets is a post from: E-Reader News |
How to Load eBooks on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2
| The Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 e-Reader is starting to ship out to customers living in the US and Canada. One of the most common concerns is about how to load in your own eBooks. There are plenty of websites that offer free books, but may not be in a Kindle Friendly format. In other cases you simply want to load in your own PDF Files. Today, you will get taught on how to load PDF and MOBI files on your Kindle Paperwhite 2 with Calibre, Dropbox and Windows Explorer. PDF and EPUB files are two of the most common digital book formats out there. The Kindle Paperwhite 2 has no problem with PDF files at all, but will not read EPUB. This warrants you having to convert the book from an incompatible format to something like MOBI, PRC, or AZW. In order to acomplish this task, you will need a free program like Calibre. This will not only convert one format to another but will also allow you to change metadata. If you have ever downloaded an eBook from a file sharing website or from the greater internet, often books are rife with errors. The person who uploaded the book may have their own name as the authors and the title might be a mess. Calibre allows you to change all of this info and even swap out book covers. Windows Explorer continues to be the option that most people get familiar with. You simply copy and paste eBooks from your PC into your Kindle. This process gets complicated once you have 50 to 100 books and can get unwieldy. This tutorial outlines some common tips you can employ to organize it a bit better. Finally, Dropbox is one of the best cloud storage lockers out there. It allows you to upload books from any computer or tablet to your account. You can then access the website from the Experimental Browser found in the settings menu. It is very simple to just download any books from the cloud right to your e-Reader. How to Load eBooks on the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite 2 is a post from: E-Reader News |
How to load eBooks on the Kobo Aura
| The Kobo Aura six inch e-Reader just saw a wide commercial release in the last few weeks. Many people often wonder how to load eBooks they purchased from other stores or downloaded from the internet onto their new e-Reader. Today, we teach you how to use Adobe Digital Editions, Calibre, Dropbox and Windows Explorer. Adobe Digital Editions is the program of choice to load content on your e-reader that you have purchased from other stores. The most popular eBook format sold online is EPUB, which is friendly to Kobo. You can download the free program and setup an account, then authorize your computer and you are good to go. You can simply add books to your device either one at a time, or in bulk. Calibre is a free download and is one of the best programs to convert eBooks from one format to another, change book metadata or just manage your collections. A very powerful and easy tool for beginners. Windows Explorer is the most common way people copy books to their Kobo, but it tends to provide the least flexibility. In this video, you will get a sense of the internal directory structure of the reader and what directories you should be coping your books to. Finally Dropbox is a free cloud storage solution that gives you a few Gigs of space for free. You can easily upload books to your account from work and then access them via the Kobo web browser when you are at home and they will automatically be added to your readers library. How to load eBooks on the Kobo Aura is a post from: E-Reader News |
