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The Authors Guild, an organization that advocates for authors and their works, has traditionally only supported “real” authors. In recent years, self-published authors were allowed to join, but only after meeting a minimum sales requirement within an eighteen-month period. Interestingly, the membership page for AG lists three categories of members: book authors, freelance writers, and writers, mentioning in parentheses that self-published “writers” fall into that last category, indicating intentionally or not that they are not authors. Now, however, AG has its first-ever executive council member who is a self-published author. NYT bestselling author CJ Lyons was elected to the board, and the leadership has been very specific that her role is to champion the needs of self-published “authors” within the organization. In a recent report by the The Los Angeles Times, the Guild's new president, Roxana Robinson, stated, "As writers, we are living in very interesting times. The challenges are huge and I am thrilled to be a part of it all… We're going to move ahead, we're going to extend our membership, we're going to continue to offer practical help and advice and a sense of community to our writers, and we're going to continue to support the craft of writing." Interestingly, the Guild has become more open recently, offering associate membership to self-published authors who do not meet the $5000 minimum earnings requirement. According to the Guild’s membership page, “You may qualify as an Associate member if you've been offered a contract with an established American book publisher, if an established literary agency has offered to represent you, or if you have earned at least $500 in writing income… Associate members are eligible for the same benefits and services as Regular members with the exception that they cannot vote in Guild elections. Once an Associate member's book is published they can become a Regular member.” Membership is $90 for the first year, then is adjusted based on writing income for future years.
Author’s Guild Elects SelfPublished Author CJ Lyons to Executive Council is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Author’s Guild Elects SelfPublished Author CJ Lyons to Executive Council
How to survive the end of Windows XP support
Wondering what the end of Windows XP support means for you? Read this article to find out!  |
Announcing our million-pound education charity fund
| It's been a busy month for us here at Pi towers, and after the recent announcement of Picademy and the launch of the new website with an increased focus on educational resources, you may be wondering what's next for our educational mission. Without disappearing too far down the rabbit-hole of superlatives, I can say we are all super-excited to announce the launch of the Raspberry Pi Foundation Education Fund. Thanks to the support of the community over the past two years through buying Raspberry Pis and building inspiring, innovative projects, we've been able to build up a bag of funds to spend on our education mission. So today we are announcing a £1 million education fund.  Emma has been busy getting artistic with the folding stuff this morning. This fund is in support of our core chartable mission, so we are looking to fund innovative and exciting projects that enhance understanding of and education in computing for children aged between 5 and 18. The fund does not exclusively target Computing as a subject; we are also interested in supporting projects that demonstrate and promote the use of computing technology in other subjects, particularly STEM and the creative arts. Our aim is to support a range of projects: from those that increase participation, to those that target excellence. Given our charitable status, priority will be given to organisations that have a not-for-profit ethos. The fund will operate through match funding, so not only are we wanting to hear from people with potential projects ideas; we are also wanting to hear from industry and third-sector partners who'd be interested in co-funding some of the projects. If you'd like to know more about the fund, how it will operate and how to make an application, you can find out more on our Education Fund page.
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Do e-Readers Need a Digital Assistant?
| We live in a world where each major operating system has a digital assistant. Apple is the most well known with Siri, followed by Google Now and the recently announced Microsoft Cortana. The priority seems to be on mobile phones and to a lesser degree tablets. e-Readers have never had this sort of software, but maybe its high-time they start to incorporate it. During the last few years most e-readers have ditched onboard audio of any kind. A few years ago Amazon, B&N and Kobo all had speakers and a 3.5 mm headphone jack to allow readers to listen to music or audiobooks. When they all decided to offer the most cost effective devices possible and compete heavily against each other, audio had to go. This prompted a massive backlash from the National Federation of the Blind which had numerous protests outside Amazon headquarters. The lack of audio has also been a major factor on why schools never embraced them. e-Readers overall are fairly refined and affordable. I think its time that they start to incorporate audio functionality once more, or at least have a higher priced option for consumers. One of the direct benefits would be for a digital assistant that would be able to aid visually impaired people by being able to launch tasks by voice. You could say “Michael, open the Hunger Games – Catching Fire” and it would open the book for you. Alternatively, after reading the book you could prompt the reader to buy the next one in the series. In addition you could do common tasks like access your Dropbox account or open an audiobook. If a digital assistant were to be done right, it would suddenly make e-readers more accessible for the elderly and disabled. It would make purchasing and opening content much easier and give a reason for companies like Kobo to develop an audiobook catalog. The idea for this news item came to me after reading about Microsoft Cortana. This is a new beta feature that will come out with the release of Microsoft Mobile 8.1. It has integration with Skype that will allow you to call people by merely using your voice. It has compatibility with Bing to search the web and is voiced by the same voice actor that did Cortana in the Halo Series. Do you think this idea makes sense? Programming one on Linux would be the most viable solution, as most companies use it for their OS. Sony and Nook buckle the trend with Android, but are minor players in the arena. Do e-Readers Need a Digital Assistant? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
DC Starts Selling Single Issue Digital Comics via Google Play
| Google is making a bid to increase the profile of the digital comic section of their store by solidifying a partnership with DC. Starting today, DC will start distributing single issue titles every Wednesday. DC has a massive digital distribution network and has been very active in appealing to tablet and smartphone users. They started first on Comixology and also sell comics on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks. Google was the latest company DC signed a distribution agreement with and started selling graphic novels last September. “Our Google customers were happy, but kept asking for our single issues,” said Hank Kanalz, senior vice president of Vertigo and Integrated Publishing at DC Entertainment. “As you can imagine, this takes some work, so we wanted to build the infrastructure internally first, before rolling out.” DC will be selling their single issue comics from 99 cents on a special promotion and range upwards to $3.99 for the latest stuff. The whole distribution program basically makes good sense. Google has a better international footprint for comic sales than Amazin, B&N or iBooks does. DC Starts Selling Single Issue Digital Comics via Google Play is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
e-Reading Company Wexler Getting into the Smartphone Game
| Traditional e-reader companies have been trying to diversify their portfolios over the course of the last year. Onyx has a great e-ink phone that is in mass production and will likely see a release within the next few months. Wexler, is best known for their Flexx One e-reader, which is the first of its kind to feature a bendable design. The company is branching away from e-readers with the advent of their Zen line of smartphones. Wexler has three Android smartphones in development and most feature dual-sims which tend to be popular in Russia and Asia. The models they will release in the next month are the 4, 5 and 5+. The 5+ is very interesting and packs quite a punch. It has a five inch display with a resolution of 1920×180 and a quadcore 1.2 GHZ processor. There is 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory. The expanded memory is the main thing that separates the 5 from the 5+. Other than that, they all have front facing 2 MP and 13 MP camera. All of the phones ship with Jellybean 4.2 and have duel-sim cards. This will allow people to travel around and basically have their sim for their domestic network and an extra one to not pay expensive roaming charges. Wexler is a Russian company and this concept does fairly well there with pay as you go plans and marketed towards an Asian audience. e-Reading Company Wexler Getting into the Smartphone Game is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Michael Tamblyn Promoted to President of Kobo
| Michael Tamblyn has been the Chief Content Officer of Kobo forever. He is primarily responsible for publisher relationships, sales, industry relations and has spearheaded various initiatives such as the Magazine and Kids Store. Today, Michael has been appointed President and Chief Content Officer of Kobo. Michael have now have an expanded role to play in Kobo’s overall business strategy. As President, he will work closely with CEO Taka Aiki to continue expanding on the company's eReading service around the world, while driving the company's success through sustainable and long-term profitable growth. Basically Michael is now second in command at Kobo and will have a strong voice in the overall business strategy. Michael Tamblyn was one of the oldest executives at Kobo. He helped launch the Indigo pet-project Shortcovers in 2009 and helped broker the investment money needed to splinter into Kobo. He has been the voice of Kobo at all major publishing events, such as Book Expo America, IDPF, Digital Minds and many other conferences all over the world. Congratulations to Michael for his elevated role at Kobo. He is one of the most approachable guys in the industry and honestly is enamoured with reading in all forms. He is also a most dapper dresser and always styles and profiles. Michael Tamblyn Promoted to President of Kobo is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Fire TV: Why No Kindle Integration for eBooks and Audiobooks?
| The big news story today is the new video streaming and gaming device called Fire TV that Amazon has just released for $99. It’s basically Amazon’s answer to Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku devices. Amazon Fire TV is a small box that you plug into your TV to watch Prime Instant Videos, Netflix, Hulu Plus, […] |
Amazon Announces Groundbreaking Kindle Fire TV
| Amazon has just announced the Fire TV at a media event in New York City. The $99 media streaming box gives people the ability to watch thousands of shows and also play video games. It comes pre-registered, so it is quite easy to just take it out of the box, hook it up to your television via HDMI, and start watching. The Fire TV box is running on the Android OS and features a very solid 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon CPU with 2GB RAM, Bluetooth, 8GB internal storage, and the same duel-antenna wireless internet that the latest generation Kindle Fire tablets have. It connects to your television via HDMI to give you full 1080p video and Dolby digital surround sound. This box has a lot in common with Apple TV, Roku, and a number of other boxes. You get access to Netflix, Hulu Plus, WatchESPN, YouTube, Crackle, Flixter, Watch ESPN, NBA Gametime, and a number of others. It also has lots of online radio apps like TuneIN, iHeartRadio, and Pandora. One of the elements that separates it from the competition is taping into the Amazon Instant Video system with 200,000 videos and television shows. There are a few things that separate the Fire TV from the competition. One of them is called ASAP, which bears a striking resemblance to Amazon Silk. As you use the television service to use certain apps or watch shows, it will pre-buffer them so they will instantly play. There is also a microphone built into the remote control that is voice controlled. You can say actors’ names, like “Christopher Walken,” and it will list all of the movies that he has been in. It leverages IMDB for actors, movies, television shows directors, genres, and other fun stuff. Media devices often lack security and most of them are in family homes. Amazon introduced a version of Freetime, which allows parents to modify the security settings to insure their kids aren’t watching anything they shouldn’t, like The Walking Dead. When in FreeTime, the background color and fonts change to a kid-friendly design. Kids only see titles that have been selected by their parents for them, and those who can't yet read can navigate visually to content based on favorite characters or topics—for example "Dora the Explorer," "Princesses," or "Thomas and Friends." Parents who have already set up profiles and approved content on Kindle Fire tablets will find the settings are automatically synchronized on Fire TV, making it simple and seamless to get started. Customers who subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited—Amazon's all-you-can-eat content subscription designed just for kids ages 3 to 8—will get unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows. Unlike all of the other streaming media boxes out there, Amazon has taken the unique step to integrate gaming. The Seattle based company worked with game developers like EA, Disney, Gameloft, Ubisoft, Telltale, Mojang, 2K, and Sega to bring their games to Fire TV. Games available starting today include customer favorites like Minecraft, Monsters University, The Game of Life, The Walking Dead, NBA2K14, Asphalt 8, Riptide GP2, Despicable Me: Minion Rush, and more. You can game on the remote control that comes with the unit, or purchase the dedicated Game Controller. Only residents in the UK and US stand to get the most out of this unit right now. The bulk of the voice controlled actions pulls up listings from Amazon Instant Video, which excludes every country in the world other than the US and UK. Still, the whole system is compelling. It is part gaming, part videos, and has lots of cool, unique features borrowed from the Kindle Fire line of tablets. It might be worth it to check out since its only $99. Amazon Announces Groundbreaking Kindle Fire TV is a post from: Good e-Reader |
AAP Says eBook Sales Increased by 3.8%, But Indies Ignored
 Photo: EurekaBooksellers.com
What may seem a little misleading, though, are the sales figures themselves. Hardcover sales in adult trade fiction and non-fiction combined increased to a total of $1.5 billion in 2013; ebooks in fiction-only sold almost as much as hardcover for both fiction and non-fiction for adults–despite the typically lower price point of ebooks compared to hardcover and paperback–a fact that speaks to the need to revamp the strategy by which publishers perceive digital-first and ebook-only. The purpose of the survey, according to the AAP, is to help dispel some of the rumors surrounding ebook sales, notably that the sales percentages are much higher than publishers actually see. However, while small press and indie press publishers who are members of the AAP were included in the sales data, self-published authors and their ebooks were not counted. From the member publishers, ebooks still make up about 27% of total sales.
AAP Says eBook Sales Increased by 3.8%, But Indies Ignored is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Google Promotes Coding Among Young Australians With New eBook
| Google wants Australians to take coding seriously to ensure there is enough manpower to take care of the country's future requirements in the computer field. The online search giant has embarked on a campaign to make coding appeal to younger tech users , which includes promoting a video as well as an ebook Start with Code, written by Fran Molloy. The ebook shares success stories achieved by the start-up founders such as Noller, Peter Bradd, Marita Cheng, and Mitchell Harper, and aims to inspire a whole new generation of coders. “We need to improve the way we teach our kids; we need to inspire a generation of digital natives who are already avid consumers of technology to embark on careers as entrepreneurs and coders, in e-commerce and as engineers,” said Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull while stressing on the far reaching changes that technology and computer science have brought to our lives. The whole idea behind the campaign is to make Australians aware that learning to code is extremely important for innovation in the field of computer software. The campaign also highlights the country’s rich tradition of innovation in order to make coding seem fashionable and ensure there is enough homegrown talent available to put their efforts into the various new aspects where digital technology permeates in say two decades from now. This way, the country will be able to take care of its own issues without having to hire overseas workers.
Google Promotes Coding Among Young Australians With New eBook is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Welcome to our new website
| You’ll notice that things round here don’t look like they used to. This website has had a comprehensive overhaul: we hope you like what you see. (That stuff from yesterday? April Fool’s. Sorry.) We are treating this new website as a Beta. There are a few things we won’t be able to move across until this morning, when everything on the server is properly migrated; and we’re sure there are some snags we haven’t spotted. If you find a navigation problem or something that you think is an obvious error, please let us know in the comments below. You’ll notice the nice new friendly URLs for blog posts (/welcome-to-our-new-website/ rather than /archives/6754) but don’t worry – all the old links will still work. And URLs of any pages that aren’t where they used to be should point at their new home. If you spot any 404s let us know in the comments or in the forum. Everything that you’re used to from our old website is still here: the blog, help pages, forums (which we’ve yet to overhaul and bring in line with the new look – that’s coming in the next couple of months) and Swag Store are all available as usual through the navigation bar you can see at the top of the page. I’m not linking to them here, so you have a reason to start experimenting by clicking around. But there are also some new areas which you might like to spend some time exploring today, and some new ways in which we’re presenting old information. Teach, Learn, MakeWe’re launching a new area of the site for teachers, learners and makers, full of free resources and projects. Teachers will find entire schemes of work, complete with lesson plans, linked to the UK’s new Computing curriculum. Those of you who want to learn on your own will also find materials you can use to find your way around a Raspberry Pi, and what you can do with it; and people who want a step-by-step guide to make their own Raspberry Pi projects will find just what they’re looking for. All of our materials are Creative Commons licensed. The licence we use is CC BY-SA (attribution and share-alike), which is the licence used by Wikipedia. We welcome your contributions to our materials. What you see here today is only the start: we will be adding more materials very regularly in all three categories: Teach, Learn and Make. Keep checking back; we’ll also flag up on this blog and on Twitter whenever new resources are available. DocumentationWe have made a big change to the way we deal with documentation. A bit of background is necessary here. Until now, we’ve relied on the third-party, crowd-sourced wiki at eLinux. This was set up in 2012 when we had absolutely no staff, and we asked the community to help populate it, because we didn’t have the resources ourselves. We at the Foundation have no oversight over that wiki, and we’ve noticed that it’s become a bit out of date. So we’ve taken the decision to move all of our documentation in-house, but we’ve done so in a way that means that you can make additions and alterations if you think we’ve missed something – with our oversight. All of our documentation is written in Markdown, and lives on GitHub. It’s not an open wiki, but if you want to make a change, please open an issue on GitHub. (Learn more here.) We’ll consider all issues which are opened, and if we accept yours, you can file a pull request with your change. It’s a way to keep things lean, consistent and accurate. Everything gets looked over by the team of people who make the Raspberry Pi to be checked for accuracy: at the same time, it allows you to pull us up on anything you think we should expand on. Some of what we have here now is based around a kernel of documentation from the old eLinux wiki, and we are very, very grateful to everyone who contributed materials to it that we have been able to use here. The new documentation also covers all the stuff we used to host here separately: datasheets, hardware specs and so on. We’ve still got some editorial work to do on some of what we’ve pulled in to the new documentation, but it should be usable from today. ThanksI’d like to thank the education and web folks here at Pi Towers, especially Carrie Anne Philbin, who has written more top-quality resources in the last two months than we thought it was possible for one human being to produce, all while running workshops and organising Picademy; and Ben Nuttall, who has been stumbling around the office muttering and tugging at his hair for the last fortnight, sent three-quarters mad by a mixture of insufficient sleep, ignorant requests from his boss (me) and too much staring in to a terminal. His wild eyes and trembling lip are making me feel guilty, and I have been worried that he might die of overwork or run away and retrain as a sponge diver before we got everything finished. (I think you’ll agree that he’s done a simply amazing job in a very short time. Most of what you see here is down to Ben; he’s despite appearances to the contrary, he’s a bundle of joy, and we’re very lucky to have him on the team.)  This is what not enough sleep and too much coffee looks like. Thanks to Laura for the exceptionally smooth and painless editorial ride she’s given us. Thanks to Dave and Clive for the resources and the cakes; thanks to Lance for his oversight (we couldn’t manage without you, Lance); thanks to Emma for keeping us all in line; thanks to Rachel for the photos; thanks to the team at Du.st for the design work – and no thanks at all to Gordon, who ate all our jelly babies, drank most of the coffee and laughed at us when we asked him what We hope you like what you see. As for me and the team, we’re going to go and sit very quietly on a lawn somewhere, read the newspaper and drink tea for the rest of the day. |
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Amazon Offering an EMI Scheme on Kindle Devices in India
| Amazon has just made owning a Kindle device that much easier in India by introducing an EMI scheme. Buyers will now have to endure far less pinch in their pockets as they have the option to pay in equal monthly installments spread over three, six, nine and 12 months. The scheme can be availed of for a minimum purchase amount of Rs. 3,000 with the rest to be fulfilled from Citibank, HDFC and ICICI banks when purchased from Amazon's online store. The number of banks financing your purchase goes up to nine (including the banks mentioned above) when purchased from any of the 250 on-site locations spread across the country that offers the Kindle range. The EMI scheme is applicable to all of Amazon Kindle devices which include the Kindle Fire range of tablet devices and the dedicated ebook readers. This will be on top of the special promotional offers that the retail giant has been doling out to promote its hardware range. The Kindle PaperWhite adjudged one of the best ebook reading devices money can buy is now retailing for Rs 10,080 which is almost a thousand down from its original price of Rs 10,999. Similarly, the basic Kindle ereader model also benefits from a price cut, now retailing for Rs 5,600 as against its original price tag of Rs 5,999. The discount though will be available till April 15th. As for the Kindle Fire range of tablet devices, the 7 inch version is now being offered for Rs. 11,999 while its bigger 8.9 inch sibling can be picked up for a cool Rs. 17,999. For a company like Amazon that counts on sales of books and other services such as apps, videos, and music, its extremely important that its devices continue to sell in sizeable number as each of these can be seen as a potential revenue stream to the services and merchandise Amazon has on offer. The company though is yet to launch its latest Kindle Fire HDX range of Android tablets in the country that otherwise is not known to be particularly fond of the Kindle Fire tablets owing to their close bonding to the Amazon ecosystem that keeps the Google Play Sore off bounds.
Amazon Offering an EMI Scheme on Kindle Devices in India is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Is Icarus Developing a 3D e-Reader?
| The tech industry was rife with Aprils Fools Jokes, and it is hard to take seriously any major announcement that transpires on April 1st. Icarus, a Netherlands e-Reader company quietly announced a 3D e-Reader on their website and the entry is still available right on their homepage. Apparently, they have developed a 3D e-Reader with passive eyewear that will give you a more immersive experience. The Icarus 3D boasts a OE3D screen with HD resolution display with 1024×768 pixels and integrated front light. The 3D effect of the screen can be adjusted by a slider button, and can also be completely turned off. The 3D screen means you are literally pulled into the book, for an unmatched reading experience. The Reader is apparently Adobe certified, so you can buy eBooks from major retailers and load them on the device. You can also turn pages with the touchscreen or the physical buttons. Basically, the Icarus 3D is a repackaged Illumina HD, with a 3D interface. How exactly is the overall e-reading experience enhanced with 3D glasses? Apparently we won’t have long to wait with the company shipping it off April 8th and the cost is € 149.95 Is Icarus Developing a 3D e-Reader? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Blackberry Pulls all Phones from T-Mobile
| Blackberry has elected not to renew their contract with T-Mobile on April 25th. This will prevent anyone from buying a Blackberry 10 device from one of the largest telecarrier companies in the US. The Blackberry and T-Mobile relationship has soured in the six four months. T-Mobile ran a series of adverts that encouraged Blackberry users to switch to an iPhone and provided incentives to do it. Both companies CEOS took to Twitter to do battle with each other. One of the most interesting statements was T-Mobile CEO John Legere comparing Blackberry with Myspace, calling them an antiquated dinosaur. Blackberry issued a formal statement today, that in classic PR speak, said "BlackBerry has had a positive relationship with T-Mobile for many years. Regretfully, at this time, our strategies are not complementary and we must act in the best interest of our BlackBerry customers. We hope to work with T-Mobile again in the future when our business strategies are aligned," said BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chair, John Chen. "We are deeply grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers and will do everything in our power to provide continued support with your existing carrier or ensure a smooth transition to our other carrier partners.” Blackberry Pulls all Phones from T-Mobile is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Apple Abandons Higher Education Reseller Program in Canada
| Apple has been running their Higher Education Reseller program in Canada for the last few years. The essence of the reseller program is to give discounts to University and College bookstores to stock iPads, Mac Computers, Apple TV’s and accessories. Apple has confirmed to Good e-Reader that bookstores will no longer be able to order products effective April 27th 2014. Much to the Universities chagrin, students are buying Apple products directly from Apple or other secondary markets. The schools don’t have a super wide selection of different configurations and most students buy their devices before they leave home. Apple-subsidized on-campus stores are basically financially unfeasible in Canada. Students will benefit in the short-term with many schools having a veritable fire sale of existing stock. Mac Computers, iPads and other big ticket items will be sold at cost. Universities have confirmed to Good e-Reader that they are trying to get rid of everything as soon as possible, before new products are announced. Apple will continue offering their Higher Education Reseller Program in the United States for the foreseeable future. Top universities account for a substantial part of Apple’s quarterly iPad and Mac device sales. Apple Abandons Higher Education Reseller Program in Canada is a post from: Good e-Reader |
McGraw-Hill Education Opens Create Platform for K12 Teachers
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But McGraw-Hill Education’s announcement today may be a better step in a different direction. By opening up its Create publishing tool to K12 teachers, public education teachers can now enjoy the same content-building tool that higher education professionals have had access to. "There is no such thing as a 'one size fits all' approach to teaching and learning," said Peter Cohen, president of McGraw-Hill School Education Group. "Create's flexible model enables educators to choose the resources that matters most to them and their students, whether it's resources produced by McGraw-Hill Education, open source resources or resources they've developed themselves. We're excited to meet the demand for tools that make the teaching process more personalized and effective." Create lets teachers access library of resources to select content from thousands of different texts. They can also add their own original content, and combine it in an order that they need. The resulting project is a digital text that fits their needs and offers the material they want to put in front of their students. Create also allows teachers to share the project with collaborators prior to receiving a finished product. “Once a Create text has been fully customized, the instructor receives a digital review copy in under an hour. For educators requiring more complex curricula development backed by a product development team for creating classroom texts, digital solutions, and integrated program alternatives, McGraw-Hill Education offers a personal concierge.”
McGraw-Hill Education Opens Create Platform for K12 Teachers is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Marketplace updates: Weeding titles
| As most library staff members already know, weeding is the removal of titles from a library's collection that are no longer needed or usable; a vital practice to keep a collection attractive, practical, and relevant. Typically, most would think of weeding a print collection in order to remove titles that are worn and tattered, not circulating, or irrelevant or incorrect due to updated information. This prevents shelves from becoming overcrowded and allows materials to remain visible and accessible for patrons that visit the library. But what about weeding a library's digital collection? Since shelf space is not an issue in the digital realm, most librarians overlook the necessity of weeding a digital collection. However, as with a print collection, weeding a digital collection has several benefits: 1) Removing irrelevant titles – Check your nonfiction content that may be outdated. The travel books, legal guides, and medical titles in your collection may have new editions available with accurate, current information. Ask your OverDrive Collection Development Specialist for help identifying these titles in your collection. 2) Removing unpopular content – Just like your print collection: if it isn't circulating, it probably isn't worth having in your collection. Most libraries will remove print titles that don't circulate for three to five years due to limited shelf space. Due to the archiving abilities of a digital collection, you may want to hang on to your titles unless they don't see a checkout for seven to 10 years or more. 3) Removing difficult formats – If your patrons have download issues with device-specific formats like WMA, WMV, or PDF, it may just be easier to weed those formats from your collection. Focus on formats like OverDrive READ and Streaming video to offer patrons a browser-based experience that requires no setup or downloading. 4) Removing expired content – Some titles in the OverDrive catalog expire after a certain time period or number of checkouts. This content, known as metered access content, has limits set by the publisher so that the digital title has a similar life span as a print title. Because of these limits, metered access titles are often inexpensive and offer libraries an easy way to weed titles that become irrelevant or unpopular. If you do not wish to repurchase an expired metered title, weed it from your collection to prevent holds from accumulating. With the Marketplace v2.5 update, you can now weed your digital collection in a few easy steps. Marketplace users with the “Library site admin” and “Weeding” permissions can now visit the Weeding tool in Marketplace located on the Library site admin page under the “Admin” tab:
 After you have found the title(s) you would like to weed, simply check the box next to the title name and hit the “Weed Title(s)” button:  Weeded titles will be hidden from your library page within 24 hours. You can see a report of the weeded titles in your collection by visiting the Colleciton Statistics report and choosing “Weeded” from the “Status” drop-down menu: So next time your library decides to do some spring cleaning, take a look through your OverDrive collection to see if there is anything worth getting rid of. Weeding your digital collection can help increase your library's circulations by removing any outdated material, reducing unwanted clutter of unpopular content, and eliminating any titles that have expired or are difficult to download. For additional weeding tips or quesitons on the weeding process, contact your Collection Development Specialist or email collectionteam@overdrive.com.
Rob Mooney is a Collection Development Specialist at OverDrive.
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Smart school website updates: The Wish List
| One of the reasons that I love working at OverDrive is the opportunity to learn first-hand about new and innovative products that the company is creating for schools. I am lucky in that I get a behind-the-scenes view (totally like a backstage pass) of working projects and brainstormed ideas that sometimes become a reality. I especially enjoy the opportunity to comment from a teacher’s point of view on the applicability of a website feature or if something would be aesthetically pleasing to students. I naturally think, if only I could have had this when I was teaching! But I am happy for teachers and school librarians who have eBooks in their classroom. Recently, two new updates have arrived on the school digital library website. All current K-12 school customers may notice the smart changes tot he Wish List function. Before the updates, the wish list was a static reference list of titles. I can compare it to the spiral notebook that I keep on my desk here at OverDrive (I write down any book titles I am personally interested in on the inside front cover). While it is a helpful list, I can’t do much with it except browse it to find something I added previously. The new and updated Wish List is much more dynamic.
With the Wish List, you can borrow, place a hold or go to your bookshelf: 
On that same page, you can now sort by what is “Available now.” That will filter your full wish list to only the titles that are available immediately for you. Just click the “Borrow” button and enjoy the book.  You also don’t need to constantly go back to your Wish List to see what may have become available. The “My Account” section provides a brief summary/overview of your account, and now includes the number of items from your wish list that are available.  As always, you may contact your Collection Development Specialist with any questions you may have, or for further information. Renee Lienhard is a Collection Development Analyst at OverDrive.  |
Camp NaNoWriMo Kicks Off Today
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The growing popularity of NaNo, the fact that a number of participants had trouble with the timing of the event, and the desire for more opportunities than just once a year have given birth to two different events that follow much the same concept: Camp NaNoWriMo. The camp is a month-long virtual writer’s retreat with an outdoorsy theme, which still challenges participants to write every day and maintain some level of discipline about it. The first of the two Camps kicks off today, and writers awoke today–yes, April Fools’ Day–to hammer out their word counts. But one of the ways that Camp NaNo offers writers a different sort of motivation than even a typical November NaNo is that it is a lower-pressure sort of event that instead focuses on giving writers the opportunity to broaden their writing experiences. Participants are invited to write any type of project, like poetry, screenplays, short stories, and of course, novels. In a BiblioCrunch Twitter chat on Camp NaNoWriMo, Grant Faulkner, executive director of National Novel Writing Month, said, “You can design your own creative writing retreat in Camp NaNoWriMo. It’s difficult to try to immerse oneself in creativity. Nano puts creative immersion on the calendar.” NaNo novels have been looked down on in recent years as being rush jobs that authors put to market far too quickly, but the writing itself is meant only to be a tool for authors to hold themselves accountable to a daily word count and to focus on their own writing processes for thirty days. The end result may need a lot of polishing (with a chainsaw, even), but as an exercise in discipline and craft, it’s a vital tool. Participants can still sign up to take part in this month’s Camp NaNo at http://campnanowrimo.org.
Camp NaNoWriMo Kicks Off Today is a post from: Good e-Reader |
