Ebooks: a sketch for early 2010
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Transcript of Ebooks: a sketch for early 2010
Electronic books and the liberal
arts campus: an early 2010
survey
Bryan AlexanderNational Institute for Technology in Liberal Education
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/12/eread-economic-report-president
Plan for today’s session
1. E-book readers2. E-books3. Ecosystems and decisions4. Upcoming in 2010
• Throughout: campus cases
1. e-book readers
Plus multipurpose devicesused for reading
Advantages
Example of Kindle• Cost savings per
book• Weight savings• Subscription
updates• Dictionary
• Public domain and other texts by cable
• Green (less paper)• Greater purchasing
of books• E-ink
Problems so far
Continuing with the Kindle:
• Limitations of device interfaces
• Hardware cost• Annotation issues
e-book-specific:• DRM• Title availability• Visual quality• Multimedia• Sharing limitations
2. e-books
• History: back to the 1970s• Campus history: e-reserves
File formats• txt, html, pdf• Epub• Kindle (.azw)
• Fictionbook, Mobipocket
• Microsoft Reader (.lit)
ePub example (EPUBReader Firefox plugin)
File formats
Greater interactivity:• Wikis
• Multimedia (Nook, Vook)
http://www.engadget.com/2010/03/04/penguins-ipad-formatted-books-shown-off-making-waves/
Major e-book projects
• Humanities E-Book 2,200• Internet Archive “over 30,000 free ebooks”• Project Gutenberg “1,893,588 texts”• Connexions depends on definition
Humanities E-Book (HEB)
Internet Archive texts
Internet Archive texts
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg
Connexions
…and Google Books, depending
E-reader applications
• Examples: • Stanza (pictured) • Calibre• EPUBReader (Firefox plugin)• Microsoft Reader
Ebook advantages
• Greener• Interactivity, multimedia affordances• Faster publication cycle• Lower cost• Flexible presentation (font, etc)
Ebook disadvantages
• Users uncomfortable with digital• Publishers’ nerves with copyright• Multimedia costs• Wiki problems
3. Ecosystems and decisionsCombining devices, format,
services, and business model
• Kindle: Amazon store• Nook: Barnes and Noble
store• iPad: iTunes book section
Integration with other media
• Text -> podcast (Gutenberg->Librivox)
Campus decision points
• File format• Device tie-in• For free or fee?
(http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/)
Campus points of implementation
• Library building (Fairleigh Dickinson)
• Campus bookstore
• Library portal• Courseware• Open Web
http://web.mit.edu/viz/EM/flash/E&M_Master/E&M.swf
4. Looking ahead in 2010
• Vendors expanding market• Format expansion and experimentation• More academic examples described
Much riding on the iPad and tablets
Your turn
Are you seeing ebooks already on campus?
Your turn
What ebook implementations (if any) do you foresee for 2010?
More resources• ELI, 7 Things You Need to Know About E-
books, http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutEBook/156823
• “, “ “ “ “ “ “ “ e-readers, http://www.educause.edu/Resources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutERead/200539
• Trina Marmarelli, Martin Ringle, “The Reed College Kindle Study” http://web.reed.edu/cis/about/kindle_pilot/Reed_Kindle_report.pdf
Sources for free ebooks• Internet Text Archive,
http://www.archive.org/details/texts • Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ • HEB (if your campus subscribes),
http://www.humanitiesebook.org/ • Connexions, http://cnx.org/ • Online Books Page (Penn),
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ • BookBoon,
http://bookboon.com/us/student/info/about
Even more resources
NITLE blog, Technehttp://blogs.nitle.org
Horizon Reporthttp://www.nmc.org/horizon
Bryan’s research Twitterhttp://twitter.com/bryanalexander