Top eBooks Library Patrons Aren't Reading
Grok Headline matches for Top eBooks Library Patrons Aren't Reading
DRM Locks Out Library Patrons?
DRM Locks Out Library Patrons?
12/26/2004 11:03 PMDRM
at Its Worst? Here's a Prime Example
"DRM is actually a part of Microsoft’s Windows XP
operating system and has been for a while, but it wasn’t until I
picked up a DVD recently that I witnessed the ugly and very user
unfriendly side of DRM in person. The DVD in question, T2: Extreme
DVD, produced by Artisan Home Entertainment Inc., is a two-dvd disk
set, which holds a digitally optimized version of the T2 movie on one
disk, and a high definition version of the same movie on the second
disk, encoded in WMV9 format....
Unfortunately, after trying to play the DVD back with Windows Media
Player 9, I couldn’t get it to work. For some reason I needed to
install a 3rd party application, InterActual Player, that was required
to play back the content. I was a bit surprised as to why I needed to
install InterActual Player as it clearly says Windows Media Player 9
on the cover. Why can’t I simply play the content back without
having to install yet another application? But then it became quickly
apparent that I did not only have to install and download an update
for the InterActual Player over the internet in order to facilitate
playback, but would also need to acquire a license. So obviously the
WMV9 content on the DVD was protected by DRM and could only be
unlocked after connecting to the license server to obtain a license,
which it failed to do. I was surprised to find that it failed to give
me a license as it had determined that my physical location was not in
the US or Canada. Apparently the content was only to be played back in
either one of these countries and nowhere else. After routing my IP
address through an anonymous proxy server in the US I however managed
to unlock the content just as well and was presented with a license
agreement I had to agree to prior to being able to play the content
back.
That agreement, amongst other things, stated that I could only play
back the content for a period of five days, on the computer I
installed the InterActual Player application onto, after which I had
to re-acquire a license. To be honest that really pissed me off, I
spent about an hour trying to play back a disc I legitimately bought
and went as far as installing and updating a 3rd party application to
my system that would allow me to do so, and now I’m only being given
a temporary license, where’s my rights as a consumer?... Shame on
you Artisan Home Entertainment Inc. and may this serve as a prime
example of DRM at its worst." [Hardware Analysis, via Slashdot]
I wonder if any libraries bought this title. Unfortunately, looking in
just my local catalog,
SWAN,
some did. I wonder how their patrons are faring trying to access these
features. Would
you go through all of that
to watch a movie? I sure wouldn't.
Whatever did happen to fair use and the right of first sale in the
digital world? I miss them.
Pool of Library Patrons Using Cell
Phones Is Growing Exponentially
Pool of Library Patrons Using Cell
Phones Is Growing Exponentially
12/19/2004 03:36 PMCellphones:
Once a Status Symbol, Now a Necessity
"The notion of the cellphone as necessity may not be
universally agreed, but if you're in doubt about whether the device is
transforming American life just try wresting one away from a teenager
you know.
With a popularity and versatility that spans continents and
generations, the cellphone may be on its way to becoming mankind's
primary communication interface and a lifestyle tool that exceeds the
personal computer in ubiquity, say watchers of technology
culture....
'The cellphone has moved from a helpful service appliance to a
necessity,' says Tom McPhail, a professor of media studies and
communication at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. 'Older
Americans are realizing they are needlessly cut off without one, and
for youth it has become a part of their persona and identity without
which they feel naked, shunned, or isolated.'...
Voicing an oft-heard observation, CEO Silk says he recently crossed
the Ohio State campus and couldn't find a teenager without a mobile or
music headphone in their ear. As in decades past, the students did not
congregate and share stories, he says, but rather remained connected
to others solely by cellphone. Other sociologists worry that teens use
all their free time messaging or talking to friends so that they no
longer spend enough time in mental solitude crucial to understanding a
separate self, problem solving, and allowing space for creativity and
intuition." [Christian Science
Monitor, via textuall
y.org]
Couple this excerpt with the news that
mobile phone subscribers around the globe totalled
nearly 1.5 billion by the middle of this year, about one quarter of
the world's population [
CNN],
and ask yourself if your library is prepared to serve these folks via
cell phone in ways other than voice (instant messaging, texting,
searching, etc.). Other interesting statistics from the CNN
article:
- "The ITU said the growth in mobile phone subscribers had outpaced
that for fixed lines, who totalled some 1.85 billion today against one
billion at the start of the century, and was also outstripping the
rate of increase in Internet users."
- "And by the middle of the year developing countries as a whole
had overtaken rich nations to account for 56 percent of all mobile
subscribers, while accounting for 79 percent of growth in the market
since 2000."
- "By July this year, China was reporting 310 million users --
about one-quarter of its total population and more than the entire
population of the United States, the ITU said."
- "By the end of this year, the report said, global revenues from
mobile networks were likely to exceed those from fixed-line networks
for the first time."
Diesel eBooks Introduces Free Online
Test Simulator to Reduce "Fear Factor"
Involved With Downloading Encrypted
eBooks
Diesel eBooks Introduces Free Online
Test Simulator to Reduce "Fear Factor"
Involved With Downloading Encrypted
eBooks
03/17/2005 03:31 AMDiesel eBook visitors are now able to certify their computer upfront
by downloading a sample encrypted ebook at no charge. The test ebooks
are available in three different versions according to reader format
including Adobe Reader, Microsoft Reader and Palm/eReader. [PRWEB Mar
16, 2005]
Prints and Photographs Reading Room
(Library of Congress):
Prints and Photographs Reading Room
(Library of Congress):
09/02/2004 06:26 AMPrints and Photographs Reading Room - Library of
Congresshttp://www.loc.gov/rr/print/Unique in their scope and richness, the prints and
photographs collections today number more than 13.7 million images.
These include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings,
posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While
international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in
materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United
States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American
people.
Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary
Reading in America
Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary
Reading in America
07/09/2004 01:22 PMdownload a .pdf of the actual study on reading ..
report
nea.gov/pub/ReadingAtRisk.pdf
track this
site | 5 links
How Can We Help Patrons with their
Notebooks?
How Can We Help Patrons with their
Notebooks?
07/14/2004 01:32 AMWeblogs and Wikis as Work Arounds
"The Internet really has become my notebook in a big way. Used to
be a pretty much just a research tool, but now it's the warehousing
and organizing tool as well. I can almost picture what a personal,
interactive portal on the Internet might look and feel like...almost.
Tom quotes Tim Berners-Lee whose original vision for the Internet was
'to connect every person to every other person.' We're getting
there..." [Weblogg-ed
News]
"La fin de l'inquiétude pour les patrons
de Microsoft"
"La fin de l'inquiétude pour les patrons
de Microsoft"
01/03/2004 10:00 PMAaron Helps You Teach Your Patrons about
Spyware
Aaron Helps You Teach Your Patrons about
Spyware
09/24/2004 09:17 AMAaron presented the
topic of spyware (or the removal and prevention of spyware to be
specific) at the MLS Tech Summit today. I heard he was quite good and
that the response was most positive. Good sport that he is, Aaron has
put his presentation online and he encourages other
librarians to steal it for use in their own patron training.
"The Tech Summit at the Metropolitan Library System went well
today. Many people were excited to have a disc full of spyware removal
programs and a few said that there were going straightaway to use
them....
Here is the presen
tation in powerpoint form.
Here is the presen
tation in low-bandwidth text file form."
"Mall patrons allegedly slimed with used
condoms"
"Mall patrons allegedly slimed with used
condoms"
04/18/2005 03:11 PMLetting Patrons Shift their Data onto
Your Computers
Letting Patrons Shift their Data onto
Your Computers
06/23/2004 01:32 AMToday Kare
n Schneider started a thread on WEB4LIB carrying forward a PUBLIB
thread about Chris Rippel's list of thing
s that make your library look incompetent/stupid, and George S.
Porter contributed the following idea.
"The first major industrial design advance on the WinTel side that
I encountered was the addition of USB and FireWire ports on the front
of a Dell, although they were cleverly hidden behind an unlabelled,
opaque plastic flap. Not at all convenient for public access
workstations.
A couple of months ago, the Caltech Library System started
installing media dashboards <http://library.c
altech.edu/about/mediadash.htm> on library
workstations. Dumbness factor dropped like a
rock!"
Robin Boulton then tried to confirm that George was referring to
the Ultra
Media Dashboard, which looks like it would help with those patrons
that want to use their own flash drives. Something for public and
school libraries to consider, too.
Bank patrons click online, usage soars
Bank patrons click online, usage soars
06/19/2004 06:10 AMEnquirer.com - Sat Jun 19, 08:28 am GMT
Raising Funds For Arts Partners
Organically' - Deriving Support From
Patrons Normal Internet Usage
Raising Funds For Arts Partners
Organically' - Deriving Support From
Patrons Normal Internet Usage
05/28/2004 12:39 PMAbsolutearts.com May 28 2004 4:55PM GMT
SpiderWorks eBooks
SpiderWorks eBooks
02/01/2005 09:14 PMIf you're like me, this is a must check out: SpiderWorks eBooks. Yes,
they don't officially open until February 1, but just look at what
they'll have on opening day: "Danny Goodman's AppleScript Handbook
(Mac OS X Edition)" "Learn C...
Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books
Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books
02/13/2004 01:24 PMposted to craphound .. speech ..
says
craphound.com/ebooksneitherenorbooks.txt
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site | 7 links
Serialized eBooks via RSS
Serialized eBooks via RSS
02/01/2005 10:07 PMRussell
Beattie: “Many of us are too busy to read classic books out
there, instead choosing ‘page turners’ or books that are
more applicable to our every day lives (like a some new marketing
book). But we do have time to zip through our aggregator daily, right?
So by taking a 500 page novel and distributing it, a few pages at a
time, via RSS, we could read a new book in a month or so without even
trying.”
Ebooks doing well sans DRM
Ebooks doing well sans DRM
08/27/2004 01:46 PM
Cory Doctorow:
CNet reports that ebook sales topped 3 million last year, and that
publishers are slowly coming around to rejecting DRM. The best part is
that famous writers like JK Rowling are rejecting ebooks, a courtesy
that leaves the field open for struggling midlist writers (ahem).
Bad experiences with heavy-handed DRM have soured many potential
customers on e-books, said Mike Violano, vice president and general
manager of eReader, which equips its titles with a security key based
on the credit card number used to purchase it. The approach give wide
latitude to the original buyer while effectively thwarting illegal
copying, he said.
"There are far too many standards and ways of doing things now, and
that's a source of frustration for customers," Violano said. "If they
have a bad e-book experience the first time, where they have trouble
reading something they've paid for, it's hard to get them back."
Analyst Bedford said nervous publishers have emphasized security over
opening new markets.
"There's no good DRM, period," she said. "Publishers all want
heavy-duty DRM, but the problem is that anything you do gets in the
way of buying and using e-books. My bias is to use a lot of
psychological DRM. You put a price on it; you have statements...making
it very clear you can use this as you would a print book, and you rely
on the fact that by and large, most people aren't out to break the
law."
Link
EBOOKS Are Books Too!!!
EBOOKS Are Books Too!!!
08/27/2004 09:28 PMWebDevInfo Aug 28 2004 0:04AM GMT
Manga and eBooks on Your PSP
Manga and eBooks on Your PSP
03/29/2005 11:24 AM
1UP
has a write-up about reading manga and eBooks on your PSP, which is a
pleasant enough read, but for fears of legal retribution doesn't
actually link to a lot of content. That means there's no one-stop
download, but they can at least point you in the right direction. The
main problem I see for comics and manga is that not everything is
going to fit to one size and the current image viewing software on the
PSP doesn't scroll easily, so reading large frames could be difficult.
For eBooks, though, it looks pretty decent. Maybe someone will start
converting free books to a native PSP resolution .zip files so I don't
have to do any real work.
Feature: Manga
& Books [IUP]
New Lockergnome eBooks!
New Lockergnome eBooks!
06/05/2005 11:36 PM
This entry was brought to you by Lockergnome's
Tutorials
Choose the Right Format for Your Ebooks
Choose the Right Format for Your Ebooks
07/01/2004 08:23 PMWebDevInfo Jul 1 2004 11:43PM GMT
A Rising Tide of Ebooks
A Rising Tide of Ebooks
03/17/2005 03:21 AMJeff Carlson (~780 words)
Adam is fond of talking about the
"Macintosh ecosystem" and how the companies and products
that make up that system generally work together for a common good.
When a shortcoming is found in Mac OS X, for example, software
developers create utilities to address it. In many cases, you get
several programs that do the same thing, but with their own unique
approaches. Look at the plethora of snippet-keepers (many of which
Matt Neuburg has reviewed). A couple years ago, I didn't put much
thought into whether such note-taking and -organizing software
existed, and now I look for which one offers the features that suit my
style of working.
Transferring eBooks to your Pocket PC
Transferring eBooks to your Pocket PC
04/09/2004 04:09 PMEbooks and OCR come to the mobile phone
Ebooks and OCR come to the mobile phone
03/19/2005 02:34 AMIn Japan people are now reading entire books on their mobile phones.
Also, Hitachi brings OCR to camera phones.
eBooks Suddenly Getting More Attention
eBooks Suddenly Getting More Attention
07/20/2004 04:28 AMEvery few years there's a big fuss about the future of ebooks, and
they never seem to get very far. Sure, a few early adopter types buy
into the whole concept, but with clumsy readers,
annoyin
g digital rights management and a lack of content, they usually
don't get very far. Here's yet another story, though, suggesting
that, perhaps,
the time has come for eBooks.
The article quotes a study saying that eBooks are "the fastest growing
segment of the publishing industry" which really isn't that impressive
when you realize from what a small base they're starting, and
considering that most of the publishing world is pretty well
established. In absolute numbers, ebook sales are still a barely
noticeable blip on the very distant outskirts of the radar.
Doctorow: Ebooks Neither E Nor Books
Doctorow: Ebooks Neither E Nor Books
02/13/2004 12:00 PMBaen ebooks CDs as .torrents
Baen ebooks CDs as .torrents
04/29/2004 07:41 AMBaen Books is a successful science fiction publisher that releases a
lot of its titles as non-DRM text/html files via its website and on
CDROMs bound into its book. Now, all six of the Baen CDs, representing
a substantial library of science fiction, are available as Bit Torrent
files, to be gang-downloaded to all comers at speed.
Link
(
Thanks, Robotech
Master!)
Read Manga And eBooks On The PSP
Read Manga And eBooks On The PSP
03/28/2005 10:52 PMIt's not just a great gaming rig: our sister publication 1UP has put
together a guide for reading books and Manga comics on the PSP.
Read MS Reader ebooks on your
SmartPhone!
Read MS Reader ebooks on your
SmartPhone!
07/25/2004 10:57 AMDistributed Proofreaders pass 4,000
ebooks
Distributed Proofreaders pass 4,000
ebooks
04/10/2004 07:14 PMAn anonymous person writes:
Distributed Proofreaders is a volunteer driven website that is
committed to putting Public Domain books online. OCR generated text is
reviewed online and compared to page scans. Once the book has
completed the proofreading process it is posted to Project Gutenberg
where the ebook is available to the world for free.
On April 6th Distributed Proofreaders posted it 4,000 ebook:
"Aventures du capitaine Hatteras" by Jules Verne. Yes, it is in
French. Come help us produce more free ebooks in more languages at
Distributed Proofreaders. Proofread a page a day, that's all we ask.
LinkJoy of Tech and Take Control offer 50%
off eBooks.
Joy of Tech and Take Control offer 50%
off eBooks.
02/05/2005 09:07 PMTake Control eBooks is offering a
special deal for fans of the our Joy of
Tech comic. For a limited time they are offering a 50% savings off of
their eBooks. That means you can pick up great titles like Take
Control of Mac OS X Backups by Joe Kissell and Take Control of Your
AirPort Network by Glenn Fleishman for only $5.00, or Take Control of
Buying a Mac by Adam Engst for only $2.50! You can check out the
details and the money saving links
here!
Writing and Submitting Fr~ee eBooks For
Promotion
Writing and Submitting Fr~ee eBooks For
Promotion
07/14/2004 04:52 PMWebDevInfo Jul 14 2004 9:45PM GMT
Finding HOT, Non-Internet Marketing
Topics For Your eBooks
Finding HOT, Non-Internet Marketing
Topics For Your eBooks
06/21/2004 10:54 AMBusiness Knowledge Source Jun 21 2004 3:40PM GMT
Bible reference eBooks coming for
Macintosh
Bible reference eBooks coming for
Macintosh
03/29/2005 09:15 AMLogos Bible Software announced today that a Macintosh version of the
company's digital library software is slated for release in December
2005, making thousands of Bible reference eBooks available to
Macintosh users...
Ebooks talk has a hidden posthumanist
rant in it
Ebooks talk has a hidden posthumanist
rant in it
08/01/2004 08:00 AMThis is pretty funny -- kaksoisagentti took my
ebooks
talk and replaced "book" with "human," "ebook" with "posthuman"
and "paper" with "flesh." The results are surprisingly cogent:
2. Posthumans complement flesh humans. Having an posthuman is good.
Having a flesh human is good. Having both is even better. One reader
wrote to me and said that he read half my first novel from the bound
human, and printed the other half on scrap-flesh to read at the beach.
Students write to me to say that it's easier to do their term fleshs
if they can copy and paste their quotations into their
word-processors. Baen readers use the electronic editions of their
favorite series to build concordances of characters, places and
events.
Link
(
Thanks, kaksoisagentti!
)
Four thousand Bible reference eBooks
coming to the Mac
Four thousand Bible reference eBooks
coming to the Mac
03/29/2005 01:47 PMLogos Bible Software announced today that a Macintosh version of the
company's digital library software is slated for release in December
2005, making thousands of Bible reference eBooks available to
Macintosh users.
The Macintosh version will read the same book files as the PC version,
making 14 years of digital book publishing instantly available to Mac
users. Categories include Bibles, original language texts,
morphological databases, commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons,
grammars, maps and more. Electronic books can be acquired in
money-saving library collections or unlocked individually.
Spanish translation and augmentation of
Ebooks: Neither E nor Books
Spanish translation and augmentation of
Ebooks: Neither E nor Books
04/24/2004 03:47 PMThis is
screamingly cool: I gave a talk at this year's
Emerging Tech conference called Ebooks: Neither E nor Books and
released the
text into the public domain. Alas, the slides that accompanied the
talk were full of copyrighted images that I was in no position to
release into the public domain with the talk.
Now, Javier Candiera has taken the public domain text and translated
it into Spanish. But Javier went one better -- several better, in fact
-- he used my notes about the slides I'd used to "illuminate" his
translation with clip art he discovered on the Net, and then went
through the piece and added extensive footnotes. My Spanish is wildly
imperfect, but it's good enough to see that this is a good, thoughtful
translation, and the illustrations and citations are tremendous.
Link
(Thanks (a lot!) Javier!)
Four Thousand Bible Reference eBooks
Available for Macintosh Users Soon
Four Thousand Bible Reference eBooks
Available for Macintosh Users Soon
03/29/2005 04:19 AMLogos Bible Software announces a release date of December 2005 for
Macintosh version. [PRWEB Mar 29, 2005]
Palm Digital Media: Free eBooks Through
December 24 2003
Palm Digital Media: Free eBooks Through
December 24 2003
12/15/2003 08:08 AM"RipDigital is a bulk CD-ripping
operation: send them your CD library and
they'll ship your library back in MP3
format"
"RipDigital is a bulk CD-ripping
operation: send them your CD library and
they'll ship your library back in MP3
format"
01/12/2004 02:57 AMGrok Description matches for Top eBooks Library Patrons Aren't Reading
GrokA matches for Top eBooks Library Patrons Aren't Reading
Top eBooks Library Patrons Aren't Reading
