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He co-edited with Brian O’Leary the seminal Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto, which has enough meaningful, thought-provoking essays in it to keep you muttering to yourself from the tiki bar back to the pool for the rest of the summer. Have a look if you haven’t seen its free online version.

McGuire points out that both Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPhone arrived in 2007.

Publishers are deathly afraid of the Internet. And they have very good reason to be, because the Internet is famous for gobbling up business models and spitting out total chaos.

I've only managed to find one report – on the Kindle (by The Cleantech Group) – but it backs up suggestions that so long as e-readers are used as book replacements rather than supplements, they soon start to pay back in carbon terms. The report states that a book uses up "approximately 7.46 kilograms of CO2 over its lifetime" and that the Kindle produces "roughly 168 kg" during its lifecycle, making it "a clear winner against the potential savings: 1,074 kg of CO2 if replacing three books a month for four years; and up to 26,098 kg of CO2 when used to the fullest capacity of the Kindle."

Figure that out. If you can figure that out, you’re advocating for an idea, a goal, and a belief. A passion. If you can’t figure that out, you’re advocating for an outreach technique, a piece of software, this thing, that thing, or the other.

professional development is all about challenging legacy processes.

Put yourself in the right place at the right time, because you intended to be there, you worked hard to get there, and you made a plan to ensure you stayed there. You can’t just show up in your manager’s office door and say “we should have ebooks” and expect it to happen. You must have a plan. (I would, on behalf of all managers everywhere suggest that if you are the sort of person who shows up and says “we need ebooks” you might consider how that sounds to your audience, and consider how well it’s working for you.) A plan is key. Because I believe that, I’m going to assert that any goal can be project-managed, and I’ll also assert that any goal should be project-managed. Must be.  I’ll say it again: Change doesn’t just happen. Change happens because someone worked hard to put themselves in the right place, at the right time. Work to put yourself in that place, just at that time. Plan for brilliance, agitate for success.

This guide is an introduction to e-books: what they are, how to use them, and where to find them, at the Library of Congress and elsewhere online.