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In 2007 the JISC national e-books observatory project was set up to undertake market research to help e-book publishers, aggregators, libraries and funding bodies understand the behaviours of e-book users and to assess the impact of free at-the-point of use course text e-books on traditional print sales to students

With its acquisition of ReCaptcha, Google will use "human computation" to help scan old library books.

Possible generation-gap-type issues for digital educational publishing for colleges: "Today, the college assumes all students not only have computer skills but a plethora of high-tech devices and services. The class schedule and registration procedure is entirely online-even if you're in the registrar's office....In the first class, the professor handed out her e-mail address and the URL where the syllabus could be found--instead of her office phone number and a copy of the syllabus. Unfortunately, the college sites are full of graphics and animations and download very slowly on my dial-up connection. (Even if I could afford a broadband connection, my ISP doesn't provide it in my area.)" "At least one exercise in each chapter requires accessing the publisher's textbook Web site. Many of these exercises could just as easily be put on the computer disk also sold-at an increased profit (I used to work for a textbook-preparation company)-with the text....Again, a dial-up connection won't download the videos. The audio files are .mp3; I can't open them, don't have the skill to know what program I need, and have no access to free technical support....So once every chapter I head for either the heavily used public library or the equally heavily used computer lab in the college's suburban learning center (branch campus)--and hope that a computer is available."

Google's plan to add millions of books to digital library riding on new settlement

Questia Library Plus iPhone app. Credit: Questia We'll spare you the obvious "there's an app for that" joke. But you can get a library's worth of books on your phone. Questia, an online research portal for students, announced its application today for reading books, articles and periodicals on an iPhone or iPod Touch. The app costs 99 cents for 5,000 public-domain books and a week of unlimited access. After that, users can buy a two-week subscription for $9.99. There are so many things wrong with this we don't know where to start. For one, students don't like to buy things....

Looking at the Google Books decision as an opportunity.

If you haven't already seen/heard this, it's worth the perspective

Apparently in some places, the move to digital has been more pervasive than estimated.

Intersection of privacy law and copyright law (esp. fair use and library/archival uses) -- is it ethical to reproduce signed cease-and-desist letters?

"Yet as new old books become available - listed, for instance, on Manybooks.net - you get the puzzling sense that books are leaping almost randomly from their shelves into the digital realm. " Is there any logic to the way books are chosen for digitizing?

This week, California took a big step forward in open-source education. Governor Jerry Brown signed into law a proposal to create a website that will allow students to download popular textbooks for free. The legislation contains two bills: One, a proposal for the state to fund 50 open-source digital textbooks, targeted to lower-division courses, which will be produced by California's universities. The other bill is a proposal to establish a California Digital Open Source Library to host those books.

"When your Kindle is wiped by Amazon without explanation, refund, or appeal, it's time to wake up and realize the truth: ebook readers treat you as a tenant-farmer of your books, not an owner. You have no rights, only a license-agreement that runs to thousands of words, and that you'll never fully satisfy."

Harvard faculty is pushing back against bundled journal subscription prices.

Includes other fun stats, and a word cloud!

Cohort 7: here's some copyright news.

Use OverDrive, an alternative to Amazon's Prime accounts only Kindle Lending Library program

Libyans are celebrating the freedom to read whatever they want in a post-Gaddafi world. Last week, bagpipers and VIPs congregated in the library of the Italianate Royal Palace for a ceremony marking the unbanning of books, the Toronto Star reported.