Group items tagged

Every day more people join the world of eBook lovers, having suddenly decided to take the plunge and buy a new Kindle or some other eBook reader. Along with your new purchase (or your decision to buy) comes the realization that you now need to know a lot more about how you're going to find great free eBooks to read. At MakeUseOf, we've written plenty of articles on how to find free eBooks, but it was about time we made a primer for those of you who haven't been researching very long. There are a number of different ways to get great free content on to your eBook reader, to organise your eBooks and to read eBooks without a dedicated eBook gadget. Here's everything you need to know.

As part of a language arts or reading program, students read novels throughout the school year. Some of the novels are assigned, read, and discussed "all class." Others are chosen by the students individually, and they keep individual reading lists. Students may be required to read a certain number per marking period, per school year, and over the summer. Some may be classics; other trade novels, but all contribute to the overall reading and comprehension abilities of the students. This unit can be done as a culminating activity for the school year. Students are asked to choose their two favorite novels from the ones they have read. They write reviews and post them online for students in their own school, in other schools, across the United States, and in other countries to read. The student reviews not only help student readers clarify their own understanding of literature, they also provide a "student-to-student" resource. Other students can choose novels based on opinions of their peers. The students review the novels, write descriptions that will appeal to other readers, and indicate the level of reading difficulty. They do this to help others choose novels suitable for their reading levels.

"E-readers are the digital devices that put a library in a reader's hand and sometimes can be a direct line to newspapers and magazines. Some can download a book wirelessly in less than a minute and hold 1,500 volumes. Some can file away music. Some can be a repository for photographs."

"Unlike a printed book, a single copy of an ebook could potentially be read by many users simultaneously, from any location. Thus, a major concern of publishers is that ebook borrowing from libraries will be so easy as to erode sales to readers. To counter this, many publishers insist on terms that replicate aspects of print book lending. Some of these terms may be necessary and tolerable, at least temporarily, to offset perceived risks in selling ebooks to libraries. Others, such as requiring patrons to come to the library to check out ebooks, will be onerous to patrons and damaging to perceptions of library service. With today's rapidly changing business environment for ebooks, the choices that libraries make today can have profound impact on the direction taken by the entire reading ecosystem. It is thus of utmost importance that these choices be made with careful consideration of the needs of both present and future users. Decisions are best made in the context of an informed community and never in isolation."

In partnership with LitWorld, a non-profit organization based in New York advocating for and working towards global literacy, we are going to "Take Action for Global Literacy, Celebrate the Power of Words, Change the World." March 7 is World Read Aloud Day. World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. World Read Aloud Day motivates children, teens, and adults worldwide to celebrate the power of words, especially those words that are shared from one person to another, and creates a community of readers advocating for every child's right to a safe education and access to books and technology. We are looking for teachers, schools, school children who want to participate in this World Read Aloud Day on March 7. Thru Skype, we can read aloud to each other across the globe.

Kontax is a story on your cellphone. It's also a social network of readers. Every day you'll get a new chapter. Read the story, meet the characters, vote, leave comments and write your idea for a sequel. Win prizes for the best comments and ideas.

Andrew: "Hey guys-hope you are all doing well! I am just catching up with some mail and came across this awesome collection of "best practice" ideas from many school librarians on everything from growing readers to adapting the library to web 2.0 strategies and thinking."

"The BookServer is a growing open architecture for vending and lending digital books over the Internet. Built on open catalog and open book formats, the BookServer model allows a wide network of publishers, booksellers, libraries, and even authors to make their catalogs of books available directly to readers through their laptops, phones, netbooks, or dedicated reading devices. BookServer facilitates pay transactions, borrowing books from libraries, and downloading free, publicly accessible books."

Feel like writing a book online....Mmmm I thought so... Well now you can and it will be compatible with all ebook readers.

A great livebinder collection on ebooks, formats, readers etc. Great.

A great example of an author engaging with his readers through workshops and making books available chapter for chapter online!!

"EarlyWord's goal is to help Collection Development and Readers Advisory librarians stay ahead of public demand and identify hidden gems. "

"Getting IT Right" is for folks who have no clue about Information Technology and its ability in bettering our day-to-day lives. It introduces novices into the world of IT and helps in knowing what's in store by becoming computer savvy. This book serves as a primer and makes the reader aware of what IT can do and how much can be accomplished by harnessing its power. Learning IT is not that tough as it is being made out. Mind you, without IT skills you are nowhere in today's workplace. This book would help you form an idea what IT is all about and prepare you to pick up the rudiments of IT.

Today, we're launching an initiative to help authors and publishers discover new audiences for books they've made available for free under Creative Commons (CC) licenses. Rightsholders who want to distribute their CC-licensed books more widely can choose to allow readers around the world to download, use, and share their work via Google Books.

Benko provides the reader with a gentle guide through the dark forests of political advocacy on the Internet. A must read for anyone wishing to understand how the Internet is changing politics forever. ""

BookGlutton is a free resource that lets you read books on the web, digitally annotate them and interact with other readers in real-time. You can chat with users on different chapters, leave and reply to comments within the text and bookmark your place in the book.

This book was written for those who want to learn about copyright in the 21st century. It explains copyright protection and what it means for copyright holders and copyright users. It also introduces readers to contemporary topics: digital rights management, open licences, software patents and copyright protection for works of traditional knowledge. A final chapter tries to predict how technology will change the publishing and entertainment industries that depend on copyright. The book assumes no special knowledge and avoids technical language as much as possible.

This library has great resource books and tutorials on anything from authoring of web based tests, to using audacity, to basic numeracy....a really fab selection of visually stimulating book like interfaces. You can download it as exe files (some gave me hassles and showed up as trojans but was fine or you can download the actual reader to view it with

EPubbooks.com provides a selection of high quality, free ePub eBooks, for everyone to read. It is devided into sections for easy reference: Books, authors, genres and ereaders. You will need an ebookreader to read them but just see the ereader page or if you use a Firefox browser you can download the extension and read it straight in your browser here: http://www.epubread.com/

The FunDza Literacy Trust boosts literacy through popularising reading and building a community of teen and young adult readers across South Africa. FunDza achieves this by providing content that is relevant to the lives of millions of young South Africans and leveraging the reach of mobile technology within this demographic.