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John Willinsky: "This paper reviews and addresses the critical issues currently confronting monograph publishing as a matter of reduced opportunities for scholars to pursue book-length projects. In response, it proposes an alternative approach to monograph publishing based on a modular design for an online system that would foster, manage, and publish monographs in digital and print forms using open source software developments, drawn from journal publishing, and social networking technologies that might contribute to not only to the sustainability of monograph publishing but to the quality of the resulting books."

"Andrew Savikas is one of today's most prominent writers, speakers, and thinkers about digital publishing and the e-book revolution. As Vice President of Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media and Program Chair of O'Reilly's annual Tools of Change for Publishing conference-a massive three-day industry powwow about publishing technology and business strategy, held last month here in New York City-he keeps his finger pressed steadily to the ever-racing pulse of the digital media world"

Cory Doctorow on the decline of books and other forms of media

Summary of the 2009 Tools of Change conference

ComputerWorld article on DRM

Adobe Systems Inc. this week announced its second major move in the e-book market in the last five months as the multimedia software vendor looks to build a consortium to take on Amazon.com Inc. and its market-leading Kindle e-book reader. On Monday, Adobe released Adobe Reader Mobile 9, which improves the way smartphones and handheld devices display books and other documents that use the open PDF format created by Adobe.

Prognostications on the future of publishing: "There is no doubt that the industry is in a period of significant transition. What can we expect 10 to 15 years from now? Someday, all data and applications will be "in the cloud"-that is, existing independently from, but accessible by, digital devices. All the devices most used every day will then need almost no memory. When we say "screens" in that context, it will mean the same thing as saying "devices" or "computers." The screens of the future will all connect to all the information and all the computing power all the time."

"Sixty-nine percent of university research libraries plan to increase spending on e-books over the next two years, according to a recent study published by Primary Research Group Inc. This finding and others were based on a survey of 45 research libraries in countries around the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan."

It includes writing from TOC speakers: * Sara Lloyd * Bob Stein * Kate Eltham * Kassia Krozser * Peter Brantley ... and more from around the Web, like John Siracusa.

"The new report examines the "unbundling of content" from traditional containers (books, journals, CDs) and distribution methods (postal mail, resource sharing). As the boundaries blur between content, technology and the information consumer, the report shows how format now matters less than the information within the container."

"If one clear consensus emerged from the studies that have been finalized at Princeton University, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, it is this: For students who were given the Kindle DX and tried to use it for coursework, the inability to easily highlight text was the biggest lowlight of the experience."

Jason Epstein: "The huge, worldwide market for digital content, however, is not a fantasy. It will be very large, very diverse, and very surprising: its cultural impact cannot be imagined. E-books will be a significant factor in this uncertain future, but actual books printed and bound will continue to be the irreplaceable repository of our collective wisdom."

NYT asks: Do schools need to maintain traditional libraries? What are the educational consequences of having students read less on the printed page and more on the Web? * James Tracy, headmaster, Cushing Academy * Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, English professor, University of Maryland * Liz Gray, library director, Dana Hall School * Nicholas Carr, author, "The Big Switch" * William Powers, author, "Hamlet's BlackBerry" Comments indicate strong belief in the importance of books