Library in Transition

Fulltext Sources Online is an index published by Information Today, updated weekly online and available twice a year in a print version. FSO "is a directory of over 42,000 full-text newspapers, journals, magazine, newsletters, and transcripts from 30 aggregators and content providers." Subscribers have access to all aspects of the index, while non-subscribers can search for free with only limited access to results.

This page features the results of the collaboration between Google and the LOC to digitize Congressional hearings. I tried the Immigration collection, and found it easy to download and search the .pdf document. This is a great resource for researchers.

"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"

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."

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."

Collection of essays about ebooks, publishing shift

"Pan Macmillan ebooks are now available for reading on the iPhone. In partnership with Lexcycle Stanza, the popular reading application, you can now read on the move. To read an ebook on the iPhone purchase and download the book from this page (scroll down for Pan Macmillan books available on the iPhone), and follow the instructions below."

"The market for e-books has taken off, particularly in the world of education. Aggregators provide easy access to large collections of titles from many publishers, through a single interface. Consultants Ray Lonsdale and Chris Armstrong compare the offerings of the largest providers, and point to emerging trends."

"The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published "The E-only Tipping Point for Journals: What's Ahead in the Print-to-Electronic Transition Zone," by Richard K. Johnson and Judy Luther. The report examines the issues associated with the migration from dual-format publishing toward electronic-only publication of journals."

"The goal of the Collection Management Initiative was to explore issues associated with integrating and managing research library journal collections comprising print and digital formats. The study sought to explore ways that the University of California could leverage its investment in digital library collections by providing campuses with new approaches for managing their print collections with greater flexibility, given the constraints imposed by existing facilities and limited capital funding. The Collection Management Initiative encompassed three complementary research components. The first component, the Journal Use Study, concentrated on assessing the impact on the user community when print materials are removed from campus library collections and users must rely on digital equivalents. The second component focused on user behaviors and preferences gleaned through surveys and structured interviews. The third component was designed to gather data on the costs and benefits of removing print materials from library collections and relying on digital equivalents."

" Off the Shelf: E-book Aggregators. Polanka, Sue (author). FEATURE. First published May 15, 2008 (Booklist). Like many librarians, you're beginning to purchase e-books from a variety of publishers, and you're confused by all the different licensing agreements, platforms, and pricing models. A solution to this madness? Use an e-book aggregator. Aggregators partner with multiple publishers to supply content (e-books, audio books, other media) and provide a platform for libraries and end users to search, order, access, and download the content on the Web. We'll focus here on three of the larger academic aggregators-EBL, ebrary, and MyiLibrary. Ebooks Corporation's EBL (Ebook Library) partners with 250 academic and trade publishers, offering more than 85,000 titles. Ebrary partners with 285 publishers to offer more than 120,000 e-books and content databases. The newest platform, Ingram Digital Group's MyiLibrary, partners with 250 publishers and offers more than 110,000 titles. "

"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."

Historican perspective on ebook publishing

Growing market for ebooks (2006)

This book, available through ALA, appears to offer a philosophical discussion of the values of librarianship. It's neat that it is available for preview through Google books, but I don't think it is very relevant to our study.