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Scott Peterson

The French Still Flock to Bookstores - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ores-are-still-prospering.html

Professional Development

shared by Scott Peterson on 19 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Scott Peterson on 19 Jul 12
     
    In France eBooks are only 1.8% of the general market, and total sales of books have actually increased by 6.5% from 2003 to 2011. Some interesting conclusions are drawn from this, namely that prices for French language books are fixed by government decree and set by publishers--not by price discounters such as Amazon, and last year the publishers lobbied to do the same for eBooks. The French government is also friendly to booksellers, offering grants and help with rent. The result is French language bookstores are doing well, while some such English language bookstore such as the 30 year old Village Voice are closing because of the competition from resellers like Amazon and eBooks. The article surmises that the French are really only delaying the inevitable, but I find it curious that nothing is really stopping them from turning entirely to eBooks now, the main factor is cost rather than convenience or access.
Jennifer Parsons

Book Places in the Digital Age « The Digital Digest - 0 views

aaupdigitaldigest.wordpress.com/...book-places-in-the-digital-age

ebooks library bookstore bookplace subscriptions

shared by Jennifer Parsons on 21 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Jennifer Parsons on 21 Jun 12
     
    The article offers an interesting model of a "Book Place"-- a sort of combination library/bookstore of the future that offers things like printed books on demand if they're not in the store (thanks to the awesome Espresso machine and the 7 million titles it has on EspressoNet), and rental/subscription services for users-- including DRM free options for electronic media.
Scott Peterson

Rent Hikes May Write Final Chapter on Bookstores - 0 views

missionlocal.org/...te-final-chapter-on-bookstores

Professional Development

shared by Scott Peterson on 25 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Scott Peterson on 25 Oct 12
     
    An article on what is a local issue--the Mission District in San Francisco, but addresses the larger issue of the financial problems local independent booksellers are facing, especially with trying to keep a physical brick-and-mortar presence.
adrienne_mobius

Print On Demand: Major Announcement Could Change How You Buy Books - 1 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...-books-espresso_n_1882616.html

print on demand self publishing espresso book machine pod

shared by adrienne_mobius on 17 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • adrienne_mobius on 17 Sep 12
     
    "The makers of the POD Espresso Book Machine currently installed in fewer than a hundred bookstores nationwide, have announced new partnerships with Eastman Kodak and ReaderLink Distribution Services. Under the arrangement, the company's POD technology will be made available to retailers who have Kodak Picture Kiosks, currently installed in 105,000 locations according to Publishers Weekly, including drugstores and supermarkets. "
Scott Peterson

As textbook costs skyrocket, cheaper rental options surge - 0 views

www.jsonline.com/...tion-b9987329z1-222114771.html

Professional Development

shared by Scott Peterson on 13 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Scott Peterson on 13 Sep 13
     
    Textbook prices have increased several times more than inflation, and it's been an issue for years about new textbooks being required every year with little or no difference. This initiative is largely happening from university bookstores that are trying to stem costs by letting students rent textbooks for large enrollment classes. While a good idea, it seems to only be fighting a flood of costs, in particular as publishers move to electronic textbooks that have the access controlled by them.
Jennifer Parsons

"Why I break DRM on e-books": A publishing exec speaks out - paidContent - 0 views

paidcontent.org/...breaking-drm-publishing-exec

drm publishing ebooks

shared by Jennifer Parsons on 24 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Here at paidContent, independent e-bookstore Emily Books‘ Emily Gould and Ruth Curry have argued that DRM is crushing indie booksellers online. And Hachette VP, digital Maja Thomas recently described DRM as “a speedbump” that “doesn’t stop anyone from pirating.”
  • He argues that DRM is a way for the Amazons of the world to create lock-in to their platforms.
  • Jennifer Parsons on 24 Apr 12
     
    And why would they do it?  Probably because as it stands, it doesn't work as intended. As people realize that what they're doing isn't buying content so much as leasing it, it's interesting to see how their attitudes have changed towards DRM. 
Donna Bacon

New Partnership of Barnes & Noble and Microsoft Will Promote Digital Textbooks - chroni... - 5 views

www.readability.com/read

shared by Donna Bacon on 01 May 12 - No Cached
  • Donna Bacon on 01 May 12
     
    College students still don't want e-textbooks!  Wonder if this partnership will help students change their minds.....
  • ...3 more comments...
  • anonymous on 02 May 12
     
    Are you serious? They LOVE e-textbooks... you can pirate them instead of spending $160 on a dead tree...
  • Donna Bacon on 02 May 12
     
    Did you read the article???? It says e-textbooks are just not taking off....they seem to like the dead trees....
  • Sharla Lair on 02 May 12
     
    While getting my MLIS, I was often given the option of buying the textbook or the e-textbook. The highest priority for me was $$$$$. eTextbooks often cost more than the el cheapos in the bookstore, AND you don't even get to keep the e version. I was usually given access to the etextbook for only 4 months. To remedy this issue all together I got my books through MOBIUS! That way I didn't have to pay anything and I didn't have to store the book after the semester was over. For students to adopt e-texts, the model has to be changed. Make them pay a flat fee with their tuition. Call it a library fee or information fee. Then give them access to the required texts while they are enrolled in a course at no additional cost. Make the texts collaborative so digital notes can be taken perhaps Diigo style so they can be shared and commented on. There is a cool tool called Citelighter http://www.citelighter.com/. Citelighter is a virtual highlighter that automates the research and paper writing process. It allows the user to find and capture unique facts online, automatically generate citations, and write better quality papers in less time. They just launched a pro version in a partnership with Cengage. Citelighter Pro users are able to add to their experience with materials from Cengage Learning. If you make it affordable, accessible, and social, college students will dig it!
  • anonymous on 02 May 12
     
    @donna I skimmed it. They are cheaper in some cases than the book new - while buying a used book ten selling it back is cheaper in the long run. Also currently ebooks don't have any really compelling features over the paper ones. Still, I'm saying that the point of view that they "aren't taking off" just means the companies selling them haven't figured out how to make money off of them. I know from talking to friends that ebooks are fairly popular, but when people pirate them these companies can't track them. On the whole I agree with Sharla - if they made the product better and keep it affordable they will see sales. If I were going to college today I'd pirate every book I need. No way am I carrying all those heavy things, but I can't afford to pay for them. It's like with music and movies. I quit pirating that stuff because Netflix/Hulu/Spotify got good and cheap. If the ebooks improve, people will pay for the same reason - it's easier.
  • Jennifer Parsons on 02 May 12
     
    I think the reason why the print versions are preferred is here: ""Most e-textbooks are slightly glorified PDF's of the print version, although that's changing," [a National College Stores Association rep] said. "Digital e-books sell for about 60 percent of the cost of a new printed copy. Since students can go to their college store and rent a print copy for between 33 and 55 percent of the cost of a new book, the e-book really needs to have more functionality to make the higher price worth their while."" Add to that what Sharla pointed out-- you can't even keep the ebooks because you're really just leasing them-- and it's no wonder nobody's interested. It's a shame, too, because I'd love to be able to do things like textbook exercises in an ebook on a tablet, or make notes in the electronic text to export and read later.
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