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The article discusses figures that seem to show that e-book sales have plateaued and the demand for hardcopy books remains steady. "There have been plenty of ideas on how to reinvigorate bookstores, but Waterstones and Barnes & Noble appear to have benefited from less radical moves. Waterstones has spent millions of pounds refurbishing its 290 stores, adding cafs and trying to emulate local bookstores by giving store managers more control. The growth of "click-and-collect" sales also benefits shops, which can encourage shoppers to browse when they come to pick up their orders. In the US, Barnes & Noble has put its faith in selling ancillary products alongside books, including vinyl records and craft beer kits. Some in the books industry suggest bricks-and-mortar stores may have benefit from resentment of Amazon among some consumers. However, globally, there is no guarantee that physical books will be sold through physical bookstores. "Online sales of physical books are likely to remain strong," Deloitte says, in its forthcoming 2015 predictions."

"If you don't have a Kindle, you can download Kindle for PC for free. There are also Kindle apps for iPad and iPod, as well as Droid. Amazon frequently runs freebies on books for the Kindle, but there are many books that are always free. This post lists/links some of the free Kindle books available. It is no way exhaustive, but begin to get a collection started by to collecting classic children's literature on the Kindle

First up is a tutorial on Jellybean Writer. The video is embedded below. Jellybean Writer is a free tool for creating picture books. Students can import pictures from their computers then write captions for each image. All stories can be saved online or downloaded and printed. If picture books are too simple for your students, they can skip using pictures and select one of the text only templates for the pages in their books. As you will see in the video below, teacher can create and manage student accounts in Jellybean Scoop.

The Open Library is a part of the Internet Archive. It is a collection of more than one million free e-book titles. The collection is cataloged by a community of volunteer online librarians. The ebooks in the Open Library can be read online, downloaded to a computer, read on a Kindle or other e-readers and embedded into other sites. Some of the ebooks, like Treasure Island, can also be listened to through the Open Library.

A useful, annotated list of eight places where you can find a wealth of free e-books.

"When the best new media tools are expertly selected and appropriately used with children, such tools can support and enhance adults' role in supporting development of the whole child, especially three-to-eight year-olds, the focus of this article. Used to complement rather than replace print, the finest ebooks, enhanced ebooks, and book apps (collectively referred to here as "ebooks") on the market put traditional picture book content in new containers that-like traditional print books-educate and entertain."

Links to 3 articles about e-books and libraries

"Regardless of the ultimate fate of the printed book, reports of the imminent death of the library as a physical entity seem to have been greatly exaggerated. Bookless digital public libraries are already starting to appear, the first in San Antonio, Texas, where lines of bookshelves have been replaced by e-readers, computer workstations, laptops and tablets. The simple truth is that, like Roald Dahl's character Matilda, people like going to libraries. Indeed, going to the library is like getting a pay rise, according to a survey conducted in 2014 by the UK's Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The survey, which attempted to quantify how happy different activities make us, showed that while dancing and swimming nearly always cheer us up, so does going to the library. "

"Florida's Polytechnic University is entirely digital and has no print books at all. This enormous facility promises to make 'many more books available for the students' in digital form."

Interesting article. Some children's books look/sound fabulous on a tablet. Tap the screen and hear/see action. "But does this count as story time? Or is it just screen time for babies? It is a question that parents, pediatricians and researchers are struggling to answer as children's books, just like all the other ones, migrate to digital media."

Book Creator is available as an Android and iOS app. Offers a way for students/classes to create their own individual books. Simple to use.

From the Overdrive blog - Five simple suggestions that anyone could follow to engage students and help boost the e-book circulation, .

"With the rise and prominence of eBooks have come a number of resources for educators and students to access free content on virtually any device. Using e-readers, tablets, or computers; in conjunction with apps such as Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Google Play Books, and OverDrive; you can access libraries of books for free on virtually any device. By downloading these free apps, you make your device a digital reading device that is not dependent on a specific vendor. "

Interesting arguments in favour of the paper book being retained as well as the digital.

A discussion about the implementation of e-books in the St. Andrew's College libraries. It follows the journey that they took to arrive at the solution that suited them.

Data from a survey about books and digital references indicates that both are important to researchers/students in 2015.

An interesting discussion about the print phenomenon. Different sources from textbook publishers, bookstore owners and college student surveys all say that young people still strongly prefer print for pleasure and learning. This is a bias that surprises reading experts when the same group spend so much of the rest of their time on-line. "A University of Washington pilot study of digital textbooks found that a quarter of students still bought print versions of e-textbooks that they were given for free."