eBook And Publishing News . . .And Spring Fever

Most days I sit down to write this blog and the biggest problem I have is narrowing it down to just one or two topics.  This week, for some unknown reason, I haven't been able to find anything interesting enough to write about.

I seem to be in some sort of spring fever state which makes it impossible to focus on any of the list of possible topics:

• The London Book Fair and the IBS questionnaire on eBooks
• The rumored $100 Android based netbook/eTablet
• The IDPF February eBook Sales report
• Random House's enhanced eBooks which might have been the one except that the link to any meaningful info is broken
• The Pulitzer Prizes
• The Wall Street Journal story on eTextBook rentals
• The Wall Street Journal story on eBooks

Not one of them really caught fire with me this week; but PLEASE check them out for yourself.  There is some really interesting stuff going on I'm just too fevered to fix on anything!

del.icio.us Tags: ebook,e-book,ebook news,ebook sales,digital reading,ebook technology,enhanced ebooks,eTextbooks

Smartphones in the Classroom

This morning, the New York Times has a great piece on smartphones in the classroom.

One one side is the cellphone industry saying that using a smartphone improves math skills. The claim is based on a study conducted in four North Carolina schools. The schools were all located in low-income neighborhoods; and 9th and 10th-grade math students were given high-end cellphones. The phone were each preloaded with special algebra learning programs.

The students used the phones to study -- recording them solving problems and even posting videos of their work for other students to watch. Evidently the school had set up a private network just for these students. Now how cool is that!

But there's more. . . the students were allowed talk and texting minutes to use during their off time. And just to keep things safe, the messages were monitored by teachers to make sure that they were appropriate.

At the end of the year the students were given an algebra exam and the results showed that students with the phones performed 25 percent better than those without the devices.

Of course, there is the other side. This side includes the usual suspects, teacher unions such as the American Federation of Teachers, school administrators and some individual teachers who believe that cellphones are just a distraction from the real business of learning. Which explains why many states and school districts ban cellphones on school campuses.

I would be willing to bet that most of these detractors have never even used a smart phone. . .

After watching the teens around me, I have to say that giving them a cellphone sounds like a winner idea. They are smaller and cheaper than computers; they can be insured for very little money and the kids love them.

Most of the teens I know remind me Charleton Heston -- you will have to pry the cell phone out of their cold dead hands. It seems to me a winning strategy to use their passion for the devices and leverage it into an educational tool.

The cost of a smartphone, especially when bought in bulk, can't be much more expensive than the outrageous amount of money spent on textbooks and supplies.

From what I have seen in our local school system there is a lot of room for experimentation. When you have one third of the children in the district "left behind", the status quo is clearly NOT working.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,e-books,cellphones in the classroom,education

2008 Global Student eBook Survey, the Popularity of eTexts and a New Look for eBooks

2008 Global Student eBook Survey

 2008 Global Student Survey on eBooks is a study designed by 150 librarians.  The study explores how students use digital information and eBooks.  The study offers the perspectives of nearly 6,500 college and university students about eBook usage, benefits and needs.

The attitudes and awareness about eBooks is definitely changing.  Most notable for me was the finding that eBooks were in second place (78%) as the most used resource for research/class assignments. In first place was Google and other search engines; print books followed closely at 77%.  Basically Google tops books of any sort.

Students are beginning to see eBook on a parity with print books.  Faculty members, however, do not seem to be as convinces.  Last year the 2007 Global Faculty Survey showed that teachers put eBooks in 6th place on a list of electronic resources they use. 

Maybe this is a case where the students can teach the teachers a thing or two.

eTexts: Why Students like them

And on the subject of eBooks in education.  We should note that In the last year there has been a 400% increase in digital textbook adoption.  Ingram Digital wanted to find out why.  So they did a survey of  680 e-Book Users to find out why.  Key findings:

• 47% of those surveyed believe that "cost in relation to print copies" is very important.
• 46% stated the convenience of e-books is a big attraction
• 45% sited interactive features (45%) as being very important.

Price, convenience and interactivity seem to trump the smell or feel of a book.

A New Look for eBooks

Finally, last week researchers at Maryland and Berkeley Universities announced a new prototype eBook.  One that let's you turn pages just like you can with a print book.

Why anyone thinks this is a good idea absolutely mystifies me!   Evidently there are people who are still clinging to the idea that if you somehow make the digital reading experience more like the paper experience you will get people to eBooks.

Maybe they should refer to the student survey about why eBooks are popular with them:  price, convenience and interactivity.  This design does nothing to enhance any of those stated reasons.

Personally, I would like to see all of that creative energy go into figuring out how to create the $100 eBook reader that reads every format (with or without DRM).  

Or better yet, use that creativity to create real content that people want.  Content with enhanced interactivity at a lower price would be a good start.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,e-books,etextbooks,ebook readers,ebook ebooks in education

eBooks and Technology on College Campuses

College Bookstore Retailers get together once a year to discuss ideas and trends in their industry.  This year they gathered in Austin, Texas.  One of the pieces of news coming out of that conference caught my attention.  

It was a report about a speech by Mark Nelson, digital content strategist for the National Association of College Stores.  He spoke at length about digital reading on college campuses.  In his remarks he noted that "digital change could come as quickly as the iPod became a staple of college students."  He went on to say that "in four years, iPod adoption by college freshman went from 0% to 85%."

I knew the percentage of "plugged in" kids was high, but 85%?  Wow!

The advent of digital content and the iPod revolutionized the music business.  I keep waiting for something to come along to do the same for publishing.  I used to think that there might one day be an iPod for books.  I am less certain of that these days. 

But I digress.

The real point is that digital delivery of all media, including reading,  is very much integrated into college life. Even with no iPod for books, digital textbooks are making inroads.  There is enough of a trend that College Book stores are taking note.  A study by the National Association of College stores reports that:

• 18.5% of students strongly prefer e-texts over the print version of the same books,
• 18% have purchased or accessed digital material.
• 17% of students said they would pay more for a print book if a digital version is included.

David Rothman over at Teleread reported on another study.  This one released by Educause.  They did an in depth study of Students and Faculty Preferences for Print Books vs eBooks.  This study had more interesting information about digital reading on college campuses:

• 18.5 percent of the surveyed students preferred eBooks for textbooks
• 7.9 percent had no preference for eBooks over print books
• 80.1 percent of students favored p-books for recreational reading
• 0% of College Faculty preferred eBooks for recreational reading
• a mere 2.6 percent preferred E for recreational reading.
• 38 percent of students favored e reading for research or had no preference

My introduction to eBooks on the college campus was almost six years ago.  My daughter signed up for a political science class.  "The Prince" by Machiavelli  was assigned reading. I'll never forget how excited she when she figured out that she could download the book on to her pocket PC (telephone) and carry one less book.  It seemed like textbooks as eBooks was a natural.  And six years later it is starting to happen. 

I would like to come up with some wise words or profound conclusion about this information.  Unfortunately, after a long week of moving our offices, I am too brain dead to do that.  About the best I can do is to observe that eReading is finally beginning to make a difference in education and it is about time.

del.icio.us Tags: ebooks,ebooks in education,e-book,digital reading,ebook reading

Barnes & Noble, the Bible and the Law

First a Bible Story: the story of Richard Dorazio of White Plains, New York. Richard was sentenced to 30 days in jail Thursday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor petty larceny charge. He admitted to City Court Judge JoAnnFriia that he had stolen a $14.01 Bible from the Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Ironically, he will have plenty of Bible reading time in the Westchester County Jail because “… the jail's clergy provides free bibles to any inmate who requests one”. B&N is hoping to give him the time to find Exodus and the Eighth Commandment that says “Thou shalt not steal.”

Barnes and Nobles doesn’t stop at protecting it’s physical property . . .

At Harvard, of all places, B&N is actively creating their own unique interpretation of intellectual property law. You see, the Harvard Co-op that they run along with the University has concluded that prices are their "intellectual property."

This is the culmination of an ongoing battle between the store and the students. Of course, the students are sick of paying inflated prices. So to get around that many of them started to do a little comparison shopping. They went into the Co-op and started copying down the book information -- including ISBN numbers and prices. Presumably they were planning to go online to find the cheapest possible copy of the required texts.

First the Co-op began kicking students out of the store for “for taking too many notes on pricing”. Outraged students and parents confronted the store asking for an explanation.

That’s when B&N upped the ante. They came up with the ridiculous notion that their pricing, when associated with the specific ISBN number of a given book, was protected under intellectual property laws. The argument is that since the ISBN number identifies the specific edition of a required text; and the pricing formula for the specific edition was devised by the B&N owned Co-op, it was de facto their intellectual property.

I suspect that this argument is the only real intellectual property to emerge in this dispute. But maybe I should check with my attorney.

In the telling of these stories I have come across a real dilemma -- is it worse to steal or to lie?

eBooks in Schools

The Stamford Advocate has a great piece about eBooks in schools; specifically about a test program using Sony eBooks at the Bi-Cultural Day School.

Instead of lugging a huge back pack of books these students have one small book loaded with all of the material they need. Sony provided the school with 25 readers. And Pat Seldin, director of technology at the school, says that the school plans to download books for the readers to fit certain grades' curriculums.

Bi-Cultural Day School Headmaster Gerald Kirshenbaum said e-book readers may find a place in the classroom as they appeal to a generation growing up with technology. "We're pushing books, and sometimes we don't always get takers," he said. "This is an exciting, imaginative and enticing piece of equipment that will get to our goal of increasing their love of literature."

This piece makes me very happy! And not just because I sell eBooks. But also as a concerned parent. I watched my kids haul around a bulging backpack. Thier school had taken all the lockers out; evidently as a way to fight drugs. I do wonder about that particular piece of logic, but never mind. The point is that it made my back ache just to see them struggling with that huge, heavy load! Admitedly rolling cases allieviate that problem, but they are cumbersome and inconvenient.

Add this hassle to that the cost of text books and eBooks in the class room look like a natural. Presumably eBook text books will be cheaper than printed books which would be a great benefit!

Not so quick! Text book publishers, professors and college bookstores all have a large vested interest in maintaining the status quo. I suspect that only consumer pressure will ultimately make them grudgingly change over.

Anyone want to start a consumer advocate group?