Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica: "Of course, the other downside to losing a Kindle (besides unsuccessfully trying to frustrate the person who now has it) is the fact that users can no longer access their purchased Kindle books unless they use the Kindle iPhone app or purchase another Kindle. 'Not only could I not read them if I had them due to their DRM,' Smith told us, 'but my purchased content is not even available to me through the Amazon site so long as I do not have a Kindle registered—I confirmed this to be the case with one of the two first-level customer service people.'"

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica

Lost or stolen Kindle? Amazon says you're out of luck - Ars Technica: "This made us wonder: is there any way to use technology to recover a lost Kindle? After all, the Kindle has built-in wireless connectivity through Sprint, and Amazon has the apparent ability to reach into people's devices to yank back content. There must be some way to figure out where the device is, or at least shut it down remotely to deter thieves. Right? Right?

Our reader, Justin Smith, said that Amazon's Kindle Support told him that there's no way to send a kill signal down to the Kindle and have it shut off remotely. This is 'something which I feel would be beneficial in a situation like this, where recovery of the device is unlikely,' he told us via e-mail."

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet: "Bob LiVolsi wants to change that. LiVolsi is the founder and chief executive of BooksOnBoard, the largest independent e-book bookseller. BooksOnBoard was the first retailer to offer to its readers books in the EPUB standard, a free and open file format designed so that consumers can read (and move) their books wherever they want."

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet

The case for an e-book standard and the death of DRM - SmartPlanet: "SP: Are e-books growing in adoption? If so, how much? BL: We’ve grown nonstop since [we launched, in 2006]. We grow 12 to 15 percent a month, every month. This space has been fairly recession-proof. We do 24/7 support; that helps."

Digital textbooks: Money-saving wave of future? - Norwalk News - The Hour

Digital textbooks: Money-saving wave of future? - Norwalk News - The Hour: "'One big positive of free books is that it gets you out of the horribly exploitative textbook market,' wrote Fullerton College professor Ben Crowell in an e-mail. 'It's just a scandal that they're charging students as much as $250 for an organic chemistry book, and bringing out a new edition every three years in order to kill off the used book market.'"

Darden Students Test the Amazon Kindle DX

Darden Students Test the Amazon Kindle DX: "In addition to saving students from lugging around heavy backpacks, the technology could substantially reduce the use of paper. 'The Kindle could help Darden achieve its goal of becoming 'carbon neutral' by 2020,' Robert Carraway, Darden's associate dean for MBA programs, said.

Darden aims to become a top 10 school for teaching and research on sustainability by 2013 and has launched several other new 'electronic' initiatives this school year. For the first time, all first-year students will have the option to receive electronically the more than 300 case studies they will review. For several second-year courses, paper is not an option."

A Kindle for Every Student - US News and World Report

A Kindle for Every Student - US News and World Report: "At the K-12 level, more is happening with digital books and other new media technologies without using E-book readers. At Cinega High School in Vail, Ariz., students who own laptops can register for 'digital sections' of their English, history, and science classes. Teachers throughout the district are encouraged to incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, as well as videos and research materials found on websites, into their classes."

Kindle - People Know About It, People Want It - NYTimes.com

Kindle - People Know About It, People Want It - NYTimes.com: "Here are some key findings from the J.P. Morgan survey: * 37 percent of those surveyed knew about the Kindle.
* 51 percent of those who read 10 books or more every year knew about it.
* Less than 5 percent owned one.
* About 15 percent said they were planning to buy one.
* Of those not looking to buy a Kindle, nearly 75 percent said that they were put off by the high price.
* Nearly 73 percent said that they preferred reading paper books."

Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren't Ready

Digital Textbooks: 3 Reasons Students Aren't Ready: "“We may have actually made enough progress for this to be a landmark device, but the caveat that humans have proven is that they are resistant to change,” said Andrew Dillon, Dean of the University of Texas School of Information about the Kindle DX device. “Fighting 700 years of human familiarity with paper is a huge challenge.”"

Sony E-Reader Fighting Amazon's Kindle for Book Dominance - Advertising Age - Digital

Sony E-Reader Fighting Amazon's Kindle for Book Dominance - Advertising Age - Digital: "By the end of 2008, only 1 million e-readers had been sold, with another 3 million estimated to be in users' hands by the end of this year, according to Forrester Research. That's only 3% of the adult book-reading population and $197 million in U.S. sales. But the category is expected to grow rapidly, to 32 million devices, or about $1.8 billion in sales, reaching about one-third of that total by 2014."

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com: "'We want to identify faculty members who would like to try to implement them in the classroom, and then get some honest feedback on some of the pros and cons and things we can do with them (Kindles),' said Superintendent Scott Schoonmaker. He said he was alerted to Kindle's capabilities at a May meeting with other school districts' officials, one of whom was telling the group about his own Kindle."

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com

N. Branford schools hope device can Kindle love of learning | Education & Training > Education Administration from AllBusiness.com: "Over the next six months, North Branford faculty and students will be given the gizmos to use in a small pilot pro- gram that may in a few years lead to the entire school system reading downloaded books on Kindles. Officials from some area districts said they are still researching the idea and may initiate similar programs in the future."

Prediction: Amazon to Sell 10 Million Kindle E-Book Readers | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Prediction: Amazon to Sell 10 Million Kindle E-Book Readers | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD: "That projection comes from a survey of Web users that Internet analyst Imran Khan commissioned last month. Khan’s survey found that 37 percent of respondents were familiar with the Kindle. And of that group, five percent said they already owned one of the devices, and another 15 percent said they expect to buy one within the next year. Extrapolating those results for the U.S. population, Khan figures that Kindle ownership will hit 10 million in the next 12 months."

38,000 College Students to Save $3 Million Utilizing Flat World Knowledge Open Source Textbooks in Fall 2009 Semester

This Fall semester, 38,000 college students at 350 colleges are enrolled to utilize Flat World textbooks, up from only 1,000 in Spring 2009 at 30 colleges.

“Traditional textbooks have clearly failed students and instructors,” added Flat World Knowledge CEO Eric Frank. “Similarly, digital textbook trials that force a single format, device, or price point will also fail. No single e-reading format or device will ever satisfy all students. “Our commercial open source textbook approach puts control and the power of choice in the hands of students and instructors.”

Download complete press release here.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | A textbook love affair?

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | A textbook love affair?: "Dr John Woollard, lecturer in information technology education at the University of Southampton, agrees. 'E-resources are becoming increasingly associated with textbooks,' he says. 'But I personally don't think they will replace books because of the flexibility a textbook offers.

'It is a physical thing and in a classroom everyone can go to a particular page and identify what is being talked about. And a teacher couldn't really readily check if everyone was looking at the right page electronically.'"

Sony, Google Adopt Open Approach in Contrast to Closed Kindle -- Nikkei Electronics Asia -- August 2009 - Tech-On!

Sony, Google Adopt Open Approach in Contrast to Closed Kindle -- Nikkei Electronics Asia -- August 2009 - Tech-On!: "One response that is picking up momentum, primarily in the US, is building an open distribution environment. 'An open standard is essential for the growth of the eBook market,' advises Ana Maria Allesi, vice president of HarperMedia, of major publisher Harper Collins Publishers of the US. If an open standard can be developed, it would be possible for a single reader to be used to purchase eBook data from multiple distribution sites. It would also mean that a single distribution site could sell eBooks to multiple types of readers."

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs: "Some of the best universities in the world place complete course materials, including video podcasts of lectures, online. What possible reason would some podunk college have to not take advantage of course material from, say, MIT, whenever possible (other than instructor ego)? There's a whole new universe of educational content resources -- most of it free -- that has emerged in the past few years."

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs: "Maybe school curricula should also take a cue from Hayek, and push the decision-making down to the individual instructor? Electronic materials would make that extremely workable."

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs

Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks - Computerworld Blogs: "But the worst thing about textbooks is that they've evolved into bland, unreadable products of interest group politics. Schools are trying to teach students to be literate, and to develop an ear for good language, then we force-feed them these hideous textbooks, which tend to be so stripped of blood and guts and heart (one definition of bad writing) that reading and learning become some kind of forced march through the educational-industrial complex, rather than the journey of discovery they're supposed to be."

Wikipedia enters a new chapter | Technology | The Guardian

Wikipedia enters a new chapter | Technology | The Guardian: "statistics released by the site's analytics team suggest Wikipedia's explosive growth is all but finished. The quickening pace that helped the site reach the 2m article milestone just 17 months after breaking the 1m barrier suddenly evaporated: adding the next million has taken nearly two years."

10 reasons why e-readers make sense in the enterprise | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

10 reasons why e-readers make sense in the enterprise | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: "No matter where you stand on the issue, you know businesses waste tons of paper yearly. This paper is either recycled or tossed. Although recycling is a noble gesture, even the act of doing so contributes to the problem. Someone has to pick up (or drop off) that paper to recycle. And the recycling plants use up energy and give off pollution in the process. You can avoid a good deal of this by employing e-readers."

Matsunichi ER600 ebook reader

Matsunichi ER600 ebook reader: "Description: The ER600 is an e-book reader, made by China's Matsunichi. It is available for customization (Matsunichi will not sell these directly) - options include a 5' or 6' E Ink display, touchscreen, 3G/3.5G cellular modem, Wi-Fi and bluetooth."

Sony, OverDrive in Deal - 8/12/2009 8:18:00 AM - Publishers Weekly

Sony, OverDrive in Deal - 8/12/2009 8:18:00 AM - Publishers Weekly: "Sony has signed a joint marketing agreement with OverDrive through which the two will cross-market the use of the Sony Reader in libraries by using the OverDrive network. According to OverDrive, its network offers thousands of e-books through libraries that have been compatible with the Reader for sometime and the promotion venture is designed to highlight the connection. Through OverDrive, library users can browse or search their library Web site, check out their selected e-book with a valid library card, and download to a PC. Once downloaded, the e-book may then be transferred to the Sony Reader via free Adobe Digital Editions software."

Ebook growth explosive; serious disruptions around the corner - The Shatzkin Files

Ebook growth explosive; serious disruptions around the corner - The Shatzkin Files: "But not all the books big houses sell are “ebookable” with current technology: much of the juvie list, most illustrated books, and books where tabular or graphic material is important might well not have been made into ebooks."

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times: "Instructional materials are revised when society changes its mind about what's vital to students' education, when new research points to better methods to boost student learning, and when teachers offer feedback about what lessons work. For example, social studies texts were last adopted in California four years ago, and since then, educators have pinpointed areas that need improvement, said Herman Clay, who was in charge of L.A. Unified sixth- to 12th-grade social studies instruction for four years. (He recently became principal of Cleveland High School in Reseda.)

Some American history books dwell on New York City politics but contain not a word about the 2003 California recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Instructors would also like to see a greater emphasis on landmark California rulings, such as Mendez vs. Westminster, a 1946 school desegregation case that laid the groundwork for Brown vs. Board of Education. Also, teachers are now more focused on frequent assessment of students."

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times: "Irvine Unified, which has cut more than $18 million from its $215-million budget since April, is among the districts that have delayed purchasing English and language arts textbooks. The move is expected to save the Irvine district more than $1.7 million. 'That's a pretty hefty chunk of change,' said district spokesman Ian Hanigan. 'This flexibility enables us to get through 2009-10 without making [more] cuts that would almost certainly impact class sizes and jobs.'"

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times

Budget cuts put new textbook purchases on hold - Los Angeles Times: "California school districts spent at least $633 million on new books in 2007, according to the Assn. of American Publishers. More recent numbers are not available, but a representative of one publishing house who asked not to be named because of proprietary concerns said sales in the state -- the nation's biggest textbook market -- are off by 50% or more. 'We're all seeing a precipitous drop,' said John Sipe Jr., vice president of K-12 sales in California for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Fewer than 200 California districts have bought reading/literature texts this year, compared with publishers' typical expectation of 600 to 700, he said.

'This is a staggering difference for our industry,' Sipe said."

Amost three million active e-book users on the iPhone/Touch and other smart phones. | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Amost three million active e-book users on the iPhone/Touch and other smart phones. | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home: "# Growth of more than 300 percent happened from April to July. # “eBooks represents the second-largest category in the [iPhone/Touch] App Store, with 14% share, only behind Games, which comes in at 19%.'"

Kindle in danger of becoming a Betamax - MarketWatch

Kindle in danger of becoming a Betamax - MarketWatch: "While the Kindle format (a special version of Amazon's e-book software Mobipocket) is specific to the Kindle, the ePub format will be supported by most new devices from other companies. It's also backed by the publishers, who don't like Amazon's dominance of the e-book business, and Adobe, whose Digital Editions e-book format uses ePub. 'I think Amazon has overestimated their power in the value chain,' says Gartner's Weiner. 'I don't think their proprietary format is going to have the ability to compete with ePub if that's offered by everybody else.'"

The Forrester Blog For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

The Forrester Blog For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals: "The big takeaway is that this could spell trouble for Amazon, if competitors can move in to better serve the later waves of adopters who don't have as strong a relationship with the eCommerce giant."

Joe Wikert's Kindleville Blog: All Kindle, All the Time: Slowly Losing Interest in Subscriptions

Joe Wikert's Kindleville Blog: All Kindle, All the Time: Slowly Losing Interest in Subscriptions: "The iPhone version has ads and the Kindle version doesn't. So what? If that's one of the key differences and it saves me $14/month, bring on the ads!"

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac: "'Nobody is going to use their iPhone to do their homework, but this does provide real mobile learning,' said Frank Lyman, CourseSmart's executive vice president. 'If you're in a study group and you have a question, you can immediately access your text.'"

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Most of the digital texts submitted for review in California came from a nonprofit group, CK-12 Foundation, that develops free “flexbooks” that can be customized to meet state standards, and added to by teachers. Its physics flexbook, a Web-based, open-content compilation, was introduced in Virginia in March. “The good part of our flexbooks is that they can be anything you want,” said Neeru Khosla, a founder of the group. “You can use them online, you can download them onto a disk, you can print them, you can customize them, you can embed video. When people get over the mind-set issue, they’ll see that there’s no reason to pay $100 a pop for a textbook, when you can have the content you want free.”

The move to open-source materials is well under way in higher education — and may be accelerated by President Obama’s proposal to invest in creating free online courses as part of his push to improve community colleges."

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Whenever it comes, the online onslaught — and the competition from open-source materials — poses a real threat to traditional textbook publishers. Pearson, the nation’s largest one, submitted four texts in California, all of them already available online, as free supplements to their texts.

“We believe that the world is going digital, but the jury’s still out on how this will evolve,” said Wendy Spiegel, a Pearson spokeswoman. “We’re agnostic, so we’ll provide digital, we’ll provide print, and we’ll see what our customers want.”"

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Many educators expect that digital textbooks and online courses will start small, perhaps for those who want to study a subject they cannot fit into their school schedule or for those who need a few more credits to graduate. Although California education authorities are reviewing 20 open-source high school math and science texts to make sure they meet California’s exacting academic standards in time for use this fall — and will announce this week which ones meet state standards — quick adoption is unlikely.

“I want our teachers to have the best materials available, and with digital textbooks, we could see the best lessons taught by the most dynamic teachers,” said John A. Roach, superintendent of the Carlsbad, Calif., schools. “But they’re not going to replace paper texts right away.”"

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com

As Classrooms Go Digital, Textbooks May Become History - NYTimes.com: "Around the world, hundreds of universities, including M.I.T. and King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Saudi Arabia, now use and share open-source courses. Connexions, a Rice University nonprofit organization devoted to open-source learning, submitted an algebra text to California."

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac: "If our theorising’s correct, apart from making toast of Kindle , the new tablet device isn’t a product looking for a market, but a solutions-led affair that will fit snugly in lots of markets."

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's tablet means more education as e-Books prepare for a big-screen future | 9 to 5 Mac: "Strike one today comes on news that e-textbook provider, CourseSmart, intends releasing all its 7,000 titles in a format that’s accessible on an iPhone or iPod touch. And it’s no stretch of sanity to think the true target here is to make this content available on the heavily rumored media-centric Apple tablet."

MediaPost Publications NPD: E-Readers Slow to Catch On 08/10/2009

MediaPost Publications NPD: E-Readers Slow to Catch On 08/10/2009: "However, unlike other technologies, the early adopters in the e-reader category tend to be affluent leisure readers, rather than young men. The tipping point for the e-readers, Rubin says, will likely come as they become more widespread among students. 'Textbooks are likely the key to exploding past the leisure readers,' Rubin says."

OLPC Cuts Staff by Half, Drops Sugar Development | Epicenter | Wired.com

OLPC Cuts Staff by Half, Drops Sugar Development | Epicenter | Wired.com: "The PDF book reader software is nice, but you need to learn how to install fonts using the command line before you can truly feel comfortable. The included RSS reader is practically unusable, so I’ve defaulted to Google Reader. In fact, all of the tools for working are a little weak, but if you stick to low-end webapps, you can get by just fine. There are other stumbling blocks, too, like managing system updates or setting up swap space on SD cards and USB sticks. Both of those required some serious digging on the OLPC’s wiki manual."

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com: "In the meantime, the XO’s creators aren’t interested in pimping out their hardware to turn a quick profit, but they do see the potential. 'We’re not planning on selling machines directly to people in the U.S., but the XO is an awesome e-book reader,' says OLPC director of community content S.J. Klein. 'Our primary interests are in making sure there are amazing new books for people to use, and in making the experience as interesting and engaging as possible.'"

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com

OLPC’s Hidden Killer App: Ultimate E-Book Reader | Epicenter | Wired.com: "Once the kinks around software and content are ironed out, the XO could be pitched to commuters, students and travelers as a purely consumer device — 'it’s the rugged Kindle!' — the OLPC project can generate much-needed revenue to fund its educational, open-hardware goals. 'It is a great e-book,' says Walter Bender, former president of OLPC software and content who is now the head of Sugar Labs, the non-profit group that continues to develop the XO’s 'Sugar' interface.

Bender says he can’t speak for OLPC regarding its sales strategy, but he does say that its laptop has a significant advantage: Unlike e-books devices like Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Reader, the XO is a fully featured computer.

'So while you can use it to read a PDF or wiki page,' he says in an e-mail, 'you can also use it to annotate pages, write commentary, or even publish your own book: consumer as producer.'"

School Zone: Saving on textbooks | LOCAL NEWS | KHOU.com | News for Houston, Texas

School Zone: Saving on textbooks | LOCAL NEWS | KHOU.com | News for Houston, Texas: "“State legislatures including our own in Texas are starting to not only look at open textbooks as a way of cost savings, but also moving education forward,” said Joel Thierstein, the Executive Director of Connexions.
Thierstein added that professors can take an online textbook and change the coursework to suit their needs. Online textbooks are also easy to update to meet any advancements in specific fields."

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Battle for E-Books - Rita McGrath - Harvard Business Review

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the Battle for E-Books - Rita McGrath - Harvard Business Review: "This is a classic Stage I effort; by creating its own vertically-integrated model, Amazon hopes to generate such a superior user experience that it, like Apple, might come to dominate book distribution the way Apple is a force in music. This attempt to create a Stage I competitive advantage, however, may misfire. This could happen if other players can mobilize their own resources to create a great, horizontally-structured alternative for book lovers that doesn't hand all that industry power to one player."

Sony to Release Two Lower-Priced E-Readers - WSJ.com

Sony to Release Two Lower-Priced E-Readers - WSJ.com: "Ok, call me old fashioned, isn't it 2009? I don't care how many forms you put onto a screen, I have computers, televisions, etc, etc that can do that. I want a device I can plug into, bluetooth or FM into my car radio so I can 'hear' the book read to me! I read 4,000 to 5,000 pages a week at work, I get tired of it, let me hear it!"

Brainstorm - Nicholson Baker on the Kindle - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Brainstorm - Nicholson Baker on the Kindle - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "My course, WWS-AMS325 (jointly offered by the Woodrow Wilson School and the American Studies Program) is on “Civil Society and Public Policy,” and all of the weekly assignments are either complete books or book chapters. All but one is available from Amazon, so that was not a problem for me. The 20 enrolled students will each be offered a Kindle DX. They will be able to highlight and annotate text (if they can manage the “tea party” of a keyboard). A bigger challenge, I think (noted by Nicholson) will be finding specific passages for class discussion, since the device specifies “locations” at the foot of each page, and these point only to the Kindle e-version of the text. If you refer to your own analog copy, you have a problem (and if one or more of the students opts out of the pilot, it may make things difficult). The Kindle has an excellent search capacity, so you can find any passage easily, but doing that while carrying on a group discussion may be a challenge. We’ll see."

Poll Archive

Poll Archive: "What traditional print reference source would you like to have electronically?
Publication Manual of the APA (43%, 18 Votes) MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (31%, 13 Votes) Genreflecting: a guide to Reading Interests in Genre Fiction (12%, 5 Votes) New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare (1963) (12%, 5 Votes) Suggest another title (2%, 1 Votes) Total Voters: 42"

Interviews

Interviews: "Interviews
Each month, No Shelf Required will feature an audio interview with an Ebook publisher, aggregator, or distributor. Interviews will be about 15 - 20 minutes in length. I recommend you download/save the audio file first, then listen."

Pricing Models

Pricing Models: "The price of a book is based on factors which include perceived value, cost to develop and support, cost to produce, number of units which can be expected to be sold, and more. While I believe that most consumer pricing in our society is based on perceived value and not on cost (think Starbucks versus 7-11 for a cup of coffee, or doctor’s time versus car wash attendant’s time), let’s examine publishing costs and see whether eBook costs are less than print book costs."

CRL - Global Resources Network

CRL - Global Resources Network: "The Global Resources Network (GRN) is a voluntary and collaborative initiative of higher academic research institutions to expand and enhance access to international scholarly resources."

Digital Textbooks | Science & Technology | Chemical & Engineering News

Digital Textbooks | Science & Technology | Chemical & Engineering News: "Examples of legitimate “open” textbooks include Wikibook’s “Organic Chemistry,” which has been written by more than a dozen contributors; “Biochemistry,” by Jeremy M. Berg, John L. Tymoczko, and Lubert Stryer; and the “Virtual Textbook of Organic Chemistry,” created by William Reusch.
"

Digital Textbooks: Bane Or Boon? at C&ENtral Science

Digital Textbooks: Bane Or Boon? at C&ENtral Science: "Whenever I get a survey or informational flyer from a textbook publisher offering an electronic version of a textbook for a greatly reduced price, I take an informal survey of my students. The informal surveys are basically carried out by going into the lab and asking the students if they would prefer the electronic book. So far the results have always been unanimous. The students are vehement about wanting their dead tree versions of the textbook. I don’t blame them. That’s the version I prefer."

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices - NYTimes.com

Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices - NYTimes.com: "Justin Gawronski, a 17-year-old from the Detroit area, was reading “1984” on his Kindle for a summer assignment and lost all his notes and annotations when the file vanished. “They didn’t just take a book back, they stole my work,” he said."

Universities Turn to Kindle? (RJS) - Jesus Creed

Universities Turn to Kindle? (RJS) - Jesus Creed: "Logos/Libronix software has dealt with the 'true' page number issue in a rather effective way, I think. For the electronic books that are in one's library, the software simply places the page numbers in brackets wherever they appear in the paper edition. Example: text text text [124] text text text. It makes citing commentaries very easy.
I don't see why it would be terribly difficult for Amazon to find a similar way of doing things."

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com: "By the end of 2008, the Amazon Kindle and Sony ( SNE - news - people ) Reader Digital Book hit the 1 million mark in combined U.S. sales, according to Forrester's estimates."

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com: "The number of eReaders sold in the U.S. will top 3 million by the end of 2009, with 13 million selling by the end of 2013, Forrester forecast in a research note published last month. 'The eReader market is hot,' said Sarah Rotman Epps, a strategist with Forrester Research"

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com

Newspaper's Plastic Future A Step Closer - Forbes.com: "According to Forreseter Research, eReader device ownership has doubled in the U.S. alone from 0.6% in the second quarter of 2008, to 1.5% during the same period this year. And the number of consumers who say they intend to buy an eReader in the next six months has tripled, from 2% in the second quarter of 2008 to 6% in same period this year."

Frequently Asked Questions - NIH

Frequently Asked Questions - NIH: "Is the content on our Website copyrighted or free to use? Most of the information on our site is in the public domain and can be used without charge or restriction.

There are a few exceptions. For example, some resources, such as the interactive health tutorials found on NIH's National Library of Medicine Website, and images on the www.nih.gov and http://health.nih.gov/ have been licensed from a third party and are restricted in their use. Generally, copyrighted materials will include a copyright statement. If in doubt, please write to the contact point for that site."

America's School of the Future: Howard Middle School and Studywiz Spark a 21st Century Education Success Story - PreK-12 Market Headlines - B2E News Alert

America's School of the Future: Howard Middle School and Studywiz Spark a 21st Century Education Success Story - PreK-12 Market Headlines - B2E News Alert: "The Howard Middle School of Mathematics and Science (MS)², which is located on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C, is an educational anomaly. Situated in a school district fraught with a plethora of challenges, the school has become an academic powerhouse since opening its doors in 2005. Last year it was nominated for the President's Blue Ribbon Award for Education Excellence, while faculty member Kimberly Worthy was named the 2009 D.C Teacher of the Year. The school continues to produce outstanding academic results and high graduation rates. So how does an institution in a troubled system become one of the best schools in the nation's capital?"

CourseSmart Partners with Seven New Publishers to Expand eTextbook Offeringss - Higher Ed Market Headlines - B2E News Alert

CourseSmart Partners with Seven New Publishers to Expand eTextbook Offeringss - Higher Ed Market Headlines - B2E News Alert: "Each of CourseSmart's new publishers will supplement its digital library of eTextbooks in the following specialty areas: -- Elsevier Science and Technology: Life and Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Engineering, Computer Science, Media Technology, Finance, Business and Hospitality -- F.A. Davis: Nursing and Health Professions
-- Jones & Bartlett: Biology; Health, Fitness and Wellness; Criminology, Nursing and Computer Science
-- SAGE: Education, Psychology, Statistics, Sociology and Criminology
-- Sinauer Associates: Biology, Psychology and Neuroscience
-- Taylor & Francis: Humanities & Social Sciences, Life Science, Business, Psychology, Mental Health and Computer Science
-- Wolters Kluwer Health (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins): Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions

CourseSmart's electronic textbooks are available at an average of 50% less than the print textbooks and enable students to access their textbooks from anywhere, at any time, without purchasing additional hardware or a dedicated reading device. Features like adding notes, highlighting and maintaining print page numbers replicate the important functionality of a print textbook while features like search, and copy/paste leverage the digital format to improve teaching and learning."

Wordle - Kindlepedia Topics June-July 2009

Wordle - Kindlepedia Topics June-July 2009: ""

High School English Language Arts Curriculum, Grade 9

High School English Language Arts Curriculum, Grade 9:
"Grade 9
Silas Marner
The Disappearance
The Wave
Twelve Angry Men
Hoops
Kaffir Boy
The Accident
The Yearling
The Miracle Worker
The Pearl"

Kindle and the future of reading : The New Yorker

Kindle and the future of reading : The New Yorker: "The Kindle DX ($489) doesn’t save newspapers; it diminishes and undercuts them—it kills their joy. It turns them into earnest but dispensable blogs."

Dawn of the digital natives - is reading declining? | Technology | The Guardian

Dawn of the digital natives - is reading declining? | Technology | The Guardian: "Yes, we are reading in smaller bites on the screen, often switching back and forth between applications as we do it. A recent study by the British Library of onscreen research activities found that 'new forms of 'reading' are emerging as users 'power browse' ... '
And of course we are writing more, and writing in public for strangers: novel readers may have declined by 10%, but the number of bloggers has gone from zero to 25 million. Simply excising screen-based reading from the study altogether is like doing a literacy survey circa 1500 and only counting the amount of time people spent reading scrolls."

Amazon CEO Says Kindle Will Salvage Long-Form Reading | Tropophilia

Amazon CEO Says Kindle Will Salvage Long-Form Reading | Tropophilia: "If our tools make information snacking easier, we’ll shift more toward information snacking and away from long-form reading. Kindle is purpose-built for long-form reading. We hope Kindle and its successors may gradually and incrementally move us over years into a world with longer spans of attention, providing a counterbalance to the recent proliferation of info-snacking tools."