Suzanna Ellison leaving McGraw-Hill
Outsourcing issues - who cut the cable?
Amazon to buy Audible
More iPod ickLibraries in Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties are allowing patrons to download audiobooks from their Web sites - for free.The problem is that Overdrive, who is the main supplier of downloadable content to libraries, has a partnership with Microsoft. Apple will not work with Overdrive.
With a library card and a personal computer, books can be downloaded in a matter of minutes and transferred to a portable listening device for easy transport around the house, on the trail or in a car....But as with any new technology, the audiobook service includes technical glitches that may leave many library patrons frustrated.
Macintosh users in particular will be disappointed to learn that they cannot use the new service at all.
This means that iPod owners - who represent a huge share of the MP3 market - won't be able to store books on the popular devices.
Damn the iPod, damnit!
Ebooks up, audiobooks down
Michael Eisner gets into digital book marketingPublishers have attempted to use the Internet to market books and attract new readers with little success, but G.P. Putnam president Ivan Held thinks this could be a breakthrough approach.
"One of the challenges for the industry in marketing books is how to bring in new readers," Held said. "This concept will certainly help reach a new audience as well as hook the consumer on the book before it ever comes out."
GAO goes digital
Borders staffs up in ITthe development and execution of IT strategic processes related to the delivery of technology as well as leading teams to ensure that business goals are met through delivery of necessary IT products and services, among other duties.
NISO releases RFID best practices for librariesThe NISO recommendations for best practices aim to promote procedures that do the following:
- Allow an RFID tag to be installed at the earliest point and used throughout the lifecycle of the book, from publisher/printer to distributor, jobber, library (shelving, circulating, sorting, reshelving, inventory, and theft deterrence), and interlibrary loan, and continuing on to secondary markets such as secondhand books, returned books, and discarded/recycled books.
- Allow for true interoperability among libraries, where a tag in one library can be used seamlessly by another, even if the libraries have different suppliers for tags, hardware, and software.
- Protect the personal privacy of individuals while supporting the functions that allow users to reap the benefits of this technology.
- Permit the extension of these standards and procedures for global interoperability.
- Remain relevant and functional with evolving technologies.
Peter Brantley on Google
Meg Whitman To Retire?eBay is a significant retailer of used books, through its acquisition of Half.com. Mostly, though, it's sad to see a woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company (only 2% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women) leaving the arena...and being succeeded by a guy. Now less than 2% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.The timing of Ms. Whitman's retirement is of her own choosing, say people familiar with the situation. Not long after she joined eBay, Ms. Whitman declared that no CEO should stay more than a decade in the same job because people need new challenges and organizations need fresh perspectives. While she has backed away from that comment in recent years, Ms. Whitman now appears to be making good on that early pledge as she approaches her 10-year anniversary as eBay CEO this March.
Steve Jobs to Publishers: Drop DeadNot a very nice thing for the brother of Mona Simpson to be saying.Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading.
“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
Macbook Air vs Kindle?
OCLC extends partnership with Blackstone Audio"Blackstone Audio has enjoyed a successful partnership with NetLibrary as a provider of eAudiobooks for purchase," said Steve King, director of digital sales for Blackstone Audio. "We anticipate continued success with NetLibrary in offering a subscription option to libraries that would prefer the convenience of this model."
Glenn Rogers leaving Audible
What if they had a layoff and nobody noticed?
David Cully at B&TCully's primary responsibilities include managing all merchandising and purchasing functions, managing BTMS, and managing Baker & Taylor's new Specialty Markets Group.
BISG/BIC White Paper on identifiersThe Identification of Digital Book Content is intended to stimulate debate in the book industry about how digital book content should be identified and to encourage further work on the development and implementation of identification standards and best practices for such content.I've read the paper - it's really good and should indeed spark a lot of discussion. We'll be covering it in Identifier Committee meetings at BISAC - those who are interested should go to the BISG website and sign up for that committee. We'll be sending around a new meeting time soon (having it after the BISAC General meetings hasn't been too inspiring, frankly).
Joe Reynolds promoted at Ingram Library Services"Libraries everywhere will be the first important adopters of digital content...As librarians make the print-to-digital transition, we know we can be a valuable member of the team."
Continuum launches major ebook initiative"From e-books and print-on-demand we’re expecting revenues of between 15 and 20 per cent by 2010," he said. He cautioned however that a substantial proportion of this would come from print-on-demand rather than e-books.
More Library Users!"They are the most recently in school," said [Lee] Rainie, [director of the study], "so they potentially have a better sense of the way that libraries have become more wired and more high-tech."
Shaz's Crystal BallBy year end, nearly every straight-text title published with commercial intent will be available for Kindle; the trick for the other formats will be to make sure they’re included, too. And Kindle pricing will drive the market. But despite the fast growth, e-books will still make up a tiny share of the market—no more than 2% of sales for most titles—and will contribute only a minimal amount to publishers' bottom lines.
XML will no longer be considered optional. Increasing sales of customized books will make publishers turn to their backlists for “repurposing.” When they do, they will find the cost of retro-tagging XML is often, particularly for illustrated books, prohibitive. They’ll also learn that with a little discipline and an improved process, doing XML tagging while creating content is almost free.
Richard Willis Out At B&T
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