Some of their key topics are:

Arts:   Art & graphic arts, architecture, dance, . . . → Read More: Digital Book Index: pure delight]]> Today I practically stumbled upon something so massive it’s amazing I didn’t bump into it earlier. The Digital Book Index is a meta-indexing project that provides links to over 165,000 full-text digital books, the vast majority of them free, though some come with a fee.

Some of their key topics are:

Arts:   Art & graphic arts, architecture, dance, decorative arts, costume, theatre & drama, music, photography, film & video
Children’s Books:   Contemporary & classic children’s books and stories
History:   American, English, Irish, European, Asian, African, local and regional histories
Law:   US Constitutional history, state constitutions, treaties, state statues & laws, legal ethics rules, copyright, and consumer information.
Literature:   Ranging from Chaucer & other medieval texts to modern, contemporary fiction
Math & Sciences:   Mathematics, astronomy, biology, botany & zoology, genetics, chemistry, physics, engineering, electronics, & computer science
Medicine & Health:   For professionals and patients including anatomy, radiology, infectious diseases, surgery, oncology, dentistry, and more
Philosophy and Religion:   Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, etc.
Reference:   Dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, style guides, etc.
Social Sciences:   Anthropology, sociology, Psychology, Folklore, Mythology, Economics, Politics

It searches more than 1800 publishers, universities, and private sites including:

• Boston Public Library
• Chicago Historical Society
• Cornell University
• Duke University Library
• Google
• Gutenberg Project
• Harvard University Library
• Internet Archive
• Library of Congress
• National Library of Canada
• NetLibrary (OCLC)
• New York Public Library
• U.S. National Park Service
• University of Utah
• Wiley Interscience
• Yale University

And…

•  Approximately 200 University Presses
• Several hundred commercial publishers including Bantam Books, MacMillan, Random House, and Simon & Schuster

Yea, this is digital reading at its finest hour.  Pick up your Nook, your Kindle, your iPad, or all three, and enjoy.

Instructions:

We’ve all heard of cloud computing (googledocs), cloud social networking (facebook), and here comes the next big thing: cloud eBook reading. That’s where your eBook is held in the cloud and you can bookmark your place and come back to it no matter which handheld or . . . → Read More: Cloud eBook Reading]]> [Here's my response to my 12/29/10 OverDrive post]

We’ve all heard of cloud computing (googledocs), cloud social networking (facebook), and here comes the next big thing: cloud eBook reading. That’s where your eBook is held in the cloud and you can bookmark your place and come back to it no matter which handheld or computer you’re using.

The big advantage is that you don’t have to download an app or a piece of software or have a dedicated e-reading device.

Joseph Pearson of Inventive Lab wrote, “The one single platform we expect future e-reading devices to have in common is the web browser. If you want to give your readership the freedom to own (forever) the books they buy from you, the web is where it will happen.”

Here are some cloud eBook readers that may be worthy of your time, Dear Reader.

• Ibis Reader Lets you download all off your books. Lots of free public access titles available on the site or get them from somewhere else and put them on Ibis Reader. Reads DRM-free books in the ePub format. A clean interface that’s easy to use and my personal favorite.

• Google Books You can use just about any device you own to read any book, anywhere.  Download for free multitudes of books in the public domain or buy copyrighted books through vendors set up with Google.  Read online or download to your device and read offline. There’s just so much here.

• Booki.sh works on Macs, PCs, iPhones, iPads, the Kindle3, the latest Blackberry phones, and any other device with a modern web browser. There’s nothing to install. Readers can go from following a link on a webpage to buying a book to reading it in seconds. On most devices, you can read books whether you’re online or offline.

All run on html5, which some are calling the future of the internet. In 5 years maybe 3,  let’s talk about whether that held true. This next generation html is showing up in newer websites and services. New features include media playback and interactivity and, most importantly for ebook reading, the ability to store offline data. I see html5 as an alternative to flash. Read more about html5 in this article by Terrence O’Brien, “What Is HTML5, and Why Should You Care?”

Here are some places to find free ebooks: http://www.teleread.com/free-ebooks/

And of course, the cloud’s silver lining is Pioneer: Utah’s Online Library, where you can find premium eBook titles through OverDrive. Not yet aboard the cloud, using the Adobe Digital Editions platform, they have great eBooks that I would otherwise have to pay for myself. Maybe one day OverDrive will jump on the cloud but not yet it seems.

“It’s a little strange, but this is the future.”

ALA executive . . . → Read More: Books are going out the door]]> The Boston Globe reported a week ago that the Cushing Academy, a prestigious prep school in western Massachusetts, is replacing its 20,000-volume book collection with a “learning center” containing 18 eBook readers and three giant TV screens. It’s replacing the reference desk with a $12,000 espresso machine.

“It’s a little strange, but this is the future.”

ALA executive director Keith Michael Fiels says this is the first library he is aware of to eliminate books.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “Our feeling,” he says, “is that we love books so much that we want our students to not have 20,000, but millions.”

Student Tia Alliy, a 16-year-old junior, said she visits the library nearly every day, but only once looked for a book in the stacks. “Very few students actually read them. And the more we use e-books, the fewer books we have to carry around.’’ Jemmel Billingslea, an 18-year-old senior says, “It’s a little strange, but this is the future.’’

The times are indeed a-changin’. One large library in Utah has replaced a reference service, not with an expresso bar, but with a Delicious account. At least a dozen other libraries I follow have replaced their reference desks with online reference services and in turn replaced those with Ask-a-Librarian Twitter accounts.

Have your deans or city council begun asking if your users are still reading books? Have they indicated that the space occupied by your book stacks might be better used? Is your library still serving a vital community need?

What are the implications of libraries offering collections and services based on usage? Was it a good idea in the past for libraries to eliminate research collections in favor of stocking videos and trendy novels from the best seller lists? Is usage a good indicator of value? Doesn’t it make sense doesn’t it to replace the works of William Shakespeare with big screen TVs offering access to American Idols? After all, they now get more usage (hits) than the Bard.

Libraries are under increasing pressure these days to change the ways we’ve traditionally done things. Is the book just a format medium that needs to be retired? The knee-jerk response to give customers what they want, to keep up with how people are using information, and to seek ways of cutting costs may, in the final analysis, be short sighted. Or, are the downsides of the bookless future things we can address and overcome?

The Cushing Library experience might make a great discussion at your next retreat, board meeting, or graduate seminar.

Here are few links to help you get started (don’t neglect the public’s comments; the discussions are well thought and surprisingly insightful):

• Abel, David (4 Sep 2009) Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books [A library without the books]. The Boston Globe.
• Peters, Stormy (4 Sep 2009) Stacks of books are disappearing. Stormy’s Corner [blog].
• Striphas, Ted (4 Sep 2009) Books: “An outdated technology?” The Late Age of Print [blog].
• West, Jessamyn (4 Sep 2009) Mistakes were made, books were removed. Librarian.net [blog].
• Private school library gets rid of all books (4 Sep 2009). LISNews [blog]
• Staino, Rocco (9 Sep 2009) New England prep school tosses its library collection. School Library Journal.