Ingram Content Group Inc., a US-based provider of physical and digital services to the book industry, has announced that Vital Source Technologies, Inc., one of its operating units, has been awarded two Telly Awards for innovative work in educational video production. The Telly Award seeks to honour the finest video and film productions, outstanding cable TV commercials and programmes and online commercials, video and films.

Vital Source is engaged in developing e-textbooks, interactive media and innovative high-quality videos for the education community. It received the awards for the TeachSource Early Childhood Education Videos produced for Cengage Learning, and a video in the America Achieves Fellows series, 'What Makes a Great Teacher?', developed for America Achieves.

The two 2013 awards given to Vital Source by the Telly Award organisation follow five awards given in 2012 for excellence in video production.

A panel of more than 500 industry professionals, each a past winner of a Telly and a member of the Silver Telly Council, judged the competition. The council evaluated entries to recognise distinction in creative work. This year, the 34th Annual Telly Awards received over 11,000 entries from all 50 states and numerous countries.

Ingram Content Group Inc., a US-based provider of physical and digital services to the book industry, has announced an agreement with EBL - Ebook Library, an e-book aggregator serving academic, corporate and research libraries worldwide. The deal will allow libraries to search and purchase EBL e-book content on the Ingram OASIS content platform for academic libraries worldwide.

Through the alliance with EBL, Ingram will add more than 325,000 EBL e-book titles to the OASIS platform, substantially growing the selection of e-content available to libraries. Users of the OASIS platform can view and select from an expanded selection of e-books alongside print books, with no changes to existing and preferred workflows. Billing will be consolidated, offering libraries integrated acquisition services and invoicing for all EBL content.

Ingram continues to grow its offerings to provide a total solution for academic libraries through Coutts Information Services Inc. and Ingram Library Services Inc. Through the company's comprehensive services, libraries can find all the materials they need whether print, digital, print-on-demand or hard to find content from one company, easing the burden of collection development, acquisition, and payment for libraries around the globe.

The Ingram OASIS platform is an online library interface for bibliographic information and searching, book and e-book acquisition, collection development and workflow management. Through the OASIS platform, libraries are able to access a database of millions of titles; search, select and manage orders online; download records, including no-cost MARC downloads; monitor standing orders; manage approval plans and new title notification plans; track orders and access reporting information.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has entered into a partnership with DataLore Inc. in which the two companies will work together to offer branded eBookstores to schools and colleges located throughout the Caribbean region.

The partners are currently developing a new eBook platform specifically for educational institutions in the Caribbean. The Caribbean Shared Educational Resource Service will provide customised eBookstores for participating schools and colleges. From these branded eBookstores, students will be able to purchase their eTextbooks and other digital content, as well as access those eBooks at any time and from any device.

The customised eBookstores will be powered by Impelsys' iPublishCentral digital publishing software platform, which allows publishers to warehouse, deliver, distribute, market and sell their eBooks without making significant capital or engineering resource investments on their own.

Vital Source Technologies, Inc., the e-textbook arm of Ingram Content Group company, and B.i. Publications Pvt. Ltd. have agreed to form a joint venture, Ingram-B.i. Pvt. Ltd., to launch Ingram's comprehensive VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook platform to institutions in India. B.i. Publications is an India-based distributor of scientific, technical and medical content to the academic and professional communities.

Ingram and the Bi Group have plans to make the VitalSource Bookshelf platform available to institutions throughout India. The new company will provide VitalSource sales, service, and user support for publishers, schools, and channel resellers in India.

The VitalSource Bookshelf platform, designed for education, claims to be the preferred and most used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education today. With longstanding relationships with more than 300 of the best-known publishers, and with over 3 million registered users on 6,000 campuses worldwide, the platform was designed to support learning and built to scale for dramatic growth.

The higher education marketplace in India is expanding rapidly, with industry sources projecting that its current capacity of 14 million students is expected to expand to 40 million by 2020. Similarly, the marketplace has seen a dramatic growth in Internet use, with 5 to 7 million new users added every month, making India third in Internet users after China and the United States.

Vital Source Technologies, Inc., an e-textbook arm of Ingram Content Group company, and Taylor & Francis, a global publisher of academic books, journals and online reference content, have announced a product alliance, Routledge Interactive. This collaborative e-textbook initiative is seen to give the education community greater control over its learning experience through media-rich interactive content.

Students who purchase a Routledge Interactive textbook will receive 12-month complimentary access to the e-textbook through the VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook delivery platform. Each title includes specially-tailored interactive content, ranging from embedded videos to walkthroughs and quizzes to best suit the needs of each textbook. Users are expected to benefit from the portability, search functionality and note-sharing made possible by the platform.

The VitalSource Bookshelf platform, which fully supports EPUB3, can be accessed online or via download, on a variety of device types including Mac, Windows, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire.

With Routledge Interactive, Taylor & Francis has developed some of its supposedly best textbooks into integrated book and e-textbook packs. The print textbook encourages students and educators to gain more from interactive content like LMS-ready assessments and author videos via the Bookshelf platform.

These e-textbooks were developed using the EPUB3 format standard and Vital Source FLOESM, an interactive learning object publishing platform. The EPUB3 format standard, based on HTML5, supports rich media, interactivity, global languages and enhanced accessibility features in e-textbooks.

Using the Vital Source FLOE platform, the team from Routledge created HTML5 learning objects, such as quizzes and assessments, and seamlessly integrated those objects within their e-textbooks. Interactive learning objects created with FLOE are said to be easily embedded throughout e-textbooks and can be set up to report directly to learning management system (LMS) grade books through Vital Source LMS integrations.

Vital Source Technologies, Inc., an Ingram Content Group company, has expanded the reach of its VitalSource Bookshelf platform through Desire2Learn, a leader in providing innovative learning solutions.

Desire2Learn provides an open and extensive platform to over 700 clients with more than 8 million learners in higher education, K-12, healthcare, government and corporate sectors. As institutions integrate more multimedia content into their curriculum, Desire2Learn's work with Vital Source will provide learners with access to the newest and most relevant e-textbooks.

The VitalSource Bookshelf platform claims to be the preferred and most used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education. With longstanding relationships with more than 300 of the best-known publishers and over 2.9 million registered users on 6,000 campuses in 200 countries and territories worldwide, the platform was designed to support learning and built to scale for dramatic growth.

Ingram Content Group Inc., a US-based provider of physical and digital services to the book industry, has announced the launch of a comprehensive, on-demand print and fulfillment journals programme. The initiative is expected to reshape the traditional supply chain in journal publishing.

Ingram Content Group's solution provides publishers with the tools to effectively manage their print journals, from file set-up to print-on-demand to delivery. From an easy-to-use website, publishers can upload and manage content and subscription lists, designate fulfillment requirements, place print orders for direct delivery to their subscribers, as well as order one-off issues for claims fulfillment.

Using the Ingram journal programme, publishers can move fixed costs to variable costs, eliminating overprinting and warehousing, reducing overhead and realising improved inventory control.

Ingram will begin printing on-demand journals in March for publishers worldwide from its Tennessee location and has plans to expand journal manufacturing to its other locations soon.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced the release of iPublishCentral 4.1, the latest version of its award-winning digital publishing software for publishers.

iPublishCentral is a comprehensive platform that allows publishers to warehouse, deliver, distribute, market and sell their eBooks without making significant capital or engineering resource investments on their own. This means that publishers are able to quickly monetise their digital assets by selling eBooks to institutions, retail partners and directly to consumers.

The new release of the software includes a number of enhancements to the iPublishCentral Reader that make it easier to read eBooks and other digital content on-demand, from any location, on iPads, iPad Minis and Android-powered mobile devices. These features enable publishers to better serve the needs of their retail and institutional customers for mobile access to eBooks.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has named Robert F. Kidd executive vice president of sales. In his new position, Robert will be based in the company's New York headquarters and will report directly to Sameer Shariff, founder and CEO of the company.

Robert will be responsible for sales and business development, supporting Impelsys' business in the US, the largest market for eBook publishing and sales. He has more than 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. Most recently, he was a vice president at Innodata Isogen Inc., where he led the professional publishing practice. Previously, he was vice president of global content services and international sales for Cadmus Communications Corp., was an executive officer of KnowledgeWorks, and senior director of publishing at Ovid Technologies, Inc.

Impelsys is coming off a very successful 2012 and has aggressive growth strategies in place for 2013. The company is the developer of iPublishCentral, a digital publishing software platform. iPublishCentral is the eBooks technology infrastructure used by some of the largest science, technology, medical publishers, academic publishers and professional associations in the world.

Ingram Content Group has announced that first year students at Coventry University will have core textbooks and materials provided as part of their course fees in 2012 and 2013 through an innovative program developed between Coventry University and Ingram Content Group's UK library supply company.

Coventry's textbook programme was developed in response to changes in the UK higher education system for 2012, which has seen undergraduates' tuition fees rise. Working with Ingram, the University is providing core textbooks for the first year of students' courses at no cost through the new programme. Ingram is the supplier of print books.

The University continues to distribute textbooks to about 3,400 new undergraduates on campus, with Ingram and Coventry University staff working jointly on distribution.

The initial pilot phase of the project will be reviewed by the University and Ingram in early December, before the two organisations embark on a dedicated programme for supplying textbooks to new students in both print and digital formats.

Ingram continues to grow the number of libraries and institutions it works with in the region, supplying the main universities including Warwick University and Birmingham City University, along with the majority of colleges such as Henley College and Birmingham Metropolitan College.

Vital Source Technologies, Inc., an Ingram Content Group company, has announced that sixty new publishers have added more than 35,000 new digital textbooks and online course materials to its VitalSource Bookshelf platform.

The most recent publishers using the VitalSource platform to reach the education market include fourteen of the most recognised university presses. In addition, publishers that specialise in medical, scientific, law, general trade, and standards-based education content have committed titles to the platform. These latest publishers join Cengage Learning, Elsevier, Wiley, McGraw-Hill, and more than 200 other publishers that currently make content available through VitalSource Bookshelf.

VitalSource Bookshelf, with 2.7 million registered users on 6,000 campuses worldwide, claims to be the preferred and most used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education. Delivering digital content to institutions for more than a decade, Bookshelf users can access content from more than 260 of the world's top academic, trade, and specialty publishers whenever and wherever they choose.

The Bookshelf platform, can be accessed online or via download, on a variety of device types including Mac, Windows, iPad, and Android.

Ingram Content Group, US, has announced the appointment and promotion of two executives to Ingram's fast-growing library services business.

Dan Sheehan, has been promoted, and has assumed the role of Vice President & General Manager of Ingram's library services group. Pamela Smith will join Ingram on December 3, 2012 as the Vice President of Global Sales for the library business.

Sheehan assumed the role of Vice President & General Manager of Ingram's library group in September, and brings nine years of experience at Ingram to his new role. Most recently, he served as the Vice President of Sales for Ingram Book Company as well as the Vice President & General Manager of Ingram Periodicals. He will continue in his role with Ingram Periodicals.

Pamela Smith will join Ingram as Vice President of Global Sales for the library group. She was most recently a Senior Vice President at Follett Corporation. During her time there, she was responsible for both Follett Library Resources and BWI brands. In her new role, she will have responsibility for Ingram Public, K-12 and Academic sales teams.

Pearson, a US-based provider of educational content and services, has announced that institutions are choosing the EQUELLA digital repository to easily identify, manage and provide shared access to high quality course content that enhances the learning experience for students, improves outcomes and helps to support accreditation requirements.

It has been observed that with the influx of numerous types of educational content - from premium content to freely available Open Educational Resources (OER) and user generated materials - institutions are often burdened by the process of storing, tagging, retrieving, and sharing learning assets. This results in assets being lost, misplaced or underutilised. To address this challenge, institutions are partnering with Pearson and choosing the EQUELLA digital repository.

Content stored within EQUELLA - which now features the EQUELLA Content Exchange, new to version 6, offering free access to an extensive collection of OER materials - serves more than three million educators and students in North America. EQUELLA, like Pearson's Project Blue Sky, announced earlier this week, furthers Pearson's commitment to helping educators to quickly identify and choose from a wide selection of high quality OER material.

EQUELLA educational partners include Palm Beach Atlantic University, University of Utah, North Carolina Community College System and University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced that the innovative new Bowker 'Book as an Android App,' is powered by Impelsys' award-winning iPublishCentral software platform.

'Book as an Android App' allows authors and small publishers to use Bowker's popular www.myidentifiers.com to create Android-compatible eBook apps from any PDF or ePub document, opening new sales channels such as Google Play and the Amazon App Store.

Bowker Identifier Services provide authors and small publishers with the resources that enable customers to find and purchase their books. After an author has written a book, myidentifiers.com provides the path to publish – through the assignment of ISBNs and barcodes – and sell the title through enhanced discovery.

iPublishCentral is a comprehensive platform that allows publishers to warehouse, deliver, distribute, market and sell their eBooks without making significant capital or engineering resource investments on their own.

Texas Southmost College (TSC) has partnered with Pearson, a US-based provider of educational content and services, to provide digital content, services and technology in support of its transition to an independent, two-year public community college in fall 2013. The new institution will feature digital delivery of all content for 31 associate's degree programmes and 25 certificate options offered as on-ground and blended courses. TSC's efforts to provide fully digital course material to students on day one reportedly aligns with US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's call for all institutions to move to digital solutions.

Pearson's solutions and support will reportedly enable TSC to quickly scale to serve its expected student enrollment in its first year of independent operations. These solutions include eTextbooks - personalised learning such as MyLab and Mastering; Pearson LearningStudio - a cloud-based learning management system with advanced data analytics applications to monitor and analyse trends in student performance and track their achievement of learning objectives; and course development and instructional design services. Also included are Smarthinking live, an on-demand online tutorial service; and access to the Pearson Instructor Education service for faculty development.

The partnership is seen to reflect TSC's commitment to its new mission of transforming the communities it serves through innovative learning opportunities. It also supports TSC's commitment to providing an accessible, affordable and high quality college education.

Ingram Content Group, a provider of a range of physical and digital services to the book industry, has announced that Campus eBookstore, Inc. has selected its VitalSource Bookshelf platform to enhance and expand its e-textbook offering to institutional and retail bookstore customers.

The creation of an e-book-distribution platform at college stores is typically an expensive and complex proposition. Campus eBookstore, Inc. (CEI), a development project owned and operated in Canada and the USA by the Canadian Campus Retail Associates Inc. (CCRA), and the Independent College Bookstore Association Inc. (ICBA), was developed to provide affordable alternatives and complements to traditional course materials. Through its work with Vital Source, CEI will provide a rich digital textbook catalogue to more than 170 independently owned college bookstores in the US and Canada.

Vital Source, one of Ingram's fastest growing businesses, is the preferred and most used e-textbook delivery platform in higher education. With longstanding relationships with more than 200 of the best-known publishers, and with over 2.2 million registered users on 6,000 campuses in 200 countries and territories worldwide, the platform was designed to support learning and built to scale for dramatic growth. Combining the education and technology background of the Vital Source team with the book industry resources and leadership of Ingram, Vital Source is firmly positioned as a market leader in the digital learning space.

Enterprise technology and innovative solutions provider Blackboard Inc, US, and Ingram’s Vital Source Technologies, Inc. have announced a global agreement to give students and faculty one-click access to Vital Source’s e-textbook platform directly within the Blackboard Learn learning management (LMS) system. The planned integration would be available for users both online and for mobile devices.

With the planned offering, instructors would be able to preview and select textbooks, as well as pieces of content or learning objects and add them to assignments and activities directly in their courses in Blackboard Learn. In addition, faculty and administrators would be able to track e-book usage through analytics reports.

Vital Source’s comprehensive e-content platform currently includes over 80,000 titles from the world’s leading publishers. Student and faculty users can access their books - online and offline - on a variety of device types including Mac, Windows, iPad, and Android. Users can make notes, highlights, and annotations in their e-textbooks, all of which automatically sync across devices. Students can even share and subscribe to notes and highlights from their peers. The planned integration would also support viewing e-book content through Blackboard’s mobile learning app.

The work with Vital Source is part of Blackboard’s ongoing effort to make it easier for teachers and students to find, use and share digital content and tools. The Blackboard Learn platform supports a wide range of integrations for content from leading educational publishers and content providers.

Pearson, a US-based provider of educational content and services, announced the upcoming release of Equella 5.2 (QA 2) the latest version of its digital repository that enables users to search, create and manage content online. The release introduces advanced integration capabilities with Moodle 2.3, the latest version of the learning management system. Moodle is a software package for producing Internet-based courses and web sites.

The enhanced Equella and Moodle integration enables instructors within the Moodle community to select Equella content and populate it into their course without ever leaving the Moodle application.

It is projected to lead to other enhancements also. These include a simplified search functionality that retains previous searches for ease-of-use, and the extension of the filtering and sorting capabilities within the file picker, which are now shown in drop-down menus within the same page view. Other enhancements include direct access to the repository’s media content including streaming media, SCORM and IMS packages, zipped web pages, and other complex learning objects from within Moodle.

The integration is additionally expected to offer a new way of referencing internal and external content in Moodle, similar to an “alias� or a “shortcut� on traditional operating systems; and the introduction of bulk update, which enables a single piece of content to appear in multiple places throughout Moodle courses.

Vital Source Technologies, Inc., an Ingram Content Group company, has implemented support for the EPUB 3 standard in its flagship Bookshelf platform. With this move, the company becomes the first e-textbook solution provider to deliver support for the latest version of the open industry standard.

The new EPUB 3 version, based on HTML5, supports rich media, interactivity, global languages, and enhanced accessibility features. As publishers develop e-books that include rich media and interactive applications for the education community, more are turning to Vital Source because of its comprehensive EPUB readiness to create, enhance, and distribute content to institutions, educators and students worldwide.

Vital Source can accept and deliver EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 content to institutional partners around the world through its Bookshelf platform. Fast becoming the de facto standard within the e-reading sector, the VitalSource platform supports EPUB across all six clients including browser, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Kindle Fire.

With more than 2.2 million users, VitalSource claims to be the most used e-textbook platform in education today. With a presence on 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, educators and students have access to tens of thousands of titles from the world’s leading textbook publishers.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has unveiled the latest version of its digital publishing software platform at BookExpo America (BEA) 2012 in New York City.

iPublishCentral is a comprehensive platform that allows publishers to warehouse, deliver, distribute, market and sell their eBooks without making significant capital or engineering resource investments on their own. The beta version of iPublishCentral 4.0 includes important enhancements for both publishers, who are seeking to monetise their digital assets by selling eBooks to institutions, and for end users, who are downloading those eBooks onto their preferred devices.

iPublishCentral 4.0 will help publishers increase their institutional sales in a few key ways. The new version enables institutional patrons to access eBooks from their iPads, laptops and desktop computers and read their titles offline, regardless of the authentication mode that is set-up for the institution. It includes content protection that enables publishers to control the expiration terms for eBook downloads and define them however they choose, giving them increased flexibility. Additionally, iPublishCentral 4.0 has a new feature that allows institutions to produce a custom report on how many times a title was opened and downloaded, providing greater visibility into trends.

The new version of iPublishCentral also includes some important usability enhancements for end users who download eBooks from any of Impelsys' publishing partners worldwide. These improvements are centered around creating a better reading experience while reading PDF versions of eBook titles, both online and offline.

The new iPublishCentral Reader is available now on iTunes and can be used as a generic reader for both ePub and PDF files: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ioffline/id510322929?mt=8.

Digital course materials supplier CourseSmart LLC, US, has announced the results of a survey revealing college students' growing reliance on technology. The survey of more than 500 currently enrolled college students found that nearly all college students (98 percent) who own a device have used it for school and a majority of these students (53 percent) read e-textbooks frequently. Further, 90 percent of college students say they save time studying with technology -- including mobile devices, digital textbooks, e-readers and tablets.

Fielded by Wakefield Research, an independent research consultancy, the survey revealed that technology has become a significant part of students' everyday lives with the average using three devices daily. A majority (67 percent) can't go more than one hour without using some sort of digital technology, with 40 percent not lasting more than 10 minutes.

Once the backpack staple, print textbooks are seen to be losing their reputation of being indispensable. Only 5 percent of students say textbooks are the most important item in their bag and a majority of students say they are more likely to bring a laptop (51 percent) than a print textbook (39 percent) to class. Digital devices also allow for on-the-go reference to information with 79 percent of college students reporting they have done a quick search on a mobile device or tablet to verify something right before a test or a quiz.

According to the survey, technology is also streamlining students' studies. The study found that 68 percent of college students who save time using technology report saving two hours or more each day and nearly one in six students (14 percent) saving five hours or more. Further, nearly 3 in 5 students (58 percent) report that they frequently are unable to complete required reading in time for class and of those, a majority (51 percent) said they would be more likely to do so if they had digital textbooks that could be accessed on a mobile device, e-reader, laptop or tablet.

Online courses are gaining popularity with 58 percent of students reporting they have taken an online course, motivated primarily by being able to take the class on their own time (63 percent), not having to physically be in a class (48 percent) and being able to learn at their own pace (47 percent). Even traditional brick-and-mortar classes, though, are incorporating online elements, creating increasingly hybrid experiences. Nearly all (96 percent) college students have had online components to a course: a majority of students (79 percent) have submitted assignments or papers online and 71 percent have taken online tests and quizzes.

According to the survey, communication between faculty and students is becoming more social with nearly one in five (18 percent) students having received materials from their professor via Facebook. Professors are also relying more on technology for delivering class announcements and assignments: 84 percent of students have had professors post a class syllabus online and 78 percent of students have received class news and updates from their professors via campus systems, such as learning management systems or student portals.

Ingram Content Group, a provider of a range of physical and digital services to the book industry, has announced that its Vital Source business unit has been awarded four Telly Awards, including the highest Silver Award, for their innovative work in educational video production. The Telly award honours the finest video and film productions, outstanding cable TV commercials and programmes, and online commercials, video and films.

The Vital Source media group is a leader in developing e-textbooks, interactive media, and innovative high-quality videos for the education community. Vital Source received one Silver Award and two Bronze Awards for videos produced for the New York City Department of Education as well as a Bronze Award for their work for The National Center on Time & Learning.

A judging panel of more than 500 industry professionals, each a past winner of a Silver Telly and a member of The Silver Telly Council, judged the competition. The Council evaluated entries to recognise distinction in creative work. This year, the 32nd Annual Telly Awards received over 11,000 entries from all 50 states and 5 continents. Less than 10 percent of entries were chosen as Winners of the Silver Telly, the highest honour. About 25 percent of entries were chosen as Winners of the Bronze Telly.

Ingram Content Group’s e-textbook platform Vital Source has announced its conformance certification for IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) v1.1 with learning outcomes, a widely-used global technical standard for educational applications.

LTI provides a common way to plug applications into learning management software and learning platforms. The LTI standard, and VitalSource’s achievement of LTI v1.1 certification, has simplified the way that learning management systems interact with the e-textbook platform. Using LTI standards, more institutions can easily integrate the VitalSource platform into their curriculums.

LTI standards replace custom API’s (application programming interfaces) required for each platform, reducing the number of custom integrations required for developers, learning platforms and IT support staff. LTI provides a quick and secure way to integrate innovative content and learning applications for seamless access by students and teachers. The comprehensive standards handle launching, single sign-on authorisation and provides VitalSource with comprehensive outcome support tools to help feed valuable and relevant data back to institutions from the newest generation of interactive books.

Vital Source, a member of IMS, has an active role in the development of tools to improve educational participation and attainment. With more than 2 million users, VitalSource claims to be the most used e-textbook platform in education. With a presence on more than 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, educators and students have access to tens of thousands of titles from the world’s leading textbook publishers.

Ingram Content Group, US, has launched its new comprehensive ipage search and order platform. Created collaboratively with users, the newly designed site includes intuitive navigation, enhanced search and browsing options, and additional customisation options that make finding, organising and discovering new products easy for booksellers and libraries worldwide.

With more products available than ever before, the new features and search option additions give ipage users enhanced tools to track bestsellers, view custom lists, access Ingram buyer recommendations and online catalogues, and manage and track orders. The latest search features include one-click access to all search tools from the home page, and new functionality additions allow discovery of items by any term or product type across the entire ipage database including books, e-books, audiobooks and gift products.

Throughout the redesign process Ingram has relied on a select group of ipage users to help shape the improvements.

With major upgrades and enhancements since its initial launch in 1998, further development of ipage was accelerated as the needs of retailers and libraries continue to change. In 2011, search improvements, faster navigation, enhanced stock status, more product information and images for all users were added. In 2012, customisation tools were introduced that provided customers the ability to prioritize critical information required to search, order and deliver more content to consumers and patrons.

Ingram Content Group, US, has announced that South African bookseller Van Schaik has selected its e-textbook platform, VitalSource, to power e-textbook offering to customers.

With a library division, online store and 55 stores, located on or near academic institutions, Van Schaik claims to be a leading provider of academic resources in South Africa and Namibia. As e-textbook use in higher education continues its dramatic growth worldwide, the Vital Source reseller solution will seek to provide Van Schaik with tools to sell and deliver e-textbooks to its widespread customer base without costly infrastructure investments.

Through the reseller programme, the bookseller will administer publisher and institutional relationships, content, contracts, orders, and financial management. Van Schaik’s e-textbook offering is expected to launch in July 2012.

Van Schaik easily incorporated its online store and in-store kiosks with the VitalSource fulfillment engine through industry-standard web integration. Students and educators who purchase e-textbooks from Van Schaik will enjoy all the benefits of the VitalSource platform including integrated download, online and mobile content options, advanced searching, and annotation, note-sharing, and accessibility features.

Becoming a reseller of the Vital Source solution allows Van Schaik’s stores to consolidate their position as the key content service provider on campus.

Ingram Content Group’s e-textbook platform Vital Source has announced the expansion of its mobile footprint with the addition of an e-textbook app for Android.

VitalSource Bookshelf claims to be the only e-textbook platform available in online and offline environments with dedicated download apps for a full range of devices including tablets, smart phones, laptops, and desktops. The platform supports Macintosh and Windows operating systems and Apple’s iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and now Android smart phones and tablets.

The new VitalSource Bookshelf app for Android is a reader app, and not a web-only tool. Unlike web-only based applications, the VitalSource app can be used both online and offline, giving busy students and professors anytime, anywhere access to content, that syncs highlights and notes regardless of which app is used - online, mobile or desktop.

VitalSource, with more than 2 million users, has a presence on more than 6,000 campuses in over 180 countries. Educators and students have access to tens of thousands of titles in multiple formats from the world’s leading textbook publishers, including Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis and many others.

The VitalSource Bookshelf Android app is available for free from Google Play, formerly known as the Android Market.

Ingram Content Group, US, has announced a licensing agreement with EPAC Technologies Inc. and the acquisition of assets of two EPAC print facilities in the US plus a technology development and support group in Germany to expand its Lightning Source worldwide print-on-demand operation.

Through the licensing of these technologies and the acquisition of two print facilities, one in Ohio and one in New Jersey, Ingram gains new capabilities to enhance its current proprietary print-on-demand solution. In addition, it will grow the universe of publisher titles and print volume eligible for digital manufacturing.

Today, Ingram Lightning Source North American facilities include its headquarters in La Vergne, Tennessee, and a plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Worldwide locations include an operation central to London in Milton Keynes, UK; Melbourne, Australia; and a joint-venture facility in Maurepas, France, with Hachette Book Group. In addition, Lightning Source has alliances with leading print-on-demand providers in both Brazil and Germany.

Ingram Content Group, US, has announced that Roseman University College of Dental Medicine has selected its comprehensive e-textbook management and distribution platform VitalSource to enhance the learning experience of their students.

Collaborating with dental schools worldwide, Vital Source developed a tailored solution and sourced content from leading education publishers for Roseman. Students and educators at the institution are able to easily access content via download, online or mobile options including iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices.

VitalSource, with more than 2 million users, claims to be the most used e-textbook platform in education. With a presence on 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, educators and students have access to tens of thousands of titles from the world's leading textbook publishers, including Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis and others.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has entered into a strategic partnership with Corporate Graphics Commercial, a US-based full-service provider of book printing. The partnership is designed to provide the software platform that will power the e-book capabilities in Corporate Graphics’ new turnkey book distribution platform, Publish 360.

Publish 360, a fully integrated solution for producing and distributing both printed books and electronic books, is said to represent an aggressive foray into the e-book marketplace by Corporate Graphics. After an exhaustive evaluation of many prospective partners, it selected Impelsys' iPublishCentral software platform to complement the technology infrastructure for the e-book component of the new Publish 360 offering.

Ingram Content Group Inc., US, has announced that the East Carolina School of Dental Medicine has selected its e-textbook management and distribution platform, VitalSource, as a cornerstone of its new e-learning environment for dental students.

Vital Source worked directly with leading education publishers to develop a custom e-content package to meet the specific needs of ECUSoDM. The school implemented the VitalSource platform as part of a larger technology initiative. Students and educators at the school will now be able to easily access content via download, online or through their mobile devices including popular iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices.

With more than 2 million users, VitalSource, claims to be the most used e-textbook platform in education today. With a presence on 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, educators and students have access to tens of thousands of titles from the leading textbook publishers, including Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis and others.

Ingram’s Vital Source is now providing access to its leading e-textbook platform through Blackboard Learn, which claims to be one of the most used learning management systems. The Blackboard Building Block for VitalSource gives institutions a comprehensive tool to implement digital textbooks for students in mobile, online and offline environments.

The new Blackboard Building Block for the VitalSource platform developed collaboratively with both educators and publishers, gives higher-ed institutions and their students an efficient and cost-effective way to acquire content from the world’s leading publishers through the Blackboard Learn platform. Through the Building Block, students and educators have immediate, one click access to VitalSource’s comprehensive content library with more than 80,000 titles, and the functionality of the platform, including integrated notes, highlights, annotations and sharing capability through a single sign-on environment.

Using the Building Block, educators can preview and customise content used in courses. Through the functionality of the application, they can also link to required assignments and relevant activities within digital course materials and easily share that information with students. The Building Block supports the Bookshelf platform for viewing content in any modern browser, as well as downloading to clients on the Macintosh and Windows operating systems, Apple’s iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch devices, and Android smart phones and tablets.

Ingram’s Vital Source continues to grow its set of tools to give educational institutions, publishers, and other places of learning, options to connect their infrastructure to commercial as well as custom electronic and printed content in the platform. The Building Block is available to all institutions on Blackboard Learn 9.1.

A member of Blackboard Partnerships Program, Vital Source also participates in the Blackboard Developers Network, an innovative community of educational and technical experts with a passion for using technology to enhance teaching and learning.

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AIP Publishing, a division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), has announced a partnership with UK-based publishing-specific software solutions provider Publishing Technology plc to build the next generation of AIP's Scitation, scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter of 2012.

The new custom platform will be developed using Publishing Technology's pub2web hosting solution. The new platform will enable AIP and its member societies to house an impressive portfolio of journals and conference proceedings as well as the Physics Today magazine and historical documents from AIP's Physics Resources Center.

Designed to put users at the center, combining a flexible and extensible architecture with sophisticated information commerce, leading-edge semantic technology and industry standards, the pub2web interface will provide the research community with new opportunities for collaboration and discovery. During the design phases, the user community will be engaged through focus groups, dialogue, training and usability testing. Authors, readers and librarians can expect a seamless transition, new interactive communities and an overall enhanced user experience tailored to their specific needs.

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Digital course materials supplier CourseSmart LLC, US, has announced the launch of a new mobile web app. The app provides students and faculty with access to a catalogue of more than 20,000 e-textbooks and other digital course materials on a variety of mobile devices including the Kindle Fire and the iPad. It is said to bring thousands of digital course materials to popular mobile reading devices, furthering the company's professed mission of anytime, anywhere access to course materials in higher education.

The app is optimised to best support multi–touch screens of today's most popular mobile devices, and is designed to offer users the convenience to view all e-textbooks from a single location. It also offers the ability to search for a topic within the e-textbook including access to the table of contents; capability to zoom in on text and graphs as well as to add and view notes; and same page fidelity experience as found in a print textbook version equivalent.

There is no downloading process to access the free web app. On supported browsers, CourseSmart users with an active e-textbook account will automatically be prompted to sign into the web app when they begin reading their e-textbooks. Any future enhancements for the app are automatically updated.

The app is supported by Amazon Silk, Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the following devices: Kindle Fire, iPad and Android 3.0 and higher OS tablets. Users can find out more about the app at www.coursesmart.com/go/mobile.

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Digital course materials supplier CourseSmart LLC, US, has partnered with Desire2Learn Incorporated, (Desire2Learn), a provider of enterprise teaching and learning platforms, to provide an end-to-end integration that facilitates an efficient, one-stop process for students and faculty to access digital course materials. Students and faculty will have single sign–on access to CourseSmart's catalogue of over 20,000 eTextbooks and other digital course materials using the new CourseSmart integration within the Desire2Learn learning management system.

The CourseSmart integration within the Desire2Learn platform will enhance students' studies by utilising CourseSmart's eTextbook features including search, copy and paste, highlight, annotate, share and print. The single sign-on functionality enables students and instructors to access CourseSmart's digital catalogue via the Desire2Learn platform without having to remember a separate set of credentials for CourseSmart access.

The integration also provides instructors with free access to evaluate core higher education eTextbooks and eResources in use today from publishers who supply 90 percent of the market, and to select and use these course materials effortlessly in their Desire2Learn courses.

Without leaving the Desire2Learn course, instructors can easily create links to a required reading assignment, homework problems or other activities that reside in their digital course materials, and seamlessly share that information with their students.

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Education services provider Pearson, US, has released EQUELLA 5.1, the latest version of the digital repository that enables users to search, create and manage content online. The announcement was made at EDUCAUSE 2011, the annual conference of the world's leaders in education technology.

EQUELLA provides a central solution to meet an institution's learning, research, media and library needs. Faculty, instructional designers and academic technologists can easily search in one location for all of their learning content - video, custom eBooks, presentations, lecture captures and more - all tagged by metadata such as learning outcomes, grade level and relevant keywords. EQUELLA places no restriction on the content type or file size, and all content is protected using the repository's permissions, digital rights management and copyright functionality.

EQUELLA 5.1 enhancements include ability to edit and update Microsoft Office-formatted content within the repository; support for storage and searching of QTI 1.2+ assessment objects; enriched notification and configuration options to create and manage workflows; seamless content integration through Flickr and YouTube; enhanced integrations with Pearson LearningStudio and Fronter; and ability to publish content from within EQUELLA directly to LMS platforms (currently Pearson LearningStudio, Moodle and Blackboard).

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced the release of iPublishCentral 3.2, a new version of its digital publishing software platform. The latest version features expanded support for delivering ebooks to mobile devices.

iPublishCentral is a comprehensive platform that allows any organisation to publish, deliver, distribute and market their eBooks without making significant development investments on their own. Earlier this year, the iPublishCentral platform was recognised as one of the Top 8 SaaS-based Apps in NASSCOM's 2011 Product Showcase.

Major enhancements to the iPublishCentral platform that were built into the newly released version include role based access control; enhancements to the subscription process for institutions; wider distribution; and enhanced reporting.

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Vital Source Technologies, Inc., part of Ingram Content Group Inc, US, and textbook rental firm Chegg, US, have announced a comprehensive e-textbook programme to complement Chegg's traditional physical textbook rentals.

The new e-textbook programme from Chegg will allow students the option to purchase or rent digital books. Ingram's Vital Source, with 1.6 million registered users and a presence on 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, will power Chegg's digital textbook option. Vital Source is currently delivering tens of thousands of titles from the world's leading textbook publishers, including Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, and many others.

The agreement with Chegg follows Vital Source's recent June 2011 acquisition of VPG Integrated Media, a developer of enhanced e-textbook and interactive applications. Ingram's Vital Source business unit, experiencing dramatic growth in both the number of users and institutions, recently added DeVry University to its prestigious list of institutions using its solutions.

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Vital Source Technologies, Inc., part of Ingram Content Group Inc, US, has announced an agreement to provide e-textbook management and distribution for DeVry University. The University claims to be one of North America's largest higher education institutions for technology, science, business and the arts.

The VitalSource platform, with 1.6 million registered users and a presence on 6,000 campuses in 180 countries, will provide comprehensive content distribution for all textbooks used by DeVry University online students. The VitalSource solution will be integrated with the university's learning management system, eCollege, for its global community. Using the platform, students and faculty will be able to easily access content via download, online or mobile options including popular iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices.

Vital Source currently delivers tens of thousands of titles from the world's leading textbook publishers, including Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, and many others to users worldwide.

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Vital Source Technologies, Inc., part of Ingram Content Group Inc, US, has announced that New York University's College of Dentistry has selected Vital Source for its innovative digital learning curriculum. Working together for a decade, the university has renewed its relationship with Vital Source for a new contract period.

The New York University College of Dentistry began its work with Vital Source in 2001. The university directs all students in their programme to use the VitalSource platform for all course materials including e-textbooks, interactive course materials, lectures, and other links to additional educational resources.

Using the platform, students and educators at NYU's College of Dentistry can access content via download, online or mobile options including popular iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch devices. Users can take and share notes and data with colleagues and highlight and annotate relevant items within the content they are working.

The renewal of NYU School of Dentistry's agreement with Vital Source follows the recent June 2011 acquisition of VPG Integrated Media, a developer of award-winning enhanced e-textbook applications, interactive learning objects and e-whiteboard content, and state-of-the-art video, audio, and animation production services for educational publishers. Together, VPG and Vital Source create an e-textbook offering that meets the demands of publishers, educators, and students in this new era of learning opportunities.

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Digital course materials supplier CourseSmart LLC, US, has announced the beta launch of its latest reader platform providing users with online, offline, anytime, anywhere access to their eTextbooks. The first in the industry to utilise HTML5 technology for eTextbooks and coupled with the latest version of Mozilla Firefox 5.0, this cloud-based offering now provides the same productivity features whether users are online or offline.

Students who have active online eTextbook digital rental access will immediately enjoy the benefits of the new offline capabilities. Additionally, instructor textbook evaluation services will also be available on the new reader platform, allowing instructors free access to evaluate more than 90 percent of all core higher education eTextbooks whether online or offline. The new reader experience also extends to CourseSmart's productivity tools allowing users to highlight, search, copy, paste, take notes, share and print while offline.

The platform synchronises user notes across all modals, whether it is from their desktop computer, laptop, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android-based device, or any Web-enabled device.

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced iPublishCentral 3.1, an enhanced version of its software platform that enables publishers to sell and distribute digital content on the Web.

iPublishCentral is a full-service electronic publishing solution that allows publishers to publish, deliver, distribute and market eBooks. The platform gives publishers all the tools they need to manage and monetise their digital assets without making significant development investments on their own.

In iPublishCentral 3.1, the company has rolled out new features to improve the reading experience for end users. Specific enhancements include the addition of keyboard shortcuts, the ability to highlight text and save those highlights, and a new offline reader that comes with the same look and feel as the online reader.

The new version also includes refined tools to help publishers increase their revenues by regulating access to content. With iPublishCentral 3.1, publishers can now set the maximum number of concurrent users at a title level when selling eBooks to libraries and large institutions, can support authentication programmes such as EZproxy and Athens in order to protect their content from outsiders, and enable search bots to better search for and discover books.

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E-publishing technology solutions provider Versita, Poland, has announced that three Scandinavian serials - Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, Nordic Journal of Migration Research and Sommerfeltia - are now included in the portfolio of more than 200 Open Access journals published by Versita Open.

The newly contracted Scandinavian journals, besides the basic pack of services, have also selected optional functionalities such as online submission system (Editorial Manager), copyediting, language and technical editing. With the professional support from Versita, journals that make their content available for readers at no cost can enjoy the same sophisticated online publishing technology and powerful marketing tools used by paid-access journals of large international publishers, and can compete with them in terms of impact.

Versita publishes over 200 own and third-party scholarly journals across many disciplines. It also runs Versita Open, an Open Access (OA) platform which does not impose any open access model on participating journals owned by universities, institutes and societies.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), a 62,000-member organisation dedicated to the health of children, has introduced a new subscription model for unlimited institutional access to the rich medical content that resides in the AAP eBook collection.

The new platform, www.aapebooks.com, provides libraries, medical schools, hospitals and paediatric offices with instant electronic access to more than 90 renowned AAP publications, including full-text, visuals, data tables and clinical recommendations. The subscriptions are all-inclusive, so users have unlimited 24/7 privileges to download any content from the entire collection of AAP digital titles like Pediatric Clinical Practice Guidelines & Policies, Bright Futures, Pediatric Nutrition Handbook, Red Book Atlas, and Caring For Your Baby and Young Child: Birth To Age 5 are part of the collection.

The AAP eBooks site was developed in partnership with electronic content delivery solutions provider, Impelsys, with the use of the iPublishCentral software that is used by publishers and professional associations worldwide.

The AAP eBook Institutional Collection is available based on a five-tier pricing model that corresponds with the type of institutional customer (e.g., public library, hospital, medical school, etc.).

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Integrated media firm Ziff Davis Enterprise, US, has launched a video blog series on eWeek.com. Sponsored by Hewlett Packard, the goal of the video blog is to provide SMB executives with the technology knowledge they need to manage and grow their business. The video blog series focuses on new media strategies and their business uses, mainly social media and video as a platform.

The leading edge technology that makes up this series combines content, video and new social networking tools. The video content itself is platform agnostic – it can be viewed from the blog, in syndicated units across all Ziff Davis Enterprise sites, within a newly launched multi-media overlay unit, and via all mobile and tablet devices. All instances of the videos/players include native ability for users to share via email and social media platforms, as well as syndicate across the web via embeddable tags.

The 36-part series launched in late March and will run through December 2011. To date, the video blog has featured guest speakers such as Steve Garfield, video expert and author of ‘Get Seen’; Frank Ohlhorst, SMB Technology expert; and Paul Gillin, Social media expert and author of ‘Social Marketing to Business Customers.’

Interested parties may view and engage with this series at http://blogs.eweek.com/bizadvisor/.

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Grupo A, one of the leading STM publishers in South America, has announced a partnership with e-content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, to build a new online portal that will host the sale of full-text articles from some of its most important book titles published on McGraw-Hill and Artmed imprints.

Impelsys will power the new medical content portal with its iPublishCentral software. Easily customised to fit changing business needs and expanding functionality, iPublishCentral allows academic and STM presses to pick and choose the offerings they would like to make available, with minimal investment and maximum returns.

Grupo A was created in Brazil by Artmed publishing house in July 2010 as an umbrella for several imprints: McGraw-Hill, Artmed Editora, Bookman, Tekné, Artes Médicas and Penso. Artmed began as a medical book distributor when it published its first title in 1979 and continued to produce titles in the fields of medicine, psychology and education. The STM (Scientific, Technical and Professional) segment claims to be one of the most successful in Brazil, accounting for approximately 20 percent of the publishing market.

In addition to the design and development of the portal for the end user, Impelsys will provide end-to-end content services to Grupo A - including content conversion, content enhancements and loading content to the portal.

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Education and education technology services provider Pearson, US, has announced EQUELLA 5, the latest version of the company's digital repository that enables users to search, create and manage content online.

EQUELLA provides one central solution to meet an institution's learning, research, media and library content needs. Faculty, instructional designers and academic technologists can easily search in one location for all of their learning content-video, custom eBooks, presentations, lecture captures and more - all tagged by metadata such as learning outcomes, grade level and relevant keywords. EQUELLA places no restriction on the content type or file size, and all content is protected using the repository's permissions, digital rights management and copyright functionality.

EQUELLA 5 includes new features such as updated user interface that improves overall usability; new dashboard capabilities, allowing users to customise the solution to suit their needs; and ability to access and import resources from external repositories. Additionally, built-in Harvester enhancements allow users to easily schedule content harvests from third-party sources, including other EQUELLA repositories, and directly harvest the metadata, content and resources. Addition of portlets provides access to different key functionality based on user preference.

EQUELLA works with all popular learning management systems, including Pearson LearningStudio and Fronter, as well as library systems, portals and other solutions.

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AIP Publishing, a division of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), has announced the re-launch of the Laser Institute of America's Journal of Laser Applications (JLA) on AIP's innovative Scitation hosting platform. As part of a new strategic partnership agreement between the Laser Institute of America (LIA) and AIP, LIA designated AIP to publish their flagship journal on behalf of the society.

Scitation has infused JLA with a broad range of interactive features, helping users find the content they need more quickly. Researchers will discover redesigned abstract pages, including related articles, article outlines, and an article objects tab, which provides direct access to tables and figures. New table of contents pages offer expandable abstracts and keywords. JLA users will also benefit from enhanced search functions, including faceted results and intuitive search suggestions, which filter results and help them find relevant information more quickly.

In addition, JLA now features dynamic full-text HTML, including a slide-out navigation bar, inline links to references, and inline search, which reveals lists of popular related articles. JLA now also offers a streamlined mobile version of its website.

First published in 1988, Journal of Laser Applications has been a major forum for the exchange of ideas and information on the diverse applications of photonic technology, including materials processing, laser safety, and sensing and measurement.

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Healthcare imaging technology firm Oxford Electromagnetic Acoustic Imaging (OxEMA), UK, is working towards building an imaging system that can be used in a clinical environment. A proposed Isis Innovation spinout company, OxEMA is seeking investment to take its patented technology through its initial clinical, engineering and regulatory stages. Isis Innovation is the University of Oxford's technology transfer company that manages the University's intellectual property portfolio, working with University researchers on identifying, protecting and marketing technologies through licensing, spin-out company formation and material sales.

Isis files, on average, one new patent application each week, has concluded over 500 technology licensing agreements, and established 70 new spin-out companies from Oxford since 1997.

OxEMA's technology is said to use an innovative combination of electro-magnetic and acoustic waves in order to create medical images at a cost comparable to ultrasound. The benefits of this are much greater clarity of image and tissue-type characterisation in this price bracket. The technology is non-ionising and thus said to offer a clear benefit over x-ray and CT scanning.

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Vital Source Technologies, Inc., part of Ingram Content Group Inc, US, has announced an agreement with Texas A&M University-San Antonio (TAMU-SA). TAMU-SA has selected VitalSource Bookshelf as its format of choice for e-textbook delivery for students.

TAMU-SA, one of the latest institutions in The Texas A&M University System, has integrated directly with Ingram's VitalSource platform. It is the first 2 and 4-year higher education school to integrate with VitalSource's Blackboard Building Blocks application. This module built by VitalSource will allow TAMU-SA to seamlessly deliver e-textbooks to students through the Blackboard Learn platform.

Students in TAMU-SA's MBA programme as well as other select programmes at the University will gain full access to the VitalSource platform. Students that use VitalSource will enjoy flexibility in accessing their course material when they need it, whether they are at home, in the classroom, or on the go.

VitalSource is currently delivering tens of thousands of titles from leading textbook publishers, including Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, and many others. It claims to be the only digital textbook platform providing synchronisation across download, online and mobile delivery methods.

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MeshTV, a subsidiary of ATCi (Antenna Technology Communications Inc.), recently announced its updated service that runs multiple dedicated live stream content that can be formatted for mobile devices while providing comprehensive monetisation and in-depth user analytics.

MeshTV is a full service provider of live and on-demand video, satellite, mobile GSM backhaul and delivery options. By partnering with top content delivery networks and using a proprietary encoding platform, MeshTV allows its customers to output dynamic live stream content to the multiple codes that are required from one box.

The MeshTV solution is available in three different service model tiers dependent upon customer requirements.

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eTextbook aggregator Reference Tree, UK, has announced the launch of its new content platform to all UK higher education.

Innovative in approach, Reference Tree is a new resource that delivers electronic textbooks by the chapter. Designed to address the changing dynamics of study and learning in today’s digital climate, the service allows students to purchase just the portions of the textbook they require to efficiently complete their coursework. Not only are the most up-to-date sources of information available for learning and study, but the by-chapter approach enables students to spread the investment in course materials throughout the academic year.

In addition, the service further enhances the learning experience with key features such as the ability to highlight and annotate text and, coming soon, the ability to collaborate with trusted peers through sharing of notes and comments.

Reference Tree is supported by publishers such as Elsevier, Taylor + Francis, Sage, Hodder Education, McGraw Hill, Cambridge University Press and many others who will deliver content through the service. The service also has the backing of students at a number of key London Universities

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Consumer electronics maker Sony Corp., Japan, will reportedly release two new e-book readers next month in a bid to secure a leading position in the budding domestic market.

The two devices - the 5-inch Reader Pocket Edition and the 6-inch Reader Touch Edition - are scheduled for release on December 10, 2010. The Pocket is expected to sell for ¥20,000, and the Touch for ¥25,000.

The Pocket is about 9.2 mm thick and weighs 155 grams, while the Touch is 10.3 mm thick and weighs 215 grams. Both types can carry about 1,400 books worth of data and boast black and white electronic-paper displays that can be viewed under the bright sunlight. Books can be read by manipulating the sliding touch-panel screen or pushing buttons. An added stylus pen also allows users to take notes and store other data.

Customers will be able to download and purchase e-books from Sony's online Reader Store, which will launch the same day with more than 20,000 books in stock. The company is also considering releasing 3G and Wi-Fi versions of the readers, which are already available overseas.

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Point-of-care reference solutions provider Epocrates, Inc., US, has announced it has acquired Modality, Inc. Modality is a premier developer of digital learning, assessment, training and reference applications for Apple mobile devices.

This acquisition is expected to expand Epocrates' product portfolio and accelerate the delivery of innovative clinical solutions for healthcare professionals. Key benefits of the acquisition include diversifying and expanding the breadth of clinical information available at the point-of-care to the Epocrates clinician network; leveraging the power of the iPhone and iPad devices to more rapidly introduce powerful solutions for clinicians; and enhancing the customisation and sophistication of Epocrates' interactive services, such as mobile video details and mobile resource centers.

With more than 175,000 US physicians using an Apple device and Epocrates' #1 ranked drug reference application, it remains the platform of choice among healthcare professionals. With Modality's iOS development expertise, Epocrates will now increase the volume and rapid delivery of new education and resource apps for clinicians.

Since the Apple store launched in 2007, Modality has introduced more than 140 applications for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. Most recently, the iPad device is emerging as an ideal mobile companion for physicians. Epocrates will be focusing early efforts with Modality on developing robust, multi-media applications for the iPad device.

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Electronic book applications developer ScrollMotion, US, has announced a partnership with global education provider Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), US, to develop its Holt McDougal Algebra 1 application for the iPad.

Launched in September as part of HMH Fuse, a new mode of curriculum delivery, the Algebra 1 iPad application is currently being used in a pilot programme for eighth grade classrooms throughout California. The pilot will compare the performance of students using traditional text books with those using the application.

The new HMH Fuse: Algebra 1 app offers touch-screen access to a complete curriculum in students' preferred medium. Linked, point-of-use graphing tools, tips and hints; animated step-by-step examples and solutions; and a dual-format note-taking feature immerse and engage students in every stage of instruction. Tutorial videos, vocabulary support with links to written and audio definitions, and automatic individualised quiz and assessment grading provide innovative, on-demand assistance to supplement classroom instruction.

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced the launch of its iPad module for iPublishCentral, the industry-leading e-publishing platform, to empower publishers to get their customised iPad apps and deliver content on iPad. The iPad module on iPublishCentral will be showcased at the ongoing Frankfurt Book Fair 2010, for the first time.

This new module will empower publishers to offer their customers content on iPad through their own customised iPad apps. The iPublishCentral platform is a scalable solution that empowers publishers to keep up with industry trends. The customised iPad app will allow users to connect effortlessly to the publishers eBookstore, access the catalogue of titles, preview content, and make instant purchases through their iPAD app, thereby opening up new opportunities for sales and content delivery.

Since its launch, many new features and functionalities have been added to iPublishCentral. Some of the other significant updates made to iPublishCentral include: ACS4 server integration that ensures publishers' PDF and EPUB files are protected and delivered onto eInk devices; Single Sign-On option for institutional users, that allows them to use their existing accounts to access content on iPublishCentral, with Shibboleth authentication; and redemption of pre-generated PIN codes, by users, to access content available on iPublishCentral even from a third-party portal.

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Vital Source Technologies, Inc., part of Ingram Content Group Inc, US, has announced the availability of the VitalSource Bookshelf application for Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.

With the addition of the new VitalSource mobile app, students and faculty can now access their content via integrated download, online, and mobile devices. Notes and highlights made on other VitalSource Bookshelf platforms are synchronised with the new VitalSource Bookshelf iOS app. The VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook app is free and available from Apple's App Store at www.itunes.com/appstore.

Using the new VitalSource Bookshelf iOS app, the full e-textbook, student notes and highlights are downloaded to the device, making it unnecessary to be connected to the Internet to access the full content. VitalSource Bookshelf is the only digital textbook platform providing synchronisation across download, online and mobile delivery methods.

The VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook app supports the full VitalSource library of titles, including popular higher education textbooks, study guides and classics on Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch and other mobile devices.

VitalSource is currently delivering more than 60,000 titles from the world's leading textbook publishers. These include: Elsevier, Pearson, Cengage, Macmillan, John Wiley and Sons, McGraw-Hill, Wolters Kluwer, Oxford University Press, Taylor & Francis, and others.

To access our daily STM news feed through your iPhone, iPad, or other smartphones, please visit www.myscoope.com for a mobile friendly reading experience.

E-publishing technology solutions provider Versita, Poland, has announced the launch of Versita Open, which allows publishers of scholarly journals to choose an open access model and services that best serve their needs. Versita Open has already attracted over 200 journals across numerous disciplines and expects to publish 500 journals in the near future.

Versita Open is an Open Access (OA) platform, which does not impose any open access model on participating journals owned by universities, institutes and societies. Some of them raise funding from article processing charges, while most are funded by the universities, institutes and societies which own them.

Within the new service, Versita Open provides publishers with leading e-publishing technology solutions such as MetaPress and Editorial Manager, instead of open source or internal systems.

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The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has announced the launch of a new eBooks site for ASME. AIP has made numerous new enhancements to its eBooks platform, designed to lend support to the marketing of recent ASME Press titles and ASME Handbooks & Manuals. By end of 2010, ASME's catalogue of eBooks hosted on AIP's Scitation C3 platform will reach nearly 100.

In addition to the features developed at ASME's request, AIP recently added other new features including the ability to download citations in a variety of formats, such as Bibtex, Endnote, and COinS; incorporation of OpenURL, a technology for linking web users to library catalogue resources; and the ability to e-mail an excerpt of a chapter. These features have been rolled into sites AIP hosts for SPIE and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

AIP's Scitation publishing platform hosts 2,000,000 articles from 200 scholarly publications for 28 learned society publishers in physics, chemistry, geosciences, engineering, acoustics, and other sciences. Scitation's evolving next-generation platform, C3, represents today's best-of-breed technology, with an XML foundation and flexible framework for multichannel distribution of content and services.

ASME helps the global engineering community to develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organisation that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.

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Interactive learning apps developer Modality, Inc., US, has announced that medical students are embracing USMLE prep on iPhone and iPod touch with its popular line of medical education and test prep apps. The United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) is a required three-step examination that tests students' preparedness for medical practice.

Modality's USMLE prep apps offer blocks of 50 to more than 1,000 board-style questions for Step 1, Step 2 CK, and Step 3, from leading brands like First Aid, Lange, PreTest, and USMLE Consult. Questions are categorised according to content area, allowing users to build customised quizzes based on their study preferences at any given time. Detailed statistics indicate the user's strong and weak spots to deliver a more streamlined approach to studying. Question browser mode provides unscored review of all content sections, and each app includes the ability to bookmark and save specific questions for further study.

Modality's USMLE test prep catalog spans 16 apps, including First Aid Q&A for USMLE (Steps 1 and 2 CK), created in partnership with McGraw-Hill Professional; Lange Q&A: USMLE (Steps 1, 2 CK and 3), created in partnership with McGraw-Hill Professional; PreTest USMLE Step 2CK Review (Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Medicine, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Surgery), created in partnership with McGraw-Hill Professional; and USMLE Consult: Step 1 (Blocks 1, 2, and 3), created in partnership with Elsevier.

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The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has released Scitation C3, an online discovery platform powered by the Atex Polopoly web content management system. The Polopoly Web CMS is said to provide the tools for AIP to integrate its publishing process with its hosting system, to build content-driven functionality, and to create new versions of its sites for use on mobile and tablet devices. Currently, the Polopoly system is hosting 12 AIP archival journals and three e-book sites, with plans to migrate all remaining AIP publications in the coming months.

AIP began using the Atex Polopoly Web CMS in 2008. The system's unified content approach is seen to allow AIP editors to publish content, create microsites, and build new web pages without requiring extensive technical expertise. The system is also observed to have given AIP a highly reliable architecture that is scalable and efficient enough to support its current and future demands. For C3, the Polopoly system provides an administration GUI (graphical user interface) control panel that lets AIP's web managers customise the entire user experience without writing a single line of code.

Scitation hosts 2 million articles from more than 200 scholarly publications for 28 learned society publishers. C3 features an XML foundation and flexible Polopoly framework for multi-channel distribution of content and services. The system is claimed to enable publishers and end-users to interact with content from a single system, creating an environment for content producers to open up future publishing channels.

Key to C3's design is a new abstract rendering feature that includes an 'article object' browser. Subscribers can now view all tables and figures in an article directly from the abstract view, which is where many researchers begin their interaction with an article. Other elements contained in the full XML article, such as the outline and sectioning, can be surfaced on the abstract page, providing quick access to the article's content.

Moving forward, AIP will continue using Polopoly to enhance Scitation's features and functionality, including: more advanced tagging and categorisation; greater integration with popular web applications to accommodate features such as mash-ups and geographic tracking; flexible publisher tools for adding and controlling content in real time; and enriched functionality for non-journal content such as books, standards, magazines and newsletters.

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The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has announced that Medical Physics, a journal from the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM), has gone live on Scitation C3, the next-generation hosting platform. This is the first in a projected plan by AIP to migrate all its publishing partner journals to Scitation C3 by end of 2010.

AIP made significant upgrades to the platform this year, particularly by incorporating MarkLogic Server and a Polopoly web content management system, which provide users with an XML-enabled functionality that significantly reduces discovery and reading time.

The new Medical Physics homepage includes a 'Just Published' RSS feed and 'Editor's Picks' articles, while abstracts include links for 'Related Content' and access to article objects (figures, tables, multimedia, etc.). Members and subscribers who log-in come across added tools for article objects, including the ability to export figures to PowerPoint. Mobile phone users will be automatically redirected to the streamlined mobile version of the site.

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Consumer electronics maker Sony Corp., Japan, has reportedly cut prices of its e- readers in the US for the second time since the launch of Apple, Inc.'s iPad in April. Sony has lowered the price of it Reader Daily Edition e-reader to $299 from $349 and has also made smaller reductions on two other models.

Sony is following the trend set by Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, both of which recently slashed prices for their devices. The price war comes as e-reader developers anticipate competition from Apple's iPad tablet computer, which can also function as an e-reader.

Earlier last week, Amazon cut the price on its Kindle DX, to $379 from $489. A week before, it had reduced the price of its cheaper version of the Kindle to $189. Amazon's announcement came hours after bookstore chain Barnes & Noble lowered the price of its Nook e-reader to $199 from $234.

Forrester Research, Inc. estimates e-reader sales will probably double in 2010 to 6 million units. According to the research firm, Kindle has about 60 percent of the US market, followed by Sony with 35 percent.

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Interactive learning apps developer Modality, Inc., US, has announced that its Echocardiography Atlas is available at a promotional price during the ongoing American Society of Echocardiography 21st Annual Scientific Sessions in San Diego, CA.

The app comprises 250 annotated images and 189 videos, encompassing a range of cardiac pathology. Edited by Dr. Scott D. Solomon of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Echocardiography Atlas is designed as a native application for iPhone and iPod touch, and is compatible with iPad.

According to Modality, the app presents users with 12 chapters of normal and abnormal echocardiograms, encompassing a wide range of cardiac pathology. It utilises a custom viewer solution created by Modality that allows users to watch detailed, looping echocardiograms. Leveraging the Multi-Touch user interface of iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, users may zoom and pan while the stacked images play, or pause to manipulate frame by frame. Like all Modality apps, content is locally stored on the device. This is seen to enable the delivery of rapid access, without the need for a network connection.

The Echocardiography Atlas app is available from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.

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enTourage Systems, Inc., the US-based developer of a dualbook branded 'enTourage eDGe', has announced a partnership with publisher F.A. Davis to upgrade its e-book store with additional titles. The enTourage eDGe seeks to bridge multiple technologies into one device. With its hinged E-Ink and LCD screens, the device is designed to offer users the functionalities of an e-reader, tablet netbook, notepad and audio/video player and recorder in one unit. It also aims to provide the ability to leverage these tools to further engage and manipulate content.

Partnering with F.A. Davis is expected to allow enTourage Systems to provide students, educators and professionals the content they need with nearly 100 titles in the nursing, medicine and health sciences.

In addition to the content from F.A. Davis, enTourage Systems e-book store includes over 200,000 trade titles, e-textbooks, major magazines, newspapers and periodicals, as well as over one million free public domain books digitised by Google. The e-book store is projected as a key component to the enTourage Systems portfolio, providing a controlled user experience that also includes document back-up and sharing between devices.

The company's eDGe dualbook consists of two screens. A 9.7'' E-Ink screen lets users read e-books apart from taking notes and drawing diagrams. The other half, a Wi-Fi-enabled LCD screen for web browsing, also allows video viewing and Microsoft Office document editing and creating. The product is equipped with microphones, a camera and speakers.

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced the appointment of publishing industry veteran Gary Rodrigues as the company's executive vice president of sales.

Rodrigues is a specialist in electronic publishing, having worked at Thomson Scientific, Extenza, Wolters Kluwer and TSO. The focus of his career has been on working with publishers to make their content available online in order to execute their electronic publishing strategies. In his new position, he will be responsible for overseeing the global sales strategy and day-to-day business development efforts for Impelsys.

Impelsys provides electronic content delivery solutions to the global publishing market, helps its clients compete, evolve and grow in an increasingly complex marketplace. Impelsys-powered technologies like iPlatform and VirtualPages and solutions like iPublishCentral help publishers increase their revenues by delivering content online quickly and cost effectively.

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Digital content products and technologies provider ebrary, US, has announced that it has added significant capabilities to QuickView. QuickView enables end-users to instantly view documents in many of the leading web browsers and even works on the iPhone.

ebrary customers worldwide can now discover information within e-books and other authoritative documents without having to download or install software. Enhancements to QuickView include ability to customise InfoTools, which turns every word into a portal to additional information, with online resources of the customer’s choice; print an entire chapter at a time (up to session limits); choice of four citation preferences; navigate to the previous or next page by double-clicking on the document; ability to select text and navigate throughout documents by finger swiping on the iPad and iPhone; and enable RefWorks, EndNote or both at the institution level.

Additionally, end-users can easily share ebrary citations with peers at other institutions. Anyone who clicks on the URL to an ebrary title will be automatically directed to the same document in their library’s ebrary collection (if available).

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Software solutions provider Mark Logic Corporation, US, has announced that the American Institute of Physics (AIP), a non-profit scholarly publisher, has used MarkLogic Server to build its next-generation platform for hosting online publications, Scitation C³. AIP has moved its 12 archival journals to the MarkLogic-based Scitation C³ platform, which hosts 2,000,000 articles from over 200 science-related publications.

By leveraging the power of XML to slice, dice, and repurpose content, Scitation C³ significantly reduces the time for search and discovery. The platform boasts a new object browser that allows subscribers to see tables, figures, and other valuable information within an article from the abstract view. This helps physics researchers easily navigate rich content and find relevant information more quickly. MarkLogic enabled AIP to re-use content from multiple assets to offer both publishers and end users multi-channel delivery options for content and services, allowing them to be well positioned to take advantage of future publishing opportunities.

Other Scitation C³ features include full-article HTML rendering, improved visual presentation of inline math, and in-context links to references, figures, and tables. AIP now offers ‘Smart ToCs’ that allow users to further customise listings with abstract previews and the ability to hide non-relevant content. AIP has also added more search options and controls to explore content based on article type, topic, author, keyword, PACS, journal, and publication year. In addition, researchers can find information faster by highlighting a term within an article to produce a list of related content.

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The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has announced the migration of its 12 archival journals to its Scitation C³ next-generation hosting platform. All Scitation publications will migrate to the C³ platform in the coming months. Central to the implementation is an agile development environment utilising a new Mark Logic content server and Polopoly web content management system.

Key to the new design is a new object browser, allowing subscribers to view all tables and figures in an article directly from the abstract view, where majority of researchers begin their interaction with the article. Other objects from within the full-article XML, such as the article's acknowledgement section and an article outline based on the article's section structure, surface on the page providing quick access to the article's content.

Scitation C³ also features a new, interactive full-article HTML rendering, including greatly improved visual presentation of inline math. In-context links to actionable references, figures, and tables save researchers from wasting time navigating around the document. Other interactive features include the ability to highlight any term within an article to produce a list of related content. To further facilitate fast discoverability, AIP journals now allow one to create ‘Smart ToCs,’ enabling the user to tailor the listing to his/her interests, harvest citations, preview abstracts with a mouse click, and hide content that isn't relevant. AIP has also added greater utility to the search functions of its journal pages, with more options and better controls to explore returned content with faceted results, based on article type, topic, author, keyword, PACS, journal, and publication year. Faceted search helps researchers find information quickly by presenting them with a set of ‘filters’ to refine search results.

AIP's Scitation publishing platform hosts 2,000,000 articles from more than 200 scholarly publications for 28 learned society publishers, in fields including physics, chemistry, geosciences, engineering, acoustics, and other sciences. Scitation's evolving, next generation platform, C³, represents today's best-of-breed technology, with an XML foundation and flexible framework for multi-channel distribution of content and services.

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The American Institute of Physics has announced the release of a series of new features for its evolving, next-generation hosting platform, Scitation C³. With this move AIP, seeks to strengthen its position as a leader in the development of innovative technologies for STM publishing.

Users will find the functionality of Scitation-hosted journal pages greatly enhanced, enabled by an XML (Extensible Markup Language) infrastructure that can turn granular markup into meaningful content services, reduce discovery time, and dynamically connect similar concepts and expose related content without user interaction. One of the many new features available on Scitaton C³ is full-text HTML rendering, direct from XML. Through inline reference links and the ability to enlarge tables and figures by clicking on them, the AIP-coined ‘SuperArticle’ virtually lifts off the page in a highly interactive presentation that transforms the traditional scholarly article, helping to speed authoring, reading and research.

Among the new features are enhanced search functions, with more options and better controls to explore returned content with faceted results. Faceted search helps researchers find information quickly by presenting them with a set of ‘filters’ to narrow down search results. Also new is a real-time institutional mapping interface that reveals institutional connections to research, providing geo-locational context to where the author who performed the research is based. To facilitate discovery, Scitation has upgraded its Tables of Contents service, bringing more information to the forefront and creating functionality that allows users to work with journal data in new ways.

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has solidified its e-book strategy with iPublishCentral, an electronic content delivery solution used by over 350 publishers worldwide. AAP is a leading society publisher and professional organisation to 600, 000 pediatricians.

Scheduled for launch in early 2010, AAP will initially offer 35 books from its adolescent health, neonatal, infectious disease and primary care collections online for purchase in digital format with a multi-level offering to both individuals and institutions such as libraries, hospitals and medical schools. iPublishCentral is an easy-to-implement, cost-effective, self-service solution that allows publishers to market, distribute and monetise traditional print content through electronic channels.

AAP collections and individual titles will be available by subscription or by per-book purchase, accessible with a single login. Along with member pediatricians, hospitals, libraries, medical schools and health organisations will also have access to AAP’s digital library. While retaining the look and feel of a print book, these e-Books will have enhanced electronic features including search, bookmarking and user personalisation.

AAP and its member authors will also be able to promote their titles using iPublishWidget, a viral marketing tool that enables both publishers and authors to promote and market books on the Internet and social Web sites such as Facebook. iPublishWidget enhances visibility, sustains interest and enables sales conversions for any title. Leading titles such as The Red Book Atlas, a reference for infectious diseases; Berkowitz Pediatrics, a textbook for primary care; and The Pediatric Nutrition Handbook, a guide for the latest evidence-based guidelines on feeding healthy infants and children, will be available for digital download.

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Sony has signed agreements with publishing houses Smashwords and Authors Solutions that will permit e-books published or distributed by the two companies to be sold through the Sony eBook Store. Together with Sony, these companies will give independent authors and small publishers the opportunity to offer content through the eBook Store.

Established publishers as well as independent authors and smaller publishers can now access Sony’s newly re-launched Publisher Portal. This portal serves as an easy way for larger publishers who may not already have a relationship with Sony to get in touch. Also, it provides a way for individual authors or publishers with just a handful of titles to work with market-proven solution providers to publish books and make them available on Sony’s eBook store.

As Sony completes the conversion of its eBook store to the industry-standard EPUB format, Smashwords and Authors Solution will expand the offer to all existing Author Solutions and Smashwords authors to get their titles up on the Sony site. Author Solutions and Smashwords will offer authors the option to publish content in the EPUB format, the International Digital Publishing Forum’s (IDPF) XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications. EPUB has gained acceptance among major trade book publishers with dozens of publishers already producing the majority of their eBooks using the standard. Sony recently announced that the company is transitioning its content library to the EPUB format.

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced a strategic partnership with Audiomedia Production (AP), an audio production vendor to leading educational and trade publishers. The deal is to offer audio content for Impelsys’ VirtualPages. VirtualPages is a reader that quickly and cost-effectively converts print into electronic editions. Publishers can now have a single-vendor solution for all eBook production needs.

Together, Impelsys and AP enable the VirtualPages Talking eBook. Impelsys’ VirtualPages technology plus AP’s audio content transforms standard printed books into virtual electronic books that offer a variety of illustrative and audio features such as narration, individually clickable words and read-along colour-coding of words. Some other features include user customisation features to turn on/off the text highlights and/or audio Page flip feature; zoom in and zoom out; thumbnail view; jump to page; and links to Word Glossary 'Email to friend' option.

Impelsys and AP plan to continue to enhance the eBook experience, push technological limits and lead the direction in which the electronic publishing industry is headed. With a partnership like this in place, publishers and other industry affiliates will be able to take advantage of production and management cost savings by working with one vendor to implement a complete online strategy and offer a more attractive eBook production solution to clients.

Impelsys also offers a self-service electronic content delivery platform called iPublishCentral. iPublishCentral allows publishers of any size to make content available for sale online and promote their brands and titles across the Web through viral marketing. With minimal to no cost, publishers can transition content online and can offer readers a high-resolution digital reading experience with viewing/previewing, buying, renting and promotional capabilities through iPublishCentral, iPublishWidget and ViewInside.

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Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, US, has announced that the American Medical Association (AMA) has launched an e-book portal using iPublishCentral, its self-service e-publishing platform. iPublishCentral enables publishers to market, distribute and monetise traditional print content through electronic channels.

For instance, the e-book version of Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, sixth edition, contains clarifications and corrections that were not defined until after the book published. The AMA has recently reprinted the book and is using this opportunity to introduce its existing customer base to the electronic version. Direct purchasers can currently receive a two-year subscription to the downloadable e-book as a replacement offer for the reprinted publication. iPublishCentral allows a migration path to a planned suite of e-products that will be available on Impelsys’ iPlatform in the future.

By going online with iPublishCentral, the AMA seeks to provide its members the flexibility and benefit of accessing AMA-published content from anywhere.

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Digital publishing services provider YUDU Media has announced that it is in agreement with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision, and declared that all textbooks should be put online. The e-publishing company, which produces e-books and digital publications for various educational publishers and establishments, says that versions of nearly all textbooks will be online by 2020 on current trends. It has further stated that the decision is backed up by both the research and cost equations.

According to company representatives, it is not just education providers who save money, but also the students. With a 2005 US Government Accountability Office report putting the average cost of textbooks at $900 per year, it is estimated each student will save hundreds of dollars each year by putting textbooks online.

YUDU Media's new education e-book, titled Enhancing Education through Technology, shows how education professionals can use technology to its fullest potential. Alongside embedded video and other rich media content, the e-book demonstrates features designed to assist students - these include a contextual search tool, online page highlighter, page tabs and digital bookmarking.

YUDU Media is a digital publishing solutions provider for magazines, newspapers, catalogues and books. It seeks to offer advanced professional publishing with YUDU Pro (www.yudupro.com) and free publishing at YUDU.com, an e-library and marketplace for publishers.

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The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) has announced a cooperative agreement with iPublishCentral, a self-service e-content delivery platform from Impelsys, to support its 130 members in pursuing electronic publishing. The partnership provides AAUP members with a discount for using iPublishCentral's e-publishing platform and services through AAUP.

iPublishCentral, a self-service digital content publishing, marketing, warehousing and distribution platform, will allow participating AAUP members to market books on the Internet, sell content online, and promote brands and titles across the Web. Among the three core components of iPublishCentral are market, distribute and deliver.

In year one of the agreement, AAUP members will benefit from complimentary content hosting services available through iPublishCentral. In subsequent years, members will pay sliding-scale fees based on the number of books they upload to the iPublishCentral site. AAUP will share a small percentage of revenue made from transactions that occur on the AAUP portal using iPublishCentral.

Through iPublishCentral, AAUP members can launch their own publishing portals, creating online content products and bundles. They can also monetise their backlist without the overhead of more traditional online content publishing, lengthy development timeframes or pricey infrastructure.

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Digital content products and technologies provider ebrary, US, has announced a number of new features that make it quicker and easier to discover, use, and manage information online.

ebrary has enhanced its QuickView Reader, which does not require any software downloads or installations. New QuickView features include InfoTools, which networks every word with other online resources; copying; highlighting; annotating; and the ability to turn text into hyperlinks. Last month ebrary added printing to QuickView as well as integration with RefWorks and EndNote for easy citation management.

Additionally, ebrary has enhanced its bookshelf feature. End-users can now email folders containing notes, highlights, hyperlinks, and bookmarks to peers.

ebrary helps libraries, corporations, publishers, and consumers get the most out of their digital content. The company offers a growing selection of more than 170,000 digital books, handbooks, reports, maps, journals and other valuable content from over 350 of the world's leading publishers under flexible subscription, purchase, and usage-based models. Additionally, ebrary offers e-publishing services for customers to cost-effectively distribute their own PDF content online on ebrary's servers or their own.

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Digital content services provider Ingram Digital, US, has announced that the Northwest Missouri State University has selected its VitalSource Bookshelf e-textbook platform for e-textbook delivery for students.

VitalSource e-textbooks can be accessed from a PC anytime, anywhere. Delivered through Bookshelf, VitalSource's leading edge e-book reader, they can be highlighted and annotated and searched. In addition, Bookshelf stores, indexes and displays VitalSource e-textbooks and functions as a virtual meeting place for readers to trade notes, tips and techniques.

The university chose the VitalSource Bookshelf platform after conducting pilot tests of the leading formats among some 500 students in seven courses. Students were asked to keep track of the number of hours they spent reading texts, how they used their texts, the ease of using the e-textbook and its interactive features, and their perceptions of e-textbooks versus print textbooks. The University surveyed students several times and considered both qualitative and quantitative results when making their decision.

Students surveyed cited the ability to search their entire collection of e-textbooks for information; the ability to highlight their e-textbooks; and the ability to conduct keyword searches on content notes and shared notes as the most appealing features of e-textbooks. 78 percent of students surveyed said they liked the idea of e-textbooks and would use them for at least some courses.

E-content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, Inc., US, has announced that MIT Press has launched its e-book portal using iPublishCentral, its self-service e-publishing platform. iPublishCentral enables publishers of any size or in any location to digitise their content for sale online, and promote brands and titles across the web through strategic viral marketing.

Since its launch at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2008, more than 150 publishers have registered and used various components of iPublishCentral. Many, including Benchmark Education, Valiant Entertainment and the American College of Physicians, have fully implemented the complete solution, according to Impelsys.

iPublishCentral is seen to offer MIT Press an innovative, efficient e-publishing tool that would allow it to experiment with varied market segments at a low price; sell backlist content in new, electronic formats; and avoid lengthy development cycles and costs associated with traditional online publishing. MIT Press is projected to benefit from iPublishCentral's customised, branded interface, which enhances relationships with readers, as well as the tool's ability to enable monetisation of backlist titles electronically. It can now expect to manage and control its offerings through a low-cost, self-service interface, while retaining the flexibility to experiment with varied pricing models at minimal risk.

iPublishCentral provides a digital warehouse for storage of all MIT content and an end-user portal to deliver and monetise its e-books, all through a self-service model. Its features and functions include the creation of marketable content products and bundles, an administration system for managing content, users and subscriptions, an integrated e-commerce system, and a platform for creating web-based viral marketing programmes.

Expert-driven article evaluation services Faculty of 1000 Biology and Faculty of 1000 Medicine are each launching a journal to complement their service. Most of the content in the new journals, called F1000 Reports, are already filtered for importance by Faculty of 1000's community of over 5,000 of the world's top scientists and clinicians.

The rise of online publishing has given academics a completely new platform for publishing their findings, which has been beneficial in some respects but has also contributed greatly to doctors' and scientists' sense of information overload. With human community-driven filtering, Internet users can get straight to the best online content. Faculty of 1000 has added a new level to this model with the launch of F1000 Reports.

F1000 Biology Reports and F1000 Medicine Reports select and highlight the most significant and interesting articles recently evaluated on Faculty of 1000, as well as identify emerging trends within the large F1000 database of articles. In this way, F1000 Reports spot the tips of some new scientific icebergs before they become apparent elsewhere. With so much new literature for scientists and clinicians to read, F1000 Reports are projected as easy routes to the must-read content.

Designed to make sense of the vast and growing body of scholarly literature in the fields of biology and medicine, the F1000 service comprises over 5000 of the world's distinguished and respected researchers and clinicians who select key recent articles and evaluate them. This 'faculty of experts' highlight articles that make a difference to biomedical scientists in their research and to clinicians in their every-day practice. The articles are identified from over 2000 reputed biomedical journals from a wide range of publishers, and they are then graded from an expert perspective.

Electronic content delivery solutions provider Impelsys, Inc., US, has announced that its iPublishCentral platform has registered more than 150 publishing clients worldwide in three months since its launch at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2008. iPublishCentral is a self-service e-publishing platform that enables publishers of any size or in any location to digitise their content for sale online and to promote brands and titles across the Web through strategic viral marketing.

Publishers in every industry - trade publishing, STM, K-12 and higher education - can initiate an e-publishing business with iPublishCentral's basic, no-cost package. The package offers publishers access to standard features and functionalities, while reducing the cost and risk of launching an online strategy.

Beta-tested with several high-profile publishers including MIT press and the American College of Physicians, iPublishCentral delivers an end-to-end workflow solution, allowing publishers to convert and monetise their print titles by tapping into three integrated modules focused on marketing, distribution and delivery - iPublishWidget, iPublishWarehouse and iPublishPortal.

Digital content services provider Ingram Digital, US, has announced that it has been selected by the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) to provide 67 Canadian universities, encompassing nearly 900,000 researchers, scholars and students, with access to premium e-book content from leading academic publishers. Under the terms of the agreement, Ingram Digital will supply CRKN with access to over 20,000 digital titles from Taylor & Francis, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press through its industry leading MyiLibrary platform.

Digital titles available to CRKN will be offered via dual access, through both the MyiLibrary platform and the publisher platform where available, in a model pioneered by Ingram Digital to provide its customers with flexible options for e-book access. Adding an average of 1,000 titles per week, the next-generation MyiLibrary platform claims to be the fastest growing e-content aggregator currently available.

Ingram Digital's agreement with the CRKN adds to a series of successful engagements by international entities such as the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee. In order to meet the growing global demand for digital content services and solutions, Ingram Digital recently enhanced its EMEA operations and continues to work with top publishers to expand its inventory of electronic titles.

Online books retailer BooksOnBoard, US, has announced that it has released over 30,000 e-book titles for iPhones. Now iPhone owners can get most new release books anywhere on either Apple iPhone or iTouch with direct downloads to the device through the AT&T 3G network or through local wireless networks. Titles must be in the eReader eBook format.

Users currently require the free Stanza application found in the iPhone apps store in order to download and read the books. Detailed instructions for new users can be found at http://www.booksonboard.com/index.php?F=iPhone_ebooks.

There are several e-book readers available on the iPhone currently with more expected in the coming year. BooksOnBoard plans to work with any of them that allow its customers to read popular new titles from the publishing community. The retailer also offers over 5,000 recently released MP3 audio books which can be downloaded from BooksOnBoard and added to iTunes for inclusion on iPhone, iTouch and iPod.

Wireless handheld devices such as Blackberry, iPhone and PDA are becoming increasingly popular among the academic community. Handheld devices are being projected as an ideal platform for mobile learning and reference, particularly in medical education and practice. McGraw-Hill Professional, part of education materials publisher McGraw-Hill Education, recently partnered with Modality to bring Zollinger's Atlas of Surgical Operations to the iPhone and iPod touch.

In a similar move, in December 2008, technical publisher Apress, Inc. announced the publication of its first iPhone development title, Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK, authored by veteran Mac developers Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche. The title seeks to take the reader from the basic downloading and installing of the free SDK, right through to building applications that make use of advanced features such as iPhone's MultiTouch Gestural Support and Accelerometer.