E-Book Invasion to Eliminate Brick and Mortar Bookstores?
(seattlepi.com): For more than a decade the publishing industry has been changing dramatically, printing fewer titles, tightening markets, taking fewer chances on new concepts or unknown authors. We expected all those changes with the merging of many of the largest publishers into even larger media groups. E-books replacing printed books… Read More
Accessing the e-book revolution
(ft.com): One of the most thrilling digital developments of 2010 was the arms race between e-book readers. The Kindle grew amazingly small and cheap; Barnes & Noble’s Nook was rolled out on Google’s Android mobile operating system; the iBooks and Kindle apps for the iPad added dozens of features after… Read More
Year-End stats from MIT point to increasing popularity of open educational resources
(readwriteweb.com): Like many sites and services, MIT OpenCourseWare has released some of its user statistics from 2010. The figures show strong growth for what is one of the world's premier open educational resources, with an increase in visits and visitors between 2009 and 2010.. Read More
E-Books Poses Challenges For Nation’s Libraries
(kpbs.org): Librarians from across the US are in San Diego for the next several days taking part in a national conference about the state of libraries. Organizers say one challenge most libraries are facing is the e-book revolution. Read More
Google’s Cached Links do Not Violate the U.S. Copyright Act
(ibls.com): It may not be that difficult to write a book titled “Google"s lawsuits;” at least, the material is abundant. Google is already known for defending multiple lawsuits, particularly those related to intellectual property and privacy violations. Hence, it is also a fact that Google has won most of those… Read More
How Not To Get Sued For Stealing Content On The Internet
(businessinsider.com): While many hail the Web for lowering the barrier to publishing, it’s also created an economy where people feel anything they find on the Web is fair game. And that couldn’t be further from the truth. Read More
Customers Move Online = Bad News for News in the Internet Age
(scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org): How dependent will news become to the online outlet? Given what Pew found, it’s clear that online news is in fact the only sector of news consumption that’s growing its audience, and at a very high rate. Read More
Content Discovery: Break the Barriers for End Users
(resources.igi-global.com): As information seekers become less interested in the container of information (a monograph vs. a traditional reference work) and focus instead on the currency and relevancy of the information contained, it is important to recognize that the term “reference content” has begun to evolve. It now includes not just… Read More
Call for Scientists to help put open principles into practice
(blogs.openaccesscentral.com/): On 2nd September 2010 BioMed Central issued a draft position statement in support of open data, which provides a number of recommendations – and aspirations – for the role of publishers in promoting reproducible research by increasing scientific data sharing, data reuse and open data. In the months since… Read More
Taxonomy Crisis: 5.4 Million of the World’s Species Are Still Unnamed
(newsfeed.time.com): Only a quarter of the world's species have been identified because of insufficient funding and a shortage of taxonomists. Over the past 12 months, 16,000 species have been found, bringing the number of the known animal kingdom to 1.4 million. Read More
