E-Books – Page 11 – DigitalKoans

U.S. Department of Education Issues FAQ on E-Book Accessibility Requirements

The U.S. Department of Education has issued "Frequently Asked Questions about the June 29, 2010, Dear Colleague Letter." The FAQ is "a 'significant guidance document' under the Office of Management and Budget's Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices."

Here's an excerpt:

Specifically, some postsecondary institutions were using electronic book readers that are inaccessible to students who are blind or have low vision. As explained by the DCL, application of our long-standing nondiscrimination requirements means that schools must provide an electronic book reader (i.e., the technology that the school uses to provide educational benefits, services, or opportunities) that is fully accessible to students who are blind or have low vision; otherwise schools must provide accommodations or modifications to ensure that the benefits of their educational program are provided to these students in an equally effective and equally integrated manner.

Read more about it at "Joint 'Dear Colleague' Letter: Electronic Book Readers."

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"Just Google It!—The Google Book Search Settlement: A Law and Economics Analysis"

Frank Müller-Langer and Marc Scheufen have self-archived "Just Google It!—The Google Book Search Settlement: A Law and Economics Analysis" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Our law and economics analysis of the Book Search Project suggests that—from a copyright perspective—the proposed settlement may be beneficial to right holders, consumers, and Google. For instance, it may provide a solution to the still unsolved dilemma of orphan works. From a competition policy perspective, we stress the important aspect that Google’s pricing algorithm for orphan and unclaimed works effectively replicates a competitive Nash-Bertrand market outcome under post-settlement, third-party oversight.

Association of Research Libraries Sends Letter to FTC about Google Books Privacy Issues

The Association of Research Libraries has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission regarding Google Books privacy issues.

Here's an excerpt:

This consent order presents a unique opportunity to shape best practices in reader privacy for a major online service provider. The marketplaces for e-books and for book search are both in formative stages, and the standards adopted by Google can be highly influential for other market participants. We urge the Commission to confirm that reader privacy deserves the same respect in the online world that it has long demanded in the physical world by insisting on strong protections for reader privacy in the comprehensive privacy program.

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Pamela Samuelson: "Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement"

Pamela Samuelson has self-archived "Legislative Alternatives to the Google Book Settlement" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

In the aftermath of Judge Chin's rejection of the proposed Google Book settlement, it is time to consider legislative alternatives. This article explores a number of component parts of a legislative package that might accomplish many of the good things that the proposed settlement promised without the downsides that would have attended judicial approval of it. It gives particular attention to the idea of an extended collective licensing regime as a way to make out-of-print but in-copyright books more widely available to the public. But it also considers several other measures, such as one aimed at allowing orphan works to be made available and some new privileges that would allow digitization for preservation purposes and nonconsumptive research uses of a digital library of books from the collections of major research libraries.

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Preservation of Digitized Books and Other Digital Content Held by Cultural Heritage Organizations

Portico has released the Preservation of Digitized Books and Other Digital Content Held by Cultural Heritage Organizations.

Here's an excerpt:

In one response to this need to develop models of digital preservation, the NEH and IMLS awarded a grant to Portico, in partnership with Cornell University Library, through the "Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership grant program" to develop a practical model for how preservation can be accomplished for digitized books. Through this initiative and other efforts, Portico had the opportunity to discuss digital collections and their long-term preservation with 27 cultural heritage organizations. In addition, Cornell University Library provided significant samples of content to analyze. Out of this research and the extensive experience in preservation at both Portico and Cornell University Library, we developed a model for the preservation of digitized books and other "document like" digital content at cultural heritage organizations.

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"Google Book Search in the Gridlock Economy"

Douglas Lichtman has self-archived "Google Book Search in the Gridlock Economy" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

Michael Heller's The Gridlock Economy popularizes a concept that Heller has developed over nearly two decades of influential academic writing: the notion that, when it comes to property rights, too many rights-endowed cooks really can spoil the broth. I was asked in this conference to apply Heller's insight to the Google Book Search project, and the request at first seemed natural. Heller himself suggested that Google Book Search might be an apt poster child for the gridlock phenomenon; Google likewise can often be heard to complain, in Heller-esque tones, that the only way to build a comprehensive search engine for books is to take the books without asking. This Essay, however, questions the example and offers a refinement on Heller's theory. Gridlock, I argue, is not simply a catch-all for situations where a large number of permissions are in play. It is more narrowly a reference to situations where a large number of permissions are in play, and those permissions intertwine.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Duke University Press: Survey of Library E-Book Acquisitions

The Duke University Press has released the Survey of Library E-Book Acquisitions.

Here's an excerpt:

We e-mailed an online survey to all Duke University Press librarian contacts associated with electronic collections. Of these approximately 750 recipients, over 100 followed the link and completed the survey. We posted a different link to the same survey on the Liblicense (Licensing Digital Information: a Resource for Librarians) and ERIL (Electronic Resources in Libraries) e-mail listservs, as well as the Duke University Press Twitter feed, producing over 160 additional responses. This report compiles the results of these efforts, totaling 265 surveys.

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A Guide For the Perplexed Part IV: The Rejection of the Google Books Settlement

The Library Copyright Alliance has released A Guide For the Perplexed Part IV: The Rejection of the Google Books Settlement.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

This guide is the latest in a series prepared by LCA legal counsel Jonathan Band to help inform the library community about this landmark legal dispute.

In the Guide Part IV, Band explains why the Court rejected the proposed class action settlement, which would have allowed Google to engage in a wide variety of activities using scanned books.

As stated in the Guide, "The court concluded that the settlement was unfair because a substantial number of class members [i.e., authors and publishers] voiced significant concerns with the settlement.… However, the validity of the objections seemed less important to the court than the fact that many class members raised them."

As for the impact of the decision on libraries, Band writes that while it is too early to say what the parties will do next, "it appears that both the challenges and the opportunities presented to libraries by the settlement when it was announced in the fall of 2008 are growing narrower and more distant."

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Transforming Scholarly Publishing through Open Access: A Bibliography |

Author’s Guild et al. v. Google Inc. Ruling: Amended Settlement Agreement Denied

Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York has denied the Amended Settlement Agreement for the Author's Guild et al. v. Google Inc. case.

Here's an excerpt from the ruling:

Before the Court is plaintiffs' motion pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure for final approval of the proposed settlement of this class action on the terms set forth in the Amended Settlement Agreement (the "ASA"). The question presented is whether the ASA is fair, adequate, and reasonable. I conclude that it is not.

While the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, the ASA would simply go too far. It would permit this class action—which was brought against defendant Google Inc. ("Google") to challenge its scanning of books and display of "snippets" for on-line searching—to implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners. Indeed, the ASA would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case.

Accordingly, and for the reasons more fully discussed below, the motion for final approval of the ASA is denied. The accompanying motion for attorneys' fees and costs is denied, without prejudice.

| Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Publications Overview | Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography 2010 |

Internet Archive and Library Partners Launch E-Book Lending Collection

The Internet Archive and a group of academic and public library partners have launched an e-book lending collection, which contains over 80,000 e-books. The majority of books were published in the 20th century.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Any OpenLibrary.org account holder can borrow up to 5 eBooks at a time, for up to 2 weeks. Books can only be borrowed by one person at a time. People can choose to borrow either an in-browser version (viewed using the Internet Archive’s BookReader web application), or a PDF or ePub version, managed by the free Adobe Digital Editions software. This new technology follows the lead of the Google eBookstore, which sells books from many publishers to be read using Google's books-in-browsers technology. Readers can use laptops, library computers and tablet devices including the iPad.

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Turning the Page: The Future of eBooks

PricewaterhouseCoopers has released Turning the Page: The Future of eBooks.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

This new study examines trends and developments in the eBooks and eReaders market in the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany, and discusses major challenges and key questions for the publishing industry worldwide. It also identifies market opportunities and developments for eBooks and eReaders, and makes recommendations for publishers, traditional retailers, online retailers, and intermediaries.

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"2010: E-Book Buyer’s Guide to E-Book Privacy"

The EFF has released the "2010: E-Book Buyer's Guide to E-Book Privacy."

Here's an excerpt:

The guide is simply a review of privacy policies, to the extent we've been able to find them, plus additional information we received directly from Adobe and the Internet Archive. We haven't been able to do independent testing to verify how these e-book providers work in practice. Also, in discussing whether individuals are linked to their reading we have only addressed direct ways (i.e. Amazon or Google directly keeps that information in your account information) as opposed to indirect ways that require action from third parties like the ability to use your IP address gathered by logs to subpoena your ISP for your name).

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New York Law School Law Review Publishes Special Issue about Google Books Lawsuit and Settlement

The New York Law School Law Review has published a special issue containing papers from the NYU Law School's October 2009 D Is for Digitize conference on the Google Books lawsuit and settlement.

Here are the papers:

"D Is for Digitize: An Introduction," James Grimmelmann
"Google Book Settlement and the Fair Use Counterfactual," Matthew Sag
"Fulfulling the Copyright Social Justice Promise: Digitized Textual Information," Lateef Mtima & Steven D. Jamar
"Orphan Works and the Google Book Search Settlement: An International Perspective," Bernard Lang
"H Is for Harmonization: The Google Book Search Settlement and Orphan Works Legislation in the European Union," Katharina de la Durantaye
"Continued DOJ Oversight of the Google Book Search Settlement: Defending Our Public Values and Protecting Competition," Christopher A. Suarez
"Digitial + Library: Mass Book Digitization as Collection Inquiry," Mary Murrell
"The Why in DIY Book Scanning," Daniel Reetz

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"The Google Book Settlement as Copyright Reform"

Pamela Samuelson has self-archived "The Google Book Settlement as Copyright Reform" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

This Article explains why certain features of U.S. law, particularly copyright law, may have contributed to Google’s willingness to undertake the GBS project in the first place and later to its motivation to settle the Authors Guild lawsuit. It then demonstrates that the proposed settlement would indeed achieve a measure of copyright reform that Congress would find difficult to accomplish. Some of this reform may be in the public interest. It also considers whether the quasi-legislative nature of the GBS settlement is merely an interesting side effect of the agreement or an additional reason in favor or against approval of this settlement.

Internet Archive Announces That University of Toronto Has Digitized 250,000 Books

Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive has announced that the University of Toronto has digitized 250,000 books.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

When I talked with Carole Moore, the fantastic librarian from University of Toronto, about 6 years ago, she had a vision of scanning 250,000 books from their libraries. Well, a few days ago she succeeded. (http://www.archive.org/details/university_of_toronto)

It has been a winding road to here, with financial help from Yahoo and Microsoft, from the Canadian government and from the University of Toronto—but she got there in grand style. . . .

250,000 books for free to the world from one of the great libraries in the world.

Handheld E-Book Readers and Scholarship: Report and Reader Survey

The American Council of Learned Societies has released Handheld E-Book Readers and Scholarship: Report and Reader Survey.

Here's an excerpt:

This report describes a conversion experiment and subsequent reader survey conducted by ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) in late 2009 and early 2010 to assess the viability of using scholarly monographs with handheld e-readers. Scholarly content generally involves extensive networking and cross-referencing between individual works through various channels, including bibliographical citation and subsequent analysis and discussion. Through past experience with its online collection, HEB had already determined that a web-based platform lends itself well to presenting this type of material, but was interested in exploring which key elements would need to be replicated in the handheld edition in order to maintain the same level of functionality, as well as what specific factors from either print or digital publishing would have to be taken into account. As sample content, HEB selected six titles from its own online collection, three in a page-image format with existing OCR-derived text and three encoded as XML files, and had these converted by an outside vendor with minimal editorial intervention into both MOBI (prc) and ePub files.

OPDS Catalog 1.0 Specification

The OPDS Catalog 1.0 specification has been released.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The open ebook community and the Internet Archive are pleased to announce the release of the first production version of the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) Catalog format for digital content. OPDS Catalogs are an open standard designed to enable the discovery of digital content from any location, on any device, and for any application. . . .

Based on the widely implemented Atom Syndication Format, OPDS Catalogs have been developed since 2009 by a group of ebook developers, publishers, librarians, and booksellers interested in providing a lightweight, simple, and easy to use format for developing catalogs of digital books, magazines, and other content.

University of Michigan Press Begins Renting E-Books

The University of Michigan Press has started an e-book rental program for over 250 e-books.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

Costs will range from 40% of list price for a 30-day rental to 75% of list price for a 180-day rental. For example, a paperback textbook might carry a list price of $22.95; it could be viewed as a rental for $10 for 30 days, or $18 for 180 days. Scholars who rent a book will have the option at the end of the rental period to buy it permanently at an additional charge. Purchased versions include additional interactive features.

Digital Videos of ALA Panel Discussion on Life after the Google Book Search Settlement

The ALA Washington Office has released digital videos of the Panel Discussion on Life after the Google Book Search Settlement at ALA Annual.

Here's an excerpt from the panel announcement:

The ALA Washington Office is hosting the ALA ad hoc Google Task Forces' breakout session titled "Panel Discussion on Life after the Google Book Search Settlement (GBS)" which will explore the possible court rulings – approval, denial or permutation there in – and how libraries would be impacted.. . .

Jonathan Band, intellectual property attorney and counsel for the ALA, will lead the discussion and pose questions to an expert group of panelists. Invited panelists include a representative from Google (Johanna Shelton-confirmed), a professor from the New York University Law School (James Grimmelmann-confirmed), a representative from the U.S. Copyright Office and a librarian from a GBS participating library.

User Behaviour Observational Study: Scholarly Digital Use and Information-Seeking Behaviour in Business and Economics

JISC has released User Behaviour Observational Study: Scholarly Digital Use and Information-Seeking Behaviour in Business and Economics.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The report covers the digital usage and information seeking behaviour of tens of thousands of business/economics/management students, researchers and academic staff. The intention was to inform and provide a context for the small-scale but detailed observational and interview studies undertaken by Middlesex University researchers for a JISC funded User Behaviour Observational Study (Business and Economics). Much of the data were mined from CIBER’s Virtual Scholar research programme and has not been previously published in this form. New data was also obtained from the studies CIBER are currently conducting, especially from the JISC national E-book Observatory project and the RIN funded E-journals study. Log data, the main source of information on usage and information seeking, covers a period of more than five years and the questionnaire data represents more than 5000 people so this probably represents the biggest and most comprehensive usage data set ever assembled on the subject. E-books and e-journals are covered and usage at the three JISC User Behaviour Observational Study case study institutions—LSE, Middlesex and Cranfield, are highlighted A whole variety of analyses are featured including: volume and, patterns of use (in terms of visits and page views), dwell time (session and page times), type of content viewed (PDF, abstracts etc), number of pages viewed in a session, methods of navigating towards content, age of material viewed, and number of searches conducted, names of titles used, user’s organization, age and gender, hardcopy v digital preferences, viewing/reading behaviour.

The Internet Archive’s Open Library Offers E-Book Loans

The Internet Archive's Open Library is now offering e-book loans.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

Checking out digital versions of books that are automatically returned after two weeks is as easy as logging onto the Internet Archive’s Open Library site, announced digital librarian and Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle. By integrating this new service, more than seventy thousand current books—best sellers and popular titles—are borrowable by patrons of libraries that subscribe to Overdrive.com's Digital Library Reserve. Additionally, many other books that are not commercially available but are still of interest to library patrons, are available to be borrowed from participating libraries using the same digital technology. . . .

Currently, OpenLibrary.org is making available:

More than one million digital versions of older books are now available for free download in a variety of formats.

Over 70,000 current digital books to those with a library card from many of the over 11,000 libraries that subscribe to the OverDrive service.

Genealogical books from the Boston Public Library.

How-to and technical book collection via the Internet Archive.

Marine life reference materials from the Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Spanish texts from Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala.

Swiss National Library Launches eBooks on Demand, a Fee-Based Digitization-on-Demand Service

The Swiss National Library has launched eBooks on Demand.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Swiss National Library (NL) now offers a digitisation on request service for out of copy-right books. This new paid service is known as "eBooks on Demand" (EOD). The NL already lists more than 100,000 books available for digitisation, which can be provided as a PDF to customers. . . .

To date, more than 100,000 books (mainly older publications, since only they are not under copyright) are available on request in digitised form, and can be delivered to users as an e-mail attachment, or by post on a CD.

Such works are marked in the online catalogue Helveticat (www.nb.admin.ch/helveticat) with the EOD symbol, which serves as a link to the order form. Submitting a form triggers an invoice; once this is paid, the reader receives the eBook. On request, for a small supplement, a paperback may also be supplied.

"eBooks on Demand" is a project of the NL and over 20 other libraries in ten European countries (www.books2ebooks.eu).

"The Google Book Settlement and the TRIPS Agreement"

Daniel J. Gervais has self-archived "The Google Book Settlement and the TRIPS Agreement" in SSRN.

Here's an excerpt:

The proposed amended settlement in the Google Book case has been the focus of numerous comments and critiques. This "perspective" reviews the compatibility of the proposed settlement with the TRIPS Agreement and relevant provisions of the Berne Convention that were incorporated into TRIPS, in particular the no-formality rule, the most-favored nation (MFN) clause, national treatment obligations, and the so-called three-step test, which constrains the ability of WTO Members to provide new exceptions and limitations to copyright rights.

Digital Video of Intellectual Property Breakfast Club Session on Google Book Settlement

BroadbandBreakfast.com has released a digital video of the Intellectual Property Breakfast Club's the Google Book Search Settlement and E-Book Licensing session on May 11, 2010.

Here's an excerpt from the announcement:

The panelists included:

Jonathan Band, Counsel, Library Copyright Alliance

Michael Capobianco, Vice President, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America

Sherwin Siy, Deputy Legal Director, Public Knowledge

Cynthia S. Arato's Analysis of the Google Books Settlement

Cynthia S. Arato, a Partner at Macht, Shapiro, Arato & Isserles, has sent an eighteen-page memo on the Google Books Settlement to the Open Book Alliance that summarizes "the objections and argument that we lodged against the proposed settlement of the 'Google Books' lawsuit on behalf of leading foreign publishing and authors' associations, foreign publishers, and foreign authors."

Here's an excerpt:

Numerous provisions of the proposed Google Books settlement would, if approved, violate the treaty obligations of the U.S. For this reason, and because of its myriad other defects, the settlement should not be approved by the court. If the settlement is approved, it may give rise to legal action against the U.S. before an international tribunal and will certainly expose the U.S. to diplomatic stress.