The world of books and publishing has been overwhelmed by the recent emergence of popular e-books in the consumer market place. One example, Amazon.com reports selling more e-books than paper during the last holiday season. E-book reading devices like the Kindle, Nook, Sony's Reader, the much rumored and hyped Apple iSlate (revealed as iPad), and many other mobile devices are also in the media spotlight. Sony, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble all have attractive Web stores and engaging brick-and-mortar shopping experiences offering e-books and publications that put many library Web pages and places to shame. So what is the library's role in this growing e-book and e-publication world and how do we ensure that libraries continue their long relationship with readers and with books? Stated more bluntly, what do libraries have to do to stay relevant as e-books presumably take increasing share of the book and print market? In order to explore this question and come up with a list of issues and strategies, TBLC and Chad Mairn (St. Petersburg College) are inviting you to participate in a community conversation about e-books, e-publications, and e-book readers and their place in libraries and to help shape a library community response to this exciting challenge and opportunity. The transcript to the audio is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/epublishingtrendstblc/file-cabinet/eBooks_Transcript.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

1. The Library Role in Providing Access to E-Books & E-Publications Is it all about books? Is it all about reading? OR A community conversation, TBLC, 2/2/2010

2. For our brainstorming notes, discussions, and other content visit: http://sites.google.com/site/epublishingtrendstblc/

3. The Library Role in Providing Access to E-Books & E-Publications Is it all about books? Is it all about reading? OR A community conversation, TBLC, 2/3/2010

4. Agenda E-Book, e-publication, and e-book Reader Overview Brainstorm Ways in Which this Emerging E-Publication Market Will Develop Brainstorm Ways in Which Libraries Can Play a Role in Providing Customers with access to E-Publications Review Our Lists Discuss Possible Future Conversations with the library community Publicize Our Work – Following the session we will distribute the lists and share them with the broader library community via:http://sites.google.com/site/epublishingtrendstblc/

5. What is the primary purpose of this conversation? To find ways to help the library community become better advocates for their readers no matter how they chose to consume content! 2. To become a catalyst for library-friendly ideas in order to share with our colleagues, vendors, publishers, aggregators etc.

6. Brief Timeline ca. 1450’s Gutenberg printed a hundred or so Bibles and started a revolution (i.e., ideas began to spread). 1970’s Project Gutenberg began digitizing books. ca. 1999 MP3 players appear and help transform the music industry. (Publishers can learn a lot from the mistakes of the recording industry, but they probably won’t and this is unfortunate!) ca. 2000 OverDrive began offering downloadable titles. NetLibrary was purchased by OCLC in 2002. Amazon.com’s Kindle debuts in 2007. Between 2009-2010 rumors of a new Apple Tablet are everywhere. This device is supposed to change everything! (More about this later …) 2010 will be the year for the eReader! (Chad’s opinion) For more detailed information regarding e-Book history, formats and more visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book

7. The current state of the market and where it seems to be going …

8. Amazon.com’s Kindle

9. Kindle There are several libraries lending Kindles. If you are considering lending Kindles it would be a good idea to contact libraries already doing it AND it couldn’t hurt to contact Amazon directly at 1-866-321-8851. There is a Kindle App for iPhone. The BlackBerry App is coming soon. What is happening here? There are other issues (e.g., cost, accessibility, TTS)

10. Sony eReader Broward County Library System offers Sony eReaders http://www.broward.org/library/ebooks.htm

11. Barnes and Noble Nook Seems to be potentiallythe most “library-friendly” eReader because users can lend titles to others.How can libraries partnerwith Barnes and Noble?

12. Skiff Reader

13. Apple iPad

14. Stanza For more information regarding EPUB and iPad visit: http://groups.diigo.com/group/e_publications-and-libraries

15. eBook Formats Text (.txt), HTML (.html or .htm), Kindle (.azw), Open eBook (.opf), Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf), DjVu (. djvu), Palm Media (.pdb), Mobipocket (.prc or .mobi), EPUB (.epub) … FYI: the NetLibrary Online Reader has 3 types of eBooks all requiring different software/plugins to function (.pdf, .html, and .djvu). HTML won’t allow users to copy/paste content. Adobe Content Server is required to download (i.e., check out) titles. For a comparison of eBook formats visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats Will EPUB become the “official” standard format for eBooks now that the Apple iPad supports it? If so, what can libraries do? OverDrive provides EPUB titles!

16. Some EPUB Features Free and open standard Re-flowable/re-sizable text Embedded metadata DRM support CSS styling Providing alternative versions in the same file For more information on EPUB visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPUB)

17. According to Zorba’s Guide to Free Ebooksthere are five ways to find free ebooks: Use search engines; Set up RSS feeds; 3. Visit your public library or university library; 4. Visit web pages or directories with collections of free ebooks; or 5. Visit any of the many free ebook websites.

18. What’s happening? Wireless/Whispernetfunctionality is essential. “@michaelk42 Until the library does some kind of e-book loan system, I will be a late adapter to e-book readers.”

19. Is it about books? OR Is it about reading?

20. Contact Information mairn.chad@spcollege.edu (727) 341.7181 + 1 (727) 537.6405 chadmairn@gmail.com With your phone take a quick photo of this code and you’ll be directed to my mobile contact page. For the software, visit http://www.beetagg.com