Adding to the e-book mayhem

Some new details on the e-book front the last few days… First, Penguin announced the end of their contract with Overdrive, not only leaving librarians unsure as to what’s going to happen with existing Overdrive books from Penguin, but also casting doubt on Overdrive’s ability to keep large publishers as partners.   Having just gone with Overdrive this year, it makes me hesitant.  There’s no answer yet about whether libraries will be able to retain their existing titles from Penguin either.   This decision on Penguin’s part, […]

E-book advocacy

Or  news  from the quagmire that is the e-book market…. In Kansas State librarian Jo Budler’s session at ALA Midwinter,  “Do I Own These E-books or Not,”  Budler summarized the issues that Kansas State had faced with Overdrive’s e-book contract, which in its earlier iteration, allowed libraries to “keep” their content after discontinuing Overdrive.   The newer version of the contract uses different languaging so for many libraries, the experience she had is perhaps a moot point.  But what I learned from the session was to […]

Growing an e-book library

Because our school is in the midst of a 1:1 iPad implementation, it became critical to figure out how to deliver “library” books to students, and an e-library seemed an important way to reduce costs for students who might otherwise end up individually purchasing every reading title they need. While our library has been experimenting with a variety of e-book offerings the last few years, finding a model that worked easily and well with the iPads was now important.  So among other things, we have […]