Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Amazon: E-books Will Overtake Paperbacks by the End of 2011
Amazon: E-books Will Overtake Paperbacks by the End of 2011
Amazon predicts that it will sell more e-books than paperbacks by the end of next year, and that they will eclipse both paperback and hardcover sales combined shortly thereafter.
"I predict we will surpass paperback sales sometime in the next nine to 12 months. Sometime after that, we'll surpass the combination of paperback and hardcover," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told USA Today.
Kindle books have already eclipsed hardcover sales; Amazon recently said it sells 180 e-books for every 100 hardcovers, with the ratio constantly shifting in e-books' favor.
Many readers still favor the good old printed book. In a recent poll, most Mashable readers cited a preference for physical books over e-books. However, with the e-reader/tablet battle heating up (the iPad is selling amazingly well, and Amazon recently launched a new version of the
Happy birthday to the paperback!
from Read Street
Happy birthday to the paperback!: "
The Census Bureau alerted me to an important birthday: This week 75 years ago, Penguin brought out the first modern paperback. The idea came from British publishing exec Allen Lane, who was seeking a respite from a Depression-era revenue slump. The cheap, convenient, color-coded format caught on with readers and within months Penguin books were selling in the millions. Today, half of the books bought each year are softcover, the Census Bureau says.
Here's how Penguin's corporate history describes Lane's epiphany: "After a weekend visiting Agatha Christie in Devon, he found himself on a platform at Exeter station searching its bookstall for something to read on his journey back to London, but discovered only popular magazines and reprints of Victorian novels.
"Appalled by the selection on offer, Lane decided that good quality contemporary fiction should be made available at an attractive price and sold not just in traditional bookshops, but also in railway stations, tobacconists and chain stores. He also wanted a 'dignified but flippant' symbol for his new business. His secretary suggested a Penguin and another employee was sent to London Zoo to make some sketches. ...
"The first Penguin paperbacks appeared in the summer of 1935 and included works by Ernest Hemingway, André Maurois and Agatha Christie. They were colour coded (orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime) and cost just sixpence, the same price as a packet of cigarettes."
This week, let's tip back a pint -- or a cup of tea -- to honor Mr. Lane.
Five Best Book Recommendation Services [Hive Five]
from Lifehacker
It's disappointing to haul a book home from the library or shell out hard-earned cash at the bookstore only to settle in at home and find you don't enjoy it one bit. Stock your reading list with these five great recommendation services. More »
Study: Libraries Top The Competition In Lending Movies
from ResourceShelf
Study: Libraries Top The Competition In Lending Movies: "
Red boxes, red envelopes and the blue and yellow Blockbuster stores may dominate the movie rental landscape, but according to a recent survey, when Americans want to watch a DVD, they are most likely to turn to their local library.
The survey, released this year by OCLC, a nonprofit library co-operative and research organization, found that public libraries in the United States lend an average 2.1 million videos every day, slightly more than the 2 million that Netflix ships. The other top two competitors, Redbox and Blockbuster, come in at 1.4 million and 1.2 million respectively, according to daily averages provided by company representatives.
The findings were part of a report called “How Libraries Stack Up,” which highlights the many roles that libraries play in communities, according to OCLC market analysis manager Peggy Gallagher. It also includes statistics on career assistance and Wi-Fi use — the extent of which might be surprising to the general public or even to businesses offering similar services.
“I think of libraries as places for books,” said Steve Swasey, Netflix’s vice president of corporate communications, adding that Netflix doesn’t view public libraries as a competitor.
Note: We wonder when the last time Mr. Swasy visited the public library in his town or even took a look at their web site? Perhaps we should let him know that libraries are about books and so much more.
One more point, the concept of having to go somewhere to pick up or having someone send you video content on a DVD is coming to an end. Within the next 4-6 years it will be a primarily on-demand world. Want a movie or a repeat of a classic tv show? Go to your TV or computer, press the buttons and either view the show on a traditional television screen or take it with you on a Smartphone or other portable device. For many movies and tv programs it’s already this way and it’s only going to expand. All of the content will be in the “cloud” and users will pull down what they want when they want it. Netflix is placing more and more content online to stream for no extra charge each day. A great way to get users use to the concept.
The Denver Public Library is an example of a library offering video content to download.
See Also: How Libraries Stack Up (from OCLC; PDF)
Source: Hartford Courant
Hat Tip: DigiLibraryBlog
Information Literacy reality check.
In a post titled, New Research (Full Text): Not as Web Savvy as You May Think; Young People, Web Search, and Credibility, ResourceShelf reports on a new article by Eszter Hargittai in the International Journal of Communication. The article Trust Online: Young Adults’ Evaluation of Web Content says
Google it. That’s what many college students do when asked to read an excerpt of a play for class, write a resume or find the e-mail address of a politician.
They trust Google so much that a Northwestern University study has found many students only click on websites that turn up at the top of Google searches to complete assigned tasks. If they don’t use Google, researchers found that students trust other brand-name search engines and brand-name websites to lead them to information.
The study was published by the International Journal of Communication. (Abstract and Full Text)
[Our Emphasis] “Many students think, ‘Google placed it number one, so, of course it’s credible,’” said Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies at Northwestern. “This is potentially tricky because Google doesn’t rank a site by its credibility.”
E-Books Fly Beyond Mere Text
From The New York Times:
E-Books Fly Beyond Mere Text
Like DVDs, electronic books for the iPad are now being loaded with extras, including video clips that are integrated with text.
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