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Books Media Personal

ePub don’t mean shit

So the twitterverse exploded a bit ago with the report that Amazon had talked to publishers about submitting ePubs instead of the traditional mobi/AZW format to the Amazon eBook store. This quickly became “OMFG AMAZON IS GOING TO ALLOW EPUBS ON THE KINDLE”. Let’s back up here just a second, and take a closer look at what the report actually says:

It seems many publishers have been told by the company that in the near-future, they should be submitting their books to Amazon in EPUB format and not exclusively MOBI. They also went on to let us know that Amazon was indeed planning something BIG and that soon the Kindle ereader will have the full capability to read ePub books.

Is this possible? Sure…all it would take is a quick software patch and every Kindle in the land could read ePub files. The questions we should be asking, though, are: What does it mean for patrons and for libraries? Why would Amazon do this?

The second question is easier to answer: If true, Amazon is almost certainly positioning themselves for the release of their Android Tablet. There may be good reasons to move to ePub as a result of that, including support for much more complicated media types. The article linked above says:

MOBI/AZW is known to have similarities with the ePub data structure and has most of the code embedded into its format

which is not quite true…both are markup languages, but ePub is a much more modern filetype, and is a combination of open standards (XHMTL for content, XML for structured metadata and such). If Amazon does have a tablet up their sleeve, moving to ePub could be necessary for those plans.

The first question is harder, but the answer is, almost certainly that ePub don’t mean shit to libraries or to patrons. Why? Our good friend DRM. It is extraordinarily unlikely that Amazon will replace their own DRM with that used by the library industry (and by others in the eBook world), Adobe Digital Editions. If you aren’t familiar with the various DRM used in the industry, I’ll refer you to my previous post on eBooks, Filetype, and DRM.

So what this means is that while the Kindle might get ePub abilities, it almost certainly won’t get Adobe DRM capabilities. There is no chance that Amazon is going to give people the ability to purchase books from Barnes & Noble and load them onto their Kindle…which is what it would mean if they did turn on Adobe DRM compatibility. So you still won’t be able to load non-Amazon DRM’d ePubs.

Given an ePub-ification update to the Kindle, you should be able to load and read ePubs without DRM. This is almost completely meaningless, because if you had a collection of non-DRM ePubs you wanted on your Kindle, you could just use Calibre to convert and load them.

So for libraries & patrons, the ability for the Kindle to use ePub is a non-issue. It doesn’t give us any ability that we don’t already have. The only advantage here is to Amazon, and only if they are positioning themselves for a new device that needs ePub. Let’s not get too excited about this.

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Release_Candidate Uncategorized

I am very, very skeptical of this report. But I’m gonna pay attention.

Amazon to allow ePub ebooks on the Kindle e-Reader | Good E-Reader Blog – ebook Reader and Tablet PC News

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Release_Candidate Uncategorized

Another excellent example of “piracy” as a positive force. Author asks people to scan and post his out-of-print works so that he can clean them up for distribution.

Crowdsource, Please

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Release_Candidate Uncategorized

Excellent example of “piracy” and the free sharing of electronic copies of a book ending in said book being #1 on Amazon.

‘Go the F— to Sleep’: The Case of the Viral PDF

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Library Issues presentation

5 days, 3 states

In the next 5 days, I’m speaking for two different state conferences that someone out there in bloglandia might be interested in.

First, I’m heading out to Minneapolis, MN for Academic & Research Library Day. I’ll be presenting a keynote tomorrow morning entitled The Everywhere Patron, where I’ll be talking about the expectations of patrons vis a vis personal electronics and services. I’m really excited about the talk…if you’re going to be at ARLD please say hello!

After that, I head over to Stamford, CT for the Connecticut Library Association conference. There, I’ll be doing a presentation on eBooks, both in terms of content, containers, and the challenges for libraries during the transition to digital texts.

If you are at either presentation, come introduce yourself and say hi!

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Brand_New_World Sewanee Children's Center

Sponsor Eliza for St. Jude Children’s Hospital Trike-a-thon!

Snack timeEliza and the Sewanee Children’s Center are participating in the St. Jude Trike-a-Thon to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Not only is the Trike-a-thon an opportunity to give to an awesome charity, it’s also part of a campaign that teaches riding safety. You can sponsor her in any amount, no matter how small.

Eliza participated last year, and was determined to take part, even though at the time she could barely reach the pedals of the trikes. She rode 2 laps last year, which was a huge accomplishment…she still talks about it a year later, and is excited to be doing it again.

Below is a Paypal button connected to my Paypal account. After the Trike-a-Thon this Friday (Apr 29, 2011), I will deposit any money in the account directly to the charity, and I will match the first $50 of donations dollar-for-dollar. Your donation is a flat amount, not a per-lap, and any amount, even $1, is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your generosity, and for helping both Eliza and St. Jude.

 


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Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Rosemary Beach!




photo

Originally uploaded by griffey

Our annual trip to Rosemary Beach was a huge success. Eliza absolutely loves any body of water, so she was thrilled with the ocean and the swimming pool. We also loved getting treats at the Sugar Shak, meeting the Easter Bunny, doing the huge egg hunt, listening to music in the parks, and shopping at Gigi’s toy store. We also spent some time at Alys Beach for a tea party, where Eliza met Alice, the Mad Hatter, and the white rabbit. We even spent a little time shopping and hanging out in Seaside, another wonderful little beach town. All in all, a great little vacation that we all needed!

Categories
Books Digital Culture Library Renewal Media

Smart discussion on Kindle/Overdrive announcement

There’s been a ton of discussion around the web about the Kindle/Overdrive library deal over the last week, but this thread over at Librarything is full of some real gems. If you haven’t read it, go there and take a look.

Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books

Categories
Books Gadgets Library Issues Library Renewal Media

Kindle Library Lending

The online library world is abuzz today with the announcement of Kindle Library Lending, which promises to finally bring the ability for libraries to check ebooks out to patron’s Kindle (or Kindle software-driven devices). The announcement itself is full of promise and light on details, including such gems as:

Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer’s annotations and bookmarks will be preserved.

Translation: Amazon will be maintaining notes and details of the book you read on their servers, and providing a way to purchase said book as a part of the library experience.

Amazon is working with OverDrive, the leading provider of digital content solutions for over 11,000 public and educational libraries in the United States, to bring a seamless library borrowing experience to Kindle customers. “We are excited to be working with Amazon to offer Kindle Library Lending to the millions of customers who read on Kindle and Kindle apps,” said Steve Potash, CEO, OverDrive. “We hear librarians and patrons rave about Kindle, so we are thrilled that we can be part of bringing library books to the unparalleled experience of reading on Kindle.”

This appears to mean that Overdrive will be the library-facing partner in this enterprise, and I’m guessing that the checkout experience and user interface will be Overdrive driven. This is (IMNSHO) a disappointment, as I’d much rather deal with Amazon directly (even though I’m sure they would not rather deal with libraries…thus, Overdrive).

Bobbi Newman, as always, has a thoughtful post up about this, and asks a couple of questions for which I’m going to guess the answers. She asks:

Will libraries be forced to add a third ebook format (which will only spread their already thin money thinner?)

If yes

  • Will I be allowed to borrow library ebooks in epub and pdf format on my Kindle?
  • Will owners of other devices (such as the Nook or Sony) be allowed to read Kindle books on their device? (the press release reads as “no”)

I would find it VERY hard to believe that Amazon is going to convert all of their proprietary files into a new format just for libraries…so yes, I believe strongly that there will be yet another format. I also find it hard to believe that Amazon will suddenly decide to embrace Adobe DRM…which means that there is little chance that library books via Overdrive or another vendor that are in the epub or pdf format will start working on the Kindle.

As to the last question…I believe very strongly that if Barnes & Noble and Sony decided to allow Amazon DRM/filetypes on the nook or Sony reader, Amazon would be thrilled to provide them with books. But that’s probably not going to happen either. For a reminder of all the intricacies of the filetype/DRM issues here, see my post on eBook Filetypes and DRM.

I have requests out currently for answers from Overdrive and Amazon on the following questions…if either of them get back to me, I’ll make sure to post it here.

Will the Kindle Library Lending functionality require the use of the Overdrive Media Center Console?

Will the functionality require a “buy this book” link in the Overdrive catalog?

Will the KLL functionality require the library patron to be physically in the library, or authenticated via IP address, or will they be able to access this remotely? Or some combination of the two?

The press release mentions that Whispersync will be enabled to remember page numbers, which implies that patrons will be able to load Kindle books that they check out onto multiple devices…what will the mechanism for this be? If I check out a book, and then load it onto my Kindle, my Kindle DX, my iPod Touch, and my iPad, will that count as 4 checkouts, or one?

Currently, the Overdrive ebook model works with Adobe Digital Editions and ePub…I am assuming that the Kindle books will remain in the standard .azw format, and use Amazon DRM. Can you confirm this assumption? If so, can you describe the process by which patrons will check out a book using this service?

What will the limitations on the KLL catalog be? How does it compare to the overall Kindle ebook catalog?

Will publishers be able to opt-out of allowing Library lending in the same way that they can currently opt-out of other features of the Kindle?

What is Amazon doing to ensure the privacy/confidentiality of library patrons?

UPDATE

Overdrive finally posted to their blog about the issue, and I just received a callback from Overdrive marketing. While they weren’t able to comment a large number of things, I did get confirmations on a few details. On the Overdrive blog post, they say:

A user will be able to browse for titles on any desktop or mobile operating system, check out a title with a library card, and then select Kindle as the delivery destination.

The exact quote that I got from the Overdrive marketing department was that the books would be “deliverable to Kindle” and that did include any Kindle and Kindle app.

The blog post also says:

Your existing collection of downloadable eBooks will be available to Kindle customers. As you add new eBooks to your collection, those titles will also be available in Kindle format for lending to Kindle and Kindle reading apps. Your library will not need to purchase any additional units to have Kindle compatibility. This will work for your existing copies and units.

When asked about the potential catalog non-overlap (what happens when a book available via Overdrive isn’t available on Amazon), the answer from Overdrive was that they hadn’t looked fully at the catalog overlap yet. But it sounds like the Kindle compatibility is simply going to be there for your existing books as an additional option…well done!

MASSIVE SPECULATION AHEAD:It sounds to me like Overdrive will be providing the ability to checkout a book and click “deliver to Kindle”, much in the same way that Amazon currently does when you purchase a book. If I’d been thinking for half a second, I’d have realized that’s the ONLY way they can do it and support Kindle Apps. None of the Kindle apps that I’m aware of allows for any sort of side-loading of content…all the content that is in them can ONLY come from Amazon directly. CORRECTION: Kindle App for iOS does allow side-loading via emailed or web-linked files of the appropriate filetype (mobi, azw)…but no tethered side-loading. You can obviously plug your Kindle directly into your computer and throw a random PDF on it, but you can’t do that with Kindle Apps. They have to deliver these to you via Whispernet…there’s no other choice.

Back to the blog post!

The Kindle eBook titles borrowed from a library will carry the same rules and policies as all our other eBooks.

One answer that I’d really like from Overdrive is relating to this piece. On the phone call, I asked if a publisher limited the number of times that a book could be downloaded (which some do), whether this would effect the number of devices that I could have said book delivered to. The official statement was that they didn’t have that information right now, but that whatever the solution it would “support publisher’s existing models”.

Last bit of news for now: I tried to get Overdrive to give me anything on a timeframe, and they weren’t even willing to promise/commit to a quarter of the year…all they would say was “in 2011”. So we could have some time to wait for this.

Categories
Brand_New_World Uncategorized

Eliza’s first dance recital




IMG_3510

Originally uploaded by griffey

Eliza did an amazing job during her first dance recital. Her first (but undoubtedly not the last) time on a big stage. She was fearless. In fact, she loved the whole experience. And she looked adorable as a caterpillar dancing to “Under the Toadstools” from Alice in Wonderland, which is one of her favorite Disney movies (the cartoon). We’re so proud of her, especially all the hard work she has done during rehearsal and the tough lessons of working in a group, being part of a “team,” etc.