Legal Research

A Few eBook Debate Links

By admin

Ebooks – It’s certainly the discussion of the moment in libraries. Put six librarians in a room and you’ll get ten different viewpoints about eBooks. Awesome! This is what a Renaissance looks and sounds like. If there were no debate that would be an indication of lack of thinking, or fossilization or lack of recognition of the threat or opportunity.

Anyway, here are a few links that I found interesting to read today that I thought were important contributions to the discussion:

Jason Griffey’s presentation on eBooks: “eBooks and Impact”

Tim Spaulding’s Thingology thought piece on the tipping point in eBooks:

Feedback loops in eBook success
(And I recommend that you also read the thoughtful comments stream too which is remarkedly erudite (in spite of my comments there .)

James Surowiecki’s thought piece in the New Yorker today:

Blockbuster, Netflix and the future of rentals: The Next Level

What can libraries learn from the experience of the DVD to streaming transition and what does it mean for eBooks?

Lastly, check out this reaction at O’Reilly Radar to the Surowiecki piece.

Ebooks and the threat from “internal constituencies”
Lessons from adjacent media companies can inform publishers’ ebook strategies.
by Roger Magoulas

It’s a lot of reading but I challenge you to come away from these articles without a better opinion and position about libraries in the book space.

Stephen

Full post as published by Stephen's Lighthouse on November 02, 2010 (boomark / email).