Cyberarted: e-Publishing Content Serenade

Cyberarted: e-Publishing Content Serenade

It occurs to me that the evolution of eBooks could be accelerated if they were turned into an advertising vehicle with embedded ads. Then they could be distributed freely without the DRM debacle and paranoia of the music industry. Text with graphics is a a natural for the eBook platform.

Tim Hillebrand

Will Kindle light a fire under eBooks?

No doubt you've heard about another, ho hum, eBook reader called Kindle offered by Amazon.com. Once all the hype dies down, I predict it is doomed to failure for many reasons that are all too familiar from past false starts. First of all, it is a proprietary, unifunctional device. It just costs too much and it does only one thing, and it only reads one format from a single source. It's also too big and clumsy. While I applaud Amazon's attempts at eBook promotion, I think it would be better advised to promote MobiPocket, which is a company Amazon recently acquired, but are not doing much with. Too bad. I'd much rather read a MobiPocket eBook on my multi-functional PDA, which I can also use as a phone, TV, satellite radio, send and receive email, do word processing, cruise the Internet and more for the same price or less.

Anyway, here's a fairly positive review for you to read and learn more about what I believe will be an ill-fated device.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/11/27/why-kindle-will-change-the-world.aspx

Tim Hillebrand

Expresso Book Machine for Libraries

Check out this article about a print-on-demand book machine that will print a novel in three minutes for three bucks. Would this be of interest to our libraries and to our patrons?



http://www.teleread.org/blog/2007/11/03/expresso-book-machine-is-a-time-magazine-invention-of-the-year/



Of course, my major objection is that it promotes treebooks for troglodytes instead of eBooks for the eLiterate.



Cheers,

Tim Hillebrand

Hi everybody--

We were talking about auctions at our meeting today. I ran across this site while trying to track down more information on Sid's idea. Thought these guys had some interesting suggestions:

http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/pc-cp/pubs/e/Specev4.htm

Anne

So just who are we at the Latah County Library District? We are seven public libraries located in the communities of Bovill, Deary, Genesee, Juliaetta, Moscow, Potlatch and Troy. Visit our new photo gallery at the Flickr.com photo-sharing website!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/latahlibrary/

Anne

Fundraising resource

Thought I would share a useful resource on fundraising: http://www.grassrootsfundraising.org/howto/enews.html

Thanks to our Foundation President Tim Hillebrand for creating this blog and encouraging us to participate!

Anne

Vision

Someday in the near future local communities will be able to apply for and receive grants to fund local library needs. Reading programs, building projects or emergency projects will be funded through the foundation. Let's make this happen.

Coeur d'Alene Dedicates New Library

Last Sunday, after many years of planning and strategic fundraising, the dream of a new library for Coeur d'Alene became a reality. The doors opened to the hordes of visitors eager to inspect the new premises. It's a splendid facility of which we can all be proud as a library community.

This magnificent edifice is a monument to what can happen when the library foundation, friends, trustees, and community all work together for a common purpose with a clear vision. What Coeur d'Alene accomplished is an example we should strive to emulate.

Congratulations, Coeur d'Alene!

Meeting Notes--August 2007

Our usual meeting place is at the University Inn in Moscow, but we had a change of venue for our August meeting--at the 1912 Center. Director of the 1912 Center Jenny Shenneman met with us for a brown bag pot luck lunch and gave us a tour of the waiting-to-be-renovated part of the facility afterwards.

Our purpose in meeting there was to get a feeling for the possibility of installing a permanent book sale location that would also function as a meeting place, a cybercafe, and classroom.

Our thinking is that it may be relativly easy to get a grant for this purpose and then, once in place, the bookstore would offer an on-going revenue stream that could be shared within the entire library system.

The Moscow Library virtually has no private meeting space, and it would be wonderful to have a place for meetings so close to the library. We could also have classes there on various subjects in conjunction with U of I and LCSC as well as offer computer training in a cybercafe setting.

We envision it as a great place for people to meet, have coffee, conversation, and mingle with books.

Our next meeting will be at the Troy Library, September 21 at 12 Noon.