National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST) to help Allahabad University students access library e-resource

ALLAHABAD: If you are among students pursuing higher education from any of the government-aided or recognised colleges, or any of the constituent colleges of Allahabad University and deprived of e-resource in the library, there comes a good news for you. The project titled National Library and Information Services Infrastructure for Scholarly Content (N-LIST) would equip any library which can support e-resource.

Once an educational institution gets registered for the said project, all colleges covered under section 12B/2F of UGC Act and Non-Aided Colleges (except Agriculture, Engineering, Management, Medical, Pharmacy, dentistry and Nursing) can access electronic resources subscribed by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library consortium as well as selected e-resources found appropriate for colleges including e-journals and e-books. The resources include more than 3,100-plus e-journals and 75,000-plus e-books.

Any college that wants to access the given facility of e-resource has to deposit an annual fee of Rs 5,000 to INFLIBNET-NLIST, Ahmedabad which would open an account and provide password after which the e-content can be accessed in the library by members of the institution.

"Earlier, the facility was limited to computers at the Central Library of AU or nodes attached to the main server of the university but it was not available to the colleges. The option given by the UGC-INFONET Digital Library consortium, these institutions can also get accessed to the e-content", said deputy librarian of AU's central library B K Singh. He informed that institutions interested in getting the said facility can attend a one-day training programme which would be organised at AU on November 9.

The content that would be provided under the project includes full text of e-journals including American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, Annual Reviews, Cambridge University Press, Economic and Political Weekly, Indian Journals, Institute of Physics, Oxford University Press, Royal Society of Chemistry and HW Wilson. Among the e-Books are Cambridge Books Online, e-brary, EBSCoHost-Net Library, Hindustan Book Agency, Institute of South East Asian Studies, Oxford Scholarship, Springer eBooks Taylor Francis eBooks and Myilibrary-Mcgraw Hill, informed Singh.

"The one-day training programme, scheduled for November 9, would go a long way to provide the best of these e-resources to students of various institutions, who are otherwise deprived of access to large number of e-content they require in many ways", said B K Singh.

READ MORE NEWS AT: TIMES OF INDIA

E-Books Go on Holiday

Source: Hindustan Times (Life Style), 14th August 2012, Page No. 5

Libraries and e-books:Literary labours lent -The uncertain economics of lending virtual books

I hear Muggles make books disapparate

LIKE a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain relevant, but many publishers are too wary of piracy and lost sales to co-operate. Among the big six, only Random House and HarperCollins license e-books with most libraries. The others have either denied requests or are reluctantly experimenting. In August, for example, Penguin will start a pilot with public libraries in New York.

Publishers are wise to be nervous. Owners of e-readers are exactly the customers they need: book-lovers with money (neither the devices nor broadband connections come cheap). If these wonderful people switch to borrowing e-books instead of buying them, what then?

Unlike printed books, which must be checked out and returned to a physical library miles from where you live, book files can be downloaded at home. Digital library catalogues are often browsed at night, from a comfy sofa. The files disappear from the device when they are due (which means no late fees, nor angst about lost or damaged tomes).

Awkwardly for publishers, buying an e-book costs more than renting one but offers little extra value. You cannot resell it, lend it to a friend or burn it to stay warm. Owning a book is useful if you want to savour it repeatedly, but who reads “Fifty Shades of Grey” twice?

E-lending is not simple, however. There are lots of different and often incompatible e-book formats, devices and licences. Most libraries use a company called OverDrive, a global distributor that secures rights from publishers and provides e-books and audio files in every format. Some 35m titles were checked out through OverDrive in 2011, and the company now sends useful data on borrowing behaviour to participating publishers. Yet publishers and libraries are worried by OverDrive’s market dominance, as the company can increasingly dictate fees and conditions.

Publishers were miffed when OverDrive teamed up with Amazon, the world’s biggest online bookseller, last year. Owners of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader who want to borrow e-books from libraries are now redirected to Amazon’s website, where they must use their Amazon account to secure a loan. Amazon then follows up with library patrons directly, letting them know they can “Buy this book” when the loan falls due.

This arrangement nudged Penguin to end its deal with OverDrive earlier this year. The publisher’s new pilot involves 3M, a rival distributor that does not yet support the Kindle. “Ultimately Amazon wants to control the library business,” says Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant.

Library users—nearly 60% of Americans aged 16 and older, according to Pew, an opinion researcher—are a perfect market for Amazon. It woos them by making loans on the Kindle uniquely easy. Late last year Amazon also unveiled its Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, which lets its best customers (called “Amazon Prime” members) borrow free one of thousands of popular books each month.

Library boosters argue that book borrowers are also book buyers, and that libraries are vital spaces for readers to discover new work. Many were cheered by a recent Pew survey, which found that more than half of Americans with library cards say they prefer to buy their e-books. But the report also noted that few people know that e-books are available at most libraries, and that popular titles often involve long waiting lists, which may be what inspires people to buy.

So publishers keep tweaking their lending arrangements in search of the right balance. Random House raised its licensing prices earlier this year, and HarperCollins limits libraries to lending its titles 26 times. Penguin plans to keep new releases out of libraries for at least six months, and each book will expire after a year. Hachette is engaged in some secret experiments, and the others are watching with bated breath. In Britain the government will soon announce a review of the matter. The story of the library e-book is a nail-biter.

More News at: http://www.economist.com/node/21559654

With eBooks, Indian publishers turn new page-- Archana Khare Ghose

On September 14, 2011, well-known bookshop Borders closed its last New York store. By the end of the month, this chain of bookstores with 226 outlets in the US had shut shop. That itself was indicative of the churning in the publishing industry of the world's largest books market, the US. Sale of printed books was declining and those of eBooks rising. It's the same story elsewhere in the West, where this industry is seeing a growth in eBooks. However, India is yet to see a similar impact.

But change may be imminent. According to a FICCI report, India has an estimated 600 million book readers and, with Penguin, the country's largest English publisher, releasing 250 new titles from the last week of June, eBooks seem to have finally found a foothold. The books include 'The Book of Buddha', 'Dreams in Prussian Blue', 'Farewell Song' and 'Ideas of a Nation: Subhash Chandra Bose'.

HarperCollins too should be ready to announce its e-titles in a month's time, while ACK Media, publishers of 'Amar Chitra Katha' among other popular titles, have gone on record saying they would launch eBooks this year. They, however, declined to be a part of this story.

"The driver for the eBooks market is the usage of computers, internet and mobile phones. And India is not just a rapidly growing market for new technology, but technology itself has evolved enough for comfortable reading on various devices," says Ananth Padmanabhan, VP (sales), Penguin India.

According to the latest World Bank report, India has 70 mobile subscriptions per 100 people with one of the highest average mobile data speeds. Padmanabhan says the bigger challenge, however, is to see how many e-readers the country can have.

India doesn't have a mass-scale reading tradition. According to FICCI's report, India has a low per capita expenditure on books per annum — Rs 80 as compared to Rs 4,000 in the UK.

However, Lipika Bhushan, head (marketing), HarperCollins, says that the figure for users of various e-devices is constantly growing. "Most of these are young Indians who are very active online. Though no publisher can say with surety what impact these figures will have on the eBooks market, a change will positively come."

Rahul Srivastava, director (sales & marketing), Simon & Schuster India, says, "According to a survey conducted this year among 10 countries, nowhere have more people bought and downloaded eBooks than in India, where 24% have tried at least one."

This is also that chunk of readership which has made genres like metro reads and college romances popular, adds Bhushan. "About 5-7 years ago, a bestseller would be sold in the range of 3,000-5,000, but now 50,000 is nothing." Padmanabhan concurs, "About a decade back, Penguin bestsellers sold 10,000-15,000 copies; today, that figure stands at half-a-million."

The biggest push for eBooks comes from the growth of online shopping.

Flipkart, the largest online bookstore in India, was established in 2007 and broke even in March 2008. According to FICCI, Flipkart claims to have at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding. Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal in a report on book piracy mentioned that the estimated size of the online book market here stood at Rs 1 billion in 2011.

The figures for book publishing in India are no less impressive — it's estimated to have an annual turnover of $1 billion, making it the the seventh largest book publisher in the world and the third largest market for English books. No wonder Bhushan says that the eBooks market in India is an addition to the physical books market and not an alternative — precisely why publishers are cautious about pricing.

While in the West an eBook may come for one-tenth of the price of an actual book, in India that would mean the industry hurting its own hand as it has one of the cheapest prices for books.

But that is an issue that is likely to be sorted out soon. And publishers' optimism about a healthy eBooks market in India in the next five years may not be misplaced.

Source-http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-22/india/32788012_1_ebooks-lipika-bhushan-harpercollins

E-book library borrowing takes slow pace: Study

New York: E-book readers have been relatively slow to borrow digital works from the library, frustrated by a limited selection and by not even knowing whether their local branch offers e-releases, according to a new study.

The Pew Research Center published a survey Friday that reports around 12 percent of e-book users 16 years and older downloaded a text from the library over the past year. Earlier in 2012, Pew issued a study showing that around 20 percent of adults had read an e-book recently.

Simon & Schuster, the Hachette Book Group and other major publishers have limited e-book offerings to libraries or refused to make any available, citing concerns that the ease of free downloads would hurt sales. Lack of awareness may be another factor. Around 60 percent of those 16 and older couldn't say whether their libraries had e-books.

Pew's Internet & American Life Project study, conducted with nearly 3,000 respondents between Nov. 16 and Dec. 11, 2011, suggests that library patrons trying to borrow digital texts have been deterred by the selection and by not having the right e-book device. Just over half of respondents said their library did not have the book they were looking for and nearly 20 percent found that the device they owned could not receive a given title.

Nearly half of those who have not borrowed an e-book said they would be "very" or "somewhat" interested if they were lent an e-reading device with a book already downloaded.

Officials from the American Library Association have been meeting with publishers in an effort to work out a system that would satisfy both sides. On Thursday, Penguin Group (USA) announced a pilot program with the New York and Brooklyn library systems that will make e-books available six months after they first go on sale. Penguin had suspended its e-book program with libraries last year.

"I applaud Penguin's decision today to re-start e-book sales to libraries so that we may again meet our mutual goals of connecting authors and readers," library association president Molly Raphael said in a statement.

One statistic reported by Pew should please publishers and librarians: Those who borrow e-books from libraries tend to read more - 29 books a year - than readers who don't use the library (23 books). But library card holders also are more likely to borrow, as opposed to buy, a book compared to those without library cards.

Overall, around half of those surveyed said they had bought their most recent book. Around 15 per cent said they had borrowed a copy from the library.

Fore More Info, Please Click on: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/ebook-library-borrowing-takes-slow-pace-study/267599-11.html

Most U.S. readers unaware of e-books at libraries - poll

By Joseph O'Leary

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Though Kindles and Nooks are becoming almost as common as books, more than half of all U.S. readers don't know they can borrow e-books from their local library, a Pew Center poll showed on Friday.

The poll showed 62 percent of readers didn't know if their library had e-books for lending, and only 12 percent of Americans 16 and older who read e-books had borrowed at least one from a library in the past year.

"The most important thing libraries can do is make sure e-books are accessible through the rest of the library system," said Micah May, the director of strategy at the New York Public Library, about raising e-book lending awareness.

Of those who had borrowed e-books, 66 percent said their library's selection was at least "good," while only 4 percent thought theirs was "poor," the survey said.

There are difficulties, occasionally, with the process, with 56 percent of borrowers saying their libraries didn't have a particular e-book while 52 percent found there was a waiting list to borrow a book they wanted. Some 18 percent had incompatible readers for the e-books they wanted.

May said most e-book lending problems were due to the current library e-book distribution system. On Thursday, book publisher Penguin agreed to digitally lend its books to the NYPL, joining Random House and HarperCollins to become only the third of the "Big Six" publishing companies to lend e-books through libraries.

Simon and Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette don't lend new e-books through libraries, according to Publisher's Weekly.

Print readers expressed interest in e-books, though. Of those who don't borrow e-books, 46 percent said they'd be at least somewhat likely to borrow a device pre-loaded with a book, while 32 percent would be at least somewhat interested in learning how to use an e-reader or download e-books.

Those who borrow e-books are much heavier readers than those who don't, averaging six more books than non-borrowers last year.

The lack of knowledge about libraries and e-books means many readers still buy; 55 percent of e-book readers with library cards prefer to buy their e-books, while 46 percent said they prefer purchasing printed books.

The purchasing numbers lessen with those who borrow e-books; 33 percent of e-book borrowers prefer to buy e-books and 57 percent prefer to borrow them.

Reading is still important to many Americans. Fifty-eight percent of those 16 and older have library cards, while 69 percent said the library was important to them.

The Pew poll surveyed 2,986 Americans aged 16 and older by phone with a margin of error of 2 percentage points. (Reporting By Joseph O'Leary; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/most-us-readers-unawaree-books-at-libraries-poll_721171.html

Kindle a Love of Reading for Your Kids

Kindles, Nooks and other electronic reading devices are quickly gaining in popularity. A few years ago, only the biggest of bibliophiles had an e-reader. Today, more and more people are purchasing devices or installing apps onto their phones.

Digital sales are steadily increasing and publishers, recognizing the changes in the marketplace, have begun releasing a greater variety of books into e-book format. While the technology is still new and there are a few bumps along the way, such as the Amazon pricing scandal and the debate over DRMs, e-books are here to stay and many people may find that they’re much more versatile than traditional books.

Kindles for Parents and Kids

The Kindle provides a great opportunity for your whole family. No matter the age of your child, everyone can benefit from some aspect of the e-reader’s technology. Kindles allow kids nearly unlimited access to books, making them a convenient form of entertainment while on car rides, at the doctor’s office, waiting in line at the grocery or other occasions where kids may become bored and restless.

Unlike regular books, the Kindle is small, lightweight and surprisingly durable; you don’t have to worry about tearing book covers, dog-earing pages or cracking the spine. Of course, e-readers are more valuable than books, so parents may be concerned about the risks of dropping them, having sticky liquids spilled on them or other kinds of rough handling. Some e-reader companies are creating kid-friendly versions, so that may be a good alternative for some people.

What Are the Benefits of e-Readers for Kids?

• You can store nearly unlimited numbers of books so avid readers always have a selection to choose from
• You can download any public domain book for free, so classics are instantly available
• In addition to reading books, kids can play games, solve puzzles or even surf the web on some e-readers
• Most e-readers have an option to read the book aloud or download audio books for younger readers
• You can adjust the text size to aid reading comprehension
• Books can be divided into reading lists so a family can share a device
• You can load Kindle or Nook apps onto your smart phone
• The reading device comes with a built-in dictionary to look up unfamiliar words

What are the Drawbacks of e-Readers for Kids?

• Expensive technological investment to buy an e-reader
• Technology is fairly fragile
• If something happens to the e-reader, you may lose all the books you own or be unable to install them to another device
• You must keep the e-reader charged
• Not as many children’s books are released to the Kindle as adult books
• Many e-readers don’t support full-color illustrations and picture books
• Parents may be tempted to give a child an e-reader instead of spending time reading with him

Overall, e-books can be a great addition to a child’s life and education, but they’re not the right investment for everyone. Focus on providing the best solution to your family, and don’t forget that reading with your young child is always better than relying on digital babysitters.

Library Solutions: Kwench your book thirst at work!

Kwench Library Solutions ties up with clients to offer library solutions for employees with its collection of 50,000 books, besides magazines, journals and movies.


Sunder Nookala wanted to be an engineer but his father couldn't afford it. So he settled for chartered accountancy. Today, Kwench Library Solutions, the company he set up in April 2008 with his IIM-A friends Prashant John, Krishnan Madhabushi and Mitesh Damania, has 300 corporate clients, 85 employees and a turnover target of Rs.500 crore by 2018. Kwench was born out of their collective desire to address the lack of proper library facilities at workplaces.

It ties up with clients to offer library solutions for employees with its collection of 50,000 books, besides magazines, journals and movies. Books are delivered at the employee's desk within 24 hours. The company turned cash positive in June 2010 and has stayed so since.

Giant Leap
Kwench started with 13 clients in 2008 and now has 300 clients spread over seven cities.

Steal Deal
In November 2011, Kwench introduced Myperks.in, a purchase programme that offers everything from 30 categories, including books,magazines, travel packages, baby care and electronics, at discounted rates.

Second Opinion
"The services are innovative and user-friendly.Our employees are happy to avail of these at the workplace."
Binoj Vasu, Chief Learning Officer, YES Bank
Source: http://news.in.msn.com/exclusives/it/article.aspx?cp-documentid=250007133

Library Lends Out E-Readers

By JENNIFER MALONEY

The Queens Library on Thursday will become the first public library system in New York to lend e-readers, a shift that underscores how libraries are adapting to help patrons keep up with technology.

All three of New York's public library systems—the Queens Library, the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx—already lend e-books to patrons who read them on their own e-readers, computers and mobile devices.

Now the Queens Library is launching a pilot program making 50 Nooks—e-readers made by Barnes & Noble—available for check out at its Central Library in Jamaica.

Each will be preloaded with 25 e-books in one of five genres: children's literature, teen books, mystery, romance, and best sellers. Fifty works of classic literature also will be loaded onto each device.

"It's what libraries do," said library President Thomas Galante. "They loan people things to access information."

In the past several years, that has come to mean providing access to computers with broadband Internet, and offering free Wi-Fi. Now, it means helping people who can't afford to buy an e-book, Mr. Galante said.

Officials at the Brooklyn and New York public libraries said they are considering lending e-readers as well.

In the Queens Library's pilot program, any patron with a library card and a photo ID can check out an e-book for 21 days, with the option to renew twice. No deposit or credit card is required. The devices will be locked; patrons won't be able to browse or download any online content.

Mr. Galante said ultimately, the library hopes to offer proprietary e-readers that are linked to the Queens Library's e-book offerings the way, for example, a Kindle provides access to Amazon's e-book offerings. He said he has been in discussions on the subject with e-book manufacturers and content providers, but the necessary technology is not yet available.

Write to Jennifer Maloney at jennifer.maloney@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared April 12, 2012, on page A21 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Library Lends Out E-Readers.