"...the library's budget for buying new materials is limited--this year, it's $201,000--so buying digital audio books and eBooks will mean less money will be available for buying other library materials." - Patrons can download library books, in the Press and Sun-Bulletin in Binghampton, New York. The TeleRead take: The Broome County Public Library reportedly "is paying a Cincinnati, Ohio, firm about $20,000 a year to maintain the service." Huh? That's a tenth of the library's entire acquisitions budget just for maintenance of the e-collection, and at this point the library makes available only 37 digital audio books and 787 e-books. Yes, the...

Since e-bookers tend to be more peripatetic than average, I thought that a link from TeleRead reader Margo Milne in France would be of interest. Not only might RFID-tagged passports increase threats to U.S. travellers' lives, they could also be snoops' delights. I'm no RFID expert and am willing to consider that there might be a good way to do this. Still, possible negatives abound--not just here but in other applications--including library- and school-related ones....

A Time magazine guy once expressed surprise at receiving so few letters when he expected a flood of them--in reply to his articles read by millions. He didn't worry that much. And I felt the same yesterday and earlier today. If people hated this TeleBlog's new look, at least they were politely silent. Otherwise why hadn't anyone commented? As for those who loved the reborn blog, based closely on the green "Almost Spring" theme for WordPress, maybe they felt I was insufferable enough even without praise. Well, it turns out that some helpful TeleBlog readers were indeed trying to reach me....

A L'Express article is open to the idea of e-books for libraries--while carrying of course the legally required disclaimers in the vein of, "But paper books will always be with us." Well, the old collections in archives will not and should not vanish; but what happens when technology renders e-books virtually indistinguishable from the paper variety? What a silly debate! Sooner or later e-books will have flippable pages with better-than-E-Ink-style technology. With that in mind, libraries should be looking ahead now and take an e-book future for granted. (Found via Librarian.net.)...

A Game Fries post tells how to read Gutenberg classics and other books on a Sony PlayStation Portable. Chris Smith, who, via the eBook Community list, pointed to this item, isn't thrilled by the how-to's reliance on a virtual printer. All kinds of issues arise such as file size and searchability of text. Here's Games Fries' take: --The virtual printer you installed can be used for any document. This includes websites, text files, word files, essentially anything that can be printed. --The text is small, but relatively high contrast. I can read it fine, but my vision is also good. Anybody with bad...

When I saw the headline in the Register on the idea of iPODs carrying health warnings, I thought, "So what? I don't know, but probably Apple already cautions against turning up the volume too high." Turns out that an Australian busybody is worried instead about social isolation--about her students enjoying their little solitary pleasures. So what's next, a move to ban audio and e-books and perhaps even the paper variety?...

I won't bother to email Col. Michael Getler at the Washington Post since he'd probably just hit the delete button (nothing personal against me--just against the Net). But more clueful journalists with a passion for intelligent local news might check out an open-minded Associated Press article on the Greensboro News & Record's efforts to befriend the local blogging community and reach out with 11 staff-written blogs of its own. This Associated Press story is no puff job. For example, AP Technology Writer Ellen Simon quotes John Robinson, editor of the Greensboro paper, as suspecting that fewer than 100 people may be...

I love WordPress. For example, if I see a typo in an existing post, I can click on an "Edit" associated with it--something visible only to me. Wrinkles like this make me rejoice that I dumped Blogger. If the human is a rotten proofer, which I am, maybe WordPress can slightly compensate. Also helpful is the ability to continue posts on other pages, so that when I'm doing a full-length rant, the impatient needn't scroll down for the latest on e-books in Kuala Lumpur. Just the same, I certainly am paying my dues in breaking in WordPress. At first WordPress...

Looking for text, images or other items you can use under a Creative Commons license? Then check out either the CC site or a new Yahoo search engine. Remember that terms of CC licenses may vary, so read the fine print carefully, especially if your use is commercial....

TeleRead's Web log has moved from Blogger to WordPress.While you're thinking of it, why not key in our new RSS feed?http://www.teleread.com/blog/wp-rss2.phpPlease note the feed is still in the break-in period and does not work with everything right now, so keep checking this Web log the old-fashioned way if you're having problems. Other information follows. Click on, yes, "Read the rest of this entry."--If you're reading us through MyYahoo, Bloglines or similar services, you may need to plug in the new URL--via your "Add content" page in Yahoo's case. No big deal. In fact, I may be able to tell...

Would that all e-books be free. But one way to popularize them--and support authors and publishers--is to use a subscription approach. That's happening in Japan. In a Guardian article, Justin McCurry writes from Tokyo:Not content with using mobile phones to text and email, play games, take photographs, shop and check the news and weather, Japanese youngsters now have another reason to stay glued to their handsets: full-length novels. Though the market is in its infancy, publishers are responding quickly to a growing interest in entire works of fiction and non-fiction that can be read on mobile phones.Hundreds of titles...

Details from Microsoft. No big deal, just a bug fix. (Via PocketPC Watch.)...