TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics » David Rothman http://www.teleread.com News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Thu, 23 May 2013 14:08:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 On Jillian the Tiger Cub and the Power of the American Ego http://www.teleread.com/library/on-jillian-the-tiger-cub-and-the-power-of-the-american-ego/ http://www.teleread.com/library/on-jillian-the-tiger-cub-and-the-power-of-the-american-ego/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 18:15:15 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=85510 Never underestimate the power and glory of the American ego. Granted, it can show its bizarre sides—for example, in the antics and hairdo of Donald Trump. And yet I see the good, too. We have the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the rest, not “Library Donors Anonymous.” At least some might [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/on-jillian-the-tiger-cub-and-the-power-of-the-american-ego/feed/ 0 E-Book Usability News: Adjustable line spacing now available on the Kindle Fire HD 8.9” http://www.teleread.com/kindle/e-book-usability-news-adjustable-line-spacing-now-available-on-the-kindle-fire-hd-8-9/ http://www.teleread.com/kindle/e-book-usability-news-adjustable-line-spacing-now-available-on-the-kindle-fire-hd-8-9/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 15:30:55 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=84970 LibraryCity knocked Amazon for not letting users of the Kindle Fire HDs adjust their line spacing. But guess what I noticed just now within the font-related submenu of my Kindle HD 8.9” model running version 8.3.1 firmware? Alas, on my several files tested, I still couldn’t narrow the spaces sufficiently on the HD even though the Kindle app [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/kindle/e-book-usability-news-adjustable-line-spacing-now-available-on-the-kindle-fire-hd-8-9/feed/ 0 Review: Voice Dream Reader e-reading app http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/voice-dream-e-reading-app-stellar-for-text-to-speech-and-promising-as-a-general-reader/ http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/voice-dream-e-reading-app-stellar-for-text-to-speech-and-promising-as-a-general-reader/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 15:49:23 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=84881 Note: An update of this post on LibraryCity.org focuses on education-related issues of read-aloud apps. A Catch-22 dogs those of us who most often read e-books visually but also want to hear them when we’re exercising or driving. The usual e-bookware doesn’t always come with or work with text to speech capabilities. Even if it does, we can’t control [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/voice-dream-e-reading-app-stellar-for-text-to-speech-and-promising-as-a-general-reader/feed/ 3 Amazon’s Number One Book City, Alexandria, Va., May Cut Library Hours http://www.teleread.com/library/amazons-book-city-1-may-cut-library-hours/ http://www.teleread.com/library/amazons-book-city-1-may-cut-library-hours/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:47:35 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=84060 Attention library advocates in Alexandria, Va.: Talking points for the local budget debate are here. Leaving us in the dark about the source of this tidbit, a Washington Post headline in the Style section blog says: “Alexandria, Virginia: the most well-read city in America.” Similar words show up elsewhere in the media about my hometown, the oft-paradoxical Washington suburb of some [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/amazons-book-city-1-may-cut-library-hours/feed/ 0 Promising DPLA debut—but please don’t confuse special-collection items, exhibits and APIs with a full-fledged ‘public library’ demo http://www.teleread.com/library/promising-dpla-debut-but-please-dont-confuse-special-collection-items-exhibits-and-apis-with-a-full-fledged-public-library-demo/ http://www.teleread.com/library/promising-dpla-debut-but-please-dont-confuse-special-collection-items-exhibits-and-apis-with-a-full-fledged-public-library-demo/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:00:51 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=83591 A caveat first. The Digital Public Library of America is evolving. What’s more, I’m a booster of the organization and of the people behind it, including the new executive director, Dan Cohen, who so decently reacted after the Boston Marathon bombings. But for now, the academic-and-hacker mindset is prevailing at the DPLA over the traditional [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/promising-dpla-debut-but-please-dont-confuse-special-collection-items-exhibits-and-apis-with-a-full-fledged-public-library-demo/feed/ 3 LibraryCity’s take on K-12 libraries and the DPLA http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/librarycitys-take-on-k-12-libraries-and-the-digital-public-library-of-america/ http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/librarycitys-take-on-k-12-libraries-and-the-digital-public-library-of-america/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:42:29 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=83043 Yes, LibraryCity has been on an S. R. Ranganathan kick lately (here and here). Still ahead is a DPLA-related essay on his Five Laws of Library Science as applied to K-12, including school libraries—a follow-up to the LibraryCity post by Apple Distinguished Educator Donald R. Smith, a teacher-librarian with 40 years of experience. If you want to share any relevant thoughts for the next Ranganathan-inspired essay, just e-mail [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/librarycitys-take-on-k-12-libraries-and-the-digital-public-library-of-america/feed/ 0 Sad fate of ‘Five Laws’ book shows need for DPLA-related efforts to keep old masterpieces alive http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/sad-fate-of-five-laws-book-shows-need-for-dpla-related-efforts-to-keep-old-masterpieces-alive/ http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/sad-fate-of-five-laws-book-shows-need-for-dpla-related-efforts-to-keep-old-masterpieces-alive/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:00:51 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=82833 Oh, the irony! In The Five Laws of Library Science, S. R. Ranganathan argued in the 1930s for libraries as improvers of life for rich and poor alike. Now Google Books has digitized 30 million titles, but you won’t find Laws on the Web in its entirety from Google at any price. You’ll see a teaser instead, just snippets and descriptions of commercially sold [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/sad-fate-of-five-laws-book-shows-need-for-dpla-related-efforts-to-keep-old-masterpieces-alive/feed/ 0 Beyond a Digital Attic: How the DPLA can honor the Five Laws of Library Science http://www.teleread.com/library/beyond-a-digital-attic-how-the-dpla-can-honor-the-five-laws-of-library-science/ http://www.teleread.com/library/beyond-a-digital-attic-how-the-dpla-can-honor-the-five-laws-of-library-science/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:48:20 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=82385 This is the era of bits and bytes and multimedia and 3D printing, not just books and other texts. But Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science would still apply today in spirit even after more than eighty years. Educated originally as a mathematician, S.R. Ranganathan was a library-science genius who studied librarianship in Great Britain and worked as the librarian [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/beyond-a-digital-attic-how-the-dpla-can-honor-the-five-laws-of-library-science/feed/ 1 A national digital library endowment: More details http://www.teleread.com/library/a-national-digital-library-endowment-more-details/ http://www.teleread.com/library/a-national-digital-library-endowment-more-details/#comments Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:00:48 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=82026 LibraryCity inspired mentions on The Atlantic magazine’s website and elsewhere with a call for a national digital library endowment for the United States. Endowment funds would come entirely or almost entirely from philanthropists, in the beginning at least, given the hostility of so many politicians toward new programs. The endowment would be just one source of library funding, [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/a-national-digital-library-endowment-more-details/feed/ 0 Was librarian David Faucheux the world’s first blind blogger? http://www.teleread.com/library/was-librarian-david-faucheux-the-worlds-first-blind-blogger/ http://www.teleread.com/library/was-librarian-david-faucheux-the-worlds-first-blind-blogger/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 16:25:53 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=79911 Was my friend David Faucheux—a library and information science graduate—the world’s first blind blogger? Any librarians or others know the answer? I set David up in May 2004 on a commercial audio service, which he dialed up to submit recordings, often augmented with text. For the next four years David gave us an inimitable slice [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/was-librarian-david-faucheux-the-worlds-first-blind-blogger/feed/ 0 A national digital library endowment: How America’s billionaires could be modern Carnegies for real http://www.teleread.com/library/how-americas-billionaires-could-be-modern-carnegies/ http://www.teleread.com/library/how-americas-billionaires-could-be-modern-carnegies/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 01:00:37 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=78743 Warren Buffett was on CBS Sunday Morning. The interviewer, Rebecca Jarvis, asked if he owned an iPhone. No. iPad? No. “He prefers books,” she said in an admiring way, “and reads avidly.” As if electronic books don’t exist! As if millions of Americans are not downloading e-books to iPhones, iPads and other devices! As if a young Buffett [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/how-americas-billionaires-could-be-modern-carnegies/feed/ 0 Is Amazon’s Acquisition of Ivona good or bad for disabled e-library users? http://www.teleread.com/amazon/is-amazons-acquisition-of-ivona-good-or-bad-for-disabled-e-library-users/ http://www.teleread.com/amazon/is-amazons-acquisition-of-ivona-good-or-bad-for-disabled-e-library-users/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2013 20:45:13 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=77395 Well, guess which Seattle-based  megaconglomerate has just bought Ivona Software (Web site here, Wikipedia entry here)—perhaps the world’s best provider of text to speech to use with e-books and other texts? That’s right, Amazon. It’s already using an Ivona voice in the Kindle Fire, and Ivona tech is also powering “Voice Guide” and “Explore by Touch.” Too bad those [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/amazon/is-amazons-acquisition-of-ivona-good-or-bad-for-disabled-e-library-users/feed/ 0 Dwarf-Sized Public E-Libraries vs. Abundance http://www.teleread.com/library/dwarf-sized-public-e-libraries-vs-abundance-listen-to-veteran-publishing-guru-brian-oleary-and-librarian-sarah-houghton/ http://www.teleread.com/library/dwarf-sized-public-e-libraries-vs-abundance-listen-to-veteran-publishing-guru-brian-oleary-and-librarian-sarah-houghton/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:00:28 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=77169 People in Bexar County, Texas, should be excited about the 10,000-e-book “BiblioTech” library system that the country is starting from scratch—without paper books. This is reportedly the first U.S. public library system to shun paper, cardboard and ink, except for computer printouts. Any books are better than none, and besides, the 10K figure encompasses only copyrighted books, not the tens of thousands of free [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/library/dwarf-sized-public-e-libraries-vs-abundance-listen-to-veteran-publishing-guru-brian-oleary-and-librarian-sarah-houghton/feed/ 4 The Suicide of Computer Genius Aaron Swartz: Time for presidential peacemaking in the online copyright wars http://www.teleread.com/copyright-reform/the-suicide-of-computer-genius-aaron-swartz-time-for-presidential-peacemaking-in-the-online-copyright-wars/ http://www.teleread.com/copyright-reform/the-suicide-of-computer-genius-aaron-swartz-time-for-presidential-peacemaking-in-the-online-copyright-wars/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:03:07 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=76701 After Henry Louis Gates, Jr., an African-American Harvard professor, was erroneously arrested for breaking and entering, Barack Obama spoke up. The President at first overdid his criticism of the police, but in the end played the meritable role of peacemaker, inviting both Prof. Gates and the arresting policeman to the White House for a “Beer Summit.” In time, Sgt. [...]

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]]> http://www.teleread.com/copyright-reform/the-suicide-of-computer-genius-aaron-swartz-time-for-presidential-peacemaking-in-the-online-copyright-wars/feed/ 22 Toward a Library-Publisher Complex for the digital era: Where the money is for both sides http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/toward-a-library-publisher-complex-for-the-digital-era-where-the-money-is-for-both-sides/ http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/toward-a-library-publisher-complex-for-the-digital-era-where-the-money-is-for-both-sides/#comments Sun, 06 Jan 2013 14:00:31 +0000 David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/?p=76443 I live in the Washington suburbs, where “Military-Industrial Complex” is more than just rhetoric in an Eisenhower speech from 1961. Just across 1-395 from me, here in Alexandria, Virginia, arise the twin towers of the $1+ billion Quarter Pentagon, featured in this Army Corps of Engineers video bragging of its size. Perhaps a lesson for publishers and [...]

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