Unpublished Ernest Hemingway letters now available at JFK Library

March 29, 2012
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The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum yesterday announced that they have fifteen letters written by Ernest Hemingway to his friend Gianfranco Ivancich that are now available for scholars. The earliest of the letters was written in 1953 and the last one was written in 1960.  They were written from various parts of the world including Cuba, Kilimanjaro, and Paris. Twelve of the letters have never been published before

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Harry Potter casts Pottermore spell on Amazon, Barnes & Noble

March 27, 2012
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Great news for Harry Potter fans that have been anxiously waiting for the digital editions of the treasured series by J.K. Rowling.  All seven Harry Potter titles are now available for purchase in a variety of ebook formats at Pottermore. That’s right.  Harry Potter ebooks are available at “Pottermore” and not at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Pottermore is a website that J.K. Rowling has chosen as the only place

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Where would we be without our public libraries?

March 20, 2012
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Public libraries are not just book repositories with librarians shushing people and deciphering the Dewey Decimal System.  Modern libraries are so much more than just books.  One particular library has captured the value of libraries in a video called “Where would you be without your library?”. A tiny little library located in a spec on the map known as Shutesbury, MA has created a remarkable video that encapsulates a lot

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Denver Public Library uses social networking to digitize photos

March 15, 2012
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Take a close look librarians.  This may be the future of public libraries.  Massive digitization projects where a librarian becomes the digitizer-in-chief. The Denver Public Library is launching a site next Tuesday that will allow users to upload photos and stories about Colorado.  The idea is to leverage the power of social networking to create a historical digital collection for a geographic location. Users will be able to visit creatingcommunities.denverlibrary.org and will

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Should public libraries try to acquire OverDrive?

March 14, 2012
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If you’ve ever checked out an ebook from a library it’s most likely been through a site powered by OverDrive.  They are the leading distributor of ebooks, audio books, and digital content to public libraries.  OverDrive provides the ebook lending platform for the vast majority of libraries that offer ebooks to their patrons. Ebooks are proving to be incredibly popular with 35 million ebooks checked out from libraries in 2011.  That was more

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DOJ threatens Apple and book publishers over ebook pricing

March 8, 2012
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Apple and five of the “big six” book publishers just received a shot across the bow from the U.S. Justice Department.  The DOJ claims that Apple and the publishers worked together to increase the prices of ebooks.  The Wall Street Journal reported that the DOJ warned that they would sue Apple and the five publishers if a settlement could not be reached. It all goes back to the first iPad and Apple’s

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Libraries might get cloud ebook lending with OverDrive acquisition

March 6, 2012
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It looks like the 3M Cloud Library has made the excecutives over at OverDrive a little nervous.  Yesterday, OverDrive announced that they had acquired the Australian ebook company, Booki.sh. Booki.sh is a cloud-based platform for distributing, selling, and reading ebooks in Australia.  In other words, they do almost exactly the same thing as 3M’s Cloud Library does. OverDrive has pretty much been the only ebook technology platform for libraries for a very

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Librarians could use SpeechJammer to silence noisy library patrons

March 5, 2012
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It looks like the days of being shushed at the library could be numbered.  A couple of Japanese scientists have invented a device that can force someone to stop talking. SpeechJammer is the name of the device and it can be used to silence someone from as far as 100 feet away.  The device looks like a radar gun used by police to track how fast cars are going.  To

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Public libraries should root for Amazon in publisher ebook pricing war

March 1, 2012
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Amazon and one of the largest independent books publishers, IPG, are currently battling to the death over ebook pricing.  In a nutshell, Amazon wants ebook prices to be much lower.  IPG wants ebook prices to be just a little less than print books. Both parties seem unwilling to budge.  Last week negotiations came to a halt and Amazon stopped selling all 4414 ebooks published by IPG over the pricing dispute. The

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Over a million ebooks borrowed from Kindle Owners’ Lending Library so far

February 29, 2012
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Amazon put out a big release today letting everyone know that there are now over 100,000 ebooks in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  Of course, any of our readers would know that there were over 100,000 ebooks in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library a little over three weeks ago on February 6th.  So why did Amazon wait until today to make the announcement on the number of titles in its lending

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