books

Outstanding adult reading, reference titles to be celebrated in Dallas

Submitted by Elizabeth Markel on Tue, 12/13/2011 - 11:12
in

<p> All ALA Midwinter Meeting attendees--and especially those who love to read--are invited to celebrate the winners of numerous literary awards including the Notable Books List, The Reading List, and the new Listen List.</p>

eBook rank #1 in sales for Feb 2011

Submitted by Jason Griffey on Fri, 04/15/2011 - 19:44
in

The Association of American Publishers released some numbers today that put eBooks at the #1 spot for sales in all publishing categories. From the release:

According to the February results, once again e-Books have enjoyed triple-digit percentage growth, 202.3%, vs February 2010. Downloaded Audiobooks, which have also seen consistent monthly gains, increased 36.7% vs last February.

For February 2011, e-Books ranked as the #1 format among all categories of Trade publishing (Adult Hardcover, Adult Paperback, Adult Mass Market, Children’s/Young Adult Hardcover, Children’s/Young Adult Paperback).

And my favorite bit:

For the year to date (January/February 2011 vs January/February 2010), which encompasses this heavy post-holiday buying period, e-Books grew 169.4% to $164.1M while the combined categories of print books fell 24.8% to $441.7M.*

eBooks are still not the majority of book sales…but with numbers like this, it certainly won't be long.


Fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay will speak at Literary Tastes Breakfast

Submitted by Elizabeth Markel on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 16:02
in

CHICAGO—Fantasy book lovers won’t want to miss out on hearing Guy Gavriel Kay, author of 2011 Reading List Fantasy winner “Under Heaven,” speak at the 2011 Literary Tastes Breakfast—a book lover’s dream event that is a part of the Reference and User Services Association’s activities at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Tickets now on sale for 2011 Literary Tastes Breakfast featuring best adult reading authors

Submitted by Elizabeth Markel on Tue, 02/01/2011 - 13:28
in

CHICAGO — All book lovers and adult readers are invited to celebrate the best writing and most outstanding authors of 2011 at the Literary Tastes Breakfast, an Annual Conference tradition hosted by the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA).

Find inspiration for Teen Tech Week™ and Teen Read Week™ in YALSA’s latest book

Submitted by Stephanie Kuenn on Tue, 12/28/2010 - 11:09
in
CHICAGO — Librarians planning celebrations for YALSA’s annual literacy initiatives can now turn to a new, comprehensive resource: “Teen Read Week™ and Teen Tech Week™: Tips and Resources for YALSA’s Initiatives,” the first book in the division’s new Best of YALS series.

RUSA book and media awards event offers multitude of choices for book lovers

Submitted by Elizabeth Markel on Tue, 12/21/2010 - 13:54
in

CHICAGO—All ALA Midwinter Meeting attendees are invited to celebrate the winners of numerous awards and build their 2011 to-be-read lists at the Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) upcoming Book and Media Awards Reception.


Google Books

Submitted by Jason Griffey on Tue, 12/07/2010 - 13:37
in

Google has launched their own ebook store, in direct competition with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other commercial ebook stores. There are a number of really interesting pieces to the books in the Google Book experience, such as:

For me, this is a much more interesting eBook experience than the B&N store…the only thing that has parity with this is Amazon’s Kindle. With the standardization on Adobe DRM ePub files, Google is using most common combination of filetype and protection…and books that are not currently under copyright are provided DRM free. As a matter of fact, since the DRM decision is made by the publisher, if the publisher decides to release the ebook without DRM entirely, they can do that. That’s huge moving forward as the eBook market matures.

Consumers now have yet another option in the eBook marketplace, and libraries have yet another competitor in the hearts and minds of patrons. Hopefully we can find ways to make it work for us, and not against us.