The Greater Victoria Public Library allows patrons to check out passes to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Royal B.C. Museum.
The dawn of the Internet spawned predictions of the demise of libraries, made irrelevant by technology that puts infinite amounts of information at almost everyone’s fingertips.
Continue reading… “Evolving libraries still need people”
The 2013 Frankfurt Book Fair brings over 200,000 book trade professionals to Germany each fall.
Book publishers worldwide share some of the same challenges no matter what country they are in. Book publishers are grappling with the digital transition — which, depending on where you live, has either already arrived or is about to come knocking. They’re battling for readers’ eyeballs, trying to make books stand out in a sea of other forms of entertainment. And they’re figuring out how to price their digital content.
Continue reading… “New ebook markets, battles and pricing strategies: Frankfurt Book Fair 2013”
A rendering of BiblioTech, a public library offering only electronic books.
Officials in Bexar County, Texas, celebrated the opening of the BiblioTech library, an all-digital public library, last week . The facility offers about 10,000 free e-books for the 1.7 million residents of the county, which includes San Antonio.
Continue reading… “All-digital, bookless library opens in Texas”
Some libraries around the world are changing.
While most of the 100,000+ libraries in the U.S. will likely continue to function as they always have, moving books around shelves and holding areas, to and from patrons — at least for the foreseeable future — some libraries around the world are changing and this could be the start of a trend.
Continue reading… “Will the library of the future have books?”
Bookstores are in crisis. Books aren’t.
There has been an upheaval in bookselling over the past ten years. With the surge in online ordering, the challenges faced by brick and mortar booksellers, and the arguing over ebook pricing you would think the book industry was in crisis. But sales figures suggest otherwise. Increasingly, this churning appears to be an integral feature of a steady process of transformation in the digital age.
Continue reading… “Book sales are on the rise even though booksellers are in turmoil”
Americans enjoy diving into a good book, but more and more of them prefer the digital version.
Ebook sales made up 22.5 percent of the publishing industry’s net revenue last year, according to a new survey from the Association of American Publishers. That’s up from just 0.05 percent 10 years prior, when the AAP first began keeping track of ebook sales, and up from 16.98 percent in 2011. The categories that saw the biggest increase in ebook revenues included adult fiction, adult nonfiction, and religious books. Even more encouraging, the overall net revenue for the US publishing industry was $7.1 billion, up 6.2 percent from 2011.
Continue reading… “eBooks account for nearly 23% of all U.S. publishing revenue”
A rendering of BiblioTech, a public library offering only electronic books that is scheduled to open in San Antonio.
The first fully digital public library in the U.S. will open in San Antonio, Texas this year. This library will not contain a single book. The facility in Bexar county is part of a planned state-wide bookless system called BiblioTech, is modeled on an Apple store rather than a traditional library, but it will retain all the important features: more than 100 e-readers available to borrow, with more than 10,000 ebooks – and visitors can bring their own devices, too.
Continue reading… “San Antonio will launch first digital-only library in the U.S.”
The inside of the BiblioTech will be influenced by Apple Retail Stores.
In Bexar County, Texas a new library will open that will provide visitors with a bank of e-Readers for borrowing e-books … but books of the traditional paper variety will be glaringly absent. he project marks the first public library to be built as an all-digital service and just to make sure library-goers are in no doubt that it’s the 21st century, the interior will feature a design influenced by Apple retail stores.
Continue reading… “First bookless library to open in San Antonio”
The Kindle Fire is a holiday record breaker.
Amazon sent out a press release titled, “2011 is the Best Holiday Ever for Kindle” and looking at the numbers, it seems like a justified statement.
The company reports that there were over a million Kindle devices sold each week, with the Kindle Fire as the hottest item, the Kindle Touch following it up, and the plain old Kindle bringing up the rear…
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.