Three years of PEW research into Americans’ relationships with public libraries in the digital age.

AUGUST 18, 2014

Public library engagement in the United States

BY KATHRYN ZICKUHR

An overview of three years of research into Americans’ relationships with public libraries in the digital age.   

(Click here for the online results of the research).

Transformative or just taking? Lawyers struggle to define fair use in wake of Google Books case

The idea of “fair use” provides a critical exception to copyright law for artists, journalists and others. Increasingly, courts are asking if the new use is “transformative” – does this make sense?

When federal judge Denny Chin declared last fall that Google’s decision to scan 20 million books did not violate copyright law, the ruling came as a new high water mark for “transformative use”  — the idea, loosely defined, that it’s okay to use someone else’s creative work if the new work is different enough from the original.

“Google’s use of the copyrighted works is highly transformative,” wrote Chin in a signature passage of a ruling that used the word “transformative” more than a dozen times.

In an era where digital technology is making images ever easier to manipulate, this transformative trend is likely to continue. But not everyone is happy about it. Some artists worry that the idea is making nearly any use a “fair use,” while lawyers wonder if the notion of “transforming” is too simplistic in the first place.

For the rest of the article click here.
http://gigaom.com/2014/03/12/transformative-or-just-taking-lawyers-struggle-to-define-fair-use-in-wake-of-google-books-case/

Sample the Best Science Fiction of 2014

The 2014 Hugo Award winners have been revealed. Below, we’ve linked to free samples of the winning books for your reading pleasure.

The winners were introduced at Loncon 3, the 72nd World Science Fiction Convention.

A total of 3,587 ballots were cast this year.

2014 Hugo Award Winners

BEST NOVEL

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit US / Orbit UK)

BEST NOVELLA

Equoid by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)

BEST NOVELETTE

The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal

BEST SHORT STORY

The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)

BEST RELATED WORK

We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)

Barnes & Noble, Microsoft Scale Back Partnership

• By
 
• LAUREN POLLOCK

Barnes & Noble and Microsoft MSFT -0.10% are shaking up their e-reading partnership.

 

Bloomberg News

Barnes & Noble BKS +1.53% and Microsoft have agreed to revise their digital-reading partnership, allowing the bookseller to stop developing its Nook e-reading app for computing devices powered by Microsoft software.

Barnes & Noble said it would stop work on apps for Windows 8 computers, phones and tablets, and support a possible Microsoft-created digital-reading service or app. That service, which Microsoft hasn’t announced, was mentioned in a regulatory filing Thursday as “the Microsoft Consumer Reader.”

For the rest of the article from the Wall Street Journal Blog click here.

How to Turn a Wikipedia Article Into an eBook

By Dianna Dilworth on August 11, 2014 1:30 PM

Looking to read a collection of Wikipedia articles in one easy format? Wikipedia has a feature that lets you turn an article or collection of articles into an eBook.

The tool is called Book Creator and will export the articles that you select into a PDF or ODF eBook or even to order a print copy of the book.   You can add pages and even entire categories to the book.Check it out: “If you are viewing a category page, you can add all the pages in that category at once. The Add this page to your book link will have changed into Add this category to your book. Click on this new link, and all the articles in that category will be added to your book. Relevant categories may be found at the very bottom of Wikipedia articles. Categories can also be added by hovering category links.”

Follow this link for step-by-step details on how to make one of these books.

(Posted from http://www.mediabistro.com/)

The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens

E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages

Apr 11, 2013 |By Ferris Jabr

In a viral YouTube video from October 2011 a one-year-old girl sweeps her fingers across an iPad's touchscreen, shuffling groups of icons. In the following scenes she appears to pinch, swipe and prod the pages of paper magazines as though they too were screens. When nothing happens, she pushes against her leg, confirming that her finger works just fine—or so a title card would have us believe.

The girl's father, Jean-Louis Constanza, presents "A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work" as naturalistic observation—a Jane Goodall among the chimps moment—that reveals a generational transition. "Technology codes our minds," he writes in the video's description. "Magazines are now useless and impossible to understand, for digital natives"—that is, for people who have been interacting with digital technologies from a very early age.

to read the rest of this Scientific American Article  By Ferris Jabr April 11, 2013

Books Can Be a Tool of Peace

K-12 BOOK REVIEWS  

BY CL/R SIG        (from Reading Today Online of the International Reading Association

July 28, 2014

In a perfect world there would be no conflicts, no violence, no wars. But even the small corners of the world in which each of us lives has its share of conflicts or disagreements over big and small issues. There are bound to be differences of opinions or misunderstandings that lead to arguments—teachers may want to have on-hand books that encourage talking through disagreements or spending time with someone in order to change assumptions and preconceptions. Members of the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group offer some book suggestions for titles encouraging a peaceful resolution to conflict. If all else fails, read and share a book.

For suggested K-12 titles click here ...

Amazon Reports Net Sales Up 23% in Q2, Operating Loss $15M

Amazon’s net sales reached $19.34 billion in the second quarter of 2014, up 23 percent from  $15.70 billion which the company reported in the second quarter of 2013.

The company also repaired that its operating loss was $15 million during Q2, as compared to an operating income of $79 million in Q2 2013. In addition, Amazon’s net loss was $126 million in the second quarter as compared with a net loss of $7 million in Q2 2013.

Here is more from the financial release: “Operating cash flow increased 18% to $5.33 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $4.53 billion for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2013. Free cash flow increased to $1.04 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $265 million for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2013. Free cash flow for the trailing twelve months ended June 30, 2013, includes cash outflows for purchases of corporate office space and property in Seattle, Washington, of $1.4 billion.”

from Galley Cat  By Dianna Dilworth on July 25, 2014 9:10 AM

here is a Reuters article about Amazon's lack of profits   BY DEEPA SEETHARAMAN SAN FRANCISCO Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:15am EDT

Fall 2014 Book Announcements: Mysteries & Thrillers: Trouble in L.A.

Highlights this season include major books from such established authors as James Ellroy, Michael Connelly, and Louise Penny, as well as some firsts: Chelsea Cain’s first in a new crime series; Bradford Morrow’s first foray into crime fiction; and Sophie Hannah’s Agatha Christie pastiche, the first authorized by the Christie estate.

Perfidia is the first book in what will be James Ellroy’s Second L.A. Quartet. Set over 23 days in December 1941, it exposes a deep, unsettling web of crime and violence that threatens to engulf Los Angeles in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Sonny Mehta, Knopf’s chairman and editor-in-chief, hails it as “quite simply, a great American novel.”  
--Publishers Weekly

For an individual list click here.