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April 15, 2001
Getting a Read on E-Books (cont'd)
E-Reading Selections
Here are some places to go to find e-book titles and other forms of electronic content.
Educational Content
ABC-CLIO now publishes e-book versions of 20 of its print titles, including Encyclopedia of the American Civil War. The company plans to convert titles from its backlist into e-book form, with 135 titles to be available by the end of the year.
Barrett Kendall now offers an online version of BK English: Communication Skills in the New Millennium as a companion to the print textbook, and the company is currently developing an online social sciences textbook.
Classwell Learning Group is combining Houghton Mifflin's K-12 textbook content with content licensed from other companies to create a subscription-based online learning service. Their initial efforts will focus on grades 3-5.
The McGraw-Hill Learning Network provides online interactive instruction tied to McGraw-Hill Education curricula, plus assessment tools from CTB/McGraw-Hill. Currently, six science books are available.
Scholastic's wireless educational content for Palm handheld users includes daily news, lesson plans, activities, and a monthly calendar of events and projects.
Popular Titles
Current fiction and nonfiction titles can be found at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Contentville, and Powell's. Titles generally range from $3 to $15, while the reader software can be downloaded for free.
TumbleBooks has created an electronic book format, targeting children between five and eight years old, that integrates print reading with animation, music, narration, and computer interactivity. Ten free stories are available at the TumbleBooks site, with other titles available from online booksellers.
Public Domain Books
Bartleby.com houses an online collection of copyright-free books that come with navigational and cross-referencing tools. E-book versions for personal computers or handheld devices can be downloaded for $1 per title.
Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts in "Plain Vanilla ASCII" format, which means they can be easily accessed from almost any type of hardware or software. Offerings include children's literature, classics, and reference books.
The University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center provides access to over 5,000 texts (1,200 of these are available for the Microsoft Reader format), including classic British and American fiction, children's literature, and books on American history.
Research and Reference
With the exception of Follett, the following companies primarily target the college and library e-book market but are worth watching for future developments.
ebrary is an online collection of books, journals, maps, periodicals, and digitally archived material that allows users to copy text or print pages on a pay-per-use basis (similar in cost and function to a photocopier). Features include full-text search
and reference tools.
Follett Software Company now offers e-books through a partnership with netLibrary. Users can pull up MARC records and preview netLibrary books and materials for free. Just as with a print book, an e-book that a school library purchases can be "checked out" to a device until the circulation period runs out, at which point it disappears from the device and is available for electronic circulation again.
Jones e-global library is an Internet-based library available for licensing by educational institutions and distance learning providers. Services include electronic databases, research guidance, reference assistance, and document delivery.
netLibrary licenses a collection of reference and scholarly e-books to libraries. Patrons can check out an e-book, view it online, or view it offline by downloading the e-book on their computer. netLibrary also features a free collection of fiction classics, speeches, and government reports.
Questia offers an online database of 50,000 scholarly books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences. The subscription-based service allows users to hyperlink across titles, highlight text, and create bibliographies and footnotes.
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