This is only the latest in a number of reports that have suggested a 9-inch Fire could launch sometime this year, so the only thing really new about it is the source. It made a lot of sense for Amazon to introduce a mid-sized tablet early on and get people hooked on its platform. At least some of those will be inclined to upgrade to the 9-inch version, and people whose friends enjoyed the 7-inch version but who want something larger themselves might be more inclined to buy it as well.

The only downside for Amazon is that this larger Fire will be going head-to-head against Apple’s same-sized iPad, rather than positioning itself in a niche Apple had no plans of filling. The most visible previous competitors in that position—the BlackBerry PlayBook, the HP TouchPad—haven’t done so well. And if Apple kicks the game up another notch with a new Retina Display in this year’s iPad 3, that will steal some of the luster from a cheaper standard-display 9” Fire.

And, of course, we’ve not yet seen any confirmation that Amazon is really planning a 9” Fire at all.

Why did Penguin terminate their contract with OverDrive? Here’s what we’ve learned from an INFOdocket source.

We are told that publisher contracts with OverDrive allow them to store and serve library end users ebooks. That’s it.

OverDrive does NOT have permission to first authorize the lending of an ebook to a library end user and then forward the request for actual distribution and tracking of the title to Amazon.com or ANY other retailer. Similarly, in most situations*, publishers do not permit retailers to lend ebooks directly to end users.

Finally, in November and again yesterday we noted an LJ article (November 23, 2011) that included the following comment from Penguin:

Penguin has subsequently been informed by Amazon that it had not been consulted by Overdrive about the terms of Penguin’s agreement with Overdrive.

You have to wonder what did OverDrive tell publishing partners about how Kindle lending would work?  What didn’t they tell them?

We will update this post if/when more details emerge.

See Also: Notice to publishers: curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal (via Librarian in Black)

UPDATE: ALA’s Repsonse to Penguin Terminating Contract with OverDrive Posted

“Yesterday, Penguin Group USA called to alert us that they will no longer offer any ebooks or audiobooks to libraries through OverDrive. While libraries are expected to have continued access to Penguin ebooks already included in their catalogs, the effect today is that readers will have less access to Penguin titles through their local libraries.

“Despite this discouraging development, we are hopeful Penguin will continue to seek a solution to make its titles available to libraries.  As Penguin stated, ‘…it is vital that we forge relationships with libraries and build a future together.’  We are committed to helping build this future.

“This is a radically dynamic time of change, and we look forward to crafting stable and sustainable business models that enable libraries and publishers to connect readers and authors in the digital age as successfully as we have done since Gutenberg. We all need to work together—and quickly—to bring about full access to ebooks in libraries for everyone, and especially for those readers who depend on libraries as their only source of reading material.”

[Via INFOdocket]

If 2011 was the year of the iPad 2, will 2012 be the year of the iPad 3? Said a source familiar with the device: “What do you think?”

Assuming it really does come with a Retina-resolution screen, that means the iPad will finally be able to show high-definition video in its native resolution, and it also means e-books should look absolutely incredible. Amazon’s Kindle Fire had just better watch its back!

From TorrentFreak.  More in the article.

With their unconditional support for SOPA, PIPA and ACTA, Hollywood is pressing hard for new legislation to curb piracy. The studios want ‘rogue’ websites to be censored and are calling on Google and Internet providers to take responsibility.

However, a new study reveals that movie industry itself has the key to decreasing piracy, without passing any news laws.

In a paper titled ‘Reel Piracy: The Effect of Online Film Piracy on International Box Office Sales’ researchers from the University of Minnesota and Wellesley College examine the link between BitTorrent piracy and box office returns. As hypothesized, they find that international movie piracy losses are directly linked to the delay between US and foreign premieres.

In other words, the longer it takes before a movie is released internationally, the more box office revenues are impacted through piracy.

“We find that longer release windows are associated with decreased box office returns, even after controlling for film and country fixed effects. This relationship is much stronger in contexts where piracy is more prevalent: after BitTorrent’s adoption and in heavily pirated genres,” they write.

“Our findings indicate that, as a lower bound, international box office returns in our sample were at least 7% lower than they would have been in the absence of pre-release piracy.”

Aside from their conclusion that a lack of availability is fueling piracy, the researchers report a perhaps even more interesting result. Contrary to what the MPAA and other lobby groups claim, the study doesn’t find a negative effect of BitTorrent piracy on US box office revenues.

(Via TorrentFreak.)

Kindle Fire vs. Nook Tablet from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

Penguin said it would stop selling new books to OverDrive‘s library side.

In another OverDrive-related development, former librarian Andrew Strong, a library activist in Rockford, IL, told local officials they should consider advocating both an OverDrive purchase and a true national digital system. And he cited a current Rockford library manager’s enthusiasm for the OverDrive-related idea.

Penguin’s dissing of OverDrive and public libraries is hardly alone among publisher, as you can see from this sign from Sarah “Librarian in Black” Houghton, the acting director of the San Rafael Public Library in California. Other won’t-sells include Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Brilliance Audio and Hachette Audio Group. The Penguin Group’s own authors over the years have ranged from Tom Clancy to former Vice President Al Glore—who at one time was pushing to digitize the Library of Congress.

I have no idea where Gore stands now, but his heart was in the right place in the 1990s.

That said, digitizing LOC isn’t enough. America’s public libraries really need to create a genuine digital system, with the accompanying clout to deal with the Penguins. Local libraries and the new system could develop their own e-books and other offerings as a bargaining chip and for other reasons, such as more diversity of content. All the more reason for libraries to take over OverDrive and modernize it as the first step toward the creation of a national digital library ecosystem—so libraries can hold their own against publishers! A truly sustainable business model would treat publishers more fairly than they are treating public libraries. Rather than constantly refighting the copyright and content wars, librarians and publishers should work together to lobby for higher library appropriations, just as the Pentagon and its contractors have so often triumphed in unison.

Calling for consideration of a national digital system in place of the OverDrive model, Andrew Strong wrote Rockford’s mayor, library director and trustees, and others in a note covering different topics:

“As board members consider their next steps, I certainly hope that they consider the work of David Rothman, author of the blog www.LibraryCity.org, who has adopted Rockford as a poster child buffeted about by the winds of change.

“While I do not agree with everything Mr. Rothman writes (or his rhetoric at times), his proposal for a national digital public library needs to be thoroughly considered. Digital Rights Management issues, privacy issues, portability issues, permanance issues, and, perhaps most importantly to libraries, ownership issues, are all part of a nebulous and sometimes contentious public debate. Rockford librarians and board members need to be a part of shaping this debate.

“I talked with one current Rockford library manager about Mr. Rothman’s desire to see Overdrive bought-out by a non-profit or consortium of public libraries, and this manager was nodding her head before I had hardly finished my sentence.

“Rather than rising to national prominence in infamy, I would encourage board members and librarians to engage the debate in earnest, considering the issues of Constitutional rights, freedom of information, and first principles.”

I have avoided asking OverDrive how it would feel about a sale and about being part of a national digital library system—so the company has more time to ponder the proposal. OverDrive’s troubles with Penguin, however, are yet another indication that its current business model is not sustainable. In OverDrive’s place, I’d sell in a flash at a fair price to libraries or a nonprofit. New competitors such as 3M—not to mention OverDrive’s heavy reliance on Amazon, hardly guaranteed to be an ally forever—are yet another reason to consider a sale. If libraries are smart, they’ll start contacting potential foundation benefactors now rather than simply let OverDrive sell out to another company. CEO Steve Potash, his wife, Loree, and other OverDrive executives could continue with the new system as advisors to assure continuity. As I’ve said before, the company has its good side, and the proposed national system could build on OverDrive’s marketing efforts and its relationships with hundreds of publishers.

Detail: I’ve broken up paragraphs in the Strong note, for greater readability on the Web.

Larger version of an image of Sarah’s sign: Here—so you can write the publishers yourself.

[Via LibraryCity]

“Poor books. Snubbed yet again, this time by a university, an institution of learning.”

The article describes the closure of one campus bookstore, causing confusion by students who walked into the building to find it being repurposed as classroom and office space.  Some of the books were moved to the other campus bookstore; the remainder were put into a storage room, and some will be returned to the publishers.

Ryerson’s students are mixed about the use of ebooks and web-based services like Amazon.  The author, though low-key in her wording, clearly sides with the printed book crowd and regrets the loss of the bookstore and the books within.  Of the many students with whom she could have discussed the issue, she chose a print-book lover:

Given the choice between a thick, hardcover text and a Kindle, Owens would choose the book. Better for the eyes, better to highlight with. He said it’s common for students to forgo texts and download course material onto their iPads and laptops, but that’s not for him.

And finally, a clumsy potshot at technology:

Pondering students of the future, Owens sees a post-analog world: “They’ll be plugging things into their brains and projecting images onto the inside of their eyes. We’ll be sitting there on our iPads going, ‘What the hell is that?’ ”

It surprises me sometimes to see the students of today, the workers and leaders of the future, already expressing dismay about technology and innovation; it’s a change in the academic air that is disconcerting.  These are traditionally the innovators of the world.  If they’re shying away from innovation before they’ve even left college, where will the future come from?

Sign at the San Rafael Public Library

I know it’s a small gesture. It’s just a sign (although I did put three of them up).  I am also writing letters as the Library Director (in many cases, again) to the publishers on the list asking them to try to work with libraries…telling them we’re open to negotiation and suggestion, but that walking away the library market is damaging to all of us.

As a librarian and as a reader, I am tired of publishers walking away from the library table.  I have no problem with them walking away from a particular third party vendor, but only if they have a plan in place to offer up their own platform or be signed with an alternate vendor already.  Gaps in service, gaps in availability of their titles to our patrons equals stupidity in my opinion.  Walking away from the library eBook market makes no financial long-term sense, nor does it continue the positive relationship that publishers and libraries have cultivated for centuries to help bring information and entertainment to people.

I think it’s about damn time we, as library professionals, started getting the public riled up about this too.  We need legislation passed (or copyright law clarified) that states that indeed, libraries can license/purchase and lend out digital items just like they can with physical items.  Fragmentation and exclusionary business practices hurt the people we serve.  As a librarian I feel we must stand up, as a profession, and say “no more.”

As I was putting the signs up today, I got a few questions immediately from library users.  Within a half hour of the Penguin/OverDrive news being announced, I had three phone calls to my desk from concerned San Rafael residents about yet another publisher not being available through their library’s eBook collection.  Now, admittedly we have a mightily active and concerned citizenry here in San Rafael (I love you guys!), but I’m guessing every other community has a good base of people who would also think this is ridiculous and be willing to do something about it.  I’m encouraging users to contact the publishers and tell other book-lovers they know.  This is one of those issues we’ve been dealing with in the library vacuum–an issue 99.9% of the public has no idea exists, and an issue that would invoke at least 80% pissed-off-ed-ness if we tell people about it.

Put a sign up in your library.  Say something to people at your eBooks classes.  Do something.  Because nobody, including ALA, is going to do it for you.

(Via Librarian In Black.)

Max Kaiser has published “Putting 600,000 Books Online: the Large-Scale Digitisation Partnership between the Austrian National Library and Google” in the latest issue of LIBER Quarterly.

Here’s an excerpt:

In a public-private partnership with Google, the Austrian National Library is digitising its historical book holdings. Some 600,000 volumes from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries will be digitised and made available free of charge. The project demonstrates that public-private partnerships can be successful in enabling our heritage institutions to provide large-scale access to their holdings, provided that such partnerships are not exclusive and free access is ensured. The article outlines the preparatory phase and work flows established in the project.

[Via Digital Koans under a Creative Commons license]

New Features

• Auto-adding: Add an option to check for duplicates when auto adding.
• Content server: Export a second record via mDNS that points to the full OPDS feed in addition to the one pointing to the Stanza feed. The new record is of type _calibre._tcp.
• Allow specifying a set of categories that are not partitioned even if they contain a large number of items in the Tag Browser. Preference is available under Look & Feel->Tag Browser
• Allow setting a URL prefix for the content server that run embedded in the calibre GUI as well.
• Allow output of identifiers data in CSV/XML/BiBTeX catalogs
• Driver for Motorola Droid XT910, Nokia E71 and HTC EVO 3D.
• Cut down the time taken to launch worker processes by 40%
• You can now configure the calibre settings for the currently connected device by right clicking on the device icon in the toolbar, instead of having to go through Preferences->Plugins

Bug Fixes

• Auto-adding: Do not add incomplete files when files are downloaded directly into the auto add folder.
• When running multiple delete from device jobs, fix the device view sometimes marking the wrong books as being deleted, after the first delete job completes.
• MOBI Input: Handle files that have spurious closing and/or tags in their markup.
• RTF Input: Strip out false color specifications, as they cause artifacts when converted to MOBI

UPDATE: Penguin Group Terminating Its Contract with OverDrive (by Michael Kelley, LJ)

“In a stunning development, Penguin Group has extricated itself from its contract with OverDrive, the primary supplier of ebooks to public libraries.

‘Looking ahead, we are continuing to talk about our future plans for ebook and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services,’ said Erica Glass, in a prepared statement.

Penguin is negotiating a “continuance agreement” with OverDrive, which will allow libraries that have Penguin ebooks in their catalog to continue to have access to those titles.”

From an E-Mail to OverDrive Partners

Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012), Penguin will no longer offer additional copies of eBooks and download audiobooks for library purchase. Additionally, Penguin eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer then transferred to the device over USB. For library patrons, this means Penguin eBooks will no longer be available for over-the-air delivery to Kindle devices or to Kindle apps.

We are continuing to talk to Penguin about their future plans for eBook and digital audiobook availability for library lending.

The end of over-the-air downloads to Kindle devices is interesting. Does it say something about a security issue in Amazon’s wireless download system? Something else? How about trying to make things a bit tougher for library users/OverDrive customers that will slowdown loans OR simply OverDrive and Amazon now following the Penguin’s contract?

In November Penguin said that Amazon.com was never told about the terms of the Penguin/OverDrive contract. Perhaps it said that wireless downloading was not permitted?

Otherwise, perhaps it’s some form of retribution directed at OverDrive  with Amazon.com or maybe we’ve watched to many reruns of The Soprano’s. (-:

From Michael Kelley’s LJ article (November 23, 2011)

Penguin has subsequently been informed by Amazon that it had not been consulted by Overdrive about the terms of Penguin’s agreement with Overdrive. Amazon has undertaken to work with Penguin and Overdrive between now and the end of the year to address Penguin’s concerns. Penguin will, as a result, restore the supply of these titles until the end of the year in order to return the availability of older titles to all its digital customers.

One thing is for sure, there will likely be a lot of libraries having to modify web sites, documentation, and training programs about how to download Kindle ebooks with today’s news of only USB transfers being available.

[Via INFOdocket]

[Schools Minister Nick] Gibb said: "Children should always have a book on the go. The difference in achievement between children who read for half an hour a day in their spare time and those who do not is huge – as much as a year’s education by the time they are 15."

(It’s worth noting that e-books are one of the easiest ways anyone can “always have a book on the go,” especially if it’s on a device like a smartphone or iPod Touch that they’re carrying in their pocket already!)

But critics charge that, instead of creating contests, the government should be devoting more resources to education and reevaluating the mandated phonics teaching process which may not be right for all students.

I remember participating in a reading contest when I was a kid—I read something like 104 books in a month to win first place—while I was in kindergarten. (Granted, most of them were little and golden, but still.) The love of books has been with me ever since, though I suspect the contest win was more likely an effect of a love that was there already than a cause of it.

By reducing the weight that its planes carry, the move could save the Air Force as much as $1.2 million in fuel costs per year. (I wonder how much is saved in fuel costs by airline passengers bringing Kindles instead of a bunch of print books?)

"Moving from a paper-based to an electronically based flight publication system will not only enhance operational effectiveness, it can also save the Department of Defense time and money," said Maj. Gen. Rick Martin, the director of operations for the Air Mobility Command. "Electronic flight bags are becoming an industry standard due to their operational, environmental and cost savings benefits."

This is in keeping with a directive President Obama issued in November directing all branches of government to reduce their reliance on costly paper.

(Found via Slashdot.)

It happened with Larry Kirshbaum, the long-time publishing-industry exec and agent who Amazon tapped to run its publishing subsidiary, who Mike Shatzkin says “has gone from one of the most well-liked people in publishing to the one of the most reviled.” And PaidContent’s Laura Hazard Owen reports it seems to be happening to respected librarian Nancy Pearl, who has partnered with Amazon to republish some of her favorite out-of-print books.

“By aligning herself with Amazon, she’s turning her back on independents,” Seattle Mystery Bookshop owner J.B. Dickey told the Seattle Times. “Amazon is absolutely antithetical to independent bookselling, and, to many of us, truth, justice and the American way.”

But before approaching Amazon, Pearl’s agent shopped the reprints to the 20 top publishers in New York, and not one of them was interested. She says she stands to earn only “a couple of hundred” dollars per book. David Streitfield writes in The New York Times:

Ms. Pearl still seems a little shaken by the intensity of the response. “I knew the minute I signed the contract that there would be people who would not be happy, but the vehemence surprised me,” she said. To protect herself, she did not read Facebook or Twitter or any of the social media sites.

Pearl says that she is not sure at this point whether she would do it again, but she “would still want those books back in print.”

Perhaps the interesting thing is how polarizing the issue is. The PaidContent piece seems to me to be a little unnecessarily snide, harping on some (admittedly silly) comments Pearl or the Times made and suggesting that six books per year is few enough to clear rights on that Pearl should just have self-published them instead. (Of course, even if she had self-published them, guess what on-line bookstore would still be selling the majority of them?)

Meanwhile, the New York Times piece calls out the Nazi iconography in the burning-book Bloomberg Business Week cover of the issue that profiled Larry Kirshbaum, and suggests the most remarkable thing about it is not that it used that iconography, but rather that nobody complained about it. “In the struggle over the future of intellectual commerce in the United States, apparently even evocations of Joseph Goebbels and the Brown Shirts are considered fair game.”

From the description on the British App Store:

The draft score of Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” is one of the greatest musical treasures in the British Library.  Handel established and developed the English oratorio as a musical genre, and “Messiah” is its best known and best loved example.  As only fragmentary sketches survive, this manuscript is the source for Handel’s first known ideas for the work; it also includes many of his alterations for later performances.  It illuminates his working methods and includes performance directions.  It’s detailed dating reveals the composer’s characteristic speed of composition: the work was begun on 22 Augurst and completed just 24 days later on 14 September, 1741. …

This is an eBook Treasures facsimile editon, containing additional interpretative text and selected recordings from “Messiah”.