Category Archives: Fun and Games

Stress Test for a Healthy Ebook

Michael Pastore at Epublishers Weekly blog posted a stress test for ebooks.  His test gives points to ebooks for the ability to complete tasks, like sharing with friends, converting, and printing.  The full test is on the blog, check it out.

Here’s the intro material:  How healthy is your ebook? … Is your ebook free, flexible, strong (long lasting) and brimming with useful features? … Or is your ebook feature-challenged, a hapless prisoner of one specific device, format, or content protection system?

There is much debate about ebook pricing; there should be much more talk about ebook value. A free and healthy ebook is worth much more than a feature-reduced ebook.

ebrary announces sweepstakes for free ebooks

ebrary is launching a monthly sweepstakes for a free ebook a month for one’s institution – complete with ebrary’s  InfoTools.  To enter, just recommend an ebrary title.  Details of the contest are below, in the ebrary press release.  This is a fun idea, but I have to chuckle.  Can you imagine having a sweepstakes for a free print book?  Oh, what technology will do. Continue reading ebrary announces sweepstakes for free ebooks

US House floor using print reference

Yesterday I had a rare opportunity to walk on the US House floor, thanks to a private tour from my nephew Matt, who works for one of the Ohio Representatives.  As we were milling about, looking at the electronic voting, printers and fax machines, laptop plugins, and CSPAN cameras, I was shocked to see, sitting in the corner up front, a huge Random House dictionary on a big stand.  Of course I had to grab it, touch it, leaf through it.  I so desperately wanted to take a photo of this proud print resource, sitting atop its pedestal with the grand House floor in the background.  Despite the fact that I smuggled in my iPhone, Matt told me it was illegal to take photos.  So alas, my proof is missing.  ….gee, most people would want to sit in the big chair!

No Shelf Required Fan Club

Wow, my first member!  Thanks Lora.  I’m glad to see that the resources in NSR are assisting library students too.

Dear Sue Polanka,

I’m a library student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I just did a research project on the future of reference books for a collection development class.  In my research I came across several columns where you addressed just this topic.  I just wanted to write and thank you for being such a proponent for electronic resources and encourage you to continue motivating librarians to edge their libraries into an online reference model!  I’ve really enjoyed reading the columns!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lora


Lora Smallman
Graduate Assistant, Instructional Services
Undergraduate Library
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Blog as if your life depended on it!

I posted a while back about a wonderful eBook site, DailyLit.  DailyLit sends me bits and pieces of eBooks to my email box each day, just enough to read for a minute or two.  The first title I chose (yes, because it was free) was 100 Ways to  Succeed by Tom Peters.  Yesterday, #39 arrived.  It said:

100 WAYS TO SUCCEED #39:
BLOG AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT!

Blogging, I firmly believe, is the premier emergent marketing-brandbuilding-lovemark-creating tool of our times! It is the premier way to have intimate-engaging-informative-WOWing “conversations” with Clients and prospects! This all goes double for small enterprises and niche enterprises; and goes triple for the Professional Services; and works wonders in the Public Sector as well.

Do you see Blogging in these exalted lights? If not, why not? Please …  Blog-As-If-Your-Professional-Success-Depended-On-It. (Hint: I think it does.)

Begin today! Appoint yourself Chief Blogging officer. Or, better yet, Chief Intimate Client Conversations Officer!

I can’t tell you how happy I was to realize that finally, I had accomplished one of the (so-far) 39 ways to succeed.   Why am I bragging about this?  Well, because now it’s your turn.  No Shelf Required is here to provide a place for discussion between librarians, publishers, aggregators, book lovers, and spammers (oh wait, I delete those messages).   So comment, post, rant, suggest, get your eBook message out.  You’d be surprised how many people actually read this thing – worldwide!  It surprises me every day.
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