Lifehacker: How to Read E-Books for Free Without Pirating Them. “Getting your hands on a good book to read is as easy as clicking ‘borrow’ on your tablet. If you’re a slow adopter to the world of e-books, you should know that you can download thousands of e-books and their audio counterparts from your phone, computer, or tablet—for free. Here’s how to quickly and easily borrow an e-book from your local public library.”
WGBH: Inside The E-Book ‘War’ Waging Between Libraries And Publishers. “According to the American Library Association (ALA), about one fifth of the books sold in the U.S. are eBooks. Some publishers are worried that the ease of borrowing a digital book from a library is hurting sales and have decided to limit how and when libraries can access digital books. Now, libraries in Massachusetts and nationwide are vowing to fight back. They say the practices are not just unfair and unethical, but they might be illegal.”
Good E-Reader: KKR is turning into a library juggernaut. “KKR purchased Overdrive on Christmas Eve and now own the largest digital distributor for public libraries all over the world. They also own RB Digital, which is otherwise known as Recorded Books, a purchase they made in 2018. It looks like in 2020, KKR is dominating the library space and there are few competitors left.” If you want more details on KKR, Investopedia can help you out.
TorrentFreak: EU Court: Unauthorized Sale of Used eBooks Infringes Copyright. “Selling second-hand paper books is regular business for thousands of companies around the world, but what if those books are digital? A ruling just handed down by Europe’s highest court has determined that the unauthorized sale of second-hand copyrighted eBooks via a website constitutes a communication to the public and an infringement of the owners’ rights.”
Phys .org: Short story collection to entangle readers in the quantum world. “Are you ready to get entangled in the science of the very small? That’s the thread running through a new anthology, Quantum Shorts: Collected Flash Fiction Inspired by Quantum Physics. Available to download as a free e-book now, the anthology presents 37 stories shortlisted in three editions of the international Quantum Shorts competition.”
Neowin: Microsoft is killing off the Books section in the Microsoft Store. “The ability to buy books from the Microsoft Store, which you could then read using Microsoft Edge, was introduced with the Windows 10 Creators Update, about two years ago, so it’s been a short-lived platform. If you have any books you’ve already bought or rented, you can read them until the end of the rental period, or until July 2019, when they will be removed entirely. On the bright side, you’ll get a full refund of the original price of the purchase when they’re no longer available.”
MakeUseOf: The Essential Ebook Converter Guide. “When it comes to ebooks there are more than a dozen common file types. And each of these has different strengths and is compatible with different ereaders. Which is why you might find yourself in need of an ebook converter. In this article, we’ll explain everything there is to know about converting ebooks.”
DPLA: An Update on our Ebooks Initiatives. “We are thrilled to be heading into the second year of running the DPLA Exchange… DPLA Exchange is operated by DPLA and enables libraries to provide their patrons with bestselling e-content titles alongside free open content in a simple, easy-to-use platform. Content from the DPLA Exchange integrates seamlessly with materials from other vendors like Overdrive in SimplyE, a free mobile app developed by New York Public Library (NYPL), available for iOS and Android. After a successful first year, we have five pilot libraries set up on the Exchange, ready to buy content or download free materials and over 100 new libraries deploying SimplyE, thanks to our partnerships with LYRASIS and NYPL.”
DPLA: DPLA launches Open Bookshelf, a Collection of Free Ebooks. “The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is pleased to announce the launch of Open Bookshelf, a digital library collection of popular books free to download and handpicked by librarians across the US. The collection currently has more than 1,000 books, with new titles added daily. Open Bookshelf is designed both for libraries and for readers: it is currently available to libraries through the DPLA Exchange and to readers via the SimplyE mobile app.”
Mashable: E-book checkouts just got easier with new Google search feature. “You can now keep up with your book club more easily without dropping cash every month, thanks to Google. The company just added a new search feature that lets you look up book titles in your local library’s e-book system straight from your phone.”
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