Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide by Gary W. Vequist and Daniel S. Licht

My travel list gets longer. I have just finished reading Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide by Gary W. Vequist and Daniel S. Licht, another fine nature book from Texas A and M University Press. I already knew before reading that I wanted to go to the Everglades, though I am more interested in the birds than the alligators. I now know about the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota for viewing bison. I also now know that if I am ever in Minneapolis-St. Paul in February (which is likely) that I should bundle up and go look for bald eagles and waterfowl along 75 miles of the Mississippi River which administered as a National River and Recreation Area.

The authors selected 12 national parks to highlight in separate chapters, one for each month. For each park, they selected a key species to feature, such as gray wolves in Yellowstone and prairie dogs in the Badlands. They describe the parks, point out key viewing spots, and identify species behaviors. They then list other national parks at which visitors may see the featured species.

I read Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks as an ebook downloaded from eRead Illinois on my MacBook Air using Adobe Digital Editions. I discovered it while preparing to teach an ebook class at the library. I see that no libraries in my library's consortium have added the title in print, but it can be found through our catalog which now includes our ebook holdings. I enjoyed reading it on my MacBook as all the illustrations were in full color and I got to choose my own comfortable font size. It is probably even better on a tablet, as I did tap the down key a lot.

Vequist, Gary W. and Daniel S. Licht. Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide. Texas A and M University Press, 2013. 246p.

Public Library in the Marketplace: The Business of Digital Content

The afternoon session Public Library in the Marketplace: The Business of Digital Content came at the time I needed a nap, but there was a tension in the room that kept me awake. Librarians still have issues with ebook publishers and the vendors that provide their ebooks. So the Q and A between librarian Vailey Oehlke of Multnomah County Library and the duo of Skip Dye from Penguin Random House and Steve Potash of Overdrive was of great concern. Everyone on the platform was well behaved, if not in agreement.

Everyone seemed to agree that the library ebook situation is better than two years ago. Dye posed that all of the major publishers are now selling to libraries, but Oehlke reminded us that a couple of these publishers were doing so in a very limited way and only selling to a few select "test" libraries. Dye did agree with librarians that some of the pricing was too high. He and Potash both suggested that market factors would eventually bring prices down.

Potash said that the past two years have been great for adult readers of fiction ebooks. He added that the next two years will focus on increasing the availability of children's ebooks. Books for youth have lagged as few schools have adopted ebooks for instruction, but he and Dye both think that is about to change as publishers work out models for leasing many copies of curriculum titles for simultaneous use.

Dye praised the Library Reads monthly booklists campaign, saying that it is a loud voice that publishers hear and appreciate. He thinks it will bring publishers closer to librarians, making the point that libraries make or break new authors. It is easier to discover a new author at the library than online.

Dye also thinks that Lonely Planet's model of providing ebooks to libraries through Overdrive has been noticed by other travel book publishers who are now contemplating lower prices and better terms to libraries. He thinks this is a sign of the future, but warns that there will still be numerous pricing models tried before the market settles.

Potash believes that Overdrive will be helping libraries load local and self-published works onto their ebook platforms in the near future. His statement, however, was not a 100 percent promise. Potash also said that he believes that Amazon will in the near future make all of its publishing available to Overdrive. He pointed to Scholastic's new contract with Overdrive for low cost metered access as a sign that more publishers will be cooperative.

The room became a little tenser when Potash spoke about portability of titles when libraries leave the Overdrive service. He said that Overdrive will gladly transfer the titles if publishers let the company do so. But he also pointed to its contracts to protect publisher's content, saying the publishers have to be satisfied that whatever platforms libraries provide meet their copyright protection concerns.

The Best of Mary Schmich: Selected Writings by the Tribune's 2012 Pulitzer Prize Winner by Mary Schmich

I do not always make time to read Mary Schmich's columns in the Chicago Tribune, but when I do, I often appreciate her wit and insight. So, when we signed up for the Digital Chicago Tribune, which was free with our print subscription, I chose her The Best of Mary Schmich as the first free Tribune ebook to download.

Over the course of about a month, I have been reading a few columns a day, usually at the beginning and end of the day. I've enjoyed revisiting events of the past twenty years, many of which took place in or around Chicago, and learning about Schmich and her family. Being her age and growing up somewhere else but now living in the Chicago metropolitan area, I find I have a lot in common with her and can identify with much that she says. I am the perfect target audience.

Schmich has had a more challenging life than I have for sure. My Texas family did not have a lot of money either when I was young, but there were not so many of us, so we never had to actually pinch the pennies as hard. Still, I can remember not wanting to pass on notes from school asking my mom to make a couple of dozen cookies for a bake sale. Could we afford that? It turns out that we could, and I should not have worried so. As Schmich's dad explained to her, we were not actually poor, having more than the people who really were.

Her columns about her mother and her sister Gina are the pieces that I found most touching. She always writes respectfully and with the intension of informing readers about life in general. Though she uses the personal as her foundation, she and her family are not the real focus.

Wondering whether readers other than Tribune subscribers can get this collection, I discovered that it is available digitally from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but not Google Play. It will be coming out in paperback later this year.

Biggest Problem with the Kindle: How to Turn It Off

We have had Kindles at my library for a bit over one year now. They were donated by the Western Springs Library Friends so our clients can experience using a Kindle before making a choice to buy. Many have enjoyed the device and purchased, while a few have thanked us for helping them see that the Kindle is not the device for them. The waiting lists have now dwindled, so we are letting them go out for longer periods. Our three Kindles are often out, but readers sometimes find one available.

One thing we notice as they come back is that they are not turned off. Instead they are just asleep. We demonstrate how to use the Kindle to each new user, and in the process, we highlight turning it off, but if the returns are an indication, many people don't get it. This has been verified to me by some Kindle owners who have come to me for troubleshooting. Their Kindles are losing their charges too soon. I show them how to turn it off properly and their problems usually end.

To turn off a Kindle, slide the on/off button that is located on the top edge of the Kindle to the right and hold it there until the screen goes gray. That sounds easy, but many people just slide and let go. The Kindle then shows a picture of famous author and may go blank after that. The Kindle is in this case only sleeping and slowing draining its battery. Also, if you slide the button to the right and hold a second too long, it comes back on again.

If you practice, you learn to turn off Kindles flawlessly. But it should not a trick to turn off a Kindle. I urge Amazon to redesign.

Thingology Post about Ebook Economics and Libraries

Tim Spalding at Library Thing has been thinking about how ebooks are going to be bad for libraries. He spells out what they think in Ebook Economics: Are Libraries Screwed? He'd love to hear that he is wrong.

Kindles and Other eBook Readers

Last week I spoke to 48 members of the Indian Prairie Computer Club at the Hinsdale Community Center about ebook readers, the Thomas Ford Kindle program, and the implications for libraries. While most of the audience had heard of Kindles, only a few had actually seen one, and few knew that there were other readers on the market. That other competitors are hinting that they will soon offer readers was news. I spent many of my fifty minutes before the group answering questions about what ebooks are, how the Kindle works, who might use a Kindle, its pricing, and how Amazon sells many bestsellers at a loss.

I explained that my library's Kindle program is a demonstration and not a long-range service. I said that we are not collection building with the Kindle at this point, as ebooks and readers will evolve much in the coming years. As Nicholas Baker says in his New Yorker article of August 3, 2009, "EBook readers are in their infancy." He and other publishing commentators say that Amazon will eventually be hurt by its proprietary format. Once the customer honeymoon with the Kindle fades, the demand will be for readers that can load open ebooks that may be acquired from a variety of free and commercial websites. A color reader is also needed.

Sony is stepping up its effort to compete, but so far its marketing has lagged far behind Amazon's marketing. Barnes & Noble says that it will soon be offering a reader and open ebooks for sale. Google and Apple have hinted that they may step into the ring with readers and books. Google actually has the books already. Apple has iPod iTouches already which can read books using various apps (including Kindle for iPhone and iTouch) that are free or inexpensive.

The Kindle is a pretty well-designed product as it is, but people with visual problems may find the gray on gray hard to read. The electronic ink without backlighting may be environmental, but it may also hold Amazon back. I doubt Amazon will stick to a limited purpose Kindle, as the company sells music, movies, audiobooks, and other media. If Amazon made an iTouch-like product, it could sell all these formats to device owners.

Here are some articles with news about Kindles:

Deahl, Rachael. "The E-Book Price Conundrum," Publishers Weekly, May 11, 2009, p. 4.

Rich, Motoko. "Preparing to Sell E-Books, Google Takes on Amazon." New York Times, June 1, 2009. p. 1.

Milliot, Jim. "Cracks in Amazon's E-book Empire." Publishers Weekly, July 27, 2009. p. 3.

Baker, Nicholas. "A New Page: Can the Kindle Really Improve on the Book?" New Yorker, August 3, 2009.

Arends, Brett. "Kindle in Danger of Becoming Betamax." www.sharebuilder.com August 10, 2009.

"Sony Plans a Kindle Rival with Wireless Downloads." Associated Press, August 25, 2009.

"Sony Wireless E-Book Reader Proves Kindle Was on Target." www.pcworld.com. august 25, 2009.