On today’s menu: a Bowker ebook study; project Europeana Libraries nears an end; Ex Libris releases bX Hot Articles; OCLC launches ArchiveGrid; Medallion acquires Mobile Content; Google launches third-party commenting platform to rival Facebook; and Publishing Technology joins GSE Research to start online portal.
Bowker releases results of global ebook research
Sue Polanka cites a press release that reports according to Bowker Market Research’s Global eBook Monitor “India, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. lead in adoption of e-books, with more than 20 percent of respondents reporting purchasing e-books in the six months prior to the survey. Respondents in France and Japan were the least likely to have purchased an e-book, at five percent and eight percent respectively. While purchase behavior varies by country, awareness is relatively consistent: more than 80 percent of respondents in each country know it is possible to digitally download a book… Age and gender are consistent predictors of purchase behavior globally. For example, in most countries surveyed, men are more likely than women to buy an e-book (Fig 2). Germany shows the greatest divergence, with 18 percent of male respondents having bought an e-book in the past six months, compared to only 8 percent of women. In almost all markets, the older the respondents, the less likely they are to have recently purchased an e-book (Fig. 3). Purchase rates in India, Brazil, the U.K., U.S. and France are highest in the 25–34 age group, with Australia, Spain, Germany, South Korea and Japan highest among 18-24 year olds.”
The European Library’s Opening to Research Libraries
INFOdocket reports from a Europeana Blog Post that “the European Library is approaching the end of its two-year project Europeana Libraries, by which it started to expand its membership from national libraries to include research libraries in Europe. As the project draws to a close, The European Library will start to put its business plan into action. The subscription model whereby the national libraries of Europe supported TEL by a membership fee has been expanded, with the structure simplified and the fees reduced to take account of an expected larger number of library members. Accompanying the revised subscription model is a comprehensive list of services that the new European Library offers to all members…”
Ex Libris Announces the Release of bX Hot Articles
Ex Libris Group announces “the release of bX Hot Articles, a service that is part of the recently launched bX usage-based suite of services from Ex Libris. Updated monthly, Hot Articles identifies the 10 articles that researchers have selected the most in each discipline in recent weeks, as well as the 10 most popular articles overall. The service is free for noncommercial use.
Leading the way for scholarly exploration, bX Hot Articles helps users discover information that others have found helpful. And because the service is based on usage data that is gathered without regard to publisher, platform, or institution, Hot Articles provides an objective picture of current global scholarly discourse…”
OCLC Research Launches ArchiveGrid Blog
“The ArchiveGrid Blog is part of OCLC Research’s beta ArchiveGrid discovery system, now freely available and providing access to primary source materials held in archives throughout the world. ArchiveGrid helps researchers contact archives to request information, arrange a visit, and order copies—all from one simple, intuitive search. The OCLC Research version of ArchiveGrid will eventually replace the existing ArchiveGrid subscription service…”
Medallion Acquires Mobile Content Firm to Develop New e-Book Platform
Publishers Weekly reports that “in a move the company described as a precursor to launching a new digital publishing platform, Medallion Media Group, an independent book publisher and multimedia entertainment firm, has acquired Triple Threat Mobile Development, a digital consulting firm specializing in creating games and custom applications for mobile devices. Medallion has also hired Triple Threat Mobile’s CEO/founder Brian Buck as its executive director of technology. In a phone interview with Medallion president Adam Mock, he said the acquisition of Triple Threat Mobile Development was the latest step in a process to develop a “new state-of-the-art e-book platform,” that it will unveil in 2013… Medallion’s books are also distributed by IPG and Mock was quick to offer his full support to IPG president Mark Suchomel, who has refused to agree to Amazon’s new e-book terms resulting in Amazon halting the e-book sales of IPG clients…”
Google to launch third-party commenting platform to rival Facebook
According to this report by Nancy Messieh in the Next Web.com, “Google is about to launch a new commenting system that will tie into the search giant’s Google+ platform, web services and web search, a source close to the product’s development confirmed with The Next Web. Tech-WD blogger Saud Al-Hawawi also reported yesterday that several new Google features that have yet to be announced were discussed at the Google event G-Saudi Arabia, including the new commenting platform. The Google comment system, which will almost certainly rival that of Facebook, will have deep links to Google’s network of services and websites, indexing comments in Google Search, and most significantly, the system will be available for use on third party sites.
Publishing Technology has joined with the newly established online scholarly publisher GSE Research to announce the launch of GSE Research Online. GSE Research’s portal will attempt “to drive interaction and engagement across the academic audience, policy-makers and the corporate world in an interactive professional network supporting governance, sustainability and the environment.
Built on the pub2web platform… the site supports a range of author benefits including rapid publication, a choice of open peer review or traditional peer review options, collaboration tools with article metrics to follow. As noted above the portal hopes to enable “the full breadth of stakeholders within this field to join in the conversation, share content, review and comment on papers, find collaborators, locate experts in the field for conference speaking or job opportunities…” It should be interesting to see GSE Research Online in action and see how it fulfills its vision.
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