Overview And Advantages Of E Books Information Technology Essay

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2. Ebooks are good for the environment. Ebooks save trees. Ebooks eliminate the need for filling up landfills with old books. Ebooks save transportation costs and the pollution associated with shipping books across the country and the world.

3. Ebooks preserve books. (The library of Alexandria was burned and the collection ruined. Richard Burton’s wife, after his death and against his wishes, destroyed a book he had been working on for ten years. The original manuscript of Carlyle’s The French Revolution was lost when a friend’s servant tossed it into the fire.) Ebooks are ageless: they do not burn, mildew, crumble, rot, or fall apart. Ebooks ensure that literature will endure.

4. Ebooks faster to produce than paper books, allow readers to read books about current issues and events.

5. Ebooks are easily updateable, for correcting errors and adding information.

6. Ebooks are searchable. Quickly you can find anything inside the book. Ebooks are globally searchable: you can find information in many ebooks.

7. Ebooks are portable. You can carry an entire library on one DVD.

8. Ebooks (in the form of digital audio books) free you to do other activities while you are listening.

9. Ebooks can be printable: and thereby give a reader most or all of the advantages of a paper-based book.

10. Ebooks defy time: they can be delivered almost instantly. Ebooks are transported to you faster than overnight shipping: in minutes or in seconds.

11. Ebooks defy space: ebooks online can be read simultaneously by thousands of people at once.

12. Ebooks are cheaper to produce. Thus, small presses can attempt to compete with media giants.

13. Ebooks are cheaper to buy.

14. Ebooks are free. The magnificent work of Project Gutenberg, and other online public libraries, allow readers to read the classics at no cost.

15. Ebooks can be annotated without harming the original work.

16. Ebooks make reading accessible to persons with disabilities. Text can be re-sized for the visually impaired. Screens can be lit for reading in the dark.

17. Ebooks can be hyper-linked, for easier access to additional information.

18. Ebooks — with additional software and hardware — can read aloud to you.

19. Ebooks let you tweak the style. Many ebooks allow readers to change the font style, font size, page size, margin size, colors, and more.

20. Ebooks may allow the option for the addition of multimedia: still images, moving images, and sound.

21. Ebooks, with their capacity for storage, encourage the publishing of books with many pages, books that might be too expensive to produce (and purchase) in paperback.

22. Ebooks — without outrageous DRM schemes — are made for sharing. Ebooks can be quickly duplicated, and then distributed to strangers or given to your friends. Worry no more about your loaned books that will never be returned.

23. Ebooks empower individuals to write and to publish, and in this way help to challenge “the crushing power of big publishing”, that excludes so many authors from the New York City publishing circus. Publishing can move from the impersonal and profitable, to the personal and pleasurable.

24. Ebooks — thanks to the simplicity and speed of publication and feedback — allow authors to experiment in many themes and styles.

25. Ebooks posted online encourage comments, corrections, and feedback — which eliminates mistakes and improves accuracy — especially important when dealing with scientific and technological issues.

26. Ebooks allow publishers to publish (and readers to read) works by a larger number of authors, and works on a wider variety of topics. Critics of traditional book publishing (such as Jason Epstein and Andre Schriffin) state that economic pressures have reduced and limited the number of authors and topics that traditional publishers will now produce.

27. Ebooks defeat attempts at censorship. All these works were banned: Analects by Confucius. Lysistrata by Aristophanes. Ars Amorata by Ovid. Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio by John Milton. The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne. Wonder Stories by H.C. Andersen. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy.The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Ulyssesby James Joyce. … Many of these books were confiscated, burned, or denied availability in libraries, bookstores and schools. Ebooks guarantee that readers maintain their right to read.

28. Ebooks help paperbook publishers to sell paperbooks. Cory Doctorow has explained that the giving away of ebooks, for free, has helped to sell the paperback editions of his stories and novels.

29. Ebooks are evolving. As technology develops, ebooks may contain new features. For example, a book of recipes may contain a recipe calculator to figure how much maple syrup is needed to bake 200 cookies. An ebook that prepares you for the GRE could include an interactive test. An ebook about politics might allow you to click a link and register to vote, or send an email to a Congressman that tells him he is not a good environmental steward.

30. Ebooks are good for paperbook publishing. By setting an example for diversity and freedom of expression, ebooks may motivate the stagnant book publishing industry towards the renewal of small presses, the end of the blockbuster-bestseller publishing mentality, and a healthier balance between the needs of commerce and culture.

http://www.successconsciousness.com/ebooks_benefits.htm

An ebook is a book in electronic format. It is downloaded to a computer, PC, Mac, laptop, PDA or any other kind of computer, and is read on the screen. It can have numbered pages, table of contents, pictures and graphics, exactly like a printed book.

It is very simple and easy to purchase and download ebooks through the Internet. It is exactly like purchasing any other product. The only difference is that after payment you will either be directed to a download page or receive the download link in an email. All you have to do is click on the link and the ebook will automatically download to your computer, to a folder of your own choice.

After download you don’t have to be connected to the Internet in order to read the ebook. You can stay offline. If you wish to have it printed, it is very easy. Just click on the print button in the ebook, to print it with your home printer.

Ebooks are delivered almost instantaneously. You can purchase, download and start reading them within minutes, without leaving your chair. You don’t have to go to a bookstore to buy them, neither wait for them for days, weeks and sometimes more to arrive in the mail.

No trees are required to manufacture paper for the pages of ebooks.

When you need certain information, you can get it immediately, by downloading an ebook.

Many ebooks are sold nowadays with bonuses, which you usually do not get with a printed book. This adds value to your purchase.

Ebooks take up less space. You practically don’t need any space to store them. You don’t need a library or a room for them. You can store hundreds and thousands of ebooks in your computer.

Ebooks are portable. You can carry a whole library of hundreds of books with you, on CD, in a laptop, notebook or any ebook reader, without worrying about their weight.

With today technology you can read ebooks anywhere, on the bus, train, airplane and while standing in line.

Ebooks are more safely stored and carried from one place to another, than ordinary books. They also withstand time more than books.

Ebooks can show links, for easy access to more information and related websites.

Ebooks are searchable. You can easily search for any information in an ebook, instead of turning page after page.

Ebooks can be interactive and contain audio, video and animations, which can enhance the message that the author is trying to convey.

As ebooks are delivered through the Internet, there are no packing and shipping expenses.

Ebooks can be printable, so that if you wish to read an ebook in the traditional way, you can very inexpensively print it with your home printer or at any printing shop.

Fonts in ebooks can be resized, making it easier to read for people with disabilities. With an additional software it is possible to turn some of the ebooks into audio books.

Ebooks are very easy to to sell and distribute.

It is very simple and easy to purchase and download an ebook. People living in big modernized cities, in a remote village in a far away country or on a small island, can equally access an ebook. It takes them the same amount of time to purchase and download an ebook, provided they have an Internet connection.

It is possible to purchase an ebook 24 hours a day, every day of the year, from the comfort of your own house or office. You can purchase and download an ebook, even if you are on a vacation, if you have a laptop and wireless Internet connection.

People are already spending a lot of time in front of their computers, so why not read and ebook, instead of doing something else?

Nowadays one can find ebooks about every possible subject, fiction and nonfiction, free and not free.Considering non-fiction ebooks, such ebooks disseminate knowledge not pages, which means that it is not correct to evaluate the price of an ebook according to the number of its pages. The price should be determined by the information it contains, its usefulness and relevancy, and on how much it gives you in terms of practical knowledge, inspiration, motivation, tips and advice, and also by the uniqueness of the information it contains.

http://www.tka.co.uk/ebook-tools/why-ebooks.htm

Once downloaded (from the Web, a CD ROM or a floppy disk), eBooks can be viewed whilst offline (although some external links will only work when you are online).

Unlike websites, they can be easily distributed to other users

Unlike standalone documents, such as a Word or Excel file, eBooks can contain a variety of documents and files, all conveniently packaged in a single file.

Unlike paper-based books, eBooks can be easily updated. A eBook can even have a link to a website which contains the latest downloadable version of the book.

The production cost of eBooks is minimal, a big benefit of you are distributing them in any quantity, either free or for a price.

If you need security, eBooks can be compiled so as to disable printing, can be password protected and can prevent individual files from being copied (although no-one has found a way of preventing anything from being re-typed!)

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Benefits-of-Ebook-Publishing&id=390438

1)An eBook can be your springboard.

At the 2006 Romantic Times conference in Daytona Beach, Florida, I met a few editors with the top romance publishers, all of whom were seeking out romance eBook authors. As eBook sales and productions rises in the romance and erotic romance genres, these editors are aware of the great sales potential involved in bringing eBook authors with high readership into their catalogs. Go to your favorite bookstore and look up authors Sherrilyn Kenyon, Angela Knight, and Sylvia Day. What do they have in common aside from being bestselling authors? Their earliest titles were originally published in eBook format!

Depending upon the genre you write and the following you develop, your eBook success can be a springboard to commercial publishing accomplishments. Make the sales and the big players will notice, regardless of whether or not your book is on paper.

2) Faster Turnaround

Do you know how long it takes for a book to see print, from submission to release? Various factors play into a final answer. A small university press may not take as long as a well-known New York house. A book could take anywhere from several months to several years before it is made available for sale.

With eBooks, that time frame might not be as long. This is not, mind you, because eBooks go through a sloppy editing process. While some eBooks may appear to have been rushed (more on that below), there are many eBook publishers that have professional editors on staff to ensure a quality end product. eBook production may be quicker than traditional print publication due to a number of factors. Formatting does not take long to do, for one, and cover art needs are drastically reduced. You can produce a great cover that sells and not have to worry about sizing or color bleeds for print. A good number of eBook romance publishers offer a turnaround from acceptance as quick as three months! While some authors wait for their books, an eBook author can have two or three out in the same amount of time.

3) Higher Percentage of Royalties

I once read an article by the late Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, who wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and authored more than twenty books. He wrote that despite all the books and columns under his belt, he was not a rich man. Knowing how some publishers deal with author royalties, this statement no longer surprises me!

Depending upon your status as author, and the budget of the publishing house, you could make as much as ten to twenty percent of the net sales of your book. Some houses will raise the percentage once you reach a certain benchmark, like a thousand or more copies. However, since the average book in the United States sells five hundred, it is safe to say thousands of authors may never get that raise. Unless you are the rare J.K Rowling or Stephen King (both of whom, to be fair, do profit on subsidiary sales), you may not be rolling immediately in the millions.

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eBook publication, however, offers the opportunity to make some decent money, more so if you gain a strong readership. Because of the low resources involved in eBook production, there is more opportunity to pay royalties on sales. Most eBook publishers offer as much as thirty to fifty percent of net sales. An author with a strong following can make several hundred dollars a month!

4) Same good book, less waste

Next time you are at the bookstore, take a look at the bargain bin. Many hardcover books, some probably touted as bestsellers, are marked down significantly to clear away inventory. What is not sold is eventually recycled. I know of one author whose book was heavily “remaindered,” as it is called. What was not sold, he said wistfully, was turned into toilet paper!

In this respect, eBook production is very environmentally sound. Because the books are produced digitally, no trees are harmed. An eBook may be read on a computer or handheld personal digital assistant, both of which can store several books for your enjoyment. With a PDA full of eBooks, there is less to carry when you go on vacation!

5) More control

Do you have an idea for typesetting over cover art for your book? Chances are if you sign with a major publisher, you may not have much creative input. With my first novel, I was allowed some input, but my ideas were ultimately not used for the cover art. The same might be said with the marketing of your book. Publishers have budgets to meet, and may not be able to satisfy every author’s desires.

eBook publishers in recent years, however, may be very author friendly. Closer contact with staff may allow an author to have more input in production and design. Some eBook publishers may allow authors to design their own covers. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen, but the fact remains that the lines of communication between authors and staff are open wide. The author is permitted to be very active throughout editing and production, and it turn it may inspire the author to be more productive.

More opportunity for money, more input, and more support are among the benefits of producing your manuscript through electronic means. As we further delve into a new age of publishing, eBooks lead the charge into a new dimension of entertainment for readers and productivity for writers.

http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol127/ebooks.htm

1. They’re quicker to obtain. If you want specific information and it’s available in a book, you can purchase an eBook and download it immediately. Instead of waiting for a printed book to be delivered, you can assess this information now.

2. eBooks are more easily updated and upgraded. Information changes rapidly today. Books on many subjects can become dated very quickly. eBooks can be easily and quickly kept up to date. When you order an eBook, it can be the most up-to-the-minute information available.

3. You usually get far more than just the book. Most eBooks are sold with bonuses and related information that usually don’t come with the purchase of a traditional book. You might pay the same or even a bit more for an eBook, but you usually get more, too.

4. eBooks take up less space. Instead of a bulky library, you can fit literally thousands of books on your computer. It also makes it easier to share this information with family and coworkers.

5. eBooks don’t use up trees. Except when you print one out–something I usually do for booklets and special reports–eBooks use very few natural resources. We save trees and help reduce pollution from pulp mills.

6. They’re more portable. You can have quick and easy access to hundreds of books on your desktop computer, notebook or eBook reader. They’re much easier to take with you than traditional tomes.

7. References can be hot-linked. Easy links to Web sites and other references can be placed in an electronic book. While reading, you can click on hot links to other places to find out more. With the proliferation of wireless networks, this will become even more useful.

8. You can custom brand them. Other people’s eBooks can be branded with your name and you can allow others to brand YOUR eBooks with THEIR name. There are many viral eBooks and reports that the creators will often allow you to give away or sell, with your name or company’s name shown on the cover or linked at the end.

9. You can do global searches and find information quickly. When you’re looking for certain information within a book, you can easily find it using the find feature. It saves you time and aggravation looking for something in particular.

10. The technology will get better. This is an emerging technology and people are often slow to change. But as the quality of monitors improve and become more compact and mobile, more and more we’ll be reading electronic books.

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Author—————–Rita A. Renner, Hoffman Marketing Communications, Inc.

Contributors

7 Wendy Allen Shelburne, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, United States

7 John Ingram, University of Florida, United States

7 Antero Laiho, University Library of Turku, Finland

7 Ay-Ling Ong, Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) Amsterdam, The Netherlands

7 Peter te Boekhorst & Oliver Obst, University of Muenster, Germany, General and Medical Libraries

7 Jane Miller, Victoria University, Australia

As electronic publishing matures, research and academic libraries are beginning to supplement their print holdings with electronic publications. This transition began with scientific journals, and is now advancing into academic and scholarly books, as well. In the past few years, corporate and government libraries have also begun acquiring eBooks along with print holdings.

eBooks provide substantial advantages to libraries and their users. Both parties gain from 24/7 access, simultaneous user access, wider selection, and immediate updates, while libraries also benefit from back-end efficiencies, such as a lack of storage requirements, reduced maintenance costs, and reduced staffing time for physical handling and processing of print books. Many libraries recognize that eBooks offer an ideal opportunity to increase existing collections while enhancing users’ research experiences at the same time. Some libraries have adopted significant eBook acquisition programs However, the interviewed librarians agreed that is still early days and that the market for eBooks is just developing.

Perceived benefits of eBooks to the users

Participants agreed that the immediate, permanent, 24/7, simultaneous access to up-to date content represented the most important user benefit offered by eBooks. A 2007 study published by the University of London concurs, with eBook users citing availability, convenience, content freshness, and navigation and search capabilities as the format’s most important advantages. As Jane Miller of Victoria University explains, “The eBook is accessible from the catalogue, so there is no need to search physically for it. Once the title is located in the catalogue, a simple click on the link takes the user to the full-text book.” Another benefit important to users was the increased functionality of eBooks, such as multimedia additions, hyperlinking, and searching within or among documents.

As the University of Turku’s Antero Laiho observed, reference-geared material is ideally suited to electronic formats, and often becomes the entry point into a larger eBook acquisition strategy. “For reference works, the benefit is in updating the material, e.g. handbooks and encyclopaedias and so on, and that’s where electronic is a very good idea. You can use the reference works from your home, from your office, and you don’t have to come to the library any more. So we first started subscribing to some reference works and I found that we got good feedback – what a wonderful idea that I can search for a concept or fact when I’m working at home in the evening – and so gradually I got more and more accustomed to the idea of buying eBooks as well.”

Rating of benefits of eBooks

The participants rated 11 potential eBook benefits on a scale of one to seven. Enhanced user access, enhanced functionality, and access to greater amounts of content areas all scored highly as areas in which eBooks provided clear advantages over print publications to all participants.

Speed of adoption

Electronic journal collections have paved the way for other eBook holdings. eJournal users have become comfortable with electronic delivery in a very short period of time. According to University of Muenster’s Oliver Obst, “We no longer have any journals that are only available in print. This means that the scientists are accustomed to getting everything from us electronically. The eBooks will fit into this very well.”

Heavier, more efficient use

Search functionality reduces time spent on each title and increases the number of titles reviewed for a given project.

Decline in the use of printed books

In the longer term, the increase in eBook usage may be accompanied by a decline in the use of the printed versions, although in some cases online usage may stimulate usage of the print title, too, through a kind of ‘promotional’ effect.

Book type, discipline determines usage

The librarians stressed that, in principle, researchers and students from all disciplines are ready to use eBooks. Adoption of the e-format may be fastest in rapidly-changing science disciplines, for example computer science and medicine, where books must be updated quickly and frequently. As the University of Illinois’ Wendy Shelburne explains, “… on some levels, all disciplines are ready to make the conversion from printed material to eBooks.”

eBook management

Most libraries surveyed followed similar procedures for managing eBooks. For example, none of the respondents employ personnel dedicated to eBook holdings, but jointly manage eBooks and print collections.

Surveyed libraries integrate eBooks through the OPAC, which flags content as electronic or print. As Turku’s Antero Laiho explains, proper MARC information is critical for the OPAC importation process. “It is essentialnfor us to get MARC records from the publisher because that is one of the big money savers, the fact that we don’t have to do it manually. It is very slow and expensive work to do the cataloguing manually.”

Library policy towards eBooks

eBook acquisition continues to increase, though most libraries agree that it will be many years, if ever, before their collections become electronic-only. Two of the six surveyed libraries have committed to a long-term electronic-only goal. Toward that end, they do not acquire print copies parallel to the electronic versions, except in cases where users explicitly demand print copies. Others are proceeding more conservatively. As CWI Amsterdam explains, “The current Springer eBook package is a kind of test balloon. It I the library’s first experience with eBooks, and it will be used as the basis for assessing the future policy towards adoption of eBooks.”

The most significant area for cost savings of eBooks over print was in physical handling and processing – binding, labeling, transport, and repair. According to the University of Muenster, “This is an area that largely disappears with the transition from print to eBooks. What is not yet entirely clear, however, is whether it will entirely disappear or whether eBook management will continue to involve some form of physical handling, e.g. going online periodically to check that titles can still be accessed on the host platform, provision and maintenance of PC terminals, installation and updating of Acrobat Reader, provision of printing facilities.” Storage and archiving always represents an issue as well as a cost factor for libraries. This is another area where librarians expect significant cost advantages from eBooks, assuming that publishers handle online archiving. Other processes where eBooks have significant cost advantages are circulation and shelf maintenance.

According to CWI Amsterdam, “[With eBooks] the whole loan process would no longer be required, involving chasing users for returns, etc. This aspect can be very time-consuming.” “Victoria University Melbourne recognized shelving and reshelving costs as an opportunity for savings, as well, estimating that shifting from print to entirely electronic holdings would save A$350,000 annually in salaries to reshelving personnel at its 12 libraries. Long term savings in space are also desirable at Victoria University Melbourne in order to create more student places to enhance the student learning experience” While the following tasks may differ for eBooks and print books, librarians rated near-term costs as roughly equal, with potential long-term cost savings.

Collections development

A publisher’s packaging determines the degree of economic benefit libraries receive. If a package contains a large number of titles the library would have purchased individually, eBooks can provide substantial benefits. However, some librarians felt that the cost differences will be negligible, since expenses will be shifted to pricing and licensing negotiations.

Order processing

Some libraries, such as CWI Amsterdam, reported that eBook packaging made bulk ordering more efficient. Others cited inefficient and varied order processes on different publisher Web sites as reasons that ordering eBooks was more complicated and time-consuming than print. All participants agreed that eBook ordering would become more efficient over time.

Receipt and check-in

Every survey participant rated the cost of processing acquired print and electronic books roughly equal. According to the University of Muenster, “With eBooks, I don’t have to stick a label on it anymore – I’ve saved on that – but stock-taking procedures are more or less the same, so that the book enters the library’s holding list.”

Reader instruction and helpdesk

In the long term, librarians have high hopes that eBooks will reduce support costs. As Peter te Boekhorst of the University of Muenster notes, “I don’t need to spend a long time explaining to users how to use a PDF file, but I have to explain to 35 people every day where to find 3F or 3H, etc. This problem of finding your way around the library would disappear.” In the short term, however, libraries must spend their time and budget acclimating users to new technology and advertising eBook availability, negating any substantial cost savings. Mr. Antero Laiho believes thisnphase is inevitable. “The resources are very expensive so when we buy them we want them to be used as must as possible. So it is the library’s responsibility as well to promote these new acquisitions.”

Library infrastructure

While eBooks save shelf space, surveyed librarians did not agree that this will provide any significant short term cost-savings.

Future prospects for eBooks

All of the librarians involved in the study see a future for eBooks in the academic realm and all believe that there will be a far-reaching transition to electronic books. However, numerous challenges remain, such as licensing agreements and access arrangements, Most of the interviewees agreed that the evolution of users away from print toward electronic books will take at least another 5-10 years, although researchers in some disciplines (e.g., STM) and younger users may make this transition more rapidly. The printed book will never cease to exist. According to the University of Illinois’ Ms. Shelburne, “I can’t see certain types of print going away for a very long time.” Still, libraries of the future may well look different, with electronic resources accounting for a greater percentage of total holdings. While print resources will occupy shelves, library patrons will access eBooks and other electronic resources via computer terminals or from remote locations.

http://www.articlesbase.com/gadgets-and-gizmos-articles/the-benefits-of-ebook-reader-comparison-in-the-internet-3557222.html

There are many reasons why most people choose to go for Kindle these days. For one, it enables you to easily collect all the books that you desire to read. It has a huge storage capacity which can store over thousands of your favourite books, magazines, and others. That means that you no longer have to waste time finding these reading materials outside. Plus it makes you spare so much space at home for your other things. You can also take it with you wherever you go since it’s naturally made portable.

Physically, this product is smaller and thinner than those paperback books at 8 x 5.3 x 0.36 inches. It allows you to download a bunch of eBooks at the very least price. If you think you’re not technically-inclined, then there’s no need to worry because this device is user-friendly. Fresh from the box, it’s already guaranteed to work right away. It requires no computer or set-up whatsoever anymore.

As long as you’re within the US, this unit enables you to connect wirelessly. It is also as mobile as your cellular phone is. This time, searching for some sites online, like Wikipedia, Google, and more, is now doable straight from this e-based book. Furthermore, it comes with accident-proof buttons, smooth controls, standard keyboard, and great overall design which, in return, improve the scrolling, selecting, and highlighting functions of the device.

Are you tired and sick of searching for a hotspot whenever you wanted to connect to the Internet? If you were, then this device’s feature on Whispernet should sound as a relief. Through this, the users can already go online anywhere, anytime they want

 

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