American Library Association
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Oprah’s Book Club is coming to Apple TV+
Oprah Winfrey is one of the A-list celebrities Apple has enlisted for Apple TV+. Winfrey has already signed on for a series with Prince Harry on mental health, and she's expected to release another documentary, Toxic Labor, about workplace harassment. Today, we learned that Oprah's Book Club will get a place on the streaming platform, too.
Penguin halts over-the-air Kindle borrowing again, this time it's serious
Penguin already signaled it'd stop providing newer titles to OverDrive's lending service, but apart from a temporary interruption last year, Kindle borrowing of older books has escaped largely unscathed. That's no longer the case: as of this month, Penguin says that "eBooks loaned for reading on Kindle devices will need to be downloaded to a computer then transferred to the device over USB." Why add the extra hassle, compared to direct wireless transfer via Amazon's servers? According to Infodocket, Penguin has simply indicated that this form of distribution breached the terms of its agreement with OverDrive. However, the American Library Association (ALA) has a more developed explanation of what's going on in this nascent industry. It says that publishers are worried about the lack of "friction" involved in eBook lending, compared to the effort required to visit a physical library. This, the ALA thinks, is leading to fears that readers will borrow more and buy less. So, perhaps the wireless delivery of borrowed titles to Kindles was just too easy for Penguin's liking?
3M announces Cloud Library e-book lending service for '21st century' libraries
Both Amazon and Sony have already hopped aboard the e-book library lending train and now, it looks like they'll have to make room for 3M, as well. Yesterday, the company announced a new Cloud Library e-book lending service that will allow users to browse and borrow digital books directly from their iPads, Nooks and Android-based tablets. Under the program, 3M will outfit local libraries with its own software, hardware and e-book collection, which bibliophiles will be able to access via special apps, or 3M's new eReaders, which will be synced with available digital content. The company is also planning to install so-called Discovery Terminal download stations in libraries, allowing visitors to leaf through the collection from a touch-based interface. Thus far, both Random House and IPG have signed on to the initiative, though licensing details remain murky. There's also no word on when or where the service will launch, but 3M's Discovery Terminal and iPad app will be on display next month in New Orleans, at the American Library Association's Annual Conference. Full presser after the break.
American Library Association goes gaming
Today the American Library Association released its "Online Toolkit for Building Gaming @ Your Library" and with it, a 10-minute video walkthrough of the entire initiative (that we've included after the break). The ALA has been pushing various "gaming in libraries" initiatives over the course of the last two years and this new battle plan aims to bolster an already monumental effort. The toolkit is comprised of "resources, tips, and best practices" for aspiring libraries to join in the national push and hopes to inflate the current American literacy rate into the triple digits. Rather than simply adding various video games to a library's catalog, the toolkit emphasizes the use of games as a social medium -- championing a variety of board games old and new as well as the Nintendo DS and Playstation 3 in the aforementioned video. To be perfectly honest, considering the price of gaming coupled with that whole "global economic recession" thing we keep hearing so much about, heading out to the library for games sounds like a welcome change.
