Tuesday, April 09, 2013

#CILDC : Build-a-Book Workshop: Starting eBook Publishing at Your Library, Douglas Uhlmann


Wikipedia has good information in ebook formats.

Some quick info...
Basic text formats can be used on a wide variety of machines, but not a robust format.
PDFs are easy to create.  Fairly versatile.  Many programs can save or print to a PDF format.
ePUB files are smaller.  Text flows better.
MOBI may be worth looking into

There are some peripherals that may make your life easier: scanner, digital cameras, screen capture, drawing tablet.  Also helpful to have different devices to test your ebook on.

What is an ebook?  The reader should be aware of the content and not the container.  What are the traditional parts of the book? What parts will be important in the digital format?

Ebook 1.0 - 
- Virtual copies of printed books
- Linear

Ebook 2.0 - 
- Takes advantages of digital technology, tools.
- Interactive.

How does an ebook 2.0 differ from a web site?  

How to?
- Planning is key
- Content is at the core
- Do road testing
- Get user feedback.  Do they have ideas about how it might be made better?
- Set realistic goals.  Factor in learning curves.

Remember to work out the intellectual property issues, especially when working with students/patrons.

Issues-
- Time
- R&D
- Content creation and learning software
- Resource integration
- Changing standards
- Promotion and integration

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