blog/archive/2011/10/10.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from October 2011</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from October 2011</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
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   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Fri, 7 Oct 2011 19:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
  15 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
  16 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
  17 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
  18 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
  19 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
  20 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
  21 models.&lt;/p&gt;
  22
  23 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, while reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://boklaben.no/?p=220&quot;&gt;part of
  24 this debate&lt;/a&gt;, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
  25 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
  26 to a better model.  The idea is simple:&lt;/p&gt;
  27
  28 &lt;p&gt;Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
  29 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
  30 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
  31 by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gutenberg.org/&quot;&gt;Project Gutenberg&lt;/a&gt; (abount
  32 36,000 books), &lt;a href=&quot;http://runeberg.org/&quot;&gt;Project Runenberg&lt;/a&gt;
  33 (1149 books) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archive.org/details/texts&quot;&gt;The
  34 Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt; (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
  35 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
  36 distributed.&lt;/p&gt;
  37
  38 &lt;p&gt;The computer system would make it easy to:&lt;/p&gt;
  39
  40 &lt;ul&gt;
  41
  42 &lt;li&gt;Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
  43   other relevant equipment.&lt;/li&gt;
  44
  45 &lt;li&gt;Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.&lt;/li&gt;
  46
  47 b&lt;/ul&gt;
  48
  49 &lt;p&gt;In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
  50 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
  51 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
  52 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
  53 books available.&lt;/p&gt;
  54
  55 &lt;p&gt;Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
  56 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
  57 libraries. :)&lt;/p&gt;
  58 </description>
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