- <item>
- <title>Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 7 Oct 2011 19:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description><p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
-publishing houses how to handle electronic books. Surprisingly, the
-libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
-(DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
-publishing houses. Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
-model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
-Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
-models.</p>
-
-<p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
-this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
-sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
-to a better model. The idea is simple:</p>
-
-<p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
-Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
-solution to hand out free e-books. As a start, the books distributed
-by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (abount
-36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
-(1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
-Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
-where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
-distributed.</p>
-
-<p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
- other relevant equipment.</li>
-
-<li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-<p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
-site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
-visiting the library. The site would be the distribution point for
-the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
-books available.</p>
-
-<p>Are there anyone working on a system like this? I guess it would
-fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
-libraries. :)</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-