EdTech Show Daily

Sony Expanding Reader Library Program to Bring Next-Generation of Digital Reading

Building on its work with libraries to expand their eBook collections and digital reading programs, Sony today announced that it has selected the next 30 libraries to participate in its Reader Library Program. The libraries, from across 20 states, include the Pikes Peak Library District, Parkland Community Library, Laguna Hills Technology Library and the Kalamazoo Public Library.

The program will be rolled out over the upcoming weeks and will provide participating libraries with in-house training on digital reading devices, educational materials to help librarians and patrons learn more about eBooks and digital reading devices for library staff use and patron demonstrations. Participating libraries have reported digital circulations more than doubling in the month following the in-house training.

New Literacy Program Attracts Attention of Educators

Electronic textbooks are a new innovation for some teachers. However, there are other teachers, especially those who use interactive whiteboards daily in their classrooms, who readily embrace these accessible textbooks. They find programs like AWARD Reading to be a powerful resource that connects with their students. They are able to share hundreds of carefully graded stories with their students and extend instruction with vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and writing tasks. The technology behind AWARD allows students to progress at their own pace and practice until the essential literacy skills are learned.

One of the strengths of AWARD Reading—recently listed as one of a limited number providing electronic textbooks in Texas—is that it offers interactive extension activities in all the reading skills, as well as a range of software packages, useful across the K–2 curriculum.

Learn more about AWARD Reading at TCEA booth 202.

Texas Instruments from the FETC Show!

From the FETC Show, Texas Instruments talks about some of their new issued products available at the show!

For more information, visit Texas Instruments.

ebrary Offers IGI Global’s Award-Winning InfoSci-Books

ebrary®, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies, today announced that it is offering InfoSci-Books, an award-winning selection of all books and reference works published since the year 2000 by IGI Global, an industry-leading publisher on advanced computer science and information technology research. InfoSci-Books features over 25,000 chapters from more than 900 scholarly titles spanning all areas of information/computer science and technology applied to business and public administration, engineering, education, medical and healthcare, and social science.

Libraries, corporations, and other organizations may choose to acquire the InfoSci-Books database with annual subscription or perpetual options, including current year packages. Individual e-books are also available for purchase at list price directly through ebrary, its global network of resellers, and select book vendors including YBP, Ambassador, Blackwell, and Matthews.

“ebrary’s flexible payment and access options enable us to provide InfoSci-Books under models that fit the needs and budget requirements of libraries, corporations and other organizations around the world,” said Jan Travers, Vice President of IGI Global. “We are also excited that customers can benefit from ebrary’s powerful research tools, which allow end-users to easily and efficiently find, use, and manage the information in InfoSci-Books.”

“We are proud to help IGI Global in its mission to disseminate the most current research on the role, impact, and effective use of technology across a variety of settings, including business, education, health care, government, and more,” said Leslie Lees, Vice President of Content Development at ebrary. “InfoSci-Books has been rated 10 out of 10 by Library Journal and was recently named ‘Best Reference Database,’ proof of the endorsement IGI Global receives from the library community.”

Customers may supplement their IGI Global collection by acquiring additional ebrary e-books and licensing the company’s technology to host their own materials in related subject areas, creating a customized, integrated database that can be delivered via a single, easy-to-use interface. Key features and benefits include the following:

• Anytime/anywhere access.
• ebrary InfoTools™ networks every word with other online resources.
• Multiple options for searching and navigating.
• Personal bookshelves automatically store links to highlights, notes, and more, providing an archive of research. Folders can be emailed to peers.
• Automatic citations when text is printed or copied and pasted into Word or any text applications. Citations include an automatic URL hyperlink back to the source.
• Highlighting and annotating.
• Ability to transform text into a hyperlink to a URL of the end-user’s choice.
• Text-to-speech and other keyboard shortcuts to assist end-users with special accessibility needs.

To request a free trial, title list or more information, please email sales@ebrary.com.

For additional informaiton visit ebrary.

ebrary Launches Content Hosting Plus

New Product Combines Pre-Packaged E-Books with Hosting Services for Instant ROI

Libraries that need to host and distribute their own digitized content such as special collections, theses and dissertations, reports, and any materials in PDF can now realize an instant return on their investment (ROI) with ebrary.

ebrary®, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies, today announced the availability of Content Hosting Plus, a new product that combines pre-packaged, full-text e-books in academic subject areas with ebrary’s hosting services. In most cases the inclusive e-books from leading publishers, which contain hundreds of titles each, are valued at more than the cost of ebrary’s hosting services.

“Content Hosting Plus offers a tremendous opportunity for libraries to easily and efficiently create digital repositories and enhance them with relevant and authoritative content provided by ebrary,” said Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary. “For example, a library that has digitized a local history collection and would like to make documents more discoverable and usable can use Content Hosting Plus and include a rich collection of U.S. history titles and maps. For the first time, libraries can gain instant value.”

With Content Hosting Plus, customers simply send ebrary their PDF files and ebrary does the rest. In most cases, customers’ sites can be up and running in days, hassle free.

Additional features and benefits:

• Pre-packaged e-books contain hundreds of titles in U.S. History, business, and other academic subject areas.
  
• Solve problems associated with cumbersome PDF files – Content Hosting Plus transforms PDF files into highly interactive databases with powerful technology for information discovery including InfoTools™.
  
• No need to hire additional staff.
  
• Capable of processing thousands of documents a day.
  
• Seamless integration with content acquired from ebrary.
  
• Built-in DRM.
  
• Easy PDF submission.
  
• Simple meta-tagging.
  
• InfoTools software for integration with other resources.
  
• 24/7 access from any computer.
  
• Comprehensive statistics - quantify user behavior.
  
• Choice of ebrary Readers.
  
• Available in multiple languages.
  
• Powerful end-user features for enhancing information retrieval, discovery, and management.
  

Libraries interested in requesting a trial or more information can email sales@ebrary.com.

For additional information visit eBrary.

Akademos Partners With Alibris To Expand Its Selection Of New & Used Textbooks

Akademos, a leader in innovative academic bookstores and marketplaces, has joined forces with Alibris, the Internet’s premier independent marketplace for book, music, and movie sellers. Their new partnership will provide students at Akademos client schools with far greater opportunities to buy new and used textbooks. The Alibris marketplace integration will take effect in early July, in time for the upcoming back-to-school season.

“This exciting development will provide a significant benefit to the students at our participating institutions,” said Akademos CEO Brian Jacobs. “For the first time, students at these schools can access a major international book marketplace through their school’s store. Alibris’s broad selection from thousands of independent booksellers is a wonderful complement to our own marketplace, where students already save, on average, more than 60% off the list price of their course books.”

Akademos operates branded online bookstores for dozens of educational institutions across the United States. It is the only private-label vendor with an integrated peer-to-peer marketplace, allowing students to buy and sell books from one another while using financial aid.

With more than 100 million items, the Alibris marketplace connects people who love books, music, and movies to more than 13,000 independent sellers from 45 countries around the world. The global reach of Alibris extends from its flagship Web site to Alibris U.K. to its partnerships with all major book sites, including Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Half.com, eBay, Chapters.Indigo, Books-A-Million, and Powell’s Books.

“We strive to create the most open environment possible, so that our customers will have the greatest number of purchasing choices and most robust course material service available,” Jacobs said. “This partnership is a natural extension of that goal. Alibris is a first-rate marketplace that has been partnering with independent booksellers since 1998.”

“Alibris is excited to support Akademos’ efforts to make new and used textbooks more affordable and available,” said Brian Elliott, President and CEO of Alibris. “Now even more college and university students can tap directly into the wide selection and discount textbook prices of our sellers.”

For more information visit Akademos or Alibris.

New Book 'Chemistry Through Inquiry' offers Investigative Experiments

Vernier Software & Technology has announced the release of their new lab book, Investigating Chemistry Through Inquiry.  The new book is aimed at helping students in high school and college think critically about chemistry experiments, while providing educators with easy-to-use labs.

Authors Donald L. Volz and Ray Smola provide strong emphasis on investigation and uniquely provide direction for both open and guided inquiry, methods they both use as chemistry instructors.  The new book includes 25 inquiry-based chemistry experiments that consist of a preliminary activity, teacher information, sample research questions, and sample data for those research questions.

Each experiment in the book is based on recommendations from the National Research Council report, “Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools” (2002), and from leading inquiry-based learning experts.

The book’s table of contents lists the different labs by topic area so that teachers can quickly reference the experiments they wish to use in instruction. Educators can also access a free sample lab online that focuses on evaporation and intermolecular attractions in alkaline and alcohols.

Visit Vernier Software and Technology for more information.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ScrollMotion Bring Curious George to the iPhone

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a global leader in education publishing, and ScrollMotion, the creators of the Iceberg Reader and ScrollMotion technology for smart phones, announced today the global release of the newly published, but already classic, children's educational book Curious George's Dictionary as an Apple iPhone application. This announcement marks the first children's and educational eBook application for the iPhone for both companies.

The Curious George's Dictionary app brings the world's most curious monkey to life in this digital version of a picture dictionary. Developed in collaboration with educational consultants, the content concentrates on essential educational development material, including the alphabet, shapes, numbers, colors and the concept of opposites, such as big/small and tall/short, all through the antics of the classic character Curious George.

Specially designed for children in preschool through first grade and reflecting recent research into childhood literacy, the app allows parents to engage their children in an entertaining multimedia learning experience through ScrollMotion's patented technology, which includes color graphics and illustrations, audio, including read-along narration, and a tactile reading experience that allows users to move through the "pages" with only a swipe of the finger.

“With this exciting new ebook app version of Curious George’s Dictionary, parents everywhere can help their children discover new words in a uniquely fun and lively way," said David Langevin, vice president and director of Electronic Markets for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Trade & Reference Division. “ScrollMotion has done brilliant product development, combining elegant design and child-friendly functionality. We feel the world’s most curious monkey’s dictionary adventure will be the most popular educational app in the iTunes App Store.”