The CITE

Grow Custom Campaign and Initial Sponsors Announced

2012-02-02T14:23:00.000-05:00

At NMS we have often in the past spoken about shifting store focus from "margins" to "market share" in recognition that our business environment and core product are changing. A common question has been, "Well, how do we do that?"

In response, starting this month and going through the coming year we will be focusing on a Grow Custom, Grow Green initiative. Through blog postings here, a range of activities at CAMEX later this month, subsequent webinars, articles, and other communications, NMS will be encouraging stores to explore options to grow the volume of custom course materials and other custom product sold through campus stores.

To be clear, we are not talking about "dumb custom" here, which traditional has been viewed as a poor product, and justifiably so. For more on smart versus dumb custom, please read our prior post on that topic from a couple weeks ago.

The Grow Custom initiative is about growing good value, good products, and good business.

We know that many stores have traditionally resisted custom course materials for a range of reasons. Today's (and tomorrow's) custom is not what it once was. The data we are observing suggests that the custom movement, whether stores choose to participate or not, will be larger than the recent shift to rental -- a model which transformed some aspects of the North American college store industry over the past two years. Stores that forgo engaging in growing custom will see further market share reduction. Stores cannot pass on this opportunity to help students acquire the "just what you need to succeed" course materials for the classroom. The future of custom is not just a "win-win" for stores and their communities, but a "win, win, win."

We are NOT alone.
The good news is that there are many companies and organizations -- both old and new to our industry -- which can help stores be more successful with growing custom. Even better, they recognize the value of the college store in the custom equation.

NMS is excited to announce our first TEN sponsor partners of the Grow Custom initiative. At CAMEX they will be highlighting their solutions and NMS will be coordinating a range of activities to give stores exposure to what is happening in the custom space. We will soon be providing links to additional information about each of these sponsors and will provide additional information through the NMS website. We strongly encourage you to take the time to attend product spotlights, visit booths, watch demos, and talk with these organizations about what they are doing in the custom space.

Our initial 10 sponsors include the following organizations:

We thank these sponsors of the Grow Custom initiative. At CAMEX and in the coming weeks be prepared to hear more about the Grow Custom initiative and these organizations. Watch for more information throughout this month and 2012. Be sure to check out our sponsors of this initiative at a later date, and view the NMS Grow Custom information page often as information about our sponsors and other opportunities or resources will be added regularly. You can also complete an Interest in Participation Form to learn more about this or other current NMS initiatives.

Freeing books using Crowdfunds

2012-02-01T08:55:00.000-05:00

Here a story about a new company using crowd funded approach to putting books under Creative Commons licenses. The company allows individuals or institutions to join together to pay rights holders to re-license the works under a CC license.

In this process, the book’s digital rights holder sets the price to make a book as a Creative Commons, DRM-free e-book. Then the company starts a crowd funding campaign to raise money to set the book “free.” Once the money is raised the book is released and the company takes a commission.

Not sure that this business model will work beyond a select set of content, but it is yet another interesting twist on the content market.

Retail Transparency- What does it mean for you?

2012-01-31T07:23:00.002-05:00

Here’s an interesting read that speaks to retailers getting ready for new technologies that will bring new store transparency. The author, having recently attended NRF Big Show, says that now that stores have the technologies available that will give the same opportunities to reach shoppers and influence their behavior as in digital channels, stores will need to make the necessary changes in order to take advantage of the insights this new retail transparency brings.

Some of the technologies in the article talks about Bluetooth tracking, Wi-Fi-based tracking, heat maps, interactive digital signs, targeted ads deployed within the store, point of sale at the shelf, and various combinations of these are all available in turning the store black box into as formidable of a competitor as the e-Commerce site. These new tools will let stores know much more about the operations of the store than ever before but all the new data and analytics will not mean much if retailers do not take action based on them.

“In this era of transparency, it's not enough to solicit feedback from shoppers - passionate or otherwise. Just like people get frustrated with negative product reviews that don't result in any correction of product flaws, they will get frustrated with getting asked for advice about "their" store and then having that advice ignored. Not all advice has to be taken, but if it's not taken, there should be some acknowledgement and a brief explanation of why that particular idea is difficult or not the highest priority.”

Here are three recommendations from the article:

1. Measure store managers on sales conversion rates based on minutes spent per customer, not on sales per hour and labor as a percent of sales.
2. Connect store managers and employees to each other.
3. Look at how the store can market itself.

The first two may seem less relevant within the college store industry today, but the third hits home. College stores must increase their capability and sophistication at "telling their story" both on and off campus. Stores must market themselves in new ways focusing on value and outcomes wherever possible.

1/3 of US Adults Own an Ereader or Tablet

2012-01-30T07:07:00.002-05:00

According to this study the number of adults who own either a tablet or an Ereader jumped to 29% in January from 18% in December 2011. The ownership of devices doubled from 10% to 19% just between mid-December and early January. This article states since there was no new Apple products during that period and assumes that a large share of the growth can be attributed to Amazon’s Kindle and B&N’s Nook.

New Page Turning Technology

2012-01-29T07:19:00.003-05:00

Check out this video that demos the new page turning technology developed by researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. The demo shown in the link was implemented using a private Apple API. With South Korea planning on going all digital we can expect to see more innovations coming out of that country.

Responses to Apple's E-textbook Announcement

2012-01-28T07:38:00.001-05:00

Here’s a collection of responses from campuses that came after Apple’s E-textbook announcement. Here are the brief summaries and to read entire responses click here.

“More professors will try making custom textbooks for their courses.”

“Making it easy-to-create books will help authors keep textbooks more up-to-date.”

“Alumni offices and other departments can now enter the e-book world.”

“Apple’s announcement is far from revolutionary, and in fact locks content in the company’s products.’’

“Apple will likely refine its e-textbooks over time, as it did with the iPod and iPhone.”

“The spotlight on e-textbooks will help all players.”

Probably the key takeaway at this stage is that Apple's foray into e-textbooks will help further accelerate awareness and adoption of digital course materials. A great thing for companies and retailers that are already positioning themselves in that direction. Perhaps not so great for those who still think digital does not matter.

5 Things a Consumer Wants

2012-01-27T07:35:00.007-05:00

A recent Chronicle article suggests that with the mainstreaming of e-books there should be more reader-friendly services such as the following:

Let me subscribe to my favorite authors.
Keep books updated for one price.
Buy a print copy, get an electronic copy too.
Give more of my money to authors.
Indie bookstores should sell e-books.

If I could pick one of the 5 myself, I would go with #3. And if I were to add one to the list -- it would be, let me more easily lend or share my digital books. My wife and I like to share books, but too often we are unable to do so with our ebooks -- unless we were to trade our devices.

E-books Continues Growth

2012-01-26T07:35:00.001-05:00

USA Today’s Best Selling Books data reports that for 42 of the top 50 titles, the e-book editions were the most popular format according to sales data from December 26 to January 1. For e-books, “the two weeks after Christmas is what the two weeks before Halloween is to pumpkins,” says Michael Norris, an analyst with Simba Information. Norris predicts, after the post-holiday surge, e-books will see more sales in “short bursts and slow trickles” the rest of the year.

In the article, Russ Grandinetti, VP at Amazon says it print and digital sales are both up, but “digital is growing significantly faster.” He also says, “For anyone who cares about books, it’s never been a better time to be a reader. The choices have never been greater- what to read, when to read it, and how to integrate books into you daily life.”

New e-Textbook Pilot

2012-01-25T07:48:00.000-05:00

The Chronicle reported recently that a group of universities will launch a new e-textbook pilot program. Campuses including Cornell, UC Berkeley, University of Minnesota, the University of Virginia, and the University of Wisconsin are pooling their buying power and have signed on with one publisher, McGraw-Hill, to provide digital textbooks to a handful or courses at each campus. This pilot is being paid for by the universities instead of charging students a fee but if the pilot continues, students would pay the fee.

In the article, there is a reference to new data on Indiana’s pilot project that states students saved an average of $25 per book. The article does not mention whether the savings were compared to new books, used books, or rental books, or how the "savings" was calculated and confirmed.

Digital Books Reached $3.2 Billion in 2011

2012-01-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

Juniper Research reports that digital books in 2011 earned about $3.2 billion in revenue and is expected to triple to $9.7 billion by 2016 according.

“Readers are showing increasing loyalty to digital book and the e-book market is developing very fast, with consumer attitudes and behaviors changing over course of months, rather than years.” says Angela Bole of Book Industry Study Group.

But it doesn’t spell the demise print publishing. Some analysts believe print for newspapers will become extinct and magazines need to figure out the balance between print and digital.

Mobile Payments Will Continue its Momentum in 2012

2012-01-23T07:18:00.001-05:00

That is what one article predicts as more NFC enabled phones enter the market and companies sharpen their business models. The article summarizes significant mobile commerce events of 2011 and provides a snapshot of what the market players are doing in this space. Here are some of the highlights mentioned in the article:

Starbuck Corp. reported having nearly $26 million transactions since January 2011. They also managed to gain wide acceptance for mobile payments without Near Field Communication.
Square Inc. announced 1 million users of its mobile payment system. It processes approximately $11 million each day without NFC.
Google launched Google Wallet with Isis. Isis gained pivotal partnerships with key industry players.
AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile USA are supposedly investing more than $100 million into Isis.
Isis signed Visa, Amex, and MasterCard Worldwide to its system.
Isis plans to pilot in Salt Lake City, Utah and Austin, Texas this year. Consumers using Utah’s transit system can pay the transit fare using the mobile payment system.
PayPal announced its mobile plan without NFC.
Smaller companies are signing agreements with wireless carriers for mobile payment options. Companies like Boku, Danal, and Zong are finding niche markets in the industry.
Some predict if Apple launches an NFC-enabled iPhone that would create the market. Apple owns 31 patents related to NFC technology.
A research firms predicts NFC handsets in 2012 will be close to 80 million, a 129% increase from 2011.

Project MUSE Platform Goes Live

2012-01-22T07:51:00.000-05:00

Project MUSE's new interface, featuring book and journal content integrated on a single platform, is up and running. Project MUSE is a leading provider of digital humanities and social sciences content. The new interface allows you to access over 12,000 scholarly book titles from nearly 70 distinguished university presses and related publishers can now be located and browsed along with the content from MUSE's more than 500 respected journals.

Interactive Books for Adults

2012-01-21T07:27:00.000-05:00

Here is a website that posted the “Best Interactive iPad Books of 2011 for Adults.” While interactive books for younger audiences are coming out in droves, interactive books for adults are not so hard to come by. According to the article, this sector is under-reviewed and the products can be very costly making it difficult for consumers to decide which book-app is the right choice for them. The website lists these as the best interactive books for 2011: Our Choice, The Last Supper, History of Jazz, The Waste Land, Man in Space, On the Way to Woodstock, and Here on Earth.

Textbooks get grade of Incomplete

2012-01-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by American Public Media on the current state of e-textbooks this week. They pulled pieces from the interview for the story, but the story was a good public-level capturing of the topics. You can also listen to the audio version or view the print transcript on APM's Marketplace site.

Apple's Major Education Initiative

2012-01-19T17:09:00.000-05:00

You can watch Apple’s video that announces three new products that Apple hopes to be a disruptive technology to education.

The first product is called iBook 2, a free app, features digital textbooks for students. Apple states that they are currently working with some publishers including Pearson, McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, all of whom have signed on to provide e-books to Apple’s digital store.

The second product is called the iBooks Author, also a free app, that lets authors and publishers create interactive digital textbooks. The app is basically a powerful tool that allows text, videos, references, and interactive images to be easily embedded into the digital books.

The final new product is within iTunes U and lets teachers plan their curriculum and gives the ability to communicate with their students.

According to Apple, all of the products are aimed to student engagement and revolutionizing the way students learn.

Beyond the Bookstore for Publishers

2012-01-18T07:11:00.002-05:00

Yet another sign that it is time for stores to change many of their traditional ways of doing business. A recent article encourages publishers to increase sales and profit through non-bookstore marketing, particularly in light of the trend toward decreased unit sales in print books from traditional outlets. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Given the choice, there are advantages to focusing only on non-bookstore marketing. Here you can sell your content in any format – e-books, printed books, audio books or booklets. You can also sell it in many more places, including retailers, libraries, corporations, schools and associations. And in nonretail segments, book sales are sold on a non-returnable basis and you are generally paid more quickly. If that were not enough, even more benefits accrue through special sales.”

Here are ten reasons why the author says publishers should invest in the non-bookstore markets. You can read the details of each recommendation in the article.

1) Compete in a marketplace larger in size than the bookstore segment.
2) Experience growth that is virtually limitless.
3) Take your titles to the potential buyers rather than waiting for them to go to a bookstore.
4) Reduce the competition.
5) Minimize discounting since buyers do not have immediate access to competitive pricing.
6) Sell books on a non-returnable basis.
7) Stimulate increased exposure.
8) Increase your flexibility in negotiations
9) Improved cash flow, since some businesses purchase your products at list price.
10) Do what you do best.

Now I am sure many stores could articulate reasons back to publishers to encourage continued investment in the channel. A couple obvious arguments come to my mind, however, that is not the thrust or focus of this posting. The point here is that stores that want to succeed in the future must look at the trends and begin transitioning to new markets. Continuing on a path to merely extend or defend what we have always done is a fast path down the spiral of decline. We must rethink our value, or not be surprised when those who were once our partners are suddenly our competitors. To paraphrase Wayne Gretzky once again, we must learn to skate to where the puck will be -- not where it is now or has been in the past.

New Year Tablet News

2012-01-17T07:04:00.002-05:00

Here are some recent news related to tablets:

Google Tablets- Google announced in December that will launch its own tablet in six months but everyone is wondering whether it’s going to compete against the Kindle or the iPad. According to this article, some of Google’s supply chain believes Google is targeting the Kindle Fire with its own 7-inch $200 tablet running on Android 4.0.

Nintendo Tablet- This story says Nintendo will launches app store and tablet controller that acts an e-reader that can display books, magazines and strategy guides for the company’s games.

B&N Considers Spinning Off Nook

The Nook for B&N did so well this past season that the company is considering spinning off its Nook business. The article says that Nook’s business will grow to $1.5 billion this fiscal year and is currently in discussions to expand the Nook internationally.

Wiley Publishing's Interactive E-book

2012-01-16T10:47:00.000-05:00

Wiley releases new interactive mobile app for the perennial bestseller “The Leadership Challenge.” The new app called, “The Leadership Challenge Mobile Leader Tool,” allows for daily interactivity for those who use the book as a guide for building good leadership skills. The interactivity involves things like feedback process to tract and measure performance, practice routines, and inspirational quotes of the day among other tools. Wiley and apps such as this are setting the ground work for the future of e-books where readers can engage with the content of the book more intimately.

Charming Video Promoting Traditional Books

2012-01-15T07:15:00.002-05:00

Here’s a very adorable book trailer video for a short film based on Lane Smith’s “It’s a Book,” a very cute picture book for kids that promotes traditional books. The video is an exchange between a book loving monkey and a techno donkey.

We came across this video in this article titled “Charmed by Books” published in the Chronicle. This article is about an experience that a faculty member had when she introduced her class to a collection of old books in the University of Iowa’s Special Collections library. As first, she was concerned that her smartphone and laptop wielding students would not be as thrilled by old books as she was but after this exercise this is what she had to say:

“Now, I dismiss predictions of the death of the book. My new certainty that books and reading will endure wasn’t brought about poring over academic tomes or analyzing libraries’ circulation statistics. It’s a conviction that comes from 15 students, expressions of glee on their faces as they watched one of their members discover the wonders of Reinhart’s Star Wars papercraft.

This winter I've got the sort of warm satisfaction that stems from others' real interest in what matters most to us. My students, they've got books: one on order from Amazon; one in a young woman's head, hoping to make its way into print; and others that many read and loved this term, which they plan to share with the children they'll have someday. I've seen the future of the book. It's in our students' hands.”

Custom Course Materials: Smart or Dumb?

2012-01-13T07:00:00.004-05:00

Over the next few months, leading up to, during, and following CAMEX, NACS Media Solutions (NMS) will be promoting a "Grow Custom, Grow Green" initiative in the college store industry. This initiative will focus on building awareness and encouraging college stores to develop or adopt business practices in support of the adoption of custom course materials.

A logo for this initiative has been designed and NMS has begun to recruit partners in this promotional effort. To date we have just under a dozen companies and organizations that have agreed to participate in the initiative -- from large publishers to small startups. We will talk more about those partners in the weeks leading up to CAMEX.

One of our partners in this effort is the Collegiate Retail Alliance (CRA). The CRA has been working diligently with publishers and leading college stores in this area -- such as the college store at Broward College in Florida. The CRA is creating a toolkit for stores to assist in developing custom so that it is easier to grow their custom business. NMS will support the CRA initiative in several ways, but in particular we hope to facilitate the wider sharing of knowledge and best practices in this area, as well as increase awareness of the value of custom course materials.

To be clear, this initiative is not about “dumb custom” – i.e., the “custom that is not customized.” For example, taking a book, ripping off the cover, putting in the faculty syllabus (maybe), and putting a new cover on with the school and faculty member names on it would be considered "dumb custom." Our focus is on “smart custom” – i.e., custom aggregated content that is aligned or matched to student learning outcomes. Smart custom is created in partnership with faculty and linked to course descriptions, syllabi, and accreditation targets for student learning outcomes. It is in recognition that one of the biggest complaints of students is that the faculty member does not use large portions of the course materials required, and also considers where course materials are headed in the future with increasingly custom course material offerings.

There is ample evidence to show that by building custom (and by that I mean smart custom, not dumb custom) stores can lower the cost of course materials for students, increase the value of the course material product for students, increase faculty satisfaction, increase store and publisher revenues, and create an opportunity for competitive advantage. It is a strong win for nearly all players. It is a sound strategy for building market share and driving traffic. The strategic timing for focusing on custom is now as the percentage of custom is poised to grow and many of the college store's traditional and future partners are focused on customized learning solutions.

Custom does not by default negate book buyback or the used book market. Many custom books can be bought back. Increasingly course materials will likely shift away from used books, particularly on the digital side (where there is no used market), but even with print (where growing rental adoption further reduces the used supply or selection). Beyond that, there are ways to reduce the cost of custom even further (e.g., "binder ready" or "ala cart" versions) in order to make them more competitive with used options in the eyes of students.

Our interest is in growing high-value (i.e., smart) custom which is more aligned to student learning outcomes and in recognition that the old "one-size-fits-all" approach to course materials is beginning to change toward a "just-what-you-need-to-succeed model. Publishers are moving toward models where they are pressed not not to provide just a standard textbook, but one which enhances the learning outcomes in the classroom. Custom can also help institutions as they work to differentiate themselves and what they teach. We are trying to increase the intrinsic value of the products being supplied so that when students make a purchase from the college store they know that not only is it the correct materials for the course, but that the materials are there because the faculty member intends to use them in the classroom as a part of achieving targeted learning outcomes. In this way, college stores contribute to student success academically, while also improving the affordabilty of educaiton.

Smart custom also recognizes that each faculty member teaches a topic a little differently, and moving toward custom is therefore in part about the traditional academic mission of most college stores, the relationship between stores and faculty, and how stores add value to a community. It also recognizes that the top factors that most faculty consider when making a textbook selection is how the textbook fits "what they want to teach" and "how they want to teach it." Price is often a distant next factor. Smart custom helps stores provide faculty with materials that better fit their top two decision criteria, while at the same time reducing costs and increasing relevance/value -- which are top decision factors for students. Traditional course materials, whether new or used, often no longer accomplish that alignment or level of value delivery.

Growing custom also allows stores and faculty to better embrace the open source (OER) movement. If we can develop the proper mechanisms, faculty could choose to blend the OER and commercial content which best fits their interests -- and OER content could be made more visible to faculty. Doing so has the potential to further reduce course material costs. That makes it less of an "either-or" decision, and more of a "which pieces of content work best together to improve student learning outcomes in my classroom" type of decision.

Focusing on custom is not just about store sales. Done right (again, smart custom, not dumb custom) focusing on custom can reduce cost and increase value for students. Is it good for bookstore sales? I hope so -- sales should increase if the value delivered increases. More importantly, it is about strengthening the alignment of the store to the academic mission it was created to serve. Custom (whether digital or print) is going to be a growing part of the course materials landscape in the years ahead and stores would be unwise to ignore the market opportunity, or the student value proposition.

So watch for more news, announcements, and information about the NMS Grow Custom initiative in 2012. We aim to build awareness and grow the volume of custom course materials available through stores. We will have several activities at CAMEX focused on the Grow Custom initiative and our partners. We will be updating our website to list our partners and provide links to information on their products and services. You can also complete an Interest in Participation Form to learn more about this or other current NMS initiatives.

Apple Rumors

2012-01-12T07:26:00.001-05:00

Couple of Apple rumors to report for this post. First, Digitimes reports that Apple will introduce two versions of its new iPads next month at the Macworld/iWorld conference. According to CNET, sources working with Apple says the new models will target the mid and high end customers, while keeping iPad 2 to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire.

The second rumor floating around is that Apple is going to make a big announcement at the end of this month related to Apple’s entry into the textbook market. According to this article, the event is expected to be held in New York City due to the concentration of publishers headquartered there. Sources say the announcement will be focused on iTunes University, a content sharing platform, and iTextbooks.

Libraries as a Retail Outlet

2012-01-11T10:46:00.000-05:00

Peter Brantley (Internet Archive) is probably one of the more interesting and vocal folks in the library community regarding digital -- at least in terms of those we hear often outside of the library space. He has written and presented a number of interesting pieces in different forums.

Recently on the Publisher's Weekly Blog he took some time to consider the role of the library in the future of publishing and retail, particularly given the "rental" type of model many digital options are moving toward. He says, "The most important strategic opportunity for publishers rests where it has never before existed: in essence, considering libraries to be their best retail outlet." Back in 2007 we forecast that libraries and college stores would have increasing potential for overlap. Some of the points in his piece seem to reinforce that perspective. It is also interesting (again) to hear how companies like Amazon threaten the future existance of libraries as much as they threaten many traditional retailers. Again, the potential for collaboration between bookstores and libraries seems like one part of the solution to the challenges and options that Peter describes.

Peter goes on to note that:

What is important in this observation is not merely the availability of an alternative: It is that the alternative is founded upon an entirely different set of economic and market criteria. What that means is that if market competition dwindles — for example, if a large bookselling chain is forced to ultimately close its doors — publishing is not left with one or two firms operating out of a commercial technology space for whom content is ancillary. Instead, they also have the ability to conduct business through a very different kind of not-for-profit collective that reaches into nearly every single community in the country — constituting a marketing and distribution model that could be replicated to a great extent internationally.

In 2007 college stores, libraries, and IT units sat down to discuss the future of content and information in our areas. Much has changed in the last five years, and clearly each area is clearly pursuing initiatives with increasing overlap -- but unfortunately, without increasing collaboration. If each of our areas see survival as an imperative, perhaps it is time to rejoin in conversation, and collaboration, again to pool our strengths and create a joint roadmap for the future.

Of course, we should at first note that the majority (yes, the majority as in over half) of college stores are non-profit organizations tied to the academic mission of non-profit academic institutions. In many ways, college stores already operate as something of a non-profit collective within academic communities across the country. Peter suggests some extensions to our traditional model, though, that are intriguing to consider and could be the basis for future store-library collaboration, that benefits publishers, libraries, retailers, and consumers. Our related "content-with-a-purpose" missions lend us to approaching problems and solutions a bit differently, and those approaches have value. That value, as Peter notes indirectly, partly lies in providing publishers with alternative channels as a point of leverage against what may otherwise become a fairly monopolistic set of distribution options.

Big Ten to Conduct Digital Textbook Pilot Study in Fall

2012-01-10T06:20:00.000-05:00

Here’s a recent report about Big Ten universities conducting a digital textbook pilot study in conjunction with Courseload, Inc. The universities are working together to develop a pilot study that allows members of the Big Ten schools to purchase a trial package of electronic textbook services.

The universities are trying to learn about the experiences for students and instructors so that they can make future decisions regarding e-textbooks. The pilot is going to be conducted at MSU next fall and the university is currently looking for faculty participation and wants to involve up to 1,000 students. The student bookstore assistant manager says he expects “sales to be affected by digital textbooks but bookstores, to some extent, have already started reducing prices to compete with electronic books, but the technology and pricing still isn’t good enough for students to choose them over hard copies.”

Phasing Out Paper Receipts

2012-01-09T08:57:00.000-05:00

We posted a blog about digital receipts a while back but there is a recent post on the Retail Consumer Experience website that provides another good take on this topic. This is a website many of our readers might be interested in reading in general, with a number of interesting stories. We chose to highlight this story as a rapidly emerging technology that has a range of potentially positive business implications for retailers.

E-Book Piracy on the Rise

2012-01-06T09:03:00.000-05:00

There has been a recent report that E-book piracy is on the rise especially with the increased sales of e-readers and tablets. Publishers in the UK issued 115,000 warnings to illegal file sharing websites in 2011, up from 50,000 in 2010, according to the story. It is believed that illegal downloads account for up to one in five e-books downloaded. Publishers are trying to work with search engines like Google to reduce the prominence of these sites.

Investors See Opportunity in-Class Social Networking

2012-01-04T07:57:00.001-05:00

The New York Times reports that Coursekit, a higher-education social networking company, just raised $5 million in venture investments to expand the company and wider distribution.

According to its co-founder, Coursekit wants “to build what Facebook has done for your personal life, but for your school.” Coursekit’s software allows faculty to upload homework assignments, answer questions, grade work and facilitate discussions with their students, according to the story. Coursekit is free for now but the company says its main focus is attracting users, not making money. Coursekit hopes to gain enough momentum and become one of the “go-to services” that faculty and students use on campuses that is when the company perhaps can have a successful business as a storefront for books and other education-related materials.

Textbook Distribution Study

2012-01-03T07:25:00.001-05:00

We recently posted a story on Daytona State College reconsidering going all digital. This is a follow up to that post. Here is the article describing the study that Daytona State conducted that led to their decision. The study was conducted over four semesters with 12 faculty members and more than 1,250.

The study compared the experiences of students and faculty using four textbook distribution models: print purchase, print rental, e-text rental, and e-text rental with e-reader device. The following are suggestions for developing a digital program on campus based on the study:

· Offering faculty the option to teach with e-texts rather than requiring them to do so

This seemed like an obvious one. We really don’t want to force anything upon the faculty. Although there was a study from a few years back in the dental school area that found moving to digital in a "big bang" or all at once approach was more successful than transitioning more slowly.

· Ensuring that infrastructure is adequate to meet greatly increased demands

According to the study, the students had challenges accessing publisher’s content and had some initial problems with overloading on wireless network.

· Remedying the technological skill deficits inherent in an open-access student population

This is a quote from the study, “ After teaching with an e-text, one faculty member concluded, “We need to get more students up to speed technology-wise- top spend more time explaining simple tech concepts.” Another faculty was quoted as saying s/he noticed a “huge learning curve for some students or students without much [previous] opportunity to use technology.”

· Guaranteeing students cost savings large enough to compensate for their initial discomfort and frustration with the technology

Cost savings are a key driver for student adoption, but so is perceived relevance and value. Any initiative focused solely on cost is likely to not achieve its intended outcomes.

· Providing resources and support for faculty adapting their instruction to fit new formats.

The study suggested digital programs should be supported at every level of the college including programs and departments. Faculty remain a barrier to digital course materials and there is need for more professional development and consideration of what it will take to get faculty to convert.

Perhaps the real lesson here is to have a digital strategy in advance, and to look before you leap. While digital course material technologies are maturing, there are still some barriers that prevent wholesale converstion across every discipline or every institution type. The lessons learned by Daytona State are not surprising, but they are important for other institutions considering similar all-digital moves.

Thank you to our readers...

2012-01-01T20:01:00.002-05:00

As we reach the end of another year, Jeong, Veronica, and I will take this opportunity to thank the many readers of this blog from around the world, whetheryou follow the CITE occasionally or regularly. A special thanks to those who contributed with thoughts, comments, encouragements and even disagreements.

In the past year, numerous innovations, emerging technologies and other developments affected the course materials and retail industries -- from Borders closing and the rise of the tablet, to new course material providers, growth in price comparison, rapid adoption of rental models, and new legislation. 2011 was an eventful year, and 2012 promises to provide an even faster pace as digital course materials and mobile technologies begin to pass the "knee of the curve" and move toward meaningful adoption. The question, of course, is, "Who will control the channel and markets for the new course material formats?"

In 2012 NACS Media Solutions (NMS) and the CITE will take time to focus on some very specific themes. In line with our "Market Share, Not Margins" theme of the past couple years, this year we will emphasize "Grow Custom." We will take time to highlight companies and technologies that grow 'smart custom', why custom is good business practice, and how custom provides increased value to faculty and students. Our real "Grow Custom" campaign will kick off with CAMEX in March, so stay tuned for that and other announcements and developments.
As for The CITE, we welcome your feedback, as always. Readership was down this year, due in part to the summer hiatus, as well as possibly other reasons. There are far more voices out there now talking about changes in course materials, and so some of the original purpose of The CITE is now somewhat served by others. However, the CITE did earn a top 5 spot among the "50 Best Textbook Blogs" this year, and saw its 1000th posting after passing its third year of existance. Many thanks to our readers -- new, old, regular, or occasional, North American, or abroad.

Hoping for a happy and prosperous new year to you all!!
Mark

Tough Questions on OER

2011-12-30T07:55:00.001-05:00

Here is an interesting OER article that examines a recent U-Mass initiative that offers UMass instructors a $1,000 stipend for producing instructional materials that are free to UMass students. The author asks whether models such as the U-Mass initiative produce quality products and whether it can be sustained over time because of funding issues. What is needed, according to the article, is a sustainable business model for OER that does not transfer costs from one source to another, or reduce the quality of the material for students.

The article does not think a higher education institution can produce quality material because the institutions “do not have the systems, incentives, processes, and skill sets and so forth of publishers.” Basically, you can’t compare a $1,000 book to a $150,000- $1million dollar book. Further, the author does not expect faculty to do work for little or no pay forever and if we have to rely on the schools we will only see increase in tuition to compensate for OER initiatives. Also, relying on philanthropists is never a guarantee and the ability to produce curriculum would be dependent on attracting donors.

The OER movement does have some good examples out there -- Connexions comes to mind as one of those models moving in the right direction. However, there seem to be more poor examples than good ones -- and beyond quality, there are accessibility issues to consider as well. In addition, if the future of course materials is digital, interactive, linked to student learning outcomes, etc., then is paying faculty to reproduce traditional print textbooks without the editing, vetting, and other elements that go into creating many of today's course materials really going to have the expected impact? Cheap textbooks -- but at what educational cost? Are there better ways to spend our innnovation dollars that reduce course material costs while maintaining or even improving student learning outcomes? That is the solution we should be looking for rather than reinventing stone wheels.

7 out of 10 Students Don't Buy Textbooks

2011-12-29T07:12:00.002-05:00

In the November 29th article by Campus Technology, University of California, Riverside’s recent annual survey, “Undergraduate Experience Survey,” finds that seven out 10 students do not buy textbooks, instead they prefer to rent them, rely on faculty provided materials, or do without them completely. According to the survey, 73% of students who respond to the survey postpone the purchase and 74% of students chose to skip buying them altogether. The university’s Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Steven Brint, commissioned a report on the survey in order to show faculty that “students’ behavior with respect to textbook purchasing may be different than they think.” “Ultimately, the survey results suggest that not all students are doing the required reading for their courses,” says Brint.

If this statistic is the same at other institutions, then perhaps the greatest competitor to textbook sales is actually the choice not to buy at all.

OER Guide Suggest POD Capabilities in Higher Ed

2011-12-28T07:54:00.000-05:00

The "Guideline for Open Educational Resources Higher Education" is now available (ISBN 978-1-894975-42-1). The document was co-produced by Commonwealth of Learning located in British Columbia and UNESCO, two very influential organizations in the OER movement. We recommend reading the entire guide but if your time is limited read Appendix 1, “Useful knowledge, competences and skills for effective use of OER in higher education.” Below are some of the suggested items from the guide. The last item may make economic sense as to why stores should prepare for OER on campus.

· There should be clarity about the economic benefits of OER, in terms of marketing institutions and programmes, the cost-effectiveness of materials production, and policies, contracts and grants;

· Be competent to determine requirements for copyright clearance and privacy to release materials under open licenses;

· Be able to Reflect copyright and disclaimer statements accurately in materials of different kinds and multiple media;

· Be able to identify relevant content areas for programmes, courses and modules;

· Be able to negotiate with external individuals and/or organisations to issue or re-issue resources under open licenses;

· Understand whether it is permissible to modify the content when customizing materials and , if so, to what extent in can be done and how it should be handled;

· Understand that if work has been adapted for a specific purpose, how this should be indicated in the customized content;

· Reinforcing the need to credit the original author/source of the content that is being accessed for use through open licensing; and

· Implementing the necessary processes for producing print-on-demand texts.

Daytona State College Reconsiders Going All Digital

2011-12-27T07:59:00.000-05:00

Here is a recent article about Daytona State College backing off a previous plan to go all digital textbooks. The decision comes after a report by the school that suggests students should have a choice whether to use a traditional textbook or an e-textbook.

Michelle McCraney, the project manager of a pilot program conducted by the school, where 1,250 students and 12 faculty participated in evaluating electronic and rental books, says “some students prefer to have a book, and some students prefer to have a computer to read their books and some students like to rent their books. Everybody learns differently and you have to be able to embrace that and let people choose.”

According to the article, the school’s study found that “the majority of students found the e-book to be an inconvenience and more time-consuming than flipping through a textbook because it was also challenging at times accessing the books.” The students also commented in the report the issues of the hidden costs of the e-book, such as a computer, online access, and printing.

The campus hopes to ease into transforming more e-textbook in the school by offering mentoring programs for faculty who are interested in using e-textbooks in their classes.

This story is very similar to the experience of California State University’s pilot program where the conclusion was about choice, affordability, and accessibility. CSU emphasizes heavily on education faculty and students about e-textbooks.

MacMillan to Launch Digital Textbook "Principle of Biology"

2011-12-26T07:07:00.001-05:00

According to this story, Nature Publishing, a division of Macmillan Publisher will debut its digital textbook “Principle of Biology” in January. The digital textbook is packed with interactive features from dynamic illustrations to interwoven audio and video clips into the text.

Nature Publishing “chose to make the browser central to the textbook, rather than creating individual apps for students to use on electronic devices- an expensive procedure that might require as many as 20 versions, the website senses which device a student is using say a laptop or a tablet, and delivers the appropriate format to the browser.”

The textbook was piloted at some campuses of California State University this past year.

Hot Book Apps

2011-12-24T07:19:00.001-05:00

Interested in learning about what the hottest e-book apps are out there? Check out this article titled “Boundary-pushing e-books that blow the page away.” In the article are list of the best of the best e-books that are much more elaborate and interactive and ordinary e-books.

Growth of Digital Instructional Materials

2011-12-23T07:28:00.001-05:00

Simba Information, a market research firm for the media and publishing industry, report that the multimedia materials in higher education, in the U.S., will grow 48.4% by the end of 2011, topping at $1billion.

According to the press release, “multimedia materials include a range of content, tools and services from homework assignments and assessments to downloadable lectures, website access for students, e-textbooks and teaching aids for instructors.”

Kathy Mickey, an analyst at Simba says, “Although textbooks remain the largest revenue stream for publishers, the multimedia materials segment is where they can expect to compete against the used and rental textbook sellers.” Mickey also adds that “Pearson so far has reported the highest percentage of revenue from products tied to digital solutions and services, nearing half of their global education revenue.”

2011-12-22T07:18:00.002-05:00

As an update to the prior posting on the new ISBN policy from BISG, the organization will be hosting a webinar to discuss and explain the policy. The program description states:

On December 7, 2011, BISG published their Board-approved Policy Statement on best practices for identifying digital products. The objective of this Policy Statement is to clarify best practices and outline responsibilities in the assignment of ISBNs to digital products in order to reduce both confusion in the market place, and the possibility of errors.

Download the Policy Statement here.

Since publication, the BISG office has received many questions and much feedback.

In order to help clarify meaning and expectations regarding the Policy Statement's recommendations, this live, interactive webcast will feature a strong Q&A component. The publishing industry is encouraged to submit questions and/or feedback regarding the Policy Statement to angela@bisg.org by Friday, January 6th for consideration on the webcast's agenda.

For those who think this policy does not apply to them, please take time to read it closely. Depending on how one reads the policy, it could potentially further complicate things for students and course materials. If ISBN is treated as the gold standard of identification, and if rental digital has a different ISBN than a sold digital for example, or a unique ISBN written for the IPad versus another device, then it become more complicated for students or consumers to determine whether a particular piece of content is actually the correct piece of content for their learning needs.

Effectively, there could be potentially dozens of ISBN's assigned for essentially the same textbook. That already exists today, but as formats and devices proliferate, it further complicates things for the consumer, rather than making it easier, and it raises questions about what ISBN does the college store or institutions post relative to HEOA. This policy could also be used to steer students to a specific format or sales channel through ISBN adoption -- rather than allowing students the choice to pick the format, device, or even retailer best for them.

Stores are allowed to submit feedback on the policy as well, and I encourage stores to consider attending this webinar to learn more and raise any questions or concerns that might be out there related to the potential consumer or retailer implications of the policy.

Pay attention to Where Financial Aid Dollars are Spent

2011-12-21T09:15:00.001-05:00

An annual audit of Luzerne County Community College finds several “significant deficiencies” that “merit attention,” according to this article.

One of the items on the list was the following bullet:

· “Failure by the college bookstore to make sure federal financial aid to students is spent on items allowed by federal regulations. The auditor found $4,748 of “questioned costs” in a sampling of 138 students.

As the issue of college affordability becomes a topic of contention and possibly become a presidential campaign issue college store operations and financial aid could be something that might be investigated with more scrutiny so stores should be more attentive to financial aid rules regarding purchases made with financial aid dollars.

ISU Bookstore sees 2-3% increase in digital sales

2011-12-20T11:20:00.001-05:00

Iowa State University bookstore store saw 2-3 percent increase in e-book sales on 2011, according to this article. However, the program director says, “the print book is not dead considering sales from 2009-2010 were about the same when the amount of sales from e-books was subtracted.”

The bookstore offers comparison shopping too where they can compare prices with Amazon and halfpricebook.com and students can purchase books from any of these competitors. “Of all the students that used these comparisons, 83 percent of them bought from the ISU Book Store,” says the Director. Price comparison remains a good way to build trust, provide transparency, and retain or regain market share for college stores.

Samsung's New Flexible Display on Video

2011-12-18T07:34:00.001-05:00

Samsung releases videos of their new flexible display technology here. The video is filled with transparent, flexible screens, and augmented reality that Samsung hopes to rival Apple. At first, it appears unreal but Samsung plans to introduce this technology in the market in 2012.

Step closer to Instant Learning

2011-12-17T06:39:00.000-05:00

Here’s a recent story on current research into instant learning similar to how Neo learned how to fly a plane in the Matrix. So, if you are interested in learning how to play the piano downloaded into your brain keep an eye on this science. Based on a techniques known as decoded neurofeedback, or DecNef, an individual can be trained to alter brain function, in order to match that of someone already possessing a certain skill. The researchers hope to apply this technique to mental disorder patients that could be trained to match the brain activity patterns of a healthy person. Just think about the ways THAT kind of technology could be misused.

White House Meets with Higher Ed

2011-12-15T07:52:00.001-05:00

Here is an update by the Chronicle on President Obama’s private meeting with presidents of higher education institutions. While there were no concrete proposals one president, according to the article, believes that “some pretty substantial proposals will evolve in the next few months. The three take away messages were: Urgency on College Affordability, solution will have to affect all sectors of higher education, and the country needs innovations and cost-management from colleges and leadership from the states." F. King Alexander says, “I would say they’re in the process of formulating some proposals that would certainly have an impact on higher education and force higher education to think creatively about their ability to help students succeed and control college costs.”

According to the story, the meeting comprised of college presidents who have a record for implementing programs to increase achievement, reduce costs, or both. “The Obama administration was looking for ways to take successful efforts and make them ‘more strategic and more systemic and have more of an impact because we’re not where we want to be on college tuition.’”

Decline in Print Sales in 2011

2011-12-14T07:56:00.000-05:00

Association of American Publishers’ report shows sales of print books dropped 18.6% between Q1-Q3 of 2011 in major trade categories, Publishers Weekly reports. According to this article, while e-book sales climbed almost to 140% for 15 of the reporting houses, the jump did not offset the slow sales in the print segment. The combined print and e-book sales fell 5.7%, less than the 8.6% overall drop at the end of the first half of 2011.

EDUCAUSE Release Report on Mobile IT in Higher Education 2011

2011-12-13T07:18:00.001-05:00

The Mobile IT in Higher Education 2011 report released just recently by EDUCAUSE, reveals that there has been slow progress in making institutional services, applications, and websites accessible on mobile devices and that the average school has allowed only a few services for mobile access. However, the report finds that applications related to student learning and course management systems were identified by large proportions of respondents as the “killer mobile app for higher education.”

Here are some of the Key Findings of the report:

“More than one-third of respondents said they had not spent any money on mobile-enablement in the past 12 months, while two institutions had spent more than half a million dollars.”

“Nearly 40 % of institutions did not mobile-enable any services in the last 12months.”

“Where mobile activity is taking place, services geared toward students are outpacing those for faculty or staff, both in priority and enablement.”

“General communications remains the areas for which respondents expect the heaviest demand for the 2011-2012 academic year.”

“A third of students see mobile devices as an important component of academic success, and majorities regularly use their devices for academic activities.”

“Many respondents consider integrated student services as currently the most valuable area for development of mobile services. Specifically, applications related to student learning and course management systems were identified by large proportions of respondents as the “killer mobile app for higher education.”

“By a wide margin, central IT most often has primary responsibility for mobile-enablement of institutional services, At smaller institutions, though, and those with smaller budgets, vendor-supplied mobile apps are seen as an important part of mobile initiatives.”

“The median amount spent for each mobile app deployed in higher education is just above $5,000, though the range of per-app costs runs from less than $2,000 to more than $16,000.”

EDUCAUSE has set up Research Hub with more information on the report, including an infographic with findings:

Choosing the Right Script for Your Store

2011-12-12T07:23:00.001-05:00

Here’s a great article titled “7 Steps For Creating Disruptive New Retail Experience,” in Fast Company’s Co.Design’s November newsletter.

To provide your customers the experience that will stand out from mundane shopping practice you have to look beyond the subject of design to sociology, economics, organizational behavior, and even theater, the article suggest. By finding the intersection of these fields we can find the right script for your store. “Scripts” are unwritten and unspoken shared rules that govern how people act that guide our day-to-day behaviors and interactions, according to the story. Scripts are the reason why people behave similarly at the DMV and at holiday parties.

The article suggests seven principles that will help you design and choose the right script for your store.

Experience design is not about luxury- It’s not always about “Premium” ideas. Think about Southwest Airlines and how they combine heart, humor, and efficiency to air travel.
Start with empathy- Stepping into the customer’s shoes. Good example is Harley Davidson because they employee bikers.
Do you own thing- Find authentic sources of connection with your customers and stick to them. Think about Target
Utilize all elements of theater- Think of the whole shopping experience as a “play,” including casts, costumes, set, and props. Good example is Starbucks.
Use different incentives to create different behaviors- Provide employees with right incentives like what Saturn did by employing salaried salespeople and eliminated the stereotypical sleazy car salesman.
The devil is in the trade-offs- Managing the trade-offs is crucial to finding the script with a character that separate you from the rest.
Evolve to stay relevant- Always experiment with new ideas and be ready to change to meet people’s needs.

CourseSmart Launches New App

2011-12-11T08:25:00.000-05:00

CourseSmart recently made reading e-textbooks more accessible with the unveiling of the new app that can be used on the Kindle Fire, iPad, and Android devices. The free app provides customers with a catalog of more than 20,000 e-textbooks created by CourseSmart, as well as other digital course materials and users will need to pay for access to the e-materials. To use the app you need Google Chrome, Safari, or Amazon Silk on Android 3.0 and higher, Kindle Fire, or iPad devices. Compatibility with other Android devices, iPhone, and iPod Touch is in the works, according to CourseSmart.

More on Amazon...

2011-12-09T23:31:00.000-05:00

Following up from the last post -- there are some great posts around on Amazon's latest "marketing" campaign targeting independent retailers. First is the open letter from the American Bookseller's Association -- an instant classic in both its satire and its seriousness.

A lot can be said about Amazon's business practices. Most of it probably not very nice. By most accounts, Amazon does little for local communities or economies. Like many things these days, consumers go for the quick savings without considering or perhaps understanding the longer term costs or broader implications. Amazon looks great up front, but there are costs -- and those costs are born by local communities and small businesses.

Take, for example, the college store -- most college stores are non-profit small businesses whose net profits go back to the institution to support educational affordability -- financial aid, student services, or sometimes capital budgets. Most college stores are working on reducing the cost of course materials in many creative ways -- while still making returns and contributions to their local campus communities, and in many cases their states too, since college stores collect sales tax in most states.

The latest Amazon campaign may look like a simple marketing gimmick. Maybe it is. But at what point do their business practices go too far and the costs to our communities become too high?

Amazon's latest marketing effort

2011-12-09T16:10:00.000-05:00

Amazon is offering $5 off on items if you take a picture of that same item at any brick and mortar store and you purchase through their online store. You are permitted to three items on Saturday December 10^th.

Here is a not so happy indie bookstore owner, who writes in PW,

“To encourage people to snoop at other stores and report back . . . so they can keep their prices competitive is pathetic. Here’s what I do: I pay sales tax, I donate thousands of dollars to local schools, charities, Little Leagues, church pie suppers, school trips, Geobee prizes, etc. I support my community and that means going to local stores and buying things there. Price is not the only factor for me”

In response to this promotion some indie owners have started an Occupy Amazon movement on the same day.

Book Rental Expanding Fast -- and moving into Digital

2011-12-08T07:46:00.003-05:00

Business Insider recently interviewed Chegg CEO Dan Rosensweig who says the four year old company has services available on about 8,000 campuses and processes millions of orders a year. Yes, the article reported 8,000 campuses. Chegg’s additional services than other their core book rental business include Student of Fortune, a Q&A homework help site, and Notehall, a class notes marketplace. According to Rosenweig, Chegg wants to provide as much digital content to students as possible including class notes, books, and study groups.

Incidentally, Notehall ran into some legal troubles over its note taking business with some California State University students which violated campus copyright policy. Chegg has acknowledged the policy and has agreed shut down their note taking business at specific universities effective January 1, 2012.

Finally, Kno, which spun out of Chegg, is working on e-textbooks and a related delivery platform. Previously the company was working on a tablet type device, but subsequently withdrew that initiative. However, this month they unveiled their "free textbook campaign" where they tend to give away one free e-textbook to every user. A copy of their campaign ad appears below.

Study Finds eBooks Revenues Will Reach $9.7billion by 2016

2011-12-07T07:28:00.007-05:00

MarketWatch’s recent press release highlighted a report from Juniper Research that predicts eBooks revenue will reach to $9.7 billion by 2016, an increase from $3.2 billion in 2011. The report also suggest that the 30% of all eBook downloads will occur through tablet devices by 2016. The upsurge is the result of ongoing growth in the dedicated eReader market as well as increase sales of tablet devices.

Is there anyone out there who still think digital books (or course materials) will not matter to booksellers or college stores by 2015? If you are a retailer, what is your digital strategy?

Investments in digital continue

2011-12-06T07:46:00.023-05:00

Here is a couple stories about digital content companies that received venture funding over the last couple of months. The first story notes that iStoryTime (creator of children's apps) was awarded a $2 million investment from CFP & Founders Investments. This is a sign that the digital content marketplace is still growing and investors are betting that the convergence of digital content and tablet type devices are going to lead the charge in growing this market.

We also found yet another story about a new start-up company in the higher education space. This one is offering a new course management tool. Started by three University of Pennsylvania dropouts has raised more than $1million for their venture thus far. The software called Coursekit, is an online course platform that highlights social networking and easy-to-use interface. Coursekit allows discussions, grade posting, calendar and link sharing, and creates student profiles. Currently, thirty universities are piloting Coursekit and the company has hired 80 students to act as ambassadors to other colleges.

What really happened to the dinosaurs

2011-12-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

Every mature industry gets referred to as dinosaurs once in a while. One of the challenges dinosaur organizations or industries sometimes have is "missing the boat" when it comes to emerging technologies. They wait too long before starting to move, and then it is too late. That is one of the reasons why when a radical innovation is involved, the incumbents are often not among the victors -- survival requires reinvention, which is difficult if you have to maintain one foot in the "old world" and the old business infrastructure, while managing transition. Regardless....

A colleague from another organization shared the comic below with me recently. Captures the basic idea well -- and it is a great comic for a Monday morning. I could not find the original online image by the artist.

Fair Use Copyright Lawsuit

2011-12-04T07:47:00.001-05:00

Faulkner Press v. Class Notes d/b/a/ “Einstein Notes”

There is an interesting lawsuit concerning copyright infringement pending in a Florida district court concerning the sharing of course information and may answer the question of whether sharing of course materials actually qualifies as fair use.

Professor Michael Moulton, a faculty member at University of Florida published an e-book version of his lectures notes and slides through Faulkner publishing. He had also registered this information with the copyright office. The lawsuit was filed after the lecture outlines and film study questions prepared by Professor Moulton were copied and packeted for resale by a local copy shop. The professor had transferred his copyrights in the materials to a publisher, who filed the infringement action. This past June, the district court ruled on the cross motions for summary judgment. Recognizing that the text materials were protected by copyright, the court wrote:

“The parties have presented various arguments for and against a finding of fair use. Genuine issues of material fact remain for a jury to determine regarding fair use.”

The consequence of this case, much like the outcome in the Georgia State e-reserves lawsuit, has the possibility to greatly impact our understanding and application of fair use. It will also impact the validity of sites similar to Course Hero and any other entity profiting from the sharing of course materials.

Read Books on Contact Lens?

2011-12-03T07:10:00.003-05:00

Don’t blink you might miss something.

This CNN article says researchers at the University of Washington and Finland's Aalto University have developed a prototype of a contact lens that would project digital images onto the retinas of its wearer. According to the story, the researchers published in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, says, contact lenses that display digital information are the holy grail for this genre of reality-bending work. Ultimately, projected displays from contact lenses can replace all the other screens we look at.

Those of you sorry to give up books for screens might soon be able to lament the loss of those screens as well!

Growth in Multimedia Course Learning Products

2011-12-02T07:38:00.001-05:00

This story from Marketwire says Simba Information’s latest report shows that the U.S. market for multimedia materials in higher education will grow 48.4%, topping $1 billion by the end of 2011. According to the story, Cengage Learning's learning tools such as Aplia (homework assistance) and SAM (skills-assessment assistance) had more than 20% growth in a one-year period. The story also says that product such as Pearson’s MyLabs continues their success on campus and John Wiley & Sons is arranging to unveil a more interactive version of its learning platform WileyPLUS in the near future.

The article quotes Kathy Mickey, senior Simba Information analyst, “Publishers are seeing double-digit growth across the board with multimedia materials. Pearson so far has reported the highest percentage of revenue from products tied to digital solutions and services, nearing half of their global education revenue. Although textbooks remain the largest revenue stream for publishers, the multimedia materials segment is where they can expect to compete against the used and rental textbook sellers,”

So, if you take a conservative estimate of 20% growth rate for multimedia learning products over the next three years we can expect this market to reach over $3 Billion by 2015. This story should encourage campus stores to put learning tools in your digital product offerings.

Streamlining ISBNs for Digital

2011-12-01T10:35:00.001-05:00

Book Industry Study Group releases its policy statement assignment of ISBNs to digital products. To read the official announcement go here.

The aim of the statement was the address the critical need to reduce product identification confusion in the digital market place in order to provide the best customer experience.

Here are some relevant excerpts that you might be interested in.

“Separate ISBNs should be assigned to all unique Digital Books for ordering, listing, delivery and sales tracking purposes. In general, there are three major factors that determine the need to assign unique ISBNs to Digital Books.

Content: If two digital books are created, one an exact textual reproduction of a Physical Book and the other an enhanced version that includes video, audio, etc., then the two Digital Books are unique and different products, and each requires a unique ISBN.

Format: If an EPUB format, a PDF format and a Mobi format (among others) are created, each format should be assigned a unique ISBN. This is similar to creating a hardcover and paperback edition of a Physical Book and should follow the same rules regarding ISBN assignment.

DRM: When the application of DRM software is part of the transaction with the Consumer (as frequently happens in the US) it does not constitute the creation of a new format as the term is being used in this Policy Statement. In this case, DRM is not a format: it is a wrapper around a product. An EPUB file with DRM software applied is still an EPUB file, a PDF file with DRM applied is still a PDF file. In this case, DRM is not part of the product, it is part of the transaction. An ISBN is a product identifier, not a transaction identifier.

Usage Rights: If a Digital Book is made available with different usage rights in different markets (e.g. adjusting the usage settings so that printing is allowed in the version going to the education market, but not in the version going to the retail market), each version should be assigned a unique ISBN.”

Copyright and Course Materials

2011-12-01T07:10:00.001-05:00

Here’s a story that might be of interest to campus bookstores especially as custom coursepacks become more commonplace and as faculty incorporate more of their original materials into these coursepacks.

The story talks about how distribution of course notes, lecture recordings, and exam copies has become an emergent commercial enterprise by brick and mortar and online entities.

As this happens more often, many professors are concerned that their unique and creative work product, such as stylized lecture slides, detailed course materials, and syllabi, are being made accessible without their knowledge or permission. To help counter the problem, universities have adopted policies prohibiting students from sharing course materials.

For example, University of Virginia has recently implemented a policy related to recording of classroom lectures and distribution of course materials by students. This policy states that recordings, course materials, and lecture notes may not be exchanged or distributed for commercial purposes, for compensation, or for any other purpose other than study by students enrolled in the class. Public distribution of such materials may constitute copyright infringement in violation of federal or state law, or University policy. Violation of this policy may subject a student to disciplinary action under the University’s Standards of Conduct.

Other schools like Cornell have devised informational sites for faculty to assist them in locating infringing downloads and requesting take-down. Cornell website lists these websites that are known to redistribute course materials.

Beyond Opportunities

2011-11-29T07:51:00.008-05:00

In the Nov/Dec 2011 issue of EDUCAUSE Review,the article, “If Not Now, When?” predicts that the college bookstores will be “shattered” within five years along with textbooks, learning management systems, and schools. Author Adrian Sannier is the former CTO at Arizona State University who was responsible for the early Kindle pilots at that institution, and now works for Pearson Education.

Sannier argues that the convergence of trends such as wireless, smartphones, social networking, tablets, and data mining, and their convergence will lead to a digital shift in higher education that will change the education system forever. Sannier notes, “We are now poised to capture the value. The stage is set. The long-awaited digital shift in education can begin. Get ready for the Four Beyonds.” The Four Beyonds are- Beyond Textbooks, Beyond Bookstores, Beyond Learning Management Systems, and Beyond Schools.

This is an excerpt on “Beyond Bookstores:"

“The second sign that the digital shift is imminent is the stress that campus bookstores are under. Campus bookstores have been one of the core institutions of higher education, distributing learning materials to students for a century or more. Uniquely adapted to serve as the middleman between professors’ textbook choices and students’ needs to buy, return, and sell those texts, bookstores have filled a local niche, ensuring the necessary supply of eclectic materials that students would otherwise have to travel far and wide to obtain. As digital forms of these materials have been created, bookstores have turned them into physical products, in the form of access cards and the like, fitting them into the brick-and-mortar business model rather than adapting to the speed and flexibility of electronic retail.

But recent distribution innovations made possible by the Internet have inverted this dynamic, fitting physical texts into the high-speed, high-choice landscape of e-retail. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chegg, and a host of smaller e-retailers offer many of the staples of the campus bookstore at lower prices and even by rental—putting serious pressure on the retail margins of campus bookstores. And as more products move into digital format, the old business models that kept campus bookstores in the distribution game are being replaced by direct sales, which cut the store profit but provide a better price for students and greater convenience for professor and student alike.

The same forces that brought the once-mighty Borders to bankruptcy in 2011 are arrayed against the campus bookstore. In its place will be a direct distribution model for learning materials, one that streamlines the adoption and distribution of digital solutions. This will no doubt cause short-term disruption as the old model unravels, but the end result will be a much wider choice of learning materials and more fluid distribution.”

The author closes by saying:

“Beyond Textbooks, Beyond Bookstores, Beyond Learning Management Systems, Beyond School—the changes introduced by technology have already begun. The digital shift is upon us. If other industries and other fields are any guide, once the dominos begin to fall, progress will be swift and irreversible.”

In Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), the Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter wrote:

The opening up of new markets, foreign or domestic, and the organizational development from the craft shop to such concerns as U.S. Steel illustrate the same process of industrial mutation—if I may use that biological term—that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one. This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. (p. 83)

College stores that are willing to adapt and change will get through the transformation and find new opportunities that require new business models and practices. Call it Beyond the Possibilities, but the tools that are making this transformation happen will also be the tools that will propel the college store into the digital world and beyond. College stores can and are transforming themselves into e-retailers, and provide values beyond just the middleman aspects that Sannier describes. The college IT community is increasingly talking around the college store without understanding the business and some of the true value the college store provides. To be fair, college stores have, for the most part, been terrible at "telling their story" as to the full range of value they provide to many institutions.

In 2007 college stores, IT departments and librarians met for a summit on the future of information delivery in higher education. There is value and some functional overlap between our areas, but at the same time we all have some unique strengths and value-adds. Now that five years have passed and the landscape has shifted significantly perhaps it is time for these groups to engage in conversation again.

Belated Happy Birthday to Weber State University- 100th

2011-11-28T12:06:00.000-05:00

A couple months back we wished University of Maine Bookstore its 100^th Birthday. We have one belated Happy 100^th to go out to Weber State University bookstore.

This is a quote from the school paper. “In 1911, a small, one-room bookstore served the Weber Academy campus. Today, 100 years later, the bookstore’s three locations and online store serve 24,000+ Weber State University students, as well as faculty, staff, alumni, the community and a whole lot of impassioned Wildcat fans.”

Here is a link to the school’s video celebrating its centennial. If stores are interested in how to get the fun back in the campus bookstore you have to check out Weber State University bookstore.

University of Texas El Paso Selling Kindle and e-books

2011-11-27T07:18:00.001-05:00

Here is an October 18 article on University of Texas El Paso bookstore selling Amazon Kindle family. In partnership with a third party digital textbook provider they hope to see more students turning to digital for their coursework. While the sales were not great within the first two weeks of launch, Yolanda Torres, textbook manager at the bookstore, remains hopeful that UTEP students will soon resort to e-readers to avoid textbook hassles, according to the story. "As of right now, we haven't sold any. I suppose the kids either prefer physical texts or don't know about them," Torres said. "We do not sell them online and the only way we advertised is in-store and the sign outside the doors."

Digital Receipts: The Good and The Bad

2011-11-26T07:39:00.004-05:00

Here’s a story that says more retailers are looking to provide digital receipts but some customers are a little weary of personal data. Retailers already sending email receipts include companies like Gap, Kmart, Best Buy, Sears, and Apple. Receipts can be received via email and can customers can access receipts on the Web or on their mobile phones, according to the article.

Some of the benefits of digital receipts include the convenience for customers, who require receipts for such things as product warranties and tax records. It also supports in helping to reduce fraudulent returns."It definitely will help cut down on fraud," said Joe Masar, marketing director for D&B Supply, an Idaho-based, farm-and-ranch store that is currently exploring digital receipt solutions. "You never want to treat your customer like a criminal, so we tend to trust them. Sometimes we're over-trusting." However, with a digital receipt, Masar said, "then there's no question."

The negative to emailed receipts is that it makes customers nervous about personal data being available to retailers. Some people consider their spending habits to be personal and they feel personalized marketing to be invasive.

According to the article, Kmart spokesman Aiello recognizes that the corporation is incorporating this information for added personalized marketing such as offering coupons and promotions based on spending habits, but he sees it as benefit to consumers.

"This really starts to open up opportunities that a paper receipt just can't," he said. "If the customer has shown interest in certain things, [he or she will receive] recommendations as part of the digital receipt.”

Print disabled children get quicker access to traditional texts

2011-11-25T07:30:00.001-05:00

This article highlights Bookshare, a nonprofit that provides free specialized electronic copies of books to students with certain print disabilities. This story is an example of how e-book technology has great potential for students who previously relied on more burdensome and harder to obtain alternatives to the traditional book.

Bookshare makes books to be read aloud by computers, magnified, and spaced differently so that students with vision problems or learning disabilities can read them. Bookshare’s agreement with 160 publishers allow them to make these special need e-books available at the same time new releases reach bookstore shelves, unlike typical audiobooks.

Bookshare memberships are for students who are blind, have low vision, have such learning disabilities as severe dyslexia, or have a disability such as cerebral palsy that could keep them from holding a book. For these children, Bookshare is free, due to a $32 million grant by the U.S. Department of Education four years ago that’s led to 150,000 student Bookshare memberships across the nation. And the department’s office of special education programs gave the organization another $3 million in mid-October to take its work even further during the next year.

The article says barriers still remain. For example, many books are filled with photographs, diagrams, charts, and drawings that may be supplemented by a single line or two of text. Although e-books can read aloud that simple description, more elaborate details aren’t available in most cases.

Increase in College Costs Due to Non-tuition Expenses

2011-11-24T07:09:00.000-05:00

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity November 2011 report says that approximately two-thirds of the increase in total college costs stems from non-tuition expenses. Non-tuition costs include books and (off-campus) room and board, according to the report. The report recommends that more attention needs to focus on controlling these non-tuition expenses. According the Center’s report, the average amount that students paid, after deducting scholarships and grants, increased by nearly $3,000, while net tuition prices grew by only about $1,000 during same period. For two year colleges, the overall cost increased by $1,333, while net tuition prices fell to $849.

Demise of Borders Brings New Opportunities

2011-11-23T07:32:00.000-05:00

“When there’s a massive transition in an industry, the strong players make it through to the other side,” explains David A. Schick, a retail analyst who covers booksellers for Stifel Nicolaus Equity Research. “What gets caught up in the change are the weaker players.”

This is a quote from Bloomberg Businessweek article from 11/10, “The End of Borders and the Future of Books.” The story covers the demise of Borders and the rise of small independent bookstores. These new community minded stores are filling the void left behind by Boders bankruptcy.

In November, 16, 20011 NY Times there is an article, “Novelist Fights the Tide by Opening a Bookstore” that gives several other examples of smaller sleek bookstores popping up in areas where Borders once existed.

Could this be an opportunity for campus stores as well? Is there room for campus stores to provide unmet need in their communities? Are stores thinking about whether there is a void left by the demise of Borders in their area and can they fill that void?

A University in Mexico Offers Free Course Materials Online

2011-11-22T09:58:00.000-05:00

The Chronicle reports that the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) will make virtually all of its publications, databases, and course materials freely available on the Internet over the next few years.

According to the article, UNAM, Mexico's largest university, said the program, known as All of UNAM Online, could double or triple the institution's 3.5 million publicly available Web pages, as the largest collection of its kind in Latin America. It also says that it would include all magazines and periodicals published by UNAM, and, if negotiations with outside publishers went well, all research published by UNAM employees. The university would provide online access to all theses and dissertations as well as materials for its approximately 300 undergraduate and graduate courses, according to the story.

"If UNAM can do everything it proposes, this will be a very big step," said Carolina Rossini, the coordinator of the Open Education Resource Project, a program supported by the Open Society Institute to promote open access and open-educational resources in Brazil. "It will fulfill part of the public university's mission to benefit society beyond those who are enrolled or affiliated with the university."

TIPS on Promoting Digital Course Materials

2011-11-21T06:29:00.001-05:00

This article is very relevant for campus stores if they are thinking of how to improve digital course materials sales. The story is about Indie bookstores but the lessons are apropos to college stores as well.

Basically, the article recommends a multifaceted approach when it comes to promoting digital. You should feature them in general and targeted electronic and print newsletters, advertise online and in-store, train staff, and “just be relentless.”

Some propose having at least one dedicated e-book answer guru and distributing their e-mail contact information to customers. Campus stores can also do this so that there is one digital content reference expert in your store. This person can set up regularly scheduled “Digital Therapy” classes for faculty and students where people can share their experiences and ask questions and discuss digital delivery and e-readers.

If you are planning an out-right digital “Go Digital” marketing campaign, the article suggests utilizing website promotions, e-newsletters with a “download the e-book” button, social media, QR codes on shelf-talkers, special events, and in-store signage. To get the conversation started, one bookstore has bookmarks with big letter: ‘WE SELL E-BOOKS.”

The message from your actions will lead to faculty and staff awareness that the campus store can meet their e-book and digital course material needs.

The Coolest QR Codes

2011-11-17T07:14:00.001-05:00

CNN Money has an interesting story this week on companies that have taken QR codes beyond black and white to full color and beyond. The story provides a collection of 23 QR codes that reflect brand as much as provide a link to relevant content. As QR codes gain traction faster than the latest smartphone, perhaps it is time for more retailers and organizations to "think outside the QR-code box" and design codes that extend product brand or image.

Among some of the companies using creative QR codes in the CNN story: Gillette, Red Cross, Ralph Lauren, Macy's, True Blood (HBO), Time, and the Salvation Army. The gallery is also worth looking at to see how some of these organizations use QR codes (i.e., what they direct the user to as a destination).

Washington State Program Creates Free Course Materials

2011-11-16T07:02:00.001-05:00

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) recently announced the launch of the Open Course Library. According to the press release, the Open Course Library is a compilation of educational course materials for 42 of the state’s highest-enrolled college courses. They hope to reach 81 classes by 2013. Materials will cost $30 or less per student and are available free online for use by any of the 34 public community and technical colleges, four year institutions and anyone else worldwide.

For faculty, the use of the Open Course Library is optional and many are moving towards adoption according to the SBCTC.

Princeton University Press Enters Digital Market with Princeton Shorts

2011-11-15T07:19:00.000-05:00

The Chronicle reports that Princeton University Press will test the digital market with its Princeton Shorts. Using its back list it will take excerpts and package them as e-books. Running from 20 to 100 pages in length it will have a price range between 99 cents to $4.99 and unlike Kindle Singles, Princeton Shorts will not introduce new content instead it will take selections and place new titles on them, according to the story. Douglas Armato, director of the University of Minnesota Press, called it "good, savvy publishing on Princeton's part." In an e-mail, he said he was "interested to hear what happens—particularly if the market for the 'shorts' turns out to be more classroom than general trade."

E-Book Consumers Loyal to E-Books

2011-11-14T07:19:00.001-05:00

Book Industry Study Group’s recent on-going survey on Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading indicates consumers are showing increase devotion and approval of digital books. According to BISG’s press release, “The e-book market is developing very fast, with consumer attitudes and behaviors changing over the course of months, rather than years,” said Angela Bole, BISG's Deputy Executive Director. The press release also quotes Kelly Gallagher, Vice President of Publishing Services at Bowker who says, “As e-books become the primary reading format for many consumers in the coming months and years, it will be essential for the publishing community to understand consumers’ individual preferences and desires in order to connect with them."

The press release reports that almost “50% of print book consumer who have also acquired an e-book in the past 18 months would wait up to three months for the e-book version of a book from a favorite author, rather than immediately read it in print. A year ago, only 38% said they would wait this long.”

Here are the results taken directly from the press release:

· “Power Buyers are spending more. More than 46% of those who say they acquire e-books at least weekly (considered “Power Buyers” in this survey) report that they have increased their dollars spent for books in all formats, compared with 30.4% of all survey respondents. This statistic is important because Power Buyers have proven to be a bellwether of overall consumer behavior by three to six months.”

· “Amazon momentum continues. Amazon.com continues to be the preferred source for e-book acquisition (holding steady at 70%) and e-book information (44%). Barnes & Noble comes in second at 26%, with Apple in third. One to watch: libraries, which are on the upswing as a preferred source for e-book acquisition.”

· “Satisfaction with e-reading devices is high. Seventy-five percent (75%) of respondents reported they are satisfied with their e-reading device, including more than 38% of respondents who reported being “very satisfied.” Less than 5% said they felt their e-reading device was not a good value for the money.”

· “Many barriers to e-book reading are falling. Survey results indicate that concerns about e-book availability are diminishing. And although the cost of e-reading devices remains a reported concern, the single most popular answer to the question of what hinders respondents from reading more e-books was “nothing” at 33% (up from 17.6% a year ago).”

Price Comparison on Mobile Expected to Increase for the Holidays

2011-11-13T08:11:00.002-05:00

Mobile Commerce Daily reports on Deloitte’s new annual survey showing that 59% of smartphone owners plan on using their devices for price comparison shopping during the holiday season. While 44% percent of consumers who own smartphones plan on using social media connections to seek out advice, discounts, and reviews.

Links to Recent Accessibility Stories

2011-11-12T07:54:00.001-05:00

This article is in a recent issue of The Chronicles of Higher Education providing links to the latest piece on how to build and apply digital resources that are accessible to everybody. If you have trouble with the links below try going straight to the article.

“Accessibility for Web Writers”
“the Business Case for Accessibility.”
“The a11y Bugs Project”
“Will copyright hamper IP closed captioning?”
“It’s not as hard as you think.”
“HTML 5 Video, Text Tracks, and Audio Descriptions Made Easy (or at least easier)”
“Assistive Technology Experiment: Dragon NaturallySpeaking.”
“an open source software tool for creating DAISY compliant audio books.”
“Mobile Accessibility Lite’
“[Understand] the purpose of an image using alt text.”
“Campaign of the Month”
“An Introductory Set of Accessible Mobile Applications.”
“Access My N.Y.C. “
“Apps for Autism”
“an extremely detailed set of resources about ARIA

CourseSmart Integrates with BlackBoard

2011-11-11T07:11:00.002-05:00

The Wall Street Journal reports that CourseSmart has developed a new integration platform to work seamlessly with Blackboard. The single sign-on function allows students and faculty access to CourseSmart's digital course catalog by logging into the Blackboard Learn platform without having to sign into CourseSmart. This means that faculty who are using Blackboard do not have to leave the platform and instead link required reading assignment, homework problems or other activities that exist in their digital course materials and share that information with their students.

The Blackboard Building Block for CourseSmart is free to higher education institutions, according to the article. Matthew Small, chief business officer at Blackboard says, "The pilots we are currently running with CourseSmart as part of our signature partnership will continue to fuel this experience as they provide our clients with anytime, anywhere access to their digital course materials from any Web-enabled device, including mobile devices running on the iOS and Android(TM) OS platforms."

The First "Smartbook"

2011-11-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

There is news that Atria Books plans to insert RFID chip in 1000 copies of the book THE IMPULSE ECONOMY: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy, making it the first “smart book.” The consumer's can tap their NFC enabled phone to the RFID sticker and the phone will automatically open the phone's mobile web browser on specific book-related content.

"Proximity marketing solutions like NFC will allow for seamless and frictionless interactive experience whether this is for interactive content on your phone or mobile wallet commerce opportunities," says Gary Schwartz, the author of THE IMPULSE ECONOMY. "This new breed of consumer is using the mobile phone in the physical store to select products, research purchases, and act on content."

Atria Books is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation.

Study Shows Increase In Mobile for Banking and Credit Card Services

2011-11-09T07:52:00.001-05:00

A recent study by comScore reveals a rise in mobile usage for banking, credit card, and auto and property insurance services.

The study shows that 12.7 million mobile users used mobile banking, an increase of 45% from 2010. For mobile credit card services there was an increase of 23% at 18.4 million mobile users. Use of mobile for auto and property insurance services saw an increase of 19% with 7.2 million mobile users.

“The investments in mobile made by financial services institutions, along with the continued growth in smartphone adoption, have had a truly positive effect on the use of mobile financial services,” said Sarah Lenart, comScore vice president for Marketing Solutions. “New apps and mobile-enhanced sites have made it easier for customers to seek out financial information using mobile devices. With tablets and other web-enabled connected devices gaining popularity in addition to smartphones, financial service institutions are poised for additional growth in mobile access.”

This is an important trend to keep an eye on since mobile will be an expected service in many industries especially for college bound students who as we know use mobile all the time.

2011-11-08T07:17:00.001-05:00

The United States Copyright Office released a report on the Office’s priorities and focus subject areas for the over next two years with respect to copyright policy and administrative practice and a series of new projects designed to improve the quality and efficiency of its services in the twenty-first century. The Office’s policy priorities for the next 24 months are as follows, subject to new developments in the United States and abroad. Some of the notable items, according to the Register, includes streamlining litigation, perhaps even a recommendation for a special venue for copyright litigation, Orphan Works, and Library exemptions.

STUDIES

Small claims solutions for copyright owners

Legal treatment of pre-1972 sound recordings

Mass book digitization

LEGISLATIVE WORK

Rogue websites

Illegal streaming

Public performance right in sound recordings

Orphan works

Market-based licensing for cable an d satellite retransmission

TRADE AND FOREIGN RELATIONS

World intellectual property organization (wipo)

Trans-pacific partnership and other trade priorities

Priorities in Administrative law Practice

Prohibition on circumvention of measures controlling access to copyrighted works

Electronic system for the designation of agents under the dmca

Review of group registration options

Registration options for websites and other forms of digital authorship

Electronic administration of the statutory licenses

Recording notices of termination of copyright transfers

Special Projects

Study of fees and services

Revision of the compendium of copyright office practices

Technical upgrades to electronic registration

Dialogues and roundtables with copyright community

Research partnerships with academic community

Revision of copyright office website

Public outreach and copyright education

Business process reengineering of recordation division

Public access to historical records

Skills training for copyright office staff

Local libraries sell e-books too

2011-11-07T10:48:00.000-05:00

A story from last month discussed a new offering that would allow local libraries around the world to provide eBook catalogs to their patrons. The new functionality would provide library visitors the ability to reference, browse, sample, and buy eBooks that are not available through the library system by linking them to national and local booksellers.

"Public libraries offer for lending a small fraction of publishers' ebook or audiobook catalogs," said Erica Lazzaro, OverDrive Director of Publisher Relations. This initiative "will take hundreds of thousands of early, midlist, and backlist eBook titles that are virtually invisible to library customers and present them for discovery. [It] will also enable for patrons who do not want to wait for popular titles to become available the option to immediately shop for it from a list of booksellers that support their local library."

With local libraries entering the retail ebook business, local booksellers will find themselves with even more competition. The emphasis here is on future market share, to be sure, but it is a great example of the potential of emerging technologies can reshape entire industries.

E-readers Get Heavier With More E-books- It's true

2011-11-05T07:55:00.003-04:00

The Science section of the NY Times has a story that claims the more e-books you load on your Kindle the heavier it gets. Really, it’s true. John Kubiatowicz, a computer scientist faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, explained that a Kindle with thousands of e-books weighs a billionth of a billionth of a gram more than a factory fresh Kindle.

New CDF digital format on the rise

2011-11-04T07:54:00.000-04:00

From my archives of items to post:
According to an article in the Library Journal earlier this year, there is a new digital format that will challenge the PDF. The CDF, or Computable Document Format, is a new standard that was released on July 21st by Wolfram Research, and it enables users to “interact with online documents, input their own data, and generate results, live.”

Comparatively, CDF allows interactivity and motion in a document, whereas in PDF, documents are static and unchangeable. CDF files behave more like apps than documents, and they allow users to make their own “knowledge apps”, of which more than 7,000 have already been created by researchers, educators, and students using an early version of CDF. CDF documents can currently be created using Mathematica 8 and distributed for free using the Wolfram CDF Player, which is required to view the CDF document. Currently, there is a beta CDF in an e-textbook currently on the market: Briggs/Cochran Calculus, and many other publishers are showing great interest in the technology. The CDF technology is on its way to changing the way that online documents and e-textbooks allow users to access, and interact with, information.

It will be interesting to see if this format can stand up to other developments, such as those around Epub3.

Follett Sees Growth in Both Rental and Digital

2011-11-03T07:52:00.001-04:00

PR Newswire reports that Follett saved students close to $90 million in three months mainly due to their Rent-A-Text program. According to the article, Follett textbook rentals doubled in 2011 compared to 2010 and expects to see saving of up to $200 million for the 2011-2012 academic calendar. Follett also saw digital textbook sales double in 2011 compared to 2010.

We have heard other anecdotal information that digital sales, where the inventory option exists, doubled in sell-though this fall, growing from 2-3% up to 5-6%. This data has not yet been verified or examined across a larger pool of stores.

Google eBooks come to College Stores

2011-11-02T07:21:00.000-04:00

The Canadian Campus Retail Associates (CCRA) and Independent College Bookseller's Association (ICBA) announced this week that they have completed an agreement and integration with Google eBooks to distribute ebooks through college stores in Canada and shortly in the U.S. This is similar the arrangement that the American Bookseller's Association (ABA) has with Google to distribute ebooks via Indie Commerce. This brings yet another option for college stores to provide customers with opportunities to discover, read and buy digital books on a range of devices and at competitive prices.

Chris Tabor from the CCRA noted that "This is our first step with the potential of the Google ecosystems. Google is an incredible company to work with. We learned a lot and are looking forward to more."

18 Canadian stores are participating in the initial launch, and other stores will begin to have access within the next 60 days. Roughly 200 college stores are expected to be live with Google ebooks soon, as this service is offered to all CCRA and ICBA members, as well as stores currently participating in the Digital Content Platform initiative which is also co-sponsored by the two organizations.

Disclaimer: Some folks who read this blog may know that NACS Media Solutions (NMS) did work with CCRA and ICBA on the digital content platform initiative and related pilots. While we were aware of this pending development in advance from our prior participation, at this time NMS has no direct financial stake or active engagement in this initiative other than a sincere desire to see this initiative and others like it be successful within the college store industry. Any questions about the current and upcoming offering should be directed to either CCRA or ICBA.

Blackboard Allows Sharing of Content

2011-11-01T07:13:00.001-04:00

The Chronicle reports that Blackboard will add a “Share” button that will allow faculty to share course materials free and open to nonregistered students. This is a big win for the Open Education Movement and for schools since they will not be charged extra for additional viewing. Blackboard’s “Share” initiative is partnering with Creative Commons where faculty will have the option to attach a Creative Commons license to the content. Cable Green, director of global learning for Creative Commons, says his “goal is to have this kind of option in every commercial learning-management system and also open-source ones,” according to the article.

Study Suggests "App Gap"

2011-10-31T07:24:00.001-04:00

Common Sense Media surveyed parents of U.S. kids ages zero to eight conducted to understand children's patterns of use for TV, reading, music, computers, video games, and mobile digital media. Among the report’s key findings suggests that there is an “App Gap” occurring perhaps contributing to the digital divide. Some of the data include the following:

· 14% of lower-income parents have downloaded new media apps for their kids to use, compared to 47% of upper-income parents.

· Among lower-income children, 27% of parent have a smart phone, compared to 57% for higher-income children.

· 2% of lower-income children have a tablet device such as an iPad at home, compared to 17% of higher-income children.

· 38% of lower-income parents say they don’t even know what an app is, compared to just 3% of higher-income parents.

Online University Adopts CourseSmart for Digital Textbook Delivery

2011-10-30T07:49:00.000-04:00

Online universities continue to see some of the largest adoption of digital course materials. Such institutions have distinct advantages for this shift, due to standardized curriculums, centralized course decisions, and primarily distance/commuter population to name a few. These advantages also make it easier for institutions whose classes are primarily online to negotiate institutional licensing arrangements for content--something that is more complicated and much higher risk for traditional academic institutions.

A recent article in Campus Technology underscores this pattern, reporting that Western Governors University, a well-recognized institution with largely online classes, has started to adopt digital textbooks into their curriculum. Like many of their for-profit counterparts, the cost of the digital course materials is included in student’s tuition and fees charged by the university. Students can then access digital titles through their existing university accounts. Approximately 15,000 students have used about 130 distinct e-texts through CourseSmart, and half of the university’s 350 courses are currently using the new delivery service according to university officials.

Infomercial and Web Retailing

2011-10-29T07:47:00.000-04:00

Great article by Mashable Business if you are into new marketing practices. There’s a new trend to integrate content with product offerings on the web, according to the article. Content can range from editorials to videos all intended to provide value-added shopping experience for the consumer. Some include infomercial like videos and others are in-depth articles on how to do certain things.

So, if you are shopping for a tie, you can learn about the right tie knot for your color shirt. Or, if you are looking to buy bed sheets you can learn about how to fold fitted sheets. The content offering is producing repeat visits and giving consumers confidence to make purchases according one CEO whose company is using this technique.

Academic eBook Survey by UC Libraries

2011-10-28T07:33:00.001-04:00

University of California Libraries recently released an interesting survey report entitled “ UC Libraries Academic e-Book Usage Survey.” The survey’s intent was to evaluate UC academic community’s experience utilizing one of their e-book collections. The primary objectives of the survey were to determine general preference for print books as compared to e-books, how respondents interact with e-books, and barriers to e-book adoption and use.

The frequency of use of academic e-books were highest among postdoctoral researchers (68%) and graduate students (67%), followed by faculty and lecturers (57%), and then undergraduate students (55%). Among disciplines, the physical sciences and engineering reported the highest rate of academic e-book usage (68%), followed by arts and humanities (57%), life and health sciences (57%), social sciences (54%), and then Business and law (47%).

In terms of format, this study is reflective of other recent studies that illustrate a shift in print versus electronic preferences. The survey found that 49% of respondents prefer print books, 34% prefer e-books, and 17% had no preference. By discipline, business and law reported the highest preference for e-books at (54%), followed by life and health sciences (44%), physical sciences and engineering (32%), social sciences (31%), and then arts and humanities (17%). Postdoctoral researchers reported the highest preference for e-books over print books at (49%), followed by graduate students (35%), faculty and lecturers (33%), and undergraduate students (27%). Perhaps surprising to some, undergraduate students expressed the highest preference for print books over digital (53%), but even in this case the numbers reflect a significant shift in preference as compared to other studies just a year ago.

Other survey findings reported related to specific e-book functionalities:

· Search functions within and across e-book content is acknowledged as the primary advantage of e-books.

· Annotating and highlighting within the e-book environment is perceived as vital to the majority of respondents who use academic e-books.

· Downloading the entire e-book to a device for later use is a highly valued feature.

· e-Book readers, such as the Kindle, and mobile devices, such as the iPhone, offer significant advantage over the personal computer.

The survey also reported several other interesting findings related to the relationship between an e-book and its print counterpart:

· Borrowing or purchasing a print copy of an e-book is not uncommon.

· Undergraduate students express the strongest desire for a corresponding print copy of an academic e-book for borrowing from a UC library, with 66% rating it as important.

· 41% of respondents said that access to a “print-on-demand” copy of an e-book is an important feature.

The study provides a number of interesting insights into digital adoption in higher education from a different perspective. The data corroborates other information out there related to how we understand current campus attitudes towards ebooks. At the same time, it reinforces the beginning of a shift in preference from predominately print to decidedly digital. This is a trend we will continue to monitor as it may be among the first signals that we are passing the knee of the curve for digital books on campuses.

Virtual Stores and QR Codes

2011-10-27T07:53:00.001-04:00

This is a great video of how one retailer is taking itself to the consumer using QR codes. The video shows people shopping while waiting for the subway in South Korea where the virtual displays and the merchandise is identical to what a customer would see in the store. By using smartphones a shopper can scan the products QR codes and place it in the basket and the grocery bags are delivered to their home. Essentially, for busy South Koreans, they can shop while they wait. This is the wave of the future for virtual stores and QR codes and for retailers who are contemplating whether to open another brick and mortar they should consider following the trend being set by the most connected people in the world.

Abilene Christian University's Mobile Education Report Released

2011-10-26T07:32:00.006-04:00

Abilene Christian University recently released its mobile education initiative report 2010-2011 that highlights its research projects and surveys on mobile learning on their campus. In its fourth year of the initiative using iPads, IPhones and IPods, Abilene has attracted national attention during their Connected Open House that brought in people from many other schools. They recently broke ground on three mobile research centers with a large grant from AT&T.

"Our efforts are increasingly breaking down the walls of the classroom, removing barriers so teachers and students can engage more fully with and take their learning more easily into the world around them. We're discovering that the power of mobility comes not only from the ability to access information, but also from the ability to create it, and the creative opportunities during this third year of our initiative have been staggering." says the Director of Educational Innovation Bill Rankin

According to the report, in a survey of 149 faculty members, 89% of faculty members bring mobile devices to class while 84% regularly use the devices in class and half of faculty report using the devices in every class. Meanwhile, more than 80% of students responded that mobility device usage has improved collaboration in their academic experience, improved communication with teachers, and provided them with increased control of their learning environment.

Jobs Wanted to Transform Book Industry

2011-10-25T12:05:00.000-04:00

Steve Jobs' new biography talks about how Mr. Jobs wanted to transform the textbook industry, according to this NY Times article. The story talks about how Mr. Jobs met with the major players in the publishing industry to discuss how publishers could bypass the costly process of state certification of textbooks for K-12 if books were published on the iPad. Mr. Jobs is quoted as saying, “ We can give them an opportunity to circumvent that whole process and save money.” The idea, according to the biographer, was to employ textbook writers to develop digital versions of their textbooks on the iPad.

In some ways, this sounds much like the type of work that Inkling is doing -- working with some of the top textbook publishers and taking a number of top textbook titles and moving them into the Inkling platform. That platform at least initially is mostly focused on delivering its content to the iPad environment. Parts of the business model within Inkling, and how they source some aspects of development, are quite interesting. Seeing some of Steve Jobs' vision here play out within Inkling is not a big leap, as the CEO of Inkling, Matt McInnis, is a former Apple employee.

Such developments should again give college stores pause. The stores have value to provide to these transactions, but how do they become integrated into the new channel for content distribution?

Recycle Your Electronics for Books- No charge for Kindles

2011-10-24T00:35:00.001-04:00

Here is an interesting story on a recycling program being held at Andover Bookstore. The program will charge $1 per/lb for unused electronics equipment with 5% of the cost going toward a gift certificate to the bookstore. What is interesting about the event is if you read the list of items they accept it says, “ accepting Kindles and cell phones at no charge.” Really? Kindles? How are ebooks more environmentally friendly with such rapid device obsolescence? Event could be a good traffic generator for the store, though. Would be interesting to know how the event turned out.

Question: Should Retailers Own Branded e-Book Device: yea or nay?

2011-10-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

Some retailers are opting to make or brand their own e-Book devices. Teleread reports that German booksellers Weltbild and Hugendubell launched their own device recently and following will be Waterstone, expected to launch their e-reader next year. Bloomsbury executive director Richard Charkin says, “ You need to be able to offer both [e-books and a device] if you are to take any share of the market,” says in the story. It is also reported that the American Booksellers Association is in talks about making its own device. Penguin’s vice-president for digital commerce, Tim McCall agrees with this view and said it was necessary for a retailer with a digital strategy to have a reader as part of it, reported in the article.

We picked up on this commentary by Steven Lyle Jordan, an author, who disagrees with the message of this article. “Bookstores should be making every effort to be the place people want to buy ebooks from, and read on whatever device they have. That means value-adding to the ebooks. Deals, memberships, exclusive content, customer-tailored specials… those should be their strategies.”

Should book retailers have their own devices, aim for a more device agnostic strategy, or both? What do you see as the pros and cons of a store owned and branded device? What do you think?

Pearson to Offer Free Learning Management System

2011-10-20T07:42:00.002-04:00

This week Pearson announced a new learning management system that will be free to colleges without having to pay any of the usual licensing or maintenance fees. The new platform, called OpenClass, will offer free support, hosting and upgrades in addition to the service itself making it very attractive to current open-source users since open source systems still charge for services.

OpenClass is “absolutely for free,” says Adrian Sannier, senior vice president of product at Pearson and former CIO at Arizona State University. “No licensing costs, no costs for maintenance, and no costs for hosting. So this is a freer offer than Moodle is. It’s a freer offer than any other in the space.”

“By freeing the LMS, Pearson seems to want to steer higher education dollars away from e-learning platforms and toward e-learning content,” says Phil Hill, executive vice president of the Delta Initiative, an I.T. consulting firm. In doing so, Pearson is “potentially outflanking Blackboard,” because while Blackboard still relies heavily on revenues from its LMS licenses, Pearson has its “core business in digital content,” says Hill. Relegating the LMS to commodity status, while elevating content, plays to its strengths, he says.

According to the article, “Pearson says it is taking a strategic cue from Google, which offers its cloud-based e-mail and applications suite to colleges for free in an effort to secure “mind share” among the students and professors who use it. Like Google with its Apps for Education — with which Pearson has partnered for its beta launch — the media conglomerate is hoping to use OpenClass as a loss leader that points students and professors toward those products that the company’s higher ed division sees as the future of its bottom line: e-textbooks, e-tutoring software, and other “digital content” products.”

“Whether Pearson can pull off its end-run around the LMS market depends largely on whether it can convince its competitors in the publishing world to play nice with OpenClass, says Lev Gonick, the Case Western CIO.

“Integrating sophisticated digital content into a cloud-based LMS involves a lot of coordination between the platform provider and content provider, says Gonick. So Pearson might have to court its fellow publishers before it can guarantee to professors that OpenClass will support the content they want, he says. “I don’t think that’s a slam dunk,” says Gonick.

‘If the endgame of taking on the LMS market with OpenClass is to up-sell Pearson’s line digital content products,” he says, “Why would any other publisher want to give that advantage to a competitor?” Pearson might be using Google as a model, but Google did not have to partner with Microsoft to get institutions to adopt its suite of education apps, he says.

“Certainly, we’re aware of this issue,” says Matt Leavy, CEO of Pearson’s eCollege, adding that “there’s probably a lot of negotiating and deal-making to come” with both publishers and distributors. But he said he does not think instructors will require OpenClass to support all types of digital content from other publishers as a prerequisite to signing up. “A lot of professors don’t have that expectation of deep integration,” Leavy says, “and shallow integrations” — i.e., embedding simple links inside the LMS — “are still available to them.”

Bookstore Sales Up in August

2011-10-19T18:18:00.000-04:00

As a follow-up to the last story, Publisher's Weekly also reported bookstore sales jumped 11.8% in August, to $2.44 billion. The PW report theorized that it is due to strong sales and other items through college bookstores (associated with back-to-school Rush) and going-out-of-business sales at Borders. Additionally, sales through the first eight months of the year rose 2.1%, to $10.47 billion and sales for the entire retail market were up 8.7% in August and 8.0% in the eight-month.

E-Commerce and e-Books Continue Market Share Growth

2011-10-19T12:13:00.000-04:00

The following data was reported in Publisher's Weekly using Bowker’s PubTrack Consumer service.

Bookstore chains lost 3.6% market share down from 30.6% in 2Q 2010 to 27.3% 2Q 2011. (Borders’s closing drove the decline in market share.
E-tailers grabbed 37.0% of all spending in the quarter, up from 35.3% in the first period and almost 10 percentage points higher than the 27.6% share e-tailers had in the second quarter of 2010.
Independent bookstores picked up half a percentage point between the second quarter of 2010 and 2011, although compared to the first quarter of 2011 their share fell from 6.2% to 5.0%.
e-books’ share of units rose from 3.2% to 13.7%.
Hardcover’s share of market share falling from 33.3% in last year’s second quarter to 28.6%, but holding even with this year’s first quarter.

This data should tell brick and mortar and book retailers that the battle for market share is on, if they did not know that already. Online retailers are capturing sales, further emphasizing the importance of traditional booksellers to provide access to sales online. Note too the fairly significant gain in ebook market share in the past year from 3.2% of units to 13.7% of units -- a significant jump in a short time period. This may account for much of the gain in sales by e-tailers. Interesting numbers to ponder -- and yet another example of why market share matters.

To Go Digital, We Must All Experience Failure

2011-10-17T07:01:00.001-04:00

Here is a podcast featuring Jesse Wiley who works on digital and new business initiatives at John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. In the podcast he discusses the challenges of digital for the 200-year-old company. The simple message of his presentation is that success in digital will require that companies must accept failure and move on. He says, “Learning to fail is not an established concept in publishing, but in the technology world, innovation is built on doing pilots and testing — learning to fail and expecting to fail, and learning from both the successes and the failures."

Well put, Jesse. We have been trying to encourage pilots and the "fail and fail fast" mentality among college stores for the past several years. It takes time for established, mature companies and industries to get more comfortable with the idea that managed failure is actually a risk-reduction strategy for organizations. Regardless, the podcast provides for interesting listening.

Hidden Cost of Digital?

2011-10-15T12:03:00.000-04:00

Here’s an article about colleges capping broadband usage on campus and students having to pay for data overlimit fees. As digital books become more embedded with rich-media and takes up more and more data transmission this issue could be one of those unforeseen consequences of going digital. Will faculty have to deal with students who say, “I could not access my digital course materials because I went over my data limit and I can’t afford to pay the fees?”

This leads to asking the question, what is the real cost for going digital? Many schools have ‘free’ (nothing is really free- tuition is suppose to cover those costs) internet access and may not limit downloads. But what if the student does not have access to internet at home or cannot afford broadband access to required educational content? Are download rates higher as students move toward tablet devices like the iPad? Will students need to subscribe to internet or broadband services so that they can read their assignments? Will students without such access be at a disadvantage as digital course materials become the norm?

We were recently asked, "What is the average data usage for student’s courses?" Honestly, we do not know. If anyone has any data out there please share with us your findings. Is it insignificant? Will it become significant down the road?

Understanding EPUB 3.0

2011-10-14T16:40:00.000-04:00

The International Digital Publishing Forum(IDPF), a global trade and standards organization for the digital publishing industry, has promoted EPUB 3.0 to a final IDPF Recommended Specification for the interchange and delivery format for eBooks and other digital publications.

Many of the enhancements to the digital standard will have implications for digital course materials or e-textbooks, so folks in this space should be aware of this development. Supported by HTML5, EPUB 3 adds rich media (audio, video), interactivity (JavaScript), global language support (including vertical writing), styling and layout enhancements, SVG, embedded fonts, expanded metadata facilities, MathML, and synchronization of audio with text and other enhancements for accessibility.

"EPUB has become the industry standard format for digital publications based on Web Standards that are structured, reliable, device-independent, and accessible," said Bill McCoy, Executive Director, IDPF. "As digital publications evolve from digitized text into enhanced eBooks and new forms of expression, EPUB 3 will dramatically expand the ability of authors and publishers to deliver richer experiences to their readers across disparate devices, in browsers and in apps.

You can learn more about the new format in this article published by O’reilly Media. The article is an easy read and very perceptive even for non-techies. It is a free download from O’Reilly’s website but you must register and check-out as if you were purchasing.

600 School Districts use iPads for Course Materials

2011-10-13T07:51:00.001-04:00

Are iPads better investment than traditional textbooks?

One principal in Boston thinks so, according to this story in eSchoolNews. The article states that Patrick Larkin, Principal at Burlington High School, believes the $500.00 iPads are a better long-term investment than textbooks. When asked about textbooks, Larkin said,

I don’t want to generalize, because I don’t want to insult people who are working hard to make those resources but they’re pretty much outdated the minute they’re printed and certainly by the time they’re delivered. The bottom line is that the iPads will give our kids a chance to use much more relevant materials.

More than 600 school districts in the country now have a one-to-one computing program using iPads ranging from wealthy suburban schools to school districts in New York and Chicago, according to the article. However, experts in the article warns that districts looking to adopt such devices need to ensure the resources are available to support wireless infrastructure, repairs, and other costs associated with a such programs.

More Tools for Professors to Customize Textbooks

2011-10-12T15:20:00.000-04:00

The Chronicle recently reported on a trend we have been monitoring for a while. From small start-ups to the big publishers, custom textbooks are becoming the common denominator in digital publishing. With pressure from students who complain course materials are overpriced, professors are taking the Frankenstein mash-up approach to adopting course materials these days by taking materials from here and there, making textbooks much more affordable.

Customized course materials is not a new concept for faculty, pubishers, or college stores, but new innovations in digital technology in conjunction with the open source movement are enabling new growth in this course material segment. Moving content to this segment is often beneficial as it reduces the cost of course materials for students, provides faculty with resources more tailored to their classes, and sell-through via the store improves.

The Chronicle article covers several of the players -- new and traditional -- who currently operate in the custom publishing area.

Study finds Rise in College Student’s Purchasing Power

2011-10-11T07:01:00.001-04:00

re:fuel released its 11^th annual College Explorer survey, according to Marketwatch.

The recent findings shows that the more than 20 million new college students’ spending power set a new record with $417 billion dollars, a 14% jump from last year’s study. Overall discretionary spending for this population was $76 billion. The article acknowledges that part of the growth in spending power is due to rising tuition costs and higher education costs. Here are some other notable findings of the study discussed in the article.

Food is a major discrectionary spending area. Discretionary spending on food increased by 39% since last year's study and accounts for almost half (46%) of college students' total discretionary budget. Of the $35.2 billion reported towards food spending - $20 billion is being spent on groceries, $12 billion in restaurants and $3 billion in convenience stores. Nearly all students (90%) report visiting a grocery store in a typical month, and they do so more than once per week (4.7 times a month). These numbers suggest that food is a potential growth category for college stores.

On the technology front, students report that on average they now own six digital devices and spend a cumulative 11.4 hours per day using technology. Cell phones are quickly being replaced by smart phones. Cell phone ownership decreased from 84% of students in 2010 to just over half (55%) in 2011. Smartphone ownership jumped more than 61% in the same time period. In 2010, just one quarter of students (26%) reported owning a smart phone device, and that figure rose to 42% in 2011. 20% of students expecting to purchase a smartphone in the year ahead. This places it ahead of other coveted items like laptops (17%) and tablet computers (11%).

Related to social media, a full 88% of students are Facebook users and 25% use Twitter, a slightly higher engagement over last year. 53% have followed or "liked" a brand on Facebook, and only 16% have done so on Twitter. Students who say they "friended" a brand in order to be the first to know about company news dropped from 48% last year to 40% in the current survey. Forty-eight percent (48%) of students have followed a brand's social networking page to take advantage of special offers and just 22% regularly read a brand's page for updates. Of note, more than 44% of students reported actively avoiding ads on social media sites, placing them among the most avoided media types.

The survey reports on several other statistics as well and the full report is worth reading.

UCLA Cleared of Copyright Infringement

2011-10-10T09:15:00.000-04:00

University of California at Los Angeles recently prevailed in a copyright infringement lawsuit for streaming videos online.

According to the Chronicle, one copyright expert thinks the UCLA decision helps the HathiTrust digital-library consortium in its copyright lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild over the digitization of books from university libraries.

The Association for Information Media and Equipment (AIME) and Ambrose Video Publishing filed the lawsuit against UCLA for streaming a Shakespeare play for faculty and students to use as part of curriculum. The plaintiffs asserted that UCLA violated copyright and breached its contract by duplicating DVD’s of the play that was acquired from Ambrose.

The judge in the case held that UCLA had not waived its constitutional “sovereign immunity,” a principle that prevents state universities from being sued without their consent in federal court. The court also found that the association did not own the copyrights and therefore did not establish its standing to bring the case.

Chronicle interviewed James Grimmelmann, an associate professor at New York Law School who commented that “universities will have a little more breathing room for using media,” and “this decision will make the Authors Guild case against HathiTrust more of a long shot.” “If the HathiTrust suit were to be decided tomorrow by the same court, it would be dismissed.” Mr. Grimmelmann says.

Further, Chronicle also quoted Kevin Smith, Duke University’s scholarly-communications officer, who says “because much of the dismissal hung on the sovereign-immunity question, “a major part of the decision applies only to state entities” and “does not translate to private universities.”