This was a panel on the education market. Jim Hamilton from InfoTrends spoke and said that the overall printed book volume is in decline. By “printed book” he means books printed on the old-fashoned printing press. Run length is declining and more custom books are being printed. Digitally printed books, however, are increasing as market forces drive printing to one-off, and print on demand.
Jo Ann McDevitt, Association of Educational Publishers said that change is happening in education, even though it is a market that is very slow to move. There is an increasing movement in schools from print to digital materials as the cost of tablets and mobile devices come down. The textbook adoption process is changing in those states that are now looking at having a blended approach between print and digital. A recent survey says that 77% of educators think that publishers will go out of business if they don’t offer digital content. Schools, as opposed the the publishers, are the ones driving the change to digital, but they want digital integrated with print. Publishers are beginning to recognize that they also need a professional development arm to help teachers utilize digital materials if they are to be successful.
Peter Givler, Association of American University Presses, said that there are new digital aggregators who are putting scholarly publications online. Oxford University Press Online and Johns Hopkins Project Muse, both of which aggregate electronic journals, are popular examples of the platform. JStore, a curated collection of journals, has also been adapted to scholarly books.
Paul Biba is a retired corporate international lawyer who has worked in 53 countries. Since he is a very fast reader he came to ebooks out of self-defense in order to avoid carrying a suitcase of books on his travels around the world. An early ebook adopter, he has read on Palms, Pocket PCs and practically every device that has been out there. After being a frequent contributor to TeleRead.com, the oldest ebook/epublishing blog on the net, Paul became TeleRead's Editor-in-Chief, a position he recently resigned. Send Paul an email to paulkbiba@gmail.com
