Abstract

The relevance and potential impact of Apple Computer’s iBooks initiative is discussed. iBooks is aimed at the USA textbook market, but it has a great potential to expand, as has previously occurred with other services that use iTunes, Apple’s B2C-C2C e-commerce and digital distribution platform. The initiative combines hardware, authoring software, e-reader, distribution channels, and social and networking services integration to empower systemically and synergistically its products and services against those of the competition, creating a new prototypic exemplar of the so-called “digital ecosystems”.

Abstract

Ebooks have undergone a spectacular development in the past two years, extending their success beyond the forecasts of specialists. Attest to this digital reading statistics, the growth of the publishing offer, and the increased reading devices sales. One interesting thing has been the emergence of the iPad, a device introduced in early 2010 that, although it is not specifically devoted to reading, it has been discovered as one of the preferred e-readers. The importance of the phenomenon is in the fact that major publishers and authors, and large media groups are producing applications and products for exclusive use in this device. In contrast to static and mimetic reading of traditional books, there are new products and ways of digital reading with multimedia features.

Abstract

Introduction of the Daisy multimedia book format, which integrates text, sound, images and video in a synchronized sequence. Daisy presents a high usability for digital reading thanks to its advanced navigation through text or audio. The article also describes DTBook, the text component of Daisy, which is a highly structured xml format ideal to create alternate format editions. The article sets out the differences between Daisy and other audiobooks and presents the most common Daisy players and Daisy market adoption. The format has good potential for becoming a flagship format in ebook publishing if costs of playing devices decrease and a solution is found for digital rights management.

Abstract

To facilitate digital reading for children it is necessary to offer content that meets quality criteria. The problem lies in the lack of systematized criteria that serves as a guide to defining quality. The aim of this article is to select and systematize criteria or standards that serve to evaluate children’s book-apps. We take the criteria used both in the selection of children’s books on paper and those specific to the digital world. The elements have been grouped according to the form and content; within the form dimension, paratexts are taken into account (which in turn are divided into peritexts and epitexts) and usability are discussed. As for the content: text, image, sound, and interactivity should be evaluated.

Abstract

The current state of the Spanish market of the academic digital books is analyzed. To do this, a set of publishers selected by various experts as the most prestigious within the field of Library and Information Science was chosen. The analyzed parameters focus on digital production percentage in relation to the size of the publisher, existing formats, information offered and the access facilities. Results show that digital publishing is a little significant phenomenon, that has been developed without well defined strategies. This fact translates into a scarce availability of titles and formats, as well as a lack of many of the features that the new medium offers.

Abstract

In the publishing sector, electronic book growth figures have shown progressive consolidation in markets around the world. The electronic book evolution in the last 15 years shows the paradoxes and contradictions that every new technology has to address in its implementation process. In addition, the editorial industry is resistant to new business models due to the possibilities of piracy and the fragility of a system in full transition. And, although digital reading is on the upswing and shows undoubted progression, the print book remains central to publishing and continues to maintain strongly competitive odds with the new systems.

Abstract

The factors that predetermine and condition reading practices in the digital environment are one of the hottest and most productive research objects. This article studies the factors and contexts that produce rejection of or detachment from the adoption of digital compared with printed texts in the educational environment. For this, a systematic review of the literature was carried out through a critical analysis of the most relevant works addressing this issue from 2005 to the present day. By applying the methodology proposed by Petticrew and Roberts, a sample (n = 28) synthesizing the most relevant findings published to date in relation to the object of study was selected. The results obtained enable us to identify a series of key factors that predetermine the rejection of digital reading that can be ascribed to three essential categories (esthetic, physiological and cognitive, and pragmatic) and nine subcategories (sensory, emotional, complexity of the text, comprehension and retention, physiological aspects, ergonomics, frailty and dependency, accessibility, and interoperability). The research concludes that, although convergence and progressive assimilation in the adoption of digital texts in the educational environment can be observed, there are certain factors that condition the level of acceptance of digital compared with printed reading, and they are perceived as conditioning factors that may hinder the teaching–learning process.

Abstract

Over the course of history, the book and its environment have been in permanent transformation, undergoing changes that have affected its format, textual arrangement, form of reading, and production and distribution systems, as well as its social consideration as an instrument for the transmission of knowledge. One of the greatest changes has taken place in the 21st century with the emergence of digital formats throughout the publishing value chain. If in previous eras the transformations had affected one or other of the mentioned elements, the digital revolution has impacted on all of them simultaneously, as it has modified the ways in which works are created, produced, distributed, and consumed. Also, it has introduced for the first time an element of intermediation between the reader and reading: the device, which, in its different varieties, implies an element of additional complexity. At the present time, and after almost two decades, we can see the advances and setbacks that have occurred on this journey; the achievements and shortcomings from the publishing point of view, in which a strengthening of the big companies can be appreciated; and the emergence of a system of self-publishing that represents a rupture with traditional systems. From the point of view of authorship, the value of the brand, of charisma and prestige, has been emphasised, while a movement of creation is taking place on the fringes of the system that renounces posterity and recognition in favour of visibility. This approach to authorship is also subject to the influx and influence of social networks with their positive effects, in the form of projection, and negative ones, in the form of new ways of censure. Finally, in terms of reading, there is an ambivalent route that runs between the paths of a very strong tradition, linked to the printed book, and digital reading, established from the point of view of practices, but in its more conservative and imitative side with respect to analogue formats; in the digital sphere, new proposals and more innovative initiatives which are attracting the attention of growing but still minority sectors of society are emerging. The digital environment is progressing and consolidating, but it has not yet taken advantage of all the potential that technological advances could provide.

Abstract

Most Latin American countries are focused upon improving learning quality by providing schools with technological resources, as if their sole presence was enough to develop 21st Century skills. Digital reading is not an end in itself; it is a tool that a user selects, depending on the desired purpose and uses it in specific contexts. Adolescents access Internet with at least four purposes: academic, recreational, socialization and communication. This study describes said purposes in adolescents from the Dominican Republic and relates them to their reading literacy proficiency level in two educational contexts: public and private schools. The sample group included 382 students in their fourth year of secondary school (10th grade). Two instruments were used: CoLeP, based on texts from PISA, and a Scale to measure reading frequency, which classifies the four reading purposes in two formats: printed and digital. The conclusion is that most students access and use the Internet for academic purposes, regardless of the educational sector. Nevertheless, reading literacy proficiency differs significantly with students from public schools being in lower levels. This minimizes the opportunities of the most vulnerable social sectors producing reading illiterates that have high economic costs for the nation.