Category Archives: online books

Hurry, hurry! Free books, going fast! (And new site feature)

Posted on February 28, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Okay, it’s a trend: Feb. 9: Tor books launches their “Watch the Skies” program, where they send out free ebooks once a week to readers who register on their site. These are best-selling and critically acclaimed books like John Scalzi’s … Continue reading →

Posted in online books, publishing | 1 Comment

The right to read, circa 1906

Posted on February 27, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

For a few years in the early 1900s, some American book publishers came up with a brave new marketing paradigm. Instead of offering books for sale the old-fashioned way, they essentially decided to license them. Purchasers were warned of dire … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, online books | 1 Comment

Here, have some more Punch

Posted on February 26, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Punch was a British institution for well over a century. Founded in 1841, it was an irreverent weekly magazine of quips, cartoons, essays, stories and poetry, often on the politics and events of the day. Writers and artists like W. … Continue reading →

Posted in online books, serials | Comments Off on Here, have some more Punch

Improving the millions

Posted on February 20, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Michigan’s announcement earlier this month that they had over one million volumes from their collection digitized was widely hailed online. That million books includes both copyrighted and public domain content. According to Michigan’s John Wilkin, who I talked with shortly … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, online books, open access | Comments Off on Improving the millions

Newbery book quick update

Posted on January 19, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Mary now has a list of the apparently unrenewed-copyright Newbery winners, plus a description of The Windy Hill, the Newbery honor book she put online, on her blog.

Posted in copyright, online books | Comments Off on Newbery book quick update

New Newbery and Caldecott winners announced; Old Newbery winners go online

Posted on January 16, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

One of the highlights of the American Library Association‘s Midwinter meeting (which just concluded here in Philadelphia) is the announcement of the winners of the Newbery Medal, the Caldecott Medal, and ALA’s other book prizes. The Newbery is one of … Continue reading →

Posted in awards, copyright, online books | 3 Comments

Don’t shade your eyes

Posted on January 14, 2008 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Back in 2006, Paul Collins wrote an article in Slate asking “Will Google Book Search uncover long-buried literary crimes?” Now that we have large corpuses of texts searchable online, he argued, it will become much easier to find words lifted … Continue reading →

Posted in crimes and misdemeanors, online books | 1 Comment

Book People postscript

Posted on December 3, 2007 by John Mark Ockerbloom

This past Friday I closed down the Book People mailing list, a forum for people making and reading free online books that Mary and I started in 1997. Much of the activity of folks on the list would be early … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen librarians, meta, online books | Comments Off on Book People postscript

Two exciting bits of online book news

Posted on November 30, 2007 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Well, exciting to me, anyway. I was thrilled to learn, via Open Access News, that the University of Pittsburgh Press is going to digitize most of their backlist and make it available online for free open access, with the help … Continue reading →

Posted in online books, open access, science fiction, university presses | Comments Off on Two exciting bits of online book news