Like Sophie and dotReader, VitalSource Bookshelf is one app we’re watching because of a focus on shared annotations and other forms of interactivity within e-books. VitalSource already offers shared notes for real world use—by dental students at New York University.
Multimedia capabilities, of special interest to the Sophie folks as well, are another draw. Over the summer VitalSource Technologies released Vital Bookshelf 4.6, which among other things will “support QuickTime audio and video inside textbooks for when our publishing partners roll out media-rich content.”
Letting professors and others blend their own resources with e-books
But what about companion resources—an issue of interest in education and the corporate world, and potentially of interest to e-book-hip public libraries and others in the future?
For example, just how can e-book-related software handle files in PowerPoint, other Office-style apps and additional resources that aren’t in the the original books? They could be just the ticket for professors and others wanting to augment the standard fare. How to store, index, and display the outside add-ons within the e-book reader? VitalSource software now has that capability. This may be small potatoes to tech types. But for ordinary mortals, professors and student included, the integration could be useful. I can also see local libraries using similar approaches someday to augment the usual books with localized content—for example, local World War II-related history to augment The Big Picture in standard works on the war.
Other “companionship”
Of course, I hope that in the future, the companion content will be well-integrated within other software offerings (perhaps the Sophie people would argue that companion capabilities are already possible via the networked book concept). Similarly it wouldn’t hurt for the IDPF to add annotations to its standards specs, as I understand will happen.
Meanwhile, separately, VitalSource has announced that Columbia University will use its format for front-list textbook, and I’ll repro the news release.
////////////////////
Columbia University Press Recruits VitalSource
Preeminent scholarly publisher and electronic publishing pioneer picks VitalSource’s e-book platform for new textbook titles
Raleigh, NC – September 27, 2007—VitalSource Inc., a leading developer of digital book solutions, today announced it has been selected by Columbia University Press to launch a series of frontlist textbook titles in e-book format. One of the largest and oldest scholarly presses in the world, Columbia University Press will utilize VitalSource’s advanced technology platform to publish highly interactive products. E-textbooks released under this agreement will be available for purchase at campus bookstores nationwide, as well as VitalSource’s retail Web site.
Columbia University Press e-textbooks featuring VitalSource technology will be published using the company’s cutting-edge format, VitalBook (*.vbk). The VitalBook format is well suited for textbook publishing as it allows content to be indexed at the highest as well as the most granular level for advanced searching. Titles delivered in the VitalBook format are accessed via a free, PC and MAC-compatible software application dubbed Bookshelf. Content rich in graphics and text, commonly found in textbooks, may be efficiently saved and displayed on Bookshelf without burdening the reader’s machine, thanks to proprietary technology found in the VitalBook format.
“Columbia University Press is widely recognized as a pioneer in digital publishing, having championed such award-winning initiatives as the Gutenberg-e project,” commented Jim Jordan, President and Director. “VitalSource’s technology is visionary in its own right and was developed with the student in mind. Their approach to e-textbooks is, therefore, very much in line with ours.”
VitalSource Bookshelf enables users to highlight and annotate their digital copies, as well as share and subscribe to other readers’ notes and highlights via its one-of-a-kind social networking functionality. Bookshelf users may employ shared notes to help one another study, to ask other readers questions or to divide work among members of a study group. Teachers may, in turn, use this powerful feature to focus attention on the most salient portions of the text or to insert self-test or discussion questions, as well as to share best practices with fellow instructors.
One of the largest university presses, Columbia University Press publishes over 150 new titles per year and has a backlist of more than 3,000 books. The Press is the publisher of classic reference works including The Columbia Encyclopedia. With the addition of VitalSource-powered e-textbooks to its portfolio, Columbia University Press strengthens its position in the marketplace as a leading supplier of high quality products for Digital Age students.
“Our technology opens the door for both students and instructors to engage with content in brand new ways,” said Frank Daniels III, president and CEO of VitalSource. “The marriage between the rich, interactive user experience enabled by the VitalBook format and Columbia University Press’s inventory will certainly lead to exciting products.”
About VitalSource Technologies, Inc.
Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, VitalSource is a leading provider of technology solutions for e-book publishing and distribution. The company enables publishers, distributors and other partners to create and deliver textbooks and other content directly to users’ computers in its proprietary VitalBook (*.vbk) file format under a variety of scenarios, ranging from custom curriculum solutions to private-label bundled products, as well as single textbook and promotional content delivery to students and faculty in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings. In 2007, VitalSource commemorated the billionth book distributed in the VitalBook format. VitalSource is an Ingram Digital Group company. For more information visit www.vitalsource.com
About Ingram Digital Group
Ingram Digital Group is an operating division of Ingram Industries Inc. and provides publishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital content accession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital Group along with its group companies MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies provides a full-service array of digital solutions and support. The Ingram companies – including Ingram Digital, Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc. – provide a broad range of physical and digital services to the industry. For more information, visit www.ingramdigital.com
About Columbia University Press
Established in 1893, Columbia University Press publishes reference and scholarly books in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Since 1991 the Press has also been a leader in electronic publishing. One of the largest university presses, Columbia University Press publishes over 150 new titles per year and has a backlist of more than 3,000 books. The Press is the publisher of classic print and electronic reference works including The Columbia Encyclopedia, The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry Online,Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO), and The Columbia Gazetteer of the World, as well as the works of authors such as Julia Kristeva, David Mamet, Kenneth Waltz, Todd Gitlin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Antonio Gramsci, John Allen Paulos, Roald Hoffman, Lewis Mumford Theodor Adorno, Lillian Faderman, Amos Elon, Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz, and John Rawls. For more information, visit http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup.
///////////////
Detail: The screenshot is from an earlier post—I don’t know if it’s absolutely up to date.
One big fly in the ointment is that this is yet another format to deal with. As nifty as it may be, there is only a certain amount of tech real people can absorb at a given time before going bonkers.
See, at the same time Columbia is doing this, you have SafariX from Pearson, iChapters from Cengage, that weird Zinnio magazine format for some other textbooks, ‘Sealed Media’ PDFs, and who knows what else.
Add to that the disability folks making noise about DAISY, audiobooks, and braille. Plus NIMAS for K-12 textbooks. Chaos is too kind a word to describe the current situation.
Bob on VitalSource: The good folks at VitalSouce read the TeleBlog and I hope they’ll support .epub to the max. I do know they plan to offer some kind of support, but I’d welcome further details from ’em. What’s more, I hope they’ll share with us a wish list for .epub. – David
[…] mary wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt […]