I'm so glad to have finally finished! I've done the whole thing in fits and starts when I could squeeze some time out of my days, and it's been interesting and worthwhile. I'd like to think I would keep up with these new applications but I know I probably won't - but at least I know about them.
The most useful thing I've discovered would be setting up my Bloglines account and the RSS feeds so I can keep up with news, and new books and authors. I may keep up my Facebook page as well.
Signing off now for the last time!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Project Gutenberg and e-books
As a part time librarian at Homai Special Formats Library I have been familiar with Project Gutenberg for some time as we sometimes need to refer blind and vision-impaired students to this site to access books they need for their studies. They can download them as audiobooks or as e-text if they have a screen enlarger or screen reading software, such as Jaws. It's great for classics but of course does not include anything not already in the public domain, so we still need a good supply of audio, braille and large print for the more recent books.
Project Gutenberg is a very useful site for a large number of people and there are many formats available for downloading, from Appleitunes Audiobook to HTML or plain text. It is interesting that many public libraries are now offering audio books for digital downloading as well - and these are current titles.
I had a look at the book, "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English". It was interestingly old fashioned. In one section it was argued that a noble temperament could be seen in an individual by looking at the size and breadth of the forehead!
Project Gutenberg is a very useful site for a large number of people and there are many formats available for downloading, from Appleitunes Audiobook to HTML or plain text. It is interesting that many public libraries are now offering audio books for digital downloading as well - and these are current titles.
I had a look at the book, "The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English". It was interestingly old fashioned. In one section it was argued that a noble temperament could be seen in an individual by looking at the size and breadth of the forehead!
Podcasts galore
This week, using Podcast.com, I checked out a podcast from the magazine, The Economist, on the books of the year. I discovered that in 2008, the largest number of new non-fiction books were written about China and the Middle East, with a new hot topic, the credit crunch, starting to come to the fore. Some of the books mentioned as excellent reads were "Modern China" by Jonathan Fenby, "When Markets Collide" by Mohamed El-Erian, and "How Fiction Works", by James Woods. Very interesting but a little more time consuming than just reading the same information.
I've now added this as a feed to my bloglines account.
I've now added this as a feed to my bloglines account.
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