VitalSource

Buyer's Guide: The State of Ebooks in 2014
May 23, 2014

While it may be a bit soon to say the ebook business has matured, it's definitely true to say it's finally outgrowing its awkward adolescence. Today, ebooks as we have come to know them are taken for granted. But the more important news is how many of our assumptions about them are being challenged. Here are a few of the highlights.

EDUPUB: Getting It Together for Digital Education
November 11, 2013

Despite the popular [mis]conception that digital textbooks haven't taken off, the educational ecosystem-particularly in higher ed-is where some of the most active digital developments are happening. Most college textbooks have associated online resources and are often available as ebooks or online.

IDPF Digital Book 2013 Reveals an All-Star Lineup
May 15, 2013

New York, NY, May 8, 2013 – From May 29-30, 2013, the best minds in digital publishing will convene in the Javits Center in New York City for the highly-anticipated, perennially sold-out at IDPF Digital Book 2013 conference (http://idpf.org/db13). This year’s theme, Advancing Publishing in a Digital World, has already drawn an enormous crowd, with seats expected to sell out soon.

Some featured speakers and session insights include:

  • Otis Chandler, Co-founder and CEO of Goodreads will share an update and tackle questions from the crowd, including: what’s next for Goodreads now that it’s owned by Amazon? What does the recent sale mean for the 17 million members, 530 million books and 23 million reviews?
  • Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker will speculate on the digital future with Brad Stone, Bloomberg Businessweek writer and author of the upcoming The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

Are You Getting the Most Out of EPUB 3?
May 1, 2013

When EPUB 3.0 was officially unveiled at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, 2011, it was taken by many as the spec to end all specs.

At last, we could really get to work creating ebooks with all the things we’d always wished for — basic things like the sophisticated typography and layout we can do in print, and beyond-print features like video and interactivity — as well as some things we hadn’t thought to want, like global language support and rich metadata. Not to mention something we knew we should do but that was “too hard” before: real accessibility. Best of all, we could make just one file that would work the same everywhere…

The euphoria didn’t last long. Sure, EPUB 3 told us how to do all those things; but did they all actually work anywhere?

That was 18 months ago. Guess what? Progress happens.

Sixty new publishers add content to Ingram's VitalSource e-textbook platform to reach the education market
December 4, 2012

[PRESS RELEASE] NASHVILLE, TN ­ Vital Source Technologies, Inc., Ingram Content Group's leading e-textbook solution for publishers, academic institutions, and students, today announced that sixty new publishers have added more than 35,000 new digital textbooks and online course materials to its VitalSource Bookshelf® platform. "The students of today are using technology to their advantage, and we are experiencing significant growth in the number of publisher, institutional, and reseller customers using the VitalSource Bookshelf platform," said Kent Freeman, Chief Operating Officer, Vital Source Technologies, Inc. "We will continue to nurture our publisher relationships and expand and diversify our title selection to provide the digital content that's in demand by students and educators worldwide."

IDPF Unveils Program, Speakers for Digital Book 2012 at BEA
April 10, 2012

The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) announced today the preliminary program and speakers for Digital Book 2012 at BEA (idpf.org/db12). The conference, held in partnership with BookExpo America (BEA), will be held June 4-5, 2012, in New York City's Javits Center, and is expected to draw global leaders in the publishing industry, including technologists, marketers, retailers, solution providers, publishers, authors, and agents.

Featured speakers at Digital Book 2012 will include best-selling authors Seth Godin and Bella Andre, as well as publishing CEOs and senior executives including Jane Friedman (Open Road Media), Madeline McIntosh (Random House), Otis Chandler (Goodreads) and more.

Ingram’s Vital Source Launches E-textbook Building Block for Blackboard Learn™ Platform
February 14, 2012

Ingram’s Vital Source is now providing access to its leading e-textbook platform through Blackboard Learn™, one of the most used learning management systems. The Blackboard Building Block™ for VitalSource gives institutions a comprehensive tool to implement digital textbooks for students in mobile, online and offline environments.

“We are pleased the VitalSource platform will be available to all Blackboard Learn users worldwide, providing anytime, anywhere access to the content that educators and students use most,” said Kent Freeman, Chief Content Officer, Vital Source Technologies, Inc.

Aptara and VitalSource Make Publishers’ Digital Content Accessible to Readers with Disabilities
May 28, 2010

Falls Church, Va.-based digital publishing solutions provider Aptara has partnered with VitalSource, an Ingram Content Company, to make publishers’ content accessible to readers with disabilities. By providing content development and conversion services that now include tagging specifically for Section 508 of the Federal Accessibility Guidelines, Aptara’s publishing customers can utilize VitalSource’s new Bookshelf e-textbook platform.

Gene Therapy: Climbing Aboard the E-book Bandwagon
August 22, 2008

With the advent of electronic ink, or e-ink, the Sony Reader, the Amazon Kindle and the .epub formatting protocols, the era of the e-book in the United States may be on its way. If you are a publisher or book producer, sooner or later you will be delivering electronic versions of all of your titles for distribution through a burgeoning network of electronic channels—if you’re not already doing so. It may be tomorrow, it may be next year or possibly later, but I guarantee the need to do so will be thrust upon you by the marketplace. While it is true that complex