91´«Ã½

CHICAGO—91´«Ã½ Publishing eLearning Solutions announces an exciting new workshop, . This workshop will last 90 minutes and take place on Thursday, May 25, 2017 at 2:30pm Eastern/1:30 Central/12:30 Mountain/11:30am Pacific.

Understanding E-books: A Guide to Current Challenges and Future Possibilities Workshop

A 90-minute workshop, Thursday, May 25, 2017, 2:30pm Eastern/1:30pm Central/12:30pm Mountain/11:30am Pacific

The popularity of e-books exploded with the emergence of tablets and e-readers like the Kindle and has risen steadily ever since. For librarians, this growth has meant the development of a new area of service and content delivery. For the librarian who is new to e-books and e-readers, this can be intimidating. Where do you start? How can you learn what you need to know to provide the services that your patrons expect?

In this new workshop, Mirela Roncevic, director of No Shelf Required, a well-known site on e-books and e-content in libraries and beyond, will help you get started. Roncevic will cover e-books from every angle, giving a practical overview of the e-book landscape that’s easy to follow no matter your experience working with e-books or e-book vendors.

Looking at both the academic and public library realms, Roncevic will cover a variety of topics, including

• Current and emerging e-book platforms and lending services
• Advantages and disadvantages of various e-book business models
• Dominant players in the e-book market
• Criteria for purchasing products
• Channels to explore beyond traditional library vendors and publishers
• The self-publishing phenomenon and the opportunities it affords libraries
• Groundbreaking e-book initiatives that place libraries at the heart of public life

You will learn how to navigate different types of e-books, understand their technical aspects, and fully grasp key issues surrounding e-books in libraries today. You will also be invited to engage in a discussion about the future of e-books with the following considerations:

• Will libraries be able to keep up with the sheer volume of e-content produced and sold?
• Have existing e-book business models created more chaos and driven readers away from (not toward) e-books?
• How aware are we that most of the world's books in digital format remain undiscovered?
• Are publishers' fears of electronic content competing with print content justified?
• Have libraries and publishers done enough to educate the public about the benefits of e-books and constantly improving technologies?
• Have libraries and library vendors considered all viable options when it comes to how readers consume e-books via libraries?
• How can libraries be more proactive in their efforts to create more sustainable and appealing conditions for e-book reading in libraries?

About the Instructor

Mirela Roncevic is a professional editor, writer, content developer, and consultant to publishers and library vendors. Over the course of her career, she has written, edited, and published countless articles, reports, magazine features, and book and product reviews. She has also spearheaded the publication of a wide range of books, book series, journals, and digital resources for libraries and developed web sites and e-resources for publishing and information professionals. She is the director of No Shelf Required, a portal on the present and future of digital content that seeks to inspire book and library professionals to be more proactive in their efforts to bring e-books to people. In 2016, Mirela launched the Free to Read initiative, which brings developers, publishers, libraries, and sponsors together to turn public and private spaces into zones (i.e., open virtual libraries) where people have free and uninterrupted access to books in digital format. Mirela is currently working on her second issue of for 91´«Ã½ TechSource, tied to her work on the Free to Read initiative, and is scheduled to teach her fourth class on e-books for 91´«Ã½ in July 2017.

Registration for this 91´«Ã½ Publishing eLearning Solutions Workshop is available on the . You can purchase registration at both and rates.

91´«Ã½ Publishing eLearning Solutions Workshops offer a convenient, hands-on learning experience that will help you and your colleagues make the best decisions for your library. This workshop is licensed for use by staff or users of the purchasing institution or library organization.

91´«Ã½ Publishing eLearning Solutions (ELS) produces high-quality professional development events and materials for the library profession. ELS events cover modern issues on a wide variety of topics in formats that include live workshops, asynchronous eCourses, and print publications. We help ensure that today’s library employees have access to the professional development opportunities they need, whether they are brushing up on the basics or expanding their horizons with cutting-edge tools. Contact us at elsmarketing@ala.org.

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