Category Archives: On the Web

Book Art, On the Web

History of Science Fiction Map

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Ok. This is cool. Absolutely cool. Artist Ward Shelley has sketched out a mind map to the history and evolution of the science fiction genre. It’s amazing. Click through to the big image and check out the areas around cyberpunk (upper right-ish) and the “Star Wars effect” (follow the arrow from Star Wars). He used spatial relations too. So the closer a name or title is to a sub-genre the more “canon” it/they will be. Pretty cool way to pick up new titles and authors to track down.

Someone should do this for all of the genres. A biblio-mystery mind map would be cool. I’ll buy the colored pencils! Who’s with me?

Bookshelf, On the Web

My Bookshelf Standing Desk

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I am a big proponent of standing desks and get excited about posts like the one on Unplggd. I’ve been a “stander” for over a year and would recommend everyone trying it out. You can always grab a bar stool, if you want to sit. I like my converted bookcase/bookshelf method because it’s:

  • easy to raise and lower the shelf for the monitor and keyboard (ergonomics are a must)
  • leaves plenty of room for a cashier’s mat (highly recommended, to ease strain on heels)
  • it’s cheap and easy to do
  • plenty of places for books and book covers that we’re working on

News, On the Web

Recycling print as sneakers

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I have to admit, out of all the options I’ve seen available for recycling magazines, newspapers and books… I never saw this one coming. Nike is stitching together sneakers that place the paper’s features section on your feet. These shoes are made from recycled print pieces. Not sure how comfortable they are, but they are pretty cool.

I haven’t seen a price yet, but it seems that the limited premium print run/edition run will be available overseas, in January and will include just three women’s styles.

Birmingham, Book Column, Book Talk, Digital Publishing, E-Books, Free Books, Media, On the Web, Publishing Industry News, Technology

Read Library eBooks on your Apple iOS Device

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You can now download and read free ebooks from the JCLC OverDrive system, on the iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. I’ve been doing this for two weeks now, and other than a lack of sleep from all of the reading, I have had no issues. This week I finished up two paper books and three ebooks, all thanks to the BlueFire Reader app and the JCLC eBooks system.

It’s a pretty straight forward process. I get pretty detailed in my steps, so please don’t let the number of steps deter you from trying this. Here is how you check out and read the library eBooks on your iOS device:

  1. Download the free BlueFire Reader app (iTunes link) to your device and create an account.
  2. Download the free Adobe Digital Editions desktop reader and create an account. This puts the Adobe Digital Editions program on your computer, which will act as “home base” and authenticate your ebooks.
  3. Launch the BlueFire Reader app, on your device, tap on “info” and authorize your app with your Adobe Digital Editions password.

Now, that you are all legit you are ready to check out a book!

  1. Go to the JCLC site (or your library’s downloadable site) and sign in.
  2. Check out a book. An .acm “key” file will download to your computer. Use your Adobe Digital Editions program to open this file, this will download the .epub (the actual book) file to your computer. You can now read that book on your computer.
  3. From your computer, send yourself an email, with that .epub file as an attachment.
  4. Now check your email on your iOS device. The attachment will appear with the BlueFire Reader logo.
  5. Tap and hold on that icon until the fly-out menu appears saying “Open with BlueFire Reader”, which you will select.
  6. BlueFire Reader app will now launch and you can start reading! Once your “checkout period” has expired the file will deactivate from your iOS device and your computer desktop.

I’ve also heard of people using free services like DropBox to get the book file on their device, but I haven’t tried it. The BlueFire folks are on Twitter and have been really responsive to all of my support questions. The OverDrive team is on Twitter too. I know that OverDrive and Sony have both promised Adobe DE-friendly apps soon, so BlueFire won’t be the only option. But as of right now, it’s certainly the best.

Let me know what you think and if you read anything good!