British Library's 65,000 free books for Kindle: Update3

This is an update to (1) the detailed original report, the (2) follow-up story on reactions and questions about the file format used and (3) a look at what the Penny Dreadfuls collection is.

Information Today's Barbara Quint reports on The British Library's press release of February 23.

Much has been written about the final product looking exactly like the copies of the original editions, but in my mind it hasn't been totally clear from the Library whether that pertains to the Kindle edition or to just the print-on-demand copies that one can buy.  In an earlier update I wondered about the file-format and how they would retain the look of the originals without their being images rather than text.  I still haven't found anything solid on that, though I did quote NextWeb as writing that "...users of their Kindle eReader" would be able to "access historically accurate digital representations" but that could mean the printed copies available on-demand (and for $) to Amazon Kindle users.  Let us know if you hear anything definitive on that.

 Will the subsidiary of Amazon that provides printed copies be printing from Kindle copies or the copies that Microsoft originally scanned?  Could be the latter.  The Kindle copies are being made secondarily.  I guess we'll know fairly soon as they're due out in the Spring and the Library's press release is otherwise full of info. The provider of printed copies will be CreateSpace.com (originally CustomFlix Labs and BookSurge, Inc. and now a DBA for On-Demand Publishing LLC).  BL will receive some revenue from the Print-On-Demand sales, which will help it fund more digitization.

Quint writes:

'  How would you like to read a copy of a book by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen that looks exactly like the copies those authors held in their hands, ink fresh from the printers?  How would you like to read some of the books that the first readers of those books probably wouldn't admit they read-the so-called "penny dreadfuls"?  Last year, Microsoft completed its digitization obligations to The British Library (BL; www.bl.uk) and handed over 25 million pages in 65,000 19th-century books.  As yet the digital copies, like the hard copies, have only been readable by visitors to The British Library Reading Room.

  Later this spring, however, the digital copies will be available to any and all users of the Amazon Kindle ebook reader for free. A print-on-demand service will provide optional paperback copies to readers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and France. Expect to see the digital collection appear elsewhere as well. The Amazon arrangement is nonexclusive. '

As was said in the first newspaper report, "To meet the ever increasing demands of our users the library is negotiating with other key industry players to ensure we maximise potential for access."
  The Kindle is just the first e-reader for which an agreement was reached.

Today's article by Quint explains how it happened that Microsoft arranged to digitize the books, begun in 2005-2006.  After they halted their "Live Search Books" project, which was begun to compete with the new Google Books project at the time, they finished the scanning of the books and, per BL, completed the agreement but "gave us the content to do with what we wish and waived all their rights."
  Jacob Lant, The British Library's press officer, pointed out that BL "...provided the space and expertise in preservation and collection management, while the third-party scanning was paid by Microsoft."

As we know, about 35-40% of the items are unique to the Library or inaccessible in major libraries elsewhere.   The 65,000 Kindle books will cover, Quint writes, philosophy, history, poetry, and literature.

You can go to the Library press release and the Information Today article (links above) to read much more about this, including details of the offerings

Dame Lynne Brindley, chief executive of The British Library, again referred to the deal with Amazon as a "landmark agreement" in many ways.  The Library is talking to other potential partners, and they expect to supply more content to Kindle and Amazon.

NOTE:
  Interestingly, Lant mentions that Google had approached them in the past but the Library didn't agree to the terms.  "In the future, we might talk to them, but all deals must be on our terms as rightsholders."

British Library, Apple iPad pricing, Nook update, Macmillan ebooks

This is an update on the British Library project and some reactions to it. Crunchgear's Devin Coldewey has a personal reaction to it which matches other ones that I saw in Twitter discussions but he has a bit more room to describe it.

  Momentarily forsaking computer-gadget-blogspeak, he writes:

' Got a Kindle? Get thee to the British Library! Not only are they giving away a ton of old 19th-century literature in e-book form, but they’re a special “first edition” e-book with the original typeface and illustrations baked in. The 1800s encompass nearly all of my favorite literature, so this is actually making me want a Kindle pretty bad right now. Original typefaces! O lawd!
...
... Whatever the case, they’re going to be beautiful copies that make good use of those high contrast e-ink screens ... They’ll be made available in the spring, at which time I’ll probably post again because I love love love this. '

I'm puzzled by what the Library and Amazon have decided on as the file format, since Amazon's normal generic font is used in all books except for the 'Topaz' ones (.azw1) which use embedded fonts but those would be simulated.

  If PDF (and with longer loading time and fatter e-books for image-scans) those would be available on other e-readers, though of course even if they're free to Kindle-book buyers, Amazon might put their own DRM (Digital Rights Managemetn) on them for these specially formatted files.

 There's also the remote possibility of Blio, which will be supporting PDFs and EPub and is focused on preserving a book's original format - layout, fonts and images...  Who knows?  But I imagine Amazon has something up its sleeve.  I'm personally hoping Amazon supports non-DRM'd ePub format files very soon, for its own sake.  If not, the first developer app I'd want to see is one that converts ePub files, upon downloading them, to Amazon's basic MOBI format (the way it's easily done by users via Calibre).

WIRED: APPLE WOULD CONSIDER LOWERING IPAD PRICE IF INITIAL SALES ARE SLOW
Wired/Gadgetlab's Brian X. Chen writes that Bill Shope of Credit Suisse, in recounting his meeting with Apple executives, said that "Apple indicated it would consider lowering prices if initial demand appears to be slow."  Actually, that was credited at the bottom of the article to the Wall Street Journal's Matt Phillips, who has a quote here:

' “While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated),” Shope wrote. '

  The reason that's of interest is that various analysts have adjusted down their sales estimates for the iPad since it was launched after various features expected were missing from it.  As a thin/light web-browser (w/o flash support, multitasking, USB ports) for at home networks, at a lower price, I'd get one - but not for book-reading.

NOOK NOW BUYABLE AT THE BARNES AND NOBLE STORES - BUT A CAUTION
As a card-carrying Barnes and Noble member and hoping to see them survive some very tough times currently (3 of 4 stores in my area closed this year), I wish they would invest more time in Quality Control.

All this time, with personal documents, there has been no way to sort the nook files by title, author or anything else.  We give Amazon a bad time about the lack of folders but at least the Kindle had sorting by Title, Author, and Most Recent (the Nook doesn't have the latter at all) since the beginning.

  When the nook was new and the reviews weren't exactly ecstatic, they released firmware version 1.1 to fix initial problems, and it was quickly decided that yet another firmware update should be done because suddenly the Adobe digital-rights reading was not working with libraries anymore -- but there was an easy workaround for that.

 Still, they then released v1.11 suddenly and w/o fanfare to correct that.  But, as a result, something else was broken in the code, and the Barnes and Noble forums became filled with reports of bookmarks and annotations being lost, paragraphs and pages missing, and more problems though nook users are very patient, since the unit has other qualities they like and which are important to them.

 I went to see how firmware version 1.2 is faring since it was released just yesterday to nook owners after the store models were updated.

Here's the current page of reactions to that update and there are some workarounds that nook owners are recommending to others as they encounter new problems.  This is the actual current page of discussion of the new update when I went to look just now (page 10).

BUY BUTTONS FOR MACMILLAN KINDLE BOOKS ARE BACK ON MOST OF THEM
There are many reports that the ebooks have been showing up and that the prices (some had pre-orders before the brouhaha) are as they were before the negotiations with Macmillan's insistence on the higher pricing for best sellers.

In the comments areas, PRW has been reporting on personal tracking of a couple of Kindle books and noted the pricing is now as it was.  News reports are that the higher sell-prices for Macmillan books -- and for other publishers' who want the same deal they get with Apple or they'd delay e-books for many months -- should take place in March 2010 with no further ability by Amazon to discount those books under Steve Job's and Macmillan's "Agency" program for customer prices set by the publisher with the bookstore now out of that area.  Macmillan has said that ALL its book partners have agreed to the new Agency plan and the higher pricing.  That would include Barnes and Noble.

The British Library and Amazon: forgotten literary gems for free on the Kindle

Amazon Kindle owners discussing in the forums how the Kindle is like "literary crack" for them will find a bit more to enjoy now that the The British Library’s new joint venture with Amazon will make more 19th century fiction available for free through the Kindle ebook reader.

Dame Lynne Brindley, writing for The Times (UK), describes it as opening up

' a new global readership for forgotten literary gems.  Kindle users will be able to download, free of charge, 25m pages of digitised books, from noteworthy editions of well known authors like Dickens, Conan Doyle and Thomas Hardy to rare early 19th century fiction and even the UK’s best collection of ‘penny dreadfuls’.
  People who want their own copies can also have them despatched direct through Amazon’s print-on-demand service. Super Saver Delivery meets the gothic novel. '

Microsoft worked with the Library to digitize 65,000 out of copyright books and to develop enhanced online offerings of collected works.

Partnerships with higher educational organizations also made possible the digitizing of the Library's historic newspaper collections, already online.  Click on the link to see what that's like.  In describing the importance of the latest partnership, Dame Brindley writes:

' Looking back 10 years from now, the agreement with Amazon could represent a significant landmark on the journey that is now underway.  Freeing historic books from the shelves has the potential to revolutionise access to the world’s greatest library resources. '

A second story at The Times gives additional details.  The 65,000 newly scanned works are available for free download to the Kindle this spring and will be readable online by the public for free.

' Like the onscreen versions, the paperbacks, costing £15-£20, will look like the frequently rare 19th-century editions in the library’s collection — including their typeface and illustrations. Originals of works by Austen and Dickens typically cost at least £250.
. . .
  Altogether, 35%-40% of the library’s 19th-century printed books — now all digitised — are inaccessible in other public libraries and are difficult to find in second-hand or internet bookshops. '

UPDATE - The Next Web describes it this way:

' As for Amazon, not only will they enable users of their Kindle eReader to access historically accurate digital representations of thousands of famous books, but Amazon customers will also be able to order printed copies for between £15 and £20 including original typefaces and illustrations. '

UPDATE2 - Here's a follow-up article with more information on the books.

In the meantime, a weekend reminder:

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LINKS FOR SEARCHING FOR FREE OR LOW-COST E-BOOKS
  As ever, here is the ongoing set of links for various Searches for free or low-cost Kindle-compatible books.

  I've added a search there for non-classics or non-public-domain books which are under $9.99 and are sorted by bestsellers.  This search is for a time when Macmillan and others of the Big6 publishers (and Apple iBookstore as driving force) have pushed Amazon to the "Agency" model of prices from $13 to $15 for NY Times best sellers, which means they probably won't sell that many.