Don’t miss the new e-books on the VLebooks platform. Visit the e-Library on SharePoint and use the VLebooks link to read any of the books through your browser or download books to your smartphone or iPad. Ask the Library staff if you need help setting this up. Be prepared for half-term and stock up with e-books. There’s something for everyone ranging from a number of the Carnegie Shortlisted books to Science non-fiction and books for teachers. You can browse the stock using ‘Library Lists’ to search by category.
Category Archives: e-books
New e-books available on VLeBooks
We have recently added a selection of new titles to the VLeBooks e-book platform.
You can read the books online – via the e-Library through a browser on your laptop, PC, iPad etc.
Login with your usual wellington user name (password wellington)
App – use the VLeBooks app on your android or iPhone or iPad. (For this you need to create an Adobe account. This is quick and easy to do just follow the instructions online)
New e-books:
- Particularly for staff – “How to Lead” by Jo Owen
- For Horowitz fans read his latest in the “Power of Five” series – “Oblivion” (also available in the Library in print form)
- “15 Days without a Head” by Dave Cousins. Nominated for the Berkshire Book Award by young people around the county. Always moving but often hilarious and peppered with surreal moments. “Fifteen-year-old Laurence Roach just wants a normal life, but it’s not easy when your mum is a depressed alcoholic, and your six-year-old brother thinks he’s a dog.”
- From the PE Top Ten reads – “Mind Games: Inspirational Lessons from the World’s Biggest Sports Stars”
- From the Biology Top Ten list – “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins
- Guinness Book of Records 2013
- If Poetry – a treasury of poems for almost every possibility (also available on the iPads)
- “Alan M Turing” by Sara Turing. ” To commemorate the centenary of Turing’s birth, this re-publication of his mother’s biography is enriched by a new foreword by Martin Davis and a never-before-published memoir by Alan’s older brother. The contrast between this memoir and the original biography reveals tensions and sheds new light on Turing’s relationship with his family, and on the man himself.”
e-books in the News – an update
There have been many developments in the e-book world over the last few months. In May 2012 Waterstones decided to start selling Amazon’s Kindle and on 31st August John Lewis announced its decision to sell Nook e-readers in all its stores.
Here are the latest developments in the world of e-books over the last week:
- Government announces a review into e-book lending in public libraries. (Guardian 27th September 2012) Daily Telegraph article on this issue.
- The Nook tablet and e-reader are coming to the UK – BBC Technology News: US book chain Barnes & Noble plans to launch new Nook tablets alongside its e-readers in the UK later this year. Nook Tablets to tackle Amazon (The Telegraph 26th September 2012)
- Wal-Mart is to stop selling Amazon’s kindle (FT.com 20th September 2012)
- Amazon Launches new Kindle Fire tablet and Kobo unveils a new range of e-book readers (BBC News 6th September 2012)
- e-books blog from The Telegraph
American Digital Library promised for 2013
Guardian Article from 5th April 2012
American Digital Public Library
Two million books will be available in an online digital library to rival Google’s collection, according to Professor Robert Darnton, who promised the new database would overcome copyright hurdles by next year.
The British Library is constantly digitising its collections. Vast numbers of resources are available online including sounds, images and newspapers. Many are freely available, others are paid for.
Digital collections
International Dunhuang Project
E-books – the new reading
Here are some interesting articles from The Guardian about how e-books are changing the way we read, how we annotate books and what we read. Self-publishing is on the rise and short books are being written for e-readers – ideal for long haul flights: ebooks-the-new-reading
Includes a fascinating article – “Digital butchery makes a monster of Frankenstein -Mary Shelley’s classic horror story has been dismembered for the age of the app”
Lee Child most successful UK kindle author
Article in The Bookseller 1st March 2012
Lee Child is the most successful British Kindle book author worldwide, followed by Stephen Leather and Ken Follett, according to Amazon UK.
E books update – Lonely Planet pdf chapters
Whilst looking up holiday guides I discovered that Lonely Planet offer their travel guides as e-books. They also sell pdf chapters of the books separately for £2.99