[Web4lib] NISO Publishes Special E-book Issue of Information Standards Quarterly -- Free for PDF download

[Cynthia Hodgson]

The Spring 2011 issue of NISO's Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ)
magazine has a special issue theme of Views of the E-book Renaissance. ISQ
Guest Content Editor, October Ivins of Ivins eContent Solutions has pulled
together a broad range of perspectives on what is happening today with
e-books and particularly with e-book standards. As she states in her
introductory letter: "Our goal for this issue of ISQ is to present an
overview of the status of e-books from multiple perspectives-publishers and
other content producers, librarians, and the many vendors who support their
creation, management, sales, and distribution. Not coincidentally, it also
illustrates the scope of the NISO community."

In the first feature article, Bill Kasdorf (Apex Content Solutions) provides
an update on EPUB 3, the new generation of the EPUB specification just
issued by the IDPF, and likens it to opening a Pandora's box, but where "all
the creatures bursting out can be made to behave in a civilized way." This
is followed with answers by Marlie Wasserman (Rutgers University Press) to
10 questions on the state of e-book publishing for university presses.

Mollie M. Pharo and Marcia Learned Au describe the public library experience
with e-books from their perspective over the last decade at the Evansville
Vanderburgh Public Library. Wendy Allen Sherburne (University of Illinois)
provides an opinion piece on drinking the e-book Kool-aid in an academic
library setting. 

Mark Bide (EDItEUR) has written a standards spotlight feature where he
discusses the challenge for standards in the e-book supply chain. Michael
Gorrel (EBSCO Publishing) provides the member spotlight where he shares his
company's plans for merging the recently acquired NetLibrary e-books with
the EBSCOhost platform.

In NISO reports, Matt Garrish and Markus Gylling (DAISY Consortium) reveal
the evolution of accessible publishing that occurred with the revision of
the Z39.86 DAISY standard. The issue concludes with Noteworthy news items
such as JSTOR's foray into e-books, ProQuest's acquisition of Ebrary, the
Project Muse and UPeC partnership to offer e-books, the trial use issuance
of the Journal Article Tag Suite standard (Z39.96). 

"This special issue of ISQ emphasizes the growing importance of e-books
throughout the library publishing and related information systems and
services communities," states Todd Carpenter, NISO Managing Director. "While
NISO is already engaged in e-books in a number of areas, we've announced in
the issue the formation of a Special Interest Group on E-books, which will
be exploring the larger context in which e-book related events are
unfolding, facilitating cross-community dialogue and recommending areas
where NISO can foster standards or recommended practices."

ISQ is available in open access in electronic format on the NISO website.
Both the entire issue and individual articles may be freely downloaded.
Print copies are available by subscription, to NISO members who opt-in and
as print on demand. For more information and to access the free electronic
version, visit: www.niso.org/publications/isq.


Cynthia Hodgson
ISQ Managing Editor
National Information Standards Organization
Email: chodgson at niso.org
Phone: 301-654-2512