New iPad2---Available March 11

Everyone has been waiting for it!

The announcement of the new iPad2!

Image credit: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

Tech Specs
http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

iPads in Classrooms

Apple iPad Learning Labs

http://www.apple.com/education/ipad/

"An Apple iPad Learning Lab streamlines the management of classroom sets of iPad devices. Each lab includes 10 iPad devices and a sturdy and secure mobile cart. The cart can store, charge, and sync up to 30 iPad devices and has room for a MacBook computer. The cart rolls easily around campus, so multiple classes can benefit, and it can be locked to secure the devices when they’re not in use. Purchase a predesigned Apple iPad Learning Lab or let us help you build your own iPad mobile lab."



Some important information from the Apple website:
iPad2's will be available at Apple Retail Stores
or online March 11.  Units start at $499.

Ok, so you might wonder what our library is going to do next....

we just purchased 15 Kindle3's-Wi-Fi only units and sent them all back this week.  Why? Answer in next blog post.

HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations

To a Mountain in Tibet

By Colin Thubron

On Sale: 3/1/2011

Formats: E-Book

 Image credit:  http://alturl.com/e89gd

http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/889452-264/harpercollins_caps_loans_on_ebook.html.csp

Quote from article in weblink above by Josh Hadro Feb 25, 2011 Mention of the new terms was first made in a letter from OverDrive CEO Steve Potash to customers yesterday. He wrote [emphasis in original]:

[W]e have been required to accept and accommodate new terms for eBook lending as established by certain publishers. Next week, OverDrive will communicate a licensing change from a publisher that, while still operating under the one-copy/one-user model, will include a checkout limit for each eBook licensed. Under this publisher's requirement, for every new eBook licensed, the library (and the OverDrive platform) will make the eBook available to one customer at a time until the total number of permitted checkouts is reached.

As noted in the letter, the terms will not be specific to OverDrive, and will likewise apply to "all eBook vendors or distributors offering this publisher's titles for library lending." The new terms will not be retroactive, and will apply only to new titles. More details on the new terms are set to be announced next week.
If a lending period is two weeks, the 26 circulation limit is likely to equal roughly one year of use for a popular title. For a three-week lending period, that stretches to a year and a half.

For librarians—many of whom are already frustrated with ebooks lending policies and user interface issues—further license restrictions seem to come at a particularly bad time, given strained budgets nationwide. It may also disproportionately affect libraries that set shorter loan periods for ebook circulation.
[end of quote]

One issue that stands out is the shorter loan periods mentioned above.  Our reserve items are usually 2 hours for textbooks.

With a 26 loan cap, that could expire in less than one week at our Reserve desk.

E-textbook
Imge credit: http://alturl.com/yk75k
By Kenneth C. Davis
On Sale: 3/15/2011
Formats: Trade PB
E-Book