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Yes / The national ebook audit highlighted the fact that many students who are print-impaired are also unable to use off-the-peg ebooks, so must rely on specific requests for texts in formats accessible to their particular needs (alternative formats or alt-formats) . We set out to investigate the scale of this issue and its effect on student learning.

This dissertation analyzes the legal, social, technological, and cultural environment that gave rise to Google's library partnership program in order to propose an institutional corrective to Google's project to digitize cultural heritage. Interview research done with those actively involved with Google's project revealed the need for a history of the present. The class action settlement proposed sweeping changes to copyright warranting a quick response by a community of scholars seeking to advance a balanced vision of Anglo-American copyright, one where the public benefit to use and appropriate works is weighted alongside private incentives to create. The process created the conditions for institutional renewal in the public sphere through the creation of a Digital Public Library of America. By combining archival, critical legal, and interview research methods, this dissertation provides a narrative that is both analytical and deeply contextual. Google's digitization partnership in France is contrasted with its library partners program in the United States, examining Google's work in light of competing visions of intellectual property within a trans-Atlantic context.

The traditional book market matures, there are about 40,000 kinds of books published each year. But it is facing an oversupply situation. Return of a large number of books to make the traditional publishing business increasingly difficult. Online bookstores have established over ten years. Books are the most common products online shopping. The end of year 2010, a large number of sales for ebooks and e-reader. We can see that reading habits of human has begun to change. The reader can read thousands of books with an e-reader around everywhere. Publishers can sell books through the internet. How can the rise of e-reader? What will be affected for the traditional logistics providers and suppliers? Which new business models and benefits bring from e-reader and e-bookstore? This study used qualitative research to the literature review and case study, to observe and explain the e-reader how to affect the traditional suppliers and bring new benefits. Base on publishing ebooks through the internet, the digital platform service providers replace traditional logistics providers, suppliers, and publishers. Internet services provider replace the traditional logistics providers. Ebooks and e-reader use for reduce logistics costs and solve inventory problems. Consumer behavior changed to impact the traditional book industry, but also bring new economic benefits.

Este trabalho propõe-se a estudar de que modo o projeto de e-books voltados a crianças em fase de alfabetização pode ser aprimorado, de modo a tirar melhor proveito dos recursos tecnológicos e, assim, melhorar a experiência de leitura infantil nesse contexto de ensino-aprendizagem. Para isso, expõe-se, inicialmente, um panorama geral sobre a popularização dos e-books e sobre a leitura em suporte digital. Realiza-se, então, uma pesquisa bibliográfica dividida em três partes principais: a primeira busca identificar características do público-alvo, suas capacidades e limitações no que diz respeito à leitura; a segunda trata do objeto e-book de maneira geral, envolvendo aspectos técnicos e de uso desse objeto digital; a terceira aborda o livro digital infantil, sob o enfoque do projeto gráfico-visual. Posteriormente, é realizada uma análise de similares, em que dez publicações digitais voltadas ao público infantil são observadas e analisadas. A partir dos dados obtidos até então, propõem-se algumas diretrizes preliminares de projeto, que são avaliadas por especialistas. A pesquisa define, por fim, diretrizes de projeto de e-books infantis, que permitam ao designer explorar de forma adequada os recursos tecnológicos, aprimorando a qualidade técnica dos livros digitais em contexto de alfabetização infantil. / This work studies how the project of ebooks aimed at children learning to read can be improved in order to take better advantage of technological resources and thus improve children's reading experience in this educational context. In order to do that, it begins with an overview of the ebook revolution. Afterward, a literature research, divided in three areas, is presented: the first aims to understand the target audience, their abilities and limitations with regard to reading; the second approaches the ebook, involving technical aspects and regarding the use of this digital object; the third addresses children’s ebooks under the focus of graphic design. Subsequently, an analysis on children’s books available in the market is performed on ten digital publications focused at children, which are observed and analyzed. From the data obtained so far, this work proposes some preliminary guidelines, which are evaluated by experts. The research proposes, finally, design guidelines for children's ebooks, enabling the designer to explore adequately the technological resources, and improving the technical quality of digital books in an educational context.

Este trabalho propõe-se a estudar de que modo o projeto de e-books voltados a crianças em fase de alfabetização pode ser aprimorado, de modo a tirar melhor proveito dos recursos tecnológicos e, assim, melhorar a experiência de leitura infantil nesse contexto de ensino-aprendizagem. Para isso, expõe-se, inicialmente, um panorama geral sobre a popularização dos e-books e sobre a leitura em suporte digital. Realiza-se, então, uma pesquisa bibliográfica dividida em três partes principais: a primeira busca identificar características do público-alvo, suas capacidades e limitações no que diz respeito à leitura; a segunda trata do objeto e-book de maneira geral, envolvendo aspectos técnicos e de uso desse objeto digital; a terceira aborda o livro digital infantil, sob o enfoque do projeto gráfico-visual. Posteriormente, é realizada uma análise de similares, em que dez publicações digitais voltadas ao público infantil são observadas e analisadas. A partir dos dados obtidos até então, propõem-se algumas diretrizes preliminares de projeto, que são avaliadas por especialistas. A pesquisa define, por fim, diretrizes de projeto de e-books infantis, que permitam ao designer explorar de forma adequada os recursos tecnológicos, aprimorando a qualidade técnica dos livros digitais em contexto de alfabetização infantil. / This work studies how the project of ebooks aimed at children learning to read can be improved in order to take better advantage of technological resources and thus improve children's reading experience in this educational context. In order to do that, it begins with an overview of the ebook revolution. Afterward, a literature research, divided in three areas, is presented: the first aims to understand the target audience, their abilities and limitations with regard to reading; the second approaches the ebook, involving technical aspects and regarding the use of this digital object; the third addresses children’s ebooks under the focus of graphic design. Subsequently, an analysis on children’s books available in the market is performed on ten digital publications focused at children, which are observed and analyzed. From the data obtained so far, this work proposes some preliminary guidelines, which are evaluated by experts. The research proposes, finally, design guidelines for children's ebooks, enabling the designer to explore adequately the technological resources, and improving the technical quality of digital books in an educational context.

Este trabalho propõe-se a estudar de que modo o projeto de e-books voltados a crianças em fase de alfabetização pode ser aprimorado, de modo a tirar melhor proveito dos recursos tecnológicos e, assim, melhorar a experiência de leitura infantil nesse contexto de ensino-aprendizagem. Para isso, expõe-se, inicialmente, um panorama geral sobre a popularização dos e-books e sobre a leitura em suporte digital. Realiza-se, então, uma pesquisa bibliográfica dividida em três partes principais: a primeira busca identificar características do público-alvo, suas capacidades e limitações no que diz respeito à leitura; a segunda trata do objeto e-book de maneira geral, envolvendo aspectos técnicos e de uso desse objeto digital; a terceira aborda o livro digital infantil, sob o enfoque do projeto gráfico-visual. Posteriormente, é realizada uma análise de similares, em que dez publicações digitais voltadas ao público infantil são observadas e analisadas. A partir dos dados obtidos até então, propõem-se algumas diretrizes preliminares de projeto, que são avaliadas por especialistas. A pesquisa define, por fim, diretrizes de projeto de e-books infantis, que permitam ao designer explorar de forma adequada os recursos tecnológicos, aprimorando a qualidade técnica dos livros digitais em contexto de alfabetização infantil. / This work studies how the project of ebooks aimed at children learning to read can be improved in order to take better advantage of technological resources and thus improve children's reading experience in this educational context. In order to do that, it begins with an overview of the ebook revolution. Afterward, a literature research, divided in three areas, is presented: the first aims to understand the target audience, their abilities and limitations with regard to reading; the second approaches the ebook, involving technical aspects and regarding the use of this digital object; the third addresses children’s ebooks under the focus of graphic design. Subsequently, an analysis on children’s books available in the market is performed on ten digital publications focused at children, which are observed and analyzed. From the data obtained so far, this work proposes some preliminary guidelines, which are evaluated by experts. The research proposes, finally, design guidelines for children's ebooks, enabling the designer to explore adequately the technological resources, and improving the technical quality of digital books in an educational context.

In this degree project we present a way to construct a synchronization system that is able to create a timings file, which is the file the system uses to know how to sync the eBook and audiobook, using speech recognition and estimation algorithms. This file is then used by the system to let the user select a sentence and have the audiobook start reading from that sentence, or vice versa. This system can create these files with a mean offset from a manu-ally timed file which is within our expectations for the system. We use estimation algorithms to fill in the blanks where the speech recognition falls short. Speech recognition accuracy is typically between 40-60%, sometimes dipping lower, so there are blanks to fill in. Using basic algebraic principles of calculating velocity we can ex-trapolate the speed of a reader, using the duration of the audiobook as the time and the amount of characters written as the distance. For increased accuracy we derive this value on a per-chapter basis. Using this method we are able to create accurate files, which the user can use to freely sync any location in the book. Our system is designed to work for any book in the world that does not have an audiobook which cuts off between sentences in the audio files. We manually create timings files for four different books with widely varying publishing dates, author styles, reader style and gender to create as wide and representative a testing pool as possible for the project

Adopting a mixed methods approach consisting of interviews, focus group discussions and surveys, this thesis investigates the state of digital publishing in Ghana within the context of Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory. With a focus on children’s ebooks, it examines publishers’, authors’ and readers’ levels of adoption of ebooks, and their motivations for, perceptions of, and challenges or barriers to, going digital or otherwise. It also assesses the state of digital infrastructure and human resource capacity in Ghana to support the growing ebook sector, and identifies the knowledge and skills deficit in the industry in order to inform the development of courses that will be incorporated into the BA Publishing Studies programme at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). This thesis reveals that the level of adoption of ebook publishing among publishers and authors was relatively low given the interest demonstrated by young readers. The latter were very interested in ebooks and read mainly foreign content because it was freely available and accessible online. Publishers’ and authors’ motivations for publishing ebooks include visibility, the opportunity to reach a much wider audience, and the novelty of publishing digitally to keep abreast of current trends so as to transform the local industry. Some barriers to adoption identified were the cost associated with acquiring infrastructure, the security of online content, inadequate information about ebooks, non-use of ebooks, and infrastructural challenges such as inconsistent electricity supply and poor Internet penetration. The thesis also identified an awareness disconnect between publishers and their local readers: publishers perceive ebooks to be for the international market and, as such, do not focus on promoting them in the local market; thus, local readers are not aware of the existence of ebooks. Expanding on Rogers’ adoption categories, two new categories were created, incidental adopters and perceptual late adopters, to accommodate individuals who do not fall within Rogers’ established adopter categories. To increase the spread of digital publishing and the uptake of ebooks in the Ghanaian book market, the thesis recommends the elimination of the barriers to adoption and, most importantly, advocates training and skills development to reduce the knowledge and skills deficit gap among publishers and authors.

Abstract available in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.