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Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Times They Are A-Changing, Web & Technology, Weblogs (Blogs)

Introducing the new EPUB reader for e-books at the Library of Congress | The Signal

Published February 2, 2023 by Carlyn Osborn

Today’s guest post is from Kristy Darby, a Digital Collections Specialist at the Library of Congress.

Bird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish is now available to view in the new EPUB reader.

The Open Access Books Collection on loc.gov includes approximately 6,000 contemporary open access e-books covering a wide range of subjects, including history, music, poetry, technology, and works of fiction.

All books in this collection were published under open access licenses, meaning the e-books are available to use and reuse according to the terms of the licenses. Users can access the e-books in the Open Access Books Collection by reading directly online in a browser or downloading the book as a PDF or EPUB file.

Green book cover for Bird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish, edited by Dieter TietzeBird Species: How They Arise, Modify and Vanish is now available to view in the new EPUB reader.

When we first made open access e-books available on loc.gov, titles were available for download in either PDF or EPUB format, but PDF was the only one available for reading directly on the website; loc.gov did not support viewing EPUBs in the browser, and they were only available for download. As many books were available in both formats or in PDF only, this ensured most titles were viewable directly on the website.

However, we recognized an increase in titles available in EPUB only so we are happy to share the news that an EPUB viewer was launched on loc.gov. The viewer makes EPUBs available for reading on loc.gov and provides a richer interface for users.

Source: Introducing the new EPUB reader for e-books at the Library of Congress | The Signal

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Love & Relationships, Web & Technology

Why Novelists Are Embracing Substack – Can Substack Reinvent the Social Internet?

But the success of their migration depends on whether—or not—the social Internet can function like a writing workshop.

By Adrienne Westenfeld, Mar 9, 2022

Getty Images

When George Saunders went out to his writing shed to start a Substack newsletter last fall, for the first time in a long time, the Booker Prize-winning novelist, famous for such works as Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December, didn’t know what he was doing.

“I’ll just write 80 posts and then take a vacation,” he thought to himself.

But upon hitting publish, something surprised him: the comments section exploded, with thousands of readers chiming in on his inaugural post (that still-growing comment count currently sits at 3091).

Everywhere from Scotland to India to Australia, devoted followers and aspiring writers wrote in with passionate messages, eager to connect with one of their literary heroes.

Suddenly “don’t read the comments,” that old digital age chestnut, felt like the worst advice in the world. There was nowhere else Saunders would rather be than here, chopping it up with commenters young and old, near and far, longtime fans and first-time callers.

Source: Why Novelists Are Embracing Substack – Can Substack Reinvent the Social Internet?