What’s In a Name? Explaining “Eleven Learning”
July 30, 2010
People are always interested in hearing about what we do, and they generally ask us good, insightful questions about our business model, market, community, etc. Eventually, though, all conversations about Eleven Learning end up going in this direction:
“So, what’s up with the name? Did you guys really name your company after “Spinal Tap?”
There were two interesting posts this weekend on the subject of used e-books, one by Nick Harkaway at The Bookseller and the other by Chris Meadows at TeleRead. The concept of used e-books is considered anathema by most publishers, and probably rightly so, as it would likely mean a significant decline in revenues and profits.
CT State Schools Adopt Text Rental For Fall 2010
July 25, 2010
The Connecticut state university system announced yesterday that bookstores at Eastern, Western, Southern, and Central Connecticut State Universities will offer students a textbook-rental program designed to help curb costs and comply with the Higher Education Reauthorization Act.
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Barnes & Noble Unveils NOOKstudy; No NOOK Required
July 22, 2010
Yesterday it was Borders, today we’ll talk about Barnes & Noble’s forthcoming entry into the e-reader space; a free application called NOOKstudy, aimed at providing students with a single point of contact for managing their e-textbooks and e-books, course syllabi, notes, schedules, and assignments.
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Borders Group has today launched a new marketplace catering to students and parents looking to buy and sell new and used college and K-12 textbooks. Dubbed the ‘Textbook Marketplace,” it allows consumers to search through nearly 1.5 million titles, and allows for the purchase of either new or used titles. It also offers consumers the ability to sell their textbooks back for cash, similar to the arrangement at many other sites and retailers.
Amazon: Kindle Books Outselling Hardcovers
July 19, 2010
TechCrunch and several other outlets are reporting today that for every 100 hardcover books Amazon sold during the past 3 months, it sold 143 Kindle books. It would be interesting to know how many of these were textbooks; it’s safe to assume, probably, that at this point the answer is “very few.” Is it a harbinger of things to come, or a momentary blip on the radar caused by the recent Kindle price drop and the release of native Kindle apps for other devices? Will there be more students wandering campus this Fall with their textbooks in their Kindles, instead of their backpacks? With back-to-school creeping up on us, it will be interesting to see if the ratio of Kindles-to-hardcovers jumps…
Buckminster Fuller, Meet Stewart Calculus
July 16, 2010
