Woodhead Publishing Goes Digital
Jinfo Blog

12th October 2010

By Nancy Davis Kho

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More signs of traditional publishers moving into digital formats: Woodhead Publishing (http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/default.aspx), an independent publisher of scientific and technical books, announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair last week that it is launching its online platform, Woodhead Publishing Online (www.woodheadpublishingonline.com). The site will be hosted by MetaPress, a primary hosting service for scientific, technical, and medical content. According to press materials, the decision to move 800 e-books in the disciplines of Materials and Engineering, Food Science Technology and Nutrition, Textile Technology, Energy and Environmental Technology, and Finance, Commodities and Business Studies and Mathematics came after extensive research and discussion with customers. Among the features available in the digital format are advanced features and functionality, such as search and discovery tools, personalisation features including fully customisable RSS feeds and extensive bibliographic references, linked through CrossRef. There are four pricing options, which include purchase of an entire 2010 collection, purchase of a backlist, 'Pick ‘n’ Mix Collections' whereby users select up to 12 individual book titles, and a buy or rent by the chapter option. Over time, according to the Woodhead Publishing, the entire catalog of its imprint Chandos Publishing, which publishes books on library and information management, will also be available in digital formats. When it happens, it will be the first time that any of the Chandos titles are available in digital formats. There are few publishers who can afford to ignore the demand for digital access. While STM publishers like Woodhead may not have as much pressure to fold in mobile options as some other publishing markets, a recent blog post on O'Reilly Radar illustrates how demand for various mobile formats is evolving. Andrew Savikas, the vice president of Digital Initiatives at O'Reilly Media, shared a cool visualization of ebook download formats from O'Reilly since June 2008 (http://radar.oreilly.com/2010/10/neat-visualization-of-download.html). PDF remains the dominant format but watch that upper right hand corner: it gets increasingly colorful as time passes and ePub, Kindle-compatible Mobipocket formats, and Android gain traction.

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