LexisNexis introduces eBooks
Jinfo Blog

21st December 2010

By Nancy Davis Kho

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One last mention of eBooks to close out the year…in late November LexisNexis UK announced the launch of 13 titles in eBook format. As first reported by InPublishing (http://digbig.com/5bdcxy), the launch of the LexisNexis eBooks site (http://www.lexisnexis.org.uk/ebooks/ ) coincides with a recent survey undertaken by Jures on behalf of LexisNexis that showed 77% of respondents favoured digital over 'traditional paper-based libraries'. The survey also showed that 47% of respondents considered themselves early adopters of technology and that 11% have already purchased iPads, though Blackberrys remain the handset of choice. And - no surprise - 73% of respondents admit to checking mobile devices at least once an hour. (Here's the full study - http://digbig.com/5bdcyf). So it's a smart move by LN to start putting more of their vast store of texts into digital formats that lend themselves to an online reading experience. Twenty three titles are currently available, with titles from Butterworths, Tolleys, and Whillans. The books are available in ePub format, making them accessible on devices from the Amazon Kindle to Sony Reader and iPad. Introductory prices range from £47.95 up to £149.95, and LN is offering digital and print bundles for some titles. They're soliciting suggestions for other LN titles to digitise at ebooks@lexisnexis.co.uk. Once the titles are downloaded, they're stored on the device so no Internet is needed to access the text. In terms of functionality, users can search by keyword within a text, highlight, annotate, and bookmark. It's been a dynamic year of development for eBook formats, devices, and publishers; my only prediction is that a year from now, projects like this from LexisNexis will seem like baby steps to where we all are in December 2011.

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