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Textbook and Academic Writers Invited to 2012 Conference in New Orleans, June 8-9
Network with the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) community, build your knowledge, and expand your publishing opportunities at the 25th Anniversary TAA Conference, “Academic & Textbook Authoring—Evolving Arts”, in New Orleans, LA, June 8-9, 2012.
Kim Pawlak, Associate Executive Director at Text and Academic Authors Association
This year’s conference wi
ll feature two 2-hr workshops, “Thinking Well, Writing Well: How Smart Academics Write to Get Published,” and “Textbook Authoring Basics, A Holistic Approach. Choose from more than a dozen sessions and several small-group discussions on topics, including copyright, self-publishing, ebooks, writing productivity, digital pedagogy, and more. You will also have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with a veteran author or attorney specializing in educational publishing, and several networking opportunities, including a Welcome Breakfast and an evening Networking Reception.
Joy Hakim, author of the ten-volume K-12 textbook series, A History of US, and three-volume textbook series, The Story of Science, will give a keynote presentation on June 8, entitled, “Textbooks Should Be Great Books!”
In honor of TAA’s 25th anniversary, registration has been reduced to $125 for members and $155 for non-members. The first 30 conference registrants will receive a copy of Step-by-Step: Building a Research Paper, and Internet Surf & Turf Revealed: The Essential Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Finding Media. To learn more about the 2012 TAA Conference or to register, visit http://www.TAAonline.net/2012TAAConference/register.
New BookReader enhances online reading experience
The Open Library project of the Internet Archive initiative just updated their online BookReader with some very compelling features for the growing number of digital readers including:
• improved and larger screen layout,
• navigation bar including chapter markers that show your progress
• a read-aloud feature
• improved full-text search
(Search results for “hawk” in book of birds)
More than two million digitized books (and other items) are available free from The Open Library and Internet Archive including 449 e-textbooks published between 1518 and 2014 including many public domain books from the turn of the 20th century which can be read online. The more recent publisher textbooks appear to be just web pages that identify the title, author, cover and offer locations for borrowing a physical copy or places to buy.
Internet Archive has also recently doubled the number of books available to the print disabled by providing free access to more than 1 million books in the specially designed format, Daisy, to support those with visual impairments. These include classic 19th century fiction and current novels to technical guides and research materials.
Read the Open Library blog post and Resource Shelf blog to find out more.
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