Ebooks and Scholarship

Well this is interesting. Given the amount of press given to the Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook and Soney Reader – whihc are primarily about these eBook formats as a way to read recreationally, this data from ResourceShelf and the TeleRead Blog is very interesting.
Academic libraries appear to be far more on the front edge of eBook trends and usage and their users too. (At least from a revenue point of view. I’d bet it’s even higher in academe if free books are counted too.)
Professional and scholarly ebooks account for 3 times the rest of the ebook market combined
“Book publishing (print and electronic) in the US is a $35 billion dollar industry. This year, he [Fordham University professor Al Greco ] forecasts that ebooks will account for 5% of that revenue, or $1.76 billion. Of that $1.76 billion, trade books account for 8.6%, or $151 million; K-12 accounts for 8.1% ($143 million); higher education accounts for 6.9% ($122 million); and university presses account for 0.4% ($7.7 million). Professional and scholarly publishing titles represent 75.9% of the US ebook market, or $1.33 billion. ”
Stephen