ProQuest's Literature Online

Iconic literary resource gets a dose of accelerant in cloud-based environment

At the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference, ProQuest is demonstrating the new release of Literature Online, the world's largest literary research resource. Essential for teaching and studying literature for more than 15 years, Literature Online now leverages cloud-based technology and responsive design to make its massive store of essential and in-demand content even more accessible, and easier to use than ever before.

"ProQuest is focused on improving researcher outcomes and creating resources that support the task at hand," said Mary Sauer-Games, ProQuest Vice-President, Information Solutions. "The new release of Literature Online is designed specifically to simplify and accelerate literary research, study and teaching, and because of that, it's opening new avenues for study and analysis."

ProQuest's Literature Online is the world's most complete resource for the study and teaching of English-language literature in all its forms. This digital repository encompasses the full text of more than 350,000 important historical and contemporary works of prose, poetry and drama integrated with a nearly bottomless reservoir of contextual materials to support the interpretation of the works – authoritative criticism, reference sources such as encyclopedias, biographies and bibliographies and hours of valuable literary audio and video clips. The new release was informed by the requirements of the literary researcher today and provides faster navigation as well as more intuitive, powerful searching and browsing of content. With a fully mobile-enabled platform, Literature Online can now be with the researchers wherever they need it, putting access to authoritative and accurate resources at their fingertips.

ProQuest's literary resources first gained worldwide acclaim in the 1980s with the publication of the complete canon of English poetry on CD-ROM. In the ensuing decades, content rapidly expanded to cover all genres and time periods -- rare and inaccessible works are now available alongside the established corpus – and the leap to online was made in the mid-1990s with the launch of Literature Online, immediately hailed as a valuable and groundbreaking resource. Pedagogically, it assists in undergraduate study and the design of courses, answers questions from the elementary to the sophisticated, and creates opportunities for new forms of study, analysis, and teaching.

Beloved by students and teachers, Literature Online has an equally zealous following among librarians for its ability to reduce the work of managing journal subscriptions and save budget on book renewals.

Literature Online is dynamic, growing regularly as new primary and secondary texts are converted to electronic form, as new reference resources are added and as new formats emerge. The content of the service is developed with the advice of internationally known scholars, making Literature Online a complete, current and authoritative environment for research, teaching and undergraduate study.

About ProQuest (www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company's products are a gateway to the world's knowledge including dissertations, governmental and cultural archives, news, historical collections and ebooks. ProQuest technologies serve users across the critical points in research, helping them discover, access, share, create and manage information.

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• ProQuest Joins OASPA

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Audible

By Amazon

Price - Free - Must buy books individually or subscribe to service.
Buy it from Apple!

Category - Entertainment

Greg's Review
When I was in the corporate life working for THE MAN I drove a bunch. Some times it felt like I was in the car more than I was at my desk. An insane amount of my time was behind the wheel of a car. In order to keep sane I started listening to audio books. I would stop by a local Cracker Barrel and get a couple of books on tape or CD. It really helped with the monotony. 

I listened to hundreds of books on tape over the years. The biggest problem was hauling around all the tapes and CDs as well as returning them to Cracker Barrel. As a tech junkie I was always searching for a way to reduce the cost, storage, and logistics of books on tape. My research took me to Audible.

Audible does for audio books what Kindle does for print. It is owned by Amazon. It lets you download audio books to your tablet or smartphone then play them via Bluetooth or aux cable. The selection of tittles is extensive. The audio quality is the best. Downloads are surprisingly fast.

If you love the Kindle I think you will love Audible.


From Developer
Not enough time for all the books you want to enjoy? Download the app by Audible, an Amazon company, to listen to books on the go.

Immerse yourself in a great story anytime, anywhere, by downloading from a breathtaking range of 150,000+ titles to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad—from best sellers to classics, and everything in-between.

Now you can turn on a good book even when you can’t pick one up—on your way to work, at the gym, while folding laundry, or any other time your eyes and hands are busy.

Features:
• Transfer books to your device over wi-fi
• Chapter navigation, bookmarking, sleep mode, variable narration speed, button-free mode 
• Multitasking for background downloading and listening
• Earn badges and keep track of your listening habits 
• NEW! Switch between reading and listening with Whispersync for Voice (compatible Kindle app or device required) 
• Connect to Facebook and Twitter to let your friends know what you’re listening to
• Get insider information about author events and more with the Audible Newsfeed

Listening with Audible is always time well spent. Download the free app now and discover a smarter way to use your smartphone.

Let us help you at www.audible.com/help or get in touch on Twitter @audible_com

History of Audible

Audible was founded in 1995 by Donald Katz. The company invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, four years before the introduction of the iPod. One of the few startups to survive the dot-com bust, Audible was designed to be a destination and a daily literary service for serious readers who wish they could read more—and for the huge population of would-be serious readers who don’t have the time to read what they want or need to read.

Audible has been headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, since 2007, and social commitment to the city and participation in its renaissance has become a centerpiece of company culture.


Audible was publicly traded on Nasdaq until acquired by Amazon in 2008, and is now an Amazon.com subsidiary. Today, Audible is the world’s largest producer of audiobooks in the world; it has served millions of listeners and continues to move literate listening closer to the media and entertainment mainstream.

2012

• 9/6/2012 Audible introduces Immersion Reading and Whispersync for Voice, two momentous steps forward for reading.
• 4/15/2012 Audible announces Audible Author Services, a program to encourage authors to connect directly with the rapidly growing audience of audiobook listeners, and backed by a $20 million fund.
• 3/8/2012 Audible launches ‘The A-List Collection,’ an audiobook series showcasing tour-de-force performances by Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson and Susan Sarandon.
• 2/28/2012 Audible Studios, the production arm of Audible.com, secures a record 36 nominations for the 2012 Audie Awards, which honor outstanding audiobooks and other spoken-word performances.

2011

• 10/25/2011 Audible announces the launch of “Neil Gaiman Presents,” an exclusive line of audiobooks personally selected by Neil Gaiman and produced on the Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX).
• 5/12/2011 Audible launches the Audiobook Creation Exchange, the first online platform that connects rights holders with producers to enable any book to become an audiobook.

2010

• 9/22/2010 Audible.com launches new mobile store for iPhone and Android platforms.

2009

• 8/13/2009 Audible announces new Modern Vanguard line of audiobooks; launches with 34 acclaimed titles from literary masters.

2008

• 01/31/08 Amazon.com Acquires Audible.com

2007

• 09/25/07 Audible.com Launches The Chopin Manuscript: The First Audio-Only Original Fiction from the World’s Top Thriller Writers
• 09/05/07 Audible.com Partners With XM, Laura Bush and the National Endowment for the Arts for ”The Big Read On XM”

2006

• 10/11/06 Audible, Inc. to Relocate Headquarters to Newark, New Jersey
• 07/31/06 Audible Extends Availability of Exclusive Audio Content on iTunes Music Store
• 02/21/06 The Ricky Gervais Show Now Available exclusively Through Audible and ITunes

2005

• 12/06/05 Audible Unveils New Web Site and Membership Programs; New Roll Over Credits, Free Audio Subscriptions, Streamlined Check Out, and Improved Merchandising Promises to Make Shopping at Audible.com More Enjoyable Than Ever
• 09/27/05 Audible Announces the Launch Of AudibleAir(TM); Groundbreaking Technology Bypasses the Desktop and Allows for Automated Wireless Downloads of Digital Audio To Smartphones
• 06/28/05 Digital Audio Edition of The New Yorker Now Available from Audible; Audible Provides Exclusive Subscriptions to the Digital Audio Version of the Legendary Magazine at http://www.audible.com/newyorker
• 06/15/05 Audible Launches UK Web Site; Following its Huge Success in the US, Audible Launches the UK Web site for British Lovers of Digital Audio Information and Entertainment
• 06/01/05 Audible and Harlequin Enterprises Announce an Exclusive Marketing and Licensing Partnership
• 03/21/05 Audible.fr Internet Audio Service Launched and Available for French Language Spoken Audio Downloads

Related articles

• My Experience with Audible - @Audible_com
• Busy readers are turning to audiobooks
• My Summer Job as an Audiobook Narrator
• Kindle/Audio Whisper-Sync and Audible Deals under $10

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Please Remember the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation this Holiday Season

There are lots of great charities out there that are deserving of a share of our gift-giving this holiday season (and year-round for that matter). I'd like to introduce you to one of my favorite charitable organizations - the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation.

"The Foundation was established in December 2001 to provide educational support to the children of CIA officers killed in the line of duty. In May 2006, the Foundation's Board of Directors voted to expand its mission to include providing educational support to the spouses of CIA officers killed in the line of duty, and the children and spouses of officers who die on active duty as a result of accident, illness or other causes."

I just received my supporter letter from them and was happy to learn that they've been able to increase their scholarship awards to 28 students for the 2012-2013 academic year ($575,000) from 26 students ($512,000) for the prior year. However, according to their letter, they "still have a long way to go to realize our strategic goals and to sustain our ability to fund programs in the future as education expenses continue to soar and the number of families in need of our support increases."

Please keep this wonderful organization in mind this month as you make your charitable donations in the holiday spirit of giving. Thank you.

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Art Authority Education App

Best Way to read on a Tablet. Kindle app is tablet certified on all tablets.

 

By Open Door Networks, Inc.

Price - $9.99

Category - Education

Link to App in itunes

Greg's Review

This a a great iPad coffee table book for art lovers. It includes 55,000 very high quality scans of great art works. The great display on the iPad lends itself to high quality images and this app takes full advantage. The art is divided up into collections as you would find them in a museum and also by artist so you can just purse works by a certain person. While it is always best to see the real thing if you can't afford a trip to Europe right now (I know I can't) then checkout this app.

From Developer

"An experience unlike any other" -- The NY Times. Art Authority for iPad transports you to an enthralling, real-world art museum filled with works by over 1,000 of the western world's greatest artists, from ancient times to today. Over 55,000 paintings and sculptures, organized into eight period-specific rooms, each room a gateway to a whole museum's worth of art. Choose an artist by movement or name, and become instantly immersed in an exhibition devoted just to that artist. Search for and compare different artists' works by title, subject or location, or just wander at random and get lost in the art.

"Visually dazzling" -- MacObserver. Art Authority's works are beautifully framed and hung on textured walls, accompanied by title, date and other details. Works are displayed chronologically, with previews of related items providing added context. You can learn about an artist's life and works, or travel beyond the bounds of a traditional museum and view and compare works in a full-screen slideshow or scrolling thumbnail display.

There are also period overviews, timelines and histories. From the earliest creative pieces to the latest modern and contemporary works, Art Authority provides a stunningly displayed, carefully selected, well organized view of the western art world. It's part world-class art museum, part academic reference library and part digital coffee-table book. It's also part magic. An art musem like no other! 

Art Authority features include: 

- Access to 10GB worth of art optimized for quality and download speed through our servers (works still under copyright come from authorized servers) 

- Early, Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Impressionist, Modern, Contemporary and American rooms 

- Dozens of artists per room, listed by movement or nationality 

- Period overviews, timelines and histories 

- A searchable index of all 1000+ artists, as well as for each room 

- Searchable indexes of major titles, subjects and locations

- Art Near Me: search for art based on your location

- Continuous shuffle through all art or by period 

- Captions with work title, date, location and other details 

- Hyperlinks provide access to in-depth information on artists, major works and locations 

- Full-screen slideshow display, with user-settable transitions, Ken Burns motion effect, music 

- Gallery-like, scrolling thumbnail view shows how works have evolved over time, aids in comparisons and exploration 

- Offline access to works previously viewed 

- Save works to Favorites or the Photos app; use them in the digital picture frame and home screen wallpaper 

- VGA output for large-screen display 

Also available for iPhone and Macintosh.

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War in the Pacific - Education App

By Gameloft


Greg's Review:
This app is a great coffee table book for the iPad. I actually bought the hardcover book a Cracker Barrel a few months before and loveed it. When I saw it pop-up on the app store I thought it would be a great chance to compare and contrast. The app took that great book to a whole new level. The photo archive is huge. It includes historical photos as well as recent high quality pictures of items from that time (i.e weapons and medals). The app adds videos of black and white films from the period. The timeline is superior in explaining the course of the war. If you are a history professor you will blow away your students by spending a few days in class using this app projected on a screen or monitor.


From the Developer:
2nd Best selling book on the US App Store!
War in the Pacific by Richard Overy is a beautiful book filled with hundreds of outstanding photographs, works of art and maps, providing a unique interactive experience on the iPad that brings the past to life. It takes Book Applications to a whole new level.

This interactive experience brings the era and events to life as never before: turn some of the darkest pages of history, zoom-in on high-quality photographs, watch animated maps and archive videos that retrace events, and interact with carefully selected documents of the time.

Immerse yourself in the relentless war against Japan that raged in the Pacific Islands for years and formed a decisive part of the Allies’ eventual victory in World War II. Setting the scene with the unprovoked Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the almost simultaneous attacks on US bases on Guam and Wake Island, the app goes on to document the bloody battles fought in the jungle islands of Guadalcanal and the Philippines and on the Pacific Ocean. It is the story of the heroic men who toiled and fought on the islands, the names of which have now become synonymous with bloodshed, hardship and an unstoppable spirit.

This book-app features:
- Foreword by Dale Dye, Senior Military Advisor to HBO’s new blockbuster series The Pacific and Band of Brothers
- Archive documentary videos from 1945 detailing the planning and battles (naval, land and air) that lead to the defeat of the Japanese Empire
- Animated maps summarizing important historical events and military moves before each part of the book

19 outstanding facsimile documents:
o Franklin D. Roosevelt’s draft, with hand-written amendments, for his “Day of Infamy” speech
o Pocket Guide to Australia: Information for American Troops stationed in Australia
o Chief of Staff directive on the capture of the Solomons and the assault on Rabaul
o Handwritten DeVane report on the assault of Guadalcanal including a hand-drawn map
o Radio messages sent by Marines during the battle for Tarawa
o Marine reports on the battle of Iwo Jima
o And much more

Richard Overy is Professor of History at the University of Exeter and author of over 20 books on the Second World War. He is the winner of the Wolfson Prize for History and in 2001 was awarded the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize. He regularly contributes to the Independent, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian and the Literary Review.


Devices: iPad
Category: Education
Price: $4.99
Link to app in iTunes

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Leafsnap - Education App

By Columbia University, University of Maryland, and Smithsonian Institution


Greg's Review:
Crowd sourcing of science is going to get big over the next few years. The Leafsnap app is the first great example of this. You take a tree leaf and place it on a white piece of paper and snp a picture with the iPad2 or iPhone camera. The app identifies the leaf and puts a geo tag on it to record the location where it was found. This information is sent to universities so that they can better figure out tree species locations. Kids learn about nature and universities get access to free research workers. This would be a great app for a middle schools and junior high schools to use in science class projects.


From the Developer:
Leafsnap is the first in a series of electronic field guides being developed by researchers from Columbia University, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Institution. This free mobile app uses visual recognition software to help identify tree species from photographs of their leaves.

Leafsnap contains beautiful high-resolution images of leaves, flowers, fruit, petiole, seeds, and bark. Leafsnap currently includes the trees of the Northeast and will soon grow to include the trees of the entire continental United States.

Devices: iPad
Category: Education
Price: Free
Link to app in iTunes

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The Waste Land - Education App

 

By Touch Press


Greg's Review:
I am a reader and come from a long line of readers so I am pretty picky about my digital books. This one really stood out to me. Written text, lots of background material, and narration of the poem by actors. This feels like a leather-bound digital book.




From the Developer:
The Waste Land for iPad brings alive the most revolutionary poem of the last hundred years for a 21st Century audience. A wealth of interactive features illuminate T. S. Eliot's greatest work.

This digital edition carefully respects the typography and integrity of the original yet offers spectacular new ways to explore the significance and influence of the poem.

• watch a remarkable specially-filmed performance of the entire poem by Fiona Shaw, synchronised to the text
• listen to complete audio readings of the poem, also synchronised to the text, by T. S. Eliot himself (readings from two periods in his life) as well as Ted Hughes, Alec Guinness and Viggo Mortensen
• understand the poem’s many references and allusions with the help of comprehensive interactive notes
• reveal the structure of the verse and move quickly between sections with a new navigation tool
• watch over 35 expert video perspectives on the poem including contributions from Seamus Heaney and Jeanette Winterson
• examine original manuscript pages to see how the poem took shape under Ezra Pound’s editing

The Waste Land for iPad is published jointly by Faber and Faber and Touch Press. Faber is the London publisher where Eliot himself worked for almost four decades; Touch Press is behind other revolutionary interactive books for iPad including The Elements and Solar System which are defining the future of publishing. The interviews and Fiona Shaw's performance are specially-filmed filmed by Adam Low, director of the BBC Arena documentary on Eliot.

Publication of The Waste Land in 1922 was a milestone in the literary history of the 20th Century. This iPad edition carries forward Eliot's vision and vividly demonstrates how literature can be illuminated by the new digital medium.

Devices: iPad
Category: Education
Price: $13.99
Link to app in iTunes

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PBS for iPad - Education App

By PBS


Greg's Review:
If you like educational programing this is the app for you. This app contains clips and full length episodes from many PBS series including: American Experience (my favorite), Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Masterpiece Theater, Nova, and Nature. They also have some great documentary series such as: Carrier (life on an aircraft carrier), Circus (life working for the circus), and Prohibition (the latest project by Ken Burns). It also has a search engine to find local PBS stations.  There is a great deal of content here especially when you consider that the app is free.


From the Developer:

Watch the most popular and current PBS programs free and with minimal interruption. "PBS for iPad" features more than 300 videos, including full-length episodes, segments and previews with new content updated daily.

Also, now featuring the first episode of Brian Greene’s “The Fabric of the Cosmos”.

UPDATE (10/5): Sign-in and enjoy new cross-device features! Playback history is now synced across devices.

DEPTH OF CONTENT
Explore a rich and varied selection of hundreds of videos from both new programs and from the PBS archives. Find these top programs and more:

* PBS primetime programs: Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, History Detectives, Masterpiece, Nature, Need to Know, Nova, Secrets of the Dead, and more.
* PBS NewsHour segments.
* Austin City Limits song performances.
* Special clips and full-length episodes from the PBS special CIRCUS.
* Original online series, including Nova ScienceNOW’s “Secret Life of Scientists” and “FutureStates” from INDEPENDENT LENS.

KEY FEATURES
* Sign-in and enjoy new cross-device features! Your playback history is now synced across devices.
* Quick access to TV times and channels for your favorite PBS programs.
* See what’s on your local PBS station and what’s coming soon.
* Learn more about PBS programs and specific episodes.
* Bookmark favorite programs and episodes for easy retrieval.
* Share videos with friends on Facebook, Twitter and email.
* Purchase episodes and seasons that you’d like to own.

MORE FROM PBS
Find more PBS apps at http://to.pbs.org/pbsapps.
Find PBS KIDS apps at http://to.pbs.org/pbskidsapps.


Devices: iPad
Category: News
Price: Free
Link to app in iTunes

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The Elements - Education

By Element Collection, Inc

From the Developer:

If you think you've seen the periodic table, think again. The Elements: A Visual Exploration lets you experience the beauty and fascination of the building blocks of our universe in a way you've never seen before. This is the US English version of The Elements. Fully translated versions are also available in French, German, Japanese, and British English.

The Elements is the first of a line of revolutionary ebooks from Touch Press developed from the ground up for iPad, which now includes our second title, Solar System for iPad. (Search for "Touch Press" in iTunes to find it.)

Stephen Fry, one of the first independent reviewers to experience The Elements, tweets: “Best App of all Theodore Gray Wolfram Periodic Table. Everything is animated and gorgeous. Alone worth iPad.” Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing blogs “Itʼs dazzling—it makes science feel like magic in your hands.”


You start off at a living periodic table where every element is shown with a smoothly rotating sample.  To read about tin, tap the tin soldier. To read about gold, tap the gold nugget.  Immediately you see the sample filling nearly the entire screen, photographed to razor sharpness and rotating around a complete circle in front of your eyes.


Beside that is a column of facts and figures, each of which can be tapped to bring up rich detail and current information through the embedded Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine.  Tap the Wolfram|Alpha button for gold and it tells you the up-to-the-minute market price, along with a hundred other facts about gold.


But it's when you go to each element's second page that the real magic starts. Carefully photographed objects representing the element fall down, rotating a fraction of a turn as they settle in to form a beautifully composed page.  Every one of these objects, well over 500 in total, is a freely rotatable, live object that you can examine from all sides.


Use one two, three, or ten fingers to spin as many objects as you like at once. Each object responds effortlessly to your touch, and objects can be "thrown" to set them spinning.  Some pages even include live video clips of experiments showing interesting properties of the elements.


Double-tap any object to bring it up full screen.  Tap again and the image splits into a pair of stereo 3D images.  Using inexpensive 3D glasses (available from http://periodictable.com/ipad)  you can see all 500 objects pop off the screen in 3D, and you can spin the objects, in 3D, with the touch of a finger. You can’t get much more virtually real than that.


But The Elements is much more than a technology showcase.  It’s based on the best-selling hard cover edition of The Elements by Theodore Gray, Popular Science Magazine’s Gray Matter columnist.  You may start off looking at the pretty pictures, but once you start reading the book, you’ll be hooked on the fun stories and fascinating facts.


If you had a bad experience with chem class in school, this book is the antidote.  If you or someone you know is afraid chemistry is going to be their most boring subject, this book will show them that there’s a lot more to the periodic table than a bunch of numbers and letters.


If you have an iPad, you really need this book, if only to find out just how far into the future of books it can take you.  But you’re going to get a whole lot more out of it than just a gee-whiz experience.




Praise for the Hardcover Edition - Click to go to Amazon


“This glorious book is more than just a guide to the elements; it will fundamentally deepen your appreciation of the substances that make up our world.” –Oliver Sacks, Author of Awakenings and Uncle Tungsten


“This is the element book that in style and content outshines all element books!”–Roald Hoffmann, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry




Devices: iPad
Catagory: Education
Price: $13.99
Link to app in iTunes

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