Millions are about to have access to free e-books. Thanks, Obama.

[eridani]

http://www.upworthy.com/millions-are-about-to-have-access-to-free-e-books-thanks-obama?c=upw1

First lady Michelle Obama posted a video to the White House's YouTube page announcing Open eBooks' launch last week.

More than $250 million worth of e-books are soon going to be available to kids in need — for free.And these aren't just any titles. A handful of major publishers have signed on to the program, so these are thousands of popular, award-winning books handpicked by the Digital Public Library of America's Curation Corps.

It's part of President Obama's ConnectED initiative to bring broadband Internet and educational materials to kids around the country. The New York Public Library agreed to take on the task of creating a special e-reader for this new program. It's called Open eBooks, and it's going to make a big difference in the lives of children and families who can't afford to stock their shelves with lots of books.

[Sherman A1]

1. Excellent!

[redruddyred]

2. i thought that's what libraries were for

michelle is delusional, none of the kids in my hometown used ours for checking out books, they'd rather play runescape on the openaccess computer terminals. there was always one bright black kid who was checking out films but he was the exception.

go downtown and it's a bunch of bums checking out porn. I used to fill my bag with 20 books and read them on the lightrail back to my apartment. some chick who thought learning an education was beneath her gave me the evil eye.

this is how republicans get into power: the ignoble poor. dumb voters too.

[secondwind]

3. I don't understand your post, to be honest. You have nothing positive to say about this? n/t

[redruddyred]

4. it's at best a publicity move

i'm flummoxed by the apparent decision that one's literary education ends at 18.

[padfun]

5. How did they determine value?

"More than $250 million worth of e-books"

And we know that How? I have a 10 year old bicycle here worth 59 Million (because I say so.) I'll bet they base this on some MSRP so that they can put a bumped up value on it. I'll bet many hardback versions are sitting in 25 cent bins in thrift stores.

Hard drives are cheap and digital streams are quickly downloaded. Putting a value on them is totally arbitrary.

[ladyVet]

6. Why develop a new ereader?

You can get a Kindle for $50 bucks now, and I'd bet Amazon would have given a discount for a bulk order.

I'd much rather have seen these funds go into improving and supporting the existing public library system, which benefits all citizens. There are great programs in place and new ones that could be implemented, and it probably would have been easier and cheaper than starting something new.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for more access. I just don't see why this is better.

[patricia92243]

10. I think it is aimed at younger children who cannot get to a library unless somebody is

willing to take them, wait while they get a book, then take them back to return the book.

I hope someday it will be available to older people. My shut-in sister would be delighted with it.

[mainer]

7. It's nice,but V. young kids prefer physical books

which they feel they own and can touch. The studies have shown that homes with BOOKS help kids in school, but I'm not aware of any study that uses e-books.

[shraby]

8. Don't let the debbie downers bother you. Anytime you can get a child to read is a winner.

In today's world, maybe the kids would read the ebooks. Never know till it's tried, and to devise a way to get them to the poor kids, actually all kids should be the target, it's a winner.
The only way I could get my kids to read, was put the World Book encyclopedias and a whole lot of National Geographics on shelves next to the stool in the bathroom and not allow any other books in there. I knew they were reading them cause they were never in the same order on the shelves.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

9. Nice...

I don't quite understand the details of the program though. At a school with 70% or more low income, the teacher can get an account, but what about all the kids? What about the 30% of the kids that are not low income? Are they going to have access to the books the teacher uses at school at home still? I'm just curious because my kids go to schools where everyone gets free lunch because the majority of kids are low income, but my family is not actually low income. I would still want my children to have the same access to books used in their school as the low income kids. Seems like they would have to open it up to all kids in at the school in that situation, but I don't know. I will forward this to my husband though. This kind of thing is his job in our school district. One of his job functions is to provide digital resources to support the teachers.

[hunter]

11. www.gutenberg.org

http://www.gutenberg.org

Over 50,000 free ebooks...

I love my e-reader, but I think physical books, and reading physical books to little kids, makes all the difference.

I grew up in a house full of books, and so did my kids. Everybody reads, and most of us start kindergarten reading well.

What we need is adults who will read to children, most importantly adults who have time to read to children.

You know what's sad? That parents don't have enough money to buy books and/or enough time to read books to their kids. Some parents are illiterate themselves.

Thirty hour work weeks paying comfortable living wages are the solution to that problem... Super-library-community-centers would be another good solution.

Too bad the uber-wealthy have sucked the life out of everyone. To them we are all merely replaceable cogs in their machines, or else we are useless.

I'm not knocking the Obamas. This is a good thing. But we shouldn't have to be cajoling uber-wealthy assholes to do the right thing.

We the people should be enjoying the benefits of the wealth of this nation and the wealth we create. Money and those who manipulate money are not gods. What's this $250 million dollar shit? The amount some uber-wealthy persons will be able to write off their taxes? What good is that? It just means other social necessities will not be taken care of.

[awoke_in_2003]

12. Very good

at least in this book lovers opinion (though I prefer the real ones)

[jwirr]

13. Wonderful. I have several families that will love that.