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 Bookshelf was created to not only deliver e-books, but also activate content withcutting-edge digital technology, said Frank Daniels III, CEO of VitalSource and apioneer in digital publishing.  Bookshelf 4.5 is the first learning tool to takeadvantage of the interactive and collaborative potential of e-books. The technologyis somewhat analogous to social networks, like MySpace, only the communities andinteraction take place around books. Readers can form ad hoc book clubs with anyoneelse who owns the same e-book. This is a whole new generation of digital booktechnology joining the best of internet with e-books.Â
VitalSourceÂ's comprehensive upgrade to its flagship product, Bookshelf 4.5, is freeand available for download from vitalsource.com. Books may be purchased fromVitalSourceÂ's online store, from select college bookstores and through thee-commerce websites of VitalSourceÂ's publishing partners. E-books are downloaded toBookshelf where they are automatically indexed and stored locally. Like musicpurchased from an online store, once they have been downloaded, VitalSource e-booksdo not require an online connection for readers to access them.
Previous editions of Bookshelf already allowed readers to highlight and annotatee-books, features that set the technology apart from competing platforms as theyallowed readers to interact with e-books in the same manner as they would withprinted textbooks, reference materials and other publications. Advanced searchcapabilities were also part of earlier editions of Bookshelf, allowing users toconduct queries on individual titles or their entire e-library.
Bookshelf 4.5 takes a leap into the Web 2.0 era by letting readers create socialnetworks around e-books. Users can highlight digital titles using virtual markers,then elect to share highlights and notes with other individuals who can subscribe tothat content, similar to a blogÂ's RSS feed. Shared notes and highlights areautomatically updated when Bookshelf detects an Internet connection.
Bookshelf users may employ shared notes to help one other study, to ask otherreaders questions, or to divide work among members of a study group. Teachers mayuse this powerful feature to focus attention on the most salient portions of thetext or to insert self-test or discussion questions.
Bookshelf was designed to support VitalSourceÂ's proprietary digital format,VitalBook (*.vbk), an xml-based platform that provides extensive data-tagging, androbust digital rights management (DRM) as well as efficient storage and delivery oflarge data files. In addition, Bookshelf 4.5 is a cutting-edge MathML reader, makingit the ideal technology for reading advanced math and science titles. By allowingmathematical equations to be published as text and not as an image, Bookshelf 4.5makes mathematical content fully searchable.
 Often the industry will focus on e-book reading devices as the key obstacle towider adoption of digital publications, commented Daniels.  VitalSource pursues adifferent approach, developing software technologies that make for a richer, moreintuitive user experience on a variety of existing platforms.Â
Daniels is once again taking a leadership role in the transition of conventionalprint media into the digital age. In the early 1990s, while acting as publisher ofthe News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, Daniels spearheaded the creation of NandO,one of the first Internet newspaper sites. NandO is widely recognized as a model forlater news websites.
For more information on Bookshelf 4.5, please visit:http://www.vitalsource. com/index/bookshelf
About VitalSource Technologies, Inc.
Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, VitalSource is a leading provider of technologysolutions for e-book publishing and distribution. The company enables publishers,distributors and other partners to create and deliver textbooks and other contentdirectly to users' computers in its proprietary VitalBook (*.vbk) file format undera variety of scenarios, ranging from custom curriculum solutions to private-labelbundled products, as well as single textbook and promotional content delivery tostudents and faculty in both secondary and post-secondary educational settings. In2007, VitalSource commemorated the billionth book distributed in the VitalBookformat. VitalSource is an Ingram Digital Group company. For more information visitwww.vitalsource.com
Abo ut Ingram Digital Group
Ingram Digital Group is an operating division of Ingram Industries Inc. and providespublishers and other content owners with a comprehensive offering of digital contentaccession, storage, management and distribution services. Ingram Digital Group alongwith its group companies MyiLibrary and VitalSource Technologies provides afull-service array of digital solutions and support. The Ingram companies -including Ingram Digital, Ingram Book Group and Lightning Source Inc. - provide abroad range of physical and digital services to the industry. For more information,visit www.ingramdigital.com
