www.idrc.ca

E-Book Publishingat IDRC

Bill Carman

Publisher/Senior Communications Advisor

31 January 2007

www.idrc.ca

Outline

What is IDRC?

Why do we publish and for whom?

What do we publish and how?

E-book publishing and distribution

www.idrc.ca/books

www.idrc.ca

What is IDRC?

A Crown corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970

Supports Southern researchers to enable them to find practical, long-term solutions to social, economic, and environmental problems

Our Mission: Empowerment through Knowledge

www.idrc.ca

IDRC Offices

Ottawa

Montevideo

Dakar

Nairobi

Singapore

CairoNew Delhi

www.idrc.ca

Four Program Areas

Environment and Natural Resource Management

Information and Communication Technologies for Development

Innovation, Policy, and Science

Social and Economic Policy

www.idrc.ca

Example: TEHIP

Funded in partnership with CIDA

Reduced child mortality in two districts of Tanzania by almost 50%

Now being scaled up in other regions in Africa

Fixing Health Systems (www.idrc.ca/tehip)

www.idrc.ca

Publishing since 1970

1500 books published for a global audience of

Decision-makers and policy advisors

Researchers, academics, and students

Development professionals

www.idrc.ca

Our Current Approach

Copublication in English, French, and Spanish

Electronic rights: IDRC / Print rights: copublisher

License foreign language editions

Earthscan, Economica, Plaza y Valdés…

www.idrc.ca

Print vs Electronic

Continuing demand for print, but…

Print distribution to developing world is costly and unreliable

For research: if it is not online, it is invisible

www.idrc.ca

Decision: Electronic

Continued print fulfillment by copublisher

IDRC focus on e-content

Bottom line: maximum dissemination, impact on development, public accountability

www.idrc.ca

First Steps

1995: first “web book”

Free HTML increased demand for print edition

All IDRC copublications are now available in free HTML format from our website

Print versions may be ordered from our copublisher

www.idrc.ca/books

www.idrc.ca

www.idrc.ca

Free and For Sale?

Frankfurt Book Fair 2002: NetLibrary

Negligible overlap between audiences

Win-win: increased dissemination for IDRC, new products for NetLibrary

www.idrc.ca

The Process, and Growth

PDF to XML conversion

XML and metadata to NetLibrary via FTP

Ebrary, Ebooks.com, Canadian Electronic Library, Overdrive.com, MyiLibrary

Google Book Search

www.idrc.ca

Digital Asset Management

codeMantra’s Collection Point

Conversion services, metadata management

Web interface and link to Distribution Channels

Capacity to add more Distribution Channels as needed

www.idrc.ca

Distribution on CD

IDRC 2006: bilingual, annual CD

Free distribution to developing countries, either by mail or in person

Two-disk set: one disk contains 101 XML e-books

www.idrc.ca

E-Books: The Future

Journals, newspapers, dictionaries, encyclopedias, cookbooks, phone book, reference books?

Readership of e-Globe and Mail > print edition

Expanding Internet connectivity in developing world: new generation of e-book users?

www.idrc.ca

E-Books: The Future

Latin American traffic on Google Book Search

E-book sales to libraries and institutions in developing countries

Open Access: IDRC Institutional Repository to launch in March 2007

www.idrc.ca

Contact IDRC Publishing

Bill CarmanPublisherInternational Development Research CentrePO Box 8500Ottawa, ON, Canada K1G 3H9bcarman@idrc.cawww.idrc.ca/books