While I unbury myself from “real work,” I have been fielding questions and comments over my postings on electronic publishing. The comments have run the gamut from skeptical to enthusiastic for more electronic publishing.

I bring this up now because as part of the introduction of Apple’s new iPad 2, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Radom House, Inc., the largest trade book publisher in the U.S., has made its catalog of 17,000 electronic books on Apple’s iBookstore.

Apple says that the iBookstore sells ebooks from more than 2,500 publishers and all six major trade publishers. This does not include specialty applications sold in the iTunes app store.

I wonder how difficult it would be to create an ebook version of The Numismatist? While the reader that the American Numismatic Association uses to display The Numismatist on the computer screen, the program uses Adobe Flash, which is not available on the iPad. It also requires that the computer be connected to the Internet reducing its portability.

I wonder of Apple or Amazon.com wants to help pioneer working with not-for-profit organizations by supporting subscription downloads. Amazon.com would be a good partner because they offer the Kindle reader and apps that can read Kindle formatted ebooks for many devices, including the Apple iPad. Imagine waking up one morning and the current version of The Numismatist on your favorite device. Pick up your device and just go!

Since I will not buy the first release of any product, it was difficult to wait for the iPod 2. The iPad 2 is faster, lighter, has new cameras, and more for the same price as the first generation product with a cool Smart Cover, it was worth the wait. Although I will not stand on line in front of an Apple Store when it will will go on sale at 5:00 P.M. on March 11, I will buy one before the end of the month.

Once I buy my iPad 2, I want content. Dear ANA: please sell me content!

Here I am telling the ANA that I will pay my dues for the content they provide in the form of The Numismatist in a form that would be cheaper to produce. I am not asking for something for nothing. In fact, I will pay the current paper version in order to be able to download The Numismatist to my iPad 2 so that I can consume this media how I want. So why isn’t the ANA looking outside of the box to figure out how to do this?

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