What is .vbk file format and how to open VitalSource Bookshelf VitalBook VBK ebooks

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What is .vbk file format and how to open VitalSource Bookshelf VitalBook VBK ebooks

Originally Posted by http://www.vitalsource.com/software/vbk/

E-books in the VitalBook .VBK format are a new downloadable option for your textbooks. More powerful for users and more flexible for publishers, the VitalBookTM format represents a significant evolutionary step forward for digital content.

VitalBook .VBK format For users...

You will customize your VitalBook page displays, search across as many or as few books as you like, and even create and manage your own notes and highlights. The VitalBook format gives you more control, more useful features, and more ways to succeed than traditional "just-a-picture-of-the-page" e-books.

Also unlike some other digital book types, you can print and copy-and-paste. In fact, when you paste from a VitalBook, you get the relevant bibliographic data with it!

VitalBook .VBK format for publishers...

With the VitalBook format, you can create downloadable digital product that you sell under your terms and through your channels. You control the process all the way from content development to final sale. E-books in the VitalBook format are DRM protected, and give you the tools you need to find new opportunities as well as address some of the difficulties inherent in your current markets.

Currently selling books in the VitalBook .VBK format: Elsevier, John Wiley & Sons, McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education Group, Oxford University Press, Blackwell Publishing, F.A. Davis, Lippincott / Williams & Wilkins, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, B.C. Decker, Aspen Publishers, Bedford, Freeman & Worth, Thieme Publishers, Garland Science Publishing, Access Copyright, American Dental Association, Encyclopaedia, Britannica, Inc., Human Kinetics, Quintessence, AMSCO School Publications, Inc, Hayes-Barton Press, UNC Press

So why exactly are books in the VitalBook .VBK format better for learning?

What makes the VitalBook .VBK format so powerful for learning? First, you get the exact, complete textbook for your course, not a substitute, not a truncated version, and not just a few ancillary web pages. When you purchase the VitalBook version of your text, you get a file that's fast, efficient, mobile, and interactive...just like you.

These e-books are unlike any e-book format you've seen before. The VBK format was designed specifically for the teaching and learning environment, so a book in the VitalBook .VBK format can...

• VBK supports large complex files — Other "picture-of-a-page" formats become unmanageable at 20-30 pages, but most textbooks are hundreds of pages long. The VitalBook .VBK format is designed for efficient delivery, storage, search, and use of such large files (and, even better, large groups of these large files!).
• VBK files are portable — Many online books are tied to Web subscriptions available only from remote servers. A VitalBook .VBK file is downloaded directly to the desktop. You own it, and it goes wherever your computer goes.
• VBK files allow rapid search across textbooks — Other reader programs may be able to search through one file at a time (providing a "find next..." or a list of hits with no context), but in a VitaBook .VBK file, you can search by words or phrases across thousands of books — in just seconds. Search text, figures and tables, even your notes!
• VBK has active learning tools — The VitalBook .VBK format allows you to make and share notes and highlights right in your text, making it your own customized, dynamic version.
• VBK enables linkages from other resources — You can easily insert hyperlinks to specific sections of a VitalBook from learning management systems, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, .pdf or .html documents.
• VBK files carry digital rights management (DRM) — Other formats deter copyright violation only by burdening the user. VitalBook .VBK files address file sharing, but don't limit the functions you want (like print, copy and paste, highlighting, etc.).

VBK Content for learning

The digital environment holds great promise for the learning process. But several issues have kept students from taking full advantage of digital content. How do you manage books of considerable length? How do you engage with the content? How to make sure the content is trustworthy (and still protect intellectual property)?

The founders of VitalSource — students, teachers, and publishers — looked at every available technology but found nothing that offered a complete solution. So we created our own — the VitalBook format (*.vbk).