The Scribd Blog

Music playlists, video libraries … and now Scribd Collections! With more than 10 million documents and books on Scribd, readers want to bookmark, organize, and share docs instantly. That’s why we created Scribd Collections, a new way to group your favorite reads into themed lists and share them with friends on and off Scribd.

With “Collections,” you can create reading lists from anywhere on Scribd, using the “Add to Collections” box at the bottom of documents or going into your “My Collections” master page. Set a Collection private for yourself or public to share. You can even allow other readers to contribute documents to a collection by choosing the “public-moderated” setting.

Try it out! Click the “My Collections” link at the top of your logged in homepage to get started. Here are some fun examples to inspire you:

St. Patrick’s Day Collection, Scribd Best of 2009-2010, Health & Lifestyle books, Page-a-Day Calendars, Relationships Advice

Stay tuned for additional Collection sharing options coming soon!

-David Dai, Software engineer (currently updating my “Ruby” computer programming Collection)

In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday and “Read Across America’s” annual celebration, Scribd is hosting a children’s literary event this Tuesday, March 2nd, that is sure to inspire a new generation of Dr. Seuss-es. Popular Scribd author and illustrator Hayes Roberts will be reading from his books “The Brave Monkey Pirate” and “Invisible Alligators.”

Parents and kids can listen to the author talk about his love for Dr. Seuss, how his own children helped him write his books, and why kids today will read “the 2010 way” — on their computers and mobile devices.

Date
Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Place
The Art of Dr. Seuss Gallery presented by Dennis Rae Fine Art
351 A Geary Street
San Francisco, Ca 94102
415.351.1948

Time
11am PST

The number of “reading-enabled” devices launching every week is enough to make your head spin. That’s why Scribd is making it easy to access content on whatever mobile gadget you have (e-reader or smartphone) with our new “Send to Device” feature.

With a click of a button, you can access Scribd’s entertaining and informative content on the fly. There are more than 10M mobile-enabled written works at your fingertips, from research to recipes. You can also send your own docs to your device — MS Word files, PowerPoints, PDFs — making your e-reader more useful and your smartphone more like an e-reader.

“Send-to-device” works for free and for-purchase books and chapters from major publishers like O’Reilly Media and Lonely Planet.  Now when you buy or read something on Scribd, try sending it to your mobile device by clicking the “Mobile” button at the top of the document. Here’s a list of mobile-ready Scribd docs you can try sending.

For publishers and authors, this means getting written content into the hands of the most consumers possible. There will be millions of e-readers and there are billions of smartphones.  If you’re a Scribd uploader and want to make your docs available via “send-to-device,” set them DRM-free and enable downloads.

-The Scribd Team

Good news is only news if you share it … which is why we’re excited to announce that Fast Company Magazine has named Scribd one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Media Companies 2010 alongside The Huffington Post, NPR, HarperStudio and Glam Media. To create their annual list, Fast Company editors studied thousands of global companies and identified companies that had “creative models, progressive cultures, and many forms of innovation.” Here’s what they have to say about Scribd:

Thanks for being an irreplaceable part of Scribd’s unparalleled community of readers, writers, and creators!

-The Scribd Team

LearnVest, an award-winning personal finance website for women, is publishing columns from their month-long “Financial Makeover Bootcamp” to Scribd. If the following exchange on 30 Rock hits close to home, subscribe to LearnVest’s Scribd profile and receive automatic notifications anytime a new column is published:

Jack: “Lemon, where do you invest your money?”
Liz: “I have about 12 grand in checking.”

Sampling of LearnVest’s bootcamp columns so far:

Day 1 – Get Organized and Get Online

Day 2 – Remind Yourself to Remember

Day 3 — Checking vs. Savings … really know the difference!

Day 4 – Conquer Your Savings

Day 5 – Automate Your Savings

Barack Obama’s latest federal budget allocates nearly $80 billion for cloud computing, and D.C. is listening.

The FCC just published a photographic presentation that showcases the startling post-earthquake destruction in Haiti. (See after the jump)

High profile congresswoman, Senator Claire McCaskill shared a “Lost Jobs Chart” that shows U.S. unemployment rates on the decline.

Even FOXBusiness.com uploaded the Healthcare Reform Bill, which you can compare to the version Barack Obama published during his 2008 presidential campaign.

There are more than 10 million books and documents on Scribd — many published by passionate, undiscovered artists and writers who’ve never been “discovered” but whose work probably outshines many others who have. Since you can’t exactly browse through millions of books, Scribd is going to make locating the literary crème de la crème easier.

Starting this month, we’re launching a regular feature on The Huffington Post called “Scribd Editor’s Pick,” which will introduce you to some of the rising talent on Scribd.

First up: “The Brave Monkey Pirate,“ a children’s book that’s a favorite among author Hayes Roberts’ thousands of (grownup) fans on Scribd. With whimsical illustrations and a universal story about overcoming fears, “The Brave Monkey Pirate” is a good book to read to your kids at bedtime or to yourself before a big presentation.:)

Check back every month for more selections from The Huffington Post and Scribd!

Best-selling business author and marketing guru, Seth Godin, has published exclusive excerpts of his new book “Linchpin” on Scribd!

In the excerpts, “America’s greatest marketer” explains why “School is a Scam,” “Teamwork is Misunderstood,” “You are a Genius,” and more. Check out the full “Linchpin” shelf here.

Are You Indispensable?

Following last week’s earthquake in Haiti, Scribd launched a real time “Haiti Missing Persons & Response Center.” Much like CNN’s iReport hub, the Scribd profile helps people share information about missing loved ones, publish personal reactions about the tragedy, and includes a searchable “Missing in Haiti” slideshow that can be embedded across the web and  automatically updates with the latest information.

The International Red Cross’s Scribd profile and Haitian FamilyLinks Database are also great resources for those affected by the disaster.

Update: Two of the people in the Scribd database — Kimberlly Gassart and Aishia Daphne Joseph — have been found alive. We are waiting for more details from their families.

2009 has brought incredible change to Scribd – Our readership has grown significantly, we’ve signed partnership deals to acquire cool content, launched the Scribd Store, and added a whole set of new social features that forever changed the way people interact with written material online. Now comes our most noticeable improvement to date – a major site redesign.

Over the coming and weeks and months you’ll notice a number of changes that will make it easier for you to explore all the great original writings and documents published on Scribd every day.  

To see a preview of the final design and learn more about why we’re making these major changes, check out this letter from Scribd CEO, Trip Adler:

Happy Holidays to all and thanks for making Scribd the amazing community it is today!