Apple today sent out invitations for an “education announcement” that will be held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City on Thurday, January 19. The invitation simply says:

Join us for an education announcement in the Big Apple.

Rumors about this event started last week with most sources pointing to an iTunes U and iBooks textbook initiative. John Paczkowski of All Things D posted:

Sources close to the company tell AllThingsD that the event will involve an initiative related to iBooks in education, presumably with some sort of tie-in to iTunes U. ?

Details beyond that are slim, though we’re told that this is an effort Jobs had been involved with in the months prior to his death. That could mean that it’s the textbooks-on-iPads plan that Jobs famously discussed with biographer Walter Isaacson. Fox’s Clayton Morris is hearing something similar.

The textbook market is certainly ripe for digital disruption, but the players that have emerged so far are pumping in a lot of cash with little to show for it.

And from the invitations it looks like those rumors were right.