Ebooks

[Julia Schult]

Interesting thread.  We're just taking the jump into NetLibrary here, and I
bet lots of others are, too.  Not sure how we're going to punch it for
users.  But I think we should separate other Ebooks from Webbooks.  WebBooks
are ideal for the student population, in that they want to find everything
on the computer these days anyway.  (It's easier to plagiarize that way --
cut and paste your paper -- but that's a pet topic of mine that's a whole
separate issue.)  I agree that textbooks and standard research material work
really, really well as WebBooks, and it might even get us to the point where
a common interface for journal articles and books is possible.  Now, there
is the difficulty that reading comprehension and behavior is *different*
online than on paper.  The research on those differences is very recent and
not fully published yet, I believe.

However, the Ebook readers are a separate issue.  Those of you who talk
about the failure of eBook readers, have you tried circulating them in your
libraries?  I went to a session at NYLA about 2-3 libraries who have put
EBook readers in the hands of their users, and their results were quite
surprising:  library users _loved_ them.  Most wanted them to weigh less,
but were delighted with the backlighting and resolution.  Backlighting = you
don't have to have a light on at night, so you don't have to get out of bed
or reach over your partner to turn out the light.  Resolution:  users said
it was *easier on their eyes* than reading a book.  For one thing, you can
up the font size really easily.  The difficulties were the weight (which has
been improved) and the download process with its accompanying politics.  I
didn't keep track of the details, but the upshot was that the companies that
were on the right track as far as users and librarians were concerned got
bought out, and the new company (or companies) were disregarding established
standards and going all proprietary.  This made it much more difficult to
get a book without paying for it, yes, but it also made it much harder for
libraries to create a workable loan system.

The session was last November, so I have no idea what's been going on with
it since then.

---Julia E. Schult
Access/Electronic Services Librarian
Elmira College
Jschult at elmira.edu