[Web4lib] Request for info: Libraries that are circulatinge-book readers

[Tim Spalding]

"In that situation, a plain old PDF of the book viewed on your laptop
is probably *better* than reading the book on some specialized e-book
reader."

This is a good point. In my experience ebook reading is like reading a
book through a window. It works great for novels, where you basically
read "forward." They're clearly designed for that. But they're lousy
for academic work, where you need to jump around. In theory, digital
formats are great for searching, jumping and annotating but actual
ereaders are lousy all three. It will be a while before ebooks
replicate the experience of a Greek text with an apparatus criticus
and lots of marginalia in the center of your table, a dictionary to
the right, a pile of secondary works above, a grammar to the left with
your fingers holding three places in it, and a mechanical pencil in
your mouth. :)

Tim