e-book explorations
At our recent peer advising meeting we started chatting about electronic books, and thought we’d open up the discussion to all the e-geeks out there. What’s your favourite way to read articles and e-books: Kindle, ipad, Kobos…? Do you know about Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/)? What about: http://calibre-ebook.com/ (open source e-book software for Mac, PC, Linux)?
This is an exciting world as we move beyond paper-based books and print journals. But what are the costs (social, environmental, economic) of these technologies? The benefits?
Please share your thoughts here. If there’s enough interest, we may even organize a little seminar to take a look at these technologies in more depth.
Cheers,
The NEW grad advising team: James, Anita, Sarah, Jung, and (not so new) Julia
September 15th, 2011 at 9:29 am
I’ve been thinking about this topic recently. As a tech geek, I needed an iPad as soon as it came out. I wasn’t sure what I’d use it for (besides Angry Birds, obviously), and I didn’t use it a lot at first. I was against the idea of e-readers; I’d had an early generation Palm Pilot that I used as an e-reader, and finding files, formatting them, and having to constantly scroll up and down was a pain. But I thought I’d give it another try this summer, and I actually do enjoy reading on the iPad.
I think the main plus for me is how many books you can keep at your fingertips – I currently have about 8 books on the go on mine. I also enjoy the fact I can find/borrow books that I know I don’t want in my permanent library and then delete them, so they’re not taking up space on the far too limited bookshelves in my house. And, I must admit, it is nice to be able to read the occasional trashy novel without feeling the need to put the jacket of a respectable book over it so no one knows what I’m reading!
The downsides… I think many people are like me in that they just love books – the feel, the smell… there’s nothing that can replace the feel of an actual book in your hands. I also think that e-readers take some of the sociality out of reading. Many of the best books I’ve read I’ve only picked up because I saw it on someone else’s bookshelf or desk. With an e-reader you don’t see what others are reading.
As to articles, I’ve never been able to get into reading them on an e-reader. I’ve even bought the apps and stylus so I can do my notes/annotation on it, and still there’s something in me that feels like I engage better with an actual pile of papers.
So there are some basic thoughts. I’d love to hear what others have to say!
November 11th, 2011 at 11:41 am
With comps I have a million books to read, and some of them are on the “MyiLibrary” ebook platform. It’s an awful platform (worse than the other elibrary that other books are viewable through/can’t remember the name). But, in case you were curious:
Yes, you have to read it on your laptop or computer (or print out 10 pages at a time, which is totally ridiculous). My hope was that I could download these books onto an ereader (Kindle or something) so that it would be easier on my back and eyes to read these electronic books. According to library staff, fiction/novels are leading the wave in compatible ebooks, not academic texts. Ah, why!!
Here’s some info from MyLibrary:
What e-Reader devices can be used to read your e-books?
A list of e-Readers and mobile phone applications compatible with Adobe Digital Editions can be found here: http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/supported-devices.
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Can I use an Amazon Kindle to read your e-books?
No. Amazon Kindle cannot be used to read our e-books.
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Can I transfer your e-books to my iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch?
No. However, while you cannot directly transfer our e-books to your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, you may be able to use a third party application (available through Apple’s App Store) to transfer our e-books.