Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Beyond Method #6 - eBooks & eReaders & libraries

Hello Everyone,
I agreed with a number of things in Meredith Farkas's post. Especially the item that "patron driven acquisitions is not a magic bullet". I have heard a number of people say they have PDA available in their library, but they do not seem to be as happy now it's there. It's a good idea, but it needs to have more structure as to how it will work and what can be ordered.

The Essential eBooks and eReaders reading list is wonderful. I certainly found some books I would like to read on the list. The concerns about privacy issues on the Kindle are something all libraries should be aware by now if they have Kindles and Nooks. At our library, we have policies in place and are adding to them as new problems surface. With each new technology there are problems to address, especially if the students are tech savvy and able to circumvent programs.

I have used Project Gutenberg before to download books. this site is one of the easiest to download books to your Kindle. I downloaded "Our Mutual Friend" by Charles Dickens. It's one of my favorites. The book is about 300 pages and lugging it around is heavy. Now I have it on my Kindle and it's so much easier to mark sections I want to go back to and remember where I stopped.

I think patrons would like the public domain service like Project Gutenberg. People use to technology should not have a problem, but those that are not comfortable with technology would have difficulties. I and the other librarians here would be able to help them load items. Since we use LibGuides for teaching, I would create a LibGuide on how to download books in a step by step process to make it easy for people to read a number of times if they needed help and didn't want to call the library.

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