The Cost of Convenience

Ereaders in libraries are becoming a very big thing. Many libraries are embracing this new technology and using it to reach out to their patrons, providing them with an alternative option for the “outdated” hard copies of books. It’s also a way to relate to the younger generation, who are mostly quite familiar with the changing technologies of our times. This may, on surface level, appear to be a good thing. But is it really?

Our main goal as librarians is to get the patrons the information they need as conveniently as possible. A drawback to libraries providing ereaders for their patrons is just that: providing.

Ereaders are expensive. That cannot be denied. A library would have to purchase a large quantity of ereaders in order to meet the demands of the public. They would undoubtedly be an item in high demand. Many patrons would prefer these to standard hard copies of books. But ereaders would be checked out on such a constant basis that there may not be enough to go around. Angry patrons may, unfortunately, have to resort to the more primitive methods of checking out hard copies or using interlibrary loans if the ereaders they desire are all checked out.

Another problem when it comes to providing these sorts of items is theft. Unfortunately, some people would much rather snag an ereader from the local library than buy one themselves, or pay to use one repeatedly. In our damaged economy, many people want the luxury of such items without the chore of coughing up the money for it.

In addition to theft, what about maintenance? Suppose a careless patron drops his ereader by accident? What if one is misplaced by a patron or the staff? And constant use tends to wear down the technology and make it run slower. Repairs of this kind must be factored into a budget. We cannot deny that maintenance, especially when it comes to technology and computer items, does not run cheap. We have to stop and wonder if a library would really benefit from providing ereaders to the patrons. Would the cost of maintaining the ereaders, replacing the damaged or lost or stolen, repairing glitches and breaks, outweigh the benefits of providing them to the patrons?

This is a difficult decision to make. On one hand, we as librarians have a duty to provide information to our patrons in as convenient a way as possible. But, on the other hand, as convenient as this method may be for the patron, would it really be convenient for the library itself? It is a tough call that only we as librarians can make as we see fit.

Sources:

http://tracygregory.hubpages.com/hub/Why-School-Libraries-Still-Need-Books-On-the-Shelves

eReaders in Libraries May Actually be a Problem?

One would think that eBooks and eReaders would have a negative impact on the LIS profession. Or, at the very least, you might expect that plenty of librarians are up in arms against the big technology movement.

“Libraries are about BOOKS!” they’d shout. “Technology has no place in our hallowed stacks!”

In truth, weeks of exploration have shown me next to no resistance to the addition of eBooks and eReaders in libraries. Many librarians, in fact, seem to embrace this turn of events. As has been shown in recent posts, libraries are coming up with increasingly creative ways to include these new tools to access text into their stacks.

The drawback to this that I’ve run across is that the purposes of ebooks and libraries tend to be very different; combining them may not be a bad thing, but would it really work?

A library, when it comes to physical texts and/or items, tends to be there for the purposes of loaning these things out to patrons with the expectancy that these items will be returned in the future. Ereaders, on the other hand, tend to be for the purpose of its owner purchasing texts. As the entire process is via the internet and there is no face-to-face exchange when it comes to purchasing texts with ereaders, the concept of lending tends to be an impossible one. Why pay money to virtually borrow a text when you can just keep the text instead?

Which leads to the issue of loaning when it comes to libraries. In this case, libraries serve as a middleman between the ebook company and the patron. In a library, a patron would be charged multiple times for the use of an item that they would only have to pay for once if they owned it. The process is seems to be just complicating a simple process with unnecessary steps. There are other ways to access texts; checking out the physical text itself, or interlibrary loans if your library doesn’t own it. Yes, ereaders allow faster access to texts, but the process of doing this via library tends to be a complicated one. It certainly doesn’t help that the purposes of libraries and ebooks are at opposite ends of the spectrum.


Sources:

LISNews http://lisnews.org/library_thing_why_ebooks_are_bad_libraries

Library Journal http://blog.libraryjournal.com/tennantdigitallibraries/2010/08/19/e-books-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/

Facing Reality

As a follow-up to my last post, I would like to touch on the benefits of accepting the realities of the world today when considering the effects of e-readers on the profession. It may be the case that the proliferation of these devices has affected the job prospects of today's librarians negatively, but it is certain that there are many other factors at play. There is another side to this coin, though. With the job market being the way it is, there are many working librarians who are forced to take on more and more responsibilities for the same pay, and who are expected to take care of it all in the same amount of time.

As an example, Michael (whom I mentioned in my previous post) told me about how his elementary school's librarian is only there for half of the day. The other half of the day is spent at another school, and parents who volunteer fill in as best they can while the librarian is out. Sure, it would be great if the school district could afford to staff the two libraries separately, and perhaps interested parties should do all that they can to help that become a reality, but we can't confuse the reality we wish for with the reality we have. By doing so, we would be saying to librarians like the one at Michael's school that we are abandoning them to their fate. The reality of the situation is such that e-readers could be an incredible benefit to employed librarians who are finding themselves shouldering much more responsibilities than they ever anticipated. Think about how much easier it would be to manage two libraries if the collections consisted mostly of e-books. It could be done from a single computer and, presumably, would be equivalent to managing a single collection. Students would not need to physically check books out and it would not be necessary to ask for parent volunteers to staff the library, which is better for everyone as parents have less and less time these days outside of work.

As with many aspects of the relationship between librarians and technology, we must keep in mind that change happens; it is not something we can avoid or that we can prevent. It is our job to look at the changes which are taking place and take advantage of them in order to benefit our patrons and our profession. Yes, it is a shame that librarians are having a difficult time finding employment. We are not the only ones, however, and we cannot use technology as a scapegoat. What we can do is recognize the prevalence of e-readers and use them to provide the best service we can for our patrons and, as I think many of our blog posts show, there are plenty of ways for librarians to use e-readers effectively.

Some Positive Aspects of E-readers…

With e-readers, libraries now have the chance to offer more content to patrons with these new devices. In Sue Polanka’s article “Improving Library Services with E-books” she offers new insights to how e-books improve services for patrons and how they are a positive contribution for libraries.

One of her first arguments is how with e-readers libraries can now let patrons access content anywhere and anytime. Patrons can now check out books any time of the day and are no longer confined to library hours at a physical location. Patrons can access and check out books any time of the day or night. Polanka believes this is good for libraries because instead of materials taking up physical space in the library they can purchase materials that are electronic and available 24/7. She insists that space in the library can go towards more important things. She also mentions with the advancement of e-readers, libraries can focus more on another important factor which is service.

Another plus to e-readers in the library that benefits patrons and libraries is that e-readers often do not go under the physical damage most books encounter. With e-readers, e-books can’t be lost, stolen, they also can’t have pages ripped out and ruined, or be shelved physically in the wrong place in a library. Another plus to having e-books is if libraries have unlimited access, with unlimited access multiple library patrons can check out the same book at the same time, people would no longer have to wait and have a book put on hold for them. People could access e-books from any part of the world as well, they no longer would need to pick up a book, and instead they could also have the content delivered electronically. Patrons would also no longer have to wait for shipping either, when a book was finally published it could be delivered that same day electronically, and no longer have to wait a package to ship, libraries would also not have to wait either for titles to arrive at the library.

One of the biggest advantages with e-books Polanka argues is that e-books let users full text search. Full text searching lets users search the chapters, image captions, along with charts and graphs, which is one of the factors people like and value e-books.
Finally the last point Polanka talks about is virtual reference services. Polanka says, “Using virtual reference services, librarians can successful/y answer questions and provide content to users by sending persistent URLs for the title, chapter, or page of a book, e-mailing articles from encyclopedias, downloading book chapters to a shared network drive, and copying and pasting text. Many librarians use video sharing software like Jing to demonstrate complicated searches or features in online products and make them understandable to remote users. Such software provides visual opportunities for library instruction in a virtual environment.”

Polanka offers a lot of great points on how e-readers can have a positive impact for both patrons and libraries, but I wish she addressed more aspects of new services libraries can offer that don’t involve e-books. I also felt she could have dig deeper into the subject. She also could have explored how these advantages would have on libraries in the long run. I also wished she looked at the negative aspects as well because for every good quality there might be something bad. In general, these positive aspects of e-readers would benefit any library or patron.

Source: Polanka, S.. (2011, July). Improving Library Services with E-Books. Information Outlook, 15(5), 13-15.

OverDrive, Publishers, and eBooks. Oh my!

Due to an increase in e-reader ownership, more and more libraries are providing patrons with access to e-books, with the help of e-book providers like Overdrive.  To patrons, these e-book providers are a great service which their libraries provide them.  Which e-reader owner doesn’t want access to hundreds of popular titles, available to be borrowed for free from their public library?  If I had an e-reader, I know I would definitely take advantage of this resource.  In order for libraries to keep up with new technology and thus the needs of their tech savvy patrons, libraries know that it’s important to provide these services.  There are many reasons why these types of services are great for patrons and libraries, but many librarians feel that patronizing e-book providers, like Overdrive, is more problematic than it is beneficial, at least from a library stand-point. 

The Kansas State Library, which signed its first contract with OverDrive in December 2005, had to renegotiate with the vendor this year, as their contract would soon be up.  The new contract they received from Overdrive however, was not one that they were expecting, or could even afford.  As it turned out, OverDrive was increasing their price by 700% over their last contract.  In addition to the extraordinary increase in price, there was also a change in how the eBooks would be provided to them.  With their old contract, eBooks were considered purchased content, but in the new contract, it was obvious that the library would no longer be owning the eBooks, they were now only provided license to lend them to library users for as long as the contract was valid.  And so, the Kansas State Library chose to not renew their agreement with OverDrive and they have yet to find a new provider.  Kansas State Librarian, Jo Budler, feels that it really isn’t OverDrive’s fault though, she says:  “OverDrive is really caught in a squeeze as a middleman – all of these eBook vendors are – with publishers on one side and libraries and their patrons on the other.”[1] 

One of the main reasons why OverDrive had to change their contracts with their customers is because of publishers changing the way in which libraries can lend out their books, now that eBooks are a huge part of a library’s catalogue.  HarperCollins for instance, now limits libraries to lending out each of their titles only 26 times before the library has to re-pay for additional lending.  Since providers, like OverDrive are caught in the middle, Budler says “we need to collaborate as partners – libraries and publishers.  Let’s all gain from this.”

For those of you wondering why libraries would even try to work with eBook providers right now considering this transitional period seems to be a costly hassle, I will provide you with some positive information about eBooks in libraries, as it really isn’t ALL bad.  In October, Overdrive released their third quarter results, which include numbers from the 15,000 libraries that utilize the OverDrive network.  The results showed that the number of eBooks checked out nearly tripled in number for the third quarter, in comparison to all of 2010.  Additionally, there were more than 2 million new users, using not only e-readers, but mobile devices as well.  Since users have to have a library card and check-out these eBooks from their local libraries, this can only mean one thing:  E-Readers and eBooks are actually bringing people to their local libraries, as opposed to keeping them away, which is what many people thought would happen.   Libraries should be able to rejoice knowing that technology won’t be making them obsolete, but in the mean time, they have those pesky contracts (and those greedy publishers) to worry about.

                Sources:

1. “Kansas Leading the Fight for Fair Ebook Access in Libraries,” Nancy K. Herther.  http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Kansas-Leading-the-Fight-for-Fair-Ebook-Access-in-Libraries-78302.asp
2.  “eBook growth in public libraries powered by OverDrive results in record checkouts and new Users,” OverDrive Press Release [October 12, 2011].  http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?

Are e-readers truly the future?

In a world where e-readers seem to be taking control of the casual reading market, it is only natural to wonder if they can or will be as popular in other settings as well. More specifically, is it possible for elementary school students to utilize these tools effectively and, if so, how early should the be included in a child's education? To answer these questions, I spoke with two teachers currently working in elementary schools in the United States.

The first, Michael, has been teaching for almost three decades at various grade levels, including elementary, middle, and high school. He has also recently begun using an Amazon Kindle. When asked if he thought that e-readers would be relevant to education in the near future, his answer was an emphatic "yes". He went on to say, in fact, that he believed that e-readers would be the "next big thing in education, especially at the elementary level." At his school, students are evaluated twice a year to determine their reading levels and the main areas where they require improvement. Each classroom includes a small "library" of fiction and non-fiction books at various levels and the students select books to read from the appropriate level. A digital library would not only be able to cover a wider range of books for the students, but would require less upkeep than the physical libraries that are housed within each individual classroom. Students also could not really "lose" e-books, at least not in a way that would require replacement in the school's collection.

He went on to mention the ease with which teachers could track student reading, and that the software could suggest books directly to the students based on their reading level and areas of interest. Along these lines, he brought up the particular difficulty of finding books for adolescent boys. Most children's and young adult books are written with girls in mind rather than boys, according to Michael. He believes that it would be easier for picky readers to find books which they might enjoy with the introduction of e-readers, something that would encourage more students to be casual readers in the long run.

The second teacher whom I spoke to, Devin, works as an art teacher at an elementary school and has been teaching for less than five years. Though she does not have any experience using e-readers in her classroom, she has seen their implementation in the rest of the school. Often, she finds, children seem to learn their use faster than adults to, and she definitely advocates their use with children as young as four or five. Their are some drawbacks to the introduction of e-readers that Devin mentioned, such as "the expense and having to take the time to train teachers." However, she felt that "most [teachers] would react in a very positive way." The use of e-readers would also free up a great deal of space in small classrooms, a fact that both she and Michael mentioned.

The consensus from both teachers was that e-readers will, in the very near future, replace books as the preferred medium in schools. As Devin put it: "For schools, I say it is only a matter of time before books are completely replaced." She did, however, preface this with the following statement: "Personally, I like holding a physical book in my hand but that is because I am a nerd."

Amen to that, sister.

"The E-Book: Pipe Dream or Potential Disaster?": A Prescient Projection of the Future

In recent times, the e-book has come on strong as society lauds convenience as a means for procuring texts for education and entertainment and e-readers have finally hit the mainstream consciousness. The successes of e-books and e-readers have been a long time coming, predicted well over a decade ago by David Dorman in “The E-Book: Pipe Dream or Potential Disaster?”.

Some of the issues raised in the February 1999 article are currently affecting libraries today. The most important issues confronting information stakeholders, Dorman argued, have to do with "the fact that the digital content of an e-book breaks through the limitations of the book as a physical item - limitations that form the basis for the economic and institutional relationships among the information stakeholders." (Dorman, 36-37). Though a fantasy thirteen years ago, this has become all too true; just as the ease of procuring of an MP3 file has forever altered the way a listener enjoys music, the ease of procuring an e-book in ePub or PDF formats has forever altered the way a reader enjoys reading. "If electronic readers become popular," Dorman went on, "content sources for free e-books... could become the major suppliers of books in the public domain." (Dorman, 37).

Dorman’s article concluded with the following regarding terms and conditions of use:

“In the long run it will not simply be the inevitable success of electronic-book viewers that will profoundly affect libraries; rather it will be the terms and conditions for use of their digital content. It behooves librarians who care about the role of libraries in society and about the need to preserve freedom of information access to take an active role in shaping the fundamental tools and rules that will control our access to digital information.” (Dorman, 39).

As Kristy and Katie have pointed out before me, there are currently a finite number of times that certain publishers will allow a library to lend out an e-book, putting libraries at the mercy of the publishers, the libraries forced to repurchase electronic copies once the maximum number (whatever it may be) is reached. Though the battle for access goes on, the publishers unfortunately seem to have the upper hand at this point.

With reduced budgets and millages, it is essential to invest in the right items for patrons. The difficulties of keeping up with technological advances will forevermore be an integral part of the role of the librarian and librarian professional. Change is the name of the game... when it comes to e-books and e-readers, it is essential for those in the library field to think about all that can be offered electronically and to strive to preserve and increase access to electronic reading material just as we must strive to preserve and increase access to our old standard bearers.

Source: Dorman, D. "The e-book: pipe dream or potential disaster?" American Libraries 30(2). Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25635325

What I Learned At the Michigan Library Association Conference:

This blog entry kind of piggybacks onto Kristy's previous post, so I will try not to be redundant.  I just wanted to discuss a talk I went to when I attended the Michigan Library Association conference in Kalamazoo on Wednesday, October 26th.

The talk was called, "Step Away From the Book! Legal issues, eBooks, and Libraries".  Since our group has spent so much time analyzing the positives and negatives of eBooks and eReaders in libraries, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to gather some information.  The talk was given by Ruth Dukelow, the associate director of the MCLS, or Midwest Collaborative for Library Services.

Ms. Dukelow explained that December 25th, 2010 was the day that would live in infamy for libraries across America.  Last Christmas, an massive amount of people received Kindles and the like for Christmas.  The demand for Libraries to offer eBook lending services for patrons skyrocketed.  This is when the legal issues started to occur.

Many eBook publishing companies, capitalizing on the demand to borrow eBooks from local libraries limited the amount of times a certain book can be borrowed.  For example, say Public Library X purchases The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in eBook format from a certain publisher.  The publisher states in the contract with Public Library X that the Adventures of Tom Sawyer can only be lent out to patrons 25 times.  After the book is borrowed 25 times, the library no longer has the rights to the eBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and has to re-purchase it from the publisher in order to keep it in circulation.

Ms. Dukelow pointed out how frustrating this is for Libraries.  When a library purchases a physical, bound, paper book from a publisher after that purchase the library owns that book.  The library can do whatever it wants to with that book, because they own it and the publisher no longer has control.  The library could burn the book if they chose to do so (although, that would be extreme, and very sad).

The fact that Libraries don't own eBooks after they purchase them, and have to re-purchase them after their contract with the publisher expires is causing some friction and issues within the library world.  Licensing and copyright law start to come into affect when purchasing eBooks and it creates all sorts of confusion.

So, will it be that one day the system for eBooks will be like the system for print books, in that once they library purchases the book, it is theirs to circulate forever and ever?  We don't know yet.  But as future librarians, this is an interesting bit of info for us to think about and keep tabs on.

If you would like to contact Ruth Dukelow for further information regarding the legal issues that surround eBooks and libraries, her e-mail is:

dukelow@mcls.org

Loan Caps for E-books?

With technology advancing every day it is inevitable that it is here to stay in the library profession. While technology is supposed to make life easier some may argue that it also brings more problems for the library profession and the institutions. With e-readers, new problems are arising and changing the rules of the library game. Recently Library Journal posted an article about Harper-Collins new lending terms for e-readers for library services and the problems librarians are facing.

Recently this past spring, one of the major publishers Harper-Collins revised their lending terms for e-books and this has cause an outcry from some members in the library community. In their new agreement, Harper-Collins stated that new books that came out via library e-book lenders will only be able to circulate 26 times before the book license expires. This may not seem like a problem at first but if a title is popular, the book license could easily expire quickly and this will cost libraries quite a bit of money. Harper-Collins claimed they settled on 26 circulation limit based on the average life span of a book and factoring in the wear and tear that “print books” encounter. Harper-Collins claims one of the reasons they changed their policy is because it would lead to more book sales and royalties for their authors.

These new lending term agreements are leaving librarians with new problems. Librarians are already struggling with budget cuts and e-book lending policies and user issues, this new policy just leaves more problems for them. Some librarians are even boycotting Harper-Collins products altogether until the publishing company comes up with better terms. Libraries across the country including the Central/Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing consortium, the Upper Hudson Library System, and others are temporarily not buying Harper-Collins publications.

In the end is it really up to the publishers to control the circulation terms for libraries? Libraries are already struggling in this economy and publishers do not know the patrons the libraries serve, so maybe publishing companies need to re-consider their e-book lending terms.


Rapp, D. (2011, April). Harper Collins: 26 -Loan Cap on Library Books. Library Journal, 16-17.

Benefits of E-Readers in County Libraries:

According to the National Association of Counties' publication, County News, county libraries are being benefited by the lending of e-readers.  Shelly Kilgas, the Director of Technology at Grand County Library in Colorado, states in the article that she finds e-books to be more cost efficient for libraries than books in print (Taylor, 2011).  Libraries that offer e-readers to their patrons are seeing an increase in their patronage. Frank Marin, head of audiovisual popular reading services at the Broward’s North Regional-Broward College Library, says in the County News article, “It makes books available to people in a new way, brings people into the library, and I think it’s part of how we adapt today to the changing times for libraries" (Taylor, 2011).  

As a result, for those libraries that offer e-readers, circulation is booming.  At the Arlington County Public Library in Virginia, at any one time 74 percent of their e-book collection was checked out, as compared to 20 percent for their print collections.  Also, borrowers of e-readers are generally considerate with the valuable piece of equipment, something that can not be said for many library books. Frank Marin states in the article that his library had seen no damage to their e-readers, and all of them were accounted for.  Shelly Kilgas said the same for her library (Taylor, 2011).

For now, most libraries are just focusing on e-books.  However e-readers also have the capability to read PDF files, in which case all sorts of documents can be read.  For the county library, this means that  county documents, such as board agendas could be made available for public access.  Also, e-readers would give libraries the capability of offering their own original content (Taylor, 2011).

Now, even though the e-reader has its benefits, the librarians in this article agree that bound books won't go extinct any time soon.  Frank Marin puts it this way: ...The reality is that most often these things exist side by side. The movie theaters didn’t go away when VCRs came along, and certainly we’re always going to have books.  I think there’ll be new ways of accessing them" (Taylor, 2011).  Nicely said, Frank.

Taylor, C. (2011). County libraries see benefits in lending e-readers. County News: The Voice of 

America's Counties, 43(1), Retrieved from http://www.naco.org/newsroom/countynews/Current           Issue/1-17-11/Pages/Countylibrariesseebenefitsinlendinge-readers.aspx

E-Readers at the Romeo District Library

We’ve already discussed e-readers in an academic setting in a previous post and there are many articles on the web that discuss e-readers in public libraries.  I thought it would be interesting though, to find out more about how e-readers are being used in our own local public libraries.  As a result, I made a visit to my local library, the Graubner Branch Library, part of the Romeo District Library in Romeo, Michigan. 

At the library, I spoke with Heather VanFleet, one of the Adult Services Librarians.  She informed me that the Romeo District Library actually has five e-readers that patrons can check out.  She said the only way that Romeo was able to provide the Kindle’s to patrons, was because the Lion’s Club of Romeo donated them. 

I asked her what having e-readers available meant for the library and for the librarians that worked there.  She told me that the library staff is split on how they feel about e-readers, which really didn’t surprise me.  Some of the staff have e-readers and love them and others really don’t like them, but they are still happy that they can offer that service to patrons who do like them.  She also told me that although they are very grateful that they were given Kindles, it also creates some problems.  I wasn’t aware of this before, but apparently Kindles are only compatible with e-books purchased from Amazon.  The e-books available through the Romeo District Library are actually available through Overdrive and the Suburban Library Cooperative.  Not all of the e-books available there are from Amazon and so if a patron checks out a Kindle, they won’t have access to all of the e-books. 

The Lending Agreement Form

Additionally, the Kindles create a little more work and worry for the librarians.  Each patron who wants to check out a kindle, must fill out a Kindle Lending Agreement Form.  The form was actually modeled off of the one used at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library for their e-reader lending.  Additionally, the librarian must fill out a checklist.  Not only do they have to verify that the patron qualifies to borrow an e-reader, but the librarian also has to make sure that the device is still working, that all of the parts are still present, and that the titles are loaded on the Kindle.  Because of e-readers, each librarian who helps a patron check one out must know how to use the e-reader, so that requires additional training for each staff member.

Another issue with e-readers at the Romeo District Library is that because of their value and the limited number of e-readers available, not every patron will be qualified to use the Kindle.  The library requires that each user be at least 18 years old and they must be a resident of either the village of Romeo or two of the surrounding townships.  Additionally, the patron is required to pay a $20.00 refundable deposit.  Not everyone will be able to afford to pay this deposit and so I think it really limits which patrons will be able to use the e-readers.  If the e-reader is damaged or lost, there are additional fees that the patron will be responsible for as well, so there’s a possibility that some people may not want to take that risk of checking one out.  Lastly, their Kindles are only available for a week at a time because of their high demand and for some, that may not be enough time to finish an e-book.

I am in no way saying that I think e-readers in public libraries are a bad idea, nor am I implying that I think the Romeo District Library is doing a poor job at providing e-readers and managing their lending program.  The real problems in providing e-readers in public libraries comes from the fact that there are limits to which e-books are used on which e-readers because of the many different brands and companies that sell them.   Another problem is that because of the high cost of e-readers, libraries have to take many precautions with their e-readers, which can lead to patrons having to shell out quite a bit of money to use one if some sort of accident happens with it.

I actually think having e-readers in a public library could be a great idea, especially for those patrons who would love to be able to use an e-reader and have access to the many e-books available.  I just think that having e-readers in public libraries won’t be a practical thing to offer until the costs go down, so all patrons can have access, and the access to e-books, based on e-reader brand, improves.

Sources and important links listed below:

http://www.libcoop.net/romeo/

http://slc.lib.overdrive.com/A732D534-A90C-46DA-A12D-1BED3D28B52A/10/496/en/Default.htm

E-Readers in the Classroom

When considering the impact that e-readers from the point of view of academics, the question that should be asked before all others is: Should we even bother?

If e-readers do not provide any distinct academic advantages to the students or the institutions over paper books, then time and resources should not be wasted with attempting to adapt them to classroom use.  Along these lines, studies have been performed at Penn State University during the 2008 - 2009 academic year, and at Princeton University in the fall of 2009.

The Penn State study used 100 of the Sony PRS-505, and did not focused exclusively on their use in the classroom.  Due to the licencing model of the Sony reader, which was designed so that the "e-library" on a computer can be synced with at most five individual readers, the study's administrators had to get a bit creative to run their 100 readers on less than 20 machines.  They did in fact solve this problem using two computers, nine virtual machines, and separate log-in information for each e-library.  The readers were loaded with leisure reading as well as the required materials for classes.  The study was run in both English and library studies classes.

The reactions of the students pointed out several known issues with the readers, but also gave some new insight with regards to their usefulness for classroom purposes.  According to the study, most students used the readers only in their dorm rooms despite the fact that it is a mobile device.  It was speculated from the students' comments that this was due to an inability to make in-text notations or easily navigate pages.  The students felt that the readers needed more multimedia functionality and wireless capability, and that it should have been easier to interact with the text.

The students felt, generally, more immersed in their texts when read on the readers.  In the English class, many of the students were not majoring in the humanities, and the overall feeling was that the Sony reader would not lend itself well to the hard sciences.  They did not want to commit to buying an e-reader in the near future as they were unsure if they would use it outside of the classroom assignments, and due to the fact that they felt it was probable that they'd have to buy paper books as well.

The article I viewed did not provide much in the way of statistics, and I would be interested in going over those.  Also, many of the issues that the students in the Penn State study had seemed specific to the Sony reader.

The Princeton study used the Amazon Kindle DX (which was not available at the time of the Penn State study) in conjunction with 3 faculty members and 51 students.  It focused on the effects of the e-readers on printing habits, and on overall classroom experience.

The study found that the use of the Kindle did, in fact, reduce the amount of printing by the students.  The average paper use of Kindle users was around half that of non-Kindle users, when compared to previous semester figures.

When asked to compare reading on the Kindle to reading out of a book, most students in the study felt that the experiences were about the same.  Most wished that more course readings were available on the Kindle, though they were not sure if more courses would use e-reader technology.  Several complaints about the difficulty of navigation were brought up as well.  The students liked having all of their course readings on one device and the ability to search on the Kindle.  They would have liked to have seen more compatibility with PDF files, better annotation tools, and the ability to organize documents into folders.

Overall, the consensus seemed to be that, though the students enjoyed reading on the Kindle, printed off less paper, and were happy to have all of their readings on one device, the Kindle left a lot to be desired in terms of note-taking.

Looking at these two studies, it seems to me that e-readers in their current form cannot supplant books in the classroom.  Though reading on them is convenient, they are designed with leisure reading in mind, not academics.  If e-readers were to be a viable option on college campuses, it is my opinion that the e-reader would have to be designed with specifically that purpose in mind.  Most importantly, making notations on the documents themselves and general navigation would need to be made easier.

I have wondered how much of our opinions on e-readers are shaped solely by the fact that we have been using books for so long, and going over these studies gives me something a bit more concrete to consider.  There are some essentials that are much, much easier to do on paper right now and, until e-readers provide a similar experience, they will always be deficient in the classroom.

The Penn State and Princeton studies can be found below:

americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/09242009/e-readers-action

www.princeton.edu/ereaderpilot/

Michael S. Hart, 1947-2011

As an individual with a background in history, I believe that it is important to understand where eBooks came from in order to understand where they are going. Whatever future lies ahead for the eBook and eReader revolution, it's worth noting that the world has recently lost an individual whose role in the development of eBooks cannot possibly be understated. At a time when the Arpanet consisted of barely more than a dozen mainframe computers, well before computers that could easily fit on one's desktop (or in one's hands), a young student at the University of Illinois who had been granted access to their hulking mainframe sat down and manually entered the text of the Declaration of Independence on a Teletype terminal on to punched paper tape (Schofield, para. 4).

Michael S. Hart's goal was a simple one, "to break down the bars of ignorance and illiteracy". It was forty years ago this past July that Hart began to manually enter the text of various books and documents that had fallen into the public domain. His goals were lofty, to make ten thousand of the most consulted books available to the public at little to no cost by the end of the twentieth century ("Project Gutenberg", para. 3). Hart called his endeavor "Project Gutenberg" after the inventor whose invention had revolutionized the written word. Over the next seventeen years, Hart managed to input 313 books on his own. After enlisting the help of volunteers, that number grew exponentially and has only continued to grow as time has gone on (Schofield, para. 5-6).

A few months back, Hart declared 2011 to be the year of the eBook and I, for one, would have to agree. Though I personally find solace in my ink and paper books, I am more than aware that the eBook and eReader revolution is underway and their impact can only going to grow from here. I'm also aware that the various texts that I've downloaded from Project Gutenberg over the past few years would probably be easier to read if I had them on an eReader. Michael S. Hart died this past September 6 in Urbana, Illinois. From obsolete books on CD-ROM to the development of software for the earliest eReaders to the development of Microsoft Reader (itself soon to become obsolete) to all of the various eReaders of today, the revolution was infinitely assisted by a man who is now gone.

We can argue that what Michael Hart did was not to create the eBook, that the texts that he inputted were merely precursors to proper eBooks but there's no denying Hart's impact. For every revolution, there has to be a few first steps and if Michael Hart's steps weren't the first, they were certainly among the first. From here, this blog will focus on a variety of issues concerning the effects of eBooks and eReaders on the library profession. For a brief preface to our group's discussion, though, this unfortunate passing is sadly all too apt.

Sources: Schofield, Jack (2011, September, 13). Michael Hart obituary. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/13/michael-hart-obituary?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Project Gutenberg. (2001). Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gutenberg