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As We May
Read...E-books on the Move at Fairchild-Martindale Library
Hand-held books
at the library?
E-books at the library?
Not exactly new.
But there is something truly new this fall for our library
users: e-books on mobile devices -- the iPad, the Kindle,
the Kobo and the Nook -- that retain some of the remarkable
design and heft of codex books.
E-books that are
ready to serve up a definition, to save annotations, to
activate text to speech and to offer accessible font, but
are also truly immersive like a ‘real’ book. The ‘form
factor’ of these e-book devices is a bit like a book, easy
to carry and slip into a backpack, a midpoint between a
hardback and a paperback.
Library & Technology Services is participating with the
Student Senate to provide ten iPads for loan along with the
Kindle, the Kobo and Nook at the Fairchild-Martindale
Library. The iPad, with its multiple functionality, is
admired as an e-reader that gets close to the book but the
Kindle, the Kobo and the Nook get good ratings, too; their
e-ink is pleasing and easy on the eye like paper.
Books, magazines, newspapers and apps for all four device
types have been selected by the Libraries’ E-book Committee
and LTS staff with suggestions from students. At least two
titles, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and From Time to
Eternity by Sean Carroll, are books assigned for fall Lehigh
courses.
The committee
has explored mobile devices with the acquisition of the
first generation Kindle in 2008 and evaluated platforms for
library e-book subscriptions, recommending the eBrary
Academic Collection in spring 2010. The e-books added to
these mobile devices to date are general interest
non-fiction and fiction, similar to the Libraries’ Leisure
Reading Collection. As the availability of e-books expands
and terms of use respond to the academic marketplace, so
will the e-reading material offered.
These e-reader devices are a kind of “exploratory equipment
loan” -- any personal information is removed from the
devices upon return of the equipment to the Circulation
Desk.
The iPad provides reader software applications, too, in
addition to Apple’s iBook: the Kindle for iPad, the B&N
eReader for iPad, Stanza, and the Kobo Reader. Each device
and its content is cataloged and searchable in ASA, Lehigh’s
Library Catalog. The iPad is offered with “apps,” all
selected to support student study and to illustrate the
educational possibilities of app technology. The iPad is
Internet-ready for the “Lehigh” wireless network.
The E-Reading Lending Service has four objectives -- to
provide pre-loaded academic and general interest e-books on
mobile devices, a chance for students to experience a
variety of personal technology devices, an additional
platform for access to e-books and e-journals from the
University Libraries collections, and a supportive service
for students with print disabilities to evaluate e-reading
on several kinds of mobile devices. Students can give these
devices a test drive and to gain insight into how an e-book
reader might support their own study habits.
What can I do with the e-reader devices at the
Fairchild-Martindale Library?
-
Kindle, Kobo
& Nook: Read one of the pre-loaded books
-
iPad: Read
one of the books pre-loaded on the iBook app such as
The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to
Google by Nicholas Carr. Read magazines and
newspapers. The iPads all have the Apple Safari
browser, too, so you can read your favorite blog, look
up articles in the library, visit your eBrary Bookshelf,
check out your RefWorks@Lehigh, your Google Reader, or
your bookmarks, too. Yes, and you can read in the dark.
Explore iPad apps; here is a sample in addition to the
e-book applications: Learning English with the New York
Times, Nature, New York Times Editors’ Choice, OECD
Factbook, Periodic Table of the Elements, Popular
Mechanics, and WIRED.
An increasing inventory of e-books and apps available
for download will enable our library program to expand.
Suggestions for content additions and comments on user
experience are welcome. See the LibGuide
E-Books: Are We There Yet? for updates on the
program.
-- Jean
Johnson
Article posted September,
2010
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