Thing #14: E-books and E-readers

E-Readers! E-readers! ereaders! E-Books! E-books! ebooks!

No matter how you spell ‘em, everyone’s talking about ‘em and our patrons want ‘em!

So post-holiday, when folks have their brand-new e-readers in hand and lots of questions in mind, Thing #13 is an introduction to e-books and e-readers.

What is an e-book?

Wikipedia defines an e-book as a “text and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices”. It’s not a print book, but an electronic version.

What is an e-reader?

Wikipedia defines an e-reader as “an electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital books and periodicals”. It is a portable device used to read an e-book. There are different brands of e-Books, like Amazon’s Kindle, the Nook from Barnes & Noble, the Sony Reader, the Kobo eReader from Borders, and others. Here’s a comparison of some of the most popular.

How do I get e-books?

When it comes to getting e-books, it all depends on What You Are Looking For and What You Have.

Here’s why:

• There is a common misunderstanding that all e-books are free. A lot of them are, but many of the free ones are books in the public domain, meaning they are not covered by intellectual property rights, or their copyright has expired. They are probably not the latest New York Times best sellers. In other words, you can find free Jane Austen or a copy of Virgil’s The Aeneid, not so much the latest Patterson or Eat, Pray, Love.

As you can imagine, this can be a real disappointment to people who just bought a device and now need to purchase titles to read!

Some libraries are offering services like Overdrive, which allow patrons to borrow new and popular E-books.

• E-books are created in different file formats and not all e-readers use support all file formats. You need to determine which files your device supports and find the title in that format. Check the device, the device website, or Supported File Formats to see what is compatible.

Once an E-book in the proper format is located and if necessary, purchased, it is downloaded to the device.

Sources for e-books

Beside device-specific websites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, there are other sites that offer e-books. Here are just a few:

The Online Books Page, listing over 1 million books, freely readable over the Internet. Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries.

Google Books offers nearly three million books in the public domain which can be viewed in full or downloaded for free. Also offers print and additional e-books for sale through a variety of vendors.

HathiTrust contains digitized collections from research libraries, such as the University of California and the University of Virginia. Can browse subject “collections”.

Open Library provides access to 1.7 million scanned versions of book and over 20 million catalog records. E-books are available through the Internet Archive.

Project Gutenberg over 33,000 public domain e-books for free download to PCs and various portable devices.

NOTE: Each site works differently. You may need to set up an account to fully utilize its services. Check the “About” or “FAQ” pages for more details.

NEW:  For info on converting e-books to different formats, see Stephen Abram's post "Converting Ebook formats to make them compatible with your e-reader".

UPDATES: 

Librarian and educator Meredith Farkas just blogged her thoughts in Ebooks and Libraries: A Stream of Concerns. Good post!

Stephen Abrams' blog brought my attention to this helpful "Getting started with ebooks: a beginner's Guide v2.01" , listing different eReaders and their compatible formats; and sources for books and help. It's a cool chart!

Librarian in Black Sarah Houghton-Jan suggests "The eBook User’s Bill of Rights".

New York Times reports "Publisher Limits Shelf Life for Library E-Books"


Activity:

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Use the “Sources for E-books”, above, to try to locate an e-book version of a favorite book.

2. Add a post to your blog about your experience looking for your book. Tell us the sites you searched and whether or not you found an e-book version. If so, which format is the book is available in? Is the e-book is free? Label/tag the blog post “Thing 14”.


Optional Additional Resources:

The Reference Staff at Eau Gallie has created a bookmark of free ebook websites and has generously agreed to allow me to post it on Sharepoint.

Digital Delight, the Tampa Bay Library Consortium’s digital download site, has great Cheat Sheets and other Resources.

The eBook and eReader Guide/Device Comparison Chart from Manatee County Public Library, is an excellent resource. NOTE: It was written in August 2010, so some information (like pricing) may be out of date. You can always check the E-reader manufacturer’s website for the latest info.

Additional Resources for E-books and E-readers in Libraries

Libraries face a number of issues with E-books and E-readers. Read some of these articles for more information:

Playing Hard to Get: Purchasing and Reading E-Books gives a good overview of some of the issues involved in eBooks: DRM, Platform Confusion, more.

For a timely discussion on libraries lending eBooks, read: Will Your Local Library Lend E-Books? (Or Can They?)

Stephen Abrams (remember him?) thinks eBooks are good for libraries and has the numbers to back up that opinion in his blog post: eBooks in Libraries – A GOOD THING.

For a discussion of Content v. Container, read this blog post: What’s a Real Book? by David Lee King.