The death of the book?
What if you could carry 200 books around everywhere with you, which were lighter and more compact than your laptop?
It sounds too good to be true but the e-book promises exactly that. E-readers deliver several hundred books to your eyes through a light, wireless, resilient device, which is able to function even in poor network connection areas and endure longer battery lives than regular laptops.
Quality of screens has improved vastly over the years and E-readers boast an almost paper like display with no glaring backlight. The European commission are currently running a pilot investigating the limits and uses of the technology and are keen to welcome the change if it makes EU information and publications more easily available. Similarly other organisations may wish to exploit this technology in order to infiltrate a new market.
Photo of a miniature book by
Other uses could include making up-to-date text books more widely accessible to schools and colleges or helping disabled students carry their books to classes more easily. There are also issues concerning the way libraries operate with regards to e-readers which have the ability to easily download books. Commuters, holiday makers and workers from home may be some of the first to jump on the e-reader bandwagon.
Although ‘real’ books have withstood the test of time there is no reason to view e-readers as a threat to the traditional, just a complementary reading medium for those who it may suit the needs of.
If you want to find out more about what we're thinking about and looking at around virtual training, see here. Contact us if you have an idea!
Kirsty Russell
Kent Libraries are currently building a collection of non-fiction e-books which we hope to launch by the end of the year. We're also investigating feasability of the provision of more popular fiction and non-fiction titles as well as downloadable audio books in the new financial year.
But no I do not think the e-book will ever replace the hard copy. I have a reader and am very pleased with it. Very useful to take a large amount of titles on holiday or use on public transport, but nothing beats nestling in bed or on the sofa with the real thing.