WEEK 17 - THING 16 E-BOOKS

I don't have a Kindle or Nook and often wondered if I would like one enough to pay the original cost as well as the cost per download. My nephew has an I-PAD with lots of titles he downloaded from Project Gutenberg for a small donation. I was impressed in that he could change font sizes and background but it obviously was too big for a pocketbook size carry around. My niece who travels a lot in her job, has a Kindle and loves it. I do think it is a wave of the future for personal use but am fearful of e-books as a replacement for paper editions in libraries for the reasons given by zenbrarian who commented on St Leo's "wired library--they are not owned so vendors can raise costs, can't ILL them, etc. The main plus is that sources like NetLibrary and Safari (both of which we have) open connections to titles we would not ordinarily order for our collection. However, our students are often disappointed when a title that seems to be just what they want comes up as an "electronic resource." I played around a bit with PsychBooks and thought it a really good source especially for an advanced student looking for more than the usual casual researcher would require.