E-books = Microfilm or The Rebirth of Reading Rooms?
Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader surprise feature: Free reading in stores – Core77.
One thing that caught my eye about the new B&N e-book reader (and summarized in the post above) is that the device allows you to read anything in the store when you visit a Barnes & Noble. Libraries already do that with e-journals and electronic articles via their computers, but would this transfer also to books and e-readers? Perhaps this is the model to make brick & mortar library relevant. Make the library a destination. Is this the rebirth of reading rooms in libraries? (aren’t our computers labs really reading rooms these days anyways?)
I still have a hard time with e-books. Recently I had to read 160 page document via my computer. What a pain. It was a pain to take notes, it was a pain to highlight what I wanted to remember. I am not quite sure how e-readers make this any smoother of a process. I do wonder how e-readers interact with e-journals?
Hopefully, the technology will make accessing and reading the content easier… otherwise e-books are pretty much like microfilm/microfiche. Nice for storage, a pain to use.
Tags: books, libraries, technology
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