Electronic Books?

What do you think about electronic books? In case you don't know, they are books that you can read on a computer, or download to your eBook reader (gee -- *another* electronic toy to buy!).

I like audio books on tape and CD. We are now able to provide these for download to a CD, MP3 player or other device (except iPod, for some reason), and we have lots of them available at the library. Those are fine. But personally, I can't imagine reading a novel electronically -- even using one of those cute little eBook readers that are close to the size of a book. They're harder on the eyes, use electricity (I tend toward sustainable living), and just don't feel the same.

On the other hand, I have used NetLibrary books online for reference purposes. That is handy when I'm looking for a specific piece of information from a specific source if I can't find full text of that source through normal search engines or Gale Databases, and I'm not at the library.

When I'm helping a library patron look for a book, I seldom recommend the eBooks. When I do point them out, the response generally is "no, thanks." Yet we are told they are growing in popularity, and more and more are being entered into our catalog. In a few cases we can't even find a hard copy of some recently-published non-fiction books any more -- all copies in the system are electronic!

Maybe I'm just getting old and becoming a Luddite.

If you want to see what I mean, check them out. They are being provided by our library consortium (C/WMARS). You can find them through our website at <www.naplibrary.com> by clicking the "eLibrary Catalog" in the right hand menu or just looking for them through our online catalog link in the left menu. The consortium subscribes to at least two vendors for eBooks.

Yikes!

k