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Kindle and Sony Reader

eBook readers – more of ’em trying to capture our attention.
Newsweek has a cover story about Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader that is blogulously popular right now:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983
Another almost ready for primetime eBook reader is the Sony Reader. You can read about it here.
You can find hundreds of blog postings and articles and comparisons on the web about these new device innovations. I won’t link to them here – you all know how to search blogs and the web.
I know libraries who have bought various ebook readers regularly over time. Virtually every one of these readers has not been a market success. Is that critical? No. Do I believe that someday there will be an ebook reading device that succeeds. Yes. Are they better able to judge new devices, the success of ebooks and more? Sure.
Whether we will be kindling or reading ebooks in the future is up for debate. I think these devices are getting closer to realistic success. The real issue is how can libraries react to these innnovations? I worry that many just read the postings and articles and form an opinion. Is that the best learning mode? For some, maybe. For most, no. I prefer the sandbox approach. Playing with the device (beg, borrow, buy, steal) works. Everyone doesn’t have to but someone with a library perspective needs to play with these things anad comment. There was a huge debate on a few library discussion lists that I was on today and not a single highly opinionated poster had actually handled a Kindle. Interesting that. Think about all the articles you may have read before handling an iPod. I truly did not ‘get’ the ease of use of that form factor until I touched it. No amount of reading trumped the experience. Interesting that.
Another place to add to your RSS feeds is the Teleread blog. Find it here. With the various Google, Yahoo!, Open Content Alliance and MS etc. book digitization projects worldwide, there will be millions of ebooks available within a few short years. Will we be able to make fine judgments about the best devices to choose? What is our R&D plan?
I bought a OLPC laptop (One Laptop Per Child) this week. It’s sort of my US Thanksgiving donation and a chance to play with this innovative device. Is it the future? I doubt it. It will be for some kids overseas. Will I learn a lot from this? I bet I do. I’ll also have a better informed opinion. Cool. I wonder what colour it will be? I’m hoping for orange.
I’ll need to buy an e-reader soon too. I’ll wait before I try it in the bathtub. Like most North Americans I take showers and tend to read almost 100% of the time clothed. I think I’ll try to evaluate and understand the device in some context that actually matches my real behaviours.
Time to play. Maybe I can get one for Christmas… (Hint)
Stephen
p.s. I think that ebooks are more about textbooks, long form or scholarly articles and non-fiction than fiction and entertainment focused periodicals. I still like my People and Wired mags and fiction in paper. That’s a personal preference. Then again, my reading is truly dominated by e-formats – e-mail. blogs, websites, e-articles. I can’t imagine that ebooks will be a huge leap.
SA

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Posted on: November 20, 2007, 5:43 pm Category: Uncategorized

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  1. Your OLPC will be green. they’re all green. I’m hoping for a purple X with an orange o, though.
    I don’t feel the need to play with the Kindle- it doesn’t meet my minimum requirement of letting take my own content on an off the device. I have looked at an e-Reader, and it’s quite snazzy. Still, I hope there’s something better (and hopefully open source) soon.
    I really hope the future isn’t the Kindle- there is no lending, there is no sharing, there’s one copy per, period.

  2. I can’t decide whether to buy Kindle or Reader. Thanks for the interesting post on the devices.