Library Blog Buzz

Resourceshelf found an informative article about e-Books called " E-books: Understanding the Basics" by Jane Lee from California Digital Library.

Today more and more customers turn to e-Books ( short for electronic book) via the two main library vendors Overdrive and NetLibrary so understanding the basics of the e-Books concept is expected from every librarian.

e-Books can provide better support for things that people do while they’re reading and
for reading itself.
• The ability to resize text is one of the most often cited benefits of reading e-books. With a
printed book, the reader is locked into one font size.
• Another important feature is the ability to search the full text of e-books.
• Many e-book readers allow you to look up definitions easily.
• Annotation is supported, although ease of use varies.

Among many things, when one owns a book, he or she is able to do the following:

• Read the book as many times as he or she would like.
• Keep the book forever, unless he or she loses it or chooses to part with it.
• Lend, sell, or give the book to another person.

The article explains in details different e-Book standards ( EPUB / .epub ; Adobe / pdf ; eReader / .pdb ; Mobipocket / .prc/.mobi ; Microsoft Reader / .lit; Kindle / .azw ; Sony Reader / .lrx/.lrf ).

And if you want to see different scenarios for the future with or without print books make sure to finish reading the article.