Last year I took the plunge, buying a sampling of eBooks to see what worked in my library. I tried a little bit of everything. Scroll over the image below to see the pros and cons I found of circulating each device in my library.
In my personal life, I love the portability and access of eBooks. I have always traveled with a lot of books, starting as an elementary student when I would check out one book for each day of a road trip. Disneyland in 5th grade was a 6-book trip! Owning a Kindle was something I resisted, but when I received one as a Christmas gift, I fell in love immediately. Then when I graduated to my iPad with Kindle AND nook apps, PLUS the ability to navigate a road trip, book online hotel reservations, and blog about it before I even got home, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.
But as a librarian, I have a whole other opinion about eReaders. Let me say right here, I know ebooks are the future, and I do like them for personal use, but I am finding them a pain in my present library setting. In a nutshell, a library for 1,400 students run by one assistant with additional non-library tasks does not have time to teach, catalog, update, and solicit title requests for eReaders... nor does a traveling librarian. These devices really do require additional time and adequate staffing.
Electronic resources are handy. But they do not promote themselves. What are your thoughts on the matter?
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