E-Readers: the future of reading? Hilla Wait & Isabel Holowaty November 2011

What is an e-Reader? A device to display electronic texts in certain specific formats Stores thousands of books Generally uses ‘e-ink’ reflective rather than transmissive screen technology May have wireless link to allow download/upload of texts direct from/to e-book shop or other sources May allow upload of files in pdf, txt or other formats, including sound and image formats May have touch screen or navigation keys/keyboard Some allow annotation of the e-text

Your choice Your choice of e-reader determines:  the range of content available to you  the way that content is displayed  the ways you can interact with the content This one, when you open it, smells like the Times

FAQs What formats do e-Readers support ? Can I search text? Can I cut-and-paste? Can I print? Can I load pdf’s? Can I download Oxford University e-books? Where can I buy e-books? Where can I get free e-books? Should I get Wi-Fi or 3-G? I want an e-reader, which one should I buy? Must I have an e-reader to read e-books? If it doesn’t work, try another browser

How to choose your e-reader Budget Purpose Range of sources available (format) Ease of use Locations  home; away; library; beach; Liquid ink or backlit screen Battery life Back-up options Dealbreakers  Real page numbers  Display preferences  Formulae, graphs, diagrams  Options for importing texts  Speed reading Comparison tables:

Choices Dedicated e-readers – Kindle, Sony, Nook, Kobo Netbooks/laptops PC’s Smartphones And now the iPad – and other tablets

Kindle/ Kindle Keyboard / Kindle Fire Liquid ink: read in bright sunlight Improved, built-in PDF Reader Free 3-G wireless Support for non-Latin characters Faster page-turning Amazon’s own format (Azw) Good portable device within limits Page-numbering issue

iPad Stanza Larger touch screen Excellent for enlarging images Backlit Multifunctional Full range of Apple apps Productivity software Compatible with Kindle e-books

Scientific texts: best on tablets?

Sony e-reader Range of models including touch-screen Liquid ink Early models had no integrated wireless and plugged into PC for transfers New Sony Reader Wi-fi (PRS T-1) Dual touch pinch screen

Smartphones E-Books do not need a dedicated e-reader Try them on a smartphone  iPhone  Android  Blackberry/Blackberry Playbook

Additional hardware/software requirements iPad /iPhone  Apple’s iTunes Library (free) on your PC  iBooks application (free) to buy e-books via the Apple store.  Kindle for iPad/iphone application to buy e-books at Amazon prices  iBooks, Whispersync, Bluefire Reader or Calibre to manage your e-books  The 3-G iPad need a micro-Sim card and you need to sign-up and pay for a data plan (£7.50 p.c.m.+) Sony E-Reader  Sony Reader Library  Adobe Digital Editions (free) on your PC Kindle is box-ready,  account for your Kindle in order to transfer documents  Amazon cover the 3-G costs of the Kindle 3, but charge for document transfer via WhisperNet. Free transfers via USB need a PC Android phone  Kindle for android (Android OS 2.1 +)  Moonreader  Google ebooks for Android Blackberry  Kobo e-reader  Kindle for Blackberry  Bookreader – Untangled Development (accepts epub; mobi, azw )

How to choose the e-reader application May be constrained by your choice of e-reader or source of documents Often still a choice Search Online for e-reader reviews Try them out, be systematic Top application until recently was Stanza Destroyed by IOS5 upgrade Stanza

E-reader loans from the Bodleian Libraries Try out a Kindle or i-Pad at the RSL or HCL Radcliffe Science Library (7 day laons)  Kindle A preloaded for maths, phsical scinece, technology, geography  Kindle B preloaded for biomedical sciences, psychology and biochemistry  i-Pad2 preloaded with science Apps Health Care Libraries (2 day loans)  i-Pad2 preloaded with medical apps and books, PubMed on Tap, Apple productivity software (Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Papers)

How to get content for your e-reader Buy through your supplier or bookseller  Amazon, Apple iStore; Waterstone's; WH Smith Subscribe to Questia or British Library Apps on your Smartphone or iPad  Amazon; iBooks; iTunes U (for Oxford-produced e-books; Sony (from December 2010); Ebsco; Questia Download from Bodleian Libraries via OxLIP+  Now: PDF journal articles; EBL E-books ; Oxford Scholarship On-Line chapters; single chapters from other e-books  Soon:; Oxford’s Google Collection Read On-Line - iPad; PC or Laptop; Smartphone Download free content (out of copyright texts) – Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg, OpenLibrary, GoogleBooks

Downloads from Oxford Scholarship On- Line

E Books Library (EBL) 500 owned books (10 minutes + 24 hour loans) 200,000 non-owned (5 minutes browse) Multi-user access Download options

EBL non-owned book

EBL on Mobile devices i-Pad (uses Bluefire reader) i-Phones and android phones Sony e-readers Other e-readers using Adobe Digital Library χDoes not work on Kindles 24 hour loans

EBL in BlueFire reader on an iPad Access limited to 24 hours

EBL in Bluefire reader in full-text

Questia (on i-Pad)

Free content for E-readers Project Gutenberg Google Books Internet Archive  Scanned older editions  Copyright issues  Quality problems Sample chapters

Finding a book in the Internet Archive Saving book to PC Format choice Saving to iPad

Dracula by Bram Stoker (on a Sony e-reader)

File transfers to e-readers Direct downloads (especially Kindle) Drag from library on PC (Sony, i-Tunes) Dropbox

iTunes Library – books and documents Pdf and other document types Same screen on iPad

Annotations Sometimes available within the e-book package Beware of platform transfers and data loss (e.g. NetLibrary to Ebsco) May be able to load into apps such as i- Annotate In development – Read & Note

Read and Note On beta test for Oxford’s digital collections

And finally Requests Practice opportunities Questions Further information /science/eresources/ebooks /science/eresources/ebooks