Ebrary reader on the iPad:
The ebrary reader works well on the iPad. You can swipe to turn pages.

Knovel science and engineering:
It is not very functional. The PDFs appear to be cut off. I am a novice with this device, but I was not sure how to get the full chapter.

ENGnetBASE:
The interface is the same as Knovel, and I am unfortunately running into the same problems.

Springer Link:
Similar issues of cut off PDFs.

NetLibrary:
Relatively easy to read through, but I have to go back to the top of each page to turn to the next one.

Ebrary did a great job.  It was easy to open an ebook on jobs for book worms, dig into the table of contents, and start reading.  Paging through was fine, and pages loaded quickly.  It was only  a little weird because I kept swiping the screen like I would with an Nook ebook, and then realizing that I needed to tap the arrow button.  Oh, well.  It really was pretty easy to read, though.

A Springer Link ebook on lecture notes in chemistry and physics opened easily enough, but the windows that contained images of pages and contents would select as one box rather than allowing me to click a single link.  I could view part of a page by clicking the image, but not scroll down it.  I believe I needed to download the PDF and then view the PDF on my Nook, but I didn’t get that far.  I will return to it later.

Lastly I opened a NetLibrary ebook on libraries and technology.  I was able to view the table of contents and click links within it, but the pages all appeared blank.  To be sure I tried opening another ebook on the 2007-2012 projection of video games, and the same blank white box stared at me. I tried paging through, but still nothing.  My device’s battery ran out as I was clicking “send” on a comment to Ebsco/NetLibrary’s customer service, so maybe if it sent, I’ll get an email back explaining the problem.  Or maybe NetLibrary ebooks just don’t support the Color Nook.

On a plus side, navigating the UW Tacoma Library website and the catalog were really easy on the Color Nook’s web application.  Signing in via the proxy was painless.  Next time I will have to look at article databases, too, especially in NetLibrary is buggy.  It makes me wonder if any of the Ebsco databases work.

I don’t really want to see that you underlined this or that passage.  If you like that sentence, it’s cool, but that is between you and the book.  And me liking this word or quote, that’s my business.  Now you can look up how many times a passage was underlined in a Kindle book.  Quite frankly the only time I can think of wanting to know what line was underlined is if my professor thought a particular sentence in my textbook was important.  In which case, I will show up to lecture and they will probably mention it.

I’m not sure why I react this way.  I guess in an increasingly open world that encourages you to blurt out whatever is on the forefront of your mind when you update your Facebook status or Twitter feed, to show pictures of what you did last weekend, and to update constantly, reading a book was a last private refuge.

1. Get an Adobe Login.

First, since it’s done with an Adobe product, so you’ll need to have an Adobe ID.

URL: https://acrobat.com/welcome.html

Keep your login info in mind.

2. Install Adobe Digital Editions.

Click Install to get a program called Adobe Digital Editions from this webpage:

http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

You may be prompted to update Flash. Just do it.

3. Authorize your computer.

You have to authorize your computron, but once you do that, you can drag eBooks from it to your reader. Click on Library and then choose Authorize Computer from the drop down menu.

4. Download ebooks, such as those from the KCLS website.

URL: http://ebooks.kcls.org/

On the KCLS website, it’s set up a little like an online shopping cart. Search for the book you want, add it to your bag, and when you are done (you can do more than one at a time) you “proceed to checkout.” It will ask for library card and pin. Click Download button. Double click on the weird file that downloads, either in the Mozilla downloads list, your downloads folder, or at the bottom of the page in Chrome.

5. Drag the book onto the Nook.

The books should show up in Adobe Digital Editions’ Library. The library view is a button icon that looks like book spines on a shelf (as opposed to an open book icon that indicates an open book.) They show up as pretty book covers. Drag the book to the device listed at the bottom of a list on the left side. You may have to make sure the reader is “awake.”  (And plugged in.) I believe it is quite similar for the Sony, but you have to make sure you’re doing it in Adobe Digital Editions and not the Sony software.  It doesn’t work on Kindle.

Screen capture of the Ravelry Search Party tool

They already have a very easy to search system of social tags, which has only gotten better over time.  It is much easier to search their database of patterns than to look up a pattern at the library, because the library catalogs stop at the book level.  But this database allows my to make a detailed search, for example a cardigan that is crocheted and uses dk weight yarn.

The Ravelry search engine.

Then if the pattern is in a particular book, I can look it up in the library catalog.  Or it may be available electronically via a link in the Ravelry record.  Or it might even be a PDF that I can store in my Ravelry account.  Very snazzy set up.

My local public library offers ebooks through a couple means, but I decided to first try Adobe Digital Editions.  The images and text are high quality, like those of a word doc saved to PDF.  I have a feeling that if I tried to run this program on one of my older machines, it would have slowed everything down a lot, but I guess I don’t know.  I run it on my netbook just fine.  It’s big and flashy, though.  I’m reading a novel that I wish I’d read in paperback form: American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  My biggest problem with the set up is this: I check the ebook out for 3 weeks.  At the end of three weeks it “expires” and is yanked away from me unceremoniously.  Suddenly and without warning what I thought was going to be my precious few minutes of quiet no-homework time is a disappointing no-reading time.  I can go to the library website and redownload the book, but I really wish there was a way to just renew right there in the reader.  I already have the reader open, after all.  Another thing I noticed: after awhile the ability to use arrow keys to navigate stops working.  It’s kind of an odd quirk.  I am so used to using arrow keys to navigate computer games, that I don’t notice turning pages while reading.  It’s closer to getting absorbed into a paperback where you stop noticing the book and concentrate on the universe the author has created.  But suddenly being forced to use the netbook mouse makes it pretty obvious every time I turn a page, which is twice as frequent as with a book book, because the screen shows half the page (netbook: small computer screen).

Printed books are stable.  They don’t lose power and turn off.  They don’t have odd DRM licensing things yanking them out of your hands.  You can read them in the tub without worrying about electrocution (unless your librarians are that serious about water damage).  You can share books without worrying that the bookstore or publisher is going to ask to check the receipt.  You can resell books or buy used ones for affordable prices.  And even though that old, used book was printed 80 years ago, I can still read it today without requiring a format conversion or adapter.  Ebooks are only as stable as the software and devices you use to read them.  In this way there is still a lot of variation and a lot of issues.

Pros: clear image and text; paperless; arrow-key navigation (when it works)

Cons: I’m a slow reader/multitasker and had to re-download the book three times which was very inconvenient; dependent on electricity; software is a little buggy

On thinking and balance, I’m writing a paper on the concept of “fair use” for copyright.  Using copyrighted intellectual property without permission, but also without hurting the IP owner.  It’s kind of interesting because ultimately it is about balance and individual decision making.  Each person much balance the pros and cons.  Each person must think of the consequences.  But I am worried, because instead of this being an ethical problem of using someone else’s creation without asking, it’s a question of “will I get sued?”  Will I get caught?  I explain to students at the reference desk why they need to cite things in their papers, and it’s like lights going off above their heads.  So often they are caught up in the technical details of using proper APA citation (or whatever) and they forget this is to tell the reader where you read this idea, so the reader can go straight to the source.  It’s giving credit where credit is due, and it’s being honest.  Also, it’s this awesome web of intellectual ideas.  I’m sorry to dork out on you, but I really enjoy being at the ref desk, and I think this is beautiful.  But at the same time, I don’t like people being so afraid that they might bring the retribution of some mega corp copyright holder that they sensor themselves.  I see this with librarians more than students.  They’re worried about the law suit at that other library, so they don’t do whatever copying for a prof.  But our jobs are also to disseminate information.  I feel like there is a Middle Way.  People should have access.  And creators should feel compensated.  But compensation, licenses, drm, the length of copyright, and just the sheer amount of control on information is spinning out of control.  Librarians can’t afford pay for it all but people still deserve access to it.  I also feel like maybe it’s up to the individual to walk the Middle Way, but it’s up to the librarian to restore balance.  When copyright is held as supreme and fair use is degraded into the legal defense of some ignorant punk who sampled music for his shady, hippity hop music, perhaps it’s up to the librarian to say “use it if it’s fair!”  Promote the flow of knowledge, the dissemination of information, education, and all that good stuff.  Truth be told, I think this is messed up from the beginning, because I don’t like the idea of knowledge being under sway of just another market mechanism.  The Market will decide who gets to know.  I guess the big problem is that it’s vague, and not well understood, and IP is intangible.  So every time anyone creates something, it’s automatically copyrighted, but the creator might not even know that it’s copyrighted, and may have never even heard of Title 17.  They know they’ve created something.  They have some idea of how they want it to be used once they set it free upon the world.  They’re not forced to think about the legal wording of that though.  I dunno.  Copyright is looked upon as this Golden Rule.  Use this creation as you would want others to use your own work.  But that doesn’t work, because we barely think about how that actually manifests.

But looking at it in class has made me take another look at my own Rav tags.  They’re okay, but pretty bad.  Worst is I don’t tag every page I save in my faves.  So those are lost in the ether.  I have over 600 pages s/faved.  I lack any kind thesauri to compensate for synonyms.  No controlled vocabulary.  Is that what makes social tagging great?  I think my organization urges require a list of tags I’ll use, though.  So I made… wait for it… a spreadsheet.  For my tags.  For my favorite knitting and crochet patterns.  You can send me that Champion Geek Belt whenever it is convenient.