From: Skib, Bryan <bskib_at_umich.edu>
Now that many academic libraries are spending significant funds to
acquire ebooks, usually in PDF, what will we do to make them accessible
to a wide variety of devices? Kindle, iPad and smart phones all seem
important, but there is other equipment now, with more to follow. iPads
can handle PDFs, although many academic ebooks are broken into chapters,
and some users may prefer to download as a whole. Apps may be (or
become) available to handle some conversion of PDF to epub. I would
appreciate your thoughts on the following:
1. Are you now doing anything to support downloading of licensed content to ereaders or other devices?
2. How much do you know about local campus interest in reading licensed content on devices?
3. Are you lobbying with publishers to support end user access to multiple ebook formats? Do we need to do this? Will apps save the day, if they can convert from one format to another?
4. Should we all spend less on permanent, campus-wide access for ebooks that become part of our collection, and more on DRM-enriched single-user access, which may be short-term?
As someone whose library spent a great deal migrating from microprint, to fiche, and then to digital facsimiles of the fiche -- I'm hoping we won't have to do that again to support a variety of digital formats.
Thanks,
Bryan Skib
Associate University Librarian for Collections
818 Hatcher Library
University of Michigan
(734) 936-2366
Received on Thu Apr 07 2011 - 03:07:36 EDT