Thing 16: Ebooks

I really like the idea of e-books.  I think it would be a very good alternative for students.  They could get their textbooks quicker and cheaper.  We have a lot of students who need to use our reserve copies because they are waiting for their books to come in.  They can print only the pages that they need.  I have had classes in the past when I haven't used most of the book.

I do have some concerns.  Since we don't always own the book and just have access to it, this could affect accessibility.  My concern with Google Books is that when we have one source, then they can control the costs and the access. 

When searching the APA PsycBooks database, I found it difficult to find the book.  When you use other vendors, you search by topic, title, or author and retrieve the whole book.  You can then search within that book.  When searching PsycBooks, I retrieved chapters and had to read through the citation to see which book that chapter was in.  There was one result that gave you the book and a list of the table of contents.  You can go through the table of contents and pick a chapter.  It would link you to the records page for that chapter and then you could click on the full text pdf.  It was a lot of steps.  When I use Safari, I retrieve the whole book and can go right to each chapter with one or two clicks, not 4 or 5.

I do not have an e reader but am interested in getting one.  I am deciding if I want to buy a Kindle or just wait for the kinks to be worked out of  the Ipad and for the price to come down.  The Ipad is bigger and can allow me to do more.