The St.Catharines Library is now offering Audio and E-Books. You just log in browse the selection and grab your books. I am going to give it a try today. The starting selection of audio books is small. I expect that the number will increase handily as more people find out about the service and have the required equipment to utilize this new service.
I am picking the book on King Tut’s death. You need to DL the software before you can check the book out for your PC/MAC or mobile. The set up , is computer assisted so installation is easy. The Ipod/Phone app is probably the quickest since these apps run themselves. If you do DL the book onto your PC like I did the transfer to a mobile device does take a little while. I am using an IPOD touch, so I can’t speak to the experience of other devices.
The book is checked out in the same manner as hard copies. The lending period is 7/14 days and at the end of the loan the book self deletes. I am waiting to see that happen. I can expect that for E-Books the time consumed by DL or Transfer to mobile is shorter. The IPAD will be well suited for this new era in book borrowing. The size of the screen on a hand held does not lend itself to easy or enjoyable reading.
That is the nuts and bolts of the setup now comes the grumpiness. I recognize the convenience of being able to carry a dozen books on one device or of listening to books as opposed to reading. Most of the cultures that ever existed have being oral. Even after the invention of the moveable type printing press people still gathered to listen because literacy and affordable mass production of books were still far into the future. I just can’t help feeling that rather than E-Books being just an option they will end up supplanting the art of reading.
Reading is more that it seems. Reading is not a passive act. It engages your mind, forces you to think about the subject being discussed whether it is non-fiction or fantasy. In fact a person can’t help interacting with a book much the same way you might with a professor in a lecture hall, learning and at the same time questioning.
The other draw backs fall into between the benign and the potentially disastrous. A book never runs out of power. The audio/eBook revolution depends on the proximity of power and a high tech infrastructure. I certainly will be happy when they have solar powered version of a reader but that won’t solve the problem fully. Well made books can and have lasted centuries, data storage devices are not as hardy, data corruption is going to happen. This is not a problem as long as we have a Tech society. No I’m not about to launch into end of the world scenarios, but any disruption or change of tech represents a potential loss of information. Will for instance anybody bother to repeat the Herculean task of transfer books from out of date media to newer forms? The Gutenberg Project is now engaged in transferring the books from paper to electronic media. Will some one do a similar feat in the next century?
I guess my chief reason for hesitation is both a comfort and a vanity. I read to relax as well as to learn. On the couch with music in the back ground. The feel of the book. The way a page looks as opposed to a screen. These I imagine I can get used too. The vanity of a well stocked book case. This perhaps is a bit snobbish but a book case is an accomplishment, a life’s work and I don’t know how an audio/eBook can replace that guilty joy.
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