Sandra Rivera's List: ARIN6903 Computers as cultures

We compare all 16 eBook readers on the market, so you can pick the model best suited to you. If you're new, check out eReader Basics first, or go straight to the Comparison Table below. Just click on the reader picture for our independent review and a link to a site where you can purchase the e-reading device.

In the 15th century Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing process. This new technology changed the world forever. One specific task was made incredibly easy — the spreading of written words. eBooks take us to the threshold of a possible shift in the way we read books.

Writing and reading — from newspapers to novels, academic reports to gossip magazines — are migrating ever faster to digital screens, like laptops, Kindles and cellphones.

Andrew Keen writes about whether to buy the Kindle now or wait for the appearance of the Apple touchtablet device
rumored to be released early next year

Instead of the 20,000 books the school currently has, the students of Cushing
Academy will have 18 e-readers at their disposal. The learning centre – the
replacement for what was once the school’s library – will also have three large
TVs, a coffee shop, and laptop-friendly booths.

This is a brief report of a field study of the use of e-book devices by college
students, professors, and librarians.

There are various ebook reader devices on sale and there are plenty of books in
electronic format available, but we have not reached the tipping point where
cheap ebook devices are available and enough ebook content is available at an
attractive price.

e-Paper:
The defining characteristic of all the advanced
displays we review is the use of Electronic Paper. With this technology,
significant improvement in readability and power usage has been achieved
compared to CRT and LCD. Instead of rows of glowing cells, e-Ink® microcapsules
actually appear as either black or white pixels according to whether a positive
or negative charge has passed across it. All the pixels together create an image
of black images or words on a white background - just like a book..

Eager to attract digitally savvy patrons and capitalize on the growing
popularity of electronic readers, public libraries across the country are
expanding collections of books that reside on servers rather than shelves.

Amazon for example, says that people with Kindles now buy 3.1 times as many books as they did before owning the device. That factor is up from 2.7 in December 2008. So a reader who had previously bought eight books from Amazon would now purchase, on average, 24.8 books, a rise from 21.6 books.

As a few more libraries begin lending the Kindle, the ebook reading device from Amazon, the company continues to offer ambiguous messages regarding its policies. Asked by the Howe Library, Hanover, NH, if it was OK to lend a Kindle, an Amazon support staffer said yes—and the library has proceeded to do so, with much positive response.

"When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,'' said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus.

Libray replaced their printed book collection with ebooks

The Fisher-Watkins Library is currently undergoing a digital transformation. The Academy is replacing the majority of the library's printed books with electronic sources as a natural and integral outgrowth of the school's strategic commitment to becoming the national leader in 21st-century secondary education.

FAQ of digital collection of the New York Public Library

For 2,000 years, the universal library, together with other perennial longings like invisibility cloaks, antigravity shoes and paperless offices, has been a mythical dream that kept receding further into the infinite future.\n\nUntil now. When Google announced in December 2004 that it would digitally scan the books of five major research libraries to make their contents searchable, the promise of a universal library was resurrected.

Compares e-readers

The Amazon Kindle is a handy device, but owners should shop carefully for e-books and consider no-cost options as well.