Your experience of e-books

[binkie]

Thank you, cateau1, for a thoroughly well-considered response. Some of what you say is particularly interesting in the context of the kind of content our library is looking to provide. I would be very interested in your thoughts on any of the questions arising from your comments

(08-03-2011 04:50 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  ...I hate pdf versions though if they don't fit to my iPad screen size and I constantly have to move the page around or resize it because the text doesn't flow like an ePub book.

Do you find the problem of uncooperative formatting more, or less, of an irritance if the text is something you are reading for purely information purposes? Does it bother you more to have to keep moving or resizing something you are reading in your leisure time than it does to have to apply this behaviour to something you are using for reference or research purposes? Are you more, or less, tolerant of formatting imperfections in a technical document? Does the fact that such a document has not been designed to be 'enjoyed' make it less of a frustration that it is not enjoyable to use? Or is a lack of user-friendly formatting just annoying whatever the context?!

(08-03-2011 04:50 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  If it's a non fiction book...an enhanced interactive app can take the reading experience to a whole new level by providing fun interactivity, great searchability, video footage, ability to add my own content to, say, a database, use my GPS location to customise information relevant to me, etc. etc.

I'm struck by the fact that your enthusiasm for the user-generated content (UGC) functionality is something you mention only in terms of non-fiction (and childrens' books, I know, but I'm afraid our library won't be providing access to childrens' books ). Is this something you expect of reference or technical documents? Does the ability to adapt and mark-up documents of this type play an important role in your relationship with these documents? You talk about searchability: is this something you find more intuitive in the context of adaptable text than in the case of static files? Is a more sophisticated and responsive search (rather than a simple word search) something which you expect to be able to experience in relation to non-fiction texts?

(08-03-2011 04:50 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  I've never printed anything from an ebook or app, though I might from a website or blog - though I'm more likely to cut and paste, or file it.

This is very interesting. Is your attitude towards web content informed by its assumed currency? Or do you print, or file, from websites as insurance against their potentially ephemeral quality? Are you protecting yourself from unstable URLs and editorial capitulation? Do you just not trust the Wayback Machine?!

Thank you so much for taking the time to post in this thread. I hope you have more to say

[Nixie]

Hi Binkie,

I'm afraid I can't comment directly on any of your questions, as I have not personally used e-books or e-readers. However, the concept intrigues me. When discussing this with my daughter (14) she was highly enthusiastic about the idea, particularly about the idea of interactivity.

I do use pdf articles, usually journal articles, or extracts from books a lot in my work and study, however I read them on my computer - not sure if this counts? I can definitely see myself using e-books if I was researching and the easiest access to the information was via an e-book. So, for me reading something on the computer I associate with work of some kind.

I do sometimes print from pdfs, usually because I want to scrawl notes on them and underline/highlight bits for later use.

If I am reading for pleasure or reading a novel (which I also do for study purposes), I prefer good old fashioned printed versions. I like the feel, the texture, the smell of books. I like that I can take them anywhere with me and not have to worry about power sources or reflection or dropping them and breaking them.

Essentially, I think there is a place for both kinds of books. I do agree with cateau1 that pdfs that don't fit the screen and be readable simultaneously are annoying.

Sorry if this is too off topic and please ignore if so! I've found reading this thread most informative.

[binkie]

Hello Nixie Thanks for sharing your experiences. It doesn't matter at all that you do not use an e-reader, or that you do not have regular access to e-books. I'm happy to receive comments on any kind of online format, so your responses are very useful.

(09-03-2011 05:32 AM)Nixie Wrote:  When discussing this with my daughter (14) she was highly enthusiastic about the idea, particularly about the idea of interactivity.

This is, I think, the key to successful online content of the sort under discussion. If content is born digital, I see no reason for it to observe the conventions of the physical object on which it is conceptually based. I am baffled by the insistence of publishers on presenting digital editions of journals in particular replete with page-turning actions and sounds. It is as confusing to me as the requirement made on users by some formatting and presentation styles to refer constantly between the screen and the page, maintaining an artificial barrier of intellectual function between absorbing and interpreting information: read in one case from the screen - write in the other case on the page. Being able to make notes, and retain additions, alterations and personalisations inline seems to me a far more sensible and intuitive use of digital rendition.

Clearly, though, we are in a state of transition between the experiences of digital natives (anybody born after 1995) and those of digital immigrants (everybody else!). We are all, simply by dint of being alive right now, part of the Google Generation. But we are plainly not all at ease with the implications

(09-03-2011 05:32 AM)Nixie Wrote:  So, for me reading something on the computer I associate with work of some kind.

This is interesting. It seems, if I am reading this correctly, that you associate your computer with the context of its use, rather than with the function it performs. Is this because you think of your computer primarily as a work tool? Do you feel the same way about your home computer? Would this diminish if you did not work from home?

(09-03-2011 05:32 AM)Nixie Wrote:  I do sometimes print from pdfs, usually because I want to scrawl notes on them and underline/highlight bits for later use.

Is this because you respond more readily to the linear relationship between pages? Or is it that the PDF format makes you aware that the text to which you are referring more than likely originated as a physical document? Are you returning the text to its natural state (releasing it back into the wild!)?

Five years ago, one of Pfizer's research centres moved all its knowledge and information content into an online environment. Essentially, on Monday, the library functioned as a mediator between researchers and printed content; on Tuesday, the library functioned as a mediator between researchers and online content. The reaction from the user constituency was one of almost universal horror. Licensing agreements meant printing from online content was prohibited in the case of a number of core texts, and users made repeated requests for the return of hard copy. They didn't get it - Pfizer had spent far too much money on replacing the paper. I would be very interested to hear how you would feel about the prospect of this happening in the case of your learning and research environment.

[cateau1]

Sorry Binkie that it's taken me a while to reply. I felt I needed to be sitting at my computer to type this rather than in relaxed, feet up, one finger iPad mode, which is usually how I read SF.
1. I don't really think twice about reading pdfs for work (funny, I hadn't thought of that before) but I don't want to be aware of the context or form factor when reading for leisure. Same with digital newspapers; I no longer read the newspaper apps that need to be resized all the time because they are still so bound to their 'legacy' design (quaint expression, isn't it).
2. I think non fiction and children's book lend themselves so well to UGC that's why I mentioned those particularly. Perhaps because it's such a new and developing area, I hadn't yet expected this functionality in reference or technical documents to the same extent, but of course it has just as much reason to be there. But that said, what I'm enjoying in the searchability in apps is way beyond a word search. For example, involving the GPS function to localise information in a text and image database, to be able to search video footage within the app, etc. For me, intuitive functionality is very important, whether it's searchability or navigation.
3. My not printing anything from an ebook or app probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are part of my leisure reading. A website or blogsite is more likely to be for work, and (because I don't want to accumulate print files) I file them as links or sometimes cut and paste into a document I am building on, say, industry stats. I don't know what the Wayback Machine term means
Hope this helps.

[binkie]

Hello again, cateau1. Please don't feel the need to apologise. I'm glad you thought this was worth coming back to

(13-03-2011 01:28 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  I felt I needed to be sitting at my computer to type this rather than in relaxed, feet up, one finger iPad mode, which is usually how I read SF.

This makes me feel as though I should be standing over you, telling you to sit up straight and stop chewing gum! Is there a schoolmarm smiley? I may have to design one for myself

(13-03-2011 01:28 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  I don't really think twice about reading pdfs for work (funny, I hadn't thought of that before) but I don't want to be aware of the context or form factor when reading for leisure.

I have meetings with a couple of e-book vendors this week. I will definitely be raising the question of formatting-for-leisure in the context of technical documents. I'm not certain, but I have a distinct feeling that a fair number of our users would be reluctant to make use of online content that was so bound to its legacy design (I do indeed love that expression). I have set up a Yammer group at work to encourage discussion of integrated working. I will be interested to see how significant context and form are felt to be by our users. I suspect they will agree with you:

(13-03-2011 01:28 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  I hadn't yet expected this functionality in reference or technical documents to the same extent, but of course it has just as much reason to be there.

Something else which is astoundingly difficult to impress upon the providers of technical content is that

(13-03-2011 01:28 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  ...intuitive functionality is very important, whether it's searchability or navigation.

There seems to be an enduring attitude that users of technical content know what they are looking for, and will be happy to carry on looking for it until they have found it. Rather than cultivating an attitude that users of technical content should be enabled by the functionality of the content to retrieve what it is that they are looking for, suppliers of this type of content appear to have concluded that looking for something equates exactly with finding it. This is terrible logic under the best circumstances, and is the kind of logic that causes my little librarian heart to shudder

(13-03-2011 01:28 AM)cateau1 Wrote:  I don't know what the Wayback Machine term means

The Wayback Machine is an archive of web pages (a sort of collection of all the material implied when you see the word 'cached' in the descriptor links at the bottom of your online search results) which allows you to, more or less, retrieve in any of their historical iterations pages which have been removed, deleted, moved or edited. It's part of the Internet Archive project, which is well worth a minute of anyone's time

Wayback Machine here: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Internet Archive here: http://www.archive.org/