This continues the series on using an eBook reader academically.
Of course, as fun as a shiny new piece of technology is, we must make it work for us. “Geek to live, not live to geek” and all that.You have a few options when it comes to acquiring content for your device.
- Buy It
- Scan It
- Download it from a free source
Buy It
Again, Amazon’s Kindle wins this fight from the sheer number of books in their collection. But still, textbooks are going to be hard to find most the time - as many are from limited publishers and small presses. Still, in many fields you are reading “regular” books and this helps immensely.
Scan It
Buy it, as per usual, and then scan it. This takes some cojones and special equipment, but once you get into the swing of things it is pretty simple to do and not nearly as time consuming as you’d imagine. The problem is you need to scan it, put it together, and then OCR it and THEN convert that into something where you keep the text “flowing” but not mangled into the reader. This is kind of the “last ditch” option. Unless you buy something specialized for it (I use an OpticBook 3600 - it’s amazing and comes with all the software you need to OCR, create a pdf, etc. I can scan about 150-200 pages an hour, while watching a movie.) You can find a lot of useful information about this approach at StudentTabletPC. It is specialized for Tablet users, but most of it crosses over. Important tip: When scanning keep the page numbers in the OCR - you need it for easy access and citation purposes.
Download It for Free
For many fields (I’m looking at you, English majors) you read a great deal that’s in the public domain. You’re in luck, not just because of Project Gutenberg but because others are busily converting Gutenberg’s hideous files into things you’d actually want to look at! You can find an enormous amount of content made to work specifically with your device at places like:
- ManyBooks.net
- Munseys
- Feedbooks (which we’ve covered before)
- And many more (courtesy of Mashable)
My personal favorite, for both help on these devices, how to convert files, and an enormous library of beautifully converted files is MobileRead. Lot’s of great people there willing to help you figure out how to get everything from websites to comic books onto your reader.
There is also, of course, shadier ways of acquiring many of these things and scanning and returning and such…. I leave you to your own devices there. I don’t, however, see any particular problem if you own a book and are able to find a copy already scanned in - but I’m not a lawyer and I certainly wouldn’t advise it.
Also, keep in mind - this not need be an all or nothing proposition. You may be able to get most of your books and such in the device, and still have to deal with a real copy from time to time. So, get your books, scan your syllabi, and get reading!
But I tell you, there’s something awfully nice about going to school with just my Pentaflex folder, with a reader, a moleskine, and some loose leaf inside. I have a LOT of books, but half the problem is when I have time to read them - I don’t have them with me. This takes care of that - beyond academics, I find that I read more magazines and newspapers this way, too.
No Comments on "eBook Readers 101 - Part II"