Epubs for Empowered Citizens

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Snap from Business Post  

WHEN ADRIAN WECKLER gives double truck coverage to a technology, trend or business, it normally means it will become part of the fabric of life. He's done that with e-books in the Business Post.

Personally, I hope he's right, because I've seen the result of high production values in an e-publishing module we teach at the Limerick Institute of Technology. I wish I could get portions of the Business Post in some form of iBook or mobi file. Regular content like the Reality Bytes column, the Tech Week paragraphs, "Gadgets of the Week" and even the advertisements that frame the tech section (this week they're from the National Ploughing Championships and MobileReady.ie) could play well on my iPad or Kindle. It doesn't take much to make a content management system export the .epub and .mobi file types. We have qualified students who could spend a fortnight inside any newspaper and show how they make easy work of e-publishing. Amazon has shown that a timely e-publication has a commercial value (say 93 cents per collection of 20 items cited above).

But I'm more interested in the public touchpoints of e-publications--things you might see in traditional libraries.

"Nearly 1000 e-books per month are being lent out by Irish libraries." [1] I'd like to see the same trend in our campus library so I've asked for six Kindles to be put behind the check-out desk. The Kindles could be connected through OverDrive or just managed through the Amazon Kindle account owned by the specific library.

I've seen Kindles, Kobos, and the Sony Reader for sale right at the 100 euro mark. [2] I can vouch for their ease of handling and durability. In daily use with a student's backpack, they last longer than an iPhone.

Ireland's High Street book merchant is looking into a branded e-reader. [3] I'd like to see the same initiative in O'Mahony's of Limerick. That may result in more than 3% of Irish titles becoming available in e-book format. [4] I believe Christmas 2012 in Ireland will result in more e-readers exchanged as gifts because reading an e-book is often more convenient (and less expensive) than buying a paper copy of the same title. 

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1. Adrian Weckler -- "Library can barely keep up with e-book demand" in the Business Post, September 2, 2012.

2. Adrian Weckler -- "What e-reader should you buy?" in the Business Post, September 2, 2012.

3. Adrian Weckler -- "Eason takes the e-book conept into its own hands" in the Business Post, September 2, 2012.

4. Adrian Weckler -- "How many e-books are sold in Ireland?" in the Business Post, September 2, 2012, features knowledgeable tidbits from Eoin Purcell.

5. Adrian Weckler -- "The e-book lowdown" in the Business Post, September 2, 2012.

Bernie Goldbach teaches e-publishing.