Russell,
This is an interesting thread. I have been thinking of the pros and
cons for eguides. One thing you don't seem to be able to do with an
eguide, is to write notes etc on the "pages". I know a lot of birders
add a lot of information to their field guides, which become a great
resource. I saw an amazing example of this when competing in the
Frasers Hill Bird Race. One of my team mates "Uncle Fu" had an amazing
copy Jeyarajasingam and Pearsons's guide to Malaysia & Singapore. I
think Uncle Fu had written more information in his copy than the
authors. It was amazing. I would have loved to have snaffled it.
As a geek, I think eguides are great. As a birder, I think paper is
going to be around for a few years yet. Also they don't need batteries
or charging.
Carl Clifford
On 23/12/2010, at 1:50 PM, wrote:
Hi everyone
If we were in the USA then this would be an easier issue to deal with.
Not
only do they have more field guides available as apps for iPhone / ipad
/Android etc, they have a much greater range of books available as
ebooks.
Australian publishers continue to deny us that sort of access - but it
is
changing gradually.
I think for a long time, though, it will mainly be "popular" titles that
are published as ebooks. There is a lot of frustration in the academic
world about the lack of textbooks available in electronic format. Many
publishers are reluctant to publish an ebook when they have a reliable
income stream from physical copies already. From what I've read on
library
mailing lists, Australian textbook publishers will only provide an ebook
when a real book is purchased, or under strict licensing conditions that
make it difficult for school libraries to purchase electronic titles.
For
most families buying textbooks, it is easier to buy a real book that can
be sold at the end of the year - that is difficult, if not impossible,
due
to the digital rights management embedded in most ebooks. It's similar
for
textbooks that come with a CD-ROM.
I think that in Australia it is unlikely we'll see a whole lot of ebook
titles in niche fields such as natural history. So Jill, you'll need to
carry your plant, mammal and insect guides around for a while longer,
unless CSIRO get on board and put the challenge up to other publishers
by
providing ebook versions of their titles.
By the way, there are an increasing number of e-readers with colour
screens. Sony have a colour version, as do Samsung and (I think) Kobe.
I'm
fairly sure a colour Kindle is available in USA, so we will have it
soon.
Russell
On Thu, December 23, 2010 12:47 pm, Jill Dening wrote:
I don't want to start a thread about the worth of ebooks compared with
paper books. I was talking about the possibility being able to take an
ebook reference book into the field when it isn't possible to have
paper
books with me.
So far, responses have indicated that when I DO buy a reader (and it
will happen at some stage) the only one for me is the iPad, because I
want to view reference books in colour. Now apparently it's a case of
waiting until the pertinent books become available as e-books. And by
then the market will have different products available.
Jill Dening
Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
26° 51' 41"S 152° 56' 00"E
On 23/12/2010 11:33 AM, Clive Nealon wrote:
That's all true - I can't imagine not having access to all the books
I've accumulated over time.
However, I have used the Morcombe Guide app downloaded to an iPod
touch
and found it very useful, convenient, and light.
Certainly if I'm travelling overseas in the future I'll be looking
for
the relevant Guides.
(While I have a mobile phone, I still see it as a tool that people
can
use to contact me - I rarely make calls myself.)
Regards, Clive.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Russel<>
To: 'Chris Sanderson'<>; 'David
Adams'<>
Cc: 'birding-aus'<>
Sent: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 4:22 am
Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] ebooks
I still prefer books, paper ones of course. I have enough to occupy
me
when
on trips - things like scopes, bins, GPS's etc. I don't even give
in to
having a mobile phone ( which tend not to work in the donga anyway).
iPads
and eBooks sound horrendous. I often wonder why people need to
have the
latest gadgets.
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Chris
Sanderson
Sent: Thursday, 23 December 2010 11:28 AM
To: David Adams
Cc: birding-aus
Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] ebooks
Jill,
I think using an iPad (or similar, I'm sure another company must be
working
on something by now) will be better for things like field guides
than an
eReader. The big issue you have with thinks like Kindles for field
guides
is they can't do colour. So while they are much better than iPads
for
reading books (non-active screen so they don't tire your eyes out),
that
isn't such a huge problem for field guides. You can already get
quite a
few
field guides for iPad/iPhone in the USA, and a few in other countries
(obviously including a bird guide in Aus now), so I think while the
uptake
is currently slow, it will happen eventually. Will be interesting to
see
how long it takes CSIRO as our biggest publisher of field guides to
pick
up
on the technology.
Regards,
Chris
On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:44 AM, David Adams<>
wrote:
I have armloads of
reference books that I can't take with me when we go away in our
campervan,
because there just isn't room.
Familiar problem, made even worse then air travel is involved ;-)
I'm not sure about e-readers, but more and more field guides are
becoming available for smartphone operating systems, particularly
iOS
(Apple) and Android (Google.) Morcombe is available for Australia on
iOS (worth it for the calls alone), there are two excellent guides
for
North America, some for Europe, and the SASOL guide for South Africa
was announced yesterday.
Static e-readers might be of some use for field guides, to be sure.
After using a dedicated field guide app, I'd say apps have a lot
more
to offer:
* Integrated sounds, links, photos, and the like.
* Searching by more than word or phrase.
I find the apps good enough that I've been guying electronic version
of books I already own for more than I paid for the books in the
first
place. I honestly wish I could get everything in this format. I'd
still carry paper, but a lot less.
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
==============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
=============================
|
