Screen size matters
Generally there are two types of e-books. Those that are designed to be read offline on portable devices such as e-book readers, and those which are designed to be read online through a browser. We have covered both types in this blog. However in some cases technology can blur boundaries, and with smartphones and other portable devices it is possible to also view things through a browser online, opening up both options via the same device. Does this work for e-book platforms? And if so, how good is the experience of using a browser connected to a small screen for reading e-books?
Both these questions were raised recently by Tim Hannah, Learning Advisor at Gower College Swansea, since the college is having an e-book promotion week in January and the college is keen on the potential of learning content via mobile devices. We therefore decided to do some further investigation together, contacting some e-book providers and also practitioners via the FE-LRC-WALES and E-BOOKS-FOR-FE JISCMail lists.
Technical possibilities for viewing e-book platforms via mobile devices
This was straightforward. We started with the free JISC E-books for FE collection since every FE college in the UK should be using and promoting it! The Ebrary platform is full of features. As Tim said in an email:
“I’ve just been demonstrating e-books to a class of Childcare students and they love the feature in ebrary where you can highlight a bit of text such as “childhood illnesses” , right-click and select Search Internet – Google and, in this case, took us to some excellent links in NHS Direct on the subject. This sort of function grabs the interest of the students and obviously is what e-books are all about (or should be) – multimedia like the CD-ROM in the ‘old days’.”
Basically any mobile devices that allows web browsing should also allow access to the E-books for FE platform. So smartphones and netbooks would be fine, even iPads (since E-books for FE doesn’t use Flash, which would have been a potential problem on an iPad).
However as expected the e-books do have to be read online – they can’t be downloaded to e-book readers. Ebrary informed Tim that:
“ebrary content is streamed and is not available for direct download. This means that ebook readers that require a downloadable file will not be able to access ebrary content. However, devices that have a built in web browser that has JavaScript enabled will be able to view ebrary content using ebrary’s QuickView. iPhones/iPads/iPods will work just fine. We are working on improving our User Interface for mobile devices.”
It is a similar with other online e-book subscription services such as DawsonEra and Myilibrary. DawsonEra told Tim: “I’m afraid we’re not currently compatible with e-readers but we are looking into developing this. However, dawsonera can be used on iPads & iPhones. They can be access as normal on Safari.”
An ideal system would be one that offered both online access AND the option to download to a device for offline reading. Chrissie Turkington from JISC RSC Northwest made some good points on this subject:
“It would be nice to be able to use collections like ebrary on off-line mobile readers, but this would not be a replacement for the current access method – this to me would be an added extra. If native e-book formats were adopted instead of online browser based content there would be a considerable number of learners unable to access e-books. I can’t see this changing in the near future either. What I can see changing are mobile devices such as e-book readers to accept more browser based online content. There’s already one dual-screen e-book reader that I know of on the market that is a “traditional” e-book reader on the left hand screen and a colour wi-fi enabled Android based tablet on the right hand screen. I personally think it is much more useful for e-book collections to work (and be readable!) on a multitude of online devices through a browser than it would be for the e-books to be delivered in native e-book formats.”
At the end of the day this incompatibility comes down to DRM restrictions, which help to protect publishers’ interests but make accessing and using information more difficult for learners. It will be interesting to see how future developments try to balance these mutually incompatible tensions.
The experience of viewing e-books online via mobile devices
Our main concerns here were related to how much text would be visible at once on the smaller displays. As Tim said: “What is the quality of the text displayed on a small hand-held device? I think you probably need a magnifying glass if you’re accessing from a Blackberry or similar.”
Lynne Evans, the Learning Resources Manager at Neath Port Talbot College has been trying out some e-book promotion innovations and also used the Ebrary platform on her iPhone:
“We’ve added QR codes to the covers of the dummy books we’ve created and I’ve tested them out with both ebrary and MyiLibrary. The codes link direct to the title in question. To be honest, I didn’t the find the experience to be a particularly enjoyable one, mainly for the reason that you’ve identified. After logging in you get the full web display in miniature and have to zoom in to make it readable. Constantly moving the display around to read the content is annoying and makes it difficult to follow the text. I had the same issues with ebrary and myilibrary.”
Dummy books are an excellent idea for promoting e-books and e-journals, added to the physical stock with a label alerting users to the fact that there is an e-version (usually via a URL). You can even use old VHS video cases for this. Combining it with QR codes for easy access works well. This is an area where you would expect the large screen of the iPad to be an ideal combination – except the current iPad doesn’t have a camera for snapping QR codes, so is a missed opportunity by Apple.
James Clay of Gloucestershire College included a photo of viewing an e-book on an iPad and said of the experience:
“Certainly readable and works okay. … Though it will work on the iPhone the screen is too small for the Ebrary interface, though I have read books on my iPhone using the iBooks and the Kindle Apps. … The Kindle can’t be used to read the books as the books are not available in Kindle format. It will be much more useful for learners once these collections are ALSO available in native e-book formats rather than limiting access just through a mobile browser, but I can’t see that happening soon. Of course browser access is ideal from a PC or laptop. … I have to say ebook platforms do still need a lot of work to make then more user friendly.”
“At the moment (though things may change) accessibility functionality is generally more mature on a browser than on e-book software. Librarians wondering about potential accessibility issues with ebook collections might be interested in our recent guidance.”
Another potential concern is access options, since online subscription resources such as Ebrary, DawsoneEra etc require some form of authentication. Could that be a problem if the institution only used IP access?
James Clay said: “The Ebrary system does work on the iPad and works fine, though if you are using IP authentication then it won’t work on 3G. We use FAM and that works fine. … The Kindle can’t be used to read the books as the books are not available in Kindle format. I couldn’t use the Kindle browser as I couldn’t get past FAM login screen.”
Lynne Evans added: “We use Athens for authentication so there was no problem with access“.
The experience is not yet set, and will change over time. James Clay looked to the future:
“I do think in the future we will see books evolve on platforms such as the iPad. Magazines such as WIRED on the iPad are showing what is possible. The Eureka App shows that traditional navigation isn’t always needed. The traditional method of reading a book, fiction or academic, can be reinvented on devices such as the iPad or Android Tablet. New channels change and evolve how we access media. In the same way that cinema and television evolved from plays, tablet devices will cause ebooks to evolve.”
While we are talking about future developments, Chris Jones, the Managing Director of 2 info Ltd, said of the Ebrary platform that “the development of an IPad / IPhone app has already been commissioned and delivery should be early next year. Ebrary are also developing download functionality, though as yet I have no further news on timetable or likely formats.”
Conclusions
Screen size seems to be the major issue, not platform. In general smartphone screens are too small for a completely satisfying experience, and are beaten in that respect by tablet PCs, netbooks, laptops and desktop PCs. It is a balance between portability vs usability, easy access vs comfort, which is unlikely to change in the near future. But maybe this isn’t a problem, it is just a case of using the appropriate technology for the task, and ignoring any hype that says you can do anything with a mobile device and still get satisfactory results. This balanced approach was referenced in a few emails. For example Lynne Evans said:
“Personally, I can’t imagine that anyone would choose to use smart phones to access e-books for reading or research but it could be a useful way to quickly look up a fact or to check bib details /page numbers for referencing.”
And Wendy Parry, the Head of Library & Study Centres at Worcester College of Technology, summarised the issue as:
“The Ebooks we have are used by learners whilst they are working, so need to be on the PC they are using and need to be searchable, in the same way that they might have 3 or 4 text books on the desk. Being able to access them on an ipad or iphone is a bonus if they want to check something quickly or look something up but learners are not, generally, going to sit and read an academic book from page 1 as you would a fiction book. This is why I believe fiction is ideal for gizmos like kindle, where it is intended to replace a paper back – (judging by the ads for them anyway, on the beach!) but I hope that academic ebooks stay accessible by web browsers even if they also become available through native ebook formats.”
Many thanks to all those who responded and shared their experiences or thoughts on this topic!
