Travel Light Treatment

From Central Hawke’s Bay District, Librarian Sue Fargher and myself travelled up to Napier to attend the Travel Lights Ebook Workshop [now called E2 Experts] hosted by Sally Pewhairangi: Tour Leader extraordinaire. We joined around 14 other Hawke’s Bay and East Coast library staff and together we represented the full spectrum of ebook users – from newbies to old hands.

First up Sally gave us a rundown on Digital Rights Management and introduced us to dedicated ereaders  and other devices to read ebooks on then she let us loose on the many gadgets she had available. These included Sonys, Kobos, Kindles, Ipads, Android  tablets, Ipod Touch &Smart Phone.

What worked so well was the ability to physically try all these devices, and using a handy questionnaire that Sally gave out, see what the different ereaders were capable of. This time to just play was the best way to learn especially for the super busy managers in the room who very rarely get this opportunity.

It was interesting to see that there were a lot of differing points of view regarding the favourite ereader experience. The favourite dedicated ereader tended to be the Sony with the Kindle coming out second. However many liked the Ipad experience of reading just as well. The Kobo Vox was quite a hit although many commented on its weight.

Finally we investigated ways of taking back what we learned to our libraries and passing it on to our communities.

All of us came out of this workshop with an increased knowledge of ereaders and the ebook experience.

Thanks to Sally for the Travel Light treatment!!

Ngai Deckard
IT Librarian
CHB District Libraries