E-books are made accessible in one of two basic ways: the user has to read the e-book online or the user can download the e-book to a personal computer for offline access and optional transfer to a portable device. By far, the preference is to allow users to do both: to access the content online for quick uses, but to have the option to download the content for offline listening or viewing. Most e-book collections are available to remote library users in similar manner to the way the library’s other online subscription resources are remotely accessible. Some e-book vendors, however, are beginning to only offer access to their e-books through sets of MARC records, which they give to the library to load into the catalog. These e-books are then accessible to anyone discovering the links in the catalog records and the users are not authenticated in any way.

E-books are presented in a number of different formats. Text e-books are generally available as Adobe PDFs, HTML pages, plain text files, Mobipocket files, or Flash files. Audio e-books are available in Windows Media Format or as part of Flash files. Some vendors will offer a title in more than one format, such as Overdrive’s offerings of many of their text e-books in both Mobipocket and Adobe format. Most vendors, however, provide content in one format only, and it’s important to recognize the limitations and benefits of each format before signing on with a vendor.

Adobe PDF: Text e-books designed for either display and viewing online or for downloading and possible transfer to a portable device. Example: NetLibrary e-books.

HTML: Text e-books designed for display in a web browser. This is the most popular format for e-books that are only viewable online and not downloadable. Example: Gale Virtual Reference Library e-books.

Plain text: Text e-books in the simplest format, plain text without any formatting whatsoever. This also often means that there is no indication of page numbers. Example: some Project Gutenberg e-books.

Mobipocket: Text e-books designed for optimal display on portable devices like PDAs. This format is only presented if the e-book is available for download. It is really only useful for those with portable devices, so this format will have appeal to a more limited user base. Example: Overdrive MobiPocket e-books.

Flash: Animation with sound and text that is viewable only online. Viewing Flash files requires the download of a small plug-in player. Example: TumbleBooks animated storybooks.

Windows Media Format: Currently the only format being used by vendors selling audio books to libraries. E-books in this format are also currently only available for download—no online listening. Also important to note is the fact that this format is not accessible for users with Mactintosh computers or iPods. Example: NetLibrary’s Recorded Books audio e-books.

There is the ongoing issue of accessibility to users with Macintosh computers, particularly for the audio e-books. The two existing vendors to libraries for downloadable audio books, NetLibrary and Overdrive, both use Windows Media Format for the files. As a result, libraries are unable to provide downloadable audio books to Macintosh users. This is important to be aware of before implementation.

There are also a wealth of portable devices now available that can handle e-books. The much anticipated Sony Reader is an e-book-specific device—its sole purpose is for reading e-books. Its high-resolution display has made industry watchers believe that it will succeed where other e-book-specific devices have failed. So far, however, that prediction has not become reality. Most people still read/listen to e-books on devices that they already own for other purposes.

PDAs of various sorts (Palm, Pocket PC, etc.) are also serving as e-book readers. Users transfer their downloaded book to a PDA and then read it on the go—in meetings, in line at the grocery store, on mass transit. Both text and audio e-books can be loaded, though most PDAs still lack the software or audio functionality to play the audio e-books.

Smartphones (Treo, Blackberry, Sidekick, etc.), cell phones with PDA-esque and other features like gaming, are becoming increasingly popular with users and are serving as e-book readers as well. Users can read text e-books or listen to audio books through the cell phone earpiece.

MP3 players are serving as the e-book reader for the bulk of audio e-books. Currently, the biggest thing to be aware of is the lack of iPod compatibility with library platform audio e-books. The reason for this problem is the issue of digital rights management. Windows has created one schema, one technology, for digital rights management while Apple has created a different one. Windows DRM can’t talk to Apple DRM. And as all library e-books have to have digital rights management embedded both for copyright protection and auto-expiration of the file after the check-out period, libraries are left without a platform-based e-book solution for Apple users. And since iPod users are a much larger segment of the population than Apple personal computer users, we are left unable to provide audio e-books to a large segment of our populations. Libraries may also want to come up with talking points for staff about this issue, as well as be as open and upfront about it as possible with users. This may include a warning on the eBooks portal page, print materials in the library, and verbal discussions.

Some libraries have begun to purchase iPods and pre-load e-books on them (purchased from the consumer site audible.com or iTunes) or even allow users to bring their own iPods in and have staff load their e-book of choice onto the device. See the iPod model at the South Huntington Public Library for both audiobooks and music and the Thomas Ford Memorial Library.