Yes, the Kindle; crazy name, crazy product?
There’s a lot of talk about it. There are essentially two camps:-
1. It’s great, a real space time and tree saver
2. It’s not great, a DRM’d up overpriced waste
I wonder if ebooks are an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist. Or, if it does exist, isn’t seen as so..problematic. People seem happy enough with print books, and the much vaunted advantages of ebooks don’t grab them. As was pointed out by an Amazon forum post, a lot of people don’t see the need to carry 200 books at a time.
As Michael notes, there is also the issue of public lending right for libraries to manage before they can really get on board with ebooks. And proprietary file formats are also a problem; which ones do you buy to lend?
As for me, I won’t be getting one. I can see its place in the information ecology that’s developing; as a reader for academic texts, for access to encyclopaedic information. It’s just not a need I have right now.
Posted by Pete 
Library Too 