eBooks for work?

[chantelbrenna]

Hi all!

I posted on here a while ago, and I wanted to get your opinion on something else.

Have any of you ever used eBooks or eReaders for work or school? If so, what was the situation and why did you choose to use and eBook or eReader instead of a hard copy?

Your feedback is much appreciated!

[IcecreamLtDan]

I've used several eBooks for school. I attend school online and the books themselves were offered as eBooks by the school through the "VitalSource Bookshelf" software. It's not been all of the books, as a matter of fact the vast majority of my school books have been dead tree books. It hasn't been a matter of choice so much as that's how they were offered. The ones that I got as hard cover books were not offered as eBooks anywhere. The eBooks themselves were free and are still accessible to me at this point three years later. I graduate in the spring so I'm curious to see if they remain that way.

[ucfgrad93]

I have used ebooks in several of my graduate level classes. Most styles of annotating research papers (Turabian, MLA, etc.) have ways of including Kindle locations for footnotes, bibliography, etc. I never had a professor mark me off for using them.

[taustin]

I've gotten a couple of technical reference book for work. It was a matter of convenience, especially with limited shelf space.

[Quexos]

I use my e-reader at work all the time because I got loads of free time which I choose to spend reading. As for why a reader and not a paper book well that's irrelevant to me. I just happen to enjoy my e-reader regardless of my location. I could also take a paper book at work and do the same with it.

Originally Posted by chantelbrenna

Have any of you ever used eBooks or eReaders for work or school? If so, what was the situation and why did you choose to use and eBook or eReader instead of a hard copy?

Your feedback is much appreciated!

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by taustin

I've gotten a couple of technical reference book for work. It was a matter of convenience, especially with limited shelf space.

Ditto for me, but more than a couple. Darned O'Reilly half-price sales!

[mncowboy]

I use my Kindle for work on a regular basis. I do a lot of international travel for my job, and rather than mess with a folder full of reservations, agendas, etc. I create an ebook out of the documents.
When I need to reference something, it's a lot easier to fire up the Kindle than the computer. It's easier than trying to find a paper document stuffed in a folder at the bottom of my backpack!

[ebusinesstutor]

I use my Galaxy Note to buy and read business/reference books in my business on a regular basis.

Easier as I can have all my business books on one device and they are available for me to read anywhere.

[fafaforza]

Working as a unix system admin, I frequently convert a command manual page to HTML to ePub. Convert online documentation to ePub to read on the train, instead of printing the stuff out, as is still common with other people.

Edited many PDFs to fit my 6" reader. Cut out margins, etc.

[dakini]

I used my ereader for teaching two books this semester. A colleague also tried hers for the first time in the classroom.

I can say, I love my ereader, but I'm never going to use it in the classroom again. It's too hard to have a discussion and have to flip pages on the ereader. It's just not fast enough,compared to flipping through a physical book to look something up. That's what we both decided, independently.

So think about the usage: if you're going to need to refer to longer works, such as novels, from the ereader, in discussion settings, think about how often you might need to look up different parts of the text. But for something where that's not needed, such as an online class, it might work better.

I still love my ereader. It's just not great for discussion settings.

[luqmaninbmore]

The textbook for the computer classes I teach are in PDF format. I also frequently used eReaders in class to hold lecture notes and lesson plans. I also make regular use of the ebooks published as html web pages (public domain works of historical interest and introductions to programming being major examples).

[ficbot]

I don't know if this counts as ebook use per se, but I am a teacher and have a lot of my teacher guides scanned to PDF and saved on my iPad. My storage space is limited and many of the books are on a high-up shelf I can't easily access. When I need to reference them, it's easy to load them into iBooks from Dropbox.

I also keep all my teacher-created resources in Dropbox for the same purpose. I often will load in the student workbook pages so that I can take a screenshot of them. I can import these images into an app called Jot, where I can write on top of them and so model the work for my students if I am showing them a new kind of activity.

I also have some storybooks I wrote for my kindergarten classes. Normally, I print them out and make them into 'book' books, but there was one time where the printers were all down and I had planned to start the new story, so I did actually load it into iBooks and read it to the kids using the iPad.

[Schnauzermom]

I use my ereader for work reference all the time. I've converted the CISSP PDF's to carry on my Nook. Have you SEEN some of these books? It would hurt to drop them on your foot.

That's my primary reason for looking for an ebook first. Space and weight.

[VaultBoy]

I've used some for work and a couple classes. The classes had some of the required reading as pdfs, so I tossed them on the tablet instead of the the hard copy handy.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

I have used ebooks in several of my graduate level classes. Most styles of annotating research papers (Turabian, MLA, etc.) have ways of including Kindle locations for footnotes, bibliography, etc. I never had a professor mark me off for using them.

This intrigues me. Can you do this inside the Kindle? Or does it require special software? Do you have any links where I can learn more?