MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Academic ebooks can succeed but publishers must play their part

Krystl · 02-20-2012, 04:48 PM

Sil, you are most correct and I completely agree when that format is used in the text, but not all texts use that form of formatting (sections). That is a style popular by some but not all academic fields or texts used in academics. Not using it, however, is not a sign of "bad writing" or a bad academic text. A lecturer uses page numbers as well as section numbers in lectures--especially in the humanities (think literature books, philospohy books--they are not written in the style of a research paper) where there are no sections to quote from (think oh, Pride and Prejudice--simply because it is on almost every e-book shown in adverts) and it may be faster. I have known many professors with very different styles of "citing", as pertains to the style of text currently used (academic lecturing does also use "citing" despite the belief it does not because it is not writing).

Tausin--how arrogant to call them "a classroom full of idiots" for not doing full book scans for a quote for something unique to one page

. Some of those books are 100s of pages long. Oh, and please do not forget--it was a mixed class--both pbb and eb.

And I would never stoop to insulting someone unknown--neither students nor professors, nor the writers here who are real life ebook users in real life situations noting real limitations in some ebooks and their publisher's decisions. As I have never taught in such a class with both paper and ebooks present (and most of us have not, I am sure), I take these anecdotes as the "complications" that will arise as a new format gains ground and coexists with pb.

Neither the author nor I implied there were no page numbers on any ebook--it was an anecdote referring to a class where obviously everything was going just swimmingly until a universal problem arose in an ebook version (lack of page number) causing the students to be forced to revert to the paper version with its page numbers.

Third--As you and elemenoP so well pointed out, there are ebooks with page numbers which most definitely serve the academic purpose (and that is not something the author questioned). The problem was not the ebooks that had it--it was the ebook without this feature, which is a weakness of the publisher of that book (which is what the article was about).

What both you and elemenoP both describe are the efforts made to correct this problem/deal with this issue. I, for one, hope publishers continue to add page numbers available somehow on the book (with the "background feature" described by elemenoP on the kindle). And as noted in various parts of these forums, not all books have this feature and not everyone sees why it would be useful, etc. Here is where it is useful and necessary.

02-20-2012, 04:48 PM	#10
Krystl Connoisseur Posts: 62 Karma: 513697 Join Date: Dec 2011 Location: Salzburg, Austria Device: sony prs-t1	Sil, you are most correct and I completely agree when that format is used in the text, but not all texts use that form of formatting (sections). That is a style popular by some but not all academic fields or texts used in academics. Not using it, however, is not a sign of "bad writing" or a bad academic text. A lecturer uses page numbers as well as section numbers in lectures--especially in the humanities (think literature books, philospohy books--they are not written in the style of a research paper) where there are no sections to quote from (think oh, Pride and Prejudice--simply because it is on almost every e-book shown in adverts) and it may be faster. I have known many professors with very different styles of "citing", as pertains to the style of text currently used (academic lecturing does also use "citing" despite the belief it does not because it is not writing). Tausin--how arrogant to call them "a classroom full of idiots" for not doing full book scans for a quote for something unique to one page . Some of those books are 100s of pages long. Oh, and please do not forget--it was a mixed class--both pbb and eb. And I would never stoop to insulting someone unknown--neither students nor professors, nor the writers here who are real life ebook users in real life situations noting real limitations in some ebooks and their publisher's decisions. As I have never taught in such a class with both paper and ebooks present (and most of us have not, I am sure), I take these anecdotes as the "complications" that will arise as a new format gains ground and coexists with pb. Neither the author nor I implied there were no page numbers on any ebook--it was an anecdote referring to a class where obviously everything was going just swimmingly until a universal problem arose in an ebook version (lack of page number) causing the students to be forced to revert to the paper version with its page numbers. Third--As you and elemenoP so well pointed out, there are ebooks with page numbers which most definitely serve the academic purpose (and that is not something the author questioned). The problem was not the ebooks that had it--it was the ebook without this feature, which is a weakness of the publisher of that book (which is what the article was about). What both you and elemenoP both describe are the efforts made to correct this problem/deal with this issue. I, for one, hope publishers continue to add page numbers available somehow on the book (with the "background feature" described by elemenoP on the kindle). And as noted in various parts of these forums, not all books have this feature and not everyone sees why it would be useful, etc. Here is where it is useful and necessary. Last edited by Krystl; 02-20-2012 at 04:50 PM.