Won over ... kind of

I am a firm believer that books are not ever going away. There is not a technology available that can replace the pleasure of holding a book in my hand, smelling the "new book" smell, turning the pages, and having that worn spot in a favorite book. As I've been fulfilling my adjunct duties over the last several weeks, instructing an online educational technology course, it became obvious students could benefit from electronic book access. They need to view literature inside the course management system domain on Saturday evening when libraries are closed.

My library subscribes to Safari Tech books by ProQuest. Though billed as "the e-reference library for programmers and IT professionals," the number of beginner level technology books for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Movie Maker was expansive covering 2000 - 2007 editions. I was also able to locate titles for iMovie and the broader topic of blogging. Add a proxy url to the resource and soon students are able to view the books at their leisure on or off campus at any time of the day or night. I suspect my excitement is due to the fact that they are e-books for an online technology course, but they definitely filled a need.

Two of the students have already commented on the access and appreciate the added resource. Excellent! This also has the added benefit of pulling more education students into the library web site and database resources.