Yesterday I received an e-mail from Barnes & Noble highlighting some new features of their e-reader, the Nook. The one that caught my eye was this:
While in a Barnes & Noble store, you can now read complete eBooks for FREE.
Read available eBooks for up to 1 hour per day
Now in beta
Now that is an interesting feature. With a Nook you can actually access an eBook and read it for an hour before deciding to purchase it. Not exactly a novel concept since you’ve always been able to go into a bookstore and start reading a book before deciding whether to buy it.
However, where I think Barnes & Noble drops the ball is the fact that you must be physically in a store in order for this to work. It’s a portable wireless device. Why not allow any Nook owner the ability to sample any title no matter where they are?
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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