The paperless global information environment - reality or fiction?

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Ebooks

The new Amazon Kindle, recently released onto the uk market.

Ebooks are a paperless technology with which the majority of us are already familiar. Since their introduction they have slowly but steadily increased in popularity. Today, Ebooks are unquestionably a part of modern life, and the portable devices from which we read them are a paperless answer to novels, magazines, newspapers and textbooks. While there have been many prototypes that failed to take off (e.g. the Rocketbook), new developments are making these lightweight devices more user friendly and cost effective every day. Amazon's current eBook - The Kindle - has sold with great success in US markets and in October 2009 was launched in the UK. Like Apple's hugely successful iPod, The Kindle is integrated with Amazon's own online store. This move towards the complete compatability of paperless technologies helps to encourage the use of electronic resources.

The recently unveiled LG Display solar-powered eBook reader is another example of integrated technology. In this case, solar panels and digital books have been combined, thereby overcoming the issue of battery life while ticking boxes for the environmentally aware.

Advantages

Disadvantages

For More Information

  1. Reading the Kindle, BBC News, Monday 12 October 2009.
  2. LG Unveils Solar Powered eBook Reader, Inhabitat, Sunday 11 October 2009.
  3. Mintz, Jessica (2009). 'Kindle textbooks frustrate students'. San Diego Union Tribune, p.85, Wednesday 14 October, 2009. Associated Press.
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Lucy Campbell
University College London
Department of Information Studies
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Email: lucy.campbell.09@ucl.ac.uk

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