Personally, I'll take a physical book over an ebook if forced to choose. But there are definitely situations in which my Kindle comes in really very hand...I had never considered, however, situations where it would be almost impossible to carry a variety of physical books until I read an article in Library Journal (see article link below) discussing the NeRD EReaders that are being distributed throughout the Navy.
For security purposes, naval personnel are not allowed to have unsecured ebook devices such as iPads or Kindles as their cell signals can be tracked or their cameras accessed by hackers. More interestingly, members of a submarine unit have even less accessibility to reading material due to the extreme space constraints. Often, the on-board libraries consist of just a couple inches of shelf space. In order to deal with these issues, the navy contracted with the makers of Playaway audiobook devices (which we have at the library and aren't actually all that fond of), to procure an ereader that would hold a large variety of reading materials and be securely locked down so no changes to the materials or device could be made. Submarines will be the first to receive these devices due to their more drastic situation with space limitations.
Pretty interesting situation and solution...and great name!
No comments:
Post a Comment