Starting Monday, four Amazon Kindle 2's and one Sony Reader will be available to check out from Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.
The library plans to introduce the e-readers on a limited basis this semester to test their popularity and usefulness. Three Kindles and the Sony Reader will be available for two-week circulation periods, and one Kindle will be available to check out for four days.
The e-readers use electronic displays that mimic the effect of ink on paper to provide an experience similar to that of reading a book.
Library Information Technology Specialist Mike McDermott said that the e-readers could sometimes be more convenient to use than books.
"Somebody finds something online that's a 200-page document, rather than having them print them out, they could check out a Kindle, download it to that, read it, use it," McDermott said. "That might be an alternative to having to print or load something on your laptop and have to carry your laptop around to read the document."
Librarian of the College Sherrie Bergman, who spearheaded the effort to buy the e-readers, said that they are a good investment because "the electronic book is here to stay."
"We don't see it as being something that people are going to use instead of books at this point or anything," Bergman said. "It's more just a topic that is in the news quite a bit right now, and a lot of people in libraries are thinking about what this means for how you distribute digital material, things that are only available in electronic format."
McDermott said that right now the program is targeting "people who haven't seen one and just want to try one out and see what they think of the technology."
"At this point it is pretty much just a learning experience," he said.
"The fun about technology is that you introduce it and see how the community reacts and what applications they make of it," Bergman said.
McDermott said that the library paid full price for the four Kindles, at $359 each, but it got a small discount on the Sony Readers, which normally retail for $349.
Bowdoin plans on packaging a variety of books on the e-readers. Included will be about 50 books, ranging from a Stephen King novel to Bowdoin Professor of History Matthew Klingle's "Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle."
Klingle said that he is glad to see his work on e-readers.
"It's an opportunity to get your scholarship out there to a wider audience in a different medium," he said. "If it gets out there and people read it, that's all that matters."
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