Beyond Method #6

I had to look up DRM (Digital Rights Management). Many of the articles kept referring to DRM.
Just some quick thoughts:
If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a sci-fi lover. And the message is usually, don't trust the machines (because they'll fail, they'll develop AI and kill us all, or there's no Off switch, etc...) I do like a lot of features with ebooks: notes, highlighting, dictionaries, easily searchable, links to chapters, and some even give the proper citation. All very cool features. However, the thing that makes me the most nervous is the lack of ownership. (Actually, Meredith Farkas brought up TONS of great reasons to really think about ebooks). I just keep thinking about the Amazon versus Orwell incident. My budget is TINY. And the thought of spending tons of money on licenses for ebooks when they can dictate how many devices I can put a copy on, how long they can go out, the length of time I will have that title, printing, copying, lending, etc makes me nervous. What if they decided they need more money? What if they start imposing harsher restrictions than what copyright law already dictates? I don't want to limit my patrons to public domain. I want them to have everything.
Exercise:
I first searched Project Gutenberg using the popular author search. I thought that was pretty good. Then I looked up Thoreau and picked Civil Disobedience (HTML download).
Looking at the download options (also not owning any ereader of any kind and never even using one), I would say it is easy to know which one to select if I had a Kindle. If I had another device, I don't think I'd know which one to choose (unless the device came with directions like "look for ePubs"). But there is also a mobile version of this website. That might help me determine which file type to use on my device (if I was using a mobile device as my ereader).
Reading the title from my computer, I found the HTML download much easier to read than the read this ebook online option right above it. Reading the HTML version was just like reading an extremely long article.
I've used Gutenberg before. It is even easier to use than it was before. I love it. I think patrons would be interested in a service like this if they needed to read books in the public domain. I work in two academic libraries. Most of my patrons don't read for fun. They read for assignments. So, unless they were assigned a book in the public domain (and we didn't have a physical copy), they might not use it. But that doesn't mean that it's not awesome. We still have links to the site.
If a patron required help with getting an ebook on an ereader...I don't know if I could help them. I usually just try stuff until it works. Like I said before, I don't own an ereader and have never used one. I've only read ebooks using a computer (usually a desktop). And I usually go through specific ebook websites like ABC Clio, NetLibrary, or ebrary.
This post might be a little all over the place...sorry! I need to go eat some lunch.