Electronic Books: Reading and Studying with Supportive Resources

Lynne Anderson-Inman
Mark Horney

This is a revised version of an article originally published in 1997 under the title "Electronic Books for Secondary Students" (Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 40(6), 486-491); it is posted here with the permission of the International Reading Association. In addition to updating the text to reflect new developments in the field, the authors have taken advantage of the electronic environment to add a number of illustrative resources and links to supplementary information.

Introduction

The term electronic book means different things to different people. For some, it is software that talks; for others, it is a CD-ROM full of interconnected pictures, text, movies, and sound. Both images suggest the truth, but both provide somewhat superficial definitions. When is it appropriate to call a software program an electronic book? Why does the term book get applied to software anyway? In what ways is an electronic book similar to a traditional book? What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a book in electronic form? Are all electronic books equally useful to teachers and students? These are some of the questions we hope to answer in this column -- for, whether we like it or not, electronic books are here to stay.

Contents

Author Information