Using eReaders for School and Work

The way that people read has changed considerably in recent years.

These days it’s commonplace to have an eReader loaded on your phone or tablet. Many professors and professionals have even moved from buying or suggesting physical books to students or employees.

These days having a professional shared drive loaded with suggested reading is becoming popular. Loading and sharing PDFs and other technical documents is a must have for eReaders these days. Below are some tips to help you to take advantage of this new trend in sharing professional reading materials and getting the most out of your eReader.

Shared Drives       

When you purchase an eBook, you are typically given a code along with the book. This code needs to be included to allow those who download the file to read them. When setting up a shared library drive for your coworkers, keep this in mind. You also want to have multiple versions of the same text, just in case the people who need the information that you are sharing do not have the same sort of reader that you do. Setting up a shared drive is as easy as getting yourself on the network, creating a folder, and sharing that folder with everyone who needs the information.

Multiple Choices

Everyone has a different choice when it comes to what they think the best ebook reader is. Because of this, you want to give the people you are sharing with choices in what service they use. Forcing your coworkers or students to conform to your choice of reader will do nothing to help you in your end goal: sharing information. To that end, you may have to spend more in the beginning of your setup.

According to Mill City Press, there are three basic types of eReader files: MOBI, EPUB, and PDF. Thankfully, uploading your own files and converting them to PDF is easy. Doing that with copyrighted materials, however, isn’t.

You’ll want to try to make sure that you have MOBI and EPUBs on hand with you. You can sometimes purchase a converter, but be careful that you are not violating any rules or agreements by doing that. If you are caught converting files that a company does not wish to have converted you can have your device ″bricked,″ or made unusable remotely from a third party.

Change with Feedback

Your students or coworkers are going to have opinions on your shared drive files. Listen to what they want and what works for them. Remember that the reason that you set up the shared drive to begin with was so that they will have access to the information that they need to properly finish their jobs and complete their assignments.

Some people are never going to feel comfortable using eReader files, but most are going to be grateful that they have everything that they need in one location.

It is also good to note that there are many different devices that will allow you to ″loan″ books to friends or coworkers for a period of time. If all else fails you can transfer some of your books to other people for a limited amount of time (typically two weeks). There is typically no limit on how many times you can loan a book out, but you cannot loan it out to more than one person at a time.