E-Books: The Future is Here (?)

Image from www.baby-boomer-resource-center.com

Over the past week, several really big announcements have been made about major publishers and e-books.  JSTOR, Project Muse, and Oxford University Press have all announced that they will be supporting e-book platforms.  E-books are here, and libraries are trying to figure out how to handle this!  I actually received a Kindle 3 for Christmas, so have been experimenting with e-books in a way that I never have before; in fact, I kind of like them.  A lot.  In addition to using my e-reader for pleasure reading, I've also been using it for professional reading.  It's ridiculously easy to convert PDFs and other papers that I might want to read into e-book format.  I feel like I'm saving trees AND carrying around an entire library that only weights 8.5 oz. (Of course, there are lots of debates going on about whether or not e-books actually ARE greener than paper books).

Yesterday, the Chronicle of Higher Education published an article about these developments in the e-book world, and wagered that many e-book platforms would be up and running by fall.  For libraries, this means that the way we collect books may be a bit (er, very!) different.  I'm a little anxious, and a little excited, to see how it all develops.  I will definitely be posting more on this blog about e-books and options that may be particularly relevant for you HNFE folks--but for now, what do you think about e-books?  Do you use them for research?  Pleasure reading?  At all?  Use the comment option on this blog to let me know what you're thinking!